Season 1: Episode 6 Groundhog Day

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EPISODE 6 TRANSCRIPT:

Texas Mutual Co…: 00:00 Support for the emerging Texas strong podcast comes from Texas Mutual Insurance Company. A Workers’ Comp provider, committed to helping companies build a stronger, safer Texas.

Host, Linsey Li…: 00:11 On this episode of Emerging Texas Strong.

Interviewer, Li…: 00:14 Okay. Do you like to talk philosophy?

Amir Lang, SBDC…: 00:18 No.

Interviewer, Li…: 00:18 Have you been known to talk philosophy?

Amir Lang, SBDC…: 00:24 No.

Interviewer, Li…: 00:30 Well, then let’s speculate. We’ll just see what happens. Okay?

Amir Lang, SBDC…: 00:32 Okay.

Host, Linsey Li…: 00:33 Welcome back to Emerging Texas Strong, a growing collection of stories, lessons, and advice from small business owners in Texas, working hard to survive this pandemic economy. We follow a collection of businesses and weave their stories together as we navigate a full season of big picture topics like furloughed workers, making the decision to continue your business or not, and opportunities for future growth. In episode 6, as it is now officially the one-year anniversary of COVID changing our lives. We get armchair philosophical in an episode, I’m calling Groundhog Day after the 1993 movie Groundhog Day with Bill Murray. It’s an existential comedy about weathermen Phil Connors. Who’s forced to relive the same day over and over by some strange time-loop-twist-of-fate and all the ways that he attempts to cope with his new reality.

Movie Clip – Gr…: 01:28 What would you do if you were stuck in one place every day was exactly the same and nothing that you did mattered about. Sums it up for me,

Host, Linsey Li…: 01:42 How to cope, that’s what this episode is all about, when some twist-of-fate changes the rules of the game. One year ago, most of us would likely say we all felt a normal level of control over our daily lives. And now? What now? How do we find meaning in a year like this? How do we continue to push the rock up the hill every day, not knowing how or when it will end and not knowing what life will look like when it finally does. What is Groundhog Day, anyway? I mean, it’s actually a perfect metaphor for our lives right now. Every February 2nd, the Groundhog looks for a shadow to tell the rest of us how many weeks until spring. But the real question we want to know is how much more time do we have to wait until it gets better? This episode is a practical guide to a philosopher’s dilemma. How do we find meaning in chaos and how do we find the footing to stay actively present and continue to take on challenges in the face of the unknown today, we hear from our CEOs and small business owners on how they stay inspired and keyed in, even on the days when it feels like this is never going to end, including my business advisor, Amir Lang, with the SBDC, which is the small business development center here in my city of San Antonio. I asked them for practical advice on what they do as small business owners to continue moving forward in our Sisyphus’ journey. Here’s the map. We’ll explore the lack of control and our pre and post COVID daily lives (something that we as small business owners, as a group, just have a really hard time accepting). And then next we’ll address the existential dread that’s common to a loss of personal autonomy. And finally, we’ll find the practical answers to get through this moment in stoic philosophy where one of the key ideas is that you have power over your mind, but not outside events. And when you realize this, you will find strength. I set the stage for this conversation with my business advisor, Amir Lang, with the SBDC UTSA in our interview this week.

Interviewer, Li…: 03:56 So I know you said that you did watch the movie Groundhog’s day. And I actually just rewatched it just to kind of have it fresh in my mind for this episode. And it was interesting because obviously the point was that we can get so jaded and move so fast in life. And you never know when tomorrow is the day that something weird happens or you don’t get tomorrow.

Host, Linsey Li…: 04:25 Lesson one decide how to cope with not having control.

Movie Clip – Gr…: 04:32 Off to see the Groundhog? Yeah. Think it’ll be an early spring? Didn’t we do this yesterday? I don’t know what you mean. Don’t mess with me pork chop. What day is this? It’s February 2nd, Groundhog Day. Yeah. Sorry. No, I thought it was yesterday…

Host, Linsey Li…: 05:03 In the movie Groundhog Day, Phil Connors is a weatherman. He feels a sense of control that if there is a storm brewing, he knows what’s coming certainty. That life will go the way he’s planned. And on day one of the time-loop, Mrs. Lancaster, his innkeeper, asks Phil if he’ll be checking out today, his confident answer? “Chance of departure 100%.” But I love the situational irony in this storyline because as we all know in Texas, especially after surviving snowpocalypse in February, you can’t predict the weather. And Lord knows, even if you can predict it, you can’t always protect yourself from the actual experience and the effects of it all. So step one is learning to identify and accept the things we cannot change.

Movie Clip – Gr…: 05:52 Do you ever have deja vu, Mrs. Lancaster? I don’t think so, but I could check with the kitchen. No, that’s okay. Thank you. Will you be checking out today, Mr. Connors? I’d say the chance to departure is 80%, 75 … 80.

Host, Linsey Li…: 06:15 Let’s introduce Mina Patel, franchise owner of the Best Western in Gonzalez, Texas, to hear how she has learned to accept what is.

Meena Patel, Be…: 06:24 My name is Meena Patel and myself and my husband Nilish Patel. We moved here from Sacramento, California, and we overtook the Best Western Regency in Gonzales, Texas, and have operated that for 10 years now. COVID-19 has, is kind of like that it’s so it was kind of like accepting what was happening and trying to keep things as normal as possible. We really had to rely on our faith just ever since March hit. It’s just, you know, we, we take it day by day.

Host, Linsey Li…: 06:59 The single most important thing at this early stage in any crisis is differentiating what we can change and what we can’t when our electricity is cut, because power shortages during a hundred year storm or international travel is put on hold because of a global pandemic, no amount of yelling at a customer service representative will end a storm or the plague, no amount of wishing will make it different. And the time you spend wishing it weren’t so is time not spent working on the things that you can change. Let’s meet Amir Lang and Tim Morrow from the San Antonio zoo who tell us how they’re dealing with the things they can’t change.

Speaker 3: 07:41 My name’s Amir Lang. I’m an advisor with the San Antonio small business development center, what the SPDC does is we’re a team of business advisors that help local entrepreneurs to start, grow and develop their companies in and around bear County. So for me, when Abbott declared the no mask and everything’s open, I signed up for vaccination the next day, and I got 200 masks on Amazon that same day. So I feel somewhat safe now.

Interviewer, Li…: 08:13 So that’s what you could control.

Tim Morrow, San…: 08:19 My name is Tim Morrow. I’m the president and CEO of San Antonio Zoo. We’re a nonprofit located in San Antonio. We’ve been here for 107 years. We have 700 employees, 600 volunteers, and really a mission of conservation education that we spread around the world. I was just telling them, I emailed the team this week and I was like, never again, will I say, what else can happen? Because you just never have any idea. I mean, it’s not here three years ago when I told my kids, you probably won’t see snow like this for like 20, 30, more years. And here we are, three years later is snowed eight inches in five days, twice, you know, four inches than 20 inches. So you just never know more in the world’s changing so fast now. And it’s just going, keep getting faster, I think. And we’ll see more changes and things happen to us like COVID and, and weather events,

Host, Linsey Li…: 09:02 Anthony Beauchamp, Christian Ellis images.

Anthony Beaucha…: 09:06 Hi, I’m Anthony with Christian Ellis images. We provide photography and videography services for weddings and events here in Texas. With the pandemic everything was going fine. And you know, everybody beforehand, everybody was like, Hey, you know, this is how it is. And then it’s like, Nope, this is real life. There is a, you know, a deadly virus out there and it could take down the entire world economy, world system. You know, we are not immune to like total destruction. I think that’s the, uh, you know what I mean? Like there was, there’s like an actual, you know, like awakening, like you said, being woke is like, it’s, it’s something deeper. Like everything was fine. This is our reality. Yeah. There’s Wars. There’s everything else. But this right here, like we’re not, we’re not ready for this.

Host, Linsey Li…: 09:57 The existentialist writer Albert Camus was obsessed with a fable of Sisyphus, pushing a rock up a hill, seeing it as a metaphor for the human condition. For most of us pre-COVID, even with more of the freedoms of options, like where we could eat out or what route you wanted to drive to work each day. Even still, our day-to-day lives that we lived were only a little bit different from each other. We’d still wake up in the same bed. We’d still have basically the same breakfast, go to the same job. See the same people watch the same shows on the same couch. But now that COVID has restricted our lives even further. And many of us are doing work or school from home still, the repetition becomes even more unbearable. I mean, I laugh thinking back to 2020 when the days were a complete blur, just one after another of the same. And I was sometimes really surprised to find out that it was actually Friday and I’d only realize it because my favorite podcast hosts would say, have a great weekend. Everybody we’ll see you on Monday. So like Phil Connors from the movie living the same day over and over in nauseating repetition without a clear end in sight. And it’s been a full year now,.

Interviewer, Li…: 11:13 Are you working from home, too? Because of COVID.

Amir Lang, SBDC…: 11:16 I was hired in August. I’ve been working home since I was hired. So that’s from August until now, March. And we’ll be remote until the start of the fall semester.

Interviewer, Li…: 11:25 So Groundhog’s Day. Uh, can you tell me what you’ve been doing to keep busy over the past 12 months?

Amir Lang, SBDC…: 11:30 Right now? I just, like, get ready to work at eight. I go to my office, which is my island in my apartment. I work from eight to five. Then I moved from my office to my couch and I watch Anime and make travel plans that I probably have to cancel in a couple months. Um, that’s mainly what I’m doing right now.

Interviewer, Li…: 11:51 You make them kind of knowing that they could fall apart completely?

Amir Lang, SBDC…: 11:55 Yes.

Host, Linsey Li…: 11:57 How do we cope? In the movie, the first thing Phil Connors does is that he gets hedonistic. And I think I can relate. Listen, as I explain the next part of the movie Groundhog day to my business advisor, Amir.

Interviewer, Li…: 12:12 The way that the writers have him tackle it is at first he goes into complete hedonism, you know, like, Oh, wait a second. I can’t die. I never get older. I can eat anything I want. So then the first day he goes in, he just has dessert all over the table and he’s just shoveling it in his mouth. And then the girl goes, don’t you worry about cholesterol or your pants? And he’s like, “Nope”. And then like the next, however many days he repeats, then he just goes straight into trying to have sex with everybody that he wants to have sex with in town and he learns how to, how to manipulate them and knows all of their favorite things because you know, the day keeps repeating. Um, and then when he realizes that that doesn’t make him happy, then he kind of moves into all of these phases.

Host, Linsey Li…: 12:59 The first week of actual lockdown, I couldn’t sleep. So I got up and made cake. I ate cake every day for breakfast. Like the rules of the normal world had just broken in half. And while we lived in this weird, no time, then cake for breakfast didn’t count. And it was a completely acceptable daily routine. And then when that first cake was done, I made another cake. I mean, it was cake for a long time. So hedonism is the philosophy that pleasure is the most important pursuit of mankind that our life’s goal should be to maximize pleasure and minimize pain. But there’s more to the story than just cake for breakfast and working from your bed. It’s something that’s happened, external it’s out of your control and the only thing you can do is flail around and try to self-soothe and, you know, do all of these things to try to feel like you’ve regained control or make yourself feel better. But at the end you kind of have to come to a sense of peace with the surrealism and the absurdity of it. It’s almost like waiting for Godot, you know? Where you’re just probably going to wait forever. You have to almost like give up hope and have a little bit of humor that goes along with it in order to just make it through without going absolutely crazy. When we come back from break. We’ll find out the next step towards a sense of freedom in the face of difficulty. But even if you’re chasing what feels good and eating cake for breakfast every day, that doesn’t actually answer the question of how to get through this time. I’ve found that cake for breakfast could only do so much towards making this year make sense. There’s still pitfalls that we can walk right into that we have to watch out for like Phil Connors, stepping into the same calf-deep puddle of icy water every day. Even if he knows it’s coming and being frustrated with himself, every time it happens.

Texas Mutual Co…: 14:59 Support for this program comes from Texas Mutual Insurance Company, a safety focused Workers’ Comp provider, supplying information and resources that can help Texas employers stop accidents before they happen more at texasmutual.com.

Host, Linsey Li…: 15:15 And now back to our show,

Movie Clip – Gr…: 15:21 Watch out for that first step it’s in Doozy!

Host, Linsey Li…: 15:27 And as he lives the same day and he learns to avoid the pitfalls, “Watch that first step. It’s a doozy!” He starts to learn to sidestep the daily irritations, the things that will create daily suffering like a cold and soggy shoe. And we move towards one of the more important philosophies that helps us address the issues that we’re facing with COVID and other modern realities. The philosophy of stoicism, an easy way to look at the basic stoic philosophy is a Shakespeare quote, “There is no good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” Modern stoic Viktor Frankl, a concentration camp survivor wrote about his experience in the powerful book, Man’s Search for Meaning. I was introduced to this book by my high school, AP English teacher, Mrs. Schoenberg (Thanks Mrs. S) where Victor not only shares his story, but also the coping techniques he developed for dealing with unjust, an unfathomable suffering without losing hope. I explain why Frankel’s ideas have been important to me, to my business advisor, Amir.

Interviewer, Li…: 16:33 It’s this, uh, working through how to make sense of inevitable human suffering and still continue on, you know, and this is, this is really where it got back into, like when I started thinking about the Victor Frankel thing, uh, it’s a book that I had to read in high school, which was really intense for high school, but apparently she did a good job picking it because here I am, 41 years old, I’m still talking about it. So he was a Holocaust survivor, Victor Frankel, and he was educated, uh, before he went into the camps and then went from being an intellectual to being somebody in, in a camp, being forced to do manual labor and watch the horrors of the people, you know, just being wasted away. And, uh, he had to find a way to make sense of it because what he found was that when people gave up hope, they just died. They didn’t have any fight left in them. And he had to find a way to find purpose and, and try to make sense of it in some way, you know, how do you keep optimism in the face of something that is so out of your control and horrible to go through and scary and not fair. All of these things. Now, obviously his situation is like magnitudes worse than COVID. You know, that whole thing where they say, you know, your generation is only being asked to sit on the couch and watch Netflix and don’t go anywhere. It’s hardly fighting World War II. Um, but what are your thoughts on, how do we make sense of this? How do we make, how do we make it feel like there’s purpose? How do we get through with purpose?

Host, Linsey Li…: 18:46 Here’s some thoughts on how to make sense of it from Meena Patel with Best Western Gonzalez.

Meena Patel, Be…: 18:52 It’s, it’s, you know, you kind of have to have that positive outlook on life and to, and to kind of, you know, not be in that bubble and think, okay, this is the way it used to be. You have to accept, you have to go with the flow and you have to accept what, what is coming and you just have to go, okay, how can I deal with it, pick it up and is change, change with, with what’s come and, and move forward, you know, just get through the, through what it is right now. And, um, do what you can. Every, we all have a role to play. And, um, you know, ours is through our business in a small community and to stay healthy and happy and to be kind

Host, Linsey Li…: 19:34 Seneca would say he actually pitied people who’ve never experienced misfortune. “You’ve passed through life without an opponent” he said, “no one can ever know what you are capable of. Not even you”. Amir Lang, the Small Business Development Center at UTSA

Amir Lang, SBDC…: 19:52 So how to get through it with purpose. So it’s really important to just know why you do things like why do you have a company? Like why did you start it in the first place? Like, what’s the point? So that it’s like knowing why you do what you do. It just helps to motivate you. It helps turn. It’s like lead you like out at the other end of the tunnel. And like, for me, it’s a similar way, like was like, knowing why do I have this job at the job to help small companies tell people what their things on their bucket list? So that just personally motivates me to get up every morning to do my job, do my research, even when I’m tired or if I don’t want to send out another email. It just helps to push me through during the day and the end of the week,

Host, Linsey Li…: 20:43 Tim Morrow, the San Antonio Zoo.

Tim Morrow, San…: 20:47 Mine is easy because I work with, um, these team members that we call our Zoo Crew that are so passionate about animal care and conservation education that nothing will stop them. And so it’s inspiring to me to watch the team work and do the things that they do. And it makes it very easy for me to stay motivated because I’m trying to do as much as I can to support them. And when people see what our team members do when they’re spending the night here for a week, you know, during storms or when they’re coming and leaving their families during COVID and working out with the animals everyday by themselves, I mean this whole park or this whole part of town was abandoned. It was just us. You know, other places attractions can lock the doors and come back in a couple months while we have to be here every single day. So, um, the team is what really inspires me everyday to do more and more and more. And so it’s very rewarding to help them. And it’s very rewarding to see at the end of the day, what the zoo is able to do for the community here, the community around the world, and then through education, what we’re doing with all the kids in our school and our camps that are, that visit us on field trips.

Host, Linsey Li…: 21:45 Then finally, in Groundhog Day the movie, as the last step before weatherman Phil Connors is released from his prison of February 2nd, ad infantum, he moves into a phase of care and kindness for others. Selflessness. There’s a Greek proverb that goes, “A society grows great when old men plant trees, whose shade they know that they shall never sit in.” And our goal during the pandemic and for the remainder of our lives should be to plant trees for those who come after us and make the world a little bit better off than the way we found it.

Meena Patel, Be…: 22:19 So, yeah. Um, the recommitment to my community is, um, I find great pleasure. And I got this from my parents, both my father and my mother, like I said, I grew up in a small community in California and they were very heavily involved in the community. And, um, there’s a sense of pride from that. And so I’ve kind of taken that on. So thank you, mom and dad for teaching me that, um, you know, home is where the heart is and giving back is where, what counts most. And, uh, so I, uh, I myself serve on two boards in my community and, um, I’m a friend of the chamber and, uh, the main street board, you know, it’s revitalizing our downtown. Um, I’m a big I’m on the board. So I support that. And then the local economic development corporation, I’m a board member. So I just feel, how can we give back to our community? And when our community thrives, we thrive, it’s about kind of reflection and seeing where can I do good? You know, I’m so blessed to be in a small community. I have what I need in order to just survive and make it through this pandemic. How can we give back to our community?

Host, Linsey Li…: 23:38 Amir Lang SBDC at UTSA.

Amir Lang, SBDC…: 23:41 So what I love most about my job is just helping people. I get to help people all day, every day, especially with this giving out free money, essentially with the PPP and different grants. It’s just nice to just help people who are about to fail or on the verge of failing, helping.

Host, Linsey Li…: 23:59 Tim Morrow, San Antonio Zoo.

Interviewer, Li…: 24:03 Did you guys have to sleep here during snowpocalypse?

Tim Morrow, San…: 24:05 Yeah. The staff stayed the night here. Um, for seven days, six, seven days. Most zoos have what they call a Rideout team. That’ll hurricanes or earthquakes or fire forest fires. If they’re near that, they’ll have a Rideout team just checking property, 24 hours a day walking. So we had teams spending the night, all over the zoo. We had stories from our zoo going viral all over the world of our hippo and his one pool or employees moving alligators into buildings or flamingos were in restaurants. And so, but you think about the employees that come here and stay here. They have families, they have houses with broken pipes, no power, no water and things like that. And they’re still here. So it’s very easy for me to be motivated to help them after I see how hard they work and how dedicated they are,

Host, Linsey Li…: 24:44 The tendency to take things for granted doesn’t mean that we’re bad people, but this perspective certainly doesn’t serve us well amidst a global pandemic. Like Frankl found meaning even while enduring extreme physical suffering, you have to find meaning in every moment as well. Each day that you wake up in our COVID world, have gratitude. Be grateful for your health. Be grateful for the opportunity to dream up the trips that you’ll take in the future. The opportunity to connect on a deeper level with the people in your life, the opportunity to see what you’re made of, to learn from your mistakes and do better. See each day is a gift and meaning will ensue.

Meena Patel, Be…: 25:25 Everyone is lucky and in their way, everyone in a way has what they need in order to survive. We just need to be reminded. And I think when you’re grateful for what you have, it makes the future so much brighter. And you can see that light at the end of the tunnel more because it’s getting brighter because, you know, Hey, thank you. I’m grateful for what I have for who I am for what I am and where I am.

Host, Linsey Li…: 25:54 Anthony Beauchamp, Christian Ellis Images.

Anthony Beaucha…: 25:58 So when the pandemic becomes, I think, hard mentally, that is when it’s difficult for me to see the light. I try to kind of look inward every day. I write down a list of five things that I’m grateful for. I think having gratitude puts everything into perspective in a dark situation, we have to look inward to, to find the light. Like I said, being alone with your thoughts, meditating, um, taking time to clear my mind of all the negative, uh, just a negative energy that’s out there.

Meena Patel, Be…: 26:35 We have to help each other and be kind to one another. When everything feels like it’s falling apart, stepping outside of our own and focusing on helping others will provide us with meaning to go back to the basic thing, give back to your community. You know, um, they had this great thing on social media, where they were taking people from nursing homes and putting them with, you know, their name and their, what they liked and stuff. I told my kids pick a person, write to them, send them a card. You want to color? Color for these people. They are not allowed to see their family. You video chat with your friends, you, you video chat with your grandparents, your aunts, your uncles, your cousins? Tell them how much they mean to you. Our children are the next generation. We need to teach them. I’ve never been through a pandemic like this before and staying calm and collected and being kind and generous still, even though we’ve had the toughest year to survive, um, that’s, what’s key. It’s just being grateful and positivity and giving that to other people.

Host, Linsey Li…: 27:45 Remember that no matter how dire the situation, no matter how seemingly futile, it seems to remain optimistic and kind always. Remember the duty that we owe to others. Go shopping for your elderly neighbor, adopt an animal. Shop at your local small business, volunteer, pay it forward, or just listen to someone who’s struggling right now and encourage them as they find their way. Each way that you can find to help alleviate someone else’s suffering will go a long way to helping you alleviate yours as well. Viktor Frankl said “Everything can be taken away from man, but one thing. The last of the human freedoms, to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances. To choose one’s own way.” Thank you for joining us on this episode of Emerging Texas Strong. Let’s take a second to review some of the things that might be useful to you from this episode. Number 1,

Movie Clip – Gr…: 28:47 Hey, there’s nothing going on. We’re closing the road. Big blizzard, moving in. What blizard? It’s a couple of flakes! Don’t you listen to the weather? We got a major storm here. I make the weather!

Host, Linsey Li…: 29:01 You can’t predict the weather. And Lord knows. Even if you can predict it, you can’t always protect yourself from the actual experience and effects of it all. So learn to identify and accept the things we cannot change. Number 2,

Movie Clip – Gr…: 29:16 Watch out for that first step doozy.

Host, Linsey Li…: 29:23 When you’re standing in the face of something extremely difficult, don’t let yourself get bogged down by the little things that are avoidable. Look out for those puddles of water that you know you’re prone to step in, check yourself and sidestep them in order to alleviate the suffering you do have control over. Number 3,

Movie Clip – Gr…: 29:42 This is pittiiful. A thousand people freezing their butts off, waiting to worship a rat.

Host, Linsey Li…: 29:49 There is no good or bad only thinking makes it. So

Movie Clip – Gr…: 29:53 When Checkov saw the long winter, he saw a winter bleak and dark and bereft of hope yet, we know that winter is just another step in the cycle of life. But standing here, among the people of Punxatowny, basking in the warmth of their hearts and hearts. I couldn’t imagine a better fate than a long and lustrous winter.

Host, Linsey Li…: 30:17 When you find yourself suffering from wishing that things were different, change your perspective. Are you worshiping a rat or participating in a time honored tradition? Number 4,

Movie Clip – Gr…: 30:31 Come on. All the long distance lines are down? What about the satellite? Is it snowing in space? Don’t you have some kind of a line that you keep open for emergencies or for celebrities? I’m both, I’m a celebrity in an emergency.

Host, Linsey Li…: 30:50 Crisis, causes us to think only of ourselves, how were affected what we will do to survive. But it’s important to remember that the entire world is experiencing the same thing. The most important thing we can do to escape our own current suffering is to refocus our attention towards alleviating the suffering of others.

Movie Clip – Gr…: 31:28 Nothing ma’am I had the tire around and the jack. Just be comfortable, all right.

Host, Linsey Li…: 31:37 And number five, practice daily gratitude, and be grateful for all the joy and opportunities that surround you and all that you have left. Make use of the resources around you, including your local SBDC mentors, the outside perspective of trusted friends, and even the advice from this podcast. Speaking of which, if you’ve enjoyed this podcast or found it useful at all, please share an episode with a friend, join us next week when our topic is go or no-go. And we’re going to answer the tough question. How do you know when it’s time to hang onto your business? Or if it’s time to let go, including tips on how to sell your company. If you see that as the next right thing, podcast, production, interviews, edits, sound design, and office snacks for the Emerging Texas Strong podcast are done by Lindsay Lindberg. If you want to connect with the guests in today’s show or learn more about the small business development center, bios and business for all guests featured in Season 1 can be found on EmergingTexasStrong.com. Find out how you can work with them and support Texas small business. To share the hope, the journey, the struggles, and the advice, be sure to follow, like rate and subscribe to Emerging Texas Strong on the web. So you can always get the latest podcast directly to your phone. And if you’re enjoying the show and want to show us some love, leave a five-star review, it’s going to help more people find us. Follow us on Facebook @EmergingTexasStrong or Twitter @TexasStrongPod, where I’ll be sharing some special treats from Episode 6, like the philosophy of Groundhog Day articles that I found in my research, video clips from the Groundhog Day movie with Bill Murray, with a reminder of the little lessons that we learned from this episode books on stoic philosophy. links to the letter writing campaign to elders in need that was mentioned by Meena Patel and more videos of the San Antonio Zoo as mentioned in today’s show. And if you’d like to be interviewed, please reach out, contact@emergingtexasstrong.com. Emerging Texas Strong is a production of Earnest Media. If you’re interested in sponsoring a heart-full podcast, focused on the journey of Texas business owners for a focus market audience, we’d love that email contact@emergingtexasstrong.com. Remember, you’ve got a friend somewhere in Texas, who’s rooting for you. I’m your host, Linsey Lindberg. Join us next time for more stories of Texas small business on Emerging Texas Strong

Amir Lang, SBDC…: 34:13 I got you some cupcakes for your new building. I didn’t say at the beginning, but, I didn’t know what kind so I just got a variety of things.

Interviewer, Li…: 34:25 That’s so kind! Oh my God. Oh, you’re going to have one too, right?

New Speaker: 34:35 Sure. Okay.

Speaker 4: 34:38 Support for the Emerging Texas Strong podcast comes from Texas Mutual Insurance Company, a Workers’ Comp provider committed to helping companies build a stronger, safer Texas.