Joan Mannis with Old Cartersville Tours, Tami Caspersen with iThink Financial and Olympic Freestyle Wrestler Jordan Mitchell

Intro: [00:00:09] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Atlanta. It’s time for Charitable Georgia. Brought to you by B’s Charitable Pursuits and Resources. We put the fun in fund raising. For more information, go to B’s Charitable Pursuits. Dot com. That’s B’s Charitable Pursuits dot com. Now here’s your host, Brian Pruett.

Brian Pruett: [00:00:46] Good, fabulous Friday morning. It’s another fabulous Friday. We’ve got three more fabulous guests. And this is your first time listening to Charitable Georgia. This is all about positive things happening in the community. So, Sharon, welcome back again this morning.

Sharon Cline: [00:00:57] Thank you. So happy to be here.

Brian Pruett: [00:00:59] I guess Stone just wants to let you just do the show the rest of the time.

Sharon Cline: [00:01:02] I’m taking over everything.

Brian Pruett: [00:01:02] There you go. There you go. So, Sharon, you know, you we bring stories on of all kinds of positive things happen on here. Right? So you’re going to hear three more amazing stories this morning. So our first guest this morning is Joan Mannis from Old Cartersville Tours. Joan, thanks for being here this morning.

Joan Mannis: [00:01:16] Thank you. Thanks for having me.

Brian Pruett: [00:01:18] So you shared with me your story not too long ago. And you to me, you have a story of overcoming perseverance and following your dreams all at the same time. So if you don’t mind, give us your background.

Joan Mannis: [00:01:29] I’m not easily discouraged, as you can tell. And I’m not old. My body has just been on earth for a while. That’s the way I like to look at it anyway. So yes, I started old Cartersville tours about two months ago in Cartersville. I’ve tried to retire 2 or 3 times. It just doesn’t take it’s like a vaccine that doesn’t take retirement, doesn’t take for me. I cut my teeth in the business in Savannah. I did not go down there to work in the tourist business. I went down there to retire. And I had a friend that well, actually a neighbor, she would come out every day and we wore costumes there when we were touring on the Trolleys, and she said that she worked on one of the trolleys. And I’m like, you know, I’m kind of getting bored of doing everything I want to do and go on the beach 2 or 3 times a week. I mean, you can get tired of that, too. I said, I think I’d like to do this. And I hired on with Old Savannah tours in the historic district there and started touring, had to put my own tours together. They give you a historic guide, but they don’t give you a word for word tours. So you got to kind of dig down in that. And so that’s what I did and put my tours together. And then I do believe in divine guidance, and it has been really evident in my whole life. So one day I’m on the tour and I’m sitting there and I’m just having a good time on the tour. No, no plans. Whether I stayed in Savannah, it was a bucket list item and one day and it just came to me, You know what? Cartersville has so much history. It really deserves something like this. Two months later, I was in Cartersville putting my tour together there.

Brian Pruett: [00:03:02] Well, you’re no. You’re no stranger to Cartersville because you’re from there, right?

Joan Mannis: [00:03:05] I’m from Bartow County, originally, went to public schools there, went away to college, never really as an adult, came back. I’ve lived in New York and Manhattan. I’ve lived in Connecticut. I’ve lived in in D.C., in Virginia, worked for a California company for years, went back and forth there. My whole careers have been in sales and marketing. I was in telecommunications way back when people just started buying their phone systems. I didn’t have to get them from Mobil and got into voice mail then. So it’s always been in sales. This is my third venture personally for a business and my son started a business, so we’re kind of an entrepreneurial family. We’ve started for Total and they’ve all been successful. It just doesn’t mean you’re going to stay with one forever. I’ve had a nursery in a daycare. I’ve had an event facility where we did parties and weddings. I did that for a while and and been in real estate. So. So sales is my background. I try to give a good tour there. My family lives all around Cartersville area. I have two grandsons and I’m hoping to leave the business to them eventually. They’re not old enough to drive yet, but eventually, hopefully they will and they can take the business over.

Brian Pruett: [00:04:17] So you also share with me that you you overcame cancer as well.

Joan Mannis: [00:04:20] I’ve had I’ve had stage four twice and I’ve had it I’ve had three occurrences of malignant melanoma. And I was never a sun worshiper, really. I mean, in the south you get a certain amount. And one day about spending almost 13 years ago now, I had a bump come up on the top of my head. It was just like a little mosquito bite or it was just a little pink bump. I was already going to the dermatologist. And so he says, Well, is there anything else today? And I said, Yeah, I got this little pink bump, but it doesn’t, you know, my sister looked at it. She said it didn’t look like anything. He looked at it and he said it didn’t look like anything he said. But I always do. A biopsy came back, malignant melanoma. He said, you’ve got to have surgery right away. I had surgery. I wouldn’t take any kind of liquid treatment. 13 years ago, there wasn’t much. And they took part of my scalp out. And I mean, it was pretty serious. It spread to my lymph nodes and I just felt like I was they just more or less didn’t give me much hope. I sold my business. I gave all my good jewelry to my daughter in law. She won’t give it back.

Brian Pruett: [00:05:24] Oh, no.

Joan Mannis: [00:05:25] But then I was okay. I just kind of I thought, well, I’m not dying yet. I might as well live. My life went on about about four, about every four and a half years. It comes back four and a half years later, a bump right on the scar where they took my scalp out before. And by that time I just said, Well, this has got to be it. I just quit. Going to the doctor. I’m kind of stubborn that way. I ended up four years later having tumors everywhere had spread all through my body. And I went to the doctor. My son went with me and he offered this immunotherapy and it was pretty new. You know, then that’s been four years ago. And I said, No, I don’t think I’m going to take it. I’ve really had some extra time. My son goes, Mom, God has kept you alive until technology has caught up with you. Now you must take it. And you do things for your family, you know that you wouldn’t do. And I took it. And after the treatment, which put me in the hospital, almost kill me. After that, you know what? Every tumor was gone, and that’s been four years ago. So I just appreciate every day it makes you look at life differently when you have a brush with death, when you come close to death, you have a whole new perspective on life. And so I’ve just lived it, you know, really taking chances because I think we have to be gamblers in this life. You can’t play it safe and reach your full potential. So it’s made me not hold on to material things nearly as much and try to help other people and just look, you know, look forward. We got only so many trips around the sun. You know.

Brian Pruett: [00:06:58] I feel like we’ve been playing Kenny Rogers song right now.

Joan Mannis: [00:07:00] Yeah. And you never know when those when that last one’s going to be there. So I just try to live my life differently and be a good person and treat people right. And it has changed my perspective totally.

Brian Pruett: [00:07:12] Well, we could stop with her right there because that’s amazing. But I know you’re not supposed to ask ladies this. So there’s three of them in the room. So if you want to hit me, go ahead. But would you share your age?

Joan Mannis: [00:07:22] I’m about well, and I’ll tell you this, I’m going to make you guess in another year. Not this year, but next year I will have a birthday with a big zero in it.

Speaker5: [00:07:32] Mhm.

Joan Mannis: [00:07:32] Okay. So anybody care to guess? I don’t mind telling you. I’d rather look great for my age. 70, 20.

Brian Pruett: [00:07:38] No, 20.

Sharon Cline: [00:07:40] You’re so smart. He’s my friend.

Joan Mannis: [00:07:42] Not 70. 80.

Sharon Cline: [00:07:43] Yes, 80. No way.

Brian Pruett: [00:07:44] All right.

Joan Mannis: [00:07:45] So next year.

Brian Pruett: [00:07:46] The reason I asked her to do that and share that is because, I mean, like you said, she’ll be 80 next year, but she started her own business, right? Oh, yeah. And it’s never too old.

Joan Mannis: [00:07:55] You never give up your dreams. Always follow your dreams and your heart. And I think you do have divine guidance. And if you feel like God is leading you to something, you better do it because he’s going to get you there one way or the other.

Tami Caspersen: [00:08:07] I want to be like you when I grow up.

Joan Mannis: [00:08:09] Yeah, he’ll get you there today or he’ll get you there whenever. But he’s going to get you there because we all have a plan for our lives. Yes. And we need to reach that potential and listen to our, you know, to the spirit that’s leading us.

Tami Caspersen: [00:08:22] Amen, sister.

Brian Pruett: [00:08:22] So obviously, it’s in the name old Cartersville tours. But let’s talk about that a little bit. So share what you guys do on a daily basis and what people can learn.

Joan Mannis: [00:08:30] Well, I have a regular what I call a public tour, and now we’re doing it on Fridays 11 and one on Fridays. We go from the easternmost point is the Tillis Mineral Museum all the way through the historic district. If you know anything about Cartersville and then out on the west side, we go to the Etowah Indian Mounds. It is an hour overview. I talk about all these places. We don’t stop and let people off. I have I have a touring bus now one and I’m adding to my fleet, hopefully another one by the end of the year. I want to have five in the fleet totally, because I’m starting to do some personal things. Some like charters now with weddings and just took a party, you know, Jay Frazier and his down to Atlanta for dinner and of course, proms, wedding receptions and all that. So we are available for Charter as well as a public tour. I really came up to do the historic tours and we don’t have nearly as many visitors, of course, in Cartersville as we do in Savannah. However, everybody that I’ve taken on the tour that’s from Cartersville, the Chamber, the Visitors Bureau, they all say they learned something that they didn’t know because I really do a lot of research and study and try to give a rich tour. And I want people to think that they’ve got their money’s worth and that they know something about Cartersville that they didn’t didn’t know. There’s so much history there. Mining history is incredible. Their Civil War history, black history. I mean, the old homes, some of them survived the Civil War. It’s just a tremendous amount of history there. I want to get into doing more specific tours. I’ve talked with David Archer, who’s a historian in town, and he agreed to be a tour on on the Bus, what he does. And then I’ve been trying to get to Judge Benham. I know he’s not in great health, but he would do a wonderful Black history tour. And so I wanted to start doing more specific tours like that and get people in.

Brian Pruett: [00:10:22] So share something that somebody may not know about.

Joan Mannis: [00:10:25] Cartersville Well, of course, everybody can look up when it was founded in 1850 and it was the people, the Indian Mounds people think they associate with the Cherokee and it was the Cherokee Nation last. But the Cherokee didn’t build the mounds. The mounds date back to 1000 to 1500 ad. And one of the interesting things I found out about the Cherokee tribe, every every North American Indian tribe has the same blood type no matter what, no matter if it’s Apache, if it’s Cherokee. Everyone has the same blood type. Every one of them has O blood type and the A and the B and the AB didn’t come in until the Europeans started coming in. But all the all all of them have the same blood type. There was originally a thousands now there’s 380,000 Cherokee surviving. It’s the largest surviving tribe. Also, there was a love story going on there. William Sherman. General Sherman was the head of the union troops. They had a bloody battle in Chattanooga, marched right down through Bartow County and rested in Kingston, a little town between Cartersville and Rome. He received his orders there to burn his way to the sea. They burned down. Most of Bartow County, went from Bartow County, burned Macon headed to Savannah. Savannah people knew that burned Atlanta, as you know, to the ground, and they didn’t want their city burned because there was all these wonderful old homes there. So they went outside of town and they gave him the city.

Joan Mannis: [00:11:54] That’s why Savannah’s historic. And they didn’t burn Charleston and because they heard he was coming. Let’s see if there’s anything else interesting. Well, you know, Cartersville is very haunted. And I’m working with the Pumphouse players now to put a haunted ghost tour together for October. We’re going to be doing them in October. The depot there is one of the most haunted places. One of the ladies that worked there for years said they had this huge desk in there and somebody had bought it prior to her. She said it must have weighed 500 pounds. There was no way even 2 or 3 men could have moved it. And she said occasionally they would go in and that desk would be moved. Nobody was in there. And then she actually saw, I guess you’d say, a ghost or an image. One day it was a young man. She said he was dressed like an Amish person. And he says, Can we go in there? And she said, yes. Well, she got ready to lock up and she looked around and she couldn’t find him anywhere. And she said she walked outside and it was already like 6:00 in the evening and the sun had gone down on the other side of the depot. And she said when she walked out the door, this enormous light just hit her right in the face and she never saw the guy again. So there’s a lot of ghost stories in Cartersville.

Brian Pruett: [00:13:04] Oh, hopefully Casper is on one of those stories. That’s right. So Sharon might be interested in this. You talk about what you’re doing with the wine tours.

Joan Mannis: [00:13:12] Yeah, I’m doing wine tours now. Three wineries.

Sharon Cline: [00:13:15] Yeah, I do like wine, but I didn’t know I was known for that. All right, go ahead.

Joan Mannis: [00:13:20] August 19th. It’s all sold out already. I have one on August 26th, and I’m billing that one as the as the bad mom’s wine tour.

Brian Pruett: [00:13:28] There you go, Sharon.

Sharon Cline: [00:13:29] All right, perfect. You did that just for me. Okay.

Joan Mannis: [00:13:32] Mothers have been in, you know, all summer, kind of closed up with their children. So we’re doing a bad moms wine tour. We do the big door in Canton and then up to ball ground to Feather’s edge, and then over to Jasper to Sharps Mountain Vineyard and it’s going to be such fun. I have souvenir mugs and we’re going to wear tiaras and bows around our neck and play games on the bus. And so that’s the next one that’s available is the 26th. But I’ll have at least two a month, and that’s beginning to really take off. Now. People are into that and expect.

Brian Pruett: [00:14:03] A lot of pictures.

Joan Mannis: [00:14:04] From that one. Oh, yeah. Before we do the three. Okay.

Tami Caspersen: [00:14:07] What stays on the bus? Stays on the bus?

Brian Pruett: [00:14:10] Yes.

Joan Mannis: [00:14:11] I’m not sure we’ll do photographs after we’ve done all three.

Brian Pruett: [00:14:13] So you’ve started networking specifically with the Cardinal Business Club.

Joan Mannis: [00:14:17] Love that club.

Brian Pruett: [00:14:17] Great. So share a little bit. I mean, like you said, you’ve only two months into this, but share a little bit about what positive has happened to you in the two months of the networking.

Joan Mannis: [00:14:26] Well, you get to know the other other gamblers and risk takers in the area because, you know, many of them have started their own business. And, you know, when you start your own business, you step out on faith. I mean, we all do. When you start a business, you don’t know what’s going to happen. You have you have faith that it’s going to take off. But you really have to you have to take a chance. You know, you just you don’t you don’t have any guarantees. And I tell people, you know, sometimes people are working for companies and they think, man, I’d like to do this on my own or I have an idea for something. I mean, do it, you know, just going. And my son was in the well, he was he was one of these kids that I paid for tuition and he wouldn’t go to college. Well, he’d go part time, you know. And so he wasn’t real serious about it. I paid enough tuition for him to be a Philadelphia lawyer now, but he’s not. So he was getting DUIs and he was just going nowhere with his life. And so I knew I had to take a hard line with him. And I told him, I said, when this semester is over, your clothes will be out on the sidewalk and everything you own will be, Mom, what am I supposed to do? I said, You know, I don’t care because I’ve tried everything. I’m not going to see you at 25 years old, 26 years old, and you’re going to look back and say, why didn’t you make me do something? I said, I’m making you do it now. And so he he had already lost his life. So he called a friend and he didn’t have any place to go.

Joan Mannis: [00:15:48] And he went to the recruiting offices. And one of my cousins was a marine and he said, Oh, you want to go in? The Marines. They’re the best. Well, he ended up joining the Marines and he was actually in Desert Storm. He joined the Marines and it made a man out of him. I’m telling you, I’m all for draft because a lot of these kids get out of high school. They don’t know what they want to do. And it made a man out of him. He got out. He went to school. He was a news cameraman for Channel two in Atlanta for a while. And then he and then he said, you know what, Mom? I don’t want to work for somebody else the rest of my life. I want to do something. Well, what do you want to do? Well, he is a father’s side of the family, Had some old scrubby land out in Mississippi. Wasn’t worth anything in the middle of nowhere. But you know what? It had a wonderful natural spring on it. He did his studies. He did his work for about two years. He started a water bottling company. He kept that spring. He got his got his bar code. He went to the state. He got it approved. They had the osmosis machine, he had the bottling equipment. And he worked out there for really a couple of years to get it started and really built up his distributorship. And after that, they decided they wanted to start a family. He married during that time and they wanted to come back to the Atlanta area. She worked for Equifax, so they had to come back to the Atlanta area. He ended up selling it and he retired at 38.

Brian Pruett: [00:17:11] Wow.

Joan Mannis: [00:17:12] Because he you know, he really stepped out and realized his dream. And so that’s you know, we’ve started four companies together. So I just tell people, follow your dreams. They say if you follow what you love and you follow your dreams, the money will come. Don’t follow the money, you know, because you might be miserable. We’ve all known people that went in to be a doctor or I knew people that went to be a teacher. First day they got in the classroom. They hated it. So, you know, follow your dreams. If you don’t love it, don’t do it.

Brian Pruett: [00:17:41] Well, I don’t have to ask my next question, which was give an advice for somebody who wants to start a business because you just did it. Absolutely. All right. So why other than the fact that you’re from Cartersville, Bartow County originally and you and you like doing this kind of stuff, why is it important for you to be part of the community?

Joan Mannis: [00:17:54] Well, I think because we if you’re part of the community, like you see people, even the business club, and then when they get up and tell what they do, you can more align with them and, you know, be a supporter of what they’re trying to do. I mean, I always want to support the nonprofits, the people who work with children and families and babies. You always want to support that. And I said when I got into that, 10% of my profits will always go toward charity. And I’m not making much money yet because I just started. But 10% of my profits will always go toward charities.

Brian Pruett: [00:18:28] Well, you’ve been supporting the last couple of months for the trivia, so I appreciate you coming out and doing that. Well, thank you. And you like having fun, obviously. Oh, yeah. So you get good food and have fun. We’ll get Sharon out to serve you one of these nights.

Sharon Cline: [00:18:38] Yeah, well, I mean, you actually have a lot of, like, really hard questions that you ask in the trivia, so I’m a little nervous about that. That’s why you.

Brian Pruett: [00:18:47] Play with the team.

Sharon Cline: [00:18:48] Oh, listen.

Joan Mannis: [00:18:49] To the music.

Brian Pruett: [00:18:49] She. She just. She caught on.

Joan Mannis: [00:18:51] He gives you he gives you clues when he’s playing a song. That’s the only way we got anything.

Brian Pruett: [00:18:56] There you go. There you go. She just gave away my secret. There you go.

Sharon Cline: [00:18:59] Oh, gosh. Okay. Well, thank you. I love you so much. Yes.

Brian Pruett: [00:19:03] All right, Joan, thanks for sharing a little bit of your story. We’re going to move over now to Tami Caspersen. I said it right.

Tami Caspersen: [00:19:08] Right.

Brian Pruett: [00:19:09] You did awesome. There you go. Twice in one day. Great job. So I think financial, correct?

Tami Caspersen: [00:19:15] Yes, sir.

Brian Pruett: [00:19:15] So we’ll get to that in just a second. But you to me are right now a story of perseverance because you currently are battling cancer. Correct. So if you don’t mind, just share a little bit of your story.

Tami Caspersen: [00:19:26] Sure. Not something that I ever thought I would see myself walking through. My mom went through breast cancer. My younger sister went through breast cancer. So my breast specialist said to me, Tammy, it skipped over you. Well, obviously, she was gravely wrong. So 20, 20, we all know what happened in 2020, the pandemic. And it was March of 2020. And I was like, hmm, something doesn’t feel quite right. I couldn’t get in to see my primary care physician, couldn’t get a mammogram, couldn’t see anybody, couldn’t see my oncologist, couldn’t see my breast specialist. So I honest to goodness believe God gave me a back ache. So I was like, oh, my gosh, what is this? I’ve got to get to urgent care, or Urgent care was open by appointment. So I went in March of 2020, and while I was, I was like, Oh, my back is hurting. I think it could be this. I think it could be that. And she’s like, Oh, you know, she checked me all out. And I said, Well, why I’m here. Can you check something else? And she said, Sure. And she was like, Oh, yes, ma’am, I’m getting you a mammogram emergency, an emergency mammogram. So we went and did that and my doctor called me in. I had four girlfriends out in the hallway and he said, And I love my doctor. He’s a wonderful man. My primary care physician, Dr.

Tami Caspersen: [00:20:43] El Dr. El Toro. And give you a shout out. He literally held my hand and cried and said, it’s stage four breast cancer and we need to start treatment ASAP. So I was like, okay. I didn’t shed a tear. My girlfriends took me out for a Mexican and a margarita said, Do you need a margarita? I was like, I don’t know how long it’s been since I’ve had a margarita, but I’ll have one. So he suggested one of the best oncologists in Cherokee County, which will remain nameless. I went there. My sister came down from North Carolina and it was the first chemo treatment. It was eight hours. They were in an open bull room. So you could see everybody and everybody’s business. There was a chair next to me that was very comfortable, but they made my sister sit on a metal chair for eight hours. Then I chatted with my oncologist and I was like, So, you know, just moving forward. I mean, I said from the beginning, Jesus, this is going to be you and me and whoever else decides to join this journey. And I had peace from the very, very beginning. And so I went to meet with my oncologist after the first treatment. And I said, you know, looking forward. And she literally put her hand in my face and said, we’re not there yet. And I said, you’re fired.

Brian Pruett: [00:21:59] Wow.

Tami Caspersen: [00:22:00] So just so happened that this is such a crazy story. My best friend I have two best friends that don’t know each other, but they know one person that has a really good friend. And she had walked through breast cancer twice. They’re like, You’ve got to go meet. I call her my little angel. Her name is Heather. And so they said, You’ve got to meet Heather. She was preparing for family to come in for a funeral and dropped what she was doing to come meet with me. And she’s like, We got to get you to Cancer Treatment Centers of America in Newnan, Georgia. Now, since has become City of Hope. So we got to get you down there literally the next day. Now, you got to remember, this is Covid. I didn’t get a tour of the facility. She told me where to go, who to see how to register for what hotel to stay in. And I have not looked back. So my first chemo treatment was two days before my birthday in May, May of 2020 at the other location that I fired. And then my second one was three weeks later down in Newnan in June. So I can’t say enough about City of Hope, Formerly Cancer Treatment Centers of America. Everything is under one umbrella. Your oncologist. Radiologist is there. Your radiologist is there. Your oncologist is there. Your pastoral care, your natural path, your nutritionist, your chiropractor. Everything is under one roof. So while I’m there, I get in about 36, 3600 steps just in one day going to doctor’s appointments. So of course, I lost all my hair.

Tami Caspersen: [00:23:30] The hair you see on my head today is my real hair, which I’m very thankful to have hair and eyelashes. So I go down every three weeks. I go down on Sunday night. I have a scholarship so I can stay at a lovely hotel for $22.50. I just go down on Sunday night so I can relax, get a good night’s sleep, have a great dinner. I have amazing girlfriends that go with me. We spend the night and then the next day starts with having your port access, having your blood taken, and then off to all your appointments and your infusion. So I. I know that. Perseverance. Positive attitude. My doctors, not only the medication, the nutritional supplements, and overall, my Lord and savior is the reason why I’m still standing and can do what I do. Because most people with my diagnosis goes on long term disability and I work full time serving our community through the, I think, financial credit union. So I am very thankful for my company who supports me. I’m very thankful for my friends. And I will tell you that if anyone’s walking that journey. It’s not going to be your closest friends that are going to stick by your side. Because they can’t. They they will love you. It will be people who come out of the woodwork that will stick by your side and be there for you. And that was the best advice someone gave me. And I will continue because they love you so much. And so don’t ever be.

Tami Caspersen: [00:25:04] Offended if your best, best, best friends don’t show up because they’re there just in the background. And I have one young lady that’s become my dearest friend. I did not think I would cry, Brian.

Brian Pruett: [00:25:22] All right. This is what the show does. I love this. I mean, go ahead.

Tami Caspersen: [00:25:26] And I cannot tell you how many times that sweet girl has taken me to CTCA in three years and she expects nothing in return. So a shout out for killing. I love you, sweet girl. And matter of fact, we leave Sunday night treatments Monday and I’ll.

Tami Caspersen: [00:25:47] Go to work on Tuesday.

Tami Caspersen: [00:25:49] So God is good. Everything in my life is.

Tami Caspersen: [00:25:53] Stable.

Tami Caspersen: [00:25:54] And.

Tami Caspersen: [00:25:55] And.

Tami Caspersen: [00:25:55] As you well know on this journey.

Tami Caspersen: [00:25:57] Stable is a win. We all.

Tami Caspersen: [00:26:00] Want no evidence.

Tami Caspersen: [00:26:00] Of disease, but we will take stable. As long as you’re stable, you’re golden.

Brian Pruett: [00:26:06] See, that’s why I like this show. Actually, I love this show.

Sharon Cline: [00:26:09] Oh, you love it? Yeah. I can see why. Brian, you.

Tami Caspersen: [00:26:12] Don’t have any Kleenexes.

Sharon Cline: [00:26:13] In this room. I’ll be right back. Hang on. All right.

Brian Pruett: [00:26:15] So we’ll blame Stone for that. He’s not here.

Tami Caspersen: [00:26:18] It’s all good.

Brian Pruett: [00:26:18] It’s all good. So I also like the fact you didn’t. Have you read my mind? Because I was going to ask you to give some advice to somebody might be listening going through and you already did it. So both of y’all are mind readers. You have to read my mind too, by the way. So let’s just talk a little bit more about the persevering part, because a lot of people, I think, get to the point that you are at and just give up.

Tami Caspersen: [00:26:43] Oh, you can’t. And here’s the thing. I have too much work to do. I go to work. The credit union gives me my paycheck, but I go to work every day for the Lord. Every day he gives me the opportunity to pray for somebody every three weeks that I go to Cancer Treatment Centers of America. Now, City of Hope, God points out somebody specifically for me to pray for. Because, Brian, the sad part is when someone is handed a diagnosis, as you mentioned earlier, that. It is not a death sentence. Stage four is no longer a death sentence. I have people in my circle that have had stage four breast cancer 15 years, 20 years, 25 years. It’s all about your attitude. It’s all about doing what your doctors say. And it’s also researching for your own working with your nutritional supplement, your natural path, but also researching some holistic modalities. And I do a lot of holistic things. Unfortunately, those cost a lot of money and those come out of your pocket. But you have to stay focused, know your purpose, know what drives you. And not only does the, I think financial credit union drive me because of all the community events that we’re able to do, and a lot of them are my passion. But my son is 22 years old and he serves in the US Army.

Tami Caspersen: [00:28:05] He’s stationed over at Fort Campbell, Kentucky with the 1/60 Airborne Special Forces. He’s a drone pilot and doing amazing. I have a 20 year old daughter who is down at Statesboro at Georgia Southern studying kinesiology. She was studying nursing, switched to kinesiology. It was like mom, you know, being in some of the holistic situations, she could see herself doing some of those working in like a holistic facility. So you just don’t know the trajectory of your own journey and how that can affect affect your children’s journey, your family’s journey, your friend’s journey, people you come in contact with. When I’m sitting down talking to somebody about their finances, it gets very intimate because you might find out that, you know, they’ve had a very sick child or a sick wife or a sick husband or there’s been a divorce or a death. And you have to get down to the nitty gritty of of why how have you gotten into this financial debacle? And all the stories aren’t just because they like to shop. So it gets very intimate. And I’m kind of an open book. So when they’re telling me their story, I’m able to tell my story and makes them feel a little bit more comfortable on sharing with me so we can get to the root of what they need.

Tami Caspersen: [00:29:18] And that’s how we look at it. I think Financial Credit Union, we can talk about car loans and home equity lines of credit and our great rates on our checking account. And But what do you need? How can I help you if I just throw a plethora of products at you? You’re probably going to go somewhere else. But if I take the time to sit down with you and listen to your story, I’m going to know how we can help you, whether whether I’m at CTCA or at the credit union. Sometimes people will break down and cry over their story. And, you know, I’ll say I’m going to pray for you. And I think people are so used to hearing people say, I’m going to pray for you, that means you’re going to do it later. And I reach over and I’ll go, I’m going to pray for you right now. And they go, Oh, right now, here where we are, in the cafeteria, in my office, if that’s okay. Because you know what? We all are human beings. I can make a note. Two days later, I’m going, Oh, shoot, I should have prayed for Brian. I should have done it right then and there. So I go to work every day for the Lord.

Brian Pruett: [00:30:18] Well, there’s two things that I want to touch on that you shared we’ll get to, I think, here in a minute. But what you just said about praying, we were at a networking group in Emerson last week and Becky Hart, who’ll be on the show not too long, but her husband was there and somebody had asked for prayer and he stopped the networking group and said, look, when somebody asks for prayer, you do it. Now, I like how you mentioned that because. Exactly. It’s it’s I mean, I’m guilty of this saying, you know, I’m going to pray for you and then it’s later. Yes. And sometimes you forget you have all, well, intentions, too. But I like that. The other thing I like what you shared about is how your closest friends, they don’t know what to say. They don’t want to do. And you got people coming out of the woodwork. Yes. I networked with a young lady who was going through a very hard time at the moment, and she’s got a passion just like everybody that’s sitting in this room about helping others. And, you know, it’s to me it’s not much. But for her it was much. And I was just texting her, seeing how she was doing. I was trying to connect with people because she’s looking for a new job and all this other kind of stuff. And it’s just amazing to see. I mean, you see it every week at CBC. It is a community. It’s not just networking. And I love the fact that you can you know, it all becomes, as Bob Brooks likes to say, the family, you know, friends and family. And anyway, I just I just love those two things you just shared because you don’t think about those things. You wanted to add something.

Joan Mannis: [00:31:39] I did want to add something we have overcome. You’ve heard our stories. We are not superhuman. People know and people who might be listening to us going through something, they’re like, Well, yeah, but you know, they’ve got something I don’t have. You don’t know what you have until your back is up against the wall. You don’t know how strong you can be. And trust me, I’ve had pity parties. I mean, you know, when you first hear diagnosis, you’re not like, Well, I can overcome this. You’re like, Why me? I mean, you do question it. So having a pity party is okay. Just don’t invite too many people. That’s right. And don’t have too long a party. But. It is true. I mean, it is something that shakes you to your core. And so people that might be feeling that right now, you can’t overcome it. You can just dig down deeper than you ever thought. But you’ve got to have faith. You got to have you got to know there’s a God and that he’s taking care of you and that sometimes the only way you can get through.

Tami Caspersen: [00:32:30] And.

Tami Caspersen: [00:32:30] When and when your friends and when your friends and family reach out to you, you know, they the one thing they might be able to do is make you a meal. Even if you don’t like what they’re making, even if you don’t think you need to be humble yourself. It’s pride. Humble yourself and say thank you, Brian, for bringing that meal. That might be the only thing they can do. Maybe they can go grocery shopping for you. Maybe your friends in the beginning can take you to every single appointment because it’s not real yet. But when you sit down in that chair and your ports accessed and you start getting infused with the medicine, that’s when it becomes really real. You know, when you walk through the halls of City of Hope and it’s just a patient and a caregiver, that becomes very real. So it takes a special person to be able to go with you and walk into that situation. Because I’m going to be honest, I was talking to my naturopath the other day and the nutritional supplements are imperative. And I said to him, I said, Dr. Coleman, I could walk down the halls of City of Hope and I can point out people that haven’t met with you yet because you think you can. I said, I know I can because if they’ve met with you and they believe they can be, well, they would look more like me. But what happens is there are some people that don’t want to be well, and you know why? Because you get lots of attention and you get petted. And how are you? How are you feeling? Okay, You know what? I like attention. I don’t want that kind of attention. I want to be the one on the other side where I can walk and give you hope. Give you hope and encourage you and say if you want to be well. You can be well, however long well looks like on your journey. Because every journey is different.

Brian Pruett: [00:34:14] Man, this is good stuff. Are you taking notes? Yeah, I.

Sharon Cline: [00:34:17] Got my phone out. Typing. Typing here and there.

Brian Pruett: [00:34:19] Yeah. Talk about the humbling part. I have a good, very good friend, and he’s former business partner, but still a very good friend who lost his mother this past Friday. And every time he and I go out to lunch, he’s always paying. And so I returned the favor yesterday and he was about ready to pay. And I was like, No, I told you, I’m taking you to lunch. And it’s just something that I could do because we were able to talk and he was able to to unload some things that he hasn’t been able to unload since his mom died. So, yes, again, some great advice. So. All right. Let’s talk about some I think.

Tami Caspersen: [00:34:48] Okay. Let’s talk about the, I think, financial credit union. Well, funny thing, I’ve been with the credit union for 18 years. Out of the 54 years they’ve been in business. So we started out as the IBM credit union, as an IBM International Business Machines. So we started out in Boca Raton, Florida, just for the IBMers. And then we decided to start branching out into other technical companies. And then we brought in other companies and city and government principalities. And basically we go out into the community and offer credit union membership benefits in your fringe benefit package so those employees can have that. Then we branched off from that aspect to going into the community. So 18 months before 2020 hit, we had decided it was time to rebrand. We were spending more time talking about what who IBM is or, you know, because they’re still around and people don’t even realize that IBM is still around and who they were and how we were affiliated. And we’re like, Oh my gosh, we’re spending so much time out in the community telling them who IBM is. So it became apparent that it was time to rebrand. So we pulled our members and said, you know, what do you think our name should be? And so it came back, I think, and we were like, Why? I think. And they said, Because you make us think about our finances.

Tami Caspersen: [00:36:04] Well, we started diving into the name I think, and realized that IBM has a think campaign for their sales team to think outside the box for their customers. So it’s just kind of like a little nod back to them as well. So we became the, I think, financial credit union. We were going to do this big kickoff and promotion march of 2020. So we’re still catching up with getting our name out there, that we are still the same credit union, we still have the same core values. We’re still here about the community. We’re still here about helping people. So 18 years ago I was working for a company climbing the corporate ladder. My children were two and five, as I mentioned now 20 and 22. And I was traveling five states. I had 20 account managers underneath me, and I was climbing that corporate ladder to the next position. And a girl in my Bible study was like, Just come interview with my credit union. And I was like, What is a credit union? I didn’t even know what a credit union was. And I was like, She kept bugging me. I was like, Fine, I’ll interview with your credit union. So I went to go to the interview and I was like, okay, this was interesting. They called me back, said, Come in, take one of those personality tests, you know, And and so I went in and took one of the personality tests.

Tami Caspersen: [00:37:17] Can I tell you, I have test anxiety. I hate tests, too. I can do my homework, but I get nervous about tests. So there was a couple silly questions on there. And I went to the branch manager and I handed her my paperwork because I took every single minute I could have because it was timed. And they ask you these silly questions. And I looked at her and I said, Beth, if this has anything to do with me being hired, it was nice to meet you. I doubt that you’ll be asking me back. Next thing i knew, I was getting a call from h.R. The VP wanted to interview me over the phone and then they were sending someone from HR to interview me in person, and he actually brought the paperwork. So I’m sitting down thinking I’m having another interview. He’s like, oh, no, no, you’re hired. We brought the paperwork. I had not even told my past my employer yet that I was even looking, let alone leaving. So here we are 18 years later. I’ve seen lots of changes with the, I think, financial credit union, which is all, all all good stuff. And since we have gone community, I am now the community. The manager of Community Development, I guess you could say. So we go out into the community and there’s so many things that I want to let you know that we’re doing, and it’s a plethora of information.

Tami Caspersen: [00:38:28] So our brain says, Brian, go all the way up to Pickens County and Jasper. If you come down through Jasper, you’re going to go over to Roswell, Alpharetta, and then come on into Marietta, Georgia. And then, oh, I skipped over Windy Hill and Powers Ferry and then come on into Kennesaw. So we’ve got three branches in Cobb County, and then you’re going to go on down to the south side of town over by a South Lake mall in Morrow, Georgia, on Mount Zion Road, and then downtown in the hub of Atlanta in the Sam Nunn Federal Building. We have a branch inside the Sam Nunn building to take care of the federal employees and then all the way down to the South Lake Mall. So we have a big footprint. And then we’re also serving all. Communities within. Where we are, where our brains are located, and then we’re branching out to because of you, you know, we’re now branching out into Cartersville and up in Jasper are branching up into Gilmer County. So things are moving quickly. Just to give you a couple little things that are just near and dear to my heart, I have a precious friend, Tracy Shymansky, at church, and she started Children Without Beds.

Tami Caspersen: [00:39:38] And we take basically Sunday school to underprivileged children on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. And it’s Sunday School on steroids. Lots of great music. They get snacks. They have they win door prizes. And if their families show up, they get a food box. And you would be amazed. You might have an eight year old little girl or a six year old little girl bringing a two and three year old because she’s taking care of her siblings. So Tracy’s story is she was at I’m going to summarize for her. I’m probably not going to do as good a job as she did, but she was delivering furniture to one of the sides of a family that had to move in because I think their house had burned down. And two of the little girls from the street outreach program came up to her and said, Oh, Miss Tracy, do you have beds for us? And she was like, Well, no, honey, these are beds for the family that they they lost everything. And they said, We don’t have beds. And Tracy as an adult was like, what do you what do you mean you don’t have beds? No, no, no. Come, come, come, come. See our house, our apartment. We don’t have beds. And Tracy walked in and saw that the whole entire family was sleeping on the floor. And from that day, children without beds was created.

Brian Pruett: [00:40:47] So I need to bring her on the show.

Tami Caspersen: [00:40:49] You need to bring Tracy on the show. You would love her. And so from there, up in Jasper fell in love with one of the coordinators at Highland Rivers Men’s Recovery. There’s about 20 men. They have, I think, 22 beds. And they take men in that are needing to go through a recovery program and found out that they were sleeping on teeny, tiny little mattresses. And I was just talking to the the group and they said, you know, really, you know, once the men phase up, they can go back and start working and find a job. But but then they come back to the facility. And so I went in and I was like, well, what’s one of your wish lists? And she said, Oh, my gosh, we need new mattresses so bad. And I was like, okay. I made a mental note, went in and did a budgeting seminar because we’re all about education, teaching people about budgeting. We all think we know about budgeting, and we teach them how understanding what their credit score really means and teaching them how to not be a victim of identity theft and fraud. And so I asked the guys, I said, what’s what’s what’s your what are your needs here, guys? And they all got really quiet. And I said, Seriously, what what is your dream list? And so a couple of them raised their hand and one guy was like, Guys, she’s asking us, what’s our wish list? I said, We need new mattresses.

Tami Caspersen: [00:41:59] Is that too much to ask? I said, No, this is you’re dreaming. Another guy said, You know, we don’t have access to our phones or computers or TV, and the only guitar that we have is on its last leg. And we have a couple guys that can play the guitar. Our grill has died. And the one guy, he was the sweetest man ever, and he turned around and looked at me and he said, Miss Tammy, we need holy Bibles. And he just remembered sitting in his grandma’s house. He just remembered her Bible said, Holy Bible. And I thought that was the sweetest thing. And I said, okay. Reached out to Tracy. We got those men, 20 brand new mattresses. I had a church donate holy Bibles to them, and the church came around, bought them not a used guitar, bought them a brand new guitar. And the Home Depot up in Jasper donated a grill for them. So you know it’s it’s the I think financial credit union is me listening to the stories and then me gathering the community to come around and support these people. Some of the people in the community didn’t even know that Highland Rivers men’s facility was there. That led me to the women’s facility, which is a disclosed place in Marietta. And these women can bring up to three children with them when they’re going through drug and alcohol rehab.

Tami Caspersen: [00:43:19] And the same thing when they phase up. I go in and talk to them about budgeting and getting a credit card or getting a checking account and explaining to them how to work that credit card and not have the credit card work them and how to use a checking account smartly and found out that these ladies and their children need beds. So you’re talking about twin beds. You’re talking about mattresses for bunk beds. You’re talking about little beds for cribs. And with Tracy’s help, with children without beds, we provided 80 beds for that facility and we delivered them and set them up in one day. That took a lot of work. So passionate about children not sleeping on the floor, obviously. And I’m passionate about men and women that are in recovery that that need a good night’s sleep. And the nurse up at the men’s facility said that night the men were sleeping so well. The next morning she went in and had to wake them up. And one guy, she had all of the 20 men write us these wonderful letters. And the one man said he had just gotten out of jail. And he said, Man, I came to the rehab center and I laid my head down. And he was I woke up in the middle of the night thinking I was having a nightmare.

Tami Caspersen: [00:44:29] The bed reminded him of jail. Wow. He goes, And then the next day you all showed up with a new beds. So Children without Beds is doing a lot of good work with us. We also support Reinhardt University. They have a two runs a year. One of the strolls is for children in Pickens County, I should say teenagers in Pickens County that need a scholarship. That’s what that money goes for. The other run that’s in Canton goes for Cherokee County students that are wanting to go to Reinhardt University so that the Rotary in Jasper does a plethora of wonderful, wonderful things. We work with also Pickens County Family Connections is called Walk a Mile in their Shoes. And this is children that really can’t even afford new shoes to go to school. And so we have shoes donated. The money that we raise goes to help pay for shoes for the children. We also have a it’s funny, we have a golf tournament in Jasper, which is called the Snowball Golf tournament. It’s put on by the chamber and that supports the children in leadership in the high school. And we call it the snowball because in March you can have snow in Jasper and it has snowed in Jasper before. And then, of course, in Marietta. We work with or I should say Cobb County, we work with the Powell Club and we do their five K every year and we support the Powell Club on other initiatives as well.

Tami Caspersen: [00:45:55] The first year we did the Powell Club, it helped pay for a boxing ring for these young men and women that were interested in boxing. So these are kids that are underprivileged that might not be able to afford summer camp or might not be able to afford to go to a boxing program or a tennis program. The Powell Club, which stands for the Police Athletic League, helps these kids get that summer experience and find out what their passion is. So we’re we’re very passionate about helping with the Powell Club. And in Marietta, real close to our branch on Roswell Road, we have the most precious little church. It’s called Providence Baptist Church. And, you know, this congregation is tiny. And I’m going to say the average age. Sister Mason, forgive me if I say this wrong. And pastor, But I’m going to say the average age is 68 ish. Okay, We’ll say 65. And 20% of the 65 year olds are doing the work. They feed the homeless, they clothe the homeless. They have a laundry facility. They have a shower facility. And this is all free. So we partner with them in clothing and feeding the homeless. We partner in their back to school. Bash. But to see this teeny, tiny little congregation doing such good work in the city of Marietta and serving the homeless, and they go out and they feed the homeless, I think it’s about once a month.

Tami Caspersen: [00:47:25] And they also have a food pantry that is unbelievably amazing to me that these people take their time. To take care of the less fortunate. And some of the stories they will tell you is just amazing. Then when we go over to. And at the credit union, we have our own foundation. So our foundation through the credit union, where our members can contribute money to the foundation. I can contribute as an employee to the foundation. If you’re just looking for a place to give money. You can give to our foundation. And what our foundation does is they do we call it Jingle Bell at the branches and we go around to the Headstart schools that are within a certain mile radius of our branches. And those Headstart schools that we contact are the ones that are those children are receiving free headstart because those children are in need and we provide a little holiday party with them. Some of the schools are allowed to have Santa. Some of them are not allowed to have Santa come. They get their picture taken. They get a little party and they Brian, they get three wrapped gifts to open during their holiday, whatever holiday is that they celebrate. And these are three wrapped gifts, not from the dollar store.

Tami Caspersen: [00:48:44] These are three wrapped gifts that our members have donated. And then I have a team that we go out and we personally do the shopping. And this is Walmart, Target, Kohl’s. They’re getting really nice gifts at the holidays. And then when school hits, we do the same thing for those Headstart children. We have our own school ready days and we go into those Headstart schools and they get an adorable backpack stuffed full of school supplies that children get to come in and have their own shopping experience. So they pick out their own backpack. They pick out their own pencil pouch. They go over, they get a $35 gift card, visa gift card to go spend however they might need. We provide snacks for them. Usually we get somebody to donate toothbrushes and toothpaste. Sometimes we get a local salon. They’ll do free haircuts for the kids. So our foundation in itself does a lot for the children in our area as well. A couple other little things that I wanted to mention that. We do. And I know my credit union is like, okay, what’s Tammy up to now? What is she getting involved in now and why are we doing this in the greater, greater Fulton greater North Fulton area? I guess I should say is we have partnered with a organization and they have a couple different runs throughout the year and they have the alien run running of the leprechauns and running of the turkeys, and that supports the friends of the Roswell Police and it supports getting people off the street for human trafficking.

Tami Caspersen: [00:50:15] That’s huge for us. And it’s interesting because every one of our branches has a passion and we take that passion from the branch manager to the people in the room. Like whatever our stories are, listening to our employees stories and find out what are they already doing in the community and we can partner with them because we have the funds to do that. And then, like you said, live your passion. If you’re living out your passion, you’re never going to work a day in your life. So you can go to the credit union and go to work. But then you know that your credit union, I think financial credit union’s going to support you in whatever your passion is, whether it’s helping people get out of sex trafficking, giving back to the police department to do what they can do, providing beds for men and women in drug and alcohol rehab. That is huge for us. So we try to partner with other organizations like the Rotary, like Acworth Business Association, Kennesaw Business Association, Kiwanis, the Marietta Business Association, all of the chambers that we’re involved in, we try to partner with them to see what are they already doing because we don’t want to have to reinvent the wheel.

Brian Pruett: [00:51:21] And now B’s Charitable Pursuits and resources.

Tami Caspersen: [00:51:24] Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. And we appreciate you as well. So we also do some things with must ministries. We’ve done some fun things with them. And the extension in Marietta, we’re going to start doing more things with them and the extension we’re just getting ready to I’ve reached out to them about a need for beds. They’ve had a flood, so we’re going to talk to them about beds. We’re working with Habitat for Humanity and providing a home. And these people are going to walk into a house and it’s going to be fully furnished and they have no idea. On the south side of town, we worked with another facility, another group, and it’s all women contractors and they pick a woman in need and it’s all women that go work on the house. I thought that was really cool.

Brian Pruett: [00:52:11] That’s awesome. Yeah, there’s a lot of people I want to get on the show, so you got to connect me with some folks. We can get them on the show.

Tami Caspersen: [00:52:16] I’ll help you. That’s what I like doing, connecting people, getting the word out about not only what we’re doing in the community, but what other people are doing in the community. And it just becomes your passion. And when you have a great passion, life is good. Yeah.

Brian Pruett: [00:52:29] So you came and was a part two weeks ago, almost a week and a half ago, the all in, all out ministries that Jordan was in. We’ll talk about him in just a second. Amazing. And Sharon came. And for those of you who don’t know, haven’t listened, all in all, ministries is one of those. He’s trying to get the facility to help men and recovery from addiction and everything. And I don’t think I’ve talked to you or Jordan since we did it, but we raised $10,300 for that organization.

Tami Caspersen: [00:52:54] Fantastic.

Brian Pruett: [00:52:55] Thank you for being a part of that. So absolutely. You know, you’re doing something right. We made him cry four times that night and then made him cry the day after when I called and told him the total. So, oh, my gosh.

Tami Caspersen: [00:53:04] You were talking about being intentional about praying in the Jonesboro area. We’re involved in the Jonesboro ministries and it’s called Prayer and Clean Event. And they go in certain areas of the neighborhoods and they clean up. They’re literally picking up trash. And when they get to the end of the street, they pray for that community and they go over another block and they clean and they pray and they see the people are like, who are these people coming into our community, cleaning up? You know, Like, it’s not like they couldn’t have walked out and cleaned themselves. But they have an organization that clean and prayer walk. I thought that was really awesome, really cool.

Brian Pruett: [00:53:39] So something else you guys do that I think you touched on. But if somebody signs up, they get you can give a portion back to a nonprofit, right?

Tami Caspersen: [00:53:44] Yes. So what we have right now is anyone that’s interested or looking for another financial institution, The I think financial credit union is a place, place, a great place to do your banking. I’m an employee. I do my banking there. My kids are both members of the credit union. You can join for free. We’ll make a $5 deposit for you so you don’t have to make a deposit. Our referral program is if you refer family members, friends, your kiddos, your coworkers, you’re going to get $50 per person every month. It’s been $50 for a while, but every so often our CEO will jump in there and maybe bump that up a smidgen so you can keep that money. Or if you’d like to donate that back to your favorite charity, we can make that happen. So my goal is as we go out and we continue to do more events that whether it’s a golf tournament event for a charity, like I said, we do lots of charitable golf tournaments with like Georgia Mountain Hospice, trying to get those golfers to see, yes, you’ve paid your money to golf, but by. Joining the credit union. We’re going to have something that can fit your need. You refer your child or your spouse or a coworker. You can opt to give that $50 back to that organization that day. So. We would present them a big check at the end of the day, whether it’s $500 or 5000. I’d like us to see. I’d like to see that really get kicked off and get that promoted and let them understand the significance of that. It’s free money. People are leaving on the table.

Brian Pruett: [00:55:06] Yeah, that’s awesome. Well, I’ve got three events coming up that we’re going to talk about you guys being involved in. So perfect. So real quick, for somebody who may not know, can you just share the difference between a credit union and a bank?

Tami Caspersen: [00:55:17] I sure can. Thank you for asking that question because you know what? That was in my notes to do that. So this is what I say. This is the 100 and 101 of credit union and banking. Banking is for profit. Credit unions are not for profit. So basically what that means to you is traditionally a bank is going to be higher on the interest rates on things. You’re going to invest in your money markets, your IRAs, your any your certificates of deposit. Our checking account right now earns 7% on one penny, up to $3,000. So whether you’ve got $500 in there or 3000, it’s going to earn 7%. Anything over 3000 is going to earn a smidgen. So if you have a significant other, get them to open an account. You can have six grand earning 7%. So traditionally higher interest rates on things, you’re going to invest in traditionally lower interest rates on things you’re going to purchase your car loan, your home loan, your home equity line of credit, your credit cards, your credit card balance transfers, things of that nature. Also, I think it’s very important for you all to know is that our board of directors are all volunteers. They do not get paid. So. Again, the money that they would be being paid, we can pass back to you where you don’t have to make an initial deposit to open your free account. We pay that for you. We can afford to give you $50 for a referral and get you started. Because you know what? If we can help you, you’re going to pass the information on to someone else that we can help. So that’s that’s basic Credit Union 101.

Brian Pruett: [00:56:46] So if somebody who’s traveling, how difficult is it for them to go to an ATM and get some money?

Tami Caspersen: [00:56:51] Well, it’s not difficult because with our online banking and our mobile app, basically with the mobile app, you’ve got you’ve got me and the credit union in your hand. So you can go online, you can transfer money to your kids, you can move money, you can pay your car loan and your car payment right online. If you would need to go into a branch, you’re going to go into or go onto the website, you’re going to type into the search bar. You’re going to put in shared service centers, or you can put in ATMs. You’re going to put in the zip code where you’re traveling to or where you are at the moment, whether you’re traveling for a job or for fun, it’s going to bring up all the surcharge free ATMs and all of the shared service centers that you could actually walk in the front door and take care of business there. You can make a deposit, cash, a check. You can even pay on your car loan at a shared service center.

Brian Pruett: [00:57:41] Awesome. Well, you’ve already shared your passion with the community, so I have to ask that question. But you also do networking. I met you through actually Tiffany, right from when we met at Paulding. And you guys came to the ABA Jolt. Yes. So can you share a positive story of networking?

Tami Caspersen: [00:57:54] Oh, my gosh, There are so many. I’m going to say, when there was a job fair. In Jasper and up in Pickens County. And so we’re like, you know, let’s just let’s go to the job fair. It can’t hurt because, you know, we’re always looking for great people at the credit union. And like I said, I’ve been there 18 years. So we have very longevity at the credit union as well. And so we’re like, let’s just go to the job fair. Let’s do some networking. Let’s see what comes in. Well, it was kind of a slow start to the people coming to look for jobs. So I decided, you know, I’m not getting paid just to sit here. So I started networking with the people in the room. That’s how I found Highland Rivers men. Wow. And from there, I just. I fell in love with the ladies at the table. I fell in love with the passion that they had. They had drug, drug and alcohol, substance abuse in their own families. That’s why they went to work there just to see their faces and to see that someone came to their table and was asking questions about their foundation, you know, about their organization. Nobody else was getting it from the table. They were all just doing their own thing. And so that’s how I met them. That’s how I found out the need. That’s how we were able to meet the need. And that just I’ve never been one to sit behind my table at an event because you know what? Everyone else that’s there has a story. And sometimes it just takes one person to go to a table to get the other people to go to the table. And I’ll go around and I let them know upfront that I’m a vendor, but I also let them know that I might have something that they may need and we might be able to network really well together. So that’s one of my good stories.

Brian Pruett: [00:59:34] Awesome. Well, don’t go anywhere. We’re not done. Thank you. I want to move over to Jordan Mitchell. Jordan, thanks for being here this morning.

Jordan Mitchell: [00:59:41] Thank you. It’s a pleasure.

Brian Pruett: [00:59:42] So for those of you who came out to the locker room chat, you heard a little bit of Jordan’s story. But Jordan, you are from Bartow County, a graduate, graduated from life, and you are an Olympic style wrestler working your way to the Olympics. So if you don’t mind, you again, you’re following your dreams, but share your story, if you don’t mind.

Jordan Mitchell: [00:59:58] Yeah. So I am a straight from Bartow County, you know, completely raised in the town I. You know, from since the beginning. I was at Cloverleaf Elementary School, which I don’t know if that elementary school exists anymore. Then I transferred to Kingston Elementary School. Town, you know, in between Rome and Cartersville and went to Cass Middle. That’s where I began my wrestling journey. And the thing about my about my life is like. Everything is always played out. I was always going to be a wrestler. Everything is always the way. It’s all gone down. It’s all just been orchestrated. And I do believe in a higher power. I do believe in God. I do believe Jesus is a, you know, God in the flesh. And obviously, I wasn’t like as I didn’t have a very close relationship growing up because I was a child. I’ve gotten more as I’ve matured, I’ve gotten closer and I started. I start to see his work in my life more as I get older. So yeah, everything’s always, you know, played out, started wrestling in middle school, wasn’t good start, you know, went on to high school, still wasn’t good. And I only the best I ever did in high school was fifth at state. You know my dreams, my whole journey from when I started wrestling in middle school to high school. I wanted to be a state champ and go wrestle in college. You know, Division one, college, be an engineer, be an engineer in college.

Jordan Mitchell: [01:01:28] And. Um, yeah. And from there, wrestling for the Olympics. And this was actually for the US. You know, I wanted to wrestle for the Olympics, for the US, make the US world team. So both my parents on one side, both my parents are Jamaican and I’m first generation here in the States. So my story, I would say it begins when I start. It begins a lot. You know, when I started wrestling. And when I get to high school, once I graduate high school, I get that state right, that when I say when I say that, that’s what I wanted. Like when I was a kid and I was training and that’s what was that that was my dream was to be a state champ so I could go to college. Because back then the way I saw it was if I can be a state champ, I can get a scholarship to go to college, the Division one college, be an engineer. My life will be you know, it’ll be golden. It’ll be the best thing. When I didn’t achieve that goal, it broke me like, you know. This is a whole nother topic, but like how how we pray and things like that. Like the purpose of prayer. I used to pray all the time before matches and be like, God, I just pray that I can win this match. You know, I worked so hard. I deserve to win this match. Clearly, that’s not the way you should go about it.

Jordan Mitchell: [01:02:45] But I was a kid at the time, you know, And when I lost, it tore me apart. And I was like, you know what? Forget this. Like, I can I can do this on my own, you know? And so. I. I talk a lot about God in my in my path and my journey at State that year, my senior year when I was graduating, I got fifth and I actually turned. I actually was like, in a way, I feel like I turned my back to God and I actually walked away from the sport of wrestling. So from you know, I went to a national tournament after state and I was actually talking to the Air Force Academy coach, wrestling coach. And I told him I was like, yeah, I’m trying to get, you know, I want to go to Air Force Academy. I had a 3.5 GPA. That’s why I graduated high school with And at that at that at that national tournament, the wrestling the Air Force Academy coach was there watching my match and I choked and I went zero and two and I got destroyed because in my mind, I was like, you know what? If I can just become an all-American place at this national tournament, maybe I can get a scholarship, went, did terrible choked, and that was that. And then I had one more redemption. I felt like at the biggest, biggest national tournament in the country called Fargo Cadet and Junior Nationals in Fargo, North Dakota.

Jordan Mitchell: [01:04:07] And there I went. I won two matches, lost two matches. That was it. And then that was the last that was the breaking point. I was like, wow, I’m looks like I’m not going to college or I’m not wrestling in college. That’s it. So I actually walked away from the sport, didn’t watch wrestling, wasn’t a part of it. You know, it was actually real painful for me to even, like, watch it because guys, everyone that I had grown up with training with at these other schools, club programs or whatever, they went on to do what I wanted to do. They were in college winning matches, getting scholarships, and I sat there and I was just back I was in Cartersville working a warehouse job, you know, going to Georgia Highlands and just basically flunking my classes because I was like, I didn’t really want to be there. And then. On the flip side, everyone else was doing what I wanted to do. And so the year was about a year and a half after, you know, after graduating, my life was pretty much I wouldn’t say. Chaotic, but it was like all over the place. I wasn’t really I wasn’t really on a path. I was just working my I’ll be transparent. My GPA at Highlands was a 1.6. I was out every night coming back home at 3 a.m. just, you know, just being out and about because I was just like I was not I wasn’t doing anything I wanted to do.

Jordan Mitchell: [01:05:30] And I, I like to call this. I can go warn the detail. What, you know, in that in that I call that my dead period. I can go more in detail, but I like to call this my burning bush moment. You know, like Moses, when he ran to the burning bush and heard the voice, heard God’s voice. I remember I came home one night, it was 3 a.m. and I remember I just started basically just letting everything out. I remember I was sitting there listening to music and I just remember saying like, Look, God, I hate my life right now. Like, I’m not doing anything I want to do. I don’t want to be in school. I hate working ten hours a day overnight shift. I hate this, you know, And I was sitting I’m like, I’m watching everybody do things I want to do, etcetera. I’m in debt. And I remember I heard this was one of the few times I’ve ever heard the voice. Verbal voice of the Lord. And when this happens, it’s like I remember just the atmosphere in the room I was in. It got nice and calm. It was steady. It was like it was just it was just there. And I remember he said to me or the voice said to me, he’s like, Are you done with your pity party yet? Because there’s still more work to be done.

Tami Caspersen: [01:06:50] I love that.

Jordan Mitchell: [01:06:51] And this is listening to your story, Tammy. This is where I like. When I listen to people’s stories, I always listen for like when you decide like, this is what you’re going to do. Yes. And it’s just you and Jesus. It’s you and God. And you decide like, All right, this it’s just you and me. We’re doing this. Everything else after that just kind of plays out. And so I decided when I heard that voice that you don’t need a pity party because it’s still, still more work to be done. I was like, Yeah, I’m done. So I don’t know. I don’t know what it is. I know I don’t know what it looks like, but, you know, let’s it’s just you and me, literally. I was like, It’s just you and me. And we’re going to we’re going to figure this out, you know? And that’s when I started realizing, like, step by step. First step is I got to get my grades up because I’m going to have to transfer to compete somewhere. And I can’t transfer if I don’t have my grades up. Second thing, got to get out of debt, you know, because I was like at the time, I was like $4,000 in debt because I had a student credit card and I was just, you know, not being smart with it. So I have to get my grades up so I can transfer. Get out of debt. And then I have to start figuring out figuring out training. You know, I have to I was not living a lifestyle of an athlete, so. You know, as time went on, it started paying off my debt, got out of debt. There’s some crazy stories about that, about how like just how God really does puts things into play where pays off debts, like there are finances out there for you guys that are in store, you know, blessings that are in store that will help you get get things done.

Jordan Mitchell: [01:08:26] You know, so was able to pay off debt. And from start to figure out training. And it’s interesting because I started coaching when I started doing was I started coaching at local high schools, local middle schools. And as I was wrestling with the guys, wrestling with the kids, that’s when I realized I was No. 1819 at the time. And I realized I was like, I still have I still have it in me. Like I still clearly now looking back, it’s like obviously it hasn’t to me. I was only 19. I wasn’t like old, you know, or, you know, like worn out or retired. But I was like, I still have it in me. Like, I can still get this done. And I like to think about that as like, it’s what brought me back to the sport was actually helping out or giving back. Exactly know helping out the kids. Because what really drove me in the beginning, what really drove me to start coaching, was helping out these kids achieve the goals that I never did. You know, like I’ve not to brag or anything, but I’ve now it’s like I’ve helped out many kids, go on to college, get scholarships, win state, become national champs, All-Americans, things like that. Those are things I never got. I never did, you know, coming up. And now it’s like I’ve gotten better at coaching and I’m able to help and give back more. And that’s what brought me back to the sport.

Brian Pruett: [01:09:52] Well, if you think about it in sports, just to but the people who make the best coaches are people who either never played the game or sat the bench and looked or the ones who think they weren’t the best, you know, and didn’t accomplish those things. So you’re right in that category.

Jordan Mitchell: [01:10:08] Absolutely. But yeah, and so I started. So this is the part of the journey where it’s like, all right, I decided I’ve got to get I’ve got to start figuring out training. And then I start I got to start competing. This is where the beginning of the process, you know, And as time gone on, time has time has gone on. I started realizing the process of development. You know, what it takes to, you know, jump levels and get better. As an athlete, I started I had to figure out training. I started training at local colleges. You know, I was training at Rinehart, was training at Life University. I would go up to UTC in Chattanooga, you know, and this is the funny thing again, God really does put things in your life for certain time periods, you know, certain just plays things out. Like I was training at Rinehart first and eventually I guess the way my life shifted, I started training at life, you know, like just how things just at the time I was, he, he worked it out to where I was in the best room that I needed to be in, you know, possible at that time period. So I’m training. I start competing on my own, literally, when I mean, I was competing on my own. I’m competing. It’s just me driving anywhere in the South east. Five hours to go to North Carolina to compete, go to Tennessee to compete, Florida to compete wherever. And it’s just me and God and some tournaments I win, other tournaments I lose.

Jordan Mitchell: [01:11:38] But this is where I started getting it’s like it’s almost like God was my coach. He gave me a level of discernment to be able to not be so emotionally involved in my results. And I was able to, you know, understand like, okay, I lost because of this. I need to look at what I need to do here, you know, and improve on this area. And then it was just like rinse and repeat. As I was doing that in this part of my life, I was still getting my grades up, still working, you know, still working warehouse warehouse jobs and and back in 2019, I actually get in contact with his name is Daniel Dennis. He is a 2016 Olympian. He actually started coaching me personally, and this is where this was in UTC at Chattanooga. And so he’s coaching me, you know, like he’s helping me jump levels. And by then my grades are I’ve gotten my grades up to where I’m able to transfer. Spring of 2020 comes around. I actually transfer to UTC in Chattanooga. It’s a Division one college with engineering because engineering was my was. My. Was my was my. It was. It was. It was my breaking point. Either it was either I’m going to do engineering and wrestle or I’m just going to wrestle. And so they had engineering. But unfortunately, by the time I got there, if if you guys understand how College Division one sports works, you have a running clock, you know, eligibility.

Jordan Mitchell: [01:13:17] And by the time I got there, unfortunately, I was out of eligibility. But this is the strange, this is the interesting part. So I reached that crossroads. And I always knew, like when I got accepted into the school, I had this, I had this. It’s like this, this feeling where you have to, like, run an errand and you’re procrastinating, but you just know you have to do it. I always had this feeling and it was like it might be too good to be true. Like I spent the last five years working for this moment, training, traveling on my own, you know, without a coach, you know, hopping around, just doing whatever, trying to figure this out on my own. And I’m finally going to transfer and do engineering. You know, I got out of debt and is this this might be too good to be true? And lo and behold, it was. But I reached a crossroads where it was all right. So I had gotten my grades up and it was either I transferred to Georgia Tech or KSU to do engineering and not wrestle or. I had already built a family and an establishment of life university because I was I was a volunteer assistant coach there. And I trained I transferred there and changed my major and continue wrestling. And I was like, you know what? I was talking to my aunt. She gave me some words of wisdom and she told me she was like, I told her how I was like, you know, I just felt like it was just too good to be true.

Jordan Mitchell: [01:14:45] And she said to me, she’s like, Oh, that was the Holy Spirit telling you, preparing you for that, for that crossroad. Like, you know, sometimes God will let you know, like, Hey, there’s a big choice coming up in the future. Near future, I’m preparing you. So, you know, make that decision. And I told her, I was like, Well, I don’t know. I was like, Well. It is audio engineering and go make money or I wrestle and be broke for a little bit longer and, you know, just do what I want to do. And she said, Well, that’s entirely up to you, but here’s one word. Here’s one thing to know. If you wake up every single day miserable, chances are you made the wrong choice. Yes. If you wake up every day content and you know at peace and just and you keep moving forward, most likely you made the right choice. And looking back, I had already had I had already lived years my my young adult life working without without sport wrestling warehouse jobs, being in school without it. And I was like, you know what? Yeah, I’m going to change my major in wrestling. I already made this decision years ago. So around that time, yeah, around that time I had actually gotten in contact with the Jamaican coach. He is, his name is Kevin Wallen.

Jordan Mitchell: [01:16:00] He was actually a Jamaican athlete and coach at the time. And he told me, I told him what I was. I told him what I was going on. I was like, Hey, right now I’m actually not in college right now. I’m actually just training, working, traveling around. And he told me what I needed to do. He was like, That’s pretty cool. This is what you need to do. You need to get this, this and this. Get your citizenship and your passport. And that was all he told me. And he disappeared. And from there to 2021, after quarantine or the initial part of quarantine, Jamaican wrestling, the Jamaican Wrestling Federation, completely wiped their board clean and got new people involved. And then one of the coaches, one of the one of the current board members reached out to me and he was like, Hey, someone passed me along. Your name, are you still interested? And blah, blah, blah, and do you have your documents and stuff? And I was like, Yeah, actually I started the process. He’s like, All right, if you’re serious, this is what you need to do. And by now I was already at Life University as a freshman, quote unquote, freshman for my first year of athletic athletics. And yeah, so I told him I was like, Yeah, I’m at Life University now. I’m going to keep getting better at wrestling. Just, you know, stick to the process, you know? And from here, this is where I’m at.

Brian Pruett: [01:17:27] So those of you who are listening can’t see. We’re talking about Olympic style wrestling, not the WWE. Correct. But when you look at him, he’s I don’t know, he’s not very big, but it’s just it’s what weight class do you wrestle.

Jordan Mitchell: [01:17:40] So college I wrestle 141 141 pounds and then international for freestyle it’s 140 3.3 which is 65 kilos kilograms.

Brian Pruett: [01:17:50] Okay. And so when I think about the Olympics in Jamaica, I think of Cool Runnings. And when I said that to you, you said you are the cool runnings of the Summer Olympics.

Jordan Mitchell: [01:17:57] Pretty much.

Brian Pruett: [01:17:57] Yes. Yeah. So, okay, so let’s, let’s do this. So, um, you and I sat down and talked. You are trying to currently get to next year’s Olympics, correct? Yes, sir. You’ve already participated in several international tournaments. Yes, sir. Uh, what was the last one? You just. You just were at, So ju.

Jordan Mitchell: [01:18:19] I was in El Salvador at the Central American Caribbean Games July 3rd. That’s where I was at just previously.

Brian Pruett: [01:18:27] How’d you do?

Jordan Mitchell: [01:18:28] I took fifth. Fifth at the tournament. It was. You know, it was good.

Brian Pruett: [01:18:32] Hey, top five is always good.

Jordan Mitchell: [01:18:34] Yeah, it’s tough. But, yeah, it was. It was a good experience.

Brian Pruett: [01:18:37] So what’s next as far as getting to the Olympics? What do you have to do to to finish getting there?

Jordan Mitchell: [01:18:43] So the way it works, there is a Olympic qualifying tournament, the Pan American Olympic qualifying tournament, and that is and that is next March in Mexico. So I have to make the finals. You know, I have to get bronze, gold or silver to be to be able to qualify my weight. So the way it works is each country, there’s five weight classes and you have to you have to place at the requirement at a qualifying term. There’s multiple qualifying tournaments around the world. You know, there’s one Asian qualifier, the Pan American qualifier, the European qualifier, South American qualifier, you know, African. And then there’s a couple other ones, last chance qualifiers. And you pretty much just have to medal. And once you medal, you qualify the weight for that country. So I’m the only guy at my weight so I, I medal. I pretty much qualify my weight which I’ll I’ll qualify myself for that country.

Brian Pruett: [01:19:42] Awesome. So and these tournaments that you go to and I’m guessing even the Olympics, you have to pay for these for yourself right. There’s no they don’t pay for you to go to these. So you and I were talking about trying to figure out a way businesses or people want to help sponsor you, right?

Jordan Mitchell: [01:19:58] Absolutely.

Brian Pruett: [01:19:59] Um, have you guys, you know, sat down and talked a little bit about it, But if there’s a way to do that, how can people do that?

Jordan Mitchell: [01:20:04] So I’m actually so what you can do is I’m actually set up I’ve actually I’ve set up a virtual business card if you want to follow me. And my virtual business card leads directly to my. Venmo, my cash app, things like that for donations. I’m still actually and if you want to contact me, my contact information is on there. Also straight to my Instagram or Facebook or my messenger or my text. If you want to contact me directly to figure out a sponsor, you can work something out sponsorship wise. Yeah.

Brian Pruett: [01:20:42] Well, we’ll share that information here in just a second. So for those who don’t know the difference, talk about the difference between Olympic style wrestling and it’s Roman Greco, Right? There are two different kinds, Correct? Can you share the difference?

Jordan Mitchell: [01:20:56] So freestyle, so Olympic style. The two Olympic styles are freestyle and Greco-Roman. Greco-roman is the world’s oldest sport. You know, it’s just basically upper body wrestling. You can’t touch below the legs. The goal, the goal of any wrestling is to pin your opponent, put both shoulders to the mat and Greco. You try to do that with just, you know, upper body wrestling, anything above the waist. Freestyle is basically anything goes. You can grab the legs, headlocks ankles, anything, you know. But again, the end the end goal is to pin your opponent’s shoulders to the mat and you can also win by points, you know, So.

Brian Pruett: [01:21:36] All right. You also shared with me that when you’re done with wrestling, you have a pretty cool dream of doing that when you’re done as well. So you want to continue working with the next generation and coaching. And so I want to ask everybody else in here, did you guys know that Life University has an IT degree? I did not know that.

Tami Caspersen: [01:21:53] I did not know that until I spoke to him at the event.

Brian Pruett: [01:21:55] So Jordan that’s what he graduated with life with. And but you also are going back to get a master’s, which I did not know they had this or this degree either. Share what you’re going to be doing.

Jordan Mitchell: [01:22:04] So I’ll be getting a master’s in positive psychology and then coaching psychology.

Tami Caspersen: [01:22:09] Wow, I love it.

Brian Pruett: [01:22:10] And then you want to do what with that?

Jordan Mitchell: [01:22:12] So later on, I do plan on being a high school, high school coach, most likely somewhere down the line. Yeah. You know, just being that one high school coach that’s probably a health teacher or a history teacher and just, you know, developing the next generation.

Brian Pruett: [01:22:27] You said you had aspirations to go in MMA as well, correct? Absolutely. Yeah. There you go. All right. So awesome. Jordan, thank you for for sharing that. So I’ve got two other questions before we wrap this up. I usually like to ask these while you guys are talking, but since I forgot to ask you first, I decided to wait till the end. Joan If somebody wants to get a hold of you and learn about the tours, come do a tour. How can they do that?

Joan Mannis: [01:22:49] I have a website, Old Cartersville tours.com. That’s probably the best way. I’m on Facebook, I’m on, I’m on Instagram. And so they can follow me that way. Okay, I need followers.

Brian Pruett: [01:23:03] There you go. All right, Tammy, if people want to talk to you more about the credit union, how can they get Ahold of you guys?

Tami Caspersen: [01:23:09] They can reach out to us on our website. They want to reach out to me personally. They can reach out to me at t caspersen and that’s tca’s p r s e n at i think i.org. They can also reach out to me by my cell phone, which is (770) 681-6859. And we’re just here to help people. As my father said, I think you were born from a briefcase. So I learned community service. I learned dedication and work ethic from my dad and the small town that I shared with you that I grew up in. So I’m here to help however I can.

Brian Pruett: [01:23:43] Awesome. All right, Jordan, share if people want to follow you. If people want to help you get your dream, share your Instagram share, How can people get Ahold of you on what they can? How can they follow you?

Jordan Mitchell: [01:23:53] So right now, if you want, you can send me a text message at (678) 677-5250. Or you can just reach out to me on my social media, which is Instagram. It’s just prince underscore Jordan j a h d a n.

Brian Pruett: [01:24:11] Awesome. All right. Last question that I’d like to ask before we wrap this up. You guys have shared a lot awesome stories already, but I’d like for you guys to share one piece of positive nugget, a quote or a word that people can take today, the rest of 2023 and beyond with. So, Joan, what do you got?

Joan Mannis: [01:24:31] Make a long bucket list. Now and at the end of your life, have a short one.

Brian Pruett: [01:24:38] Mm. Nice. Yeah.

Joan Mannis: [01:24:40] Do your bucket list.

Brian Pruett: [01:24:42] Tammy.

Tami Caspersen: [01:24:43] I like to teach people.

Tami Caspersen: [01:24:44] When I go out to do educational seminars, I like to say I’m here to help you say no for a little while so you can say yes for the rest of your life.

Brian Pruett: [01:24:54] Awesome, Jordan.

Jordan Mitchell: [01:24:57] So I want to say. I think so. Understand time. Things take time and have patience. And I say that because. Whenever you’re trying to whenever. And I think I think the principles of life are pretty much universal, whether it’s athletics or business or, you know, building anything. Figure out, you know, there’s a step by step process, figure out what the step by step process is, you know, and it’s basically just rinse and repeat. You know, so if something if you’re trying to develop something, figure out what it is you’re doing. Fix that and then improve. Test it. And then it’s just rinse and repeat from there. So. Yeah, just understand, things don’t come quickly, especially things that have longevity and consistency. They don’t come fast. So give yourself time and have patience.

Brian Pruett: [01:25:53] It’s God’s timing, not ours, that’s for sure. Exactly. All right. So again, the thank you is a lost art these days. So, Jonah, I want to thank you for not only coming on and sharing your story this morning, but what you’ve added to the community of Bartow with old Cartersville City tours and your story of being an overcomer and following your dreams. Tammy, thank you for everything that you’re doing in the community and sharing your story as well and just being the story of hope for others. Absolutely. And Jordan, thank you for what you’re doing. I mean, you guys, you’re following a passion, your dream, and these next generation athletes can look up to you and being a good role model. So thank you for that. Everybody out there listening. Let’s remember, remember, let’s be positive. Let’s be charitable.