Speaker 1 0:01

Hey, chris, yeah, fred, what's a Mason?

Speaker 2 0:09

That's a really good question, fred.

Speaker 1 0:14

You've reached the internet's home for all things masonry. Join Chris and I as we plumb the depths of our ancient craft, from the common gavel to the trowel. Nothing is off the table, so grab your tools and let's get to work. This is On the Level. Well, we are back.

Speaker 2 0:34

Hello, hello. What's going on, my brother? Just plugging away Same old, same old.

Speaker 1 0:41

Same old, same old, working hard. Yeah well, yeah, these days, man, these are some busy days for everybody.

Speaker 2 0:47

It's still freezing. We're here, huddled up in jackets and sweaters and hoodies.

Speaker 1 0:52

I was just going to reference the temperature, which is 39 degrees.

Speaker 2 0:57

Oh my gosh, it's too cold yeah.

Speaker 1 1:01

I believe I asked for 55, 60 degrees. I don't know what's going on here, man.

Speaker 2 1:08

Sacrifice something better next time. What are we doing? Yeah, right.

Speaker 1 1:12

After all, we're masons, birds get a bull.

Speaker 2 1:16

Let's get serious about this weather.

Speaker 1 1:18

Yeah right, I'm pretty excited about today's topic. My brother, I got to be honest with you Of course I always say that what is today's topic? Today's topic is five things any master Mason can do today to improve his lodge.

Speaker 2 1:35

I bet a lot of people could benefit from that.

Speaker 1 1:37

You think yeah. I was just thinking it through, you know. I was thinking to myself what can I do? And I was just. You know, what can I do to better?

Speaker 2 1:46

What haven't you done? Well, maybe a better question to ask yourself what haven't I done? What haven't I done?

Speaker 1 1:52

You do a lot. I haven't learned how to shut up.

Speaker 2 1:57

That works in our benefit in this instance. Maybe not in a lodge meeting, but right now it's perfect.

Speaker 1 2:03

Yeah right, yeah, yeah Well, yeah, we'll see how that goes. Anyway so hey, before we get started with that, Chris, I understand we have a potential sponsor and or partner coming online. Is that something you want to just really quickly just give a name out, is it? What's the name of?

Speaker 2 2:29

the company. Yeah, we got listed on Masonic Revivals so a list of podcasts. I have a friend who works with them at a Jupiter lodge, named Nick, who's kind enough to help us get in there, and we're having conversations about, yeah, maybe them coming on as an advertiser and we may do some. Maybe we'll do some custom pins or something through them. We'll see.

Speaker 1 2:52

Yeah, right, yeah, and just so you know, guys we are. We're looking at a couple of different things. Of course, we want to be careful to make sure this doesn't turn into some kind of money thing. It's always going to be about masonry and how we can all better our craft together. But there's some cool stuff. We've got some cool ideas out there and we'll roll stuff out Maybe. I'll just briefly say that we were thinking about possibly doing a craft whiskey on the level something like that, that kind of stuff, and let us know what you think about that.

Speaker 1 3:29

You know we keep saying email us, let us know what you think. And so far I haven't got a lot of emails. But I do get a lot of people who just come up to me in Lodge and tell me what they think and it's like, oh man, could you, brother, send me that as? An email and they look at me like why would I do that?

Speaker 2 3:50

I just told it to you, right? You want me to work for you now.

Speaker 1 3:55

The problem is, of course, is we want to be able to read, you know, we want to be able to take that content.

Speaker 1 4:01

Obsessively read it over and over again Obsessively read it over and over again and create kind of an ask us anything program out there. So that's why we want your comments and questions in email form. So to do that you will have to email us, and my email is fred at, on the level with fredandchriscom, spelled out as one gigantic email address Fred at on the level with fredandchriscom, chris, what could yours possibly?

Speaker 2 4:30

be it's chris at on the level with fredandchriscom. Nice, nice, I can't forget those.

Speaker 1 4:37

Right and once you start typing you just kind of just keep going all the way to the end and BAMO.

Speaker 2 4:43

It's going to be over before he know it. You're going to want to type more.

Speaker 1 4:46

But no, you've already typed the email.

Speaker 2 4:47

That's right, you have to send it now.

Speaker 1 4:49

All right, enough banter. So five things Any master Mason can do to improve his lodge. Number one and to me it was. This is like it's really simple, but it's probably so important and we can discuss a little bit why it's so important and that is greet every person with a handshake and a friendly greeting every time you meet them. In other words, foster this culture within your lodge, that it's the friendliest place I've ever walked into.

Speaker 2 5:25

Yeah, how important is that? I mean people. It's like when I was growing up, my family loved to watch this show called Cheers.

Speaker 1 5:36

And.

Speaker 2 5:36

I think they just loved it and it was like a family inside joke. When someone walked in the room you'd scream their name because it makes them feel home, right, right and valued and like they're part of something. Then they're appreciated and you can give that to somebody just by investing less than a minute of your time.

Speaker 1 5:55

Yeah Right. Looking them in the eye, shaking their hand.

Speaker 2 5:58

If you really really like him, give him a half hug, Tell him it's great to see them and how good they look.

Speaker 1 6:04

Yeah, if they're not a hugger, you'll know right away. Oh yeah, they cringe when you come in for that hug, or they?

Speaker 2 6:09

sidestep and now you're doing martial arts with the guy.

Speaker 1 6:12

Right yeah, some sort of strange dance move.

Speaker 2 6:15

Look, I'm hugging you, man, it's innocent.

Speaker 1 6:18

That's it.

Speaker 2 6:19

No hands yeah.

Speaker 1 6:21

I know that I, when oh should have turned my phone off.

Speaker 2 6:27

Hey, it's a fan calling in $9.

Speaker 1 6:31

I know that one of the brothers, one of our new EAs at the Lodge. He told me that the reason why he wasn't really sure about Masonry when he first came in. But the one thing that struck him was the friendliness.

Speaker 1 6:47

And I remember purposely going up to him, shaking his hand, looking him in the eye and you know and telling him hey, I'm glad you're here, man and asked him his name and got you know, just straight up general first time greeting, and then it kind of caught on. So when I first started going to the Lodge, it wasn't really. It was a friendly place, don't get me wrong. Our Lodge has always been a very friendly place and there's always, you know, there's a lot of good people there. But there wasn't this culture of overwhelming people with that first greeting of kindness and welcome, you know. So I just started doing it every single time I walked into the Lodge.

Speaker 1 7:33

I was shaking people's hands. Hey man, how you doing, how you doing. I remember the first. You know I went through EA with seven guys and we're still. We're all still there. As a matter of fact, several of us are officers now. Yeah so but I just, even though I met them, I knew them, I was getting to know them every time I went in there shook their hand and after a while it was probably a little annoying, but I didn't give up, because what I noticed is that now they do it.

Speaker 2 7:58

Yeah, yeah, that's. I think that's the key to all of this, right? Because you said these are the top five things any master Mason can do like an individual. What can one person do?

Speaker 1 8:10

Right.

Speaker 2 8:11

And if you lead by example, people will follow your example right.

Speaker 2 8:14

Absolutely true, so I said a good example and do things the way that you think they should be done. Just do them yourself and then watch how many people will follow you. You don't have to be the master of the lodge and make a decree that this is what we shall do. You can just be a guy who shows up and does good things and people will follow you because people want to do good things and it makes you feel good to do good things. They just don't want to be the first one.

Speaker 1 8:42

Right, right, yeah, yeah, but I, I, I, I, somebody has to lead. I'm not crazy and or dumb enough to be the first, and that's almost always me. Dumb enough for sure.

Speaker 2 8:54

But look it, it actually works because when people walk into a room and you make them feel like valued and welcome, they will come back for that feeling.

Speaker 1 9:05

That's right.

Speaker 2 9:06

They want that feeling and it feels good to be recognized and acknowledged.

Speaker 1 9:09

Yeah, that's right and and authentically right. Where else I I go? You know I go to church on Sundays and our church is really big on this. You know, when somebody comes in you, you ask them who they are, you shake their hand. If you don't know them, you try to get to know them. It's a, it's a, it's a big thing. Yeah, but for most people that they don't have that man, they don't go. Wherever they go, they go. You go to work and nobody is standing at the door. Hey, bill.

Speaker 1 9:38

I'm so glad you came to work today. How you doing, man, you know, shaking hands and stuff, it's just, it's just not out there, man.

Speaker 1 9:44

You know, so this is a place where a brother can come and truly feel welcome. And, and you know, I can hear, I can hear people saying to me uh, yeah, but isn't that kind of phony, aren't you just kind of phony in it up, just kind of pushing it? Well, you know, I, I uh adhere to that, that, uh, that old ad adjative, that old proverb that says fake it till you make it, fake it till you make it. Maybe, you know, maybe it's not natural for you out there, guys, as a master mason, to shake hands. Maybe you're a bit introverted. This is a great opportunity to step out and shake someone's hand and stand there with a smile on your face and wait for them to respond, and you know, and then you can start, start a conversation. You know it. Just, it fosters this, this culture, you know, of acceptance and and love, and isn't that what we're all about?

Speaker 2 10:38

Oh, a hundred percent and becoming a better man, right? So what it's going to force you to do, if you really buy into this is is going to force you to get to know the members. Yep, because you know that you're going to greet them in two weeks time or one week's time, and it's really, if you want to be authentic, you need to be present in the moment with people and so you get to know their family and what's going on in their lives. And then you greet them and you say, oh, how, how, how's your brother doing?

Speaker 1 11:06

Right, that's right. Okay, how are you?

Speaker 2 11:09

feeling and it is authentic. It's not fake anymore, once you have fully invested into getting to know people and what's going on in their lives and caring about them. So it's going to force you to be present in the moment and to and engage with people on a way deeper level, if you really commit to doing this.

Speaker 1 11:27

Just greeting everybody. That's right, and and we're Mason, so we're big on memory memorization, so we try to be, we try to be. Some are better than others, present company included.

Speaker 2 11:40

Chris is way better than I am.

Speaker 1 11:43

Of course he's been doing it a little while longer, but we'll get to that.

Speaker 2 11:47

I think that's probably tied into this, that's probably tied in there somewhere, I'm sure. That's a great way to start and anyone can do it. Even if you don't have hands, you can bump people with your elbows. You can greet somebody.

Speaker 1 11:58

Even if you don't want to touch another person's hand you can still do the fist bump.

Speaker 1 12:02

So, number two foster a culture of pride and ownership in the lodge. Keep the Blue Lodge the center and most important entity in your Masonic community. Now you may think to yourself well, I can't do that, I'm just one guy. Well, that's not true. You can, like we just talked about, you can foster a culture of pride and ownership in your lodge and you can do that by simply investigating, maybe, the history of your lodge, or understanding, asking questions. Get to know some of the guys that have been there for a long, long time and talk about your lodge in positive ways and ask questions and foster a whole movement of hey, what's the history of this lodge Did you know about? And get with your lodge historian and get and we don't have a cough button yet folks.

Speaker 2 12:59

That's what that was. I know they got far enough away.

Speaker 1 13:01

Yeah, we'll get one one day. Yeah, Foster, go ahead.

Speaker 2 13:06

That's another big one, I think Ownership in the lodge and also trying to make it prominent and known in the community. It's two parts, but really important and you hit the nail on the head. People are going to say how can I?

Speaker 1 13:22

one person possibly impact this.

Speaker 2 13:25

Well, let us tell you how. So you're one person. You want to get your lodge known in the community. You obviously can't single handedly get out there and go build a house with your lodge shirt on and be like, hey, look at what my lodge can do.

Speaker 1 13:39

You can't.

Speaker 2 13:40

I understand that. But you know what you can do right away today is contact the most aggressive appended body that is doing something in your area and you can say, hey, on behalf of my lodge. I'd like to dovetail with what you're doing and somehow get involved and help you, even if it's just me. I want our lodge to be involved and if they're active and out there, they'll welcome your help. And when you go to your lodge and report that you're helping that appended body do something in the public for the public good and that your lodge is going to get some credit, here's the thing everybody wants to be part of the winning team.

Speaker 1 14:17

Yeah, that's right.

Speaker 2 14:18

Not a lot of people want to do the work to win, but they do want to be part of the winning team. So if you do that work yourself and you bring a solution, it looks like you're winning. 18 people will volunteer to get involved. The second it looks like you're doing something that you've succeeded at on behalf of the lodge, and so again it comes back to just not sitting on your hands and waiting for somebody else to lead, just being the leader in this area.

Speaker 2 14:44

Just set the example. Do something and then tell your lodge about it and people will follow you.

Speaker 1 14:50

Yeah, I'm thinking about for us here in Sarasota. We used to be really nice. We had a really nice weather here in Sarasota but apparently not anymore.

Speaker 2 14:58

That's when we had tropical weather. That's when we had tropical weather.

Speaker 1 15:01

But I'm thinking about the Shrine here in the Sarasota Shrine, who they've really struggled for a whole lot of years and they're finally kind of on the upswing. And when I went there and became a Shriner and spoke with them, I mean they're so willing and so much want the Blue Lodge to come down and get involved and talk to them. They're willing to do anything, anything for a partnership. And we're lucky because our Shrine has been there a long time. It's quite a large building and they built that Tiki Bar and they got cool stuff over there and they got the big event hall. But it was just I wanted to foster that connection and help them out and do something and they were just throwing ideas left and right. And I think there's going to be, aren't we doing appreciations for our Appendant bodies?

Speaker 1 16:03

and that's the direction we're kind of going in and having them come in.

Speaker 2 16:06

That's one of the big pushes this year and our Lodge is for our Masonic at our state of communications and for Masonic education. We've invited every other Lodge in our district to come and we do an appreciation night for the entire Lodge so their members can come and eat for free on us and then they provide 30 minutes of education that night about their Lodge and their history and who they are and what their plans are for the year. So our hope is that our brothers that don't travel much will start to make some friends locally in the other Lodges.

Speaker 2 16:40

And then they'll want to go see their friends that they met when they came into our Lodge and they'll learn more and will feel more connected with the other Lodges and will have more opportunity hopefully to work together. And we're doing that with the Appendant bodies as well in our area and that's already helped us in our Lodge, like we have a local Widow Suns chapter that's pretty aggressive and fundraising and doing things publicly, and so now they know that we're here and that we were willing to help them and so anything they do they're going to notify us and we can help. You know, attach to whatever it is they want to do this year which will help our Lodge get its name out there a little bit in the community and get our people used to doing this stuff in the community and hopefully lead to us starting to do our own events in the community, like they are. But it all has to start somewhere. Somebody's got to reach out and actually make those connections. One person, that's all it takes, just one person making a couple phone calls.

Speaker 1 17:39

One master Mason doing something today to improve his Lodge. That's really all it takes. You know, the thing that I was thinking about is that every dependent body Widow, suns and the Shrine and all the different dependent bodies out there all of us have one thing in common and that is that we're all members of a blue Lodge somewhere and the blue Lodge should be kind of that center point where everything else goes out. I'm not saying that's not the case necessarily with regard to Sarasota 147, but I think every Lodge we could probably do better as blue Lodges, to be the mothership. We're the one that you know, the center, and go and make ourselves available to everyone in the Masonic community. How can we help? How can we better ourselves by bettering you.

Speaker 2 18:35

That's a great way to make your Lodge stronger in its local Masonic community is to just be present at things, and when you're around, magic things happen. You just start to see something you're interested in, you raise your hand, you offer an opinion and, look, your Lodge is now engaging with every other Lodge in your area and it grows from there. So the other part of that you said was pride in your lodge and its history, fostering that ownership and pride.

Speaker 1 19:05

Although I think that might no, that was it.

Speaker 2 19:08

Yeah, that's correct. And how can one person do that? Well, you can go, just check out your lodge's history and offer a Masonic communication in your lodge about its lodge history, so you're educating all the brothers about the history. Your pride will infect them with pride and they'll be like where did you get all this at? Well, I just spent 20 minutes looking over here and over there and there's all the information and people start to get intrigued and want to know more. And you can dig deeper and do more Masonic education in your lodge to get your brothers educated about their own lodge and its history and the points of pride that maybe they can wear proudly, like this is a member that we had in our lodge or this is some cool thing that we did in our community back in the day in our lodge, and every lodge has those things.

Speaker 1 19:57

That's right.

Speaker 2 19:58

You just look back and there's gonna be some past master that's been around forever that you can go to and say, hey, can you help me find minutes of anything interesting in our history, cause I'd like to do a little bit of education and let me tell you how much that guy's gonna want to help you. Yeah, right, he's been waiting his whole life for some Mason to come up and ask him a question like that.

Speaker 1 20:19

Yeah, and he can be the guy.

Speaker 2 20:21

You can be the person that gets those past masters back, engaged and just singing the praises that of the things they've seen or they read, that the new generation has no idea about.

Speaker 1 20:33

Yeah.

Effective Lodge Membership Development

Speaker 2 20:34

And that's just one person. One thing one person can do. Just start having those conversations and offering those services to the lodge, and if you're not good at speaking like me, you might wanna ask a friend to help you with it.

Speaker 1 20:46

Yeah, that's right. And Chris says that he's not good at speaking. But everybody's listening to this right now saying, well, you seem you sound pretty good. Well.

Speaker 2 20:56

I should say if you're not fond of public speaking, then get someone else to do that part of it. But you can still do the research and make those connections. Or if you're the public speaking guy get the nerd in the lodge to do the research and you do the public speaking.

Speaker 1 21:10

Yeah, there's always some kind of maniac like me around.

Speaker 2 21:13

Yes, willing to get up in front of thousands of people. I'll talk about anything, just give me the script, give me the bullet points.

Speaker 1 21:18

I can go for an hour. It's true, I love it and it's certainly something I need to work on.

Speaker 2 21:27

It takes a lot of confidence in yourself to be able to not feel judged by people. Is that what we're calling it, confidence? I like that, yeah.

Speaker 1 21:34

It's been called other things, but yeah, yeah, confidence.

Speaker 2 21:37

We'll go with that one. I'd say confidence.

Speaker 1 21:38

All right. Number three Number three I like number three membership development. So reach back to brothers who haven't been in lodge for a while or haven't been coming regularly. Get either get with the membership development committee or start one and begin to reach back to brothers. Every lodge has a list of brothers who are still paying dues but aren't coming regularly. I think that's one way you can really make an impact. One man, one master Mason can go to his secretary and say hey, do we have a development committee and do we have phone numbers? Can I start making some phone calls to brothers who haven't been there a while and just see how they're doing? Just call to say hi.

Speaker 2 22:29

Do you know how long the secretary's probably been waiting for some member to come up and ask that question?

Speaker 1 22:35

They're probably jumping up and down right now listening to this. Every secretary. Yeah, man.

Speaker 2 22:40

I wish somebody could do this stuff. Yeah, but it's true, I did that when I was in your warden in our lodge. Our secretary was his first year and he was really nervous about giving out a list. And that's how you should be is more cautious than anything.

Speaker 1 22:56

Sure, yeah, that's right.

Speaker 2 22:58

But it took me some jumping through hoops and I had to discover in the digest that they typically don't allow lists of masons to be made or distributed, but for the purpose of contacting them for a large business. So this is allowed by the digest. You can go find it and bring it to your secretary. When you ask for the list and say, hey, look right here it says that we can do this. It'll streamline it for you. You won't have to do what I did and you will get a list. It's not gonna be comprehensive, but you'll have a name and a phone number and you can reach out to these people. Let me tell you how impactful it is for the member to get a call from an officer or a member, another member who's just checking in on him, who's just saying, hey, I don't think I've ever met you. I've been going to the lodge for three years. I'd really like to know what's going on. Why don't you come and they'll tell you the truth what's going on in their life, absolutely.

Building a Culture of Long-Term Planning

Speaker 2 23:50

Some of the guys are just like I feel so horrible, I just wasn't a priority and I need to get back there and I'd love to meet you. It means so much that you called me. It just takes that little human interaction to try to reengage somebody back into your lodge. Or, even if they don't come back, you might find something important that's going on in their life and you can bring it to the lodge and maybe bring them some support or help, even if it's just thoughts for something they're going through and that is going to be impactful to that person, even if it doesn't directly benefit you were the lodge. It's still a pretty damn good thing of you to do as a man to take a few minutes of your day and authentically engage another member to try to find out what's going on in his life, and so we have like 335 members Right. I started at the A's and I didn't make it out of the B's in my year, but I had the thought.

Speaker 1 24:46

And I started down the path.

Speaker 2 24:48

And then for me personally, we lost our stewards and I had to do all the cooking and my time got sucked up. But I think that's something that one person can do very easily in any lodge. You can get that list. You can call five people every other day and over time you're going to make good progress on that list. If you work it all year long and if you start reporting back in the stated meetings your results again, you're going to have people thinking, oh man, there's something cool happening here.

Speaker 2 25:17

I should probably get involved in this, because I will look good and you need those people.

Speaker 1 25:22

That's right.

Speaker 2 25:23

So talk about the successes and the conversation you're having. If you do that in a stated meeting for just to end up and give a quick two minute recap, and you'll be surprised how many people will say yeah, that's really cool that you're doing that, I wouldn't mind helping. And you'll start to build some support and you have a whole group of people doing it, hopefully by the end of the year and in future years.

Speaker 1 25:45

Yeah, well, that's. And like if you say, 350 names on a list sounds daunting, but we're not telling you to tackle the whole list. What we're saying is get with your secretary, find out if it's feasible. If it's not, do the work to get a committee membership development committee together and make five phone calls a week. Yeah, it's it. Look if you, I like what that guy's doing. Yeah, better than what that guy's not doing. You know what I'm saying. That's the old, you know the old adage of five, five a week, 10 a week, whatever man.

Speaker 1 26:28

You're not going to know if you don't get get down there and do it. And I find it extremely rewarding To reach back and and call people. And again, the agenda is this how you doing, man, how you been. We haven't seen you in lodge and I thought I'd just check in with you and See how things are going. You know you, you plan on coming in or you know why haven't we seen you? And that's it.

Speaker 2 26:52

Let them thing that we can do for you.

Speaker 1 26:54

Yeah, it's, the conversation is going to be one minute or it's going to be 20 minutes. You know, you're gonna that's the way it's going to go and you're gonna come away from that thing. Think into yourself, man, I am so glad I didn't want to do it, but I'm so glad I did do it. It's kind of like going to the gym, you know.

Speaker 2 27:11

I don't want to go to the gym.

Speaker 1 27:12

But then when you're walking out of the gym you're like I'm so glad I did this.

Speaker 2 27:16

All of these things are kind of like that, Like you aren't gonna change the world overnight. You're not gonna change your lodge overnight right. You can't change your body overnight.

Speaker 2 27:25

It's the accumulation of small things done on a consistent basis that creates lasting change. Right, you go to the gym for Five days a week for 30 minutes a day for a year and look at yourself from the beginning in the end. You won't recognize the guy, that's right. But you know from day to day it's just the challenges in your head that you're dealing with. Like I'm tired, oh, I'm cold, yeah, and it's the same here. You're gonna be like, oh, I'm busy, oh, I don't really want to do this. I could be watching basketball for this hour of my life. But if you can overcome those short-term hurdles to your own comfort, the long-term and that's how we should think is Mason's is in the long term. Right, we're about Time and and the accomplishments over time and these little things you can do for five minutes a day. If you dedicated five minutes a day to your lodge, whether it be for your personal development of the lodges Over the course of a year, you will be able to accomplish amazing things.

Speaker 1 28:25

Yeah, that's right, that's right. And it just it. It fosters in your own life and in those seeing you do this. It just fosters that ownership In, in in your lodge, and people begin to take pride in it and and a lot of people will look back and say, yeah, you know what I I have been, I have been taking, I have not been taking advantage of this thing that I really love, yeah, and and I want to get back to it as well and you'll, you'll see that kind of stuff, it grows, I mean it absolutely grows and one man who decided to make five, six phone calls Reaching back or put together that membership development group and or committee.

Speaker 1 29:06

It grows pretty fast, pretty soon. People are proud of that. Their lodge, again they're, they're fellow shipping, again they're back in and and you have done Exactly what we're talking about. You have done something today, you have begun something today that would sincere since.

Speaker 2 29:21

Sincerely and Seriously, I'll slow that down, get it right improve your lodge, so you. Okay, so we're halfway through the list. I should make this point.

Speaker 2 29:32

Yes if you've done the first three things, or you do start to do the first three things, here's what's gonna happen. People are gonna start asking you to be a leader. They're gonna say, hey, we need you in the line. Hey, we need you to be junior warden next year. Hey, we need you to head up this committee. Hey, we need you to be a committee chairman. Hey, we need you to do that. And you're gonna say, hopefully, no, thank you.

Speaker 2 29:54

This is what I need to be doing right now. I need to be meeting these things that I've tried to set up for the future of my lodge. Or maybe somebody bring something to you that you are Interested in and fits your talents and you have time for, and you do do it. But be prepared that once you start trying to do things, everyone will say this guy wants work and they'll start just growing work at you, and so you have to be prepared for that, because your instinct is gonna say yes, yes, yes, because you want to be a good brother. But you're gonna wind up destroying your Initial efforts because you will lose all that time if you say yes to everything and sooner or later you won't be able to fulfill all the commitments he said yes to, and your positive reputation turns into a oh god, this guy right crash burned or whatever the case is.

Speaker 2 30:43

So just be mindful that as you start doing this kind of work, it will look like you're trying to Jockey for something or get noticed, and you know that's probably not your intention.

Speaker 1 30:56

So you have to be prepared to be picky and choose you about the things you commit yourself to yeah, that's right, because Saying yes to something you you can't actually do it lacks integrity, and we all do it.

Speaker 2 31:10

We all do it well, you want to help when somebody comes to you with a little bit of need, right, you want to say I'll help you, brother.

Speaker 1 31:16

Yeah, but you're not helping them and you're not helping yourself by jumping into every single thing you think. I'm thinking about Our brother John. Yeah who is just very reserved in the things that he commits to, but then he comes back and says, yeah, okay, I can, I can commit to that.

Speaker 2 31:32

He's in that exact situation. He's someone who just wants to help. Yep and he's finding his lane of where I can help the most with the time I have yeah. And so the second people see, oh this guy, oh he must want to be an officer, almost, he must want to be in this thing, he must want to do that. Let's get him to come to this.

Speaker 1 31:50

Well, he uses the magic word very well.

Speaker 2 31:52

Yeah, the word is no, not right now. Right now, yeah, I'll let you know.

Speaker 1 31:57

Yeah, yeah, and that's how we should all be well, I think it's just that's integrity, you know, that's that's being realistic About your time. I think there's a working tool. Yeah, it's a little bit about that.

Speaker 2 32:08

somewhere there's a podcast talking about the ea degree.

Speaker 1 32:11

Yeah, yeah 24 inch gauge, something like that. But, yeah, being able to just say this is what I want to do. I want to help my lodge Today in something simple, and that's what I'm gonna do, because that's what the knuckleheads on On on the level with Fred and Chris talked about on the podcast that I listened to. So let's, let's move on. Yes to number four, and I think number four is one that I know is near and dear to your heart, and it should be near and dear to all our hearts. I am most grateful For your vision. Number four is foster a culture of long-term planning and thinking beyond one year.

Speaker 2 32:54

Yeah, and so that Doesn't fall to the master and the officers necessarily. To put these, the lodge, the brother should be the ones running the lodge and the officers are just facilitators, administrators basically. But the lodge should be run by the will of the craft. So you don't have to be an officer or a master to set the long-term vision of the lodge, you just have to be a guy calling for hey, this should be important to us. You stand up in a stated meeting and ask the master what is the long-term vision of our lodge? And see what happens.

Speaker 1 33:28

Yeah, what the answer is.

Speaker 2 33:29

See if there is an answer and if there isn't, then you suggest, hey, I suggest we form a committee that can put a long-term vision in a plan for maybe a five-year plan or a mission statement, or whatever you want to call it in your lodge. To get them doing this and the lodge will be forced to deal with it, at that point they'll have to create a committee, and you've volunteered already, so I guarantee you're gonna be on it, if not leading it, and and and. From there you can actually start to shape the future of your lodge, because the culture that we have, which is, I Understand the importance of changing leadership and not having a monarchy, but what happens year after year is each person has their own pet projects right and so over the course of five years, you've gotten a bunch of pet projects done, but there's been no long-term vision, there's been no long-term planning.

Speaker 2 34:24

So how can you measure any long-term success for your lodge? All you're measuring yourself by is your ability to clip your toenails.

Speaker 1 34:31

Yeah, you're just maintaining things right. Right, what are you?

Speaker 2 34:34

doing yeah.

Long-Term Planning in Masonic Lodge

Speaker 1 34:37

Yeah, that's right, and I think that most, most lodges know who's coming up through the line, so you know who your next worseful master is going to be. You start there, you know, you sit down with them and say, alright, so this is, this is our five-year plan. You're in year two of this five-year plan. Let's talk about that. Yeah, you know. And then you go, you go down one, you're in the year three, you're in your four. Are you able to, you know, commit to this? You know, generally speaking, and can we formulate a Five-year plan for this lodge that grows us to where we want to be in five years? Tell me, that's not the most powerful thing a group of men can do within a Masonic Lodge.

Speaker 2 35:16

Yep, you identify all of your weaknesses and your strengths and you figure out what do we need to change? And then you assign committees or groups to focus on those things and they'll come up with ideas. And now you have measurements of did we accomplish that and are we succeeding in our plan or not? And the master every year can still do is pet projects and the things that he wants to get done. But at least there's some big picture thing that everybody's bought into that you're all working towards and, of course, the competitive nature of men. They're gonna wanna be the master that got not only their little bit done but got started on some extra stuff. And so your five year plan becomes hopefully a three year plan because everybody's so engaged and competitive and trying to get it all done, but at least you have. Everyone will feel so much more confident and happy with a plan.

Speaker 1 36:12

Yeah, that's right. That's right. I think the only way this works is when you have administrators who have that servant leadership attitude. If you got somebody who's just pushing their own agenda, and it does happen, it does happen, but that's gonna be, that's gonna cause a problem, that's gonna slow things down. But, like I said earlier, you already know who's in your line. Generally speaking, most lodges know who's in the line who's coming up through. They are the ones who should be included in this long-term thinking this culture of long-term thinking and planning and coming up with that agenda.

Speaker 1 36:53

I think it's working well with us, for us.

Speaker 2 36:56

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 36:57

At 147,.

Speaker 2 36:58

I mean, we have a loosely we know what the big picture plans are yeah, yeah. But where we're headed. In those we have measurements for success of. Are we achieving these things that we wanted to?

Speaker 1 37:12

And the thing is is when we think about them, we project out to think about them. Well, that's gonna take two years, okay, well, this person, if all things stay the same, is going to be worshipable master in those years. Talk to him Right. What's his agenda, what's his plan, and what pet projects does he have that he would like to do as well? What does he see? And maybe he doesn't know because he's still a year down the line, two years down the line. We don't know sometimes what's gonna happen tomorrow. It's true, but long-term planning and long-term thinking is never a wrong thing, it's never a bad thing. It's always a good idea In your family, in any business, and certainly in the lodge, when you got a bunch of, like you said, a bunch of men.

Speaker 2 37:54

Yeah, different than they all have different things that they want that are important to them. Like you're definitely well-versed in, you walked into a building and you're automatically seeing problems with it, right? You're like oh, I see, oh God, look at that over there, and you can't help it from these things From a building perspective.

Speaker 1 38:13

that's right. Yeah, because I've done it my whole life.

Speaker 2 38:14

You're background, that's you can't even help it. You're gonna see that stuff. It's a curse. Yes.

Speaker 2 38:19

So, to you. That's gonna be top of mind first thing, right. But another guy who has no experience with that, like me, is gonna be like oh wow, this ritual isn't what I saw in the book. That bothers me, and you're gonna start to obsess over the fact that you're not. The officers are doing good ritual, and then that can be your thing. You know, to try to. How can we improve this, how can we put things in place to make it better, and that's what we're talking about. So no one person's gonna have the big picture. It's impossible, but you can get the conversation going as one person.

Speaker 2 38:52

You can start that planning process. That's it right there, that's right.

Speaker 2 38:56

Yeah and you're gonna need as many engaged people as you can. And if you don't know, if you're not a long-term member and you don't know the history and you don't know the problems you know, like what we did last year, before we did the five-year planning or in the midst of it, is we put a little Google form together and we still do a hard copy Trouselboard that gets mailed out. So we put a little QR code in the junior ward and sections that scan this, please, and take a quick survey and now we can get as many members as are willing to do that feedback on what's important to them. And that was really helpful in the five-year planning because in our minds, in the lodges around us, we keep hearing how food is important.

Speaker 1 39:40

Food brings brothers. You gotta have the best food.

Speaker 2 39:41

You need to have steak dinners. You gotta have pulled pork stuff. This is what brings brothers in, and so I, when before the survey, thought this was definitely gonna be the biggest thing. Right, we could definitely improve our food. We're not producing the highest level meals and sometimes barely doing a meal.

Speaker 2 40:02

But surprisingly, that wasn't even an issue for anybody in our lodge that completed that survey. Food wasn't even on the list of things that they cared about or was important to them or a reason why they came or didn't come to lodge. They're much more focused on getting Masonic education and information that they didn't have about Freemasonry specifically, and seeing really good ritual done, and these other things that are obviously important are, to our lodge, more important than food. So it allowed us to change our focus because we thought we'd need to get more money, we need to do more planning, we need more time, we gotta buy more things to provide better meals, and now we can say, okay, that's not somewhere we have to dedicate all these resources to. We can focus on what our lodge needs from us, which is more opportunities for conversation and education about Masonic things and guest speakers and making sure that we're doing practices for ritual and have degree teams in place, because that's what's important to our lodge.

Speaker 1 41:07

Yeah, and that became that whole scenario right there was made possible by the culture of long-term thinking and long-term planning and long-term thinking. We're looking to the future. Our lodge has been there for a long time. The lodge itself, 1904,.

Speaker 1 41:28

I think, and the building 1942, 48, something like that. So our lodge has been there a long, long time, and so there's no reason to think it's not going to continue to be there for a long, long time, at least five years ahead. So long-term thinking, long-term planning is, I think is just essential, Especially for the success of the lodge.

Speaker 1 41:53

And the only thing that's gonna get in the way of that, in my opinion, is gonna be an ego that wants to make it more about themselves than they do about the craft, and that's why, as our Worshipful Master, I'm just so glad that you took the onus off of the man and you became more of. I think what a Worshipful Master is is you became the leader of the lodge but the facilitator of what the craft wants to do, the direction and the benefit of the craft as a whole. You kinda got out of the way.

Speaker 2 42:30

Yeah, it's not my agenda, it's their agenda, but you did the work to figure out what that agenda was. See, because we didn't really know.

Speaker 1 42:38

And that's why the surveys, the five-year plan, the talking, the setting up the right committees and the right chairpersons and all of that stuff and this really is if one Mason wants to improve his lodge, this is a conversation that you could get going now in your lodge, if you're not seeing that, and just have a friendly conversation with key people and begin to foster that long-term vision, because I don't know about you guys out there, but I plan on being a Mason long-term and that means different things for different people, since I'm over 59 years old.

Speaker 1 43:16

Yes, yes and so you know.

Speaker 2 43:19

But Well, with your health you'll live to 290, so you've got a ways to go. I hope not. You're in pretty good shape, I seriously hope not, but anyway, okay.

Speaker 1 43:28

So fostering that long-term plan, long-term thinking. And again, when I say fostering, all right, that's the best thing one man can do. By me going in a lodge and shaking people's hands and greeting them and getting the others, I fostered a small little start, you know, a little seed of just friendliness. And now I think that when people come in I see everybody just shaking their hands. That's what I mean Fostering a culture of friendliness, fostering a culture of pride and ownership. The membership development is you're fostering a culture of outreach, of reach back, caram, and then fostering that culture of long-term thinking and planning. And then, oh wait, there's one more, there's one more, there's five. We said five and we're going to deliver on five. Now, five is kind of, if you do one through four, you are five, and five is this become the utility man. Utility it's I've either had too much coffee or not enough coffee. It's the cold, yeah, it's the cold, that's right, you're brain freeze.

Speaker 1 44:40

That's right. That's right. Become the utility mason in your lodge. Be willing to do anything and willing to learn anything for the overall benefit of the lodge. And when we say utility, it's like that utility player that you could put anywhere on the field and they bring results for you. And if you're not in the line, if you have no desire to be in the line right away, you can become that utility mason man.

Speaker 1 45:07

You can become the guy that's right there, willing to help the line. The officers in the line help the worst-of-a-master to achieve whatever vision he has Becoming. I love it. I love it the utility mason becoming the utility mason.

Speaker 2 45:21

Every lodge needs somebody, or hopefully a group of people that are utility masons, meaning okay, if we have a degree and somebody drops out at the last minute, who's the guy we can call?

Speaker 2 45:34

to fill that spot that doesn't need the practice that we know knows the work. That's you. You're the utility mason. You spent your five minutes a day learning ritual and looking at floorwork books and checking going to open books and making sure you have the right words from the cipher and people trust you because you did the work. So that's one way you can be a utility to your lodge. Another is maybe you are the guy that's contacting all the past masters and so the secretary, when he needs help with people nonpaying their dues, knows you put a group of guys together that's comfortable calling people from the lodge. You're a utility mason, you're the go-to guy he's gonna call.

Speaker 2 46:14

So these situations always pop up where we don't have the right people for the job or we don't have enough people for the job and we desperately need a little help and most lodges have to go to other lodges because they just don't have the support sometimes. But you might be the guy who can be the one in your lodge that prevents that from having to happen. You can be the guy they call for the committee for the work, for the consultation on can we do this or not? Is that in the digest or what is our own internal bylaws say if we can do this or not. Just having read it, you can be the guy that they go to for questions, because you one time sat down for 30 minutes and read it and they didn't bother. You're the utility guy.

Speaker 1 46:58

They know that they can go to you.

Utility Culture in Lodges

Speaker 2 47:00

So that's what I think you mean by utility, mason is you're the jack of all trades. You're the guy that everybody can depend on when the chips are down and they need a friend or they need someone to support them. You're the guy that they think of. You don't have to be the master, you don't have to be an officer. You just have to be dedicated to spending a little bit of your time every day learning that, maybe looking at the digest or a great example of this. We were talking about it Last night. One of the first things we did this year is visit another lodge. We have this thing called the Traveling Gavill and it's a little game we play in our district where the person the lodge that has the Traveling Gavill presents it and proudly in front of the Most proudly.

Speaker 2 47:47

Most proudly in front of the Warshville Masters pedestal in the east all the time. And another lodge can come, if they have five or more people, to a state that are called communication and sit through that communication and then they steal the Gavill and now they present it. So it fosters lodges visiting each other and gets you learning how other lodges do things.

Speaker 2 48:08

Yeah yeah, and seeing good examples and things you can bring back to your lodge, it forces us through a fun, positive way to get out there and engage and meet new members and make new friends, and I was. We have so many utility masons in our lodge that I know, yeah, it's true that I can just say, hey, guys, this is what's going on and people will always volunteer to get involved because we have so many utility masons and that's how I know that once you reach that point, your lodge is doing pretty damn good.

Speaker 1 48:39

Yeah, that's right.

Speaker 2 48:40

Nothing's going to be scary when you've got a whole bunch of utility people that are willing to jump in and help.

Speaker 1 48:45

Yeah, I think that I immediately flashed back to what we were talking about earlier, and that's the 24 inch gauge, that working tool, because if you are a utility guy, they'll take all the time. The lodge just by default will take all the time you're willing to give.

Speaker 2 49:07

You have to have those boundaries, so if you've focused on what you know is important. That's right If you focused on one of these five things and somebody's trying to pull your attention to cleaning the closet and you're like, hold on. That's not the best use of my time.

Speaker 1 49:24

Right.

Speaker 2 49:24

I've got these things to focus on, and if I do that closet cleaning, who's going to do this? Probably no one. That's how important it is you stay focused on what it is you're trying to do for the lodge.

Speaker 1 49:34

Yeah, that's right. If you see a need, if you accomplish a goal because you saw something that needed to be done and you're doing it, the reason for that is you're the one who was supposed to do it and you need to stay doing it. But the working tools of our craft are applicable in everything we do, and especially in this case. If you're the utility man, if you want to be the utility mason in your lodge, it starts with understanding your limitations and not becoming. I was the utility man. Now I just want to go home and not come back because I am so burnt out.

Speaker 2 50:15

No, don't get there.

Speaker 1 50:16

Don't do that, that's right. That's right.

Speaker 2 50:20

You pick what you call the hill you're going to die on. At least to have one hill you want to die on, right. Even if it's not one of these five things, there's one thing that you can just say I'm going to do this, this is my focus to help my lodge in the next year. So I'm talking about going to Venice, right.

Speaker 1 50:39

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 50:39

Venice Lodge is where we went and we were sitting there and there were two members of the lodge that actually had notebooks.

Speaker 2 50:47

Yeah, and I kept peeking, what are they doing? And they had actually taken notes of the meetings that they had sat in and made notes on things that they needed to follow up on. And so these guys who are not officers I believe at least one was a past master, but I don't think the other one was they made sure to pop up and say hold everybody accountable. And say, hey, what's going on with this one project that we talked about? Because they have it in their notes and it's a new line, it's a new officer line, new master. And so they're forced to say, right, that's right, we need to get on that.

Speaker 1 51:19

Yeah, and that happens several times Right.

Speaker 2 51:22

Those guys are being a great utility for their lodge. They don't have to be an officer or the master to be helpful to the lodge, and so helpful. I just blew my mind that they had taken notes. And they were sitting there making little notes for themselves about what was going on. They didn't rely on the minutes or whatever's going in the officers. They probably don't go to the officers' meetings, but they sure decided that they were going to help keep their lodge accountable to the things they say they're going to do, and that is being a great service to your lodge.

Speaker 1 51:55

Yeah, I think so. And again the Venice Lodge shout out to them I love it down there, I love it going down there. Those guys are great, but it's fostering a culture of openness and acceptance, because nobody in the line was offended at all by these gentlemen jumping up and saying, hey, what about this, what about that? And Chris is right, they had a list, man, yeah, and they took notes and they're paying attention, they're involved. That's the definition of a utility. Mason man, yeah, and it was done in kindness, in helpfulness, a spirit of brotherly love, and it served a purpose too, because they would have moved on, oh yeah.

Speaker 2 52:41

That would have been missed for another two weeks or a month, or never got done.

Speaker 1 52:47

Everybody knows what we're talking about there. So yeah, the utility Mason. I like that. We're going to coin that phrase.

Speaker 2 52:54

And if you're an officer in a lodge or you're the worst master of a lodge and you've got members doing stuff like that, you sure better thank them and make them feel like thank you, we appreciate you so much, brother. Do not make them feel like they're doing something bad or wrong or annoying you. That's just your ego talking, because they're there to help you and they're there to make sure that you guys collectively have a great year and that nothing falls through the cracks. So you should be appreciating the heck out of those guys and hopefully fostering that in other people that see it and want to do the same thing. That kind of commitment to the lodge is impressive.

Speaker 2 53:32

Yeah, from people that aren't officers or getting praise on a regular basis for the attention to detail that they're putting into it.

Speaker 1 53:40

And it shows down there.

Speaker 2 53:41

It shows, oh yeah.

Speaker 1 53:43

I mean, that's a solid group of guys down there and, like I said, I always enjoy going down there. They're just solid in the way they carry themselves in the lodge and they do everything real well, everything's done real well. They all know what they're doing, they know their responsibilities. And the one thing I was thinking of is when I walked in there, I just thought of this. When I walked into Venice Lodge last night, the junior deacon was standing there between where the food line was and where the door was and he's shaking everybody's hand. And he's shaking everybody's hand looking at me. I say glad you're here, glad you're here.

Speaker 2 54:26

Glad you're, here.

Speaker 1 54:27

And it just the whole.

Speaker 2 54:30

He's already doing number one on your list. He was already doing number one man.

Speaker 1 54:33

He was a solid. He's a young man.

Speaker 2 54:35

Oh yeah, he was solid man, Early 20s probably. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 54:38

And I really appreciated his attitude towards our craft man and I just had to sit back there and I was just. It was just and if you've done, if you've been a Mason for any amount of time, you know, sometimes you just sit back and think, man, I'm so glad to be affiliated with some solid, decent men and I really felt that last night down in Venice. That's great.

Speaker 2 55:05

They're doing a good job, and even the toddler. I remember we brought nine first time visitors.

Speaker 1 55:11

Yeah.

Speaker 2 55:12

He wanted to shake their hands and look in their eyes and memorize their face. He didn't just want to say give me your card. Here's the thing. He wanted to know who they were. The next time they came, it was clear he was trying to commit their face and their need to his memory. So the next time they came he could be like oh hey, bob, good to see you again, because he wants to do the best job he can in his role.

Speaker 1 55:33

Yeah, that's right, that was clear. Maybe we should rename the show the Five Things and the master Mason can do to be like the Venice Lodge, I mean that is how it should be right.

Speaker 2 55:43

The officers should care about the work they're doing and try to do the best they can in the jobs that they have.

Speaker 1 55:49

And lifting up the crap, lifting up the brethren and facilitating that culture of masonry, really facilitating a culture of masonry. Good men working together to make each other better, better men, stronger men, better husbands, better whatever, better employees, Whatever it is in your life, our craft claims to make men better, and I'm just yeah, if we're going to do real talk here. Ok, I'm listening.

Speaker 2 56:23

It's common, I think, for people to not have these things in their lodge and be even upset that their lodge isn't doing some of these things or any of these things maybe in some cases and they get negative and they talk negative. And one of the things you said earlier was talk positively about your lodge, right? So if you're around people that are talking negative and just complaining about all the things that aren't happening, just suggest that they do something about it, right? Yeah, I always hear you complain, bob, about this. Why don't you do that? Why don't you take charge of that? You seem like the best guy.

Speaker 1 57:00

Well, there's a reason why you see the need. The reason you see the need is because you're supposed to fix it.

Speaker 2 57:05

Stay focused on the positive. What can you do to change it?

Speaker 1 57:07

Yeah.

Speaker 2 57:09

You know, visit another lodge, See the things you like. Like me personally coming out of the East, hopefully by the end of the year if the building hasn't burned down.

Speaker 1 57:17

Alive, you mean?

Speaker 2 57:18

Yeah, I want to be the guy in the sidelines with my notebook. I want to be Now. I'm motivated. I saw something I like and I'm going to make that part of my Masonic life is to be that committed once I'm out of the East as a member. And that's the kind of stuff that happens when you start to visit other lodges. You, once you see something, you know it can be done, and it makes it a lot easier to do it yourself. And you can't fix everything as one man, but you can definitely pick something that you're passionate about and change that. Yeah, that's right. And encourage other people that have clearly a passion because if they're complaining, they are passionate about that. Use that passion to do something about it, and when they see you doing something, they're going to be more involved in the do something themselves. And if you don't engage in that negativity and just stay positive, eventually they're going to hopefully stop being negative and start being positive too. It just takes one person to change everything.

Speaker 1 58:13

It's so true, it's so true and I know there's people out there who know they totally agree. I know you guys, you've seen it. Maybe you've been thinking about it, you know. Hey, I really want to see this happen. I really want to get involved in this. Fred and Chris are giving you permission right now to just go do it Do it man?

Speaker 2 58:31

Yeah, sure Do it man. Just jump in Email Fred on the level of Fred and Chris.

Speaker 1 58:38

Yes, apparently I'm the one who makes everybody mad. I'm not sure why. Oh, I don't think that's true.

Speaker 2 58:46

I've run into so many people who know me. You know because I've gotten around over the years.

Speaker 1 58:50

But they're like who's that guy? I want to meet that guy. Everyone's really interested in you. Do not give them my name or address.

Speaker 2 58:58

No, consistently everyone tells me that guy's got I like his viewpoints, he's got a great voice. I'm like, hey, I'm here too. Hey, you're talking to me.

Speaker 1 59:06

That's my show too. That's right, it's the Fred and Chris.

Speaker 2 59:10

So you get a lot more praise than you realize. I just don't tell you about it. I got to fit in the room with you.

Speaker 1 59:16

You know I just I love our craft, I love what you and I are doing, and the thing is we're pushing up against an hour here now, so we don't want to wear out this must have been a good one.

Speaker 1 59:28

Yeah, we don't want to wear out our welcome. So, you know, I'd really like to hear from you guys, if you are, if you're taking some of these suggestions and you're putting them into play in your life and in your lodge. Can you, can you send us, send us an email, man, shoot us an email, let us know, even if you, if you're thinking about doing this, you know, if you want some advice from us as far as what to do and how to go about it. More than happy to you know to to respond to you. Just shoot us that email. Fred at Fred and on the level with Fred and Chriscom, or Chris at on the level with Fred and Chriscom. One gigantic word, it's easy to remember, just a little hard to type, but you can do it.

Speaker 1 1:00:11

You can do it and yeah, just send us your feedback, man. We really want to know what's going on there. We want you to know that this podcast is is looking very promising. We're getting a lot of really positive feedback and it is growing, and that's because of you.

Speaker 1 1:00:28

You are you are listeners. If you get a chance, go to Apple and give us a five star rating and, and you know, give us, give us a positive comment. We'd really appreciate that. That helps Apple to see that we're growing, and it will. They'll put us further and further up there up up on their list, yeah, and then that'll help the podcast to grow even more and even faster.

Speaker 2 1:00:55

And if you could just let us know, like like Fred just said, a challenge you had, or if it failed miserably or you got punched out or yeah, especially the punched out part I mean that's great entertainment, but no, really it doesn't need to be positive always If you had challenges or problems. We want to talk about the hard stuff more than the good stuff. Right, it's really easy to sing praises and stuff, but nobody wants to talk about the hard stuff, and that's really what we're trying to do here, yeah, that's right.

Speaker 2 1:01:23

We're trying to engage on subjects that everybody knows are out there but nobody talks about or addresses. So don't be afraid to send us something that isn't positive. Or you had a challenge or negative thing, we want to hear about that too. But if you did have something or you do have other suggestions, maybe you think these aren't the top five things. Maybe you know, because you did it, that something else is more important than these. Tell us yeah and we'll look. We're going to say your name, where the idea came from.

Speaker 1 1:01:52

We're not going to steal your idea. No, no.

Speaker 2 1:01:53

It's about you guys too, so we want to learn and we want to help others learn and have more opportunity for growth. So please share. You can make it a difference just by sending us something and we'll read it and other people will hear it and they may be able to implement it, and so you can help?

Speaker 1 1:02:09

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely, absolutely Well, and that brings to close, I believe, our 11th podcast. So I'm pretty proud of that. I know you are too, chris, so we're really enjoying it.

Speaker 2 1:02:20

Yeah, yeah, it's just getting better and more fun.

Speaker 1 1:02:23

Yeah, and we're meeting you guys, and that's wherever we go. We're starting to meet people who are introducing themselves to us, and I can't express my gratitude enough for that, because you guys are great.

Speaker 2 1:02:37

So excited for what the future could bring. Yeah.

Speaker 1 1:02:39

Yeah right, absolutely, absolutely.

Speaker 2 1:02:41

All right.

Speaker 1 1:02:41

Chris, I will see you on the next one. My brother, all right, fred Later people.

Speaker 2 1:02:56

Bye guys.