Communities Grow Together on Elevate Springfield featuring Jeff Dillman

Summary

In this conversation, Robert Ferriell and Jeff Dillman discuss various aspects of community involvement, cooking for community events, and the importance of networking and fundraising. They emphasize the significance of being engaged in local activities and how these efforts contribute to personal and communal growth. The dialogue also touches on the joy of cooking and the camaraderie built through Rooted.

Takeaways

• Communication is crucial for business success.
• Accountability is essential in both personal and professional settings.
• Baptism can lead to significant personal growth and reflection.
• Community involvement enhances professional integrity.
• Building habits takes time and commitment.
• Faith should be prioritized in daily life.
• Networking can be hindered by poor communication.
• Personal experiences shape professional perspectives.
• It's never too late to make meaningful changes.
• Community involvement helps us grow together.
• Fundraising is essential for community support.
• Engagement in local groups is crucial for success.
• Networking leads to professional growth.

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Facebook:  @robertferriell   @elevatespringfield

Youtube: @robertferriell

10X Health Precision:  https://10xhealthnetwork.com/pages/precision-genetics?utm_source=robertferriell

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to Elevate Springfield, where we will dive into strategies and stories that help you rise to your full potential. Each episode, we'll talk about how you can take intentional steps to elevate your life and your business while making a meaningful impact on those around you. Along the way, we're gonna bring in the change makers from our community that are already elevating. We'll bring the actionable strategies, you bring the discipline and follow through, and together we can elevate Springfield. Alright, let's go, Springfield. Time to 10X your day, y'all. Time to level up, time to crush it. Hey, you are listening to the Elevate Springfield podcast. Robert Farrell here, certified 10X coach, speaker, and mentor. Here to bring you actionable strategies. You bring the discipline and follow through it together. We're going to Elevate Springfield. Well, you are listening to another segment of Communities Grow Together on the Elevate Springfield podcast. As you know, we drop these segments each week. The Communities Grow Together segment will touch on all things nonprofit associations and how we as a community are working together so we can all grow together. This segment is brought to you by David Hilst, American Family Insurance Agency over on West Wabash. Whatever you need insurance-wise, whether that's business, life, home, auto, or anything in between, hey, David and his team can take care of you. Give them a shout, or hey, stop by and visit them over on West Wabash. These segments are quick hits of actionable strategies and what's going on in our area to help you level up and grow together. Be right back after the break. Looking for personalized insurance with hometown care, David Hilst, American Family Insurance Agent is here to help you protect what matters most: your family, your home, and your dreams. Whether it's auto, home, life, business, David and his team are proud to serve the Springfield community with trusted advice and reliable coverage. Local service, real relationships, peace of mind. Call today or stop by their office. They can build your dream protection plan together. Call 217-726-6343. And we are back for another edition of Communities Grow Together, brought to you by David Hills, American Family Insurance Agency. Hey, anything you need insurance-wise, personal or commercial, David and his team will take care of you. Hey, give them a shout or stop by their office over on West Wabash. You know this man sitting next to me. He's in a lot. It's been a few weeks, but he's been in a lot. Mr. Jeff Dillman, fan favorite from Mascow, Landon Lincoln Professional Networking Group, and uh my friend Jeff, how are we doing?

SPEAKER_00 3:11

Hey, I'm doing good. Um, I'm trying to figure out how I'm gonna be fun today. Somebody told me that. Not a very good, very everybody comes on, there's fun guests. But you know, then one thing I was thinking too, I didn't bring my 10x cup because man, Robert, it's 80 degrees outside. I know. I need a 10x cold cup now.

SPEAKER_01 3:28

I know. I know we're gonna have to go to 10x cold brew. Do they have the cold cups? Uh-uh. I can't hold that cup. It makes it too hot for coffee, man. Yeah. Well, they do we do have the uh like the stainless. We do have the big stainless tumbler deals. Maybe we'll have to get some of those.

SPEAKER_00 3:40

Yeah, we've got to have a cold brew now or something because it's just too hot for coffee.

SPEAKER_01 3:44

A little toasty.

SPEAKER_00 3:44

I love it though. I'll take it.

SPEAKER_01 3:46

Yeah, hot as it can get for me.

SPEAKER_00 3:48

How long is it? It's been like 16 weeks or so, hasn't it?

SPEAKER_01 3:51

Since I it it looks the same in here though. Yeah, yeah. Not much changed since last time you're in. Well, because last time we had we talked, we were at your place. We did the site once, right?

SPEAKER_00 4:00

It's been extra long since you've been in here. That's right. You know, I never did post that either. That's terrible, isn't it? So I didn't 10x that. Uh Justin actually reached out to me the other day. He said, You ever gonna post that? I'm like, no, I got to talk to Robert, man. I never get a chance to say what I want to say when I see him, but I need a little bit of guidance and help on that. So we need we need to talk about that a little bit. Yeah, we could do that. Absolutely. But you've hey, you've got a lot of fun people on. Yeah, a lot of fun people, including you. Well, thank you. A lot of good guests. I think I've even seen maybe one or maybe two of uh a Ruta group on. Yeah, absolutely. He had live music for the first time.

SPEAKER_01 4:35

Very first time. That was cool. Yeah, that was Timo's Timo was a great guitarist. It was fun to have him in here and doing a little singing for us, too. That was fun.

SPEAKER_00 4:43

Yeah, it was good. I watched that, and he's a pretty gifted individual. So I've got a guitar, but I couldn't, I wouldn't even know where to start.

SPEAKER_01 4:50

So I I can't play the guitar. I think I can I can sing a little bit. I can carry a tune, okay. Yeah, I can't. But I certainly can't play a guitar.

SPEAKER_00 4:57

Yeah, I can't carry a tune or play a tune. So we'll let him do that.

SPEAKER_01 5:02

Yeah, no, he was in it. We had Sam earlier on about a month or so ago. We're gonna have another one of our rooted group members on uh this week. That out. Yeah, I know. Make it a surprise. Make it a surprise, but it's this week, yeah. But rooted, we were part of a part of a program over the last 10 weeks or so. It's been over for about a week, but that was fun out at Westside Christian Church, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_00 5:24

It was. Uh West Side uh Westside knows how to put it on. I mean, I think there's what over a hundred people in our class. Well, in overall, but I think it was a nice setting for us, ten people and uh met weekly, and uh I'll tell you what, if baptism doesn't cleanse your soul cleanse your soul, that sure will make you think about it, that's for sure. I I think I'd mention this to you, and thank you by the way for saying yes. Man, I I've never been in a position where I felt uncomfortable, but I really felt uncomfortable the first, maybe one or two. But then it's just like, hey, it's just it's no different than anything else we do in life. This year we're just gonna come clean and uh we're gonna look to God and we're gonna we're gonna do the right things and listen to people and and take advice and and uh wow, what a what a rewarding time for us in ten weeks and made new friends. Yeah, no doubt about it.

SPEAKER_01 6:14

It was a group of all guys. It was a men's group, kind of an iron sharpened iron type of type of deal, right? And it's called rooted because the idea behind it is to get you rooted in your spirituality, right? Have that rooted in your daily life and some things you can do to keep that rooted in your daily life. And yours, like you mentioned, culminated in your baptism on the uh 61 years old, got baptized.

SPEAKER_00 6:39

How about that? And and I guess you don't really realize how much baptism falls into everyday life from your work life. It's uh it's your integrity involved in the community. It it involves a lot of things. It uh but that was a special moment. It was kind of cool to to have over a hundred people, probably didn't know 90 of them, but uh and my wife and even Dalton Mender, Mender Media. How about that? He showed up and shows up. My mother-in-law showed up, and then I had my group. And that was that was pretty cool. Special moment, obviously happened very quick, but uh very special moment. And matter of fact, uh Andrew, uh one of our fellow fellow mates, was right behind me and and he was like, Man, you left too fast. I was gonna have you stay with me. And I that would have been an honor. That would have been so I I had the opportunity to have Josh, our neighbor, who's the IT director there. I asked him if he would do the honors. He didn't quite understand that. That night he's like, So here I'm here for you. I'm like, no, actually, wouldn't you come in? He'd get in the wall. He's like, wait a minute, what? I he said, Yeah, he goes, I'd be honored to. I didn't bring shorts, but hey, the nice thing about Westside, they supplied all the clothes in the everything you need. That's crazy. Uh but no, um, it was kind of nice to have Chip, and it would have been pretty cool to have Eddie, you know. Yeah, that's being selfish, but Chip did a really good job. And and uh so yeah, it's uh so a star of a new path, a new life, and and uh it's exciting, really is.

SPEAKER_01 7:54

Yeah, you and I went into it together, and we had a group of what, ten of us in there, and we knew each other, of course, but that was it. Everybody else was brand was brand new to us, which was cool.

SPEAKER_00 8:04

I think that helped, though, don't you? I mean, that's at least you knew somebody. It's kind of like Joshua and Drew. They had a similar relationship, and I think Tim did a really good job for us meeting Tim and you know, small world that Tim knows people that we know outside outside of rooted. But uh celebration was awesome. I mean, good food, good company, and uh we we almost got a hundred percent of our group there. So almost yeah, almost made it. We almost made it. But yeah, so it's uh it's it'll be interesting to see if we continue the the path moving forward. A few of us, all of us, or what? Let's let's see what happens. But maybe we need to take the initiative to do that.

SPEAKER_01 8:38

Yeah, well, I'll tell you, this past Sunday was the first Sunday that we didn't have our group because it was always Sunday two to four in that 10 weeks, it it kind of got into the schedule, the routine, and it felt a little odd to not have it on Sunday.

SPEAKER_00 8:52

You kind of felt like I went back home. It's like I was doing a brisket that day, and I was thinking, man, something's not right. Right. Right. And sure enough, it's it uh yeah, I kind of miss it.

SPEAKER_01 9:01

So it's amazing how quick those habits build into your schedule. And that's what people always say, they don't have enough time for things and all that. But it's it's a matter of starting and getting it on the calendar and scheduling and just doing it and make time for it.

SPEAKER_00 9:14

You have to make time. It's no sense, you know, it's it's the same same thing as if you if you're gonna read, you can you can read a Bible verse every day, right? You know, I came into this as I said from day one, faith last, you know. I never put faith first, I put faith last. And uh it meant it was it meant a lot to me because I've been, you know, I think because of the power of prayer, I'm saved. I was saved for the fact is my life was saved because near death. Uh so I was a believer. I just, you know, I think in a sense you and I had the same kind of feelings, you know. We uh and probably still feel the same, you know. But uh gradually getting into it now and you know trying to take some time, as as Tim would always say, you know, you gotta give time to him. He's your father. And we just it it comes down to what you just said. You have to put on your schedule. You have to do it. When people say they don't have time, you you didn't make time.

SPEAKER_01 10:01

Right. Yeah, you didn't prioritize that thing and not take time.

SPEAKER_00 10:03

I mean, it's easy for us to just say, hey, I'm gonna go home tonight. Right. You know, I'm not gonna do Robert's podcast at 4 15 today. I'm just gonna go home. Yep. That'd be easy to do, right? But why? Just do it. Right? Just do it. No doubt about it. But no, it's uh I'm excited for what moves forward into this, but I think you know, in the professional life, it's very important. Make sure you look at things clearer. Not that you, you know, I wasn't really looking at things clearer, but to make sure I'm really honest and open and up front. I think that's very important. Not that I'm not an honest person, but I think through the experiences over the past few months with serving on the FBI Citizens Academy and and uh and doing this, it's really it's a rude awakening for a guy at 61. It's like, dude, you know, you're not a bad guy, but you need to maybe sharpen up a little bit. Sure.

SPEAKER_01 10:51

You know, be a better person. No, I hear that. We all we all need to be a better person.

SPEAKER_00 10:54

Yeah, I think so. And I think it I think it's just for that. It's just it really just uh just say, hey, you're on the right track. Let's just stay on the right track. And uh it doesn't matter what your age is, you know. Like when I said sixty-one years old getting baptized, I mean I'm not the only one, right? But why did I wait so long? I don't know. Right. I don't really know, but I did it at the right place.

SPEAKER_01 11:15

Yeah, absolutely. Well, you mentioned Eddie from West Side, lead guy over there. Did you catch his podcast with me last week?

SPEAKER_00 11:20

Great, love it. Great, what man, it it uh I don't know, I think it might have been an hour, hour and a half, but I listened to the whole thing. Not that I don't listen to all the podcasts. I understand. I understand. But that one there I was engaged in because that's just power right there. You know, it's he's just he's just a gifted individual. And we always say that we look forward to service every Sunday, and we still do whether he's speaking or not, but when he's leading a congregation, it's amazing how his his prep work, you know he has to have prep work, right? Definitely. Uh his work that he puts into it hits hits home. It hits home.

SPEAKER_01 11:52

And you know, that's that's one question I was gonna ask, and we didn't get to it just because we got into so many other things, is take me through your your sermon prep. Yeah, that would be you know, so uh in a in a follow-up episode uh episode, I think we're gonna talk about that.

SPEAKER_00 12:05

Yeah, that I think you'd I don't think you'd be surprised. I think you would know that it doesn't happen on Saturday night. I think it happens on Sunday, you know, right when he's done with his regular sermon. I think he's right into it. He he's already known, but it's such a dialed in. The West Side is it it's encourage people to come, just like Easter and coming up. I mean, it's just a great, great church. I mean, it really is. They're there for the people and just all the activities. And look, we got the nights what do we have coming up here? Night of stars. The night of stars coming up, so that's kind of exciting. Looking forward to that. That's my first year doing that.

SPEAKER_01 12:41

But that's gonna be a great event. Yeah, Courtney's done it before. I haven't done it, so it'll be my first time doing it. And Adeline's gonna be able to help out this time, too. So we're gonna make it a make it a family affair. Well, I think I'm signed up to be a buddy. That's what I did too. You're a buddy. My wife and I did too. Yeah. So essentially you're you're partnered up with one of the attendees. Okay, good. And you just you're just going around with that attendee. If they need anything, you help them out. You just kind of stay with them.

SPEAKER_00 13:04

I wonder what that was. Yeah, you just stay with them. It's like that box said buddies.

SPEAKER_01 13:07

So yeah, you just stay with them and you're their buddy, just like it says, the for the event.

SPEAKER_00 13:11

You going to get your background check done yet? Oh, I gotta do that. No. You better. You haven't done that. Thank you. Yeah. I already did it. Yeah. It'll take a bit because it goes to the FBI. Yeah. FBI and State Police. Yeah. So I did that. I did that um probably a week ago. Okay. So yeah, you better get it. Yeah, I need to go on there and do that. You should have received an email.

SPEAKER_01 13:30

Yeah, I did. I got I got the email, but I just I haven't done the background check yet. You better. I've done many of them through my education endeavors after it's the same background check that I do for the education stuff.

SPEAKER_00 13:40

You're gonna be a buddy, uh buddy sit on the parking lot, if not.

SPEAKER_01 13:42

I know, right? I better get on it because it's coming up like in a few weeks.

SPEAKER_00 13:45

Yeah, 24th. So yeah, with the uh with the Citizens Academy with the FBI, I had to notify the FBI that I was getting a background check. So you know, I'm sure they appreciated that. It's like, why is this guy getting a background check? Yeah, and I think just uh another thing that when you look in community involvement, as we grow together, right? Communities grow together, uh whether it's your business life, it's your church life, or whatever, get back to the community. And that's what we're doing. Absolutely. Are we doing it for us? Yeah. Are we doing it for others? Absolutely. You'd be a fool if you say you're not doing it for yourself because you are. But uh, I think that's just a thing. Put more into it. People always ask me, Robert, how do you do what you do? I don't know. I just do it. Right. I guess I race to win, I don't race to lose. I'm committed, uh, and it's rewarding. You know, ten weeks of rooted was well worth it. Would I have done it if if I didn't ask you to do it and you would have told me no? I don't know, maybe not. I don't know. And I was honored you asked. Would you have done it? Would you have done it? I mean I probably wouldn't have.

SPEAKER_01 14:42

If you wouldn't have asked, I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 14:43

I think that's kind of where I was too. No offense, you know, no offense or not being disrespectful, but I thought, hey, you know, um, we're getting to know each other. I think that would be good for us, and and I'm glad we did it. So really am. Me too.

SPEAKER_01 14:56

Well, speaking of uh being out in the community doing some stuff, you've been cooking some stuff these last few weeks and months. I'll tell you what. I've seen every like every week I see a new social post of you cooking fish or cooking chicken or something.

SPEAKER_00 15:08

I tell you, if you if you put out any sneak peeks, we gotta give a big a big um plug to the TRN, the television radio networking group that that I'm in out at the lake. That is a group of guy and gals that are just phenomenal, skilled, talented. We don't step on one another for the past four, five weeks. We've been doing fish fries on Friday night, and uh we've been killing it. Matter of fact, we had two sister Mary Jo and another sister from SHG came the last two weeks to our fish fry. When you have other Catholic organizations having fish fries, that's got some testimonial right there, right? Jared, our crew leader, as we call him, um, Jared's uh he's got it dialed in, and we just make a good team. So this Friday, Good Friday is our last fish fry for the season. So we're excited. We've done a really good job. We we can only handle so much at the TRN. We we're not like Little Flower that can handle the big, you know, the big crowds, but we're happy with what we can do. And then, you know, if you're if you're following what you are, uh Family Service Center and Amvets with uh with the the the VFW Pulse 10302 got together with Amvets Pulse 94 with Commander Sean and said, Hey, um we want to find a way to do a fundraiser to benefit you know Family Service Center and AmVETS. So first we were talking about doing the Nelson's chicken dinner, which is very popular and very good. You got to sell 200 tickets even to have that happen. So we're a little skeptical on that. Could we do that? Probably. So we decided that, you know, hey, we do checking at the TRN. Let me talk, let me talk with the guys at the TRN to make sure I'm not stepping on them. And I'm not gonna do fish because I don't want to disrespect that.

SPEAKER_01 16:44

Right.

SPEAKER_00 16:44

And you know what? I can do it, I can handle it. Uh so we grabbed a couple board members, we got the MVETs involved. The front of the house is done by the MVETs, they collect the money. We basically cook, they do the serving, and we're killing it, man. We this we're we got our third one planned on May 8th. Okay. Uh we're we're planning on serving a hundred meals. Uh so what that does for us is roughly, you know, a rough number is four to five hundred dollars that we get to take and give back to Family Service Center that will allow a kiddo or kiddos, could be bet bedding furniture, absolutely, could be a dresser drawer, it could be something simple that a kiddo needs. So it's kind of cool. People are like, wow, that's all you get out of that. You know, when you're looking at a thousand dollars and it's an hour and a half, I'll take that.

SPEAKER_01 17:31

Yeah, no doubt about it.

SPEAKER_00 17:32

A thousand dollars and that it's really not that hard. The first one was a little chaotic. I will say that. Um my thermometer quit in the middle of it, so you had to cook by time, which is fine because I love to cook. Right. But that was challenging because you don't want to serve raw chicken. You want to serve it right. And uh I didn't have the the mixing tools that I needed. Oh, but guess what? The second one we did, which we just did in April or March, I mean, March 20th, we were ready.

SPEAKER_01 17:56

I bet.

SPEAKER_00 17:57

So we uh were prepared, and before the doors open, we had probably about 64 meals prepared and ready.

SPEAKER_01 18:03

Heck yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:04

So but anyway, yeah, so we're we're uh we're putting that out there, and uh in June, we're gonna be doing um probably a a uh horseshoe bar, changing it up a little bit, and we'll just say, hey, what do you want on your horseshoe? And then we'll make it for you. Oh, there you go. The one thing about the veterans organizations are they come. Whether they come to eat or they come to take away, they take it out. It just blows my mind is how many mills we did. That first one, we had 70 mills sold in the first hour. Wow. So we started at 5 30. I didn't finish cooking until 7. So when I came back in the second go-around, I was ready. So had some had a couple board members. We can't have a lot of people in the back of the kitchen because it's not very big.

SPEAKER_01 18:42

Right. People start bumping bumping into each other and stepping all over each other, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:46

So we're doing that, and we there's just a lot of things going on. But cooking is clearly a passion of mine. I'm a I'm not a pro by any means. I I might consider myself a pro, but I'm not.

SPEAKER_01 18:56

That would be my others consider you a pro. Well, I think so.

SPEAKER_00 18:59

But when I when I look at guys like Brian Riley at Cure, and even Sean, I look at Sean Moore with Irina and you know, and even you know, Chef Sean, Keeley. I mean, those are people I look up to that I have a lot of respect for. But this is fun. I don't want to do this full time. It takes a special beast to do this full time, but uh it is fun. It is fun and you're a you're a pro in your space. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. For me, what it does is it's what I always say is we need to defrag. And for me, that's how I unwind. Uh I find time to do that. Like Sunday, I came home where I left for church at 5 till 6. I threw a brisket on, a 15-pound brisket. Uh, went to church, I go to the eight o'clock service, I leave seven. I'm mentally that way because I have to have my parking spot. Right. Drives my wife crazy. Uh got home, I wrapped it about noon. It was about 165, took it off about 7 p.m. at 223. And I'm telling you, man, I know where you stand on food that I get it. This stuff, it it was pretty good.

SPEAKER_01 19:55

Oh, I bet. I bet. Yeah. So now I don't know. We've never really had the conversation about I used to smoke a lot of meat back in the day. I know. You know, I think you talk to you a ton. So so I I am partial to a good smoked brisket or pork butt or you know that. Whatever.

SPEAKER_00 20:11

So I just I'm a little more picky on what I well I'll have to, I'll have to well, and I'm real careful with what what I do too. I don't really like to certain meats I won't inject, and I'll use certain rubs. Rubs and a lot of the rubs got MSG, unfortunately. But like uh Dave Kimsey's been a good sampler for me and Village Mayor Chatham and and on and he runs Johnson Development. I I will I will text Dave on a Sunday sometime and say, hey, I got pork belly I just took off you at home, so I'll drop it off. He's my guinea pig. But you can be my guinea pig too. We could do that. But I tell you what, brisket I've got down. It's just really patience and time. It's a time commitment, patience. And then, you know, I'm doing pork belly this week, a couple of pork bellies. That's special for some. Some don't like it because it's too fatty. It's just basic basically bacon that I cure and then I smoke it. And I'm gonna smoke that on pecan wood. So that'll be yeah, it's that'll be nice. It's good stuff. So the guys might get lucky Friday night. I'm not gonna make any promises. Friday night for our last fish fry. But no, I that's a passion. I one thing I like to do, you know, I really do. I I often said if I retired, which I'm not sure I ever will, would I be a st I'd be one of those street guys.

SPEAKER_01 21:17

You know, fun.

SPEAKER_00 21:18

Yeah, it would be, but I think I'll just keep where it is now. If somebody, buddy, or somebody wants something, be glad to do it. Right.

SPEAKER_01 21:24

I'll tell you, you mentioned Dave Kimsey. I was in uh St. Louis at the Harry Potter and the Cursed Child on St.

SPEAKER_00 21:32

Yeah, ran into Dave. Hey, Kimsey.

SPEAKER_01 21:35

Look at that.

SPEAKER_00 21:36

I do a lot of a lot of plays, you know, they do. You know, Dave's a great guy. It's funny with Dave too. Occasionally I'll get a little picture from him. He's smoking something at his work. Oh, okay. And occasionally, kinda like this here, I get a vi invite, occasionally. Um but you gotta put a joke into it. But Dave likes to do those things too, so it's it's just fun. Like I say, it's uh when you go when you look at people that do it for a living now. That's why they're professionals. But you know, I I think I'm an I'm I'm a good amateur at it. That's the cool thing about when we're out cooking amongst a team. Everybody's got a technique and a trade. When I look at the guys I cook with at the TRN, one's really good at seafood. I'm really good at smoking meats. The other one's just good at everything that he does. We all, one guy's really good with venison. He makes really good venison on the side. The cool thing for us is we always bring in something that we all sample before we start, whether it's chicken fry or a fish fry. So one thing we're gonna do is next week after this is over with, next Thursday, I'm getting a crown today, so we'll see how that works. But uh we're all gonna bring in something special. We don't have a crowd, it's just us, the kitchen group, and the front of the house, the girls and the guys, and we're gonna sit down and have a meal together, and everybody's gonna bring their specialty and we're just gonna eat and just say, hey, what a what a good fish season. So that's kind of cool. That's fun. Um TRN's a fun place. We've got uh we've got like a patio party, it's really neat. We have adult, adult uh ice cream drinks, and then we uh do hamburgers and french fries outside. I got a portable fryer that I bring. Uh now we're gonna be doing pizzas. So uh some of them's got the uh solo ovens. I've got an Uzi oven. Uh I got a 17-inch pretty nice one, 935 degrees, and make a pizza in 60, 60 seconds. So we're gonna do a test run here in April, and this is the fun stuff we do at the Lake Club. So now we're gonna see how it works out, how the test out, and then we're gonna have a pizza night. Nice.

SPEAKER_01 23:29

60 seconds for a 60 seconds.

SPEAKER_00 23:31

Sweet. Yeah, and I'll burn it though, unfortunately. All right. I use it the first time and I burn it. But no, uh, that is that is something I really enjoy to do. So when you look at all the community engagement like that, cooking is a fun part of it. Met a lot of good people from that. Um, you know, and then we got we got some things coming up. Spark's big annual breakfast. I sent you an input.

SPEAKER_01 23:49

Yeah, I saw that today. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:50

I'd like for you to be a guest at our table. That is Spark's biggest fundraiser. And basically what it is is uh it's a chance for ask for a money commitment. So when you sit at my table as a as a captain, I'm no hope, you know, I'm not gonna hide anything. We would like for you to give something that you can give, you know. A lot of times people give a hundred, some people give more, some businesses give more. If you gave ten dollars, it doesn't matter to Spark. This is where Spark's biggest fundraiser. And I'm kind of honored. This is my second year of being a team captain. Oh, so I I never turn it down. We we at Mascell are big supporters of Spark in the community, and we do their annual uh picnic. But this one here is just it's pretty cool at the at the Abraham Lincoln, uh, whatever it's called nowadays, Abraham Double Tree.

SPEAKER_01 24:31

Yeah, double tree, Abraham tree, Abraham Lincoln, Double Tree.

SPEAKER_00 24:33

Oh, you count me in.

SPEAKER_01 24:34

I was gonna ask you about that because I saw the invite come through and I was gonna talk to you a little bit about what I need to do for it.

SPEAKER_00 24:39

Because I've got we've got a stacked pretty good table. Generally, I I invite Corey with agility, uh, Jeff Eddie with Salvation Army, Karen Cox with Family Service Center, Brian Anderson with Bank of Springfield. They usually generally have a table, but I invited Brian this year. Uh my staff, Chris, you know, Andy, and probably Lee as well, uh, because they all understand the importance of Spark. But once again, we are a family-owned, female family-owned business engaged in the community because we need to be, and uh, we're not forced to be. So as we say every day, from local First Springfield to Landa Lincoln to the Chambers to Silsa, whatever it is, get engaged, get involved. Absolutely. You know, because it takes a community, right? To grow together.

SPEAKER_01 25:22

No doubt about it. And we can't leave without uh talking just a little bit about Landa Lincoln. So when's the next meeting and what we got going on?

SPEAKER_00 25:29

So we got April 15th, and I've been, hey, by the way, the last two months, thank you. I got a warning that I was going to be kicked out if I missed the third one. Yeah, yeah. And I love the fact is that our members are accountable. But uh that that was exciting. I'm kind of glad to get back into the saddle of it. Thank you very much for what you did there. We've changed a few things on the way you sit and all that. You know what I'll probably do for April 15th is just say simple as this hey, if you don't like where you're sitting, you can move. Yeah. I mean, this is your this is your group. You can move. We will be giving out that night, uh, since I'm back, the$1,000 to Compass for Kids. So we'll make sure we get a photo up of that. I've already let Brandy know that, you know, if she could wait till April until I got back, she said that was great. Absolutely. Uh so as far as that goes, we're we're we're open to ideas to make sure it doesn't go stagment. We've talked a little bit about that with Dalton as well. And so we're open to ideas. You know, this let's just continue to have fun. We got people coming and going, and that's fine too. But we have uh we have a new HR consulting, Jessica uh Jessica Durhaik. She's coming in. Hopefully I pronounced that right. Jessica, I'm excited. She was recommended from Debbie Samarosa, who Debbie had to step out. Debbie's the acting HR director for the mayor here. So she said, I really can't put any more time commitment. But we're seeing more and more people, you know, inquiring. I think what the group needs to focus on personally, and we've been trying to do this for the past two months, is engagement. Yeah. Right? When you're looking at numbers, you're not reporting numbers. Let's report numbers. I just got one for I came at 19,000 plus dollars from clean cut painting a handyman and acosta. Yeah. So it works and it it is it is working, right?

SPEAKER_01 27:04

Inching closer to five million.

SPEAKER_00 27:05

It is, it is. And and getting more people engaged with the in our online community that you set up, you know. So that's that's cool. And we're we're excited about giving out more money. Uh, you know, we're we're very thankful for um for pole barn chic, you know. We probably would say it's probably not the most ideal for the sound side of it. Sure. But we know pole barn wasn't built for that reason. So no no disrespect to Audrey and Nick, but that's where that's our home for right now, unless someone else has better, you know, a better idea, a better opportunity. Right. But it seems to be if we move, we really mess them up. Right. So then they show up. Then they show up, then they show up somewhere else when they're supposed to be at pole barn. But you know, we'll make do. We're very thankful for that. A warm weather's coming, so the season's coming, so it's more important now to to get engaged, get engaged in your networking groups. It really is important. Then when you look at local first, the movement that we have there. So but we we know there's some good things there, but you know, so that's exciting as well. That momentum's there, and people are talking about it, and you're seeing more of it, you know. And I I think we've got something coming out here with uh with uh bus uh the bus uh Yep, yep.

SPEAKER_01 28:10

So those are in production. Yeah, those are gonna be good.

SPEAKER_00 28:12

The bus benches are coming out. So I think you know on a recap. I mean, I'm gonna recap your show. You know, that's your job. Right. I'm gonna do it for you. Hey, you know what? We can come on here and talk about things forever. Yeah, you know. We don't we're not scripted, we don't need to be scripted because we're true to what we do.

SPEAKER_01 28:27

Exactly right.

SPEAKER_00 28:27

Uh Elevate Springfield's been awesome for Springfield, so thank you. It's been very good for for all the businesses, including ours, Masco, Landa Lincoln, whatever we're doing, it's been really good for us, so we appreciate that. But just get engaged, get involved, you know. Don't shun the groups, work with the groups, get together, and then make something worthy of it. Just don't sit back and say I paid a membership and I got nothing out of it. Because I I said that. I use this story all the time. When I was with Terminex years ago, I joined the Logan County Chamber of Commerce and I went in, matter in the Hornets Nest, and I told the girl at the time that I didn't get anything out of this out of my Clinton membership uh Clinton office. She goes, Well, I never saw you one thing.

SPEAKER_01 29:09

That'll do it.

SPEAKER_00 29:10

I'll never forget that. And I thought, well, that she was a kind of a smart aleck, but I'll never forget that conversation. And I hear this scuttle all the time from these people. I didn't get anything out of that. You didn't put anything into it, right? And what's it it comes to what? Like you said earlier, commitment and get it on your schedule.

SPEAKER_01 29:27

Yep, right. Prioritize it, make time for it.

SPEAKER_00 29:29

Because I always say this, I always joke and say this to particular people, and if they're listening, they know they they know who I'm talking about. I can probably call pre the president of the United States and get through. Maybe one out of a hundred, maybe a thousand calls. You're not the president, so answer your phone. Answer your email, right? Answer your email. Exactly. What business does not answer email or text messages? Yep. Some of these businesses will answer text messages four days later. Hey, I'm at least answered. But guess what? The fire was three days later.

SPEAKER_01 29:57

It's already done. Yeah. It's already passed, and somebody else took the business.

SPEAKER_00 30:00

So big kudos to you for you know the opportunity, and uh, we'll continue to try to make this fun.

SPEAKER_01 30:05

Absolutely. Uh it's fun every time with you. I'm never gonna hold you down. I know. That's I'm gonna I'm gonna eat that one for the next year. I'll take that. I probably need to move on to something else, but I don't know. No, I appreciate it, and I'm you know excited to play my part here on Elevate Springfield to be able to promote everything that we have going on in Springfield and hope to help everybody grow together. So, like Jeff said, get involved, get involved with the groups, head over to local first Springfield, head over to Landa Lincoln Professional Networking Group, grab that membership directory for Land to Lincoln Net Professional Networking. Hey, if your group's full, still put in that application because we'll put you on a list and maybe when somebody if somebody leaves, we can put you in. Or if your category is not there, hey, maybe you could be the first one in there. So we can do that.

SPEAKER_00 30:48

And I'm glad you said that because we just we just created a new category for someone.

SPEAKER_01 30:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:52

Uh and it's landlord maintenance because we didn't have that. Right. So and he reached out from a referral from the group. Uh so yeah, so we'll we'll create a category, whatever.

SPEAKER_01 31:01

Whatever. We'll get involved, folks. Well, Jeff, good seeing you as always. See you in a couple weeks. All right, man. At least on here. I'll see you before, but I'll see you on here in a couple weeks. And hey, enjoy your vacation too. I will, man. It's gonna be fun. We're gonna do one, we're gonna do a couple episodes, me and Ellie from down there. It's gonna be fun. That'll be fun. That'll be fun.

SPEAKER_00 31:16

Yeah, that'll be fun. I did that, I did that with uh the DPA show two years ago. Our show that we go to, and Will and I are going to it in May. We're gonna we're gonna do a little podcast from there ourselves. So live, live at the show, and that's gonna be in Orlando, Florida.

SPEAKER_01 31:30

There you go. Fun as always, Jeff. Yes, sir. We're gonna let Jeff get back to elevating Springfield. But for the rest of y'all, we'll be right back. Hey, Springfield, when it comes to reliable, high-quality roofing, you don't want to leave things to chance. That's why you should reach out to Acosta Angeli Roofing, your local roofing expert serving Springfield and surrounding communities, from quick, dependable repairs to full replacement, from residential to commercial, they are your trusted pros. Call them today at 217-993-2748 or visit their website to book your free quote and inspection. Don't wait. A little leak now could lead to major damage later. Trust the local experts, protect your home, and get peace of mind with Acosta Angeli Roofing. Well, thank you for joining us today, everybody, on another segment of Communities Grow Together on the Elevate Springfield Podcast. Thank you again to David Hilst, American Family Insurance Agency, for partnering with us on this segment. A take what you learn today. You bring the discipline and follow through. And together, that's right, y'all. We're gonna Elevate Springfield. Be great. Looking for expert tree care with hometown integrity? Look no further than Sangamon Tree Service. They're your trusted local pros, delivering quality workmanship, exceptional customer service, and fair, honest pricing. Every time. Whether it's trimming, removal, or storm cleanup, their team brings professionalism and care to every job, big or small. Call the name your neighbors trust, Sangman Tree Service, or visit them today at SangmanTreeService.com. Sangman Tree Service, rooted in quality, built on trust.