Interview with 14 Year old Author, Writer and literary Phenom, Viktoriia Krechkovska

Interview Transcripts

Queen Quet:

Episode transcript:

Angela Barrett – “I always say, thank you so much for being with me today.”

Elisabeth Kovacs – “Thank you, Angela, for the opportunity to be here with you and talk about the cool things we make in South Carolina.”

Angela Barrett – “So South Carolina feature makers, give everybody just sort of an overview of your nonprofit organization. Give everybody sort of an overview of who you are, and how important that is to us here in South Carolina.”

Elisabeth Kovacs – “Well thank you. Again, South Carolina feature makers is a is the Workforce and Education Foundation, a nonprofit for the South Carolina Manufacturers Alliance. And so, we had that connected dotted line right to the the South Kona Manufacturers Alliance represent South Carolina manufacturers. And manufacturing is a very large base in, in in the state of South Carolina.”

Elisabeth Kovacs – “We have over 6000 manufacturing facilities in South Carolina. We 30% of our jobs are tied to that. And we make some of the coolest products in the world. We are a premium brand state, and people don’t know of the cool things that we make in South Carolina.”

Angela Barrett – “So before we get into some of those cool things, let’s talk about how this the educational part for not just students, but parents and other how that ties in with what you do.”

Elisabeth Kovacs – “So we work very closely, with a, an online platform called Tableau. And students can build a profile and highlight their skills and abilities and whether it’s, you know, their grades, their extracurricular activities, videos of them making things and some of their classes, competitions, like maybe first robotics they can upload and then that, that platform creates a, a resume automatically for those students.”

Elisabeth Kovacs – “Those students can find scholarship apps, around the globe for things that they would be, qualified for. And so we have partnered with Tableau, and this is available to all students and all schools in South Carolina at no charge for them. So, in addition to kind of being that connectivity piece, we do, several various initiatives through South Carolina feature makers.”

Elisabeth Kovacs – “We host an annual South Carolina Stem signing Day in partnership with Boeing and BMW and Nucor Steel and Michelin. We also have a South Carolina manufacturer’s leadership program that we are, that we have begun with the Darla Moore School of Business, where we have our, leaders in manufacturing actually here who are getting executive training so that we can move them up in the workplace here and keep them in South Carolina.”

Elisabeth Kovacs – “So we have our hands in a lot of, various initiatives just to promote, manufacturing and the types of jobs and that they are good paying jobs and that they are clean and technology forward. Right? I mean, a lot of our companies are, dabbling in artificial intelligence and, you know, robotics and things of that nature.”

Elisabeth Kovacs – “And that’s not displacing jobs, that’s just changing the way jobs are.”

Angela Barrett – “Right, right, right, right. So now let’s talk about some of the cool things that are made here in software and all that. Probably a lot of us do not know about.”

Elisabeth Kovacs – “Well, so you can see the background behind me. And, we had done this little, sketch a couple of years ago, and I like to use it when I’m talking to students and, and educators as it’s kind of a game. Right? And so you’ll see on here, we have, we have a commercial jet and we have a fighter jet.”

Elisabeth Kovacs – “And so South Carolina is the only state in the country that produces both of these types of, of aircraft. Which is pretty cool. You know, I could play a game with you and ask you to, to name some of these products, but you’ll see three different cars, right? So and we are home to BMW was our first what we call OEM, which is you know, a main automotive, manufacturer, which brings with them a lot of their suppliers.”

Elisabeth Kovacs – “Right. You can’t have a BMW without having a car seat, which is made by another company, and a steering wheel that’s made by another company. We also make Mercedes Benz vans, sprinter vans down in the Charleston area, as well as Volvo. This was of its first U.S. facility was, right down in Berkeley County, which is just north of Charleston County.”

Elisabeth Kovacs – “We make Starbucks coffee beans. And so, you know, people don’t think of those kinds of things. And we like to really, advocate for that. You know, we are we have eight tire manufacturers in South Carolina, and we produce over 160,000 tires a day in South Carolina. And that’s not only for cars, but that’s for, big equipment.”

Elisabeth Kovacs – “You know, you can see those those big tires going down Interstate 26 toward the South Dillon Ports Authority, they’re being put on to our ships and going across the ocean. So we we touch every part of the world in South Carolina.”

Angela Barrett – So what about the TPI?

Elisabeth Kovacs – “They pull it. They are Aiken County, Cottonelle. So, you know, I’m the advocate. I like to use your products. Right. So Cottonelle made right, right along Augusta River. Kimberly-Clark.”

Angela Barrett – “Yeah. I did not know that. Cottonelle. Right. That’s for sure. Now, I know what Coca-Cola is. And that they’re here. So I’m trying to figure, is that a Pringles can?”

Elisabeth Kovacs – “Is that Pringles? Where does it not? So it’s it’s not they make it or it’s the canning. So it’s the actual cans that, that go into some of our products as well that, I can’t really now I can see what’s up there. Let’s see what else. Hey, you. Well, and people don’t think of the everyday household items, right?”

Elisabeth Kovacs – “So, I like to engage with students. Like, what do you think is in your house that’s made here in South Carolina? You can see a refrigerator right behind me and Samsung, when you’re driving up 26 towards Greenville, fans that Samsung has 1,000,000 square foot facility right at the Newberry exit. Right. So people don’t think of appliances, right?”

Elisabeth Kovacs – “I mean, you brought toilet paper, but they’re household items, data and and, you know, they also make washing machines. And we make bricks in South Carolina. Right. Frozen food so mean. It’s very exciting. And and I don’t think, people are aware of the different opportunities. Right. You don’t have to manufacturer. You don’t have to be in production.”

Elisabeth Kovacs – “You can work in manufacturing as a marketing person, as a, you know, governmental affairs person, as, you know, an engineer, you can create designs, you know, so you can be a graphic designer and there are art and manufacturing. Right? So I think the perception is, is like, oh, I got to go and make these things. But they employ all kinds of different people and a lot of our facilities also, even have health care clinics on their site.”

Elisabeth Kovacs – “So, you know, they employ doctors and nurses and, those perks are available to not only the associates or the team members who work at those facilities, but also their families.”

Angela Barrett – “Yes, yes, yes. Very important. Now, tell me about the socks.”

Elisabeth Kovacs – “So those or, I’m blanking right now, so we’ll just come back to the socks, right? Yeah. So we also make a lot of defense, clothing. You see kind of a vest back there. And so I can’t remember if the socks are defense related or, or if they’re just like, we have Adidas, which is in Spartanburg, so, right, right.”

Elisabeth Kovacs – Right there. Shoes. Some of those make other ones. So you got me on that one because I just blanked on that. Sorry.

Angela Barrett – “That’s okay. There’s that’s a lot. 6000. You know, that’s a lot to remember.”

Elisabeth Kovacs – “And you’re based in Lexington County, right? I mean, oh, we have manufacturing. We’ve got a very strong manufacturing base in Lexington County, but, all across the bars, all across our state. Yeah, yeah.”

Angela Barrett – “So, you know, I saw somewhere on Facebook that was it, you that got to go on the BMW off road course, was that. Yes. And how fun was that?”

Elisabeth Kovacs – “That was very fun. And, and then you.”

Angela Barrett – “Have you one of theirs, I guess.”

Elisabeth Kovacs – “Yes. So as part of their manufacturing facility, they have a test track where individuals who, who purchase their BMW get to come and experience various things that cars can do. And so they do host events. And I had the opportunity at one of their events last year to, to do that. And so, they put you in a car with, some of the things you can drive yourself and others you are you’re a passenger in.”

Elisabeth Kovacs – “But I did their off road thing where, you know, you go up a hill and, you know, two wheels come off the ground and you’re suspending on two wheels. But it’s all done by the, the dynamics and the aerodynamics of the vehicle. And so we made some pretty cool, very high end products. This is Carolina.”

Angela Barrett – “Yeah. I have heard people talk about going to those different courses up there for purchase to be in Delaware. And, you know, some of them being on the racetrack and some of the offered and things like that. So that’s pretty.”

Elisabeth Kovacs – “Cool. I got up to 95 miles an hour, and that’s about as high as I wanted to go before I had to sell were brands. You know, I want to mention, as you see, these products here, is that something that, a CMA started several years ago was, a competition called The Coolest Thing Made in South Carolina.”

Elisabeth Kovacs – “And, actually, last year’s winner. So this is our fourth annual year. 2025 will be our fourth annual year and nominations open actually next Monday. And last year’s winner was the Honda Talon. So the side by sides. So think of it as like a dune buggy. And I’m very excited we get to go do a test track of the side by side in a nice.”

Elisabeth Kovacs – “So, I heard you get really dirty, but, I’m very excited about that. And so, you know, I would love for for the folks who follow you to participate in nominating cool products and vote. So it’s like a, a sweet 16, basketball competition where we open it up for the first week as you know, the general population, and then people can vote daily.”

Elisabeth Kovacs – “And we’ll get it down to, to 16 and then eight and then four, and then we’ll have the winner, at the end of March.”

Angela Barrett – And so where would people go to go do this voting and put in their.

Elisabeth Kovacs – Do we have a dedicated website for that? Coolest thing. Made an essay and I’ll be happy to send that information on to you as well.

Angela Barrett – “Yeah, that’d be cool. Coolest thing. Right. All right. Does that sounds like.”

Elisabeth Kovacs – Manufacturing madness.com? That probably. Yeah.

Angela Barrett – “Just send it to me. We’ll, we’ll put them out on the, social media pages. Very cool. So now students that are looking to, I’m going to say resume a, can I have a prebuilt resume A for them. They go to the website and sign up under the student.”

Elisabeth Kovacs – “Yeah. They can go to our website feature makers.com. And it says create your profile here. And that will take them directly into the tower platform, where they can start to build their build, build themselves right, to showcase themselves. And the cool thing about that is that that’s also, you know, companies are companies who have profiles, can talk directly with those students.”

Elisabeth Kovacs – “And this is a national platform. So as I said, this is not just South Carolina centric. We have over 135,000 students with a profile in South Carolina. But we’re also the only state that has a dedicated, initiative with talent. You know, so so they’ve got over a million users on their platform, you know, nationwide.”

Elisabeth Kovacs – “But we really are focusing on how to highlight South Carolinians and opportunities. And which doesn’t mean that students can’t be privy to opportunities and, and other states, you know, our companies are from around the world, and sometimes they have opportunities, a facility in another state where they’re looking for a summer intern. And so our South Carolina students can go do that as well.”

Angela Barrett – “And again, this is not just for students, but for adults as well who are luring maybe to highlight their skills or, absolutely.”

Elisabeth Kovacs – “The platform is really designed from 13 to 30 year olds, really kind of that primary age group. But, once a student signs up, you know, then that carries them. So we like to say it’s kind of like a LinkedIn and a Facebook got married. Right? So, you know, the students use their personal email addresses versus their school addresses so that they can continue on posts.”

Elisabeth Kovacs – Post K12.

Angela Barrett – “Gotcha. So now do any of these South Carolina industries, manufacturers, do any of them have sort of their own educational program for people to be able to go and learn more? Not necessarily hands on, but maybe, kind the, go ahead and get some of that knowledge.”

Elisabeth Kovacs – “So, I mean, basically, yes, the bigger manufacturers have that, ability to, to have those kinds of programs. And so, we assist them. But, you know, we also for the smaller and medium sized manufacturers who don’t have that, that’s something that we can help with. Right. So let’s just talk example. I hate to talk about some of the big guys, but, Boeing has a Dreamliners program where individuals can go down, students and, can go on field trips down there, and they can learn how to make planes and things of that nature.”

Elisabeth Kovacs – “You know, BMW has a museum where individuals can, you know, and go to their museum and, and and so, again, we work with our partners across the state to make those connections. You know, we certainly have we go to career fairs and highlight these industries as well. So yeah, there’s lots of different ways to kind of touch and feel.”

Elisabeth Kovacs – “Right. You can have some hands on activities based on some of those manufacturers as well. So yeah, there’s there’s a lot of opportunities out there.”

Angela Barrett – “So I didn’t get to this on the website. But yeah, I’m sure you can answer this for me. So somewhere on there, it there’s a list of all of our manufacturers here in South Carolina.”

Elisabeth Kovacs – “So not a list not a comprehensive list. All but it’s more of the industries. And so you can find out about the industries. And then you can have kind of select here the big players within this industry across South Carolina. Here’s the different types of education you need, whether it’s just a, you know, internship, you know, a work based learning, whether it’s a certificate, whether it’s a two year or a four year, you know, the beauty of manufacturing is, you know, you can start when you’re, you know, in high school or even starting out in college.”

Elisabeth Kovacs – “And a lot of times they’re going to pay for your education. So, it’s a way to not even have to take on student loan debt. And explore those various opportunities available.”

Angela Barrett – “Yeah. Yeah. That’s, that’s yeah, a great way to start if you can, so this is a big opportunity for those for those students for sure. And like you said, for the young parents or young adults who have sort of incur, well, I don’t know what I want to do or just what I’d love to do, but how do I do it?”

Angela Barrett – “How do I go about it? And it’s a good, you know, segue into that. That’s perfect. Well, all right. So I’m excited about this cooler, this coolest thing made contest that’s come you said it starts next week, but that’s really them submitting. So you really won’t be able to vote next week. But the maybe in the next going right.”

Elisabeth Kovacs – “Yeah. So nominations are open so people can nominate that first week and then then people will start voting. You know, it’s it’s going to be kind of exciting. I know that we have it what there’s 191 countries in the world. And, you know, we’ve had products that have been, nominated, you know, in 130 countries from from nominations from 130 entries.”

Elisabeth Kovacs – “So, you know, like last year, just for example, Lockheed Martin was the coolest thing. So, so that fighter jet that you see in the top of that and, you know, I mean, they were putting on social media to have people vote for them all over the world. And so we were getting votes from all over the world.”

Angela Barrett – “That’s pretty cool. Yeah, I’m going to have to keep up with that one. So make sure you send that one to me, but we’ll get it on. Yeah. That’s cool. That’s my geek side coming out.”

Elisabeth Kovacs – But I love it.

Angela Barrett – “Okay. Well, thank you so much for explaining this, to us. So it’s, on Facebook, it is the South Carolina of future makers and I think is is the future makers is the Facebook page. Yes, yes.”

Elisabeth Kovacs – “We’re on our social media, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.”

Angela Barrett – “Yeah. Right. Well, fantastic. Well, thank you so very, very much for being with me today. And, let us in on this pretty cool thing that I did not know existed.”

Elisabeth Kovacs – “Well, thank you, Angela, for letting us tell our story and getting you geeked out and excited about the the cool things that we make in South Carolina.”

Angela Barrett – Absolutely. Thank you so much.

Episode transcript:

Angela Barrett – “Hey, thank you so much for joining me today.”

Frank Knapp – “Azure, thank you very much for the opportunity. I appreciate this.”

Angela Barrett – “Yeah. Well, I am excited. I was going through all of your accomplishments, over the years, and we don’t have enough time to go over all of those, but, let’s first talk about you being the president, CEO, and founder of the South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce. So tell me all about that and what it entails.”

Angela Barrett – “And going forward, plans. Things of that nature. So it’s sort of a three part question.”

Frank Knapp – “Yeah, sure. So, I co-founded the Soccer Small Business Chamber of Commerce back in the year 2000. So we’re on a 25th year. So doing this for a long time, and we I co-founded it with some others because we realized that there was no organization that was representing the general interests of small businesses and only small businesses.”

Frank Knapp – “In the South Carolina legislature, we had plenty of trade associations, which we do still. But they have a narrow interest. We wanted to have one that could, address a lot of different issues in the General Assembly. So, you know, we just, took the chance and and launched it. And we were, you know, we’ve been very, very successful for a small operation, covering a lot of different issues.”

Frank Knapp – “And our first issue was that, small business owners who are mostly, as you know, pass through, businesses. So they’re a profit from their business flows directly into their personal tax returns, and then they pay the tax, at that level as a, personal tax return. So in South Carolina, the tax return back then, the tax rate for a small for a small business owner, that was the S-Corp LLC or sole proprietor was 7% because that was what they were paying.”

Frank Knapp – “As individuals. Corporations were already paying 5%. And we just thought that that was unfair, and that we ought to have parity with C corporations. And so we launched a campaign early in our, existence, to, to get the, income tax, state income tax on profit from small businesses, reduced to 5%. Took us a several years to do that.”

Frank Knapp – “And we had to, you know, had fights, a battles to get that done. But we did get it done. And it eventually dropped to 5% that the General Assembly said, this is such a good idea. We’ll drop it again. So I think they dropped it to 3% for a profit, to a pass through small business owner.”

Frank Knapp – “And, so that’s that was where our first major achievement.”

Angela Barrett – “So what are you guys like currently right now working on? I know that you and I had to do something not too long ago to get together, and we had some big things going on down at the statehouse, so we weren’t able to get together. But, what kind of, what’s the agenda right now? What are you working on?”

Frank Knapp – “So right now we have several issues, and some of them are very big. When we’re working on the issue of energy in South Carolina. I know that your listeners have heard a lot about the future energy needs of the state, because with our growing, and so the question that is, how are we going to generate new energy?”

Frank Knapp – “You and how are we going to where are we going to locate it? What kind of energy generation is that going to be? Who’s going to pay for it? You know, all those are important questions we have been involved since 2002, in intervening in, utility rate hikes, on electricity and gas with, our investor own utilities.”

Frank Knapp – “Back then it was electric or gas. Now it’s Dominion and then Duke is the other one. That is a you know, that’s their own utility that are regulated by the state through the Public Service Commission. We’ve intervened 11 times in rate hearings since 2002. And, we you know, we know how the system works. We know how utilities really make their money.”

Frank Knapp – “They really make their money from building things. And because they get this guaranteed rate of return. So they like to build new generation or transmission or something they like, just like the, And so this last year, there was a big push in the House to pass this 90 plus page bill. It was like an omnibus bill for for energy.”

Frank Knapp – “And a lot of different things were thrown in there, and we opposed it. Not because we don’t understand that we’re gonna need new generation of energy here, just, for us in the future. But because that bill had like three anti-consumer provisions in it. And so we fought that law with some other consumer groups. And we stopped it in the Senate.”

Frank Knapp – “And then the Senate said, well, we still need to address the issue so that this past summer, late in the summer, they started putting a, a Senate special committee on the, future of energy needs in South Carolina. So we were participating in that and still participating in that. The House has reintroduced that 90 plus page bill.”

Frank Knapp – “So we are, again fighting that in the House. But at the end of the day, we have to say what’s causing the energy generation needs. And right now in South Carolina, the utilities admit this. About 65% of our new energy needs in the state are driven by data centers. Data centers are what the, big tech uses to for them to do all the AI.”

Frank Knapp – “Okay. Right. And they are energy hawks. They consume so much energy. And actually they could they consume a lot of water, too. That, and they don’t bring a lot of economic value to the state. They don’t ha that many high paying jobs, you know. And, and so it doesn’t seem fair that, that all ratepayers are saddled with the responsibility of paying for your generation, that most of it is going to these data centers, that they really are benefiting from.”

Frank Knapp – “So that is a big battle right now in the South, General Assembly, as of how much more generation do we need? We and right now, just we need some, where is it going to be located? And what kind of generation is it going to be? I mean, you got gas plants or proposed gas plants out there.”

Frank Knapp – “We you know, they’re the solar people. There were solar out there. And now there’s a there’s a, push to reassess whether we we can get the private sector to complete the two failed nuclear plants up in Fairfield County, to generate actually, and then the last thing is who pays for it? Well, the who pays for it is should be important to everybody, all your listeners, whether they’re riff gas customers or business customers.”

Frank Knapp – “Who’s going to pay for this new generation? Because if, if when we say go, are we’re going to build new generation. Your rates are going up. And who we have been in this since 2002 to keep the rates as low as possible for small businesses. So we know the rates are going to go up if you have new generation.”

Frank Knapp – So that new generation better benefit everybody. If it’s not it’s only benefiting data centers that we shouldn’t have to pay for it. That’s the bottom one right?

Angela Barrett – “Well, and you know, I know that you’re looking at this small business end of it, but as you know, or a residential I mean, it is astronomical. The amount that we pay now versus what we did, you know, 4 or 5 years ago. I mean, it’s just crazy. We moved. And I’m not the only one in a fairly new subdivision, or part of a subdivision.”

Angela Barrett – “And the difference we pay from where we were. Now, mind you, we downsized is almost double what we used to pay in a house twice as big. Because now we are. It’s sort of not in the town, but just on the outskirts. But then we use this. You get your first bill, especially in the winter with the gap, the natural gas, and you’re like, oh, okay, beans and rice.”

Angela Barrett – “It is this month. But so yeah, anything that we can do to keep that from the small for the small businesses as well as the residential, that would be great. But, you know.”

Frank Knapp – “Angela, let me just say also that people listening may go, well, I like I, I like this convenience of being able to ask by phone for some detail thing, and it gives it right over on your computer and you’re using chat, you know, and.”

Frank Knapp – “Here’s the thing. We do not need to have any data centers that are supplying that, computation that enables you to benefit from AI. We don’t have to have them in South Carolina. If we did have one in South Carolina, you would never know.”

Angela Barrett – Right?

Frank Knapp – “Because. Because they’re everywhere else. So the issue becomes is why do we even need a data center here that really is going to drive up our need for more generation, and that everybody pay for that so that Google can make more profit? We don’t they know they’re in Georgia, they’re in North Carolina, they’re everywhere else. And we are getting the benefit from them right now.”

Frank Knapp – “You try to get use AI. As a service. Now, it doesn’t say, oh no, you live in South Carolina, you can’t do this, right?”

Angela Barrett – “Yeah. And I, you know, that’s a whole nother topic. Last stand right there in the middle. I’m like, wow, this is great. Wow. This is pretty scary. So that’s a whole nother oh, another topic. But yes, I agree that, whatever is to benefit, you know, the state is where we need to go for sure. So I think a so now you just tell me you had a guest on your podcast, which we’ll get to in just a minute, but this has to do with the at the statehouse about maybe some electoral reform kind of thing that you all have going.”

Angela Barrett – Is that something you guys are working on as well?

Frank Knapp – “Yeah. Yes. This is our second year of supporting something called instant runoff voting. Your listeners may recognize the terminology of, ranked choice voting. Ranked choice voting in South Carolina. We call it instant runoff voting. And there are 150 municipalities of South Carolina for their local elections. Require a majority vote, whether if somebody if the candidates are three candidates and nobody gets 50% plus one, you have a runoff.”

Frank Knapp – “Those runoffs are just as expensive of doing the election in the first place. So we like majority vote winners. I think that’s the best. That’s that’s really what democracy is all about. So why, if there’s a better way for people to go to those local elections and those parties and vote end up with a majority vote winner.”

Frank Knapp – “Oh, well, having a runoff, that the city would save money. The voters would not have to go back to the polls again. The there would be less staff time. Well, that’s what instant runoff voting is. It is an election method that allows the voter it put all the candidates on the ballot in. Most of our cities are all nonpartisan.”

Frank Knapp – “So they put everybody’s name on the ballot, and you rank order your your pick for that office. And then all the votes are counted. If nobody gets that 50%, they then go to the candidate voters who voted for the candidate, they got the least number of first place votes, and they take those voters, take the second choice and put it back in the system and recalculate.”

Frank Knapp – “And eventually what you end up with a consensus majority vote winner and is isn’t that nice? Is it that vice that we can end up with somebody that most people like, save the city money, taxpayers money? Nobody has to go back to the polls in two weeks. It’s it’s it’s as if things work. Over 50 municipalities, counties and even states use instant runoff voting.”

Frank Knapp – “We just think it’s an option that the municipalities ought to have. They don’t have to use it again. A lot of them, are using, what they’re using now, they would continue if they want to use is to run up voting. Fine. If they want to do plurality voting, 118 municipalities is allowed. Use plurality voting, meaning whoever gets the most votes, even though it’s about 50 wins.”

Frank Knapp – “We just don’t think that’s really a great way when you have more than 50% of the of your voters not wanting you, but you still win. All right. So that’s it. We’re proposing that, that the, the powers of the state be given the option of using this method. They don’t have to, forced to they but they can’t.”

Frank Knapp – The municipalities a municipal sociation supports it. We just now have to continue to push forward.

Angela Barrett – “So it wouldn’t necessarily be, it would be up to each, municipality to decide. And not a state.”

Frank Knapp – It’s not a state mandate. It’s simply.

Angela Barrett – Mandate. You know.

Frank Knapp – “There are three options now for how a municipality could conduct, their voting this would simply add a fourth.”

Angela Barrett – “Gotcha, gotcha. Well, I, I did listen to that. And I thought, well, that’s interesting. So, so now you also have the agency and, I do know through that agency, it took me a while to get through it again. We would we would be here all day to all of your accomplishments. But I know that you, created and hosted, a radio talk show, I think, you need to know now what was.”

Angela Barrett – And that was that ran a long time.

Frank Knapp – “Where I was. Ran for ten years, as well. You need to know if I was, radio talk show, I guess, on, about the. When I first started, it was a three hour program. That was a lot of work. Then a job to two. And, they went down to early one hour, but it ran for a long time, and I would just have guests on, that wanted to talk about, current events, either locally or statewide or nationally and, you know, so it was a lot of fun.”

Frank Knapp – “But I ended that in December of 20, 2016.”

Angela Barrett – “And I understand you, interviewed Hillary Clinton.”

Frank Knapp – “I did, that was the when she was running for president. You know, we are when you have a talk show, radio talk show, you want to get up and I knew the people who were running her campaign in South Carolina. And I said, hey, you know, I’d love to have, Senator Clinton on, and, and chat with her for a while on my show.”

Frank Knapp – “And they put it together. She was actually in Texas and driving along, and she was making two calls that day. And one was to me, and really, what I really wanted to talk to her about was, the issue of offshore drilling for oil. We were at the Small Business Chamber of Commerce, was heavily involved in opposing, offshore oil drilling along the East Coast.”

Frank Knapp – “We just thought it would be a disaster for our tourism economy. And so, I wanted wanted to query her, because she had not taken a position. So I asked you that question, and she basically said, yeah, yeah, she would she would be opposed to, permitting offshore oil drilling in the Atlantic so that, that did make some headlines.”

Frank Knapp – That was that was fun.

Angela Barrett – “Yeah. You have heard. Yeah. And you’re right, you know, when you have a show for or against you, makes no difference if there’s a good interview is a good interview. And the, there was a radio talk shows, small business forum that I think you had and you hosted as well. And that was sort of the same.”

Angela Barrett – No.

Frank Knapp – “And the answer may be yes to your question. So I’m, I’m not placing exactly,”

Angela Barrett – “What that was. You got last a very long, at least according to what I saw. It was, about a year, year and a half. It was just another talk show. I think it was.”

Frank Knapp – “Twice I started out doing a commentary, 92nd commentary before the radio show. And and that that was, that was simply that straight commentary that was recorded and provided to radio stations that they produced so that,”

Angela Barrett – “I gotcha, I gotcha. Now, what was there was some television for you, the capital view, that you were part of. Tell me about that. Well.”

Frank Knapp – “I had a friend who was the, head of public relations for, Shotgun Educational Television. And I had been the lobbyist, for an organization called Common Cause, South Carolina. So I was a lobbyist at the state house, and, John and I were friends, and John went, took this new job at ETV. And this was at the time the soccer ETB was trying to increase their budget to get money for, expanding, their, instructional television.”

Frank Knapp – “And they needed a new facility and they needed, new towers, and they needed, you know, so they needed an infusion of money. It was also a time when we did have great budget surpluses in South Carolina. And so there they wanted to do a, a public affairs show, where there would be interviews with members of the General Assembly.”

Frank Knapp – “And it was called Capital View. And they just need somebody to pull it off. So just like doing that, I had, had a relationship with a lot of legislators, and, had a little background in public relations. And so he said, hey, you want to come, you know, work with or work with TV and being the produce this public affairs show.”

Frank Knapp – “And I said, sure. And that’s what it was. I mean, literally, we, I whenever General Assembly and I would ask legislators, if they’d like to be on the show, I do like a 15 minute interview, aired, and I would schedule that I, we would, they would come over to the TV game in the green room.”

Frank Knapp – “I did my best PR and try to explain to them what ETV wanted to do, what it is doing, and what it wanted to do. If it had the money and we’d, they’d go into the studio. Tom Fowler, was that was the actual host. He’d do the interview, thank them. They’d leave, we would package up, interview with, with another 15 minute interview with another legislator and the TV network, could be divided up geographically, so that we could actually run an interview of, of a legislator from, from Greenville just in Greenville, at the same time running an interview with from Charleston, just in Charleston.”

Frank Knapp – “And it was great. I mean, that worked out very well. And, we were very fortunate that, that I think give a lot of credit to that program and our efforts that, ETV got the budget they needed, to, acquire, new facility. And we. So now they’re located down there near the football stadium. And, and resources to expand their structural television.”

Angela Barrett – “Yeah, that’s pretty cool. And again, we’ll get to your podcast. It to me sounds maybe like platforms a little bit like the platform that maybe you’re doing that. But we’ll get to that in a minute. But I am dying to know about this album. Our present concert. Hugo.”

Frank Knapp – “You might you might remember when Hurricane Hugo visited South Carolina and I was, 19. What was to help me out? I’m getting old there. I forget the dates.”

Angela Barrett – 90

Frank Knapp – “I like the 89. It was, there’s like 89. It was, And there was a lot of consternation because there was a lot of damage in South Carolina. Yeah. The hurricane that came just directly into South Carolina, went up by 26, did it right on 77. It went up to Charlotte, just like that.”

Angela Barrett –

Frank Knapp – Go and and.

Angela Barrett – Without power for a very long.

Frank Knapp – “Yeah. So we’re trying to figure out how can we help ETV help. So I as I said, I had the idea that the group Alabama had a scheduled concert at, in Columbia, and at the Coliseum, you’ll call seeing the years anymore for that. And I said, well, would be cool if we could get them to do a telephone.”

Frank Knapp – “So I called the people, with Alabama. I pitched them the idea of doing a live, show on ETV network and have it as a fundraiser so people could donate money for Hurricane You relief. And so that’s what we did. So I produced that, that three hour program for HIV. And we raised, you know, about money back in those days, for Hugo relief, it was a lot of people were involved in it.”

Frank Knapp – “A lot of people donated a lot of time and effort. But, yeah, it was it was definitely a highlight of my, of my activities. When I was with ETB.”

Angela Barrett – “Yeah, that is pretty cool because we all did raise quite a bit of money. So now let’s get to your new endeavor here. The Batman podcast, right?”

Frank Knapp – Yep.

Angela Barrett – “So tell me, what is the platform for that? I know that what? I’ve seen you again got, you know, a lot of the House members and Senate members, a lot of the legislation members. So tell me what the the backbone is and what the platform is, no pun intended.”

Frank Knapp – “Well, you know, every all politicians for how long have always said small businesses are the backbone of our economy, right. How many times right from every politician that is out there campaigning. It just it just was that I thought, that the small business chamber Congress, to do a podcast. My goodness, everybody else is doing a podcast.”

Frank Knapp – “We’ve never done it. I had never done a podcast. And so, we’ll put it together. And the thought was that we would do these 15 to 30 minute interviews with members of the General Assembly, and not not a gotcha. Not a hard hitting thing is simply, hey, let’s have a conversation. Let’s find out a little bit about these people.”

Frank Knapp – “And and a little bit what their interests are, what, what issues they’re working on at why, and, you know, so it’d be a very friendly, educational, conversation that their constituents probably didn’t know anything about with their legislators. So that’s what it is. We so we launched that in January, this year. And I’ve been very fortunate, to have have so many legislators so far be willing to go, come on it and have a conversation.”

Frank Knapp – “Senator Brad Hotto from Beaufort saying your massive, from up ends in the Saluda, Edgefield area. We’ve had, David Hyatt, who is the House majority leader. We so at Brad Hotto is that House, my Senate minority leader, you know, had new senator, Senator Art, on and the podcast you listen to about the election reform is Jermaine Johnson from, Richland County.”

Frank Knapp – “Right? So, you know, it’s it has been interesting and and I think David enjoyed it. I know I have enjoyed it. And so then, as you know, you’ve got to packages podcasts up and that but release them posted online. And so everybody and Wednesday I have a new podcast with a member of the Soca General Assembly.”

Angela Barrett – “Yeah. So that was what I was going to ask. So, you’re coming out twice a week, but that. Right?”

Frank Knapp – Yes.

Angela Barrett – “And of course, I think I saw, where RSS and Amazon, those are the places. There were a couple others that I heard. I think that you can listen to those.”

Frank Knapp – “Yeah. YouTube and, and it’s the, the technology now. It’s so cool. You know, you do it one time and you find a platform, that helps distribute it to other platforms. That’s what rss.com does. Right. And so it’s easy, you know, I do it, I upload it, put all the information on about it, set the schedule for it is kind of got to be released and that’s it.”

Frank Knapp – I’m done. And then that platform distributed to all the other platforms.

Angela Barrett – “Right? Right, right. Yeah. It is pretty neat how, all that works, but, To, to a week, like, I can’t imagine all the right now. Right now I have two week. Because I have two different ones. May not be forever, but we’ll see how that goes. But, that’s all the support.”

Frank Knapp – “I was warned that the two might be pushing that, but the ability, you know, I’ve done I done radio, a long time. I didn’t, I know I didn’t see it as really going to be an obstacle. Obstacle was just getting setting up. Okay, let’s talk talk with members Joe Selby, but we’re doing over zoom. That’s where it’s done.”

Frank Knapp – “They’re not done in the studio, so they could do it from their bedroom. If you want to. So far they’ve been very good. I think it’s been well received by those members. And, and we are, you know, building an audience. If anybody wants to check that out, they can go to our, our website, which is South Coast Small Business Chamber of Commerce, and scroll down a little bit on the homepage and you can you can see the big link to the podcast.”

Angela Barrett – “Yeah. Yeah. Well, it’s a lot of fun. Again, I didn’t get to listen to the one, and I sort of glanced at what some of the other topics were. But pretty interesting. Now, bird in the back room. Those guys, they are, I don’t think current legislation, but at least one. Have you listened to that one yet?”

Frank Knapp – Urban.

Angela Barrett – In the back.

Frank Knapp – “I live it and see, I’m old friends with Vincent. And, so, in fact, I talked to him before I went to him. Before I started my podcast. I got advised, he said it told me how Joel and he got started. And, I took his advice was very good. And so, yeah, I, I listen to their I really I don’t hear all of them.”

Frank Knapp – “Yeah. What did it do some of them, and this is not, this is like, negative toward, that podcast or any podcast other significant length. My impression is that people’s attention cannot last more than 30 minutes.”

Angela Barrett – I agree.

Frank Knapp – “And and they don’t they’re not in the car. They’re listening to podcasts. The car, they’re out of the car before 30 minutes and they never hear the end. I would, after my podcast between 15 30 minutes and so say they’re shorter. Sometimes they’re longer but no longer than 30 minutes. And, I, I respect my my, guest’s time, and it makes me be more efficient in, and how I talk to them.”

Frank Knapp – “And I just think it’s better for the listener. They help encourage them to, to, listen to more of the podcast if they’re not so.”

Angela Barrett – “I, I yeah, I agree, I agree. And speaking of that, we’re at our time. And I just want to thank you very much for taking time out of your day and, and and coming on, because I know you’re busy and, but I am looking forward to your podcast and catching some of those, because I think, what you’re doing is important on all aspects of everything you have going for the small businesses, because I am one of those that believe that small businesses are the backbone.”

Angela Barrett – “And, without them, you know, just building big.”

Frank Knapp – “You know, big.”

Angela Barrett – College corporation.

Frank Knapp – And everything.

Angela Barrett – Absolutely as. Right.

Frank Knapp – “So we’re, I to have you on my podcast to.”

Angela Barrett – Sales. Wonderful. Thanks a lot. Have a great day.

Frank Knapp – All right. Thank you.

Episode transcript:

Angela Barrett – “Hey, Carol. Thanks for being with me today.”

Carol Davis – “Well, thank you, Angela. Thank you for having me.”

Angela Barrett – “Absolutely. Now, Carol, you’re the location coordinator for, Wreaths Across America for the Fort Jackson. Fort Jackson National Cemetery. Correct?”

Carol Davis – Correct.

Angela Barrett – So what does a location coordinator do? Because it sounds like you do a lot more than tell people where the location is.

Carol Davis – “It’s a little bit a little bit, but our job and there is a group of us, we have a team. Our job is to organize the program, organize as the, wreath purchases, let people know, reach out to the community, to businesses, organizations and individuals and let them know exactly what Wreaths Across America is and why we have it.”

Angela Barrett – “Well, that brings me to my next question. Tell me what wreaths Across America is.”

Carol Davis – “Wreaths Across America is a program to remember and honor our veterans who have passed. Remember, honor and teach is our motto. Remember those that served and had passed. Honor those that are still serving and have served. And to teach our children that freedom isn’t free and it’s at a cost that one day they may be asked to pay.”

Angela Barrett – “Right now, this is, a year long project for you guys to get ready for what is really right at Christmas time. But, tell us when and why this all started. Give me a hint.”

Carol Davis – “Well, some will tell you that it happened by accident. I don’t believe in this type of accident. I believe that was a divine purpose. The Wooster family up in may have been in the wreath business for generations. They have miles and miles and miles of balsam forest and their business. They tip these trees. They’re not cut.”

Carol Davis – “They’re tipped. And the rest are made that way. Will Morrow Wooster, who is head of the family now? About 25 years ago, they ended up with about 5000 wreaths at the end of the season. And he remembered as a small boy winning a trip to Washington from his paper route. And he went to Arlington National Cemetery and was totally impressed.”

Carol Davis – “And it stuck with him. So he thought, you know what? I’m not going to suppose that these wreaths I’m going to call up there. So he called Arlington and he said, hi, I’ve got these wreaths. We would love to get them to you. And they said, well, sure, but you’ll have to come up here and put them out.”

Carol Davis – “We can’t do that. So he packed a man a truck, packed his family, and off he went to Arlington. And for about 5 or 6 years, the family did that. That was their big thing. That family thing. Well, it caught on. People started saying, well, how can we do this for our cemetery? So the family started reconsidering their business and decided that they wanted to give back.”

Carol Davis – “And that’s technically how Race Across America started. People heard about it and saw about it. Now, to be honest, I don’t know anywhere in the world. I don’t know how they do it, but I don’t know anywhere in the world. You can buy a real balsam wreath for $17. How they do it? I don’t know, but they do.”

Carol Davis – “And, so every year nail all across the country and this year it would be in 4800 cemeteries in the in the U.S. and in other countries where we have our veterans buried. We’ll be placing over 4.5 million trees across the country this year.”

Angela Barrett – “Oh, wow.”

Carol Davis – “Yeah. And the thing is, people make the mistake of saying Christmas tree. This is not a Christmas tree. This is a veterans memorial wreath. And it’s to remind us that we are to honor, respect, and know that they are loved and that they are victorious. Now they have passed. But you’ve got to realize and remember that a veteran does twice, once when they draw their last breath and the last time their name is spoken out loud.”

Carol Davis – “So we encourage everyone at every cemetery. When you go and place that wreath, say their name. Say it out loud. It’s important to keep their spirit alive.”

Angela Barrett – Right in there. That brings me to. Because I’ve heard you say this several times. Tell me there’s this important. Someone talk about the importance of one.

Carol Davis – The importance of one is amazing. We are the one. One person tip that tree. One person took those boughs and made a wreath. One person packed that ring. One person put it in a truck. One truck driver drove that truck here. One person unpacked it. One person. Place that wreath. One person sponsored that raid. We are all the ones.

Carol Davis – It is up to us. The ones to remember. An honored veteran.

Angela Barrett – “Yeah, I like always. Like when you tell a story. That’s a good one. And so now back to the wreaths again. We don’t call them Christmas wreaths. You said they’re called. What, again?”

Carol Davis – They are veterans Memorial rates. We are remembering them respecting ban and honoring their victory over death.

Angela Barrett – “And so, for those who’ve never been to one of these ceremonies, can I go over? What happens? And then we’ll get to how we get there to that. You name some of that, but you’re remembering one. But I talk about that day and how special it is.”

Carol Davis – “Well, people hesitate sometimes. They think that you’re going to be depressed coming out to a cemetery. You’re not the. It’s the final resting place for thousands of our South Carolina veterans. And when you step on that property, a calm comes over. You. You know that those veterans at peace are at peace there. We go there to make that happen.”

Carol Davis – “It’s a trick trying to take care of thousands of people. But because of the ones that volunteered. It happens. And it happens smoothly. We had the ones of the military that participate. We have the ones of the Jared season, the scouts and the adults and the organizations. Our sheriff’s department, everybody, all the ones come together to make it happen.”

Carol Davis – “And when you come out that day, you will see what it really means. We have a wonderful program. Music, good people speaking that let you know from their heart what it means to honor of the veteran. I will say that you’ll have a few laughs. The Department of Correction and the Sheriff’s Department have donated busses to help us transport people into the cemetery.”

Carol Davis – “Because we have so many a time, we literally have thousands. We had about 7000 last year. And so we don’t have vehicles in the cemetery for that protection. So the joke is you’ll be riding the prison bus if you had to put it, getting on. Will wonder if you’ve written it before or would they care less again.”

Angela Barrett – When.

Carol Davis – Arts get a really big kick out of it? But it’s because everyone has come together that all the ones. All the ones.

Angela Barrett – “Yeah. Now there is a in an official ceremony. I know, like, for when you go to a funeral. A lot of times you hear taps and, just going to assume that that is played there, as well. And visually.”

Carol Davis – Absolutely.

Angela Barrett – “I got to cry on that one anyway. But,”

Carol Davis – “There is a funny little story about that from the 16th year. And when we had our first ceremony. I was involved with a deployment program, out at Fort Jackson and the 1/71 were the ones that accommodated us for everything that we asked for to help. And so when I approached them and I said, I want taps and I want a 21 gun salute.”

Carol Davis – “They said, no, you don’t. Oh, no, no, no, I want a 21 gun salute. No, Miss Carroll, you do not want a 21 gun salute. Now, I thought, well, what do I want? He said, you want cannons? I want Anna, I want handguns have froze. For the first several years, we had cannons. And then I got a call after the same ceremony one year from the director, and he said, Miss Carroll, we can’t have cannons anymore.”

Carol Davis – “And I went, why not? He said, well, you know that nice new columbarium that we built? He said, well, the cannons repercussion kind of cracked them.”

Angela Barrett – Oh. Whoa.

Carol Davis – So that was the last time we had cannons. But Fort Jackson. And so we’re going to have in place.

Angela Barrett – Of that now.

Carol Davis – We have the 21 gun salute.

Angela Barrett – “All right, so we’re bringing that. All right, for now.”

Carol Davis – “We’re back to the 21 gun salute, and we get that. And, Fort Jackson, McIntyre. Shaw Joint base. Yes. They all participate. They all help. And we had just numbers of that. I’m just oodles of veterans.”

Angela Barrett – “Yeah. Fantastic. Yeah, I’ve seen videos. I’ve just never personally been. My goal is obviously this year to get there. Oh, you, So now and these, these are the people that place the wreaths on, the grave site. They do that during this ceremony or is that already been done?”

Carol Davis – “Oh, no no no no, the, that’s the wreath placement ceremony immediately follows the actual ceremony program. And the our public is invited to go out and help place raise. Now we do have family placement starting at 9 a.m. that morning until 1130, where families can come in and place their wreaths prior to the ceremony. Okay. They had the honor of placing their wreath and spending a little time there and and with their family and and I don’t want to say enjoy, but feel that closeness with them.”

Angela Barrett – “For sure should be a joyous, to be able to do that. And we’ve been talking about this, but we’ll give everybody it’s December 14th. What? Yeah.”

Carol Davis – Correct. The actual ceremony starts at noon. The busses will start bringing the public in at ten. Yeah. Starting Easter? Yeah. Our parking. Is it the Blue Cross Blue Shield parking lot on Percival Road? You will be directed because you will not be the. The sheriff’s depart will not let you into the cemetery. So you will be directed straight to that parking area.

Carol Davis – “And, there’ll be plenty of people to tell you where to park and hop on a bus. And I will tell you, security is tight, so don’t get upset if a dog sniffs you. It’s a good dog.”

Angela Barrett – “Long as you’re not getting anything wrong, or your.”

Carol Davis – Long as you got nothing on you. You’re okay.

Angela Barrett – “Now, how did you get started in this? How did you get involved?”

Carol Davis – By accident. Again?

Angela Barrett – I don’t believe that.

Carol Davis – “I was working with, Like I said, the deployment program for Task Force Marshall at. At Fort Jackson, and, the cemetery wasn’t even built then, but a friend of mine was working with the program over at Florence National Cemetery. And she said, you know, Carol, she said, you really ought to get the program going here at Fort Jackson.”

Carol Davis – “And that’s about there is a cemetery finished yet. But what we did is she went with me, bless Laurie’s heart. And we talked to Jean Lynch while our. And, I will say he was he was very sweet, very tongue in cheek. When I explained to him the type of program I wanted to do and he said, well, mascara.”

Carol Davis – “Let me just say this. He said, I’ve worked many cemeteries that had had the program, and probably the best you can get is get a few people to help you unload the truck and put out the race as a you do not know the Midlands of South Carolina because we are the most military friendly community there is and people are just waiting for an opportunity to be told what they can do to remember and honor our veterans.”

Carol Davis – “And he just smiled. And the first year, we only had 346 graves out there. But we had more people than that that first year. Each year it has grown. And Jean Lynch, well, I actually retired last year. And he said, you know, I have to admit you did it. He said, never in my wildest imagination that I think this, this ceremony would be the size it is and reach as many people.”

Carol Davis – “He said, you are our number one program. I said, well, thank you, but don’t thank me. Thank all the people, all the ones that said yes. I get to hear all the oh, you did great. I didn’t do great. Our team did great. I mean did great. One person cannot do this that it’s analyzable.”

Angela Barrett – “Right. I agree it does. It does take, more than one, but it does take a leader. And I think you’ve proven that for sure. Now, when did you. You said when you first started there? We. The first time y’all had 16 years ago, the ceremony. There were only. How many graves?”

Carol Davis – “346. And how many do you have now? There I go. This year, 17,000 wreaths. There are 17,000 people buried there, but there are not that many headstones.”

Angela Barrett – “And,”

Carol Davis – “But the reason we set our goal for this number is to keep ahead of the game a little bit each year. Because the cemetery is growing so rapidly, they’re averaging 125 burials a month. And with Florence filling up and Buford filling up, everyone will be coming here that wants to be buried at the national set, a national cemetery.”

Carol Davis – “Now, that’s not to say that all of the graves are filled at Florence and Buford, but they’re all spoken for. Gosh, they’re already been crying. So ours is increasing rapidly.”

Angela Barrett – “Right. Yeah, I would imagine, yes, at that rate. Now, Lewis Carroll, you are a lithium, a cancer survivor, correct?”

Carol Davis – “Oh, yes. I didn’t know you knew that.”

Angela Barrett – “Well, one more, testament to, what a strong person you are. Tell me a little bit about that experience. I know it was when you finally rang the bell. I know that was a probably a.”

Carol Davis – Heck I was. I danced to the bell.

Angela Barrett – “Yeah, I bet you did. Now, And when was that? The. When you, Your last cancer treatment.”

Carol Davis – My last cancer treatment was in August of 19.

Angela Barrett – Wow. Wow. Congratulations.

Carol Davis – “And, so I pleaded my five year.”

Angela Barrett – Yes. Congratulations. And that is a big step. And I.

Carol Davis – “It is mad, not February. My doctor walked in that room, just a few weeks ago with the biggest smile on his face, and I went, is that a good smile? He said, you’re still my miracle patient.”

Angela Barrett – “Yeah, because you actually had stage four.”

Carol Davis – I did.

Angela Barrett – “Yeah. Well, I am telling you, I know that people say this all the time, but when you have watched people in your family or friends with cancer and someone like you, is ups, a lot of times it is mind over matter. You have to have that mindset and then obviously a good team of doctors, but I mean good.”

Carol Davis – Team of doctors and the good.

Angela Barrett – “Lord. That’s right. That’s exactly right. A lot of prayers. But, yeah, just one more testament to your, your strength. And, I’m sure that plays a lot with your leadership and how well you, have done there.”

Carol Davis – “There again, a lot of people supporting me.”

Angela Barrett – “Yeah. In the team. Absolutely. So now you also had something coming up, the night this coming Monday, right?”

Carol Davis – “Is that right? I do have. Well, December 9th.”

Angela Barrett – I was December 9th.

Carol Davis – “That’s right. December nights are is. But I actually do have something coming up. It’s Monday, and I’ll tell you about that in a minute. But. All right, December 9th, we had the Race Across America ceremony at the South Carolina Veterans Memorial on the state House grounds. Yeah. And, and that will be at noon, and the public is invited.”

Carol Davis – “And in keeping with that, on, Monday at 9:00 at the state House of Representatives, Chris Wooten and Representative Micah Caskey will be presenting us with the governor’s proclamation claiming December is Race Across America Month and the state of South Carolina.”

Angela Barrett – “Oh, nice. He’s from Lexington, where I am.”

Carol Davis – So you’re sanctioned to meet her? That’s right.

Angela Barrett – “Yeah. So the nights at noon will be at the state House, and that’s December night. And then December 14th at new the Connecticut there early, like Fort Jackson held at the Fort Jackson. Now, how far are y’all away from the goal that you guys.”

Carol Davis – “Right now. I’m kind of sweating bullets. It’s the same this time. Every all of a sudden. Oh my gosh, I forgot the order. And we have until the 3rd of December. But we’re about 5000 short right now, so yeah yeah, yeah. But there again, we are within 3000 of our actual need. So between that goal and the need.”

Carol Davis – “So, I have confidence I had. I sweat bullets this time every year that the community comes through.”

Angela Barrett – “And so what we need is, people to purchase wreaths and or donate whatever, right?”

Carol Davis – “Yeah. I mean, they can go online and donate. They can, contact me. I can send them a form. On our Facebook page, you can go there and go through, not PayPal. What is it on there where you can donate?”

Angela Barrett – “Oh, okay. I’m not sure which one it is. But. Yeah. So. Okay. So for anybody listening, you need to go right now to the Facebook page. I it is,”

Carol Davis – “There’s a form on the Facebook page where I do a QR code and go straight to our three for two page for every two weeks that are donated. The national organization, will donate a third wreath. Three. And that website is Wreaths Across america.org/fc 0015.”

Angela Barrett – “Right. And so if you’re just typing in it’ll be read across America. Fort Jackson National Cemetery or South Carolina Fort Jackson National Cemetery, I think is how it goes. But if or what, you know,”

Carol Davis – “You come out the Facebook page, other.”

Angela Barrett – “The website, if you just it is.”

Carol Davis – Still in reach across America. Yeah. Wreaths crawl sweetheart. That’s that’s not org and then SC NC will bring you to the that page the main page. Or you can after the.org you can do slash SC 0015 to go to the three for two page.

Angela Barrett – “Perfect. So guys we need some donations and we need some wreaths. But we only have gosh today’s the 12th. So we don’t have very long before the third before the cutoff. So exactly now as far as the public, if people want to go, do they need to purchase tickets or they just just show up at school and get on the prison bus.”

Carol Davis – And there is no age limit. You can be one day all or you can be 250 years. Okay. You can. Everyone is welcome.

Angela Barrett – “Perfect. Now, I know that I think you’re volunteered for physical volunteers to help. I think that cutoff has already come down, so. But if people would like to get involved, maybe for next year, because this does take a enormous amount of people, it does to plan because you’ll no more finish this. And I think I asked you a long time ago, two.”

Carol Davis – “Weeks, we’ll have two weeks to rest, but actually we’ll have four weeks to rest. And then it’s time to clean up the cemetery and start all over again.”

Angela Barrett – Right? So you don’t get a whole lot of a break there. It really does take a full year. So they can also go to the website or on Facebook page to sign up for volunteers for an extra.

Carol Davis – “Scan, and they will be able to sign up that day. When they go to the information tent at Blue Cross and they’ll be able to just sign up at Bud Food, put on our contact list to be notified for next year.”

Angela Barrett – “Perfect, perfect. Well, Carol, thank you so much for, coming on today and talking to us about, Wreaths Across America. This was interesting. I can’t wait to physically get there this year. Again, I’ve seen videos, but never physically been there, and I think this is going to be phenomenal. I encourage everybody to, again, go online right now and, either the Facebook or the, website and donate.”

Angela Barrett – “We’re, we’re kind of behind on our, donations and wreaths that we need. Right. So let’s get on that, guys. Absolutely.”

Carol Davis – I have confidence and faith in everyone that. That’s right. It’s going to happen.

Angela Barrett – “And that’s right. Well, thanks again for coming.”

Carol Davis – “Thank you sweetie, I appreciate that.”

Episode transcript:

Angela Barrett – “Hey guys, today I have with me Doctor Luke and Doctor Mike from McIntyre. Family Chiropractic one of make sure I got that right in out of Summerville. So we’re down that we’re down south. Yeah. Sumerville’s kind of become in the new Charleston, right?”

DR. Mike McIntyre – Pretty much.

Angela Barrett – “Yeah, yeah, Charleston. It’s growing. It’s kind of what I say about.”

DR. Mike McIntyre – Bill all.

Angela Barrett – “Over. Yeah. So, how long have, you guys been in business? I guess, the market started with you. I guess.”

DR. Mike McIntyre – “Yeah, I opened in 2019.”

Angela Barrett – “2019, and.”

DR. Mike McIntyre – “And then. Yeah, we’re. I guess we’re almost, what, the five years now in business, I guess just about. Oh, yeah.”

Angela Barrett – “And, how long have you been with them?”

DR. Luke Sparaccio – “Yeah. So I was, I moved, different area. So I’m originally from New York, Long Island, New York.”

Angela Barrett – Long Island.

DR. Luke Sparaccio – “Yeah. I went to the doctor. I went to school with doctor Mike. So we’re very close. We had the same philosophy and how to manage and care for patients. Same mentor. A doctor would shout out to doctor, would you stayed us and everything that we we know about the work that we do. And so just taking care of people.”

DR. Luke Sparaccio – “So so I was in, upstate and then California. So I just moved from California to work with doctor Mike. So a few weeks.”

DR. Mike McIntyre – “I’ve been here a few weeks. Yes, yes.”

Angela Barrett – So what part of California?

DR. Luke Sparaccio – “The Bay area, Pleasanton, Concord area.”

Angela Barrett – “Cool. So my son worked out, in California for a while, and now that I don’t enjoy him being back in South Carolina. But I sure do miss the excuse to get out to Sausalito. Wow. Okay. It’s like, dang. So anyway, so tell me you talked about the same philosophy in the care of your patient. What? What is that philosophy?”

DR. Mike McIntyre – “Well, I mean, I remember one thing is service. Like, we’re always focused on the patient, what they need. You know, we do truly believe that we work with the body’s ability to heal itself, so we don’t, you know, what we do is, making the body function as well as it can, not looking at ways to, like, mask symptoms or anything like that.”

DR. Mike McIntyre – “So it’s definitely a different approach to health care. And we definitely share that that servant mindset philosophy as well. So it’s always focused on, you know, what the patient needs and what we can best do to serve that.”

Angela Barrett – So it was let’s just get the elephant out of the room. Let’s talk about the biggest misconception of chiropractic care. Let’s just go ahead and hit that in the bud. What do you think it is?

DR. Luke Sparaccio – “There’s a lot there. Is so I think the biggest thing is people associate lack of symptoms with functioning optimally. One of, a quote that I heard, they said that, who is it? Was the well-known, philosophy. You know, a lot of these. But one of the you guys, it talks about the, if we use the analogy or the, the quote that those without symptoms are the healthiest, the ones that without symptoms are, are in the grave, right?”

DR. Luke Sparaccio – “Because they have no symptoms. So people associate I think that’s the biggest misconception is that, oh, I don’t have, you know, whether that’s someone that’s two years old or or 99 years old, like, I don’t have any symptoms. That means I’m healthy or functioning well. And as I mentioned before, only one third of our nerves have been receptors.”

DR. Luke Sparaccio – And so lacking a lack of pain doesn’t mean function. So that’s why we the work we do is not just where the pain is. And then we adjust that particular area. There is a diagnostic. There’s an analysis. Or we call a system approach to finding the root cause to the problem. And so we’re very detailed and organized in regards to find a good cause to the problem.

Angela Barrett – “Yeah. Like, I mean, there are some people who, have said, oh, will it hurt? You know, and I’m like, well, we went to the wrong person then, because it’s not supposed to hurt. I have my chiropractor, David Chandler shout out to him and seriously, if I could afford to go every day and I know that’s not good for you, but that’s.”

Angela Barrett – “But, I just like to be adjusted, and so I’ll just go in there and he said anything wrong today, and I’ll be like, no, just hear me. Well, just. That’s right. And that is a lot of it. I know and many years ago gone for migraines, certainly was in an accident many, many years ago. Not a bad one, but just enough to tweak things.”

Angela Barrett – “Did that. I’m not a big medicine taker, so I seek all other avenues because I can’t. The medicine just doesn’t do well with me. Like some people can take a a tiny RPM. Well, that would make me in a coma for like two days. Not kidding. So I can’t take it. So I, I’ve always sought out other avenues.”

Angela Barrett – “And so I think what you all do, is a great thing, but I know that there are a lot of people who don’t, so clear up some of the things. I mean, I’ve known one, you know, you’ve been in a car accident and, you know, you tweaked your neck, your back, and migraines for sure. It can help name some of the other things that people don’t normally think of.”

Angela Barrett – They just reach for medicine that you can help again to the root cause.

DR. Mike McIntyre – “I think I’ll just say like medicine. But one of the things that I’m focused on now is like pregnancy and pediatric care and, and I, we have another baby on the way in a few weeks.”

Angela Barrett – “Number five. Six. Oh my God. Five. Oh, mercy.”

DR. Mike McIntyre – “But but but, the and I hate to say medical world, but the medical world views something that’s simple and natural. Is pregnancy as like as an issue. Right. It’s not. So educating people about the fact that, you know, you can this is a natural thing that we’ve been doing for, you know, tens of thousands of years. It’s not a medical intervention that’s always needed.”

DR. Mike McIntyre – “Now, obviously there are cases when there are. But like seeing people having like such high rates of like C-section when it might not necessarily have to happen or, you know, taking care of babies. The biggest thing that I focus on is like checking a baby after they’re born. Like, if you if your baby’s born in a hospital, they checked everything, but they don’t have a spine check with what we do, you know, the most important system in their body because their spine holds their nervous system, which controls everything.”

DR. Mike McIntyre – “So I always, at that baby’s first adjustment is the most important one, because we might be, prevent any problem before it even becomes a problem.”

Angela Barrett – “Yeah. And speaking of children, when my son was young, he got, headaches a lot. He was a baseball player. And the headaches were actually coming from things just being out of line. And so we went a couple times a week, you know, you got 2 to 3 times a week, two times a week. And then we got to that monthly as long as he played baseball and we went to get the regular spine adjustments, headaches were not there is you know it’s just people just don’t think about that kind of stuff.”

Angela Barrett – Yeah. Yeah.

DR. Luke Sparaccio – “Our bodies that a body is designed to heal and we need to remove the interference from the brain to body and, another passion of mine is something I really like to study is, blood sugar and adrenal function. And a lot of people don’t associate that with, managing their blood sugar and or digestive. And but I see it.”

DR. Luke Sparaccio – “I mean, when I was in California, I saw pretty much people weekly just for digestive, like, acid reflux. I can’t tell you how many patients are on acid reflux medicine for 15, 20 years. When we get back to the root. Root, how the medicine was developed, it should be only several weeks that really they should be on it.”

DR. Luke Sparaccio – “But just educating, I mean, doctor Mike and I have a heart. Just educating, going above and beyond just to sit down with them and and just give them hope and clarity as to what the problems are and whether we can fix it here and or we need to refer them out. I mean, we’re trying to work with other practitioners to really, build a network of people that, take care of people.”

Angela Barrett – “So and the other thing, this is how it is explained to me many, many, many years ago because I’m much older than you guys. You know, when your spine is aligned and everything is working, everything flows like it should. And I’ll give you an example. Hormones, female hormones. You know, I have it for a fact. I had a friend who was told by a medical doctor, can’t get pregnant, can’t get pregnant, can’t get pregnant.”

Angela Barrett – “I said, go see a chiropractor in six months. Guess what? She was pregnant.”

DR. Mike McIntyre – “I have so many stories. Yeah, just the beautiful thing I know.”

Angela Barrett – “So I mean, people, you know, for women who still have all that, again, pretty old, I mean, it is a very,”

Angela Barrett – “And noninvasive is what I’m trying to say. A noninvasive way to get everything working right down to female hormones, which are not talked about a lot because people are like, oh, let’s we’ll talk about that. But it needs to be brought up because this is a big part, because then, you know, as as you get older than you, you go through all this whole other thing and it just, you know, but all of it helps, what you guys do.”

Angela Barrett – “So speaking of that, we’ll talk about the three teas of chiropractic, care. Tell me about that.”

DR. Mike McIntyre – “You got your go to,”

DR. Luke Sparaccio – “Yeah. It’s, toxins, traumas and thoughts, or another is chemical, physical and emotional stress. And that is the big reason for educating patients. I was just talking with someone earlier today about, better understanding. How can we manage stress? And that’s why people say, oh, chiropractic, we have this broad stroke is because if we can better understand how to want to adapt to our stressors, then those three things chemical, physical and emotion, all stress.”

DR. Luke Sparaccio – “We all have those, right? It’s not going to go away. Right. How do we better manage that. So that’s why we have doctor Mike and I have a lot of things that we talk with, lifestyle, things that we do outside of the office to help them better manage their stress. So that’s a key component because a lot of people, as we mentioned before, a misconception is like, oh, I, I didn’t know that that my mental stress, you know, when people come in, you see them regularly, that you can tell them there’s a lot of mental stress, whether that’s difficult at work or a family death in a family like that is a”

DR. Luke Sparaccio – “big emotional stress. And what that does, it puts a lot of stress to the nervous and does the joints. When the joints are moving well, your body can’t move. And I can talk forever about all those things.”

Angela Barrett – “But just like when people have tension in the neck, I mean, nine times out of ten, not always that stress, but what happens is because, like you’re saying, it’s just that gradual thing and, you know, the next thing you know, sitting with your shoulders up round your ears because you can’t lose, I know, I had several friends who have to go.”

Angela Barrett – “I mean, just because of their jobs or what they do daily just provides a lot of stress. And, they go for muscle management or chiropractic adjustments. However, I think at your office, I think you guys do both like some sort of I think I saw on the website, correct me if I’m wrong. A massage therapy there.”

DR. Mike McIntyre – “Yeah. Have a massage therapist in-house who works with us. We do. I say we don’t do, we don’t do the spa treatment. We do corrective care utilizing her skills. So she works with us. In each case, basically, it’s it’s pretty awesome to have that. Yeah.”

Angela Barrett – “So, clear up an argument. Muscles from I’ve had before massage first and then adjustment or adjustment and then the size.”

DR. Mike McIntyre – “Most of the time for me, I adjust people first and then send them in for a massage.”

Angela Barrett – Yeah.

DR. Mike McIntyre – And everything. Yeah. And.

DR. Luke Sparaccio –

DR. Mike McIntyre – “Yeah, I don’t like having massage first because that muscle feedback gives me a lot of information on where and when to adjust. Yeah. So I like to adjust first rather than like, you know, get rid of that feedback from the muscles and then adjusting.”

Angela Barrett – “Right. Yeah. Well and just from the massage standpoint it’s like it takes me a while to relax if I’ve already had that adjustment. Sort of I could relax when I get to the inside, the whole relaxing and enjoy all of it. You know, I’ve got, so let’s talk about the services you guys do provide there.”

Angela Barrett – At the office.

DR. Mike McIntyre – “Yeah. So we do, we focus on the chiropractic care, right? We do garden center practice care, and then, have the massage therapist that works with us. My front office manager also does, she’s a yoga instructor. So we do yoga classes. She’ll, she’ll show people, like, some home care stuff, like stretching and things like that.”

DR. Mike McIntyre – “And then, we’re starting to delve into some functional medicine stuff with a new partner that we have. We haven’t really announced anything about that yet, but,”

Angela Barrett – You have no. Yeah.

DR. Mike McIntyre – There’s a teaser.

Angela Barrett – On that’s.

DR. Mike McIntyre – “The that’s the teaser. And then, but we have other, health care providers in the area that I work with, like some nurse practitioners, mental health counselor. That’s a, somebody we work with pretty regularly. And I’m really just having even, even medical doctors. I mean, I work with knowledgeable doctors and Ob-Gyn, OB GYNs, and, having that relationship is wonderful.”

DR. Mike McIntyre – “And I think a lot of chiropractors are afraid to have those relationships because they think that, you know, I mean, there’s there’s the conception, right? Where we’re different. We’re not accepted by the medical world, and.”

Angela Barrett – They’re not doctors in quotation.

DR. Mike McIntyre – “We’re fake doctors faked out. Right? We go through, we go through just as much schooling, and I really do it myself. On being like people I take care of. I view them as like primary care doctor. What? You know, I, I need to be referred somewhere or something else. Like I need to figure out where they need to go.”

DR. Mike McIntyre – “And I mean, we take X-rays on people. We have to do pathology read on those X-rays. And, I mean, I’ve seen I’ve found bone cancer and X-rays, and I need to be able to know where to send them and and identify that stuff. So we’re not just the, you know, snake oil rack and crack and papa bones.”

DR. Mike McIntyre – “I word for holds, whole body health care provider is what we’re we’re looking to do here. So.”

Angela Barrett – “Yeah. So, let’s talk about, like, people with arthritis. Well, we’ll just pick that one. How can you help? Because that’s a that’s a common one. How do you help people with what are the different modalities? I guess that you can help people with other ideas with.”

DR. Mike McIntyre – Go for it.

DR. Luke Sparaccio – “But yeah. So that the term is, is is used a lot arthritis. It’s an inflammatory, it’s inflammatory. Right. And so when we look at the X-rays and that’s why the detail gone said is really based on, a foundational perspective. Right. So if there’s imbalance or structural misalignment, it can irritate put stress to the joints.”

DR. Luke Sparaccio – “So that joint has been, misaligned or not level as we would call it. Then over time, there’s going to be more wear and tear on that joint. And that’s when you’ll have more of that arthritic changes on the disc. And that’s the big thing to see is to know. To not to see is to guess. Someone has told me.”

DR. Luke Sparaccio – “And so why would we ever want to guess with your health? And I talked to patients, like, if you go to a dentist, before they drill your teeth, you don’t hesitate to take an X-rays. But a lot of the time, say, I don’t think it’s necessary, but in order to see those changes and arthritic changes, it’s important to, really figure out what’s the cost of the problem is, so arthritis is it’s case by case.”

DR. Luke Sparaccio – “And we again, You know, we can definitely help those, those things. So it’s hard to say what we do for arthritis as opposed to what’s causing the arthritis or arthritic changes. When we see any x rays. And sometimes it’s an inflammatory that’s causing, you know, digestive issues. So that can be potential. And that’s can typically be more of the the upper or mid-back area.”

DR. Luke Sparaccio – “So every joint your spine as a direct correlation with every organ tissue and gland. That’s why the details are so important. When someone comes I just have lower back pain. Doctor would would say, point to it, show me, show me and and trace where the pain is, because that’s going to give us an indication of potentially what segment or joint it is potentially causing distress.”

Angela Barrett – “Yeah. And you brought up something interesting. And I always seem to forget ugly honestly not in that field whatsoever, but have been, my whole life with, a chiropractor. But you forget that every joint or every,”

Angela Barrett – “Is related to an organ like sewer, like they do with the, What is it called when they. They do the feet, and it’s like, this is liver. This is heart. You know, I.”

DR. Mike McIntyre – Think like psychology.

Angela Barrett – “Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And people would.”

DR. Mike McIntyre – Tums in the body and. Yeah.

Angela Barrett – “Right. And so it really is the same. If you were to look at a similar chart, the same with the spine. Correct?”

DR. Mike McIntyre – “Yeah, absolutely. You’re I mean that’s what we the number one reason why we look at the spine is to make sure that it’s not affecting the nervous system because you’re spot, you know, your spine houses, your spinal cord, your nervous system, direct connection to the brain that controls everything. And so that’s I mean, it’s the only system in your body fully encased by bone or protection.”

DR. Mike McIntyre – “Right? Right. When the spine is out of alignment, it really affects that. I mean, one of the small things that it does is cause pain, right? Every single level in the spine. Yeah. The nerves. That’s the electrical function in the body. They the nerves come from somewhere to control stuff. And it starts at your spine.”

Angela Barrett – “Know, so there was a question I had, and I’m sorry, it just left me, I’ll move on and maybe it’ll come back to me. No, no. So tell me what you think makes you guys stand out. I’m just going to say more than other chiropractors, say South Carolina. We’ll go that far. What makes you stand out?”

DR. Mike McIntyre – “So the the system that we use, the constant system, it’s I mean, it’s it’s specific, it’s scientific. It eliminates all guesswork. You know, and I mean, you’d be surprised how many chiropractors don’t even take X-rays. Somebody can literally come crawling into an office, and they won’t take an X-ray before they they work on them. And so that’s just a small part of what we do.”

DR. Mike McIntyre – “So we look at movement, motion in the joints x ray. Obviously like system analysis. What’s been going on. History all that. So putting so many pieces of the puzzle together before we ever even lay our hands on people. One of the things that people have told me a lot is when they come to see me, they don’t feel like they’re just going through an assembly line.”

DR. Mike McIntyre – “And that’s not to talk bad about other doctors. It’s just the, our, our systems different. You know, we don’t put people through the assembly line. I don’t, you know, I talk to people. I reexamine them every single time before I X-ray them. So I don’t just meet them in the room with their face down. Yeah. So it’s just specificity to each person’s unique issue.”

DR. Mike McIntyre – “And, unfortunately, I just don’t see that a lot.”

Angela Barrett – “But that’s what with the other doctors in other professions, I think would be different than some of the chiropractic care that you.”

DR. Mike McIntyre – “See, I love, I say co-managing, right? I love co-managing care with other professionals. And, you know, I yeah, I’m not like hiding in the corner saying, oh, now just, you know, choose me. Take me. You know, I’m like, no, let’s. I’m like, give, give them my number. I’ll call them like, send me the labs, I go over, I go over blood reports with people all the time from blood tests and most of the time they’ll get an, an x ray, like a medical x ray, which is a little different than what we do or blood work or something.”

DR. Mike McIntyre – “And they’ll just say, oh, it’s normal, but they never have it reviewed. So even like normal doesn’t necessarily mean normal if you’re right on the cusp of being abnormal. But if you fall into that normal, it’s just kind of, you know, your normal checkbox and move on. And we don’t we don’t do that.”

Angela Barrett – “Right? Right. So, doctor Mike, I understand you have a farm.”

DR. Mike McIntyre – I do.

Angela Barrett – “Yeah, that’s tell me a little bit about that.”

DR. Mike McIntyre – “So we can I mean, I kind of just joke that I live on a big petting zoo, so.”

Angela Barrett – But.

DR. Mike McIntyre – “So we have, we have a bunch of animals we’ve rescued. So I have, like, horses and donkeys that have been rescues, and I have ducks and chickens and pigs and goats and sheep and on and on. And it’s, it’s really just, it’s a simple living connection with the animals in the, the earth and raise my kids on it.”

DR. Mike McIntyre – “And I joke that I have, free range kids yet, so.”

Angela Barrett – “Yeah, with five, Oh.”

DR. Mike McIntyre – “Yeah. That’s like, it’s my little, you know. Yeah. My little.”

Angela Barrett – “What, do you work for a baseball team here. So I’m.”

DR. Mike McIntyre – Trying. That’s right. Yeah.

Angela Barrett – “Yeah. Well, that’s pretty cool. It is always amazing to me how our northerners who move south end up with, farms or, you know, lots of land.”

DR. Mike McIntyre – “And then my, I have my uncle, who I was very close with was a farmer his whole life, and he was, like, the happiest person I ever met. Just simple guy, always happy, always had a smile on his face. And, I mean, he was on to something. So. Yeah, I’m. I’m trying to embrace that.”

Angela Barrett – “So, yeah, I call my therapy dirt therapy, like, you know, working in the and planning and digging, but but it really is. And my husband was like, do you want me to help you? I’m like, please don’t. Please just go.”

DR. Mike McIntyre – “So, yeah, my donkeys are great listeners.”

Angela Barrett – “You know that look, right? Right. So, darling, when are you going to, do your farm?”

DR. Luke Sparaccio – Yeah. I mean.

Angela Barrett – “Coming from New York, when I.”

DR. Luke Sparaccio – “First when I first came and visited, and doctor Mike, he, I helped him set up, what was it? Sheep.”

DR. Mike McIntyre – “Shells. And we built this up of a reef, repurposed now sheep shelter.”

Angela Barrett – “It’s,”

DR. Luke Sparaccio – “I do not know. I do love when I was in school, and I really enjoyed the the scenery. And I just love it. I do love it here. So good. It’s, slowly, showing me the ropes in regards to how to build and. And what do you say you start with chicken training? Yeah. Let’s take.”

DR. Mike McIntyre – The gate.

Angela Barrett – “You in the club? Yeah. That is the big thing. I, I, I do real estate in real life, and, I must get asked daily. Well, can we have chickens? But. Yeah, well, not in a subdivision.”

DR. Mike McIntyre – “Yeah, but,”

Angela Barrett – “You’re going to have to go outside of that. That’s. Yeah. So tell everybody how they get in touch with you and what. Oh, you know what? Before we do that. So for people, because comfort and care sometimes a lot of towns is not covered or either fully covered with insurance. How do you guys help people with that side of things?”

Angela Barrett – Because it can get expensive if you don’t have insurance in it.

DR. Mike McIntyre – “That’s actually one of the reasons why I when I opened my office, I chose not to participate with insurance companies because they literally make it so that I have to charge more. Yeah, right. As they don’t reimburse. I mean, you know, I that’s a whole nother we could do an hour that so I just like I set my prices to be affordable.”

DR. Mike McIntyre – “I offer, you know, I offer discounts when I can. I offer monthly payment stuff. I mean, I try to make that as easy as possible, and we do cash pay. We literally just like, eliminate the middleman of the insurance company trying to tell you what you need and what you don’t need, because in my humble opinion, that’s them practicing chiropractic without a license.”

DR. Mike McIntyre – “Again, that’s a whole nother conversation for a different Eddie. But.”

Angela Barrett – Right. Yeah.

DR. Mike McIntyre – “We really I try to make the financial side of stuff like the easiest, least thing to worry about because and, like, we just focus on getting people. Well. So.”

Angela Barrett – “Yeah, I, cash pay, if people should really, we’re again, we’ll talk about that at another time, but people should really start asking about that. Here are their tell everybody how they get in touch with you. We’re all, I know you’re on Facebook and I know you have a website. But tell everybody how they get in touch with you.”

DR. Mike McIntyre – “Yeah, that’s the easiest way. Websites got all our information on there. We can, like, if somebody is interested in even just sitting down with us, I always do free consultations with people. If they just want to sit and see if chiropractic is something that might help. So I always offer that, and then. Yeah, I mean, if you have like the website to McIntyre chiro Qcom, follow us on there.”

DR. Mike McIntyre – “My social media stuff’s on there, my our telephone number, online info booking, all that stuff.”

Angela Barrett – And do you guys sometimes do speaking engagements at places? I thought I saw that maybe I was wrong.

DR. Mike McIntyre – “No, we do. Yeah. We offer, we offer classes in in the office.”

Angela Barrett – “Oh, okay.”

DR. Mike McIntyre – “We will travel to do some. We like, like to do, like lunch and learns and stuff things like that are great because you can just go some meet people where they’re at and and talk about things. I’m, I love teaching seminars. I like to do, like, like business seminars or chiropractic. So that’s a little side thing that I do to help young docs, you know, not fail in business because unfortunately, you know, being in business for yourself is hard.”

DR. Mike McIntyre – “Yes. So yeah. And and you have a hard to help people, but you also get to keep the lights on in your office to do that. Right.”

Angela Barrett – “That’s right. Well thank you guys so much for, being with me today and, giving us a little bit of insight about how you guys, help people in the Somerville area and surrounding. But thanks so much.”

DR. Luke Sparaccio – “Oh, want to thank you.”

DR. Mike McIntyre – Want to thank you for that.

Episode transcript:

Angela Barrett “Hey guys, today I have with me Elizabeth Anderson. She is with Platform in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, right outside of Charleston. And for us, that big bridge that everybody likes to run across. So thanks, Elizabeth, for joining me today.”

Elizabeth Anderson Thank you so much for having me. I’m really happy to be here.

Angela Barrett “Yeah. So let’s talk about what first platform is, you explain there.”

Elizabeth Anderson “Sir. So the full name of the platform is platform a consciousness studio. Then opened for just about a year and its mission is, to bring people to the practice of meditation. I do one form, but they offer many other ways to go about it. They have, I do a tiger meditation, which is a yogic sleep, which, yes, it’s not a physical movement practice very literally in one position the whole time.”

Elizabeth Anderson “But they have, Hiroko all have, some mindful movement meditations by, tab. Basically you can come in and schedule or drop in and do some prerecorded, meditations where you find your space and this beautiful, quiet, serene area that the owner has set up. And then they both also have it. Yeah. Evening classes. They’re going to start doing some day classes where somebody is there to help you with the meditation or having someone with you.”

Elizabeth Anderson “They’re going to start doing some book clubs, The Artist’s Way, before agreeing, I’m gonna give some classes with some restorative yoga classes on journaling because the core, intent of platform is to have a lot of different avenues to get you to be in your presence, space to let go, tractions in operations in your life and just come to your breath and come to the present moment.”

Elizabeth Anderson “As you practice meditation, you can take it out into the fray of your daily life and come back to that present awesome factor of your breath, help you through all that moments that.”

Angela Barrett “Yeah. Right in, in in this stage of and where we are today in the world, we can all use a little of that, although it’s a lot harder than it sounds. Now, let me ask you a few questions. You guys do yoga as well as meditation or this is really a meditate place.”

Elizabeth Anderson “It really is a place for meditation. So even though, what I the file that I do at platform is a, mega style, it’s called yoga, but really it is a meditation if you’re in one position the whole time and it’s guided, they there’s, so we’re gonna start doing the, restorative yoga that really that is to get you into a meditative funk.”

Elizabeth Anderson “I would say there’s no asana. So classes that you’re really building through and making it a physical practice, most of everything that you will see there in there still. Yeah. Called movements, if there’s any of that at all, there might be just some, some mostly guided meditations there. The reason why but, we’re introducing some of the restorative, which you would really be, maybe six position for a few minutes.”

Elizabeth Anderson “So it’s very gentle and so very still before you go into a meditation at the end is to get people comfortable with the idea of meditation. I think people in general, I know I did in the beginning, that I can’t meditate, I can’t do that. I can’t yet in the same. Right. And yet, breathing cannot.”

Elizabeth Anderson “Then, I think people find it to be a little intimidating and and it’s not. And that’s why we’re trying to educate so accessible to everyone. And so to enter David, many avenues as possible to get people comfortable with the meditation practice so they can integrate it into their lives and have more peace and calm as they go throughout their day.”

Angela Barrett “Right, right, right. The, and we’re going to get into more of what your, your platform is, which is the Nadra. But yeah, but let’s talk about I saw on there where, the sound baths. Tell us more a little bit about that.”

Elizabeth Anderson “One the big but sound baths girl. Yeah, yeah. So that’s a wonderful experience. So they have, where you can go and there’s four styles of meditations in there that are prerecorded headsets. One of those voices, are sound B&B. There’s four sound baths. Currently they’re going to start introducing new ones. So there’s no voice and a sound bar.”

Elizabeth Anderson “You’re listening to pretzel bowls, rain sticks, some gentle music waves. It’s all integrated together to get you into a calm fight. So all of the headset meditations are half an hour, and then there is also, a lady named Arlen, and her business is awake and Fonda, and he does sound baths there, and they’re really incredible.”

Elizabeth Anderson So she comes in and gets them right in that space.

Angela Barrett “Oh that’s nice. Now, what about the, circle?”

Elizabeth Anderson “Okay, so they an old, lady named Arman. Not that those. And he’s amazing. That’s how I actually came. The platform. I was actually a couple doors down getting, some items for a, Harvest New Deal. The practice that I was going to do in my neighborhood. And I was like, what? The place? I just thought that more of a consciousness studio.”

Elizabeth Anderson “And they had a sandwich board outside thing. They did, they’re open, but sounded interesting to me. So I just happened to go in there. I talked to the lady, that was up front, and she said that, that Yanni could come in and just sign up and do it. And so I had, Carmen. And basically what happened in that scenario is, he does kind of a meditation in the beginning, and then you’re basically mapping, for several rounds, and you’re doing it collectively with everybody in the circle, and it creates this incredible, peaceful, energetic way.”

Elizabeth Anderson And you feel very cleansed in rejuvenated. And at the end.

Angela Barrett “Nice, nice.”

Elizabeth Anderson Yeah.

Angela Barrett “So let’s talk about, Nadra and really the point of nidra and sort of what its, purpose is because each one has a different purpose. So let’s talk about your your baby.”

Elizabeth Anderson “Not sure. Yeah. I’d love to. So, I got into it when I was getting my t 100 hour certification. The Niagara with a small piece of it that one of the instructors introduced and actually went through with us on a meditation, like me, experience. And I thought, well, I, you know, I didn’t know that would even be a piece of what I would be learning.”

Elizabeth Anderson “And I really enjoyed it. Once I got my 200 hour sort of haven, you could, get some other certification as well. So I went, I had and that by my best certification. So it just specifically focused on that type of meditation or yoga. What’s so amazing about it is it does several things. And if you go to, a negative meditation, it kind of has a specific formula because it’s walking you through all the layers.”

Elizabeth Anderson “Your body’s like, we have so much more than a physical body, and that’s part of it. But you go through a physical journey, an energetic breath journey, a mental journey, a wisdom journey with journey. And, it’s really the practice of bringing body and mind into the same faith. It’s working with your breath and dropping into the present moment and helping you rework, belief patterns that are limiting, each time you go through, mantra meditation, you’ll be asked to focus on an intention, something that will come naturally back.”

Elizabeth Anderson “Whatever you’re feeling about how, you know, just a thought about you might want to. You’re like, I’m be confident or whatever, whatever you are trying to, bring to the surface because. So then, you know, you just have to bring forth into your present faith. So it helps you. It helps you to do all of those things.”

Elizabeth Anderson “And the more that you practice it, the more you can bring up life. And that’s the other thing that it does, is, you know, we all have attraction and aversion. So aversions might be like if you have a fear of a certain animal or whatever it is, that if you happen to be walking across the street in one of those animals, is there, that could disturb you, disturb your flow.”

Elizabeth Anderson “So if you could work on and not be elevated by that. And then there’s also attraction. I, I personally love my coffee.”

Angela Barrett In the.

Elizabeth Anderson “Morning. Right. So if I were to then to go to the doctor next week and he said, hey, all of that caffeine really isn’t working for you. No more coffee. That’s an attraction for me. I have to be okay with that. I have to say, okay, I can put that down. It’s about neutralizing everything. So that you can just be, this present flow state.”

Elizabeth Anderson No one is going to do that all the time. But I need to get better with the process of flowing through what is happening and what’s coming your way.

Angela Barrett “Now, correct me if I’m wrong about this, but in my reading, in prepping for our, talk today, what I read about the Nitro was it really dealt with going into the the Delta brainwaves? No, no no no. And, in response for, for healing, which is responsible, the delta waves are responsible for your healing and restoration. Now, that is a lot of scientific stuff, but explore more into that.”

Elizabeth Anderson “Sure, sure. So, traditional meditation kind of keeps you in the waking state, those, beta and alpha waves. So the reason, one of the reasons why the night is called the, the yoga sleep is because it does get you into the Delta as well, and it gets you into that kind of. I don’t know if you’ve ever been, waking up in the morning or you wake up, you’re not quite ready to get up, and you’re kind of in that in down, and you’re kind of asleep.”

Elizabeth Anderson “You’re kind of awake, very dreamy. It’s very peaceful, you know, and you don’t really feel like you’re you’re fully in your physical body. You’re kind of like floating in and out of that state. So that is where, the nitro meditation takes you into that delta wave state. So where you are, relax, but you’re still aware, and that is where you get into that state and dropping in to calm and relaxed and getting out of what?”

Elizabeth Anderson “Flight or fright mode. Where you’re just, like, freaked out about everything?”

Angela Barrett “Yeah, I got to get up and do this.”

Elizabeth Anderson Yeah. Yeah.

Angela Barrett “Yeah. And so again, in my, in my reading research, It talks about it can be good for certain things. Again, one of them I thought was kind of odd and you can maybe help me with this is type two diabetes.”

Elizabeth Anderson “Yeah. You know what? I honestly, not familiar with that being helpful in that regard.”

Angela Barrett “Yeah, well, it was just one of the things that it listed that it was helpful with. So I thought, well, I that’s,”

Elizabeth Anderson So I’ll read through that too.

Angela Barrett “Yeah. Well, I didn’t I didn’t take it any further than that. But so let’s back up just a second and talk about the importance of meditation for everyday people. Well, so tell me about that.”

Elizabeth Anderson “Yeah, yeah. I mean, I, we kind of touched on it a little bit before, you know, life is so hyper connected now. We know everything all the time. There’s so much information coming at us. And even if you’re a person that maybe doesn’t use social media, or watching that TV a lot, you know, it’s still coming out even as you try to, like, mitigate it.”

Elizabeth Anderson “It’s constantly pouring at you. And, you know, our brains really, really aren’t made to take in all this information so quickly. So it the we are in a constant state of overstimulation. So meditation I think now in in credible you need that time. And I think people have a hard time carving out time for themselves in general.”

Elizabeth Anderson “And it doesn’t have to be, ideal hour and a half an hour meditation, guided, headphone ones and the sound bars or 30 minutes. And you don’t have to start at that point or ever get to where you. I think if you feel it more, you’ll want to do it longer. But you can sit down and do it for five minutes.”

Elizabeth Anderson “It does not have to be, oh, a long commitment during the day. If you feel like you don’t have that time, you could start at five minutes. You start with, whatever is going to do work for you to start to get on that road because it will be the quiet we need plan. Oh, the meditation is a way to get there.”

Elizabeth Anderson “Become there. Yeah. No love out there. It’s just like a firehose coming at you all the time. And so you need to get your mind and body attached to the fact, right? That’s right.”

Angela Barrett “And so let’s talk about for somebody who’s never done meditation and quite frankly probably has and you’ve met them some hesitation about well, you know, that’s not for me or. Oh I don’t know if I want to be a part of that group of people, however they might think of it. How do you get started?”

Angela Barrett “I mean, other than walking into a classroom, I get it right. Put in a headset. But, I mean, physically, we lay down. Let’s go from there. I mean, how do we separate what my grocery list needs to me? Because I’m terrible about that. In yoga, my Yogi friend’s an angel. That is not the purpose of my walk, I know, but,”

Angela Barrett “How how do you get to that point? I mean, how do you get to what you’re saying? Separation.”

Elizabeth Anderson “Sure, sure. I think, yeah. To your point, I think that it can be, daunting, like, wow, how can I do that? How can I how can I carve out that space? I think, physically, first of all, finding that faith is good. If you could, if you are the first person to get up in the morning.”

Elizabeth Anderson “Again, it does not have to be a long period of time. You could do it, for three minutes, 3 to 5 minutes after you get up. And I think it’s finding that it’s about faith, you know? So if you are that first one up, if you’ve got a face on a porch or, an office, like, carving out a little bit of life, that this is your place where you want and can be, not distracted for a few moments.”

Elizabeth Anderson “You know, and again, start at that 3 to 5 minutes and then, yeah. And again, also when you sit down and do it for the first time that you could find, there’s so many great, yoga music channels, like to look for instrumental, quiet, calming meditation music. Put that on. You can light a candle and just gaze into that candle and find an intention for yourself.”

Elizabeth Anderson “Or it could even be, you know, like, things that you feel grateful for or whatever speaks to you or something kind that you want to say to yourself that you love yourself something too. That doesn’t have to be thinking about nothing. It can be an intention you want to give yourself, three things of gratitude.”

Elizabeth Anderson “You might want to try taking a journal. And before you meditate, just write three things that you’re grateful for for that morning or for that evening. Light the candle and focus on those three things. Focus in on your breath. Listen to the sound of your breath. It can be, sitting in that space and coming into the present.”

Elizabeth Anderson “And what are five things I see here? What are five things that I hear and hear you get back here? Breath. Set a timer for yourself, and I can guarantee if you try one or a combination of those methods, that five minutes is going to go by so quickly. You can just keep going back to those practices.”

Elizabeth Anderson “And, you know, if that’s the gratitude journaling, I think that’s the lighting the candle and then focusing in on your five senses and what you feel in that space, whatever speaking to you and it could be different things on different days or maybe one thing, but just stay in those lanes and then every few days maybe set your timer for a few more minutes.”

Elizabeth Anderson “Start to see how that helps you. You get you into the space for you to be, see how that affects how you go about your day and how you were to respond when you’re, as we all get into in cars and say, like traffic or.”

Angela Barrett “Conflict time, right?”

Elizabeth Anderson “You know, how you can just bring it back to that present faith and not let one get under your skin.”

Angela Barrett “Right, right, right. And let’s talk about intentions for those who don’t know anything about, meditating. So explain again. But an intention is.”

Elizabeth Anderson “Yeah, so an intention and, you know, I mean, I don’t want to necessarily say something you want to work on. I don’t want it to be a pressure or another goal or that, you know, somebody began putting on their, their endless to do list and that would be productive life that they have that an intention can go back in, you know, self-love letting go of be here, wanting to have more clarity.”

Elizabeth Anderson “And, you know, it’s just an intention can be an endless thing for that individual is going to decide what their intention is. So not.”

Angela Barrett Another word could be a goal.

Elizabeth Anderson “It could be a goal. And I need a lot of things in it. And when I say it, when we talk about goal again, it’s not like, yeah, 10 pounds and a half marathon or whatever you want to do. It’s really more about taking it into the eternal, like maybe and percolating up one and then a half marathon, but I’m not me as an example.”

Elizabeth Anderson “So I think that I know people have done it and I’m very I have a lot of admiration for them. But, yeah, that would be something that I wanted to do, just hypothetically, but I can’t I can’t make myself get on the road to that journey. It’s really taking that internally. It’s like, well, what am I? Am I afraid I won’t be able to actually achieve that goal?”

Elizabeth Anderson “Or do I feel like I’m not strong enough? And then it’s it’s really looking at it’s like and that will maybe I don’t feel like I’m here, for example. Then I make my intention that I am strong. Oh, I’m capable, I am strong, I am worthy. You’re going you’re you’re putting it internal to yourself and filling your cup with what you think you’re lacking.”

Elizabeth Anderson The not lacking. You just happy. Get it to the person yourself.

Angela Barrett “Right. And again, that goes back to what the the knowledge is about. You’re not completely in your subconscious, but kind of mean you’re kind of halfway there and kind of halfway in the car to some. You never asleep? Not really.”

Elizabeth Anderson “But yeah. Good. Your subconscious is always working, right. We wake, it’s always going. And so when you’re getting enthused by drifts, you’re kind of slowly together with it, with your conscious and subconscious together. You can, you can clear out some stuff that’s happening in there. You can come to some revelation you formed, really make it, so one of the many, tools and practices to have for yourself, you come in for your light and your best self and really recognize it.”

Elizabeth Anderson “You know you are enough. You are worthy. You are capable of doing the things that you want to do, and you can put aside your fear. Then you can step forward in the process. You can let, things go because, I mean, we all hold. We hold everything, you know, we hold everything within ourselves. You know, that’s why you well, you know, you might go I mean, I do, I mean, I have dreams about myself still being in school and I can’t find my class or whatever it is, like all that stuff, you know, it’s still in you somewhere.”

Elizabeth Anderson “And so part of it, another example I like to do with it is, you know, stay lifted. Have me in second grade. I tripped over a curb, and I fell, and I, busted my eyebrow a little bit. So for me, maybe, like, still. So that still held an E somewhere. So if I’m walking really fast and I go to, like, trip on the sidewalk, my brain’s got the trigger.”

Elizabeth Anderson “I say, oh, no, you’re going to really hurt yourself. Now that’s something that happening in the path. I’m just going to catch myself. That’s true. And so the Niagara meditation helps me to not go back in time to that, that thing that happened to me. It’s going to help me just carry forward and just keep on walking.”

Angela Barrett “And it really is sort of something you have to practice that. I mean, you’re not going to do it the first few times and you’re just not, you know, at least I know I wouldn’t. I’m still making a grocery back.”

Elizabeth Anderson “My right. Yeah. And like anything else. Right. You’re not going to go to like a Pilates class and be one time and be awesome at lot right down. And so like anything else, it’s, it’s the practice for your, for your, for all of your bodies really. But yes, it’s definitely helpful for that mental and, you know, I feel that way about really, any, any sort of exercise.”

Elizabeth Anderson “You’re going to do that up on mental spiritual. It’s it’s all a practice. The more you do it, the more you’re gonna, you’re going to hone and define and get there where you want to be.”

Angela Barrett “Sure, sure. So, I know we’ve got to go. We both have busy days, but, Platform. How long have they been? Opened?”

Elizabeth Anderson “They up really close to a year. They’re just getting to their one year anniversary, and I think they’re planning, celebration tickets might be the 12th or September. Okay. But anyway, they’re just gonna kind of, you know, do you like a celebrate for being open a year? Talk about how they’re expanding and the other opportunities that they have, for people to find their lane of what’s gonna work for them.”

Elizabeth Anderson “To get into their present state with meditation, breathwork, you know, taking it beyond when you, when you leave your meditation space. And then again, I, I know I keep saying that, but if you go out into the world, you can, carry that peace and present with you.”

Angela Barrett “Yeah. Neat, neat. Well, I’m going to have to give it a try. I’ll, I’ll, I’ll, I’ll, I’ll top with you on the side and find out where I need starts. It’s I’m not there with you and, Mount Pleasant, but, that’s it sounds like it. It sounds like we all care. Needs a little bit of that.”

Angela Barrett But thank you so much for being here.

Elizabeth Anderson “Yeah, absolutely. Thank you.”

Angela Barrett “Thank you for being here. And, I look forward to that down there. I will certainly come back now.”

Elizabeth Anderson “That’d be wonderful. Yeah, yeah.”

Angela Barrett Thank you so much.

Elizabeth Anderson Thank you.

Episode transcript:

Angela Barrett “Thank you so much for being here today, mayor. I’m excited about this.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “Oh, I am too. Appreciate you having me.”

Angela Barrett “Yeah. So my very first, question for you. How does game day.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “Hey, it was unbelievable. I tell you, the excitement that was in Williams Rice Stadium and the excitement around it was incredible. But you know what? Really, I thought was amazing was an opportunity to hear a lot of the conversation going on, between the broadcasters. And it was really, uplifting to hear them talk about what a great environment our community had.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “And, you know, even one of the announcers said, you know, I never thought I’d be in Columbia, South Carolina. Do you guys? God, I’m glad I’m here. You know, and so when you hear that. Yeah. Far.”

Angela Barrett “And then stands, we got the chicken egg with certain serving, sir. Yeah, that was fun.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “But, you know, for us as a community here, that it’s what we know. It’s just we haven’t we haven’t shared it with everybody. So we’re excited to share our story.”

Angela Barrett “Yeah. And, meeting Lee Corso. How was that?”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “You know, the legendary coach, you know, been watching that show forever. It was pretty special.”

Angela Barrett Yeah.

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “I’m sorry. You know, I loved it. The fact that, ESPN, wanted to do something with the community, and I thought it was a great opportunity for us to to showcase who we are.”

Angela Barrett “Yeah, absolutely. Well, enjoyed watching it, and, I was didn’t I had no idea that you were going on. And my husband was like, you know, the mayor. I didn’t get the show. I’m like, what? So that was fun to watch. It was exciting. So, your Columbia streams art. Let’s talk about that. A lot of the project, give everybody sort of the overall, picture of that project.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “The, you know, we wanted to, to get a, a project that was really engaging in the community, you know, and stream art. You know, it was a way for us to to pick all the different media and to promote visibility and conversation. And we’re like, we got to do something to get people excited about. I’ve been in Lexington, Kentucky, and they had the horses.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “You know, I knew as a kid when the cowboy parade started. And places across the globe are doing all types of art like this, and we’re like, well, let’s do something that celebrates our river. You know, we just announced, you know, the collaboration between Lexington County, Richland County, Casey, West Colombia, Colombia, Armada Cape and and Saluda Shoals on where they had 27 miles of riverfront available for walking and biking and hiking.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “And so having that opportunity said, alright, let’s do something. So we got we found somebody who can make four foot trout. We said, so let’s do this and let’s use the fish and decorate and auctioned it off. Not to raise a ton of money, but really to create more awareness and get people excited. A way to put art into promoting.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “And and so we ended up doing, 36, different tryouts. We were able to auction those off. We raised a little bit money that we’re putting back into other programs. So we’re going to do ten turtle sculptures, only allow these artists to do it, and put those turtles out in the riverfront and around town for public display.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “There are about six trout being, going to be displayed publicly. People bought them and donated them back and, to be placed across, the city. So just creating some, some fun around it, you know, and so that was like project one. And then Steven Chesley, an artist in town, had done what they called, canvas art program during so bid and they partnered with the city of Kaiserslautern, which is our sister city in Germany, to, to to cross-pollinate art during this period of time.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “And so what they do is they project this art onto canvases and then you could display it. It’s, a unique and inexpensive way to share art. And so I was like, this is a great idea. Let’s figure out how do we do this and do 5 or 6 of these and spread them around town. So it’s constantly moving.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “And what they were able to do was incorporate poetry and art and other things. So as we do these canvases, you got multiple artists, Symbolist, and our goal is to do a lot of these and just keep rotating them across the city. So you got to kind of it’s kind of a game, figure out where it is, but it also ties you to some artists you may not know of or you never heard of this, this, this artist, this poetry, author who, you know, lives in a neighborhood.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “And it puts everything together. But we’re also partner with Sister cities and and we’re going to do one with Accra, Ghana, which we’re excited. You know, we had the mayor of Ghana here not too long ago just had the ambassador here. It’s our other sister city. So really excited about what can happen with that and do an exchange.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “But it’s opened up our opportunity really to display art in an inexpensive way around town in a bigger way. Just had a conversation with, the folks in the organization they’re organizing, 80th year Holocaust mural. And I’m like, why don’t we do it on a huge canvas that then can be transported to different parts of the community so people can see it, but also it’s something that you can reuse.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “You can roll up, pull out again and take it on a traveling, exposition or, you know, bring it to the university for a while or bring it to a couple of high school. So you. Yeah, that part’s been been pretty cool to watch and see it roll rolling in what it could be. It really opens up the door to sharing more of what’s happened in our community in an inexpensive way, but enough to draw people to it.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann Right. And then we had another program as part of that was called the Mini Libraries program.

Angela Barrett “Yeah, yeah, idea reason. The, newspaper boxes. That was pretty cool.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “You know, try to figure out, you see all these mini libraries, neighborhoods, more like, you know. So we first started off calling local the statewide laugh. We ended up found somebody who recycles and picks some fixes on the map. We got them kind of painted in different colors. Blues, greens, yellows, reds. And then we took them to our part that had the young folks in the summer camps decorate.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “So there was the hands on decoration from, the kids that were taking part in our summer programs. And then we went from there to, hey, we want to, but drop suddenly we are overwhelmed with. But yeah, so we could fill all these and get them in to neighborhoods where there may not be an opportunity for somebody to put in a little library or create access on the wall, come from some of our elementary schools really getting a lot of placed in North Columbia.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “And some of our more challenged. It is a way to just start building out the community in a little different way. You know, hopefully this is the beginning. We want to do some community art on some empty lots there as well, just really trying to build back block by block, one house, at a time. And we also were able to put some funding behind the Finney Center.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “Artist, Benny’s daughter and several other folks created, the fitness center, which is located on Lawrence Street, right over, by Hampton behind railroad barbecue. And it’s really it’s part of a neighborhood revitalized Zation there. Kevin Gray was the founder of Railroad Barbecue Community. This, grew up in Spartanburg, was one of the first kids to integrate in public school, in the 60s.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “And just, you know, all of that incredible individual did not always agree with Kevin, but log cabin energy for the community. And here I got to be great friends. And if you haven’t been in this restaurant, it’s worth checking out. It’s like a museum itself. It has artifacts basically from political, from civil rights, political through the years, basketball.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “But everything’s localized South Carolina. And so you just spend hours in there walking around city. It all the pictures. But it was a way to help that art program and that gallery really kind of grab your hub. Don’t be a multi-purpose space where they can have theater shows, they can do art shows, community programs, but it’s really in the heart of our African-American district and is really going to play a vital role to the future growth in that community.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “So excited. And then we’ve been meeting we did an art artist roundtable and got a lot of feedback from artists about what we could do better. And, you know, pushing. There was a little bit of pushing and pull in there, which is good, but we hope to have a follow up and really engage more. Oh, we get how we can help from a cultural standpoint in our community, really bolster all the arts, you know, and, you know, virtually law for us to have some big festival.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “We taught in music and food and performing arts, visual art and really tired all in together. So you can bring all this, this great creativity, across the city. So, you know, we got to keep try different things. We’re, we got some micro grants for our project. We’re looking to do a holiday market and being more of a gallery market where we can invite all these artists to display for free and give them a place to really kind of showcase their arts, much like Christmas Market, but focused on the arts.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann Can the arts and crafts of our community really looking forward to that?

Angela Barrett “Yeah, that’s a great idea. So I’m sorry. Interrupt that. Yeah. Perfect idea because I know, just trying to chase down the chicken man to get some ice. I mean, so is that a yes? You want to buy a local art? Yeah, you just do. Or most of us do. But sometimes you don’t know where to find them.”

Angela Barrett “If they’re not, don’t have a gallery of their own or you don’t, you don’t know of a gallery that holds that particular, let’s say you wanted something very specific, like an artist. Lee, you know, you were looking for something, but sometimes you don’t know where to go to. So having a one place where you can go around and and look at everybody’s is as great.”

Angela Barrett “Maybe not even a $1 a year if they would have been, that would be, maybe.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “So I’ll take the long term. That would be our goal. You know, I’ve always said, you know, there are other kids have done this, and I’d like, figure out how we do this, you know, have a made in Colombia, you know, store where you’re rotating these different, artist potters, you know, sculptures, everything in and out so that people could really enjoy local art and do that.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “But, you know, it was interesting. Somebody came out with a great idea. And so we’re looking into which is, you know, we get a lot of, hotels and businesses come here and then, you know, they want some type of tax break or incentive and so the trade off should be, well, we’ll do this for you. But you know what?”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “When you go to fill your building with art by local and make that part of the stipulation, just another way to get, you know, a few larger economy, but also, you know, really show the best in the brightest, of Colombia. To all the visitors. I mean, you know, we’re very fortunate to get 16 million visitors a year.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “So, yeah, one more sale, one more day. You know, hopefully we can keep doing things like that.”

Angela Barrett “Yeah, yeah. Great idea. So going back to, I guess, the beginning, where did you come up with this, this idea for, quality streams, art?”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “Well, I think we were a little bit in a transition at time. We did have a permanent director at one Columbia. At that time, they didn’t have a public art, director. You know, since that’s change. But we want a little flexibility where we could do a couple little splash projects, really to to to to uplift people.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “And, you know, my goal really is to create more awareness, but we can raise some money. And while we’re doing it, that means we could get money back out to grants on top of the money that’s already out there and and hopefully pushing harder to get more grant money and opportunities out there, but also another transitional way to to get businesses engaged with our local artists as well, you know, kind of really getting them excited about, you know, maybe our mission stop more, you know, maybe we should buy our arts or there maybe for Christmas.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “We’re giving art, you know, is gifts to our our best clients. Just, you know, look, everybody gets a bottle of booze and a bottle of wine, and Lord knows we can’t eat all that food yet during the holidays. But a nice piece of art or pottery or something, you know, something that lasts for a long time. So just just trying something different, you know, we’re we’ve gotten to the point in Colombia that we’re not afraid to try things that we want to try.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “And the one one thing we’ve always said, we want to promote our small businesses in our community is a small business.”

Angela Barrett “Yeah, absolutely. I totally agree. Love the arts. How about any photography in this country anytime soon?”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “Yeah. As a matter of fact, they’re they’re I think one of the upcoming canvases is going to have some photography art as well. Yeah. So taking advantage, of all arts and visuals, in our community is obviously, important. And we’re trying to get the kids more involved to, you know, getting the high schools. We even had some the couple high schools decorated trout.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “So, you know, that was exciting. So we can keep doing things like that. I think, you know, we’re promoting and get people excited. We just want to plant the seed. You know, we this I don’t know that is our role in our job to to try to sustain it and oversee it. But we certainly can help promote it and, and and feed it and get it and excited and let it grow and morph into its own, really destiny.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “And I think ways we can do that is, you know, have this gallery space. We’ve been talking to, realtors about putting artists into spaces that have at least, you know, and let it be in there from month to month. But at least there’s excitement in there. People walk by and there’s activity and they see something. So then maybe they start to visualize, well, maybe I should go in that space, you know?”

Angela Barrett “Yeah, just try and.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “Different things work, you know, across the different community lines.”

Angela Barrett “Yeah. Yeah, I like it, I like it. So now tell me where we where can we find these trout right now. What’s up though a lot.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “We have six of them over in our parks and racks. And all of that is are going to be out on display. They’re being coated with a special weather resistance coating, but you’ll see some at five points. You’ll see something in, the vista you’ll see down at the Riverfront Park. I’m actually got bought the Benedict one, and we’re donating that back to Benedict.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “So that’s going to be prominently, on their campus. So also there’s so there’s a lot.”

Angela Barrett

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “Of unique pieces, that were done that you’re going to see start popping everywhere. And then we’re going to weed in those turtles a little bit. And who knows what’s next.”

Angela Barrett “Yeah. Yeah. That sounds like a good idea. Now, going back to the, Phinney Center. I know that right now they’re housed in what, a big warehouse they, But they’re working on a redoing a form that is going to be to help help me there because I, I sort of lost it in the translation, reading about it.”

Angela Barrett

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “Yeah. They’re, they’re they had bought one of the historic house across the street, and that’s going to be our artist and resident, program, as well as having some, more active space specially to help artists and folks. Yeah, we different funding opportunities and so forth. But I think the artists and residence piece is actually owned by family.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “Who? I don’t think any of the descendants still live here, but I could be wrong about that. And they were able to get that, which I think is a, you know, a great additive to what’s happening in that corridor there. It’s going to be exciting. I’m going to tell you, the artists are building a couple of events there, and the enthusiasm that there is around this, the Penny center and, you know, it’s and it’s in another district, you know, so much of our art is always been centered downtown or in the vista, which was, you know, the original Arts Village.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “And so things are becoming a little more spread out, which is good because I think that gets more people engaged, you know? Yeah. The Chicken man, Andre Street, you know, up there, you.”

Angela Barrett “Know, we’re in that. But yeah. Well that’s.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann Great.

Angela Barrett That’s great. That’s just sweet. All right.

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “But yeah, there’s a, there’s one being, there’s an artist village being built over by, the hangar at OSP. Oh. Do you got, our streams down it, everything happening down it, Yugi Street, you know, you still got a lot of folks. It 701 Whaley said it’s really started going on low Carlyle Street, which is tucked up off.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “No, what has become a little corridor? I think there’s like 6 or 7 different artists that are working out of there as well. So a lot of little pockets everywhere.”

Angela Barrett “Right. And I know that there’s always a big art. Well, it’s kind of like, I guess the Arts and Crafts festival, but it’s mainly some of your, artists down there. And I think that is in Cotton Town, and it’s they usually have that at least once a year.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann Yeah. They had.

Angela Barrett Always been fine.

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “There had their art crawl. They also have a one in Melrose High. So you got into kind of historic neighborhoods. It play a big role and it’s fun because you stroll around the neighborhood and you get to see some really unique art, and there’s there’s jewelry making. There’s a topiary guy there. And, but some really cool, boards.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “The this lady here in town makes that, she gets some unique pieces of wood from around the southeast, makes these beautiful charcuterie boards, which we use for different things. Not just charcuterie, but they’re just all the handcraft stuff just gets you so excited. And then, of course, Soda City can’t forget it. There’s always art down here, especially pottery and other.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “So, you know, there’s a lot of opportunity for people to grasp local art. We just got to keep promoting it, lifting it up.”

Angela Barrett “Right? Right. And and speaking of so the city, I love all the stuff. And I know you’ve had a hand in it, even to the lights. You know that. Now on Main Street and you’re so city and, you know, just the, I don’t know, the, bringing or upcoming or how how you would say that, of how Main Street is.”

Angela Barrett It’s pretty cool. Now.

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “Oh, I think, I think I was so to say city. You know, Emil started that, on Whaley Street with like, ten vendors, and now it’s, you know, 150 to 200 vendors. And what’s exciting is, is how many people I meet. And so to city that are from the city or don’t really have a connection to the city, and they’ve heard about this and they come here and they’ve been exposed to Colombia and they’re like, well, you know, never would have thought about coming to Colombia or stopping by on my way to the beach or on my way to Florida.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “Now it’s become a ritual for us to stop here and spend the night. And we, we love. So to city, you know, we bath all over the place in the music there. Like, there’s so much going on in this town. And it’s it’s things that we did realize. And the hospitality, I think, is what really get people excited about our community is we got a lot of compliments this weekend, not only from, you know, folks who were here visiting for game day, but there also is military graduation this weekend.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “So and all these families in and they they could not stop asking about the fact that this community not only was so embracing, everybody was nice. People like, oh, you should go try this or you should go see this. You need to do this. It just made us feel excited about being here and we want to come back on this.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “So, you know, I think it’s a testimony to who we are in the Midlands. I think we’ve been the best kept secret South Carolina for so long. That’s now the people are starting to realize the value of the Midlands and what we have to offer.”

Angela Barrett “Yeah. As a real estate agent, you know how it pays the bills anyway, it’s not this, but the I tell all of that out-of-state clients as they are not going to believe we really are nice people. I mean, genuinely take the clothes off our back and help you. Whatever you need. You see you in a couple months.”

Angela Barrett “I should have had time to settle in there. You are kidding. And y’all love hugs a lot. Yes, we do, I think we really do.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “And you know what I always tell people? Yeah, you steal this line. Just give me credit for it. But I always tell people nobody retires up north, so why even start your career there? Started here. I tell my young people that I’ll time.”

Angela Barrett “That’s right, that’s right, I love it. It’s so, tell me about this forbidden bourbon.”

Angela Barrett “I read somewhere that you had, co-founding or whatever, this forbidden bourbon. And she was the first female. Or it how do they call it the mass lavender distiller? Yeah. I was like, well, I love it, but it’s an art. That’s an art form, by the way.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “Oh, it is very much an art form. Very, hands on, very exciting. Now there’s some friends of mine and I got together. We really wanted to do, a spirits company, and obviously, bourbon is the only American spirit. Had this idea of using white corn. And winter white wheat is ingredient. And didn’t know that there it really.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “I’m not sure that there’s another bourbon out there. Uses white corn. But we, you know, we first started, you know, trying to use silver Queen and it didn’t work, you know, as a nod to South Carolina. It was too sweet. So we had to get, just a regular white corn strand. But, I read an article about Marianne in her career, and she was in intern at Brown-Forman.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “Ended up becoming their master to blender, like 29. And she left there to be a star castle and key, which is old Arnold Taylor, distiller, reached with two other folks and I reached out to her. I said, I hey, I have this idea. And she goes, well, we’re taking all contracts on our clients. You know how much you want to do something?”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “And we said, yeah. And after about 14 variations, we came to the agreement of a project we like, and we like what we had so much sip. Marianne was actually leaving, Castle and in to try a couple other ventures in. We said, hey, you know, she goes, I want to stay with the brand. I said, we want to stay the brand.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “So she came in and, stayed with us. And as a partner and equity partner, and she’s just doing an incredible job, with the product. And we do the spin out of here. And, you know, it takes a long time in the bourbon industry, you know, working on this nine years. So, got a lot of, juice and barrels, I hope, watching it, mature.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “And she, she’s like, artisan Julien. She’ll tell us when it’s ready to be served. So we wait. We wait. But it’s been fun and it’s been a great project. And, you know, having a product where we were able to just come up with, we got a Grammy nominated designer who helped us design, handcrafted bottle custom made for us, and the labeling and the in the time and the effort nearby put in the fact that we use full quality grains over feed quality grains, just these different nuances.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “Mary and I had a lot of thought of old distilling tricks, but using new products and, you know, different strains of yeast, it really produced a unique blend. And so, yeah, we’re real happy with this fight.”

Angela Barrett “Yeah. The and I brought that up because, yeah, I know your world of art and you are big into the arts, but I thought, well, that is kind of an art form. But I know he’s not physically making it, but it is an art form. And it takes, a lot of patience, I think, on your side and her side.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “Well, there was a lot there was a lot of creativity, a lot of people putting ideas together to get to where we were. So, you know, that that that was the important part. And it it really is an art. I mean, for someone to have the talent to be able to, to know when it’s time and how to blend.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “You know, our small batch is about 48 barrels blended together, and, and create striking that balance in the knowing on a single barrel which one it actually do you release as a single barrel because, you know, you have to blend the others. And so having that, that magic tongue and that sense of smell and you really use in your sets is and I’ve learned a lot over the last few years about that.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “And it I have so much respect for folks who have that talent. You know, and are able to do it because not everybody can do it. And the fact that she’s the first female master distiller in Kentucky is, you know, says a lot. You know, I mean, until 1974, she couldn’t even have sold that business, which is interesting.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “Yeah. You know, so, well, there are there’s a lot of things out of that make you smile.”

Angela Barrett “Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I loved it. The part about the first female master distiller yet. Distiller? Yes. Now you have a podcast of your own, called Around Town. I enjoy listening to that. And, you do that every other week, right?”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann We did. We did.

Angela Barrett “It. Is that in line with, your spotlights as well? The do you highlight, this is or that different or, you know, they’re they’re a little gem.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “We we try to use the different avenues to highlight, you know, very different folks in, in the podcast really started is because it is always campaign campaigning and, and it was different than campaigning before. I just met so many incredible people. And, and one of the things that that I learned from talking to a lot of people is, is that Columbia’s just such a hit, hit gem, and now we’d never really market ourselves.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “You know, when people are at Columbia, they just assume we’re a college town and that’s all we have to offer. They really don’t understand what we have. And so my goal was always to highlight people from our community and their unique story, its nonprofit or their business or, you know, the things that they’ve done in the community. They are somebody who, like the Boy Foundation had in this Susan Boyd on there, talking about why her family decided to set up this foundation and donate 6 to $7 million a year to projects and enhance our community.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “People really gravitated towards that. And I’ve had a lot of people set up a newcomer and I’ll listen your podcast. That’s where I learned about where all these restaurants are and, you know, learned about different programs, things I didn’t even know about. So really for us, it was trying to highlight, the folks in our community that we use our spotlight either hire, you know, highlight businesses that we also do on highlighting employees.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “We we think it’s a great idea for people to get to know the people behind the seat, and the setting to make things happen.”

Angela Barrett “Yeah, yeah, yeah. Good idea, good idea. I might steal it. Doing a certainly appreciate, you coming on today? My final question is, what’s next for the city of Columbia? What you got? What? What you got up your sleeve?”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “Oh, well, yeah, we have a lot of things really focused. Excited about Riverside Tennis Shop. I think that’s for us is a priority. And we’ve got a couple projects that will really help us tie it in. And, you know, I think our goal is to finish a lot of projects that have been, you know, going on for decades.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “And and they’re very important because they’re all connected pieces. And today we hear a lot from folks about connectivity and walkability and downtown living. So that’s where our focus is. And, you know, the other one is is really creating more homeownership opportunities, but also housing. We need about 16,000 units over the next decade. So what can we do to help move that faster and make sure that we’ve got, you know, great properties, affordable, attainable properties in every level across our community so that we can keep, a diverse community, especially in our downtown.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “I mean, I think it’s important we’ve seen some other cities that have struggled with that, and it got too late and a lot of their workforce and other folks might come in, and it’s detrimental to the small businesses. We want to make sure we’re thinking ahead and not reacting, but actually being proactive.”

Angela Barrett “Yeah, yeah. Well, I certainly enjoy, again, your podcast and, pretty much anything that you have a hand in, it is great to watch, it come to fruition. And, I appreciate you being on today.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “Well, I appreciate it. You know, it’s great to work with a great team and have a lot of people, you know, pulling in, I think Columbia, you know, there’s the city itself and the Midlands itself and has gotten out of it’s gotta be your stage. Well, reality we are. You know everybody kept comparing nasty, Charleston and Greenville and they all want to be the one of that is I want to be Columbia, South Carolina.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann I want to be the Midlands. And I think we ought to just keep waving the flag and being proud.

Angela Barrett “Yeah, I think you’re doing a great job of that. That. Well thanks again. Thank you.”

Mayor Daniel Rickenmann “Thank you so much for having us. And, this was fun.”

Angela Barrett “Yeah, it was.”

Episode transcript:

Angela Barrett “Hey guys, thanks for being with me today on top in South Carolina, I have Ashton Reed from the South part South Carolina venue crisis. Thanks Ashton for being with me.”

Asheton Reid Thanks for having me.

Angela Barrett Yeah. So let’s talk about first what the South Carolina venue crisis is.

Asheton Reid “So what it was is a team that we formed back in April of 2023. It was started with three people and went to four. And we had other volunteers on the team as well. But it started because in trouble, your own ship was buying grill and Piedmont, South Carolina received his renewal quote for the liquor liability insurance, and it skyrocketed even more so than the previous year.”

Asheton Reid “He brought it to Sheila marques in my attention, and he contacted his insurance provider, and they said, best thing you do is make some noise. We are rock n rollers promoters. We were like, you know what? We can do that. And so we set out to be, our main goal was to bring awareness to this issue because we, none of us had any political backgrounds, knowledge, very, very disconnected from that world.”

Asheton Reid “But we were all very willing and able to to learn and to bring awareness to this very, very serious topic. And here we are.”

Angela Barrett “Yeah. So, let’s talk about, I guess, where this all started, how it came to how you guys formed or why you formed the South Carolina venue crisis.”

Asheton Reid “So when we started doing more research, we found out that in, 2014, there was a horrific, horrific crash in Dillon, South Carolina, and we’re going county. And, it was a naturally leading a bar, and the bar was uninsured, which technically they should not even been open, because if you don’t have insurance or a bar or liquor liability, we like the license, then you should take may not even be open.”

Asheton Reid “So I’m not quite sure how that fell through the cracks of why the state even allowed them to even be serving alcohol without this, because it’s if you have when you had your liquor license, which is distributed by the state, and you have to have the insurance, it goes along with it that you had to provide to the state showing up.”

Asheton Reid “So some things help from the crash. That’s a different topic, I believe. Sure. But were they the, the patron was intoxicated? I’m not sure if that is due to the bar or if she was maybe possibly drinking from her car or her purse. Something else was going on. There’s so many caveats that can lead to this, but there is a police officer was responding to a call, so he was going very fast, but she was also apparently very drunk.”

Asheton Reid “Hey, why did he has brain damage? Passenger in her vehicle very, very fortunately passed away. So was that leg. It was the catalyst to Bill 116, which in 2017 was but and to act which means every shot which meant that was open after 5 p.m. that serves alcohol. And even though liquor liability you think liquor but it also includes beer and wine.”

Asheton Reid “So it’s more types of up. But you have to carry $1 million policy, which in turn should not be that big of a deal, or that much of a monthly or annual fee for the business. But with there being no percentage, fault or, percentage or personal responsibility attached to that, it has become a a wild, wild west for the trial lawyers.”

Asheton Reid “And so there’s no room in there. There are victims and the actual victims, it’s it’s tragic. And they should become saying that.”

Angela Barrett “Yeah, we are advocating drinking and driving by any stroke.”

Asheton Reid “Absolutely. No. Absolutely not. But it’s more of the frivolous lawsuits that have caused the insurance premiums to completely skyrocket. Back in 2017, the average, liquor liability annual policy was 5 to 7000 or a per year. Now it we’re seeing, like, the cheapest, 35 grand up to 250 plus. And so small business. Yes. During that even it can afford that.”

Asheton Reid You shouldn’t have to because it’s just not it’s not fair.

Angela Barrett “Right. So in other state, how how is this done. Because I understand this is everybody has to have the insurance.”

Asheton Reid But it’s very.

Angela Barrett Differently in other state. In that the laws are more specific as to the percentage of fault and how that’s determined. Correct me if I’m wrong and then explain.

Asheton Reid “So I can’t speak to the other states. I’m not. We’re knowledgeable on that topic on this more. No one was going on within our state. So I don’t but know that we’re one of the few, if not the only, state that is facing this right now. Alabama did have a very have a Siri at a similar situation last year, and they I guess after I had get actually what they did to rectify this issue.”

Asheton Reid “But they, they saw the value in making sure that this, that their issue was no longer an issue because of the tax money that’s coming in just from the tourist industry itself. Sure. And in South Carolina, with the employment, one and nine people are employed through service industry. So think of the limited rate that well, it’s mind blowing.”

Asheton Reid Absolutely mind blowing.

Angela Barrett Right. And so because there are guests. So tell me the reason that y’all are going with or fighting with legislation and and what that is exactly that you’re fighting for.

Asheton Reid “So to our knowledge, what would help rectify this issue is Bill 533. We encourage everyone to educate themselves. Look it up, laugh for yourself in your own words. But also you can visit see venue prices.org and it breaks everything down perfectly. Sheila Merck is a genius when it comes to organization. And she she is she’s the one to thank for the entire website, but it breaks it down perfectly.”

Asheton Reid “But Bill 533 is the SC Justice Act, and it’s gotten several. So talk four, which wouldn’t just be beneficial to the service industry, but the trucking, the housing, manufacturing, everything within the state and it helps it bring it back to a fair trial. So it’s the percentage of faults. And so it’s not just the it’s you are 1%.”

Asheton Reid “As of right now it stands if you are 1% ball, you can be held responsible for 100% of the payout, which is mind boggling to me that if, if when 533 is passed, join several be statewide which be able for you know percentage vote. So it’s the if you’re 1% vote then yeah you’re going to pay for that.”

Asheton Reid “But if you’re only 1% ball, you should not be held responsible for 100% of the damage. When there’s especially when there’s no personal responsibility attached to it.”

Angela Barrett “Right. And so. I’ve got several questions. But I’ll start with let’s talk about what’s the timeline sort of with legislation and where we are right now, because I know they the state you know, the Senate they dismiss for this hour. And and we’ll come back, you know, in the fall of the year. But go ahead and tell.”

Asheton Reid People.

Angela Barrett The timeline.

Asheton Reid “To January through May is when the House and Senate in session, and they are able to come back for an emergency session, which, there was a press conference on June 5th that was at the state House to say, hey, you guys, you’re coming back in for an emergency session for a bill for dick hack that most people don’t even want or is too concerned about.”

Asheton Reid “But this is an actual issue at hand. So it’s you guys can come back or do get the act meeting and the first bill, why can’t you come back or go on several when this is a very serious issue and a lot of people are talking about it. You know, a lot of people are contacting their legislators, which we highly encourage them to do respectfully.”

Asheton Reid “Let them know how this is about you and why it should be at the forefront to be resolved. But they are only in session January to May. But they can be. They can be called back. It’s not super common, but it’s it’s it’s possible.”

Angela Barrett “So as it stands right now, have they turned this down, tabled it, keep tabling it for the next time. I mean how how this what’s been happening there.”

Asheton Reid “So I did make it to the floor with the, the last session. Oh fortunately it was shut down because they tried to add in section F and section F would allow 533 to not apply to any alcohol sales. So there would be completely just it would help, it would help other industries in, in the state, but it would not help be like a liability issue at all.”

Angela Barrett Yeah.

Asheton Reid “So as long we would for about three, three without section F to B B to be passed. But it did make it to the portion master who is I? I have been extremely impressed with him. He is a true advocate. It’s that it’s been amazing to watch. And he has, you know, he has a backbone and I appreciate the heck out of that.”

Angela Barrett “Yeah, I like that explanation of the perfect storm. Yes, yes. Yes. Because less when people think of serving alcohol, they think of the bar. The bartender and the patron, whoever’s you know, being served. But that is not who all this affects. This trickles down to so many people. I mean, it is when bar.”

Asheton Reid “The yes the branches that this reaches from the power companies to the local farmers to the beverage distributions to the cooks. So, I mean, it’s not just the bartenders, most everyone that’s employed from that establishment, it’s it’s just the outreach. And the ripple effect is just is heartbreaking to think that this many people could be impacted if something is not done right.”

Angela Barrett “And I understand the impact of this is Memorial along the lines of not your bigger restaurants that serve lots and lots of food because they make money there, but it is more impacting those bars that just have, a couple appetizer things because I think it’s our food if they have alcohol. But They don’t have they’re not the pin, it turns out.”

Angela Barrett “I think part of it, it’s the drinks and the, you know, that’s the way they’re bringing in their money. And I understand those are the places that it is affecting more so than some of your bigger food restaurants that serve alcohol. Right.”

Asheton Reid “All right. So a bar tavern, they’re they’re playing the margins with any restaurant that sells alcohol. Typically the higher margins are from sales. Sure. So a lot of places and people that, you know, rightfully so, don’t comprehend that part of it, but they’re saying, oh, why don’t you just not sell alcohol? Well, that’s not really an option because the business is going to go under because that’s where the the money in the margins are coming from.”

Angela Barrett But it is mostly one people are there.

Asheton Reid “Oh, exactly. Exactly. And it’s the this isn’t a necessary like drinking thing because a lot of people are like, oh, you’re just, you know, you’re fighting for alcohol. It’s more just a fight for freedom also. But it’s the response for freedom. And so, you know.”

Angela Barrett “And and the way I’m, the way I’ve read it correctly is a fairness, you know, it’s left up to the server, the bartender, whoever, to determine whether somebody is intoxicated or not. And you may not know that in the in, in the initially I’m just going to throw this out, again not promoting or, you know, warning people to drink and drive.”

Angela Barrett “Absolutely not. But what I think I have seen and I agree with is the unfair this of where, first of all, the responsibility lies to that server to decide if that person is in fact intoxicated, because, again, you may not know that initially somebody comes in who’s been drinking all day somewhere not there, they ask for a drink.”

Angela Barrett “You haven’t met them more than three second, you serve them a drink and then they leave. You served one drink. You had no time to make any kind of you know, I think that’s what I got out of a lot of what I was reading in the videos I was watching is where it needs to, percentage wise, means to lie and those kinds of things.”

Angela Barrett Is what I understand.

Asheton Reid “Yes. So it’s saying we we’ve been calling it the million odd mimosa. It’s because it’s the if you go, we have brunch at noon and you have one man. They sir, as a salesman, you go out, you’re on the lake, you go to a friend’s house, you go 13 different places, which I do not condone whatsoever. Because that not smart, right?”

Asheton Reid “By any means. But if you just at that speaking that if you so if you if you’re at one place at 12 p.m. and then you’re at another place and then at 3 a.m. you crash and something just like tragedy happens, that first establishment as the as the law stands right now in be held 100% responsible for one of the those, someone’s personal actions and choices to go gallivant all over drinking.”

Asheton Reid “Right. So it’s it’s it’s hard for me to comprehend and understand how this is even sort thing and why we know that, you know, some trial lawyers are not the most, most ethically driven, but I urge them to maybe be a little smidge more driven instead of just taking on anything and everything and trying to just get a easy and out for themselves.”

Asheton Reid “Because, I mean, typically, trial lawyers are receiving at least 30 to 60% of the pay. It. And so it’s hard for that for me to understand. But when they’re saying, oh, it’s for the victims, well, was truly for the victims. And why are you receiving the exponential amount? Oh, they’re paying. Right. So if you know the math is math and you can just put two and two together and know that.”

Asheton Reid Yeah.

Angela Barrett “The and so the next move for you guys what’s, what’s what’s up next.”

Asheton Reid “So as Zach the line of any crisis stands right now we are we we originally just set out to bring awareness to this issue. We did not have intentions to get heavily involved in politics that we were we saw that you you’re a captain. And here we are the though about some of the teeing. We’re going to, be taking a little bit of a step back.”

Asheton Reid “There is an association that’s being formed. We’ve not been very involved with that association. So I can’t speak a whole lot about where they are in terms of membership or what that really entails. But, it’s the they’re called the South Carolina Bar and Tavern Association. They are there are newer but we we’re not going to be necessarily going anywhere, but we’re not going to be as we’re going to be tearing up the row like we were last year with the town halls and all the time and effort, because this is volunteer work and we’re, we’re we’re tired, we’re burned out or we’ll burn our things, but we’re going to see it through, but not”

Asheton Reid to the time and resources that we were doing the last two.

Angela Barrett “And so if people organize, you know, businesses, whoever it may be, want to be more involved. Where do you suggest they go?”

Asheton Reid “Yes. We, we would love, love to see more business, especially businesses that this has direct impact on to get more involved. I mean, the as even you process work the website it is a tell all, be all answers, pretty much every question that you could imagine. But people have to do that for themselves instead of just, you know, a little bit of effort.”

Asheton Reid “There’s a roll a long, long way, but we encourage them to reach out to their legislators. That’s the biggest thing to say. Hey guys, we know that you guys made this happen and we need you to fix this issue. But again, respectfully, that’s that’s our biggest thing is be respectful because you’re not going to get anywhere by just being mean versus from the get go.”

Asheton Reid “I’m I’m terrible at it for that. But at first please be respectful. But it’s just knowing that this is an actual issue that this will have an impact on at Bar Restaurant Tavern, even if it doesn’t have a direct impact right now. That is that’s we have found out that people are not understanding the severity until it directly impacts them.”

Asheton Reid The service will give you proactive instead of react right?

Angela Barrett “How many? Just off the top of your head if you if you have any idea, have closed due to the increase in, drastic increase in insurance.”

Asheton Reid “So I was I was I was expecting that question. That’s a very, very hard question to answer because there is a vast amount of businesses within the state, and sometimes we’re made aware of them, sometimes we’re not. Sometimes the reason is part of liquor liability was, an added to them closing. But there’s also been some, some pride that has gotten also in the way.”

Asheton Reid “But there’s not been a full. So people don’t come forward and say, hey, we’re closing because we can’t afford this. They’re disclosing or then saying they’re closing. So we’re not really exactly sure, but there’s been at least 10 to 12, I thought in my head so far, but I know there I know there’s more than that. I know there’s more.”

Asheton Reid “And that’s just in the upstate. Right? I’m we’re outside Greenville, South Carolina, so. But within the whole state itself, I, I’m not sure, but I’m, I know it is a hefty numbers of bar.”

Angela Barrett “Yeah. I know there was I don’t I’m not sure which bar it was. And it was a pretty big establishment and, I think people were kind of shocked when it closed. And that’s just been realignment, I guess. Maybe that was it. Yeah. If.”

Asheton Reid “They’re in business for 29 years, it was out of the blue that, you know, they they made the announcement. It was I think it blindsided a lot of people. It sure is understandable. But it’s also a IT guys that we’ve been trying to bring awareness to this and where we got and then crying wolf at. All. Right. The dumb people don’t believe it.”

Asheton Reid “And so it has a direct impact on their business or their local watering hole, which is very unfortunate. Very unfortunate. But, we’re we’re believing that more people are starting to understand and comprehend the severity.”

Angela Barrett “Right, because that’s a good example of how far it reaches, ear musicians and, you know, in the art, you know, the art world that that side of things, not just the employees of that business there, or the people who bring in the alcohol or feed or whatever. But now, you know, throttling musicians as well so.”

Asheton Reid “That the music is my language. And that is why tribal, Sheila, Lauren and myself with the venue processing started this because music is our language and we don’t know where we would be without it. We’re appreciative and it would be just heartbreaking. Detrimental to see venues that support live music fade away.”

Angela Barrett “Right. And you know, I know a lot of these businesses are small, but everybody has to start somewhere, musicians included. They didn’t just walk up almost. They start somewhere at a watering hole. And I mean, nine times out of ten, I mean, you don’t get that lucky usually. And that’s how they build the following as well. So that’s kind of where they want to start is, you know, your local smaller places where people that you know are going to come see them and then it grows so.”

Asheton Reid That that’s how you better fan base.

Angela Barrett “That’s right. That’s right. Well, I thank you so much for, talking with me today. And, you’re definitely going to have to keep me posted as this goes. And, give us, some updates, as it goes along, but, good luck. And, I can’t wait to see how this goes.”

Asheton Reid Thank you so much. I appreciate it.

Angela Barrett Absolutely.

Episode transcript:

Angela Barrett “Hey guys. Thanks for joining me today on top in South Carolina, I have Miss Patricia Goron. She is the owner and operator of Ghost Woke Charleston. Hi, Patricia, thanks for being here.”

Patricia Goron How are you doing? Thank you for having me.

Angela Barrett Absolutely. You’re from South Carolina area?

Patricia Goron “Oh, I’m from Charleston, South Carolina. Born and raised.”

Angela Barrett “Yeah. Same here. So, I recognized the, the dialect there. So tell me, ghost walk. Charleston. Tell me one what it is.”

Patricia Goron “Well, the official name is the original go to walk of Charleston. And we know that the 1979 and I believe we were the very first ghost tour company, maybe in the United States. And we did ghost tours in the evening. And we also do history tours during the day, but mostly ghost tours at night. And we’re all about all things spiritual.”

Patricia Goron “Paranormal activity, because Charleston is a very haunted city and we delve into that.”

Angela Barrett Right. So have you actually seen Ghost?

Patricia Goron “Well, not on who or I haven’t. People say they’ve seen time, but we definitely do have many unexplainable things happen.”

Angela Barrett Sure. So tell me where these tours take place. Like where in Charleston do you go to?

Patricia Goron “We mainly stay inside of the French Quarter area with. With the. Oh, that should look Charleston. You can walk into. We were at Wild City at one time. That we stay in that area. And it’s about three blocks from the city market where everybody that comes to Charleston, they have to see the city market. That’s a really fun place to go to.”

Patricia Goron Right now we’re only three blocks from there and we venture out in that area.

Angela Barrett “So, so give me some. Just give me some I guess you need events I guess that have taken place on some of your tours where people have had encounters of some sort. On these tours.”

Patricia Goron “Well, how can one me think there are so many. Well, recently, there is the parking garage where a fella, he lived and fell off at the top of the garage. And it’s a recent thing, you know, in the last 20 years. And he Ed King called the garage and he messes with the lights and he only messes with the area in the area that he passed away.”

Patricia Goron “It’s just an order of the garage. Well we’re standing there at the end of the tour and the people on my tour, they go, let’s see if you’ll do something again. Some of them, I said, okay, now. I said, okay, parking garage. Go give it to thorn. You’re here. Well, I started hear a noise and I’m like, y’all hear that?”

Patricia Goron “And they’re like, no. I’m like, what then? And then I had a bulging feeling on my backside and it was my own. My own stage of the whole tour. It’s not on. I turn it off. Not the power, but it’s off. You know, I tell them, well, you have to have faith that day, right? The doorbell, was on YouTube playing a song.”

Patricia Goron “I’m like, that’s gotta be a sign. It’s like the song put in and it’s called Hello by Tune, and I’d never heard of that band. And it’s a really good song. And I’m right here saying hello.”

Angela Barrett “Oh, my God.”

Patricia Goron “We couldn’t believe that. And I said, well, hello to you and the out side light on the garage.”

Angela Barrett “You, you bright.”

Patricia Goron “And the little bow fell out. And I’m like, that had never been very active that we end up going up on top of the garage after all of this and and we were on the garage. The picture that I have of them, they were taking pictures by word started flying all around and, they caught it, but they haven’t given me the picture yet.”

Patricia Goron What I wish they would.

Angela Barrett Yeah.

Patricia Goron So we do have quite unique thing that can happen. And I just can’t explain that.

Angela Barrett “Right? Right, right. You, have to get with the, the South Carolina paranormal investigators and have them come join y’all one time on one of your tours.”

Patricia Goron Apathy. I would I would enjoy them that they would do that.

Angela Barrett Yeah. So as a tour you’ve been a tour guide now for how long?

Patricia Goron Legally for 34 years.

Angela Barrett “Right. And when you say legally, there is a licensing for tour guides, although I don’t think the, the laws now require you to, but probably better to go with a license tour guide, right? Yes.”

Patricia Goron “Okay. Yes, ma’am. You always had to have a license, though. When people come to the city and they take a tour, they know that the person, given their tour has credentials and it’s been licensed and studied real hard and taken the test of the hit free at Charleston. However, not long ago, just a few years ago, there was a person that could not pass the test and they said, this is the freedom of speech.”

Patricia Goron “And it ended up going to the Supreme Court. And now you do not have to have a license, meaning anybody coming into the city can give a tour. They can stand on the corner and start a tour from a corner or from anyplace that is in, you know, brick and mortar and come on a tour with me. And they do not have a license.”

Patricia Goron And they the etiquette is not a thing anymore with tours because it’s just something else. I don’t I’m can’t get any more into it all right.

Angela Barrett “Sure you don’t want to get in trouble? That’s for sure. And not only that. Thank you. Yeah. That’s, But now, before you, I guess, open this business. I mean, you are working already downtown, in Charleston light with that, the Old Town Carriage Company, right?”

Patricia Goron “Yeah. Actually, I didn’t open the business route. Miller. He opened the business.”

Angela Barrett “Oh, okay.”

Patricia Goron “And they. I wasn’t old enough to you. I was on my bicycle downtown playing, and they opened the go to. Wow. Well, yeah. When I got old, I did the. So I was the first girl. Rachel, driver and Charles. Then I went, oh, we hung out with.”

Angela Barrett “Tell everybody what a rickshaw is, because unless you’re from the Irish. Yeah.”

Patricia Goron “Yeah, a rickshaw is a bicycle taxi. And it’s a three will bike with a carriage in the back and, you tote people around and I’ll hung out with the carriages to get rides. And I enjoyed so much talking with the tour guides because I learned so much. Right. And Hurricane Hugo hit in 1989, and it stopped everything.”

Patricia Goron “Well, when everything started reopening the carriage company, they said, you have to come and draw the carriages for us. And I did, and I studied real hard and I passed the test. Then it was the most. And that carriage that is so much fun. And the horses are very well taken care of. And then I got older and realized I think I better, you know, walk.”

Patricia Goron “So, I was it I inherited ghost walk.”

Angela Barrett Oh. Nice.

Patricia Goron “Because. Yeah. Because the lady that owned it bought it with Anna Bligh, and she bought it from anyway, and black owned it at that point. And she said, you are the very best tour that Charleston has ever had. You have got to do the ghost tour. You’re the best at it. I can’t continue this. I’m getting older and I’m giving this to you.”

Patricia Goron And it was a big black tree.

Angela Barrett “Yeah, well, well, there is a lot of interesting, history down in Charleston. And there is, from what I’m told, a lot of, paranormal activity in Charleston. So, that has to be when you can combine the two. That has to be, a great, I would say, job, career, great business. Because it is it’s it’s one of those fun things if you’re from South Carolina, if you’re from Charleston, you got to at least do that.”

Angela Barrett “The ghost, and the carriage ride, the ghost walks and. Right, right. Absolutely. So tell me.”

Patricia Goron It is a lot of fun.

Angela Barrett Yeah.

Patricia Goron So tell me the ones that don’t work.

Angela Barrett “Yeah, absolutely. And Gilda tours seven days a week.”

Patricia Goron “You know, we were at their fun day for the Holy Ghost.”

Angela Barrett “Yeah, that’s for that ghost. That’s right. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.”

Patricia Goron Fred.

Angela Barrett “So you, six days a week, you do ghost tours, you can go on your website. I think it’s ghost walk now, that is.”

Patricia Goron Do you know.

Angela Barrett “And sign up for tours now? These tours, how many do you take at one time?”

Patricia Goron “Well, we can legally you you can only take 20 people per tour. And usually we have anywhere from 12 and under that want to go and on the weekends and you know tourist season like June, July and August when it is busy. Everyone has 20 people on the tour but we do offer private tours. If you wanted to take a smaller group out, you can do that and not go with the public, right?”

Angela Barrett “So,”

Angela Barrett The history tours during the day. Tell me a little bit about that. And where are you going?

Patricia Goron “Well, we do two of them a day in the morning, like 10 a.m. and 1 p.m., and I take you wherever you want to go on the tour. And I’ve been I grew up here and I don’t really know the history and what I think is very interesting is what I tell the people, and they really have a good time.”

Patricia Goron “Usually they’re quite a few people that I know that still live in the area, and they’ll see me come in. And my friend that feature, they trust that you want to come out. Y’all come on in and have some, wine and cheese and I’ll like. Well, sure. And we’ll go and visit somebody and then we’ll continue the tour.”

Patricia Goron “But we take you, we start at Tommy Condon’s where the. That’s where the tour begins. And it’s one block from the city market. And it’s about a mile and a half to two miles just to put it in. And it takes a good two hours. And we end up going to the battery where everybody, White Point Gardens, it’s a beautiful place and we weave in and out of the street going south to get to the battery.”

Patricia Goron “And when we get to the battery, when we come back, we weave in and out. So we go down multiple three and it’s just a fun time. And I try to keep within the shade and away from noise in the big street. And we did go through, one secret passageway that no one knows about except for me.”

Patricia Goron It’s really a cool little thing. People don’t want to leave that section.

Angela Barrett “And so you see the tours during the day there, about two hours long. What about the ghost tours? How long were those? I’ve got this.”

Patricia Goron “Well, it is designed to last to one hour and you get about 6 to 8 stories. However, 99% of the time everybody wants it to go a little bit longer because strange things happen. Sure, they know it. Usually I’ll go over anywhere from ten minutes, sometimes 30, but that, you know, that we went up on the parking garage on that one.”

Angela Barrett Yeah. So it.

Patricia Goron Made it prominent.

Angela Barrett Right. So would you say that was probably the strangest thing that you’ve ever had happen on one of these tours? Or can you think of the owner owner? Give me some examples. Yeah.

Patricia Goron “Well, I’ve given many tours and, Demi Lovato, she think heart attack. They were here with Sam and Cal and Randy, and then what’s the name of the house? God. America’s got talent. It they were here. And, farming. Cal called in a private tour beforehand. It ended up being me, Demi Lovato, her bodyguard, her hairdresser, and her best friend.”

Patricia Goron “And when they would go private, you know, and we had the same birthday. I don’t know why kind of the weather wasn’t that great, right? Either way. And it was a totally different tour than the public because we went inside of homes. But we did go to where everyone goes. What is the circular Congregational Church? Yeah. And we get there and I’m telling them everything about, you know, the goal, then everything.”

Patricia Goron “And she just up and said, if anyone is here, give us a sign. Everywhere. The light went out over the whole entire graveyard.”

Angela Barrett Are you kidding?

Patricia Goron “No. And within 30s this huge black SUV, we could hear it coming. And it did a 360 in the parking lot. They threw us in this big SUV, and we took off.”

Angela Barrett

Patricia Goron “And her bodyguard, he said I did not see anyone. How anyone could have done that. I mean, they had people in the parking garage watching us. Sure. He had bodyguards and it was quiet. I was like, that has never happened. So.”

Angela Barrett “Well, that pretty cool. You had the whole experience. I mean.”

Patricia Goron “Yeah, and yeah, I had Andy Warhol, great nephew on the tour. And two years ago and I showed a picture and I said it was taken right here in the white where it was taken, started blinking on and off. And I started talking to it, asking it yes, no question, saying blink once or twice or no. And it did.”

Patricia Goron “And I’m just I don’t understand that. I don’t think it’s an electrical issue. Right. Glass not mature. I had the people at the same spot and I said whenever I blew that picture up, the lights started blinking on that particular tour. And when I blew the picture up and said that the light was off and it turned on.”

Patricia Goron And yeah.

Angela Barrett It’s a pretty.

Patricia Goron Picture.

Angela Barrett “So how did that I mean, other than getting, just kind of growing up working, you know, down there near the tour guides and things. How did you get interested in the ghost part?”

Patricia Goron “I was forced to do it. I never wanted to do it. And I’d say, you’re the best tour guide. I know they would love your ghost tour. I’m like, I don’t want to tell, but don’t worry, that’s too hard. And I started telling them and it was. It’s the getting a ghost tour. Telling the story is extremely hard.”

Patricia Goron “You have to keep people’s attention span, you know, and you’re you’re it’s very hard. Right. And I did a great job at it. And after doing it, but so many years at people were saying, you’ve been out here your whole life. I think they go kind of like you and they want to perform for you. Maybe that. Yeah, I don’t know.”

Patricia Goron “But many things that happen that I don’t have to tell book stories anymore. And I’m very happy because people can go get a book and read them tours or. Yeah, people offer tours, book tours, you know, and you can read the book.”

Angela Barrett That’s right.

Patricia Goron Something different and new. Now that’s what I did.

Angela Barrett “So tell me and I’m going to mutilate this name. Miss Virginia, is it Garrity? Garrity? Okay. Yeah, I would have me like that. And she wrote a book. And tell me about that book.”

Patricia Goron “Well, he’s written. Well, I know he he wrote gala for unknown.”

Angela Barrett Right.

Patricia Goron “And he has a go at dictionary, and he was my librarian and school. I would study hall. I’d stay with Miss Garrity the whole time. Everybody loved their seats from, Well, Manuel, young and well, while she lived here, and she spoke the Gallo language.”

Angela Barrett That is very hard.

Patricia Goron “If you grow up here, it’s not a problem. But. Yeah, well, I don’t know that I’m fluent in Goa, and, Yeah. So there you go with that.”

Angela Barrett Yeah. So a lot of people don’t know what Gullah is. So tell I got that.

Patricia Goron “Well, it’s a it’s a actually an accent. It’s a language. Right. African Americans, when they came here, it’s it’s like it’s just an accent. It is English. Yes, but, oh. Ma in means woman or man and it phrases like up the. When the means open the window. Great. Good means. Oh, Lord. Right there. Did. Yeah.”

Patricia Goron “It’s it’s it’s an accent, really. And there’s pizza as well. And it’s pretty much the same thing. Right. Guy was just flying. More flying, I would say.”

Angela Barrett “So if anybody has ever had anyone read Baraka that Berber in the way it was originally written, which would be get Gullah down, right. Yeah. And if you it it’s very and it’s a it’s but it’s fast talking. So like you and I are very southern so we’re slow talkers, but when I have heard people who still speak, Gullah or Geechee, it’s it’s a fast, very fast form and you have to listen really hard.”

Angela Barrett Or at least I did.

Patricia Goron “Yeah. It is a. Well, I want to say it. You too fast so that you can be better.”

Angela Barrett “Yeah. Right. Right, right.”

Patricia Goron “If you don’t understand it, you’ll think it’s there.”

Angela Barrett “Yeah, maybe. Maybe that’s it. I just wasn’t understanding. But I had a teacher once who, could speak it as well, and she was fluent, and she would always read us, you know, the stories, in that language. And you. I mean, you couldn’t help. Oh, yes. Be enthralled in it, but. Yes. Yeah. All right, so tell me, buddy, how to get in touch with you.”

Angela Barrett “And, Oh. And you need to sign up for tour.”

Patricia Goron “Okay, you can go on the internet and type in, go to Dot net or Ghost Walk. Dot a I we are, in that mode, too. Okay. And you can click to call or you can call us directly at eight, four, three, 7208687. And that spells tour. Yeah. And there are a lot of the older tour companies.”

Patricia Goron “Bob. He oh you are or they’re on last four digits okay. And. Yeah. And the area code for Charleston is 843. So make sure you know that when you’re book and tour you don’t want to book a tour that’s from some other state. You make sure you get it up, get a local when you do your tour in Charleston.”

Patricia Goron Right. You he lived here.

Angela Barrett And you got a Facebook page.

Patricia Goron Right? Yeah.

Angela Barrett “And people can go online and kind of get an idea is, guy smoke Charleston is the Facebook page. Yeah. And again, like you said, people should probably pay attention to their getting for their tours, make sure they’re licensed and, at least, you know, like yourself grew up there, and you’re gonna know a lot more than anybody else.”

Angela Barrett So.

Patricia Goron “Yeah, they should avoid what you need to avoid and, give me a when you do Google anything, the first thing is it pop up are sponsored ads, and those are the people who are trying to get ahead of the good guys.”

Angela Barrett Yeah. And the one I’ve been doing a.

Patricia Goron Little good garage. Right. So cause we don’t I don’t partake in Google AdWords because it is a lot of money and I don’t want to up my price to compensate for that. And that’s exactly what’s going on.

Angela Barrett “Sure, sure.”

Patricia Goron “And also, you see like TripAdvisor, if you did TripAdvisor, just go to the company itself and directly book from the company and not TripAdvisor.”

Angela Barrett “So yes, I gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. Well, thanks for all that advice and thanks for the stories. I’m going to have to come up there and, take one of your tours and see if I take tops.”

Patricia Goron “Guys, we got one that night at 830. If you want to go that well.”

Angela Barrett “It’s a little far drive for me right now, but I’ll call you when, I’m. I am that way. It won’t be long, I’m sure.”

Patricia Goron “Yeah, definitely. Do you have a good time? I promise you that. Absolutely something. Great.”

Angela Barrett “That’s right. Well, thank you so much. And I appreciate you being with us today.”

Patricia Goron All right. Thank you.

Angela Barrett All right.