Ep. 42 - Kristy Firebaugh

What do community choirs, national parks, student success, chocolate bundt cake, and hidden restaurant menu items have in common? Somehow...they all end up in this episode! Kevin and Brody kick things off by celebrating a major podcast milestone, debating household chores, sharing the hobbies that bring them joy, and wondering why a certain baby cries every time Brody starts talking.

Then they're joined by Dr. Kristy Firebaugh, Assistant Provost for Student Success at the University of Denver, for a thoughtful and refreshingly honest conversation about leadership, collaboration, student success, higher education, and the importance of making time for joy outside of work. From building campus partnerships and eliminating "hidden" policies to singing in a community rock choir and camping under the stars, Kristy shares practical wisdom, contagious optimism, and a few great baking tips along the way. It's an episode packed with laughter, leadership insights, and plenty of reasons to keep showing up—for your students, your colleagues, and yourself.

*The Pickup Meeting is a spinoff of the Adventures in Advising podcast!

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Have a question? Want to chat? E-mail us at thepickupmeeting@gmail.com!

Connect with Brody and Kevin on LinkedIn. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Yep, totally messed that up again. Oh, let's do that. That's fun. And away we go. Welcome to the pickup meeting. Silence your group chats, pretend you're on a deadline, and act like you're reading something very important right now. Because you kinda are. It's the pickup meeting. I'm Kevin Thomas, and across from me is the man who makes every room 15% more fun just by walking in it. Roadie Brochier. What do you want from me? I gave you like I gave you 15%.

SPEAKER_01 0:42

I I guess. Are you buying something on sale that's 15% off? Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_02 0:50

Well, it depends what it is, I guess. 15% more fun.

SPEAKER_01 0:54

Oh okay.

SPEAKER_02 0:55

Fine. 50% more fun. Brody Rochers. Here we go.

SPEAKER_01 0:58

That's that's way better.

SPEAKER_02 0:59

I like that. It's ridiculous. Hey, so we have a we have a podcast and people are listening to it. They are. And recently we crossed 6,000 downloads, listens, or views, and and and and it's a growing trend of views. So apparently we are funny to look at. I don't know what that is, but like here we are. And and I'm really excited about that. How how good is that? It's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 1:24

We're we're closing out on hitting all of the states, too. We just have a few states left. I think we should make fun of them.

SPEAKER_02 1:31

Yes, we should absolutely make fun of the states that are not listening. So let's start this fun adventure. Yeah. Uh Vermont. Come on. What's going on? I mean, Ben and Jerry's, right? Like someone ought to be listening. Yeah. Listen, if you're not leaf peeping, you should be listening to the pickup meeting. What's going on, Vermont? And Idaho, supposed to be great. I mean, potatoes are amazing. Fries, let's go. Okay, I just put it together. This is happening because I don't like potatoes. What? I know. I mean, I've started to eat more potatoes recently. Like, I've started to do the baked potato, but in general, I don't really like fries a lot. And I don't really eat a lot of mashed potatoes. It's just not my thing. How are we friends?

SPEAKER_01 2:16

How is that possible?

SPEAKER_02 2:18

It's such a weird thing. I know.

SPEAKER_01 2:20

Potato chips and fries are probably my two favorite foods.

SPEAKER_02 2:23

I I understand. But that's probably why we're not getting Idaho. And then last but certainly not least, Alaska. What are you doing? It's dark up there. You could listen to a podcast. Actually, I have no idea if it's dark there right now. I don't know what time of the time of the year it is. It's not. I see our guest off screen tell us it's not dark right now. Okay, it's it's lit there. Start listening to the pickup meeting. Let's go.

SPEAKER_01 2:50

That might be my fault because I don't eat any seafood at all, right? Like so, salmon, though. So maybe we can blame me for that.

SPEAKER_02 2:58

You know, uh, my my good friend and future podcast guest, and I'm willing to send to existence, Brian Hayes, him and his family are on an Alaskan cruise right now. And I'm my only hope is that he decided to listen to the pickup meeting while he's on the cruise. Then we get the Alaskan listener. That's what it is. That would be great. Hey, truthfully, seriously, minus those three states, which will forever live in the bane of our existence. Um thank you for listening. Thank you for watching. Thank you for being a part of the show. Uh, you know, when we started this, it was like, well, are people engaged going to engage? And they have. And so I'm really thankful that that's the case. Yeah, it kind of gets to our first topic, which is, you know, oh no, no, don't jump, don't jump. Oh, this is where I throw in the secret topic. Oh, no. So a recent listener, or not a recent listener, she's been listening all along, but one of my colleagues, uh Brittany Montgomery, was telling me this story. And Brittany, thank you for listening, uh, is a new mother. Um, and so she listens in her car um with her newborn Bill. Bill is is is the baby. And Brody, you don't know this, but uh Bill cries when you start talking on the pickup meeting. You're kidding me. I mean, not really. No, this is this is a thing that happens. So, like he's just sitting in the car, you know, looking at the sky, look how beautiful it is, and then all of a sudden, Brody Brochier starts talking and Bill starts crying, and I think that's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 4:31

Well, there are lots of people who don't like my voice, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_02 4:35

So let's just add another one to the list, right? Bill knows to be scared. So I was at least gonna throw that in as well. But you you're welcome to transition to our first topic.

SPEAKER_01 4:48

My kids didn't cry when I when I talked when they were babies.

SPEAKER_02 4:52

At least there's that. I this one is so we're just gonna let you know that one.

SPEAKER_01 4:58

Well, and speaking of doing things that are fun, like this podcast, like the power of collective joy or a hobby that's just for us, right? You were you we were talking about this the other day, right? What are some things maybe that we just do for the sake of doing them, right? We don't have to be good at them. It's not something that we're automatically striving for. And the first thing that came to my mind was this podcast. I know.

SPEAKER_02 5:24

I mean, we're not any good, but look at us, we're still doing it. Yeah, we're we're we're nearly a year in, and this is still happening. Yeah, we have thousands of listeners, well, maybe hundreds of listeners that are listening to us thousands of times, but we're not smartless. No, no, we're not good luck enough to be smartless or good hang or anything like that. Yeah. Uh yeah, I would say, listen, the things of just like the collective joy of something. Uh, I've said this to folks often, and and some of those have been people that have been on the show. You know, I was talking to Tara Warden this week, uh I was talking to Dana Zahark, you know, previous guest, John Vasquez. And they asked, you know, like what's what's something that's just a good joy of your your your week? And uh you and I spend time together outside of the podcast as well. Um and those calls are usually lengthier and have more foul language in them. Um, but we do have a good time in those calls. But these this podcast has become one of those just like real joys of our time and our week together, and it kind of breaks up the stress and angst that comes with some of the things we deal with in our job.

SPEAKER_01 6:41

Yeah, I I agree with that, and I think it's good to have those things. Wasn't it Vonnegut who said that that being good at things isn't the reason to do them, it's for the the sheer joy.

SPEAKER_02 6:51

I think I think he was the person that said that. Are there other things that hit on that besides the podcast? Yeah, you know, I was thinking of two things, and one isn't really an activity, but the first one is an activity.

SPEAKER_01 7:03

You know, I've been running most of my adult life. I don't win races, I'm not winning any races, and I I mean I do try to get better, but I love running, and I've mostly run by myself.

SPEAKER_02 7:15

I'm kind of a lone wolf, right? I use that time to recharge and uh kind of listen to the music that I want to listen to, and and I have gotten better, and I read about running and try to learn as much as I can about becoming a better runner, but there's no real KPI or performance review, it's just going out and and getting it done. How about you? Yeah, this question is a hard one for me, and and I think a lot back to your presentation that you do for uh happiness, where you start to yell at the audience members when they start to tell tell them, you know, like that their kids are what make them happy, or um that you know their grandkids, and then you yell a lot in this presentation. Like it's it's it's a little out of control if you're if we're being honest. But I was thinking back to this is that I have to find more of these things that are the collective joy. And as strange as this is, um, because I feel like I'm becoming you, walking in steps has been like I enjoy my walk as much as I possibly can. Like it is a healthy thing. Like last Sunday I got up, did six miles before it was like 8 30 in the morning, and uh and and but then had music on the whole time. So the music part of this, and I will say the music part, like I I'm plugged in almost at all times right now and found myself on Saturday night um at Kroger doing some grocery shopping, listening to music, and all of a sudden I catch myself that I am singing in Kroger and probably dancing a little bit in the aisle. And I was like, what is happening? But it was a collective joy moment for me, and so I felt really good about where I was at at that moment, and it wasn't the ice cream aisle, you know. I was just it was like a random like protein bar aisle or something. I don't know. Um, but I do a little dancing and moving when I have my headphones in too.

SPEAKER_01 9:02

I find that I find that music while I'm walking and running are a really powerful tool to kind of keep me motivated for sure.

SPEAKER_02 9:09

I just want other people to be hearing what I'm hearing, and that just not the way it works.

SPEAKER_01 9:13

So you mentioned something else that was a topic that we were gonna talk about, and that was grocery shopping. So you're grocery shopping now, and we were talking about like what are I was having this conversation with a couple colleagues yesterday, and I'm like, we need to talk about this on the episode, and it is like, what are our chores? Like, what is it that we do in the house? Like, I'm the laundry guy at my house, you know. I despise odd socks, I'm really anal about the detergents and when I'm washing together, but it's been my thing. Like, I do the laundry at the house, it is my chore. Do you have a chore like that too?

SPEAKER_02 9:54

Yeah, and you know, you and I talked about this in in kind of prep of this, and this episode will release later in in the summer. Um, we're we're we're in early June. So recently, uh I I went through a divorce and and and am divorced. And so, like the thing that I would have said prior to that was I did the laundry. Sunday was laundry day, right? Like, I'm doing all the laundry in the house for everybody, and I love doing some laundry. And now I would say I'm doing a lot of everything else too, right? It's like are you any good at it? Like I mean, I don't think I'm good at grocery shopping. You and I are talking about our journey on uh steps and physical activity and weight loss, and and I I'm I'm really ticking you off every time we have this conversation because I'm like, I'm weighing in at this amount, and you're like, Yeah, I you're pissing me off, right? Like, that's where you're getting to. It's probably because I'm not great at the grocery shopping yet, and I'm buying very little and getting by with very little. And so it's like, I lost three pounds this week. And you're like, Yeah, it's because you're not eating anything, Kevin. Like, you should do more grocery shopping, but I think I'm doing okay at the grocery shopping, I'm doing still excellent at the laundry. Like, sign me up, give me the gold medal. I I you and I would compete for that gold medal. I agree with that, and I gotta do a little bit better at just the life organization and cleanliness of things, and not that my apartment's dirty, it's just I need to probably clean more often. Although I am washing things probably more frequently than ever before, just out of complete and total boredom. I I liked mowing the lawn, and I I was always the trash guy.

SPEAKER_01 11:28

The dishes and the cooking that kind of evaded me for the most part. I mean, I will do dishes, uh, I do not enjoy that. Uh, but I'm trying to think the only thing that I really always hated was the bathroom. Like, come on, stay away from there.

SPEAKER_02 11:45

Yeah, I get that. I I will say, uh, living in the apartment, been in it for you know about three months now. I have only run the dishwasher once, and that was just to make sure the thing worked. Wow, you're clearly not eating enough. Well, I'm washing dishes, like I clearly don't have enough dishes per meal to really ever use the dishwasher. That's where I've gotten to. That's fair. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:08

And and for the record, Kevin, I don't yell at anybody in my happiness conversations presentations.

SPEAKER_02 12:15

What are we talking about? Listeners, uh, you can you can you can write in at the pickup meeting at gmail.com if you were in the audience at a recon recent administrators institute and received the the scolding that Brody gave you when he said, Your happiness cannot be determined based off of your kids. Yes, that was my Brody impersonation. It wasn't very good. Sorry, I don't know how to do you without like some cursing occurring. I was I was I was cleaning it up for the audience. I don't want to get yelled at again for cursing. That's great.

SPEAKER_01 12:49

Well, maybe we should bring on our guests. What do you think?

SPEAKER_02 12:52

I think we should. And so I am exceptionally happy today to welcome our guests to the show, Dr. Christy Fireball, Assistant Provost for Student Success at the University of Denver. Or strangely, as we're going to use the rest of this pickup meeting, do, which doesn't seem right. But Christy, we're so pumped that you're here and with us today.

SPEAKER_04 13:13

Thank you so much for having me on. It's I I I'm a fan of the show, so it's really great that you reached out, Kevin. And nice to reconnect after several years. It feels like a lifetime since the administrators institute, but really it was only a few years ago.

SPEAKER_02 13:27

I know in really the last time we connected, we would have still been masking.

SPEAKER_04 13:33

I think so. And I also remember like it was in Albuquerque, and like the hotel was barely reopened. Like I couldn't figure out where to get coffee, and it was just strange. Like everybody was like trying to figure out how to come back to life. But it was for those who haven't been to the administrators institute, um, they did not pay me to say this, but it was excellent. It was so good, it was so helpful. It was full of those conversations. And Kevin, I remember you were one of them that like, you know how you go to a conference and you talk to somebody and you're like, you have this like great in-depth conversation with somebody you've never met before and might never talk to again. But I remember having several of those at that institute, and Kevin, you were one of them. So I'm so glad that you reached out. It was a great opportunity, it was a great experience.

SPEAKER_02 14:18

So Brody, we were in New Mexico, and I kid you not, like one day it was like 75, and then the next day it snowed like two inches, and then it was gone by like blood. What? It I I don't understand. I I didn't know that it snowed in New Mexico. Apparently it does, but it does.

SPEAKER_04 14:37

No, we get that too here though in Denver. Like there are some days you there are days we actually had a snow day. It was about a month ago, campus closed. By the afternoon, I mean it dumped snow in the morning, and by the afternoon it was 60 degrees and everything had melted. And I was out on a walk with my kids because everybody was like, Why did we cancel school? Well, you know, eight hours earlier it was a blizzard.

SPEAKER_01 15:02

So Kevin, were you at Phoenix, the annual conference in Phoenix in 2018? I don't know if you remember this, but it one of the days it rained two inches, and it was like the worst news in the history of Phoenix, Arizona. Like they had flood warnings, people didn't know how to drive because they were closing schools for the rain.

SPEAKER_02 15:22

It was nuts. Remember that? Yeah, and I was like, hey, you know, this is a sprinkle, folks. Like, what's happening? I mean, the hotel, they had the they had the concierges with like ponchos and umbrellas. I'm like, fucking 500 yards, gang. I'm gonna be okay. Chrissy, so like one of the things, your your title and my title have some similarity, and that uh, you know, mine says that I'm in charge of student success, which is super intimidating and overwhelming most days. But can you tell the audience about what your portfolio of amazingness looks like?

SPEAKER_04 15:56

Sure. I think ours are a little different. Um so uh at DU, student success is incorporates a few things um in terms of what my area includes. So um I sit within the provost office. I know student success roles sit in different places around different campuses. Um the central academic advising teams are part of our team. So we have a central office of academic advising. Um, I also get to work with our um or oversee our athletic advisors, which is really fun. Um, and then I have a um and I guess I'll call them an operations team where we're doing analytics, retention work, student outreach, um, a lot of uh reporting and initiatives. So there's a whole lot of behind the scenes machinery happening with our team. So we've kind of got these three different areas, and then probably like both of your jobs, a lot of my job is figuring out collaboration without um necessarily having folks reporting to me, but thinking about how do we improve and ensure that our students are all able to have excellent experiences across the board. So that's a lot of working with partners all over campus to make sure that that that that's the case as much as we can.

SPEAKER_02 17:11

So this is a completely self-serving follow-up to this, and and it would it depending on the answer, and I don't know where this can go, it could be a clip that I'm gonna use with my athletic director. Um, if you your teams that you work with would happen to win a conference championship, are you in the group that gets a ring?

SPEAKER_04 17:30

No, I'm not. I do look at what I got though. I did get I got a bobblehead.

SPEAKER_02 17:36

Oh, see, that's cool. I don't think this is awesome. So I don't know, don't you? I I mean I have my own personal bobblehead, but I don't have a UCA bobblehead. Like somebody made a bobblehead of me, and I was like, Are you saying I have a large melon? Actually, the person that did was the person that has the baby that cries when they hear you, Braddy. Um, and so same person. Same person, but yeah, I was just curious because my my role is semi-new on the campus, and so I was like, you know, athletics reports to me, or the student athlete success team reports to me. I feel like there's championship rings that should be there. And so I was gonna use that clip, but it didn't work out.

SPEAKER_04 18:15

Oh dang. Well, I mean, we could we could just re-record and then we could both use it so that we can both get rings.

SPEAKER_02 18:22

I like it. You have some successful teams there, so I do. All right, bro. You go you move on. The self-serving argument.

SPEAKER_01 18:31

This is this is great. You guys sort it out, right? I mean, we almost won a national championship. I oversee our uh here at Illinois State University. I oversee our athletic advising team, and I didn't get anything.

SPEAKER_02 18:43

In fact, I'm not yeah, it's it's just the way it is. You should ask for a bottlehead. I should ask for a bottlehead. And I forgot for our audience that every time Brody or I mention an institution that we previously worked at, that there's going to be a sounder from now on. And I forgot to do it when you said your institution, it should have gone and it didn't. And so we're working on this, and just making sure the audience is picking up on our new trends here. Are you poverty dogging me so I don't say it? Yes.

SPEAKER_01 19:15

Oh, you're the worst man. Like, what's happening today? What did I do to deserve this?

SPEAKER_02 19:24

Oh wow. No, restless. Let's get serious for people. Come on, come on. This is what happens when Matt doesn't produce today, an audience I'm producing today. This is a terribly entertaining moment. Christy, we're gonna get to you now, though, because this is like smartless where they never talk to the guests and they just talk to each other.

SPEAKER_03 19:44

You do you do what you need to do.

SPEAKER_01 19:47

Christy, I I'm really interested because I think there are a couple things. We talked about developing those collaborative relationships when there isn't an authority, but really a necessity to do the good work that institutions do. What's been your strategy to be good at that?

SPEAKER_02 20:07

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_04 20:10

Um practice, I think. I think some of it is asking what they need, what issues other people are seeing, what's what's top of mind in their world, and then how can I partner to help them meet their goals, which we're all at a university. Their goal is to support students. So thinking about where the commonalities are tends to be the place that uh where we can where we can collaborate. So I'm thinking about, you know, whether I'm collaborating with student affairs or with our admissions team, everybody is here trying to make sure that our students, you know, don't have unnecessary roadblocks, have support when they need it, um, have a really great experience while they're here and feel connected. So depending on who I'm trying to work with, if there's a if there's an issue that we're trying to work out or a process we're trying to improve, really it's starting with like, what are you hearing from your view into students and how can we work together to make that better? So this is something that I started doing early in my role in this position. We noticed that our students' onboarding experience, so after they deposited, but before orientation was over, there was a lot of um room for improving how we communicated with students in that time period because we had communications coming from lots of different places. Everybody on campus wants to talk to those students, which is awesome. But we needed, and there was a lot of sense of people didn't really know like what's admissions doing right now? What's advisors, what are advisors telling students? So um we pulled together a steering committee where I brought in admissions, the registrar's office, um, our advising team, our first year seminar faculty director, and our orientation team. And we meet every two weeks throughout the year and it oh in housing. Um And we meet every two weeks throughout the year to make sure that our communications are saying the things they need to, that students know where to go, that our website, that the most confusing parts of the website get updated. So just meeting two weeks throughout every two weeks throughout the year has allowed us to focus on that, but it also has helped build relationships when there's other issues we're trying to address that maybe like, you know, I was just talking to the housing director yesterday about a different issue, but we've built that relationship through trying to improve that experience of onboarding students.

SPEAKER_02 22:32

How do you, you know, and this we could just talk about this topic the entire time? I know because that consistency matters so much, right, Kevin? Right. Well, and I think this is an area where I I will say say that there's struggles on campuses I've been on, including in things that I've done. How do you ensure that this conversation doesn't become um a report out, right? Like we've all done these student success and retention committees where it's like down and everybody's like, well, this is what we're doing this week. And like and and then so then I think people leave frustrated and with great angst. Like, how do you ensure that a group like that? Because what you're talking about at DU is similar to like a model that University of Kentucky started with people getting together and now they stream this thing to the campus. And so like there are hundreds of people that are listening to this meeting so that they stay informed on what's going, which I'm always super impressed by, but super intimidated how to get there.

SPEAKER_04 23:27

Yes. And you know, um, I read that article about Kentucky and I was like, oh my gosh, how do they get that many people to show up? Because I've definitely there's been other areas of my job where I've been in committees that start off very action-oriented, especially around retention and student success. We launch a couple of very cool, we identify some issues, we launch some really cool things, people are collaborating, and then the need evolves and it starts turning into report outs. And so I've had a couple that have just kind of they've served their initial purpose and then they've gone defunct because people stop showing up, or it just isn't as it's clearly not serving the same, it's not meeting the same need that it was at the beginning, which sometimes that's totally fine. Um, I think the thing that has kept this group going though is it's very, it's it, it's it's the right people that combine both strategy and tactics. So we're both saying, like, did the newsletter go out? Did it include the right content? Here's a trend we're seeing, this content content has to go in, here's the person to get us that. But then it's also a group that is forward thinking about, you know what, what what we really need on a three to five year timeline is a better way to integrate data so that we can do predictive modeling on yield a little bit better, right? So it's I think some of it is really the people that are there and um the fact that we can that that it that it's both tactics and strategy. So it kind of bounces some some meetings, it is kind of a quick report out and we're done in 15 minutes. Other times we go the full hour with a topic that wasn't even on our agenda, but it ended up being the thing that we really need to be talking about. So, and I think because you know this every year it's a different group of students. So there's always something a little bit different that we need to be thinking about in that year. So so yeah, so I don't I you know I have been in versions of the meeting that you know, or the the committee that really turn into report outs, and I've just stopped them after a certain point because it's again, it's not serving the purpose that makes it a priority for people to be there, which that's okay. That means something else needs to happen.

SPEAKER_01 25:34

That's right. You've you've moved into a variety, you've moved through a variety of roles at DU. So I'm interested in this piece too, right? So how you know, from teaching to managing the budgets to now overseeing university-wide initiatives, how did seeing the ground level of a department change how you've approached central administration?

SPEAKER_04 25:57

Um you know, I I think it was so important to start how I did. I actually came here for my PhD. I came here as a graduate student. Um, and while I was, you know, finishing my coursework and working on my dissertation, um, I started teaching. I was teaching in the writing program and in the English department. Um, but I also wanted, you know, I was trying to think about what my career steps were gonna look like and my degrees in English. Um there are the the job market for English PhDs isn't so awesome right now. Um, and I knew, you know, by that point I knew that we wanted to stay in Denver. And so, and I also really started thinking about what do I what do I love about that? And it was, it was really working with students, but I started thinking like maybe it doesn't have to be in a tenure-track teaching role. So, what would I need to do to like figure out what like what do staff do at universities? Um and I became a department assistant for our gender and women's studies program because part of what I knew I needed to learn was like, how does this place work and how do budgets work? Which, you know, English major, I avoided anything having to do with money or math. So I was like, I need any experience. Um, and that was great. Like I got to work with students, I got to, you know, do some advising, work with them directly, work directly with faculty, like start understanding how how do you run a department? How does this thing work? Um, and a position opened up in the dean's office, and it was working on graduate admissions. And um I took that role, and then the role evolved and grew a few different times. And I was in the dean's office for seven years, and through that time I finished my degree, and um, and my last role there, I was associate dean for academic planning and communications. So I oversaw grad recruitment and admissions, marketing and communications, um, adjunct and visiting faculty hiring, course scheduling, and then other duties as assigned. So it was yeah. And uh it was for the biggest and most complex college on campus. And I think that when, you know, it it I had to focus on many different things. I had many different audiences that I was focusing on. And when I started working with the person who was in my role now, I was like, oh, that's a really cool job. They just get to focus on students, like students are the center of everything.

SPEAKER_00 28:22

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 28:22

If that person never leaves, that's the job I want. So um, so I got lucky and I worked really hard to make sure that you know I had the experience that I would need to be able to be a good applicant for this position. And it worked out. So um, so I think, oh man, I think I've had too much coffee because I haven't even answered your question yet. Um I think you're getting there. But I think understanding, like, when I say, okay, I need I need everybody in the academic units to do a thing, I know what that actually means for the person who has to do the thing, whether it's write the email or call the students or put the thing into the student data system. Like I think in some of the work that I'm involved in now, like some of what we do is oversee um our student success technology and you know, train on best practices and expectations. I think it makes me uh a bit more aware, perhaps, of what that ask really means to the staff and the faculty that I'm asking to do work and knowing that like they're being asked to do a lot. So I want to be really intentional and really sure that I believe the thing that I'm asking them to do is actually going to make a difference for students.

SPEAKER_02 29:33

That's fantastic. You got there, and it was a great yeah, it might still be true on the coffee front. We don't know, right?

SPEAKER_00 29:41

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:43

I'm like four sodas in, and I had coffee this morning too. Like, let's go. All right. That journey that you've had, though, I think is allowed the lens in an interesting way. And and so then I think it really gets down to the the reality that we're all living right now, which is higher education is changing rapidly, and policies written 10, 20, 30 years ago don't always fit with the modern student or the modern faculty member. So, how do you balance the need for bureaucratic uh bureaucratic excuse me, consistency in your role with the need to be nimble and innovative in today's higher education experience? I know.

SPEAKER_04 30:24

Oh my gosh. I think some of it is listening. So when when we ask, if there are if there are things that we're hearing from staff or faculty that are either like, this thing is stupid and I don't want to do it, and I don't think it makes a difference, that tells me that either I have not communicated effectively on why it's important, or I don't have evidence that it's actually making a difference. So some of it is thinking about how do we assess our work, which we do really regularly. I'm a big uh proponent of assessment and making sure that everything we're doing is is worth everyone's time. Some of it is also like paying attention to trends and what we're seeing in students. So like we have an academic exceptions process. If we see increasing numbers of students coming asking for exceptions to a specific process, that is a signal that maybe we need to look at that process overall. And and and um I think there's also like these kind of there, there, there's always these kind of unwritten policies or processes or options for students that I think we've tried really hard to make explicit uh because you know, it gets at the hidden curriculum. If you don't know to ask about the secret policy, because maybe you don't have the background or prep for college to know to ask that, that's actually inequitable for students. So in my first couple of years here, one of the things that we did was I took a look at our um our academic standards policy for probation, suspension, and dismissal. And there were some processes that weren't as data-driven as they could have been. And there was language in our policy that wasn't fully explained to students. Like, so public-facing information that kind of told students, like, here is what happens if you don't meet, you know, GPA requirements. It just wasn't clear enough. And so we ended up with students who were students who were unclear, um, advisors, faculty, and staff who weren't super clear on how to advise a student in that certain situation. So we went on a very deep dive and really tried to clean up. We did, we looked at a lot of data on outcomes, and then we looked at how do we clean this up in a way that clarifies this for students and actually clarifies outcomes for yeah, that that that help support students where they need the right support.

SPEAKER_02 32:47

So yeah, it it the secret hidden things to me, it doesn't matter if we're talking higher education policy or just life in general. Yeah, Brody, you know, we like we're big baseball guys and they're they always talk about these hidden rules of baseball annoys the daylights out of me. But that doesn't make me near as mad as when somebody goes, Oh, well, that's a hidden um hidden item on the the restaurant menu. Why is there a hidden item on the restaurant menu? You know, I thought you were gonna say hidden policy. No, no, the hidden policy. But there for a while, I'm gonna give you an example because we're just off the rails today. I'm gonna give you an example. Listen, there for a while, the omelette at Cracker Barrel was a hidden item on the restaurant menu. And then I went to go order it because I knew it was a hidden one, and they're like, no, we got rid of that. You got rid of the hidden thing? Like, that can't be like this is insane. This this episode is also insane.

SPEAKER_03 33:45

Well, it just makes me feel bad. Like, what if other people know about the hidden thing and then I'm not cool enough to know about the hidden thing at the men at the restaurant?

SPEAKER_02 33:52

And our policies for sure shouldn't be that exactly. And look, so I'll be serious for one second.

SPEAKER_01 33:59

That has real implications for students. Yeah. If if you know, I had kids that went to college and they went to college where I was working, and if something stupid happened, they just came to me and said, This is something stupid. And I'd say, Well, you need to fix it. Here's how you do it, here's how you do it. That's that's one thing.

SPEAKER_02 34:17

But if a first generation college student runs into that same issue, they start to think, I can't figure this out, I don't belong here, and now they don't even address the issue that they are trying to get addressed. And yeah, that has real, that has real implications for student success work. There's no question about it.

SPEAKER_04 34:37

You know, and the other that makes me think too, one of the other things that I think is really important in in staying on top of this as it, you know, just as it evolves over time, is listening to our advisors. The advisors are the ones who notice it first because they're the ones that are helping students try and figure out, like they know there's a special secret thing, and they're trying to help students navigate that. And so um that's something that like, you know, I let our advising teams know like if you're seeing patterns in things like that are issues, that's the kind of thing I want to know about. There's one-offs all the time of every situation under the sun, but it's the patterns of struggle or barriers that then help inform, like what should we be thinking about and working on, right?

SPEAKER_01 35:22

Like I when I talk about meaning making in the advising profession, sometimes I'll talk about how uh advisors will say things like, I'm just an advisor, and I'm like, No, you're not, right? You are the voice of students to the things that are terrible happening at the institution. You see those things first. And if if you leave, if you leave that voice at the door and you don't ever share that with other folks, or you don't, or if as supervisors, we don't seek out that information and look to make improvements, it's it's not a great situation.

SPEAKER_02 35:54

So I I want to move to something like I just was thinking about this. Kevin and I were talking about math, and we need to talk about developmental math because both of us are dealing with some of those kinds of things at our respective institutions, but you're an English, you're you're an English faculty member. Uh this is gonna be very broad and very difficult. But what would you do to fix writing?

SPEAKER_04 36:24

I was just talking to a colleague the other day about how we fix writing. I I was just talking to a colleague the other day about how I do not envy, I haven't taught in several years, and I'm not actually faculty, but um I do not envy the faculty who are teaching writing in particular about everything in the age of AI. I I I think our writing department has been really, really proactive and invested in thinking about how do we how do we um acknowledge the realities of what AI is doing to writing and bring that bring that questioning into the classroom as part of um as part of learning or part of learning about writing is thinking about how do you navigate these technologies. Um as an answer as to how to fix it, help kids read more for fun in grades K through 12. Good. Like I I think uh I was just looking at some of the the yeah, I I'm doing a I'm I'm working on an institute with our Office of Teaching and Learning for faculty where we're looking at um academic readiness challenges and trends and things that we've seen and looking at some of the data from uh the uh what is it called? It's the national, the the the nation scorecard or the that that report where they're collecting data longitudinally for decades. And the proportion of students who of eighth graders and twelfth graders who say that they're reading for fun is is tanked. And there is a clear evidence-based correlation between reading for fun and being a good critical thinker, reader, and writer. So I I don't know how to solve that. Um, but I think that I think that figuring out ways to encourage reading younger is part of the answer. I I don't know how to fix writing though. I'm not an expert on that.

SPEAKER_02 38:25

I I like how your folks aren't ignoring the technology. Yeah, but reading more is a good answer. I like that. I like your hard-hitting question, Rony, that was not on our script. You just went like fully outside of the script. And so I quickly went to our other scripts and I was like, Well, we're not hitting her with like who's her favorite mentor and do you like music, right? Like, we're going hard hitting on Christy today. Yeah, I'm I'm yeah, and you know, I'm just not yeah, I'm asking her to completely fix a significant discipline within higher ed that's necessary in all of the fields. Like, come on, Christy.

SPEAKER_04 39:02

I mean it, I need to be like one of those, you know how you go on those, like uh you go on to a webinar over your lunch, and they're like, We're gonna talk about the secret key to solving enrollment issues, and you go on, and they're like, Yeah, they don't know.

SPEAKER_03 39:16

So I'm sorry, I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 39:18

Everybody thought this was gonna be fun, and instead, um I mean, come on. I mean, just fix writing for us. Come on.

SPEAKER_04 39:25

I think our writing faculty will have some better ideas than me.

SPEAKER_01 39:29

And Kevin, now I realize now I realized I actually am yelling, gosh darn it.

SPEAKER_02 39:34

You now I know why that baby cries. That's right. That's why you make the baby cry.

SPEAKER_03 39:40

It's passion, bro. That's that's good.

SPEAKER_02 39:42

Very good. Love it, love it. All right, so shifting a little bit, you are a member of or have been a member, of, Voices Rock, a community choir that explicitly you explicitly say is low stakes and just for pure joy and fun for you. Yes. In a job like the assistant provost, where stakes are always high and you're responsible for so many moving parts. Why do you it why is it vital for you to have a space where you can just show up and do something that you enjoy?

SPEAKER_04 40:11

Oh my gosh, it's fun. I I think there's a few things, and I know you were chatting a little about a bit about this before I came on. Um, I just started doing this, and I so I was in choir in high school. I was in all the choirs. I don't have a great voice. There's a reason I'm in choir. I sound better when you can't just hear me, but I love it. It feels great, it's fun, it's joyful. Um, and uh it was it was it challenged. So I so I found this choir, and there's lots of different choirs that are community choirs, and some are more serious. And I was like, I don't know, I'm serious. I need like, I just need to go and where people go and just have fun. Um, and so this is it, they just do like rock songs. Um and my first practice I went to, like, they handed out the sheet music. They're like, you don't need to you don't need to know how to how to read sheet music, but if you can, here you go. And it started coming back to me. I was like, oh, I remember some of this stuff from when I was like 16. It's somewhere buried back there. Um, but the time flew by because I you have to focus. I can't be thinking about whatever problem I'm trying to resolve at work. Like there is no straying from just like super focused, but it's also that like I think it's you know how they describe flow states. Like, there's some parts of my work where I can get into that when I'm singing and trying to pay attention and practice in choir practice. Like the same thing happens. I feel like it's done in like five minutes, and it's it's just fun. Like the first practice we had, um, she the our director broke us into three parts and nobody knew she didn't tell us what we were singing, but she taught us each our parts, and we all started singing. I was like, oh my gosh, we're singing Hey Jude by the Beatles. Like it's it was like that end part that I'm not gonna sing, but um, but yeah, just like I will not yeah, yes, that part, yeah. Yeah, um, and in that moment, I was like, oh, this is just a group of like a hundred people who are my neighbors who live in my neighborhood that I don't know that just like doing this for fun. Like that is it's wonderful.

SPEAKER_01 42:15

So singing one of the greatest songs ever written, right?

SPEAKER_04 42:18

Like, come on, let's go. Yeah, it it's it's great. It's um, I think it it is um, you know, having having things that just bring me pure joy that are not about like, I mean, I guess there's self-improvement, but it's not about like professional development or working out more or something that I'm supposed to be doing. Like, I'm not supposed to be doing that, I don't have to be good at it. I don't, you know, I'm not supposed to be doing it for my own like benefit. Um, but it's just fun. And I think that that's critical to being able to bring pieces of that back to work so that it's it's clear and that I can hopefully model for my team, like my team works so hard, so hard. And I want to make sure that they have those moments of joy, whether it's in their whether it's in work or outside of work. And so I think modeling that and being able to talk about that helps show that that is important for everyone to have.

SPEAKER_02 43:12

That's right. Your your voice is of rock is Brody and I with headphones and dancing in grocery stores and just in random places.

SPEAKER_01 43:19

Yeah. The one thing, Christy, that struck me as you explained that story. So I Catherine Price's uh Catherine Price talks about fun. She has this great TED talk about fun, and the three conditions for fun are playfulness, connectedness, and flow. And I was like, oh my God, all three of those things were in that story you just told. So it's pretty clear, right, that you're kind of locked in there and having fun.

SPEAKER_02 43:47

I I love that. We we we we also know you're a passionate baker. Do you so I have a question, but I need to know like, what do you bake that is good that I wouldn't?

SPEAKER_04 44:00

Okay, I can do a couple of things pretty consistently.

SPEAKER_00 44:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 44:04

I can make a really good chocolate bunt cake. Like, you know, like with this like chocolate lava icing. Um and scones. I love scones. I know people have opinions about them, and some people are like, they're dry and weird. And I really like making them. So I actually just planted blackberry bushes at my house because I have this dream that like I'm gonna fight the squirrels and birds. I'm gonna have some blackberries and then I'm gonna like on the weekends make blackberry scones. So we'll see if that happens.

SPEAKER_01 44:34

We have this amazing, we have this amazing local coffee place that does a raspberry orange scone and it's glazed. And I'm like, oh my goodness gracious. So so let's get back now.

SPEAKER_02 44:45

I need lunch. Sorry. Uh you're you you because you're passionate about baking, I think about baking, you know, as an exact science, right? If your ratios are off, cake doesn't rise, things don't work out. Like, let's move that to administration. Are you an exact recipe administrator, or do you find yourself improvising when ingredients change? Like, how do you balance it out?

SPEAKER_04 45:11

That's a really nice I love the comparison. I think it, I think it works nicely. Um, so I don't like cooking because it stresses me out. But I think so that's why I've always like gravitated to baking. I'm like, if I follow the instructions, it's gonna work. Yeah, and I think over time in my career, I've evolved in I've had to evolve and get outside of my own, like, I really like structure. I like to have a plan. Um, I like to have an agenda for a meeting, um, I like to have a strategy, I like to have a report at the end. Um, and I don't think that everyone likes that. And it doesn't always work, right? Like you have to you have to understand your circumstances, what you're what you're trying to accomplish. Um, and I think that I've I've learned that I have to be a lot more flexible um because one way is not the only way of doing things. So so I actually had the opportunity to help lead a um a large committee for our our provost strategic planning process, and I had great plans going in. I was like, here's how we're gonna like structure the meetings and here's what our outcomes might look like. I'm gonna give all this background information. And I really had to let go, which was kind of hard, but luckily I have a couple of really great mentors. My supervisor is incredible. There's other uh leaders on campus that I could kind of go to and bounce off ideas and then say, like, I I had one meeting, and just based on what people want to talk about, I think I gotta throw everything away and really, really think about and listen to what people were saying they needed and uh let this evolve differently. So it's a little bit more like cooking dinner than baking, which I'm perhaps less comfortable with, but it it will be more effective. It's it was definitely more effective than if I had clung to my plans, because that's just not that's not how I don't that's not the kind of leader I want to be. It's I don't think it's as effective.

SPEAKER_01 47:10

So that's fantastic. Love it.

SPEAKER_02 47:13

I brought it, you just throw in the extra stuff, right? That's what I'm assuming. Yeah, I would. More chocolate chips, let's go, more blueberries, it's gonna be fine. Ratios be damned. Let's go.

SPEAKER_01 47:26

I mean, when you're cooking dinner, you you sometimes will have all the ingredients you're supposed to have, and then you're like, you get into the spice cabinet, you're like, Oh, I don't have that. So then you have to improvise, you have to find something different.

SPEAKER_04 47:39

Well, and for me, like I can't get three separate dishes to all be done at the same time. Like, my husband's amazing at this. And I'm like, wait, but the veggies are not done, but this is getting cold. And I think, like, you know, again, with this, when I was thinking about this particular committee, like, I was like, all right, this is great. I've got a timeline for when I'm gonna start writing the final report and when it's gonna be done, and when everybody gives input. I think it was also helpful to have a sense of humor about it because a couple of mentoring conversations I had with people, they were kind of they kind of laughed at me and they're like, I really like your effort.

SPEAKER_03 48:12

I was like, okay, you're right.

SPEAKER_02 48:15

It's like the good job good gumption. It's like the good job good effort kid in the NBA finals, Kevin. You guys good job, good effort after they lose. Yeah, you did it. Um, Christy, you were a D3 soccer player in college. I was, yes. And uh, you know, when you look at your day-to-day now in academic affairs, dealing with complex policy, diverse stakeholders, how much of that D3 soccer player still shows up and how you manage and work with your team?

SPEAKER_04 48:45

Um I think uh I think there's connections all over the place. I think being some form of athlete has always been a part of my identity. Um, I played soccer just until a few years ago until I started getting afraid of really hurting myself. Um, but I still run and do all kinds of other things. Um, and I but I think college athletics is an incredible way to figure out really quickly how to be, how to prioritize, how to manage your time, how to get a lot accomplished, how to focus. Um, and that's to say nothing of like how to work with a team, how to listen to a coach and learn from a coach. Like all of those things that a college athlete has to do prepare you for pretty much anything. Like I and and I think not I I don't always think people understand what that looks like. And I, you know, I look at our student athletes now, like I played D3, so the pressure was not the same. And I'm now at a D1 institution and looking at oh my gosh, the the accomplishments of our student athletes who have insanely high GPAs, who are doing amazing research with faculty and are still like winning conference championships. I I am I'm amazed at what they've accomplished and they're like 20. So um, but I do think like all of those skills, you athletes just learn really quick. Um, because you have to. You have to figure out how you're gonna go to practice and train and travel and miss class and still do well. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 50:20

Yeah. Yeah. One of one of my favorite jobs of all time was being the faculty athletics rep at the University of Southern Indiana. You can dig it. But I mean, I did that 11 years and student athletes were the best. I mean, they just really, in most instances, they were the highest achievers. They were able to kind of sort all of that out, the brutal schedules with the prioritization of time. You had to talk to faculty because you were missing class, right? So they're developing relationships with faculty. There's a lot we can learn from that for sure. Yeah. Um, so you take vacation time to camp, you hike with your family all over Colorado and the West. Super fun. Uh and a goal to visit a new national park every year. What's the new national park this year?

SPEAKER_04 51:05

Uh, I think we're doing a state, we're going to South Dakota. Um, so I think we're gonna stay in Custer State Park, and then I think Badlands we're going to. So I think that's the that's the plan for this year. So um yeah.

SPEAKER_02 51:20

Yeah, we we so when you're out in a tent, right? Completely unplugged from email, campus politics, what happens to your perspective on your day job? Like what does what does like wilderness give back to you?

SPEAKER_04 51:34

Oh so much. Um I think perspective on um like like I I think just a sense of perspective on uh my my my smallness in the world, but also the impact that I can have. So it's kind of a little bit of both of like, okay, what how how do you how does the work that I do fit into fit into the the I don't know, fit into how how it can help this institution, I guess. Um but I think a lot of it is also just kind of balance in perspective and making sure and and and remembering how to be present. Honestly, I think that's a lot of it too, is you know, when I am when we're out camping, I am, you know, camping is a lot of work. So there's always, you know, there's a lot going on, but then there's also a lot of time to just like sit and enjoy or sit on a river or hike. Um, and I think I can be really present at those times. And I think that that helps me when I come back to work and you know, I'm dealing with the like, you know, the inbox, the, the, the payment via a very full inbox and thinking about like, okay, well, what's it helps me prioritize what's important because I can I'm like I can only focus on one thing at a time. If I'm out camping and just enjoying being in nature, that helps me, that helps ground that that ability to stay present that I think I can bring back to work as much as possible.

SPEAKER_02 53:02

The uh interactions we've had, whether that was in Albuquerque or in uh the LinkedIn sphere that we've connected on, or even here today, um you've you always strike me as such a positive person that drives things forward. And so you're working in a field, and we were working in a field that the financial headwinds, the shifting demographics, the public skepticism uh is it's it feels like a pretty steep uphill climb. Um, what keeps you optimistic about the future of our profession and field?

SPEAKER_04 53:35

I do my best to try and make sure that, like in my role, I'm not talking with students on a daily basis. Right. But I do my best to try and make sure that I go to see their work, whether that is uh our every one, every year there's a our our school of music that does a performance that is open to like administration and others on campus, it's amazing because I get to see the students do the thing that we are just in the background trying to make sure they can do. Um, or if it's like we have a big research showcase, going and seeing the research that they're doing is unbelievable, makes me feel like what was I doing in college? It sure was not that amazing. Um, seeing our our our athletes compete, like I think bring that helps ground all of the other, all of the noise and the the um the circumstances that we're working within right now. That's what we're doing and making sure that I can see evidence of that. Part of what I like about being in administration is like I want to be behind the scenes trying to make sure that the students and the faculty can be the rock stars and shine and have the the experiences that we want them to have. And I'm in the background, kind of like helping make sure that that is as possible, that that's possible for everybody. Um, so I think like not losing sight of our students being able to see evidence of that um would is is what's important. And that helps me when I start feeling overwhelmed by like whatever the chronicle puts in my inbox up and walking.

SPEAKER_01 55:11

Yeah, that knowledge is power, but it can also be pretty depressing.

SPEAKER_02 55:16

Yeah, it can be. Hey, this hour's been flying, so I think it's time for the lightning round.

SPEAKER_00 55:23

Lightning round.

SPEAKER_02 55:27

I know you were not you were not ready for the graphic. Like that was no, I was not. Yeah, you're kicking us off. What what's the absolute best national park you've visited so far?

SPEAKER_04 55:40

Oh, I don't want to pick.

SPEAKER_02 55:42

Um if you could throw shade towards Idaho, it would help us from the beginning of the show. You know, so like more. I actually know hate here.

SPEAKER_04 55:54

I haven't been to a national park in Idaho, but I have camped there and it is incredible. So I hope that they start listening. Um I think uh let's see, last year we went to Sequoia National Park in Central California, and it it's I I was last there about 20 years ago, and both times it's just mind-blowing seeing it. You can't understand how big those trees are. And people who like trees, really, you're gonna go like drive to California to look at trees? Yes, they're incredible. So um it is a it is an amazing national treasure, and it's it stands out.

SPEAKER_02 56:28

That's awesome. What is your go-to bake good when you need to stress bake?

SPEAKER_04 56:35

A skillet cookie, like yeah, just a cast iron skillet, and then like you can kind of do like kitchen sink, like if I've got like MMs and chocolate chips and walnuts and whatever can go all go in, and then you can have that, you cut it up like a pie and you just put whipped cream on top of it, and you eat it like pieces of pie hot out of the oven.

SPEAKER_02 56:54

I did not even out on this episode to be so hungry after we finished. I am starving.

SPEAKER_01 57:00

Sorry. What's the best concert you've ever seen in Colorado? Oh gosh.

SPEAKER_04 57:06

I'm trying to like okay, I'm honing in on uh it's Red Rocks. I'm trying to figure out which one I want to say. Um, maybe Sylvanesso. Um wee sauce. Yeah, Sylvanesso. What? Um yeah, she was like wearing this. First of all, the weather's beautiful. If you've if you go to Red Rocks, there's like a 50-50 chance that there's going to be a fast thunderstorm throughout your time there. So there was not this time. The weather was perfect. And she was wearing this like giant thing. She looked like a cupcake made out of tutus and bouncing all over the stage, and the crowd was great. Like, Red Rocks is amazing. So if you haven't, if you haven't had a chance to go there, it should be on everyone's concert bucket list. Oh, I saw that one that one stands out.

SPEAKER_01 57:50

I saw Guster at Red Rocks in summer of 2021, and we did get that massive rainstorm right before. So you missed the opening act because it is literally just a monsoon and something before, and then the line was super long, but totally worth it. Just an amazing venue. What a great venue. It is. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 58:07

All right, and we have a true or false in our lightning round today. True or false, being a referee on the soccer pitch is easier than facilitating a university meeting.

SPEAKER_03 58:17

Which soccer pitch?

SPEAKER_02 58:20

Five-year-olds.

SPEAKER_04 58:22

Oh, that's harder because the parents. The parents, uh-uh. That that wins for sure. The parents. It's really funny. Both of my kids play sports, and the like I start you start seeing these emails that come out to the parents, and one of them, no matter what they're playing or who they're playing for, it's like a how can parents not be jerked on the sidelines? Um, because I think it I think there's a there's a there's a weird thing that happens when parents watch their kids play sports, and I think it needs a little bit of coaching to the parents. So I I'll I'll give it to the referee for five-year-olds there.

SPEAKER_01 58:57

Fantastic.

SPEAKER_02 58:58

If your administrative career had a walk-up song, what would it be? Oh, that's a great one. Oh I know that's a hard one.

SPEAKER_04 59:07

I know, and this is one of those things like when I go into a meeting and somebody's like, we're gonna do icebreakers, I'm like, I'm deer in headlights. Um okay, I'll just mention one that's been on my playlist. It's called Can't Hold Us, and it's by this um artist. She's from Zambia. It's called her name is Sampa the Great. Um, very random pick. We've got a really great indie rock radio station, and I keep hearing it on there, and that it's it's a very good pump up, positive, no barriers, no boundaries kind of song. So I'll go with that.

SPEAKER_02 59:42

That's great. Did she just hit you with a song you didn't know? I didn't, I have not heard it. I know. I like I'll send it to you after. Yeah, like where I just sat here and you guys talked about artists the whole time that I didn't know.

unknown 59:56

All right.

SPEAKER_01 59:58

So there we go. And I love Sylvanesso. Yay!

SPEAKER_02 1:00:03

I could feel that vibe, but I knew that you didn't know that one. Uh, last one on my end the best piece of professional feedback you ever received that you didn't want to hear at that time.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:12

Oh. There's a few things that have stood out. Um, I think, and and many of them are from my my current supervisor who's an amazing mentor. Um, I think one of them, I was kind of waffling about like, should I go this route? Should I go that route? What if people do this? What if people do that? And she goes, square your shoulders and go for it. You know what you're doing. And I was like, okay. And I think some of it was just like kind of uh, you know, some of it was about confidence and just, you know, me feeling really new in the role and wanting to make the right call on something, and um her recognizing and trusting my ability to do so and just kind of calling me out on it was really helpful. So I actually I have a little I have it on my post, I have a little post-it on my desk that just says square your shoulders and go for it. So whenever I love it, too long to make a decision or diving in too deep or overthinking something, I look at that and that's that can be helpful.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:11

That's great. Love it. Hey, thank you so much for being on the show today. The hour flew by. It did. And and and on my end, I hope it's not another five years before our paths cross. And I'm just so glad that you said yes to being on this journey with Brody and I.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:28

Thank you so much. This has been really fun. This is a great this is a great Friday morning meeting. I love it. It's great to meet you, Christy.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:36

You too. Thank you. Keep on traveling, love all of that.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:39

Thank you. Talk to you soon. Bye.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:43

Oh, geez. That was I'm producing today, and I thought I just kicked her out completely. I'm just losing my mind over here, folks. Um, Brody, like how much fun. So fun. I know. I love it when our guests bring almost as much energy as we do. Yeah. I you know that that's true, but I also I will say so many answers. I appreciate uh how thoughtful Christy is in her response. Like sometimes you get on these, and and I've done some podcasts recently where it just feels like I'm jumping to answer as quick as I can because you don't want it to be like, oh gosh, he doesn't know the answer to that one. But I appreciate the thoughtfulness in some responses, and uh, and I will say this is probably the most hungry I've been after an episode ever. And she tried to fix writing, which is awesome. Like, I love it. Man, I could not believe you threw that question at her. I think it's we we we've been talking about this an awful lot lately, and and like I I figured it was coming for a just us episode here soon, but you threw that in there, and I was like, well, if she solves it, then we don't have to talk about it ever again. That's right. I mean, that's good. Read more, kids. That's the answer. That's right. Uh we gotta get to our top three, which is also gonna make us hungry, which is our top three summer treats. Brody, do you have a three in mind for you? Yeah, we were talking about this because uh ice cream, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:03:05

I love ice cream, so I'm gonna do, I'm gonna cheat. I'm gonna get four. Like Dairy Queen. Come on. Peanut butter parfait, banana split. Like I was locked into those. I mean, the peanut butter parfait is so delicious. And so bad for you, but I love it. Uh there was a great custard place in DeCao when I worked at Northern Illinois University.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:28

And I gotta put it. And they had a they had a Sunday called the Black War Sunday, and it was hot fudge, and then the cherry pie filling on top. Like I could drink cherry pie filling out of the can, but now they've put it on a hot fudge Sunday. Let's go. And then my my last favorite place is Jeans here in town in Bloomington Normal. They they do this great strawberry lemon soft serve twist, and I dip it into the cherry, and then so I have the hard shell. Oh my god, just great. Those are my three. So I I have three, and these are ones that hit me is really from that time frame of like my the 90s, right? Like that I remember just really enjoying a sweet treat. Uh the orange sherber push treats. Do you remember this? Like, is it this is like the toilet paper holder that had ice cream and you push it up? Um, the closest thing I've come in flavor, and I think they still have it, but it does not taste the same. The closest thing I've come in flavor is actually uh from the varsity in Atlanta, their uh frosted orange, and you can get that when you're in the Atlanta airport, get their frosted orange. It is spot on to that that that taste, that feeling, that moment. Um from Dairy Queen, same family here. And and I was thinking about this because my my kid uh Braden, he loves the misty slush that they have. And I but I don't the blue raspberry one, and uh, but I was like, you know, I love that as a kid too, but it was called something different, so I had to look it up. And and when I grew up, it was called Mr. Mysties, and so that's what it was. And they switched the name, and I didn't know that. I I had to look that up. And then the last thing, and this is gonna be weird an ice cream sandwich. I love a good ice cream sandwich. Now, I will say I do enjoy undressing the ice cream sandwich where I will take the chocolate layer off and then just put the ice cream in a little bowl and then eat it that way. I'm like doing the Oreo thing where you twist. I know, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:05:34

Like so dirty, too.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:36

I well, I didn't know any other way to say that. Like, what are you gonna say? You strip off the chocolate. Like, no, you undress, you undress the ice cream sandwich, I guess. I don't know, but it was delicious. You're weird, man. Thank you. Thank you. And and listen, we we have I do think we have a different energy when it comes to Friday.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:57

Yeah, I guess that maybe for sure. Oh, settle down, Kathy.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:02

You're welcome.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:04

Hey, that's it for this edition of the pickup meeting. We hope all of your meetings, whether formal or pickup style, are as fun and as meaningful as this one. Until next time, gang, let's just do good and be nice. How about it?