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Ever Onward Podcast
The Ever Onward Podcast is your go-to business podcast, offering engaging discussions and diverse guests covering everything from business strategies to community issues. Join us at the executive table as we bring together industry leaders, experts, and visionaries for insightful conversations that go beyond the boardroom. Whether you're an entrepreneur or simply curious about business, our podcast provides a well-rounded experience, exploring a variety of topics that shape the business landscape and impact communities. Brought to you by Ahlquist.
Ever Onward Podcast
From KTVB to Bronco Studios: Jay Tust's New Chapter | Ever Onward - Ep. 84
Jay Tust, former sports director at KTVB and newly appointed leader of Bronco Studios at Boise State Athletics, takes us behind the scenes of his remarkable career journey and exciting new chapter.
After 14 award-winning years in broadcasting, Jay reveals how baseball shaped his professional mindset—from overcoming early struggles as "the worst kid in Soundview Little League" to being drafted by the Cincinnati Reds. This transformation taught him resilience and the power of sacrifice, principles that guided his Emmy and Murrow Award-winning journalism career and now fuel his vision for Bronco Studios.
The conversation explores why Boise State's innovative approach to athletics media attracted him. Working alongside visionary athletic director Jeremiah Dickey, Jay explains how the department's philosophy—"skate to where the puck is going"—positions them ahead of chaotic changes in collegiate athletics. The goal: creating a permanent studio space where student-athletes and coaches can tell their stories directly to fans worldwide, expanding the already powerful Boise State brand.
Beyond career ambitions, Jay shares deeply personal motivations for his transition. The shift from late-night news schedules to more regular hours means precious additional time with his growing family—daughter Collins (5), son Brooks (2), and a third child on the way. After experiencing heartbreaking loss with his first child, this work-life balance became a non-negotiable priority.
Looking ahead to an exciting football season featuring a highly anticipated matchup at Notre Dame, Jay offers insights on players to watch following Ashton Jeanty's departure. His enthusiasm for both basketball and football programs reflects his genuine passion for Boise State athletics and the community he's called home for far longer than the "three years" he initially planned.
Catch the expanded storytelling of Bronco Studios across Boise State's social media channels and YouTube as Jay continues championing the unique stories that make Boise State one of college athletics' most compelling brands.
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Today on the Ever Onward podcast, we have Jay Tust. Jay is an amazing guy 14 years at KTVB as the sports director. He's famous in our community for a few things, but mostly for being one of the greatest guys around, and he just made a huge move. He just went over to Boise State. He will be leading Bronco Studios for Boise State Athletics. Jay has been an incredible journalist. He won the 2015 Murrow Award. He won an Emmy Award in 2019. He's a true pro and Boise State's just very, very fortunate to have him with this move and with all they're doing. Can't wait to catch up with Jay Tuss. Today, prior to Jay Tuss, we'll have a Allquist update with my partner, holt Haga. Holt man, we've been busy, holy cow. It's been crazy. It's funny that we have to do a little Allquist update for us to get connected, to talk.
Speaker 2:I know we're freaking running right now.
Speaker 1:We're running and gunning. It's good, it's been good. Let's talk a little bit about what's going on. It's it's interesting. We're in a like, I think, nationally, we're kind of in this hey, what's going on? A lot of stuff going on. You know, interest rates have not done what we thought they were going to do, but our valley because of micron, and now this new announcement. And what are you seeing out there? You're, you're, you're in the streets every day.
Speaker 2:Well, it is because we do a lot of like panels and things. We get a lot of questions, and that's the question that comes up every you know, all the time, almost exclusively is you know what? What's going on in Boise with office? We hear it's good, but why? You know? Why aren't things being? Why isn't office being built? What's going on? And it's kind of a simple question with a really complex answer, right, but like just something is kind of, and we talk a lot about market conditions, but something pretty interesting is actually is happening right now in the office space in the Treasure Valley and you know we do have a healthy market. It's very healthy actually. It's about as healthy as it's been in a long time. I mean, it's like our vacancy rates have been at 6.5% to 7% for the last like three years, stable, yeah, which I mean. That's so traditionally, you're looking at that. Guys like us will look at that and say, hey, let's go build more office.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, yeah, yeah. And so then the question is okay, well, why aren't we building office? And we know that as a developer, it all comes down to basis and market conditions. We know they're good, but basis is sort of a fancy way of saying cost and when we plug in all our assumptions and our numbers, it's just, you know, with interest rates and construction costs and land prices and all the things, exit cap rates and things Harder than ever to do, harder than ever, right. And so we know why we haven't been able to do it.
Speaker 2:And when you enter all those things in and you sort of assess a corresponding lease rate that you have to have to be able to support those costs and get the return on investment, you're either below market, at market or above market. And if you're below market, you're definitely doing the project. If you're below market, you're definitely doing the project. If you're at market, you're still doing it. If you're a little above, you're still doing it. But if you're way above, you're like it doesn't make sense because it's too risky. That's where we have been somewhere in that, just with the costs and the basis, and so it's been difficult. But I think the interesting thing that we're seeing in the data right now is that the sub lease, the vacancy rates, have been stable, but the sub lease space available on the market has been cut in half effectively.
Speaker 1:It's still happening here.
Speaker 2:It's still happening here, right and so because we haven't been building the sub lease space. That was at 680,000 square feet six months ago is now at 350,000 square feet. So if you extrapolate that out and you say okay, in six months and another six months you're out of vacancy, You're out of sublease space, right? So then where are people going? Because, assuming demand stays relatively stable, the supply is going to be an issue and it's going to happen.
Speaker 1:Well, I think there is a corollary between what happened in the residential market here and what happened in the office market here. It just is Because you had residential if you looked at what homes the median home value was for a long, long, long time and then you had this explosion, right yeah. And if you think about office, it's the same thing. We had stable rates. Remember when we bought the US Bank building?
Speaker 1:and we found the rent roll from 1982 or whatever. It was like 15 bucks, unchanged, unchanged, and we're like oh man, I mean, we were that many years later and the rates were the same and then rates started to creep up a little bit because they had to.
Speaker 1:I still think there's some catch up to do on rates. Rates just because of this explosion in costs. You know labor costs are not going to go down with everything going on. So so I I guess the the the advice I'd give someone looking for office is you better get it now, absolutely, because it's not. This is not. It's not going to be less expensive. Uh coming up, it's more expensive for us to build. Uh, land's more expensive than it's ever been. Labor costs are going to stay tight. So getting high quality office now and us figuring out how to get more and more on the market we're just got to do it because it's not like next year is going to be any easier.
Speaker 1:Rates may come down a little bit, but all these other factors are staying the same and it's just going to end up costing more, just like everything else Exactly, exactly.
Speaker 2:It's just like to end up costing more. Just like everything else, exactly, exactly. It's just like your groceries. Real estate's the same, but to your point it's like we have been lagging behind other markets and rates have not increased at the same rate.
Speaker 1:It's interesting because on the retail side they have yeah retail has, when you look at all the retail we're doing it 10 miles.
Speaker 2:Oh gosh, yeah the rates you're getting.
Speaker 1:I'm like, oh my gosh, so retail, certainly I think retailers have responded to hey, this is just what it costs now the industrial has. If you look at what industrial so I think just the office market, it's going to cost more. Going into the future, with everyone moving here it is. And the other thing for office users and I hear this all the time, I've had a couple of friends call me in the last couple of weeks is the commodity is still people.
Speaker 1:I say that in a positive way. There has never been a better time. I tell my kids this. I mean, if you're in your 20s and you have a skill set, the fact that you can go get, so everyone needs high quality individuals now can go get, so everyone needs high quality individuals now. So having a space that you can come to work and attract and retain and recruit people, it's going to be more and more and more and more critical. Having a place where you want to go to work, you want to be with people you want to be with, yeah, being in space that's comfortable, that they've thought about a natural light and how it's laid out and your workspace.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's the retention, recruitment and retention, it's like the human capital component, right. So it'll be interesting. But I think I think just generally at the the you know what's here's where we are, but what's coming is, you know, all signs kind of point to rates are going to continue to rise. It's not slowing down. It's not slowing down and the market sort slowing down and the market sort of what's happening in the market sort of is the backbone of that.
Speaker 1:This is all true. If we would have said this before Micron's new announcement for the next $50 billion, we would have told you this.
Speaker 2:But now it's like yeah, that's even more like piling on.
Speaker 1:What a great place to live. It's awesome to have so much industry on. Yeah, what a great place to live. It's awesome to have so much industry. It's funny for me to think back to 20, 25 years ago, when I was on little committees of like, how are we going to ever get businesses to move here and how are we going to ever get median wages up? And now we're dealing with the other side of that, which is this is what happens when you have an unbelievable place to live.
Speaker 1:Unbelievable place to raise families, quality of life off the charts, charts, and that's why everyone's coming.
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah, we're fortunate, all right, very fortunate, it's been fun hey man, how are you good?
Speaker 1:you know, last night I had uh m MJ hit me up on text right and left. I don't know how he heard you coming off. He's like that guy's one of the best guys on the planet.
Speaker 3:I learned a lot from MJ, especially trying to just be as energetic as he is every day, because that's, I think, what made it's actually what makes MJ special, because he still certainly has it, doesn't he? Oh?
Speaker 1:yeah, I love that guy. He told me to ask you about all the long car trips in the Bronco.
Speaker 3:Oh man, you know, sometimes you've got to earn covering the Boise State football team, right, I didn't realize, you guys traveled by car, so much.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we've driven to. I remember probably my best memory is getting off the news at 10 one night and driving straight to Albuquerque, which was about 21 straight hours of driving right. Um, and it's so funny, tommy, because I'm sure you know this, like when you're working on a project and you're just you know it, it uh, it kind of wear you down at some times and whatnot, and then you look back on it years later and you're like, oh man, those, those were the good old days.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean. It's always that way.
Speaker 3:Yep, and uh, I will say this, um, I'm sure MJ is cool with me sharing this. I was, I was young buck back then, right, and we're getting into this, but 14 years, 14 years, yep. And so this was on the front end of my career, when, when MJ would make these rides or these drives with us and I would often find myself in the driver's seat just a little bit more than than MJ, and I remember, you know, turning around in the backseat and MJ's laying across the backseat taking a quick little nap. But, um, I will say this about him I, you know, I, I, I say that in jest, but I, I honestly thought it was pretty cool for a guy that had been in the game as long as he had, yeah, that he was still willing to do that in order to to serve his community, right, yeah, and so I, I definitely took those moments and learned from them. He's, he's an, he's an unbelievable human being.
Speaker 1:I you know the energy and just you know it's genuine, like it's, like it's his heart. He's, he's, uh, he, uh. He's on our board, our non-profit board. Uh, teens trades puts on a golf tournament. It's just, he, just. But he just comes in a room and lights it up.
Speaker 3:Yep, if you think he's energetic on a newscast, watch him emceeing a charity event or something like that right.
Speaker 3:I will say this. So when I moved here, I got my start in broadcasting in Lewiston, idaho, at Clue right, and I spent about two years there. I actually look back now. The good old days. Wanted to get out of there at the time as fast as I possibly could, but I loved. It was a baseball town covering the NIA World Series. It was great.
Speaker 3:But you know, our whole newsroom, our whole on-air department, was three people right. We had zero ability to go live Like, so we had to always be in the studio in order to actually have a newscast. And I moved down here and it was our first trip. It was my first trip covering the boy state football team on the road and we went to the glass bowl in toledo, ohio right, and again travel out across country. We're all pretty tired and our photographers, shanti asale and mike d donato, fire up you know the light, the camera and it's go time to do the news at 10 and all of a sudden mj finds the ensue like more enthusiasm than I could ever muster up at that point in time. But I just remember looking at him and going okay, that's how this is done, and ever since that day I've just tried to be as energetic and as passionate as that man is about working in Boise, idaho. Yeah.
Speaker 1:There's some pretty incredible people that if you get around like really successful people and you watch them, that turn it on thing. It's interesting that you say that because yesterday we had a little thing here we're helping. Operation Military Blessings, great nonprofit, 30 years, started here and they basically provide gas cards and grocery cards for the first couple years in the military. Okay, because those families, what they make 39 of them are food insecure and they're actually under the poverty level. When you're joining anyway, they're, they're here locally, they're out of diapers and baby formula. So we started a thing yesterday. But I'm getting my point. So governor dirk kempthorne, uh, is on their board and and so, as part of the event yesterday he was here but he's he's undergoing cancer treatment right now. So he comes in, he's. You know he's not, he's, as you can tell, he's going through it. And and I'm even like hey, dirk, I can't believe you're here. But man, when those cameras went on Yep, ready to go For the press conference, some of the guys that were filming it he sat up and just delivered.
Speaker 1:One of the guys said he's like I didn't even care what he said, I was just it was like the most powerful and passionate thing. And I remember also, like with mitt romney, when we were able to campaign together. Same thing like he on the plane, uh, you know at, you know, get into the event, just tired. You know, you know these drying long days and then just boom, they turn it on.
Speaker 1:But but I, I've, I've thought about that and um, and I think mj is that way too he knows, he knows he's got to deliver and and he can just dig deeper to another level and just make it happen.
Speaker 3:Yep, I've worked with tremendous people at K2B. Another one that I'll bring up that has been one of the more influential people in my life is Carolyn Hawley. Oh yeah, and she's another one that you know. She's a mom. She's balancing so much and then I just remember, like again, watching her on the desk and it was just like you had no idea what else was going on in her world and it was just like the most professional thing you ever saw and I'm like, okay, I got to somehow try to mimic that as well, which would be impossible to actually. You know, you know perfectly, try to emulate that.
Speaker 3:But also, tommy, a lot of it for me comes from my, you know, just growing up around sports, right, and it really is crazy how much of it does translate right. And there's there's times when you're, uh, you know, cross country. The Florida state game it's like 48 hours. We probably had four hours of sleep. They moved the game because of a hurricane. You're just exhausted. But it goes back to, you know, workouts at 5am and in college and you don't want to get up and run three miles, but you kind of have a little moment with yourself with like, no, how much you got in the tank and I still have those moments with myself now, like whenever I'm tired, like it's that challenge how much more can you give? And as close as you think you are to empty, there should be a little bit left in the tank and I always go back to. You know, I draw my experiences from sports when it comes from stuff like that and it still certainly motivates me today. I love it Can we go back now.
Speaker 1:Let's start there. Tell us a little bit about growing up and you.
Speaker 3:I grew up in Tacoma, washington, and I lived in the same bedroom, tommy, with my bed, almost in the same position, until the time I left for college and the reason why I kind of bring that up my dad, blue collar worker, another guy that I what did he do? He was an electrician at the University of Washington Hospital. He worked there for over 35 years but he was a guy that woke up at five every morning. We lived in Tacoma, he worked in Seattle, so you're talking about an hour and a half up or so dealing with traffic. We only live like 25 miles away, but over there you're dealing with traffic, so you're 90 minutes to two hours up to Seattle.
Speaker 3:He works and then he has to battle that coming back home, and so you know he was gone like 11, 12 hours a day and I just learned a lot from that. Later on in life I actually interned up there for a summer job and I really got the chance to see him do it and he would also come home and then drive me to baseball practice. We get home from that at like nine, thirty or ten, and then he just did that every day, every day, and that was a real experience for me to witness what my dad, kind of like, sacrificed and did for me to try to be the best version of myself, and so um, there's, there's a mentality on those, those kind of guys though.
Speaker 1:I have it, my dad's the same way, but man, even now, you guys almost 80, and he works me into the ground and just never complains. And I'm like dude, it's hot or it's cold, or it's me into the ground and just never complains. And I'm like dude it's hot or it's cold or it's I'm tired, or whatever, and he just, he just grinds. There is man, it is a, it is a. You know, I think we're soft as well.
Speaker 3:You've actually led me to my next point here, tommy, because, um, my dad, he jokes around that he might not have some of the skills that I have in terms of getting up in front of a camera or crafting an email or whatever it might be. My dad can roll up his sleeves and fix anything, tommy, like he can't. He can fix anything, yeah, and I um captured zero of that skillset. So anytime anything breaks around the Tust household here in Boise, he he's my first call and usually he just shakes his head at me and then, you know, he helps me figure it out.
Speaker 3:But, uh, that's the reason why I bring up this story is because not only did he help build, build, um, what I, what I take pride in, is my work ethic, but there, you know, I would also say change wasn't something that was like instilled in me early, lived in the same bedroom till I was 18. My dad worked the same job for 35 years, and so, as I make this transition from KTVB, a place that I've been at for 14 years, to Boise State, it's really not that big of a change, tommy, but for me it feels like a lot of change. Right, but growing up in Tacoma, I love sports. I love football, but baseball has our heart. Baseball was like the thing since I can remember. We're watching it at the house. I'm collecting baseball cards.
Speaker 1:So you're a huge Mariners fan.
Speaker 3:Huge Mariners fan. I was joking around with my buddies over at Tex last night because we just blew another lead to the Yankees. We're up 5-0 in the eighth and lost.
Speaker 1:I saw the highlights. I'm like what Right?
Speaker 3:I know it's just the worst thing ever. Ken Griffey Jr is my idol. Yeah, idol, he. It hit me last night that he is also the person that I'm going to hold responsible for what has been a lifetime of misery so far as a baseball fan, because not only have we never won a world series time, we've never been to the world series. And I remember growing up, like all the Cubs fans and Red Sox fans, being like we're ever going to see it in our lifetime. And now you're, you're them, I'm them, I'm them, I'm like I don't know if I'm ever, ever gonna see it in my lifetime. So, yeah, but baseball's got my heart.
Speaker 1:It always has and, um, still does you watch still does fall forward every day, isn't it? Isn't it a great? It is, I always say, the only the only real negative about being in a town this size. It would be great if we had it it would be amazing.
Speaker 3:I mean it's. I really we're getting everything around here.
Speaker 2:I mean we're, we're booming like crazy, even AAA.
Speaker 3:But I would love it. I'd be there every night, tom. I would be there every night, tommy, I would be there every night.
Speaker 1:We're doing a giant redevelopment in downtown Reno and they have the Reno Aces Yep.
Speaker 3:I've been there. It looks beautiful.
Speaker 1:AAA team for the Diamondbacks. So I've been to a few games with them over there, but it's just AAA Nice ballpark. Herb Simon owns the ball, the team he's the owner of the Indiana Pacers. Okay, I mean Reno, our size town where I'm like I want this, I want that.
Speaker 3:Well, we've got to make it happen here, tommy, what can?
Speaker 1:we do to pull this off. Hey, we got off track here.
Speaker 3:So you, you baseball's your thing so coming out of uh, uh, actually I'm going to back up just a little bit here because it's important, it's an important part of my story and over, kind of overcoming adversity. I loved baseball but I was awful at it. I was terrible, tommy. If I got a hit in a season like we were celebrating, I was was bad, really bad.
Speaker 1:And where do you was Jack then, Cause maybe the problem there is. You were like I was the smaller kid.
Speaker 3:I actually was a smaller kid then, yeah, so it had to do with the fact that you couldn't swim.
Speaker 1:Maybe that was so big.
Speaker 3:Maybe that was it and uh, I was, I was just, I was terrible at it. But I joke around about Griffey. I just we would time our nights around his at-bat.
Speaker 1:Why are you so terrible at it?
Speaker 3:I was not expecting you to say that, you know, just kind of a little kid afraid of the ball, stuff like that. You know you loved it, but I loved it. The irony of all of this, though, is my dad came to everything. He was a great supporter of mine, and there was a day I vividly remember the at bat. I'm 11 years old, and it's like the one day my dad had to work a weekend, and during baseball season because he did, he did work weekends, but during baseball season he never. He never missed a game. He missed this one, and I literally remember saying that at the at bat at Northeast Tacoma Elementary, and I just I was like you know what, I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna swing the bat. Like you know what, I'm just going to swing the bat, I'm just going to stay. What could go wrong? And so, luckily, the pitcher threw it over the plate. I swung, I hit an opposite field double into the right center field gap, and I remember standing on second base thinking this is like the coolest feeling ever. Why don't I just do this all the time? And that was a big turning point in my career.
Speaker 3:And that was a big turning point in my career, and so, from you know, being the worst kid in Soundview Little League as an 11-year-old.
Speaker 3:I made varsity baseball at Stadium High School as a freshman and, just to advance the story a little bit, I worked myself into a position to get drafted out of high school by the Cincinnati Reds. I mean that was like the coolest moment at that point in time in my life Because I really did sacrifice a lot. It was the moments where all your friends might be out kind of doing like the the fun, cool stuff that you, you know like you'd want to be doing in high school, and at 10 o'clock on a Friday night I'd still be swinging away in a batting cage for an MLB scout or something like that. And I really learned the power of sacrifice at my senior year of high school and that really set the course for, I mean, the rest of my life really, tommy, you know and I know you know this, but sports, in so many ways, right, the individual sacrifice, those solitary moments when you're alone and you're like can I do this?
Speaker 1:What do I need to do? You dig in, you find yourself. And then the team aspect of it how do you be part of something bigger than you? I mean, there's just so many reasons that it can be so powerful in shaping our lives and becoming. You know, you think about the lessons you probably apply right now to business, that you learn both individually and personally and team wise. It's the big deal.
Speaker 3:I also think that I played uh, I'm not going to say the most frustrating sport, because I try to play golf now, and that's often very frustrating. Um, but baseball is a game of failure. You have to. You have to learn how to succeed when you are mad at yourself, when you're frustrated, all this stuff and you need to learn how to move on Right.
Speaker 3:Um, your next at bat is always your most important at bat. Uh, whether, what, if you struck out, whatever it is, if you hit a home run, it doesn't matter. Your next at bat is what you have to focus on. It's your most important at bat. And so it's things like that. When you're anchoring a show and there's stuff going on, somebody forgets to roll a video, and if you show it in the moment, then your emotions get the best of you. Your next at bat, your next story, whatever it is, is your most important story. You have to find a way to move on and hold your composure.
Speaker 3:You know, I know that an analogy I've heard over at Boise State recently is skate to where the puck is right. Is the center fielder out? You know you have to run to where the ball is and you know I was at a time in my life, fairly athletically gifted but I was never the fastest guy, right. But I think that you know whether it be an angle to a fly ball, stuff like that anticipation instincts I think that I was able to develop those at a higher level and so I I was able to make up, you know the the difference between guys that were faster than me, because I was to be able to.
Speaker 3:I was more efficient, tommy, that's getting from point A to point B and whatever you do, right, like if you're working on a project, how do I most efficiently get from point A to point B? A guy's faster than me, right? Well, there's people out there, there's universities, there's broadcast stations that have more resources, more money. I have to do what they do at the same level, but I have to get to from point A to point B faster than them. So all the analogies can apply one way or the other, right, and you can dismiss them, but I lean into them because I love sports. I still work in sports today and I think they absolutely fit my mission.
Speaker 1:And they're real. As you were talking here, I was thinking about business. We have a lot of people listening to this that are business leaders. But the other analogy that is accurate is if you come from a sports background, you are just use especially baseball. Like you said, you're really, you're you. You must be good at saying I'm going to have a bunch of failure and I'm going to keep growing and succeeding, and I'm not. There's always taking myself to the next level in whatever aspect of my game.
Speaker 1:You think about business, it, it. There's so many people that I am around now that I'm like man. You're setting some artificial cause. I think they believe they've arrived at some level, you know, with their interpersonal skills, with their leadership skills, with their ability to create vision and plans and, you know, deliver. And, and I'm like you probably ought to sit down and have a plan because it doesn't stop. No, it doesn't stop when you're 30. It doesn't stop when you're 40. It doesn't stop when you're 50. In fact, I think as you get older and you get a little perspective on this whole thing, then you're like man. I, you know, I still have a long ways to go right, I still need mentors, so it doesn't stop right. So it's a great analogy professionally and we'll tie into a little bit. I don't want to go there yet, but tie in a little bit to where you're at. I mean, how old are you now?
Speaker 1:I am on the other side of 40, tommy, other side of 40, and you're making this big change right but it makes sense to me because you're in this progression professionally where, like, what's the next thing to stretch, what's next thing to grow, what's what, what's the, what's the? Where are you going to take the gifts that God gave you in this career, that you've done in your professionalism, and say I'm ready for the next thing? Yep, so it makes sense to me. First, off.
Speaker 3:I'm so happy that God placed me here in Boise Idaho because I absolutely love it. I thought that when I signed my first contract here, it was a three-year deal and I thought that I would be here for the length of that contract and get the heck out of here. And I didn't have much. I didn't really know much about Boise Idaho when I even moved here. I just knew that it was a bigger market and a bigger station than I previously was, and if you want to climb the ladder, that's the next rung, right, right.
Speaker 3:And then I moved here and I was like, well, this place is pretty cool, yeah, and I started to kind of think about things. Not only did I meet my wife and now we've started family that happened in about year three that I met her, and then, what year six or seven, we started to develop our family but, um, I think that when I, when I moved here, I didn't understand how unbelievably kind of accommodating this place is, in all honesty, like I lived eight minutes from work when I worked at KTVB. I work at Boy State now and I live about 12 minutes from work. On a bad day when I hit traffic, yeah, it's about 20 and I go back to my story about my dad. He's sitting in a car for almost three hours a day, and that's time you don't get back in life and, and so do the math on that Right.
Speaker 3:It adds up and even you know, there's even like. I thought I thought about myself okay, if he's gone 11, 12 hours a day, but he's spending three hours in a car and it only takes me a total of a half hour to commute to and from work every day. I could even pour 10 and a half, 11 and a half hours and I'm still gone as long as he is Right, so I can even get another three hours of production at work, almost Um, that's more of my mindset during football season, because the demands are greater. But either way, I you know, I just think that that's life. You don't get back sitting in a car, right, and so you know who talks a lot about this.
Speaker 1:Garrett Lofto, who's the CEO of Simplot Okay, we're doing a little thing on transportation and he will impassionately talk about his employees that have to travel on.
Speaker 1:I-84 right now and what an hour commute means each way to their family life. And as the CEO, he's like, hey, I don't want that. I want those two hours a day, absolutely. Two times five, that's 10 hours a week. I want that spent with their kids. I want that spent. You know what I mean. He's like it's been really good for me to feel the authentic, just genuine passion about. I want this for my employees. So you forget that sometimes. Sometimes it's just what you do. So you forget that sometimes. Sometimes it's just what you do. But over a lifetime, as you get again, I think, as you get a little older, you look back. You're like man, it's a big chunk of my life.
Speaker 1:So it's interesting that you appreciate it so much.
Speaker 3:Honestly, tommy, that alone is actually still a big reason why I live here.
Speaker 3:It also means that I can run home on a lunch break or maybe for dinner real quick or whatever it is, and still do that and get back to the office, to where, if it's an hour and a half commitment like, you're not doing that, like.
Speaker 3:So you know, a couple of years ago I took a serious look at moving back to Seattle for an on air job back there and you know I just the reality hit that I just don't know if that's where I wanted to be then or ever really want to be. I just I really value what Boise Idaho has offered me and it's also just. It's also we really have like the kindest people and you know I worked in news for a long time and so you know, you know everything's exposed there and I get that. But I'm telling you, if you go to the store, if you walk around town, if you go to a Boise State football game, I really feel like you genuinely get to hang out and live in a town with like the kindest, most genuine people. It's not, I promise you, I've lived other places it's not like here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's the heritage of kindness and community. It's a big deal. Hey, tell me about your, tell me about your kids. I know, I know, this is a big deal for you. I want to make sure I hit it because because we're going to get into sports here in a minute, I'm sure. But uh, but talk about that.
Speaker 3:I do like talking about this because, um, I think that there's a lot of people out there that you know they want to start families and they can always assume the path to parenthood is is super easy, but sometimes it's not, and sometimes it takes you, you, you, longer than you want to have kids, and sometimes you go through tragedy. And my wife is so strong and, um, you know, I I feel like Tommy when you asked me about this, I'd be remiss if I didn't share my whole story. But, um, you know, we lost our first child, or our baby girl, at 26 weeks. Um, she, you know so, uh, she was a stillborn um her name.
Speaker 3:We named her Claire and it was tough. She had a chromosomal issue and, uh, that was really tough for my family. But, um, in in, you know, god works in mysterious ways. And so that was on, uh, april 6th 2019. And on April 7th 2020, uh, we welcomed our little girl Collins into the world, and she is now a little over five. She is just the coolest kid. She's so bright, smart and awesome and I love being around her and now I get to be around her at night because my schedule is shifted and I know we're going to get to that in a second, but she's just wonderful and she's going to school and next year she's going to go to school full-time in her first, uh, first full year kindergarten, um, and then I have a two-year-old son named brooks and he is just a tank, he, he is like, he got down for brooks robinson.
Speaker 3:Uh, you know what? I love baseball, so I'm not going to say no to that. You know, everyone wants to like brooks kepka and that's not it. But, um, I would probably say, like I I think that you know, the first kids that were named Brooks came from Brooks Robinson and we're a baseball family. So, um, it certainly stemmed from that at some point in time. But he, yeah, he's just a tank.
Speaker 3:Tommy and I got short legs and a long torso, and I'm sorry, buddy, but you probably got my short legs and a long torso. So he's, uh, you know he's, he's tough, he's so different, all about cars, movie, micro, whatever it is, like our hot wheels, that is, um, but he's, he's all about it. He throws stuff, he runs into stuff and he just bounces back up. So hopefully he'll be a little athlete. And then we got, uh, what I'll jokingly say is a negative three week old, because my wife is due with our third child, uh, here in a couple weeks, and we don't know, you don't know, we are waiting. Have you did you all? I never did, but you had the patience to do that. I had the patience to do it because my wife wanted to do it. Tommy, we actually did it with our, with Brooks.
Speaker 1:By the way, that's a great move, no matter what no matter what the issue is.
Speaker 3:That's a great move the best advice I could probably give on this podcast today. But we, um, we waited with. We waited with my son as well. Oh, you did. And it was the honestly. My wife is an organizer, she's a planner, wants everything ready to go, and she said she wanted to wait and I'm like, oh, that's not you that's not what, but if you want to like, it's I got.
Speaker 3:I don't have a choice, like I'm just gonna. Whatever you say we're going with. And it was the coolest thing. Um, we didn't know we. It's so funny. The doctor goes hey, when he pops out, do you want me to tell you? And we're like, yeah, sure, let us know. And he popped out and the doctor couldn't even get the words out of his mouth and I was like it's a boy. So I was pretty excited about that. I do love being a girl dad, so I don't care.
Speaker 3:Well, give me a happy, healthy yep exactly give me a happy healthy little baby and I am good to go.
Speaker 1:So I have a grandson that's five and a grandson that's three. Okay, my daughter just had a little girl who's 10 months old and, oh man, she, she melts us oh yeah, she.
Speaker 3:She like just melts the whole room yeah, she's gonna have you wrapped around her finger for quite some time. Yeah, it's over.
Speaker 1:Yep, well, that that's cool. Well, that's awesome. And you know what I love about you and I don't know you that well, jay, but I do, as I follow you and watch you. It's really cool to watch the example you set as a father. I appreciate that. It's a big deal, I mean because you know, I know some of the guys from the station better than you and it comes out with everyone that knows you that kind of like you're an awesome dad, like as people describe you. That's like and when that's like the in the first couple of sentences that someone says about someone, you're like. That's pretty cool, that is pretty cool.
Speaker 3:Honestly, Tommy, I don't know if I've ever really heard it phrased that way. So that actually does mean a lot to me and I think about my career when people ask me about it and like the biggest compliment you could give me is if you feel like I love my job and I do, and I would say the same thing about just life in general being a dad. So if that so easily comes out, that actually is awesome. Makes me feel like I'm kind of doing my job a little bit.
Speaker 1:Maybe I think you are. Yeah, hey, so let's talk about this transition. Yeah, this is going by fast, but I really want to get into it. So so, man, I was so excited I didn't know what was brewing and then this, you know, this big thing comes up. Yeah, but I can't wait to hear about I there's got to be with, I mean, jd JD's like one like this guy. Like, come on, j. I've been around a lot of people in my life in healthcare and politics and business and everything else, and I don't know that I've ever been around a guy quite like him. Yeah.
Speaker 3:A little while ago you brought up sports and the team aspect right. A little while ago you brought up sports and the team aspect right, and I think a lot of the time is you thinking about how you can make your team better, which I certainly is. The goal for me is to make you know my team at Boise state better. But after that, on the other side of that is, it's surrounding yourself with a good team and people that have drive and are going to make you better and are going to push you and even to the point you're going to get a little uncomfortable, but you know when you come out on the other side you're going to be better for it. Right, and joining forces with Jeremiah Dickey, cody Gogler, chris Coots all the incredible people over there running the boys sit athletic department right now. It's never been in a better position, tommy. It is.
Speaker 3:It's wild to think what is going on behind the scenes in the athletic department, how hard they're working, how passionate they are, how innovative they are and they are always, it seems, like on the right side of the cutting edge, like they don't sit, they don't wait, they have the ability and I honestly I don't even know how they do it half the time, but they're anticipating all of this chaos that's going on in college football. And it goes back to that, that analogy that I've heard them use recently skate to where the puck is. Everybody wants to chase. Like what these current little changes? And they're like, no, I'm running the better route to the ball in the gap Right, my baseball analogy, like that. That's what. That's what it's about with them, and they're doing it right now. And I am just excited to work with people, um, as passionate as they are. They love this community and they're they're they're really setting the tone for college sports.
Speaker 1:I've been able to be around him a little bit more lately, for a couple of different things we're doing.
Speaker 1:And I think there's a lot to be learned about people love, following people and then setting and establishing a culture. It doesn't just happen. So there's a couple of little key, key principles here. Yeah, but then it is. It's the work, the vision, the team, the communication, that clarity yep, that clarity of the plan and where we're going.
Speaker 1:Even though you can have lots of times in life whether it's a business or whatever we're doing a lot of times where we think we're going ends up getting there in twisted turns and ways because there's challenges and problems that are going to come up. But if you've got a team so committed to getting there, it's almost like bring it on, it doesn't matter, they're not afraid of it, just bring it on because we know where we're heading and our goals are so lofty and our vision is so clear and our team is so on the same page and our plan is so precise on how we're going to execute. And then we're going to go, work our asses off and work harder than you. It's, it's infectious and and and.
Speaker 1:In a lot of ways, you know, I've had a lot of business over the years and I think, man, I think of some of the failures I've had, and I think it was because you didn't have kind of this thing that he creates. I'm going to give credit at the top, but it is his whole team, but I've never seen anything like it. So, to be like, I'm excited to hear what your the plan is here, but when, when, when they, when you moved over, I'm like, oh man, this is going to be great. I don't even know what it is yet till today.
Speaker 3:That's why I wanted to call you to have to get on. But no, I'm excited to talk about it and he's my boss now, which I'm still getting used, so hopefully it's cool with this. But kind of like, when all of this stuff was starting to kind of take place, jeremiah was back in new york at a uh being honored as one of the best athletic directors in the country, right, yeah, and um, I texted him congrats and for him he, he took like a you know, I think it was like five or six people out of the athletic department off his senior staff with him because he wanted them to kind of experience that scene. And none of it was about him, like he didn't make any of it about him. Like everything he was telling me was like it's because of my team, I want to be here without my team. Um, he, he constantly talks about that and I mean it might. It might not seem like it holds weight, but I'm telling you like how, how adamant he is about the message and how genuine he is about the message.
Speaker 3:I was just like I just I don't see any reason why I shouldn't want to work with this guy Like he's. He's all about the bigger picture of the team. And he said something um, at a, an event I emceed, uh earlier this summer that I thought was was kind of a cool thing. And when it comes to decision-making, he said, you know, he said that sometimes make, even making the wrong decision, is better than making no decision. I mean, tommy, where where would you be at right now If you know the first building you you, you know you built. You were just hung up on what light bulbs forever and you just never made a decision about what light bulbs you wanted in a room.
Speaker 1:You'd never go anywhere. And it's almost like that resiliency that he has. Yeah, it's, it's, it's, he's spot on, because he and you're gonna, and you're gonna accept that you're gonna make some mistakes, you're going to have some unforced errors because you are so out there, and that's okay, that's okay. But when that's your culture, it also builds, it comes with resilience. It's kind of pre-baked, because you're like, hey, we're going to go for it and again, it may not be exactly what we're thinking, but we're going to be leading out there. I love the analogy, the puck analogy today, because that's exactly what they're doing. It goes back to.
Speaker 3:You know I drum up another sports analogy, but how often does a coach say, if you make a mistake, but you make it going 100 miles an hour, like I'm not going to fault you for that. Sometimes you make the wrong decision, but it's better than just sitting there and making no decision, because if you, if you don't make a decision, you stand neutral. And if you stand neutral long enough, you're probably going to slide backwards, especially with with uh, where you need to go in college athletics right now.
Speaker 1:Right, I can't, I can't even imagine, yeah, like, and the fact that, uh, I'm just really proud of him. So what, what's?
Speaker 3:the plan. So I don't know if so again, we're not stuck in neutral, we're moving forward. Boise state, you know, a couple of years ago they, they vaguely mentioned this idea Bronco studios and it was just too early. Then it just they, they just weren't ready. And even now I don't know, honestly, tommy, I don't know if we're fully like, ready. But you know what? We're ready to make decisions and we're ready to sprint.
Speaker 3:And so Boise State wants to build Bronco Studios, and they brought me on to help run this thing along with Chris Coutts, and basically it is finding ways to monetize the incredible stories of Boise State, which Boise State itself has long been one of the greatest success stories in college sports, the underdog that always finds how to do more with less. And so now they're creating a place that is convenient for athletes, coaches, athletic administration to come to and share those stories on campus. We can jump in a room, jump on a podcast, a show, whatever it is, and now we can start to make sure that we tell our story as best as Boise State has ever done it, and that's what we're excited about. We have a temporary studio right now. We're working on the future. I, you know, I've in the past, I've been told don't set timelines on things, but you know, I think we're so excited. I think we're looking at, you know, sometime in the next year getting that permanent home and I think it's. It's going to look sharp.
Speaker 3:And if you know Boise state and again, Cody Gogler, jeremiah Vicki, chris Coots, all these guys over there, you know that it's going to be second to none. We're going to do this right and it's going to be awesome and I'm so excited for it. And I also have to mention people like Spencer Danielson, uh, leon Rice, two guys that I've worked with for a long time that they get it. They get it. There's a number of other coaches over there Justin Schultz, beck Rogar. These guys are all awesome people that I'm so excited to get to know better and make sure that we're doing our best to not only tell their stories but their athletes stories and share them with Boise and, honestly, beyond that, because now you know the way media has changed. You're no longer even just confined to your city, right? It's YouTube, it's social media, it's all this stuff that now expands across the country, and even globally, for that matter. But we're we're really excited about this, tommy, and to where to where we can take it, talk a little bit about the brand.
Speaker 1:You've been around sports professional college. I mean, this is your life. Talk about the strength of the Boise State brand in the nation and just how it's an incredible. You don't realize it. It's just that things like this just don't happen.
Speaker 3:So when I lived my sophomore year of college I actually played baseball down in Texas and whenever I told anybody where are you from, and I'd say Washington, and they'd go DC and I would say no, Washington, Otherwise I would have said Washington DC. But why I bring that up is because now I get to travel out and mostly it's to cover Boise State. But whether you're in Louisiana or Washington DC or Florida or whatever, and they go where you from and you say Idaho and they go Iowa, and you go no, Idaho, and they're where's that? I know, do you know the blue field? Oh, Boise State, the Bluefield potatoes, Like I just don't know if there is another. I know that Alabama is big and LSU and all this stuff, but like when you talk about their state, I don't know if the university or field resonates at the magnitude that Boise State does in Idaho. Like the power of the blue is real, I'm telling you it is.
Speaker 1:It's the front porch to our community, and what a beautiful front porch it is.
Speaker 1:It's awesome. I mean the thing that I often tell Jeremiah, if you could plan. I mean you think about our people, just think about the families that live here. Sometimes we get, but you think about just all of these families that make up our community in the Treasure Valley. And then you think about Idaho and you think about the heritage and you think about everything here and how he's come in and embraced what was there, which was a great foundation. But but instead of trying to go forward with with a plan that didn't embrace the past, jd embraced that.
Speaker 1:It was Blue Collar Club. It's who are we, it's what our heritage is. So everyone that was here is like, yes, this guy gets us, but then he takes it to the next level, yes. And so you go from where we were 10 years ago to where we are now nationally and you think about you could not have planned it any better for the people of Idaho, for the state of Idaho, for the heritage of Idaho, for the Treasure Valley, what a front porch it is. And then you walk that campus, you see and same thing everywhere I travel, everywhere it is the topic that comes up. And then you have a little bit of good fortune. Like an Austin Gentry I mean, come on.
Speaker 3:Yeah, he was unbelievable. I mean, come on, yeah, he was unbelievable. I mean I say the blue now, and maybe Ashton is going to be known across the country just as well as the blue is, for that matter. And you see what he's doing at the Raiders already. He's lovable.
Speaker 1:He's just one of a kind. Well, kellen Moore was very much that way. I mean, we've had these transcendent athletes too. But what's the value of that? Could never be. You can never put a number on it for the state and where it sits. Right now we're on the subcommittee, jd and I, for the president search, but it's the most important job in the state. This thing is just poised academically, like where it sits, just the academics, the, the faculty, um, and then you come over to athletics.
Speaker 3:We are we are in a great position. This is such a um a relevant point to bring up right now. So recently, texas State became a part of the Pac-12. If you would have asked three years ago or speculated that, you'd have been like, if you would have asked three years ago or speculated that, you'd have been like there's no way, right. So it was about three years ago.
Speaker 3:Texas State got a new president and Texas State's president has been investing into athletics, right. And all of a sudden now they start to run their own sprint. And three years of that attitude and they have now parlayed that into an invite to the Pac-12, which now elevates everything for them. They go from the Sunbelt to the Pac-12, right. And so that university's president, that vision that he had seeing the value in sports, the front porch of his university and making that front porch as beautiful as it could be, right. And now that has been so attractive, to the point now that the Pac-12 has said come on over here, we want you guys to help us build this thing, and so I do think this is an important decision for Boise State. And getting back to even to JD here for a second, so you bring up, you know, the blue collar mentality, which is awesome, and it is a staple of Boise Idaho. But I've been here long enough to also realize that there is a dangerous side to that, and what I mean is you, can we take so much pride in doing more with less, right, yeah, but you better not get content with that always being the mission, because you know what's cooler than doing more with less, doing more with more, doing more with yeah. And jeremiah is going out there and you look at the new scoreboard, the new sound system, the north end zone. He speculates about the east side, right? Um, the only cooler than doing more with more or sorry, doing more with less is doing more with a little bit of more, yeah, but you had to do more with less to get there.
Speaker 1:Yes, and that's the beautiful thing In a very short time and man hats off to him and his team, cody. I mean, it's just been incredible. It's been incredible. It's very inspiring. Hey, what are you looking forward to coming up? Well, I mean, the season's getting ready to go.
Speaker 3:Notre Dame's going to be huge Notre Dame's going to be so cool and I think that you know there's some cool things coming down the pipe even with that. I'm just going to leave it at that, but I think that that game is just going to be epic. My grandfather, super Irish dude.
Speaker 1:My grandfather. Same thing Like I grew up in fact makes me get a little emotional, because my grandpa was my hero, both of them. They were very different human beings. One was very, very Mormon and one was very, very Catholic, and the one that was Catholic. In his basement he lived in a little teeny house, he worked at Kennecock Copper, he was very blue-collar and in his basement he had the things he loved and he had an old Motorola record player, but it was one of those big console things and I have it in my man cave right now. That's like when he died. I like that's.
Speaker 1:I wanted that cool and I wanted his 40-year service ring from Kennecott Copper and I have both of those things. But we I grew up every time I was at his house dancing to the Notre Dame fight song. In front of that he, he was a passionate, passionate Notre Dame fan. Just just it of that. He was a passionate, passionate Notre Dame fan. It was his thing. That was just a connection that he loved. So I remember watching those games with him. Here he is living in Magna, utah, working on a copper mine, but that was his team, so it's going to be great.
Speaker 3:Same deal. Grandpa Sullivan always making sure you're drinking the right type of whiskey and stuff like that. So he would be. I know that he thinks it's really, really cool. He's not in the state to travel anymore and that's fine. He'll be watching it on TV but as a bucket list item.
Speaker 3:I'm so excited to go there. I've got to see some really cool venues during my time at Boise State and watch them cover some really cool opponents. I got a chance to experience just a little bit of that killing where I got here in 11. They went 12 and one. It was a special season and I get to connect that with the Ashton Gentry era. So I've seen a lot, but this one Notre Dame, at Notre Dame South Bend I mean it touched down Jesus. It's going to be the coolest experience. What am I excited for? I'm excited for that. I'm excited to figure out how we're going to tell the stories and stuff for this whole season. But if you want to talk about a road trip, that's the one that's circled on this, and then I'm excited to see people like Maddox Mattson rise up All these guys that have to step up with Ashton Gentry.
Speaker 3:Now out Cage Casey, the left tackle, phenomenal dude, mason Randolph at the center of the offensive line. Ty Benefield the safety that led the team in tackles last year that's going to make a big step. You're going to get to know people like Max Steege played very limited time last year but with Ahmed Hassani now gone, he's a guy that's going to have to step up. So we get to learn about these new guys that we didn't know before. And now we get to see if Spencer Danielson can run this thing back and prove to college football that Boise State is a power team and deserves national recognition, and I just it's going to be an awesome fall. It's going to be an awesome fall because they have a great leader and I just think they are built different. They are built for this. Yeah, wow.
Speaker 1:You got me going. Yeah, right, a little bit of basketball. I think they've had a tremendous. I mean, it is so interesting to see how different college athletics is now, because it's kind of like you reload, you reload. But what I love about it and maybe I'd love to get your take on this when you have a coaching staff like we do, they're built for that, right. Yeah, because they're just the systems there and Leon's there and it's just very excited about what's going on too. They've who they've lined up for. This year is going to be incredible.
Speaker 3:I know that we've said this in the past, but you look at their roster right now and I'm telling you, the roster construction is is really, really impressive. Yes, they will miss Tyson Dagenhart dearly, but I actually went out to practice yesterday. I'm telling you, tommy, they look pretty good and they're as deep as they've ever been. And the cool thing about this era is that the transfer portal, nil, it is giveth and it is taketh, but Boise State doesn't get caught up in what is or isn't fair or any of that stuff. They just kind of charge forward and do what they believe is the best. And by having that attitude, I mean you can look at it Like look who's entered the portal for them and look who they've gotten out of the portal, and they're on the winning side of this thing, tommy. And you brought up the coaching staff, the continuity there. And again, if you don't know, you don't know. You can look at it from a bird's eye view and just think they just have a coaching staff. Tommy, what's the difference?
Speaker 3:I was talking with Spencer Aarons yesterday. Spencer Aarons is a true freshman. He just represented team Canada at the U19 FIBA World Cup in Switzerland. Right, I saw that he had offers from I mean, you name it Oregon, illinois, washington. He had, he had offers from big 10 schools everywhere and he chose Boise state. And so this is like when you bring up the fact like no, this coaching staff cares, they're going to develop you, and you're like, yeah, okay, everybody says that. And then you talk with Spencer and you're like, how's it different here? Mike Burns flew toitzerland just to support and watch spencer aaron's play in that right. It's not words with them, it is action I love watching burns.
Speaker 1:Oh, he's so intense. It's like my favorite thing, I'm telling you you need.
Speaker 3:Okay, have a special like two hour long version of your show here. Invite burns on. That guy is filled with story after story after story.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna do that.
Speaker 3:He's oh, he's just but man, he bernie's like the coolest, he's so awesome him tim jury david moat.
Speaker 2:Hey he's so intense.
Speaker 3:He's intense. But here's the deal he's intense when he needs to be intense and then you get him away from the court and he's like again, just like one of the best guys they'd probably go have a beer with not to ever have, but I would love to probably his son plays.
Speaker 1:Played at one of the local high schools. Okay, yeah, and one of my buddies was uh, was an assistant coach there and we're sitting talking. I'm like how's that going like? And he's like he's the coolest parent. He doesn't say it. I'm like really, yeah, just because you see his demeanor on the it's just awesome.
Speaker 3:I think you get around some of these coaches. That's something they immediately realize is they're like I don't want a parent calling me telling me how to coach. So, even though I know a heck of a lot more than that guy down there coaching high school, I don't want somebody doing that to me. So you know what we're just going to. Let him figure it out. And the cool thing about that is you let them work through adversity and then you are just there to to be the guy to lean on after it all.
Speaker 3:Uh, what is your, what is your wife thought of the transition? So far, so good. You know I. Uh, the cool thing about the you know this, this transition is it. You know I go from more working like a two to 11 schedule to more like a nine to five. Which man seeing the sun come up? You know it's, oh, it's just great. I get off and the sun's still up. I get to go home and have dinner with my kids. So I've I've lost a little bit of time in the morning with them, but I get. I get so much more on the back end of it and you know my wife.
Speaker 1:You know now's the time to do it, cause when I I did, I did night shifts in the ER for 10 straight years when my kids were little and I'm. But as your kids get into school, man, the clock changes Because you're going to see them more and that's going to be significant.
Speaker 3:My daughter, like I said, five days a week next year. She did two days a week two years ago, three days a week last year, five days a week this coming year, and if I were to drop her off at 8, get home at 11, I'm not seeing this little person that I'm telling you I love more than life itself. I would, I want to see her five days a week and that would, that would take from my soul.
Speaker 3:And so now, by hopefully mixing up the schedule that's the reason, yeah, so now I've shifted a little bit and I think that you know habits and things like that and routines, they're so important how we build ourselves and craft ourselves. And you know, you know habits and things like that and routines, they're so important how we build ourselves and craft ourselves. And you know, I was, I mean I'll say you know kind of stuck in those same routines, those same habits for 14 years and now, by just even this little shift where I drive four more miles to work, still cover a team that I've covered for you know, 80% of my job, even at KTVB. You know just that little shift, even a KTVB, um, you know just that, that little shift. It it's uh, it's good for your soul man, yeah, like this sometimes.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it is, I get to rebuild those habits and analyze how I can structure myself to be the most efficient, best version of myself, professionally, uh, family wise, all that stuff. And so it's. It's just been kind of fun to now, you know, take notes and say I kind of want to start my day off like this, and if I do this now, I you know I don't have to do it later or whatever it is. And so it's just a, it's a blank slate to try to build on and become the best version of myself.
Speaker 1:So for everyone listening out there, what's? Uh? Where should they be looking for the new stuff? And tell us a little bit how to follow along?
Speaker 3:In the short term. Immediately, we can definitely tell you Boise State's social media channels. So if you go to Bronco Sports, you can also find any of the main accounts. Whether it be football, men's basketball, softball they all have their own individual accounts. We'll certainly be all over social media Instagram, twitter, facebook, all of that stuff but then, on top of that, right now we will be utilizing the YouTube platform, and that's another platform that you know they have a really good following on there and so our reach will be there. And then you know, after that we're just going to kind of see what the future holds.
Speaker 1:Tommy. That's where those stories will be, that's where to follow along, and you'll be digging in and sharing more and getting it out there and we'll tell that story and hopefully grow this thing.
Speaker 3:I'm telling you the future is going to be cool with it, though Listen.
Speaker 1:I can't wait, every time Like it's a what a great fit. And um you're. You're an unbelievable guy, man.
Speaker 1:Thanks for coming on and thanks for the example you set. I I it may sound corny, I don't even care. So I'm sitting here talking to you today, cause I don't know you that well. I'm thinking, man, what a blessing for all of the people that are going to be around you, the athletes. No, you're a pretty unique guy. So to have you in the clubhouse with the leadership and then to have you around these athletes and say, hey, that's a guy I want to be like someday, that's a pretty cool deal man.
Speaker 3:It's another huge point of pride I've taken in this thing, tommy, is that I've always tried to relate to the athletes and I have to consider what's best for news, but I also, I I take their, I I take their thoughts and feelings into consideration at times and there've been moments where that's been returned to me and I'm excited to really invest in building those types of relationships. All right, man.