Blaise Caudill
Blaise Caudill is a third-generation Arizonan with family roots in Bisbee and a contagious passion for his beloved state. The youngest of four, Blaise is a survivor of childhood cancer, holds tight to his fascination with astrology, and celebrates his title as a proud mama's boy. Blaise is a successful lobbyist with a pulse on politics, a heart for service, and an incredible understanding of our shared humanity.
Episode Transcription
Guiding Growth. Conversations with Community Leaders in this podcast. We'll explore the human journey of leaders, their stories of humility, triumph, roadblocks and lessons learned. Come join us as we journey together and uncover the questions you've always wanted to know. This podcast is brought to you by the Gilbert Chamber of Commerce providing resources, connections and belonging for business professionals and rocket space, an event and meeting venue in the heart of the East Valley with a full service for person podcast studio. Alright sarah, we got another episode of guiding growth happening right now.
We do. I'm so excited for this guest. Why are you so excited for this guy? Ah he's just a bundle of joy. I love this guy bundle of joy. Okay, so here we go a third generation Arizona which family roots in Bisbee the youngest of four. That means he's the baby and a proud mama's boy, a stargazing lobbyist who has a heart of selfless service and a greater understanding of our shared humanity. Everybody welcome Blaise Caudill. Yeah. Oh my God, you got my last name right? It took a couple tries but we got it right now, that was perfect, That was great bingo bango.
The bird in the pickle. I love it. No, that's yeah, that's why I always tell people called like a bird like a pickle works out well. Alright blaze. We like to start our segments with something we call rapid fire round. Well that was done very well. It's like a nuisance as if we've done it before, wow! All right. What is the last book you read? Um I actually just finished a book. Sky blues. Very fun book. Would you ever go on vacation by yourself In three words?
How would your best friend describe you? Weird, funny, quirky. Love it. Alright, so if you had to have intro music, which we all need that, what song would be Absolutely hands down would be still indians version of river, Deep Mountain High, Star Wars or Star trek. Absolutely Star Wars favorite television show. There's a really good series called, explained on netflix that I love winter or summer, definitely winter. What did your mom call you when you were a kid? Um She would also call me things like, hey Miho, she was cute favorite holiday valentine's day probably because you get to celebrate two holidays, get to celebrate Arizona statehood day and valentine's day.
Like a true lobbyist. Oh my God. All right. Last one glass half full or half empty. I mean, why is there a glass in the first place? Is my question because why are you trying to like why are you trying to contain me though? You know, like let's have something else. So it's definitely in the middle. Oh, it's probably let's be honest half full because I'm eternal optimist. It's terrible. Thank you to phoenix mesa Gateway airport for their support with nonstop service to 60 plus cities. Gateway airport makes traveling just plain easy visit.
Gateway airport dot com for more information. Well, I was excited to read a little bit about you because what I did not know is your love for astronomy and all things sparkly and bright in the sky. So that's awesome. Where did this come from? Honestly, I just remember when I was a little kid, my mom, my mom is a teacher right? She taught elementary school for all of my like childhood. She retired a couple of years ago. You had her as a teacher, You know what? They wouldn't let her actually be my teacher.
So I had two parents who were teachers also really. But I had my dad, he was an art teacher, so I had him, oh that's cool. They let you be in his class. He was wrestling coach too. So he's my coach. He was my art teacher, but I never had my mom, she's an english teacher interesting. But enough about Ben, get back to you. Ben and I are best friends and my mom was a teacher too. So we all win here. See why aren't we talking about your parents, that's the Bart's family was not pop tarts for breakfast bars, etc.
So about those stars. So stars. Yeah, my mom was a teacher and she, at that time, in the classrooms, I always had themes, right? So it would be like, oh the classroom of butterflies or whatever, they like mascot of that specific class was, my mom always was stars or superstars because she just loves stars, love stars. And so growing up, stars were everywhere in our house. They were everywhere in the classroom. I would help set up her classroom, their stars over. And so I think that really started my like, oh, what are these things, what are stars?
Like what actually is a star? I know it doesn't look like that figure that my mom has everywhere. And I remember just like looking up in the night sky and just being like, oh my gosh, like this beautiful and just not understanding it and then trying to understand something that was so incomprehensible and so incomprehensibly beautiful to me because it's so like sparkling inspires so much curiosity and inspire so much it's more than just a flaming ball of gas. Well, I mean sometimes it depends on who you talk to and you grew up in Tucson.
I did, I did good old T town, that's some good viewing. Right? There's not much light, you know, street lights going on. You know, it's true. When I go back now to visit my mom, it is the craziest thing. So I'm like, excuse me, why is it so dark here? I can't see anything on the road but I can't see all the stars and it's so pretty and also there's no drainage, but that's fine. Oh yeah, there's not a lot of anything. I mean there's not a lot of water, no, not a lot of water except for the monsoons monsoons are way better than phoenix.
So how much study have you done in astronomy? So when I was little I wanted to be an astronomer that's like literally all I wanted to do was be an astronomer. And so we did a lot of study at that point, trying to like just figure out everything I could about astronomy, figure out everything I could about what is jupiter and all of that. So I did a lot of study at that point when I was little and then toured a facility was peak facility down in uh kind of southern Arizona near Tucson and two of that telescope area.
And I was like, oh my gosh, wait, astronomers don't actually look through telescopes anymore. This is so sad. And I faced my first heartbreak at that point, I was literally heartbroken. Uh and so because of that, I kind of really was turned off by it for a really long time until I got more into high school when I could really just focus on it some more and just like look at the pictures and be able to identify what things were and just like, you know, I just got to connect with them more at that point and it was at a deeper level when I was in high school and older because at that point it was inspiring something within like, within me that was emotional when I was younger, it was much more wonder and it was curiosity and then when I was in high school and older became emotional and it was a deeper connection to something that not only was it something that was beyond me and like the heavens, but also something that like I knew my ancestors would like also look at it and it was, it was just so like deep, it was so cool.
I loved it. So when you're outside, you know like pretty much all the constellations that are out there like like big dipper, little dipper and then I'm done, hang on, hang on sarah, you get the dippers and that's about it. Right? Oh, I do love a good tipper strangely enough, you're not an astronomer. I am not, I am not an astronomer as much as I would love to be. But I really honestly would have loved to just get paid to like stare through a telescope all night and I couldn't do that.
That was not an available job for me. So, so here you are. Then you go to high school. Where'd you go? High school? Cdos of Canyon del Oro. In Tucson, home of the Dorados. I just don't know enough about Tucson. It has really good food so you should go back for the food and nothing else. Dorados will be Doritos for sure. They called us the Doritos all the time. It was terrible. It was an ancient Aztec warrior. Thank you. So what is high school like in Tucson, what do you do on friday nights in Tucson?
You know, I feel like I was like, not, you're comin high school or student, You know what? I know, nobody wanted to go stare at the stars with, you know, I know. See, I thought it was cool. I'm not gonna lie. I didn't know that. Like, so you know how you watch all these movies, right? And all these movies have high schoolers for like going to parties and drinking and things like that. I 100% thought that that was just like fake. I thought that wasn't real. I thought that was like a story that people did in the 70s, you know, and it wasn't until my senior year of high school that I discovered people actually did that.
Like, wait, alcohol is real. I had no idea. Anyways, good parents. I know, you know that sheltered life. Honestly, it's really good. My mom's like a saint. She really is. Like I, you said it earlier, I'm a mama's boy through and through and I honestly love my mother. If I could be 1/10 of my mother, it would be like a massive success primarily because she just cared so much about not only the community, but in our family and she was just so strong and she, I mean to this day, she's so resilient.
So strong. Wait, I want to ask you something about that because I was thinking, I was reflecting on this, like, was it always that way, even when you were younger or were you a typical teenager who later came to appreciate your mother? Oh, I see this actually. Okay, this is a great story. So you mentioned the youngest of four, the baby. I'm such a baby too. I am like the classic baby got away with more than anything. Like all my siblings, they definitely were always like, why does he get away with that?
Because I'm the cutest. Yeah, save the best for last. Yes, thank you. Plus they've gone through everything and they don't know, they're like, we're done also was also just like a really good kid. Like, okay, well that was very good. I was always the one who was like, mom, you give me this responsibility, let me do my homework. Thank you literally that in Pokemon give me that. I was good. Yeah. But being the youngest before, there was a huge gap between me and my, the next brother, there was four years.
So basically my entire high school was just me and my mom at our house and so through that we became, I mean we were best friends at that point anyways, in the sense of like, oh, you're my mom. But through those four years we really became best friends and we finally got to see each other. Well I guess more. I saw her for the first time as a person that wasn't my mom, but she was my friend and somebody that I could go to and she experienced her own emotions, She experienced her own world that I cannot understand.
And it was bigger than me. And so there was one day in specific, so my parents got divorced and I was super little. Um I was in God, how old was I was in third grade, so what are you seven or eight at that point? And I remember my mom had started dating when I was probably a junior in high school and I remember being super uncomfortable by it because I was just like, who is this person? I don't know who you are, Why are you in my mom's life?
Yeah. Oh yeah. Oh, super weird. I also didn't help that they weren't very pretty. I was like, no, no goodbye. My mom is a pretty person. Like we're not going to have you come into my house. So apparently Junior Blaze was already Sassy, it's a good time. Uh and I remember I was sitting, my mom was getting ready for her date or something like that. And I was sitting on her bed, she was in the bathroom and we were talking about it and I was expressing concern about her going on a date or something.
And I remember her telling me at that point, you know blaze at some point, I hope that you can be as happy for me as I can be for you. And it was that moment of like pure beautiful vulnerability that my mom shared with me that I was able to see her as a person and it completely changed her entire relationship because she was able to just be her without the mother filter without anything else. It was just her and I loved it and I mean through that I mean we've been best friends since I could talk to her literally every day.
So how do you being so close to your mom then? Not long after that you head off to N. A. U. I did. I loved Flagstaff that's why I wanted to be cold. Really? Like I love being cold. Yes okay but think about it this way. Yeah Tucson's hot and clothing wise you can always take more on, I was thinking wardrobe. I mean. Yeah no I mean you have wardrobe right? The wardrobe is way better in the winter and you can always add more clothing during the summer.
You can only take so much off before I like still going to E. G. S. And like I can't do that you know? So I love winter way more. Um And I just I wanted something that was completely different. I wanted something different than Tucson and phoenix even though phoenix is very different than Tucson. I wanted to experience a different culture. Um I wanted to experience something smaller. Uh some place where you could genuinely just like connect with the community in ways that I didn't really when I was in Tucson plus you want to be a lumberjack.
Oh yeah, because a lumberjack can, you know, go Jacks. That's what we have, like a little symbol. It's kind of cool. So like E. T phone home just do their home. It's okay. It's called, Oh, that's what she tried to do. I've seen that. I know what that is. You know, I've seen it once or twice in a short, once or twice. That's fine. I mean, and I use that were close, so that's fine. I mean, and then you did beat the um, football this year. A yeah, it was amazing.
Mhm, mm hmm. All right. So tell me you go to any you and this is where you sort of start finding a different love for community and just engaging in activating others. What does that look like? Yeah. So when I went to you, honestly, any um, Flagstaff in general was the first time that I felt like I could genuinely be me. So, I mean, so I came out when I was 14. Um, like I'm very young, right? I was in high school, but I never felt like I could actually be fooling me in Tucson because I was still under my mom's house.
I wasn't on my own. I had my own friends. I have my best friend at the time who absolutely loved me and we're still best friends to this day. Um, and it could be me around him, but I could never just like, do me, you know, and once I got to Flagstaff, once I got to know you, I finally was like, oh, I can do me. Like, I don't need to go to my mom and be like, hey mom, I'm going to go to whatever restaurant I can just go like, this is awesome.
And on top of that I can walk. Yes. It was that feeling of freedom. That's honestly what it was. It was a pure sense of freedom. And with that came the ability to be able to just follow your own passions and follow things that where you find joy and what that feeling of belonging, you can follow that. And it's beautiful and it's amazing. And I loved it. And so I remember my freshman year, um actually at orientation, so even before freshman year started, my brother took me and my brother had gone to any as well.
He took me to orientation and he, because my mom couldn't, at the time, he had a lot of friends who were still at any you and he's like, okay, here's the agenda for orientation, What do you actually want to go to? Like, I don't know what, what should I go to? I was still kind of shy at the time, even though it's actually still shy and he's like, no, what do you do? You need to go to this session? And I was like, yeah, probably not. It's like cool.
Then I'm going to take you around. Great. Also if anyone's listening to, sorry, I did go to orientation. I loved every minute of it and anyone who goes and you should go to orientation, put that caveat on this. Uh but I didn't attend some of the sessions, which actually end up being like the best thing ever because I ended up meeting the then student body president of A. S. And the associated students of any you. Uh and she looked at me, she was like, we're gonna make you somebody president.
I was like, I don't think you're right. That's funny. I was like, I've never done student government. I'm not a student government person, you know, that was a denied like full on denial miss. Uh just that was not me. I'm not that type of like the, let me go to a pep rally. No, no, thank you. Have a good time at my band. I have a great time with that. No, I'm not gonna go be a pep rally. Like pom pom. Mm Little did I noticed the government completely different when you're in undergrad.
And so she was like, you know what, just come to these couple of meetings. You'll love it. I'm like, okay, so I start being involved with the like freshman orange or the freshman government and figuring out, oh wait, I can put on events. I can listen to people, people that come to us to express concerns and needs and we get to actually do something about it. Like this is nuts. And not only can we do something about it, but we have money to do something about it.
Like we can actually make projects happen, we can create scholarships. We can, it was amazing. And so, and that really was the first time that I felt the ability to make real change was the moment that students were coming to a send you, that students were coming to me specifically and saying, you know what, I have this concern about what this one classes or what um, food is like here and I want to change it and this is how I think we should do it. Can we do it and we were able to make it happen so blaze while you're going through that process, anybody influence you during that.
Like you mention your brother kind of brought your own, but I doubt that was the influence. Like were there particular people in the program that you can reflect on that really helped guide you through that or that kind of open your eyes to them and stuff? Or do you just figure out on your own? No. Oh God, no, it was definitely not on my own at all. So there are a lot of people, I think that often times when you talk to people who are involved in the community, you find out that it's not the person that's just speaking to you, it's oftentimes the people that are behind them or the people are supporting them or just their network of um people that you talk too right?
I'm a firm believer that anybody who's in a leadership position, it's always about their, the voice that they're sharing, the statements that they're sharing, it's never their own, thoughtfully, it's always a grouping of everything that they're hearing. It's always a grouping of the people around them. And so for me, when I was really starting my community activism and engagement, uh, some of the primary people that were really inspiring to me were all these current student body president at the time. Her name is Kathleen Templin, primarily because she believed in me, she, I mean from the moment that I met her, there was no question in her mind, she just said, you know, we're gonna make you soon by the president, and I was like, okay, sure, but she legitimately believed in me and it happened, you know, uh, beyond that through the Arizona students association, which was the statewide association at the time, advocating on behalf of students and student needs, there was a gentleman, his name is David Martinez, the third who is still one of my biggest mentors and closest friends, uh he in the same way as Kathleen just genuinely believed in me.
I remember there was one night we were walking around, it was kind of late at night, he were, he was up in Flagstaff, he was based in phoenix at the time, he was in Flagstaff uh doing a training for all of our interns and he sat me down like we were near the student union, he sat me down and said, please, what do you like, what do you want to do, what do you want to be? And I was like, honestly, David, I don't know, I want to, I want to be engaged in the community, I want to make something happen, I want to feel like I am leaving this place better than it was when I found it.
I want to feel like people feel connected and heard uh I don't know what that looks like and he said, you know what we need to engage you even deeper in student government, we need to engage even deeper with those who are making decisions. And David was the reason that I got connected as deeply as I did in student government. Uh and then beyond that, David is actually the reason that I got my first like, big boy job, he's been an actual, like an absolute inspiration to me, continues to be an inspiration to me and I know he's an inspiration to like, our entire community.
That's awesome. That's good to hear that too, because I know that everybody, everyone we talked to on the show has always get some form of inspiration of somebody influencing and that's the premise of the show to write. And so it's good to hear your story on that side. So let's back up rewind a bit more because I've seen the notes here that when you were very young, you were diagnosed with an aggressive form of leukemia, but then we're cured at age 5.5. So talk about that. I mean I don't know how much of that, you remember it being little little, but perhaps that influenced you and some of the things from then to now.
Oh absolutely, it's kind of funny. I was actually just having this conversation last night, so I don't really actually talk about my leukemia almost ever. I was sharing it with some people that I've known for a long time and they hadn't they didn't know either, Like, wait, why don't you talk about this and I sharing that? Like, it doesn't really feel like my story um Like it was obviously I lived through it technically, but as you mentioned, I was pretty young, I was 18 months when I was diagnosed, we were living in Bisbee at the time, there was a cluster in Bisbee, so there was about 10 of us who were all diagnosed with this very very aggressive form of a L. L. And Out of the 10 of us two of us lived um Yeah, it was extremely aggressive um Was it environmentally based of some kind, I mean obviously that's what I think people assume Bisbee being as small as it is.
Um And then my family being as little SCS as we were. I mean at that point we just didn't have a lot of money at all. There was no way that we were going to ever like look into whether or not it was environmental or not, but obviously I think you could probably say that there was something going on if nothing else. And so Yeah, I was diagnosed at 18 months. Um my family, again being really not well off, I didn't have the ability to pay for my treatment, we had to go to Tucson for treatment.
Um I was considered a guinea pig. So um I was put into these trials of chewable chemotherapy. Yeah, so which really messed up my teeth for a really long time actually. Yeah, crazy. It literally like made my teeth have these like really long roots and tiny little teeth. Yeah, it was weird, but it I mean I was cured when I was age five. Um There I was in this Guinea Pig grouping if you will cohort until I was 18 years old. So I go back every year because they thought I was going to have some mental slowdowns and mental um disabilities in relation to my treatment and they were very, very shocked that I didn't thank you.
It was honestly for me when I was younger, I was like, oh my gosh, I just go get to play these games and get $100 and I go, great, That sounds fun. I know. Yeah, I don't really know what's going on there, but sure, uh yeah, It really did impact me a lot though, despite the fact that I don't really remember it a whole lot because I was so young. I mean 18 months to five, but you don't really remember a ton. It has to impact. It had to have impact the way your mom raised you 100%.
And not only did it impact the way that my family just engaged period with me, with each other with the community. Ah but it also just showed me even like, now I think about it now, it showed me how much community action can really change a life. So I mentioned that my family was really not well off and we couldn't, I mean we couldn't pay for my treatment and so my family actually worked with like the entire city of Bisbee and put on this event called blazing for Blaze.
I know, and it was really cute and they had t shirts shirts. Yes, there were t shirts always t shirts and this is like the early nineties, so they're even better. T shirts, the slice, like really good turquoise color shirt and it had a black logo of like this like shoe on it and it said blazing for plays on it. Yeah. So through that one fundraiser, we were actually able to pay for my treatment. And it was through the community coming to support my family, even people who didn't know my family right?
Like we didn't know the entire city of visiting, but they all came to support my family and they all came to together to make sure that we could afford my treatment. And so I'm here today literally because of all of those people who came together to help support me. And so when you talk about, how does it impact me? How does it influence me? Yeah, obviously influenced the way that I engage with my mom and influenced the way that engaged in my community. But it also just inspires me literally daily because I know that I am here because other people cared and so I want to show that care to other people. Yeah.
It says here that your mom told you that you're on earth to do something big and you're still exploring what that means to you. Yeah, I mean that's a really big question, right? It's like, what does that look like? And for me it's a constant journey. It's a constant learning. I think that when you talk about, okay, what am I here to do and when you're young, you get total often, like, well for me, I was really lucky. I was told often that I was here for something big, which can put a lot of stress on you I think, but at the same time, it was also really inspiring and it pushed me to do more and it continually like pushes me to do more and achieve more because I want to make sure that I'm living up to my mother, I want to make sure I'm living up to my family, um to the community that gave me so much.
Um well you have to put big in the context of the situation you're in too, because that means something different to everybody, I think. Absolutely, and I think that it's sometimes not necessarily fully up to us to decide what big looks like, right? Sometimes big can be something that's like, you know, doing a fundraiser that raises all this money, right? That could be really big. But I think on one of my first jobs, when I was working with ST mary's food bank clients right after my undergrad, Uh we were doing this thing called a mobile pantry, so we literally took this like massive truck, like a 16 wheeler or whatever for 18 wheelers, how many wheels are there?
There's a big truck, big truck, real big truck that I don't know how to drive. And we were in Winslow, we get this truck there, we have all these like fresh fruits and emergency food boxes and things like that that we're delivering to people who need it. We're listening to the eagles in Winslow Arizona, I should've Eagles concert. Amazing. Oh, I would be so good. It would be nice. I did stand on the corner. It was fun. Um, it was cold, but it's good. I looked great.
Great winter wardrobe. Yes, thank you PICO and all. And so we were doing this mold pantry and this truck because it was all done via car because it was just quicker that way. So the truck comes by And we get the food into the truck, we're having them sign the paperwork, whatever. And there's a mom in the car and then a daughter, young daughters, probably like five and I happen to have an apple in my hand. I don't remember why I had it in my hand. I just happened to have it in my hand and it was one of the apples from like the collection of fruits that we had.
And the girl looked at me and said, can I have that? I was like, yeah, I mean I just literally holding onto this for no reason. So I gave her the apple and her face lights up. She's like automatically, you see it just like brilliant and she's so grateful for this like apple, like it's the best thing she's ever seen in her whole life. And I was like, wow, that, that was, that was cool. I'm super busy at the time though. So they kept going About maybe 20 minutes later, 25 minutes later, the same truck comes through the line.
But they're not getting food this time, everyone's like, hey this truck isn't getting food. Like they just want you to come through. And I was like, okay. And what had happened was the girl, the young girl, she had actually ran out a card to me and like drawn me a photo like a picture and she wanted to give it to me to say thank you for her apple because she was so thankful. And that one moment honestly was this huge shift for me because I realized what I could do and that question of what is big right for her?
That apple was really big in that moment. It was, I mean it brought her joy, it brought her um, just so much that I didn't even know. And so to me that is what I aspire to do every single day is do something big like that. Even if it doesn't seem big to me in that moment for that one person. That might be all right. So the final question for me, What's the next five years look like for you? Oh, it's on that map. What's on that radar, what's in that telescope for you?
What is in the skies? I don't know right? Um, you know when I was younger, like when I was in my early twenties, I always operate on these like five year plans. I always have this five year plan and I was really fortunate that I was able to do what's called the flamboyant civic leadership academy. So when you were in your twenties like five years ago, like is that because of my moisturizer? I think it's just like what we're working with. I mean, let's be honest, every five year plan, is it one year plan that you re evaluate every year?
Right? So it's like 17. Okay, that's true. Let's get back to your journey. So I was operating on these like five year plans. I started doing the Flame Brown typically leadership academy, which I was very, very, very fortunate to be able to participate in as part of the academy. You're given a mentor, They work with a career mentor and you meet with them over the year and they walk you through like, okay, what do you want to do? How we're gonna get you there? And so I was telling her, you know, I want to be elected by, I'm 28, I want to be elected to this office.
I want to do this by 30 all of these things. Right? This is all my five year plan. And she kind of looked at me and said, Well, why 28 because that's when my five year plan, but that's what I'm doing. I'm going to be elected by one of the yeah, this is, this is literally I have no choice. This is what this five year plan says, right? Like I am doing this And she said, well, okay, but why are you really ready to do that right now? I said, well, I think so.
She said, okay, let's think about it some more. She's like, you know, five years plans are really good opportunities for you to reflect right? There are great opportunities for you to reflect on what your needs are, what you wanna do, how you want to help the community. Uh, but they're not binding documents. It is not a road map. It is a aspiring journal if you will. And so when you ask me, okay, well what ar five year plans for me now? It's hard because I don't necessarily operate on those anymore because of that one moment.
Because for me not being able to free myself in that moment when she said, hey, why are you doing this five year plan thing? Why, why is that important for you? I really did free myself from them and said, I'm going to have these goals of okay, yeah, I want to finish grad school, Let me do that. Ah but beyond that, I don't need to operate on this timeline. And that freedom has been really, really helpful for me because it's opened so many doors. It's open doors that I would have said no to prior to because it didn't fit in this five year plan.
But those doors are the reason that I'm here today. Those doors are the reason that, um, I'm engaged in government the way that I am? Um, so what does the next five years look like? I hope to buy a house, but we'll see how that turns out. I hope to be happy. I hope to be inspiring joy. I hope you'll be smiling and laughing. Those are literally what my five year plans are, right. Um, but as far as my career goes, I just want to do those big things.
Do you hope to stay in sort of the political lobbyists? Oh yeah, yeah. I love that. You're great at what you do. Oh, you're so nice. Thank you know, I honestly love it because you get to just meet so many people like oftentimes when people ask what I do for a living, I'm like, I literally go on like a billion for states and I love first dates, literally. That's what I do. I go on first dates, I host parties where nobody knows each other and then I have a rolling encyclopedia of knowledge.
That's, it's a great way to look at it. Kind of speed dating, right? Oh, it's absolutely speed dating. It's wonderful. I'm like, so tell me everything about you and why do you take the way you do in five minutes and you're fascinated by that. I mean you really do dive in as I shared our first lunch was an hour and a half of, we shouldn't say that no business. We talked a little bit of business business? Um, okay. So my last question you wrote the longest way around is the shortest way home.
What does that mean to you? You know, it's kind of goes back to this five year plan question. Right. I always play so much pressure. So much pressure on myself To achieve to beat these goals to be elected by 28 because that's what I wanted to do. You know? Um, that's how I define success. And it puts so much pressure on me that I was constantly like lost. Honestly, I was ungrounded and lost. Um, because I wasn't centered. I wasn't grounded in who I am. Why? Why I am.
Um, I wasn't grounded in my why Simon Sinek. Sinek. I don't know how to say his last name. That whole like what is your why thing very much something that I took to heart and I for a very long time was not grounded in my why in any way and so longest way around the shortest way home to me is always about this idea that yeah, sometimes things take a really long time and you might go down all these like random roads. You might be on these like five year plans that you think you need to be on, You might go down a road that is a friendship that you didn't expect right.
It might take a long time. But eventually you will find your center. You will find that thing that drives you. You will find your why? It will take a long time. But it will be good. Mm hmm. Thank you for being with us today. Oh my God no, thank you. This is then the biggest honor ever and more than anything. This is my first podcast and I am so excited to know how they make this sound. Like there's a specific podcast sound. I'm like, oh, I also sound like that.
I thought I had a special voice. No, no, everybody can tell. This is way more than a five minute speed date. So welcome to that. Thank you. Do you want to do a second one? We could do a second date. I don't remember the last time I had a second date. Let's do it so well blaze! Thank you for being here. And this has been a lot of fun. So if you like this conversation, you want to hear more, be sure to subscribe to our tribe. We'd love to have you join us and get these episodes in your inbox.
Whenever we send them out, there's so many more journeys to share. We can't wait guiding growth conversations with community leaders. Ben, let me ask you a question. How do you see other community members being involved in this podcast? This is going to be a great opportunity for so many people in the community to have a chance to be heard. If they want to tell their story or if they just want to be part of this journey with us and help sponsor in a way that helps bring more people to the table with us.
So I think there's many opportunities at hand. Whether you want to again be on the show, reach out to us, let us know what your story is and how you think you could be part of it. We'd love to hear from you, reach out, let us know and we'll see if we can make that connection.
