Meet the Shining Light Team and Two Big Announcements | Karissa Dunham and John Brickweg #061

Hey everyone, it's Karissa from Shining Light on Minnesota. We're gonna do things a little bit different today. So today I have our producer, John Brickweg. We are going to tell everybody a little bit about why we're here. Welcome, John. Thanks for having me, Chissa. I was just telling Chris, I'm like kind of nervous even though it's just us, the camera, you know, there's no no nothing else to worry about, but it's uh it's fun to be on this side of the camera. Yeah, we're not normally doing this. So, kind of when we got started, John, we were doing Shining Light a little bit before you came on and you came on full force and we love having you here. You have some questions, so let's get rolling. Yeah, for sure. So, everyone, we wanted to kind of like pull back the curtain and I was like, it'd be cool to get to know our host uh or hostess a little bit more, you know, and and get to know you too behind the scenes, man. Yeah. Yeah. What, you know, what's this podcast that we're doing? what's what's the why with it? Um, and yeah, just dive deeper. So, uh, let's let's dive in. I want to go to your roots. I want to start there. So, tell us about your upbringing, like where you grew up, your family, all of that. Let's dive in. Absolutely. So, I was born and raised in Minnesota, homegrown Minnesota, born in Austin. Um, grew up in Rochester. Um, grew up playing golf. Golf was my life. Obviously, I've talked a lot about golf in all the podcasts which golf is my my heart and soul. Um, played all my life, played elementary, played junior high, played college, golf, a lot of golf. Golf has gotten me through a lot of things like we've always talked about, which is a lot of fun. Um, it's kind of one of those things when you play golf, whether you're having a good day, bad day, or no matter what you're doing, golf can get you through things. So, played in high school, played in college, uh was supposed to go play pro, ended up having some kids, took some time off, and decided, hey, I'm getting back into this crazy thing. So, after having the kids, they grew up a little bit, got back into it, enjoying it. Now, you can hit the shots and say, "Hey, it's a bad shot, I'm doing it again." So, work life, golf life, now they kind of go together. So, it's been a lot of fun. Yeah. Yeah. the first so I before I even saw Karissa like when I first started um as you can see we have these wonderful u wall wraps that we do and in her office it's this well tell us about what what is it is the in Ireland is that the golf course um yep so my other office that I had was old of sale um my father's dying wish before he passed away was to go to Ireland so my goal was to kind of go to Ireland bring Ireland to him so I facetimed with him before before he passed away said, "Hey, Dad, I'm in Ireland." Took some of his golf balls. He was a big golfer. Played professional baseball when he was younger, but I'm took his golf balls that had his name um engraved on them and hit him into the wild Atlantic Ocean at every golf course that we played. So, old head of Canail, if you haven't played there, is by far Pebble Beach on steroids. It's the most amazing, beautiful course you've ever been to. Every single hole is like an oh my god, this is amazing. Um, but that was on my wall on one side. Pebble Beach is my number one bucket list course on the other side. So, kind of had the one place I've been to and one place I want to go to. Yes. Yeah. Cool. And you play golf, too? I I go out and have fun. Like it's just enjoying the the nature. I do not I wouldn't say like golf. I'm not not that good, but unlike Unlike you, it's Yeah. Um tell us about that though. Like do you remember the first time you stepped onto the golf course? Was that with your dad? Like is that does do those things go hand in hand? Oh yeah. Yep. So, I have older brothers. I've always played a lot of sports. Um, basketball, volleyball, softball, everything was a ball when I was growing up. How many brothers do you have? I have two older brothers. Cool. So, very competitive. Um, since my dad played professional sports, he played professional baseball, basketball, um, could have played football in any one of those. Um, sports was a big thing growing up, obviously. Very competitive. Yeah. Um, both my brothers played a lot of sports, so anytime I was around, a ball was in my hand. no matter what I did. Um, very competitive, like I said. But yeah, so golf for me was kind of one of those things that you can do for yourself. You're always improving yourself. Other team sports, you're out there with a team, but no matter what you do in golf, it's kind of a passion, but you are always improving yourself and you can play for the rest of your life. Unlike everything else, obviously it's not great for your knees, not great for your back, but you're out there with nature. You're out there on a beautiful day. You're seeing a lot of scenery. You can shut your phone off, which is huge. Yeah. Especially in my life with the work, with all the kids, everything like that. Take off the Apple Watch. Just Yeah. You take everything off, you put it down, you're out there. Unless you see something, you kind of want to take a picture, right? You see turtles crossing or you see that's the one exception. You see great pictures or you see great scenery, you're doing it. So, yes. Yeah. But but yes, I've been playing it all my life. Was out there with my dad. Kind of a funny story. And I tell everybody this. Um if you know my dad, he's 6'4. Big guy. guy who was a sergeant in the army. Um kind of boisterous. Yeah. Um louder voice. Um this is pretty funny, but he is not quiet. Golf, you can't tell people things, right? So he tries to give advice. You can't give advice when you're on a golf course or you're going to get disqualified. So he's always like, "Hey, Karissa, you've got to you've got to hit it left. It's dog leg right. You got to do this. You got to do that." I'm like, "Dad, you can't do this. I'm going to get disqualified." Like just go stand out to the right. you know, like I love having you here. I want you here, but I'm going to get disqualified. I I want your advice, but he can't do it. So, yeah, he would always go stand out beside a tree out to the right. Sure enough, I know he's there. I want I want him there. So, where am I going to hit the ball? Out to the right where he's at. I'm like, "All right, Dad, you're not hiding behind a a tree." Cuz you're 6'4. You're pretty big. So, sure enough, he'd go to the middle then and stand behind try to hide behind a steak. I'm like, "You're 64. or you're hiding behind a teeny tiny little tree trying to make it like you're hiding. You're not hiding. So no matter where he was, I would always find him. So now to this day, whenever there's people on a golf course, where do you think I hit it? No matter who they are, hit it right to the people. So it's kind of like a ball no matter what. Yeah. Wow. So it's hard when people are out to the golf course, I always just hit it to people. No matter what I do, who's on your team, you know? Yep. Wow. So yeah, that's beautiful. Yes. So tell me a little bit about your upbringing because people want to know that too. The man behind the scenes. Yeah. I So I'm the youngest of six kids. Yeah. Amazing. Um which Yeah. You know, I for sure I'm the youngest. You like the youngest child versus middle versus oldest. Um no, but I I've always enjoyed that. Um that aspect and then just, you know, getting to have relationships with with older siblings, you know, it's it it gives you um it gives you an unfair advantage. I don't know if you could speak to that, but I mean just with your competitiveness and like like desire to grind, you know, it's like um you can see how that's that's worked out, you know? And so uh apparently, right, it's like you like in the womb in your mom's womb, like there's like you get certain of the like aspects from your older siblings too, like in you, you know? So it's like you get the best of both worlds. You really do. You really do. So um yeah. And then I grew up in Minnesota as well. I grew up in Burnsville. Um little suburb there. And yeah, I love it. I love the like Minnesota, the Twin Cities, going up um up north. That's our hidden gem, you know. It really is. Um so yeah, just kind of like a big small town. It really is. Yeah. Yep. So um Yeah. And I wanted to ask you for, you know, talking about golf, talking about your competitiveness. your entire you are very competitive. I can I can I can speak to that. It's true. Um which is which I like am able to see like you take that into your business? Yeah. Uh into business into your work. Uh is that just like a natural like transfer for you or was that some like were there skills you kind of had to like build up there in terms of like okay translating that competitiveness to business? I think it's always been something in me. It's always a drive. Like I've always had the the hunt in me. I've always had the passion in me. I always wake up hungry. Not a lot of people have that. Yeah. I can see I can honestly see everybody's different. Everybody wants something different. Yeah. But in my life, the way I was raised, you always have to go for what you want, which is very important. Not a lot of people, some people wake up and just expect things handed to them. Yeah. Um, with having both of my parents working all their life, um, you have to work for what you want. Yeah, you have to really dive in deep and go after what you want. But I also was taught that everybody is equal in life. So if you want something, you have to go for it. You have to figure out what you want, but you have to try to find different ways to go for it. So what works today might not work tomorrow. Yeah. So let's try and find something new. Let's think outside the box to also go for it. So whatever works today might not work tomorrow. So if you're going for something today that's working, let's try to double it or triple it tomorrow. So figure out what that is and just hunt for it. Just go out and get it and try to always work harder than everybody else. What What did your parents do? Uh my dad was in telecommunications for a really long time. He was a regional and district manager. Um he set multiple goals. So he um started the cell phone business before the cell phone business was even around. So when people had bag phones, I had a bag phone. So that tells how long ago um the cell phone business was even around. He um when he started the cell phone business, a lot of the stadiums that were around um were like the Midwest Wireless Stadium. It was before Verizon was around. Then he rolled into Verizon and he rolled into um all of those places. So that was kind of fun to see. It was kind of fun to be one of those kids that had a big bag phone and then the first mobile phone before everybody else did. Yeah. The cutting edge. So when people say, "Hey, I know technology." I'm like, "I can help. I know I know how to do that." I started getting into that world before that was there. My mom was in the newspaper business, which got me into the newspaper business, which got me into the wall business, the graphic design, the ad design, all of that as well, too. So, kind of where where my background came from. So, yes. Yep. So, it's a lot of fun to see the growth in newspaper. It's interesting. Um, when people come up to me, it's kind of hard when they say, "Hey, do you want to do print?" Because print's kind of a dying breed, even though it's not. And it's so close to your heart. It is. I know. I've I've been around it all my life. But when there's technology, which I've been around, and there's print, which I've been around, it's kind of a catch 22. Yes. Yeah. And so I also wanted to ask you what, like, so growing up in Austin, um, super small town. Yeah. super small. Like what was kind of that? Was there any like uh cultural like things like whether that's like food or anything that you remember like growing up that like you feel like is unique to your like hometown home? I moved out of Austin when I was really really young, but obviously Austin is Hormell. Hormel is bacon spam. Yeah. But I moved to Rochester when I was probably in first grade. So Rochester is home of male clinic. Yeah. So you have spam, bacon. I didn't really like spam and I still don't to this day, but I like meat. So, whenever anybody says, "What's your favorite?" I mean, I'm a meat person. Cool. Steak, sea, well, seafood, too, but mostly meat. Steak, high-end steak is probably my favorite. Favorite. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I taste. What about you? What's your favorite food? Oh my gosh. I don't think I can beat steak. I know. Like a really really good like leg steak, like perfectly cooked, melt in your mouth. Yeah. Yeah. Can't you can't. And then for breakfast, too, right? Like steak and eggs. Delicious. Yeah. So good. Yeah. Yeah. I I'm also a sucker for pasta for sure. Like well done Italian pasta. Oh my gosh. So good. Have you ever been to Italy? Have you ever had I have. Have you? I was fortunate enough to do a study abroad in Italy. So perfect. Yeah. You know, you like there'll be restaurants, you know, or you know, chefs you like try their food and but there's no food like Italian food. But you go there. Exactly. Right. It's, you know, it's the whole like New York thing too of like there's something in the water that just makes you have to travel, right? You just got to try it. You gota And that's like something, you know, even though like we're more connected today globally than ever before, right? It's like there's still something, you know, unique to a place and to a people. And that's really, you know, that's the treasure of getting to travel is getting to experience those different things that make it unique. That's the one thing that people don't realize. Like you can try to copy something or you can try to replicate it, but until you actually go there, see the people, meet the people, see the lifestyle, see the walls, get into the heart and soul of whether it's the company or the culture or the lifestyle. Yeah. Even if you just go there and you don't meet the people or see the heart behind it, you don't actually understand it, right? So, you have to travel. You have to get in there and do it. Yeah. I feel like that's why there's been, you know, in the last number of years the the word like authenticity, right? like that that's just been like become such a buzz word because um yeah, there's definitely that craving for it, you know, and that's I I'd say something like that's a a fruit of this podcast, you know, is like seeking that um like, hey, this is this is, you know, like we're not hiding like this is who we are and we want to learn more about you and, you know, shining light on Minnesota. And that's kind of part of the reason, my intentional reason for doing the podcast and a lot of people ask me, hey, why are you doing it or what's the point of it? And one of the main reasons why I started it back before you even came on was I'm around so many people every single day. Yeah. I do so many different things. I'm absolutely everywhere through a day. I could be see True. I could be in front of like thousands of people. I'm at six or seven events most days. Thousands of people. And a lot of times people come up to me and they're like, "Hey, you're the sun control girl. Hey, you're Karissa." And I'm obviously right away looking for a logo. And if they see me, sometimes I'll be dressed up and I might not have a logo on. If I have a name tag on, that's great. But they won't have one and I won't know who they are. And I feel terrible about it. I really do. If I don't know you, I'm sorry. But for doing the podcast, I want to be more intentional. I want to get to know people. I want to know them. I want to know their story. So doing this, I get to know you. I get to know your story. But it's also a way to give back. So doing the podcast not only gets business owners in here, it lets them share their story, but it also helps them. It it helps their business, but it also lets the viewers know who they are as a person. Yeah. And then it goes out in our newsletter, which is a huge bonus, right? Yeah, it is. So, yeah, it a lot of people see that. It helps when I'm out and about and I'm like, "Hey, you were on your podcast, but how are your kids?" Or, "How's that huge opportunity that you had?" Or just something simple. "Hey, did you have that grilled cheese sandwich at at the downtown shop that you like?" Or Yeah. How's your new branch that you opened up? Or just just the little things that I really want to know about you? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And that that kind of is a great segue too because I wanted to ask you know like give you the opportunity to share like with the viewers like what what your hope is for the podcast you know like for maybe like next year and then next five years you know even too of just so my hope obviously when we started out was to help people and it still always is but my my goal for the next year is to obviously to grow right you know I want to grow but I want to be more intentional I want to have anybody that has a tie to Minnesota, whether it's it's business owners or just people that have a story to tell. I love hearing people's stories. Yeah. I love hearing people that have made a difference. I love having people that have have overcome obstacles or just have a touching story to tell. Um, business owners or not, if you're out there and you want to share your story, get a hold of me. I want to right now I just I want to make a difference. It's my why is helping people. So that's my goal for this year. Five years obviously is growth. I want to I want to really I want to be intentional, but I want to connect more people and I'm a connector. I want to say, "Hey, you were on my podcast here. Here's a great person. When I have people on that don't have a job or when I have people that are struggling, I can start connecting more people." The more growth, the better. So yeah. Mhm. And one thing I' I'd love to add in to that on the production side of things is I'm sure like longtime viewers will will have noticed that we've done we probably done what four or five mobile podcasts this year. Y um so you know that was just we we are going to be having a guest on the podcast who their work is you know very very much integral in terms of the exact space that they're in. Yes. So we we went mobile and we met them there. And so I want to throw that out there too. Like if anyone's listening who would have an interest to be on the podcast, whether you're what like a interior designer and want us to like bring us in to like show like showcase your site. Yes. Showcase the site or like a living room. You've even done Yeah. Give a tour and um you know or you're a cook and you want to showcase your food. We can come and try your food. I would love to come and eat some of your food. Yes. Yep. Karissa, too. Yes, absolutely. Or or if you're a fitness guru and you want us to come and try out equipment, we can do that. We like we like trying different things. Yes, we've met a professional wrestler or food truck. We've done a golf course and hit golf balls. We're up for anything. So, it's been kind of fun. It It's been super fun. And um yeah, we'd love to, you know, that's kind of that we'd love to, you know, showcase your work in even more intentional way. So, try new things. Yeah. You know, we we we're up for I mean, I've gone skydiving. We'll we'll try things. I'm not gonna skydive, but Karissa will. But Karissa will. So, Yep. skydiving podcast. We'll figure out the audio somehow. I'll YouTube it. Yes. So, another thing that we wanted to kind of point out, and I think it's really unique for us, is I've had people that watch our podcast. So, they're on YouTube, they're on Apple, they're on Spotify, that have met and found customers through it. They're like, "Hey, I saw you on Karissa's podcast. She's a really good friend of mine and this is what I've learned about you and this has brought me business. This is this has been more intentional for me because this has brought me to you." And I think that that's a really great key to have too like, "Hey, I know you're a small business owner and I know I know this about you and this is something we have in common or just little things like that, too." So, it's even without having me connect them, they're watching them and they're finding things in common and they're really it's hitting home for them, too. like, "Hey, I heard you had a tough time this time, and this is exactly this is my story, too." And it's it's really hitting home for them, too. So, it's kind of been a fun niche that way. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and it just, you know, speaks to the power of of the platforms and and what we're doing, you know, in terms of shining that light. So, some of those people that have even been on the stories haven't been easy. Yeah, it's true. And those have been some tough ones, but everybody, like I said, everybody has a story to tell and you never know what those stories are. That's why we have the tissue box right here. Yep. And that's always got to be prepared. Yep. And I know I've had my stories to tell and I know you have stories to tell. So, it's you always have to be intentional. Yep. Absolutely. Yeah. Yes. Um just to uh track back real quick too in terms of like, you know, personal stories and stuff. I I just want to you know in regards to your work you know business development officer and um for sun control but that you know and we do the podcast out of that and stuff too and in terms of building relationships like what's your like what's your personal like uh like hope and desire like going forward right now like what what's really driving you right now? I think my driving is my hope for the future that everybody can understand and be open for communication. I think that that's really important that there is a uniqueness in having an open relationship with everybody. Mhm. that every single person out there does have a story to tell and even if you're not on the same page, that you can have an open relationship with somebody even if you don't agree with them about the same things and that you fully understand what they're saying even though you might not agree with them and that you you can just still understand where they're coming from. So, yeah. Yeah. Wonderful. Yeah. Okay. Fun question. Yeah. What's your favorite? I know the um the Minnesota's like favorite uh what was that competition? The coolest thing. Coolest thing in Minnesota. Yeah. And congratulations to Polaris cuz they won that. They won this year and 3M Tape won last year. So yes, iconic. Iconic Minnesota brand. Yes. For you personally though, what is your favorite Minnesota brand? Good question. Favorite Minnesota brand. I mean, of course, it's uh our favorite store and everything is Sun Control. Yeah, that's what I was going to say. You took that one away. But outside of the that like what's what would be your favorite Minnesota brand? Could I name one of our our other sister locations? Are they in Minnesota? Yeah. Okay, go for it. So, well, it would be a tie then. Yeah, true. So, it could be Bravo. True. It could be Elite. True. It could be Sun Control of Rochester. I thought you were going solar solicious. Nope. That's not Rochester. Yeah. Right. Right. Right. So, yeah, it would be probably those three. It would probably be Bravo Protection Products. Yeah. It would be Elite Tinting. And shout out. You guys are the best. Oh, it could be Elite Elite Security and Glazing. Yes. Important work. Yes. Um or Sun Control of Rochester. Those would be probably the top top three. Okay. What about product? Like Minnesota product. You got you know film. Film. Yeah, film. Okay, we're sticking with sun control. So, yep. Sun control. Sun control incorporated. Yeah. Yeah. There we go. There we go. Exactly. Exactly. Good. Wonderful. So, time for your question. Oh jeez, I'm nervous. Are you ready for this? Yeah, I'm I'm ready. It's going to be a tough one. Okay. What is your level three why? Level three. So, not just your main why, but you got to dig three levels deeper. Okay. H. Well, um I think there's a uh you know, there's the cliches and whatnot, you know, that you have to work through with when answering some of those those types of questions. But I think for me as you know um but would love to share with all of you is I I'm a father of two wonderful kids and that you know it really kind of all comes back to that you know for me right of just okay what am I doing? What am I doing? Why am I doing it? Um, you know, when I was younger, it used to kind of be it used to be for, you know, for me. Y and then, you know, you find something like that, something like those people outside of yourself, um, that gives you purpose and gives you a reason to go above and beyond more and more, right? And so, and that that'd be my like, you know, philosophy that I'd like love to share with like, hey, you've got to find something outside of yourself to give uh to give yourself away to cuz otherwise, you know, you're just going to be um I think spiraling, you know. So, yeah, that's that's that's my two cents, but perfect. Yeah. Thanks. Thanks for the question. One more question. Okay, I'm ready. Okay, so behind the camera. Mhm. When you see things that people comment on camera about people that are on camera, which they do all the time. Yeah. Hey, somebody looks this way. Hey, somebody says something that way. Yeah. How hard is it to not comment back? That's actually that's a great question. Um and then I'll give my answer to the question to being the one that's on camera, right? Yeah. Um you know, I I I'm strongly opinionated for sure. I'd say it's it's only like a real challenge when honestly when it's something more funny. Yeah. When I hear something funny on the podcast that the guest says and you know they made everyone laugh and I'm over in my chair laughing and then I I just want to like you know join in the fun you know but like no no I I'm gonna hold off you know. So that that's honestly it's like that's actually when it's hardest is when um when they say something really funny. But, okay, now I'm going to flip it. So, when I'm a person that's on camera all the time and people critique, which they do. Yeah. Because that's one of the viewers Yep. the viewers will always critique. Okay. No matter what. It's true. Yeah. And I've been a person that's been on camera a lot and I always have been. So, no matter what, the viewers always critique. Yeah. You have to be a strong person. Yeah. Because no matter what, good or bad, they will always critique. Yeah. Hey, you look great. Hey, you don't look great. Hey, something's funny. Hey, you say something all the time. But at the end of the day, I'm the person on the camera, right? So whether you're saying something good or saying something bad, hey, she looks thin. Hey, she looks funny. Whatever it is, at the end of the day, they're still seeing you on camera, right? So whether it's good or whether it's bad, they're still noticing. They're still seeing your page. Yeah. They're still on there. And sometimes the bad comments that they make get more people to your site than some of the good ones. So to me, I don't comment back because it's it's there. No matter what, you're going to have good people. You're going to have bad people. You're going to have people that'll make comments. So it is what it is. You have to be tough and you have to just take it for a grain of salt. Sometimes it's hard to take, but it is what it is. So for everybody that comments, you can keep commenting. Yeah. I love y'all. It is what it is. Yep. Yeah. Were you And were you going to ask something with that, too? Yes. Yeah. So, what do you feel when you see as a producer, as the person that's behind all the marketing? Yeah. Do you feel that when you see bad ratings and you see things like that, how do you combat those? That's a great question. First of all, because a lot of you have no bad ratings. Absolutely. No, I know. Right. No. That's a great question because you get like the Google reviews ups and downs and sometimes people say, "Hey, what do you do with those and how do those how do those correlate and things like that?" Yeah. Well, we that's a great question. We live in an AI world um that's being shaped by at least, you know, it's quickly overtaking. So uh the as we as we know but now even I think at a more rapid pace the the authenticity to bring that word back in the authentic you know human being recommendation and interaction is becoming even more important you know and so like I speak to that in regards to reviews right like those have just become even more important even for how AI is like going to recommend something to you. It's like, okay, well, what do the most amount of people think about about this? Okay, that's what that's how they're going to, you know, base their recommendation. Um, you know, I think what I really have to say is, um, I'm just, you know, I'm have always been very excited about the opportunity that to be a producer on this podcast and the fact that we're doing a podcast is so cool. Yeah. Um cuz to your point, right, and I just think this as like a digital native, as Gen Z, right? Um people like you quickly saw as socials like grew up, there was like a population of people who were going to be posting and posting a lot because it just came naturally to them and they got a lot of positive feedback. But you notice for like actually the majority of accounts on socials, they're generally like isn't posting, right? Like you'll see someone's personal page and it's like yeah, they have an Instagram account with maybe like four or five posts, but otherwise they're using it to just see view. I think the statistic for LinkedIn is like especially now as the younger generations join the workforce you know it's like you've seen LinkedIn just explode which is which is great you know like to really have a um professional social network right you know so um but to see even on LinkedIn right I think it there I don't know the exact number but I want to say generally around it's like 10% of the people on LinkedIn are actually creating stuff, creating content for LinkedIn, which we're part of that number, right? And the other percent, right, is just um commenting and interacting, right? And so it's like we, you know, are being, you know, we're being bold and taking a trying new things, trying new things, what we're going to try tomorrow, putting stuff out there, you know, and getting, you know, and accepting that feedback, right? And so, um, we're being bold. We're choosing to do that. People are opinionated and they can be opinionated and they're free to do that. Exactly. That's why we do what we do and we hear all sides and that's kind of why we and we'll take the things that we think you know are you know instructive and like oh we can't because we we have that attitude of like yeah we can get better we can improve. Um and taking the things that are like look that that wasn't out of good faith or and it's just plain mean like you know it's like water off you know. Yeah. It is what it is. Yeah. Like doesn't matter. Some people sit behind a computer and say what they say and do what they do. Yeah. Exactly. So, um yeah, and that that I'd say is something we'd encourage you all to do, too, right? Like, come be on the podcast. We want you as a guest. Um come and and even just, you know, be a content like create content, share your voice, and um be part of that, grow that percentage, right? Because um it's important for to your point earlier, right? like in order for us to get to a place where um we can all like have that understanding of one another and understand where people are coming from conversations every side of the story. Exactly. Right. We're only going to do that through people being bold and having those hard conversations. Well, and I'd like the ones where we're able to sit down and communicate. Like I tell tell my kids, I mean, I've got three kids of my own. um kind of a blended family of a total of seven kids, but like I tell all of them is to sit down and have those conversations, right? You know, if there's somebody you think you don't agree with or you don't aren't sure where they come from, have an open conversation. Sit down. Even if you don't agree with them, listen, understand, let them share what they want to share so you can at least understand their side even if you don't agree with it. Yeah. No matter what it is, just try to understand. Try to let them speak and listen. Yeah. Right. It's it's I've learned so much from this podcast. Same. Even the guests that have come on and I'm like, "This is going to be an interesting one. I'm super excited." Or, "Oh, I'm not sure about this." Having them come on and share their in-depth stories and where they've come from. Yeah. Has been worldchanging. It's been so amazing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, especially, you know, like whether it's like insights or or or whatnot. I'm over like taking notes like in the in the corner as I'm like recording everything. So, and I know most of the guests that have come on have never done a podcast before and they're so nervous. They're calling me and texting me the day before or nights before and like, "Chris, I'm so nervous." Or, and I know myself the night before, they're always like, "How did you know what to ask?" I'm like, I'm doing my research just like you are. I'm trying to learn about you before. So, if I'm sending you a form or I'm searching your pages or doing what I'm doing, I'm trying to figure out what to ask and doing my research, too. So, it's fun. Yeah, it is. Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. Well, I think I guess there's two things I wanted to hit. Yes. Um, we've got a 2026 event coming up. Yes, we do. Do we want to like publicly speak about that now or just say? Okay, I'll hand that over to you. Yes. So on April 22nd in 2026, we are going to be doing our second annual Sun Control Expo. Super excited. We did it in 2024. We had probably about 450 people here. We had about 20 vendors. We are going to try to double it this year. I'm super excited. Go big or go home. They're giving me about six months to put it on, which was probably about five months more than I had last time. So let's do this. We're going to be rolling out. We're going to be doing residential and commercial contractors and vendors. You'll be starting to get all of your flyers. I'm going to start sending everything out. We'll be doing the same thing, the golf simulator for chances to win prizes. We'll have food here. We're going to have microphones here. We're going to have information about being guests on our podcast. It's going to be so exciting. And we're going to be having some extra special special stuff that we're going to be telling you about. Yes. So stay tuned for that. Yes. Wanted to like officially announce that and then Yep. April 22nd, 2026. 2 to 5. Wherever you follow us, you'll be able to uh we'll have some links for you to RSVP and you're going to see a lot of emails from me and it's RSVP to me. So, be prepared. Lots of emails. Be prepared. Yep. And it's going to be on Eventbrite. Yes. Awesome. Well, the last thing I wanted to It's not like a full announcement because I'm just alluding to it more. So, we need Yeah. A little drum roll. So, we're going to have a very special guest announced. Um, this is this is a person. We're going to announce uh his name and not right now. A soft a soft roll out maybe sometime soon. So, stay tuned. You'll see him a surprise. Surprise. Yes. Two like the next two weeks. Um, for sure you'll see him um before Halloween. Super exciting. Um, super exciting. We've been working on this for, you know, a bit now and Yeah, it's it's going to be exciting. Yes. Very, very fun. We've been working on getting him on getting him out. Y Exactly. Just getting him up to speed, teaching him everything and so uh stay tuned for that. Um you're going to you're not going to want to miss it. So, it's going to knock them out of the park. They're going to be absolutely out of the park. Yeah. Yeah. It's gonna be so good. So, wow. Amazing. Awesome. I think that's all I have. Did you have anything else? Any closing? Yes. If you want to be a guest on our podcast, get a hold of us. Karissa Dunham, John Brickweg, but we do need to have you be a guest. More importantly, watch our podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, Apple, and follow us on our socials, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn. LinkedIn. Yeah. And or just shoot us an email, info@shining light on Minnesota, or follow us both. We're both on all the socials, Karissa and John Brickweg. See you guys later. We really appreciate all of you guys. Bye everyone. Yep. Thanks, Karissa. Yeah, that was a lot of fun. [Music]