Ep 45: Why Radio Broke Dave Lawson's Heart

William Huffman  0:00  
Hey everybody, William here and Sarah. And we just need to let you know that we are licensed real estate agents in the state of Minnesota with REMAX results of Good Life Group. And that's our legal disclaimer. Everybody's William here, and today we're talking with Dave and Dave may have borrowed something from McDonald's, and you may have actually heard him on the radio before. Listen, I hate apple.

Dave Lawson  0:27  
I know why you hate Applebee's. And I look at it and it reminds me you and it makes me smile. And that's the power of this. That's the power of

Accouncer  0:37  
Welcome to Life behind the highlight reel. The podcast that takes things beyond the curated life we all see online. Join hosts Sarah and William Hoffman as they dive in with their friends to talk about the good and the hard things that come with a real not perfect life behind the highlight reel. We call this tip two with the business.

William Huffman  1:02  
All the great stuff you said about us? We'll just pretend that everybody heard it.

Sarah Huffman  1:07  
That was a one and done.

William Huffman  1:10  
Oh my gosh. All right. Well, we got to we got to start over. Hey everybody, William here and Sarah.

William Huffman  1:21  
Dave, Dave, I thank you so much for your patience. And you

Sarah Huffman  1:24  
guys, if there's ever a time to screw up it is when your editor is in the room.

William Huffman  1:29  
Yeah. And good job. Well, good job. Well, that's me. I did good.

Dave Lawson  1:34  
Just kept hitting button. Still the work? Yeah. Oh my god. That's usually

Sarah Huffman  1:39  
how it goes. Yeah.

William Huffman  1:40  
I mean, hey, it's recording. And this is this is working now. So Oh, my gosh, Dave. I mean, you told us some cool stuff. And we'll let you skip through some of it. But let's go ahead and let's start at the beginning. Here. 19. We're not going to say where were. Where were you born? Where were you raised? I'm

Dave Lawson  1:59  
from Michigan, Michigan. Yes. As we talked about just north of Detroit. City called Troy to righ t Rowe. Roy,

William Huffman  2:08  
what was the mascot there?

Dave Lawson  2:10  
Well, we had two high schools. Okay. Okay. We had Detroit Colts. The fighting Colts. Yeah, but the you know, lame.

Sarah Huffman  2:17  
Oh, yeah. Oh, we ran like lame Colts.

William Huffman  2:20  
Yeah. Did you put them down?

Dave Lawson  2:22  
Oh, they were horrible. Just losers. How do you really feel what a real skill you got to go to Troy? Athens, Athens. Okay for the Red Hawks. Oh, the fight and red hot red hot.

Sarah Huffman  2:32  
Yeah, it feels more powerful. Athens.

William Huffman  2:35  
Yeah, yeah, that does sound good. Oh,

Dave Lawson  2:37  
why? Cuz it's another word. Yeah.

William Huffman  2:42  
I mean, Troy store Athens, Greece. Athens, Greece. You know, Achilles, all that stuff. So there we go. Troy was was put together. Yeah. Helen. So was there something but what Helen in there somewhere? Because Helen of Troy. I don't

Dave Lawson  2:58  
know your Wow. Well, well, both of

Sarah Huffman  3:00  
you have not had your coffee yet. Today. I can't imagine if you had

William Huffman  3:03  
Oh, no, no, I would have I would have thrown this little box of coffee. Together I like. Yeah, this will fix it. All right. So Troy, Michigan school, you know, siblings?

Dave Lawson  3:25  
So yes. So I grew up in in Troy, I have a brother and a sister. He's, we're kind of spread apart. My brother is. So he my brother is eight years older. Okay, that's I just do the math in my head, which is somewhat dangerous. And my sister is probably about six years younger than me at this point. So we are kind of we're kind of spread out. And then. And ironically, that's kind of how my family is, in a way, the way we had our kids. My wife and I are older parents who's like my parents. Yeah, yeah. Then we have kids that are spread apart. So I wouldn't I wouldn't have put that down as well. I don't think there's any proper way to plan a family but Right. Yeah, half of the kids like stay with you. You know, for the next 50 years. You always have a younger one. You know,

Sarah Huffman  4:13  
so you got out of diapers season and then diaper season started

Dave Lawson  4:16  
back up. Yeah, yeah, it really was. Yeah, yeah.

William Huffman  4:20  
Do diapers expire? Can you just keep them around?

Sarah Huffman  4:23  
I don't know.

William Huffman  4:24  
I mean, these are the things that I worry about at night. I don't think you've ever thought about diapers before. No.

Dave Lawson  4:31  
No, I'll tell you the greatest moment is when you go in and buy your last box of diapers. And you say this is

Sarah Huffman  4:37  
this? Is it this? Is it. Like we are giving ourselves a raise.

Dave Lawson  4:41  
Yes. And that's it. And then you start buying diapers for your dog, which is the kind of the phase we're in right now. Because we've got this dog that's 18 and a half years old. He's just kind of hobbling around in

Sarah Huffman  4:52  
but we would have thought the diapers.

William Huffman  4:55  
Hell yeah, first Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

Dave Lawson  4:57  
I mean, the history I mean, he's, you know, he was round for free moves. You know, three states. You know three kids he's we used to hide them in suitcases take them into hotel rooms. Oh yeah, he's been out on adventures with this is where like

Sarah Huffman  5:11  
if dogs could talk. Yeah. What would the dog say? Because I know our dogs would have stuff to

William Huffman  5:16  
say. Oh, absolutely, absolutely. All right. All right, bring it back. So we're, we're in Troy, Michigan, right? We're a little kid. What do we do as a little kid? What do we like?

Dave Lawson  5:25  
Oh, man, so I liked sports a lot. I wasn't good at sports. But I liked sports. I just wish I was good at sports.

Sarah Huffman  5:35  
So did you play or did you just wait, did

Dave Lawson  5:37  
I play to play a little hockey? I play baseball. I tried to play football. I was very, very light. I was very small. And I was very light. So if somebody hit me, I was like a leaf blown away. You were done. I was done. And they all love to hit me. Really tough, right? But I was like, Rudy, I'd get up. Alright, let's

Sarah Huffman  5:59  
try it again.

Dave Lawson  6:02  
I just I just wasn't very good. But I was I was creative as as a kid. And I fell in love with and I don't know why. Actually, I probably understand why. If I really think about it, but I fell in love with radio. Oh, at a young age at a very young really. I can't remember I remember playing on the playground at Troy union elementary school and just thinking about radio. And and thinking that's what I want to do ever since the elementary school. Wow, you grew up next to a major metropolitan city like Minneapolis or Detroit radio was just fantastic. Back then back in the 80s. And oh, yeah. Because I mean, the biggest of the big worked at the state radio was

Sarah Huffman  6:44  
oh, so are you talking like music radio? Are you talking like sports, radio, talk radio are all of it.

Dave Lawson  6:50  
I all of it. I just I was fascinated by the medium. I was fascinated by I used to listen to news talk at night. And Larry King, you know, as a young kid, I used to listen to that. And then I would listen to music, radio, and it just, I just loved. I loved the images. I loved everything about it that they were creating on the speakers, you know, and I think, you know, looking back, I think it's because I just I was a kid that had a lot of anxiety and was just very shy and got very nervous around other people. But I had this creative side. And that was the way to express it. If you ever talk to anybody in radio. That's kind of how they are. You know, they just they don't really like being in front of people. But they like performing. Yeah, in a weird way.

Sarah Huffman  7:35  
Yeah, I can understand that. I remember on my like, the very first podcast that will and I ever did. This was like years ago. I was so nervous. Like, there's no way I can ever do a podcast. I can't put myself out there like that. But it's actually a great way to express yourself without being in front of crowds.

Dave Lawson  7:53  
Yes, it's it's it's a brilliant way. It really is. So I just I don't know, I fell in love with it. And it's just something that you know, carried me through. You could order like these videotapes back then anybody in radio knows what I'm talking about these videotapes, some guy would go around and get a videotape of people doing radio behind the scenes, and put all this stuff together. And I watch these videos evolve from all really all across the nation. You know, and watch these people do radio from all across the night as

Sarah Huffman  8:21  
a kid who is like your favorite radio person?

Dave Lawson  8:25  
Oh my gosh. Well, if you're from the Detroit area, everybody knows deke. Perton Deke Burton. He had a morning show. He started at sea kale W in in Canada.

Sarah Huffman  8:37  
Because Canada is Detroit's neighbor, right?

William Huffman  8:40  
It's right there. It's wild.

Dave Lawson  8:42  
Yeah. That's where you go and have your first beer at 18 at 18 years old, go to mother's pizza and you get stopped at the border.

William Huffman  8:51  
I mean ridiculous officer fish

Dave Lawson  8:57  
silly. And then and then he came to Detroit and he was just he was just absolutely incredible. Rick Dees Of course if you look on a national level, yeah, it was really cool. My wife arranged a call from Rick Dees much later in life I got I remember it was a sunny day I picked up my phone in Raleigh, North Carolina. It was Rick Dees I actually thought it was my buddy impersonating. But it was the one and only but Rick Dees is always rick dees. Always on you know, hey, it's Rick Dees. No it's not. Rick, do you like Yes. Happy birthday, Jenna. That's awesome. Yeah. So anyway, so I've always been in radio has always been a fascination. And that was my career for 28 years. All

William Huffman  9:40  
right, hold on before the career started. Okay. What age did you get these tapes?

Dave Lawson  9:47  
Oh, I would say about four. Teen

William Huffman  9:51  
okay. Yeah. So middle school freshman year in high school tape. Yeah. Okay.

Dave Lawson  9:56  
You get these tapes and you just watch him over you still wear him out? nerded out hard

Sarah Huffman  10:00  
on this Yeah, that's awesome. Your friends do this as well. There was

Dave Lawson  10:03  
no solo like nobody, nobody, it was just me.

William Huffman  10:08  
They sold three copies of those tapes. Dave bought one guy who made them and the guy who made them his mom. Yeah.

Dave Lawson  10:16  
If there's anybody that's in radio and has had any history with radio, they know exactly what they're raising their hand. I got them. Oh, wow. Yeah, no, I there was nobody around me. You know, it's not like a buddy said, Hey, you want to do radio with me? You know, I was just I just kind of felt alone. I remember as a little kid, I would set up a little radio station in my in my basement bedroom. And I had a walkie talkie. And then I would give the other walkie talkie to my mom. And then I would play the I would play my home a radio station, and she would listen upstairs. And that was my first. It's my first time it's actually

William Huffman  10:52  
really amazed. That is awesome. That is such a cool story. And then

Dave Lawson  10:55  
I would during the Superbowl, I would set up a couple tape recorders and one that recorded and I would act like the announcer during the Superbowl and then play commercials and stuff. I just loved the whole production more than even performing. Like the whole, like the whole package. How do they package it up? You know? How did how did they? How does it

Sarah Huffman  11:14  
roll from this commercial to the next commercial to the announcer like

Dave Lawson  11:17  
how do they keep your attention? What are they doing to keep your attention? And I that's what I was fascinated mostly with when it comes to when it comes to radio. But really it applies to television. Also, did

Sarah Huffman  11:29  
you go to college for radio?

William Huffman  11:31  
You're still in high school. Oh, not even

Dave Lawson  11:33  
Sarah, you

Sarah Huffman  11:34  
always, always want to push your head. I'm like I have so many questions.

William Huffman  11:38  
Yeah, no, no, no, no, no, no. Like, I'm

Sarah Huffman  11:39  
like, How did you meet your wife? Like I'm like, ready for like,

William Huffman  11:42  
Oh, alright, so

Dave Lawson  11:44  
you're always ready. Always. Yeah. Okay,

William Huffman  11:47  
so 14 or 15? We got the tapes. We're now in high school. What's high school like for us? Are we? Because we like sports? Are we nerding? Are we jogging? Or like, what are we doing kind

Dave Lawson  11:57  
of went their natural way. By the time I got to freshman. I got beat up enough on the football field. Yeah, it happened. And I looked over at the band. And I thought that looks like a lot of fun. Yeah, yeah. And they don't look like they're in pain at all. Like they're all still walking. Normally.

William Huffman  12:15  
I carry them too. Right. You weren't you became a Bandy.

Dave Lawson  12:20  
Yeah. Well, I, you know, I was always I played trumpet since fifth grade. And then I decided that, you know, I'm going to join the marching band. And loved it just absolutely loved it. It's where I met, friends that I still have to this day, there was, you know, this, this this camaraderie that we had in the marching band, and, you know, my son's marching band at his school is so small. And we feel like the town where we are, it's so such an emphasis on sports that kids aren't doing more than that breed of stuff anymore. And the marching band is so small, but back, back when I was you know, it was huge. Yeah, the marching band was huge. And it was, we did a lot of like traveling and did some competitions. I was in the jazz band. We went to New York. We got to march on Yankee Stadium. We'll play the national anthem.

Sarah Huffman  13:12  
It was really the Macy's Day Parade.

Dave Lawson  13:15  
We know we didn't do the Macy's Day Parade. We did do the Thanksgiving Day Parade in downtown Detroit, which is exhausting. It's like two miles, you know, and it's always like four

William Huffman  13:25  
sheets where he played on Yankee Stadium field.

Dave Lawson  13:28  
Yeah, she will. She thinks that there's something better than that. Not really.

William Huffman  13:31  
That's one of the most iconic in history.

Sarah Huffman  13:35  
Yeah, we should I edit that out.

Dave Lawson  13:39  
Dave, edit that out.

William Huffman  13:41  
No, don't do that. Dave.

Dave Lawson  13:42  
Dave. One thing I remember at Yankee Stadium was the grass was really plush. Like, it didn't even seem real. It's like somebody went out there with scissors and cut it. Yeah, it

Sarah Huffman  13:53  
was really cool. That is very cool. It's very fun. That was in high school.

Dave Lawson  13:57  
I was in high school. Yeah. And we played on some Broadway stages, you know, in the jazz competition, it was there was a real emphasis on the arts, you know, back then. And I know that there are a lot of high school teachers now and middle school teachers now that are begging for parents to put more emphasis on the arts. And I just think that when you open kids up to the arts into music, it really opens the brain up and I think they're actually better academically as well. I know with my my son who's now taking piano lessons and stuff he just I mean, he he's a whole different kid after piano lessons. And it really just, you know, so yeah, it was it was it was it was great and all my friends now our friends that I had back then it was just it was just a lot of fun.

William Huffman  14:42  
Alright, so we're playing band we're playing the trumpet love the trumpet. played it for like three years. You did? Oh, yeah.

Dave Lawson  14:48  
You please trip. I did. Yeah. Can you still play?

William Huffman  14:51  
Oh, I could, but it's, it would be pretty rusty.

Dave Lawson  14:54  
Do you have your trumpet?

William Huffman  14:55  
I do not. I lost it in a move several years back.

Dave Lawson  14:58  
You lost it Yeah,

William Huffman  15:00  
I you know, I don't know if he knows but I don't really get my shit together

Dave Lawson  15:07  
because I see the use of it that poor a while ago

Accouncer  15:13  
so we were playing

Sarah Huffman  15:15  
moving on so did

William Huffman  15:18  
so did we graduate high school we were we like you know like honors where we just like Massey's get green. Oh

Dave Lawson  15:23  
god bless you love that you look at me and assume maybe honors No, no, no, I was you know I academically he wasn't a great student I could have been I just didn't care Yeah, I really just didn't

William Huffman  15:42  
I mean it seems like you knew you knew your career path was just a young child. Yeah,

Dave Lawson  15:47  
yeah, and I don't know any honors students that were DJs you know?

Sarah Huffman  15:52  
I mean, one can drink

William Huffman  15:56  
37 AC t here

Dave Lawson  16:00  
see many valedictorians in you know, we're gonna be on the mic so I just didn't care I think that's what a boil down to but so I was at an all C student to be honest and then C's get degrees all of the colleges I wanted to go to said not yet when I applied. And so I went to a community college Yeah, which was a great move at the beginning. And that's where I kind of came alive academically. That's where my mind opened up. And I started to get A's and B's and then I transferred to the college I wanted to go to which is Central Michigan University, which is in Mount Pleasant, Michigan, right in the middle of the state Go Blue. Go.

Sarah Huffman  16:36  
I don't know. Okay, I should have started with this question. Are you a Go State or Go Go Green or a Go Blue? Or don't you care? Because you went to Central?

Dave Lawson  16:46  
Um, I guess if I had to choose in Michigan you have to choose right? Yeah, so probably go blue. Okay, okay. Yeah, yeah, I used to go and to Michigan State to see my friends and there. They used to make fun of they used to make fun of me. sounded really why me when I started. Yeah, it was okay. But yeah, there was like a, you know, like League. Like they used to kind of make fun of our college, you know, and it was like, Who are you? Yeah, you know, it's we're all in Michigan and middle of the state, putting the

William Huffman  17:20  
helmet on like, you shouldn't really be making like fun. You shouldn't make fun of anybody anyways, but unless you're actually out on the field game day. Shut your mouth. Yes.

Dave Lawson  17:28  
It was just really weird. But I really didn't. I mean, either one I didn't really care about we had a great time at Central Michigan. It was one of those colleges where it's not like the you here or in many cities where there's a city around it. Yeah, it was just the university because tiny city they're a bit right. So you kind of you know, when you went out you saw the same people every night. It was really a university town. It was very friendly. And when people left you went home and you'd have to travel a couple hours. You get home, but yeah,

William Huffman  17:58  
did you use the terminology townie again, yeah. Their attorney? Their attorney? Yeah, yeah. Sarah? Yes. Well, did you ever use the terminology townie? Yes, yeah, of

Sarah Huffman  18:09  
course you did. Because I went to a small liberal arts school and the there were 1200 students in a town of like, 3000. The best thing about going to I went to Cornell College in Iowa. But the best thing was, I went to school, I could have studied more. I didn't I had a great time in college. But the relationships and the friendships that I had, because there were no distractions. Like we weren't in a city with all this other stuff to do. Exactly. Yeah. Your friends became like, core friends.

Dave Lawson  18:38  
They became very close. Very

Sarah Huffman  18:39  
close. Yeah.

William Huffman  18:42  
compelling story.

Dave Lawson  18:43  
I thought it was a great story. Thank

Sarah Huffman  18:44  
you, Dave. I couldn't feel that Dave was connecting with me on this it will was like next Yeah,

William Huffman  18:49  
next. Okay, so we're in central Central Michigan how many laws did you break while you were in college? Really?

Sarah Huffman  18:58  
You're gonna go on record with this? Go ahead. Dave.

William Huffman  19:02  
Most of the statue limitations have passed

Dave Lawson  19:04  
we stole what we stole

William Huffman  19:07  
because being banned people don't let them fool you band people. You guys got some shit going on? Like you will band together band get it? But um,

Sarah Huffman  19:16  
and did you run cross country too? Because I feel like bands people cross cross country people

William Huffman  19:21  
are super weird. super weird.

Dave Lawson  19:24  
I six grand St. Cross Country.

William Huffman  19:26  
Yeah. Yeah. Our neighbor across St. Sophia love her death weird as hell. And she runs like the wind. But because now a lot of my friends in high school. We're cross country people. I've earned the right to call them weird. They do some weird shit, man. It's but they run. They love each other. They love it, man. Yeah. So So in college, what do you do? We all did something.

Dave Lawson  19:45  
So I didn't pursue band in college. And that was a huge mistake because they had a camaraderie and a closeness that I wish I had although they did a lot of drugs. Like we used to have some enter to come to our parties and they always brought You know, sometimes the grass or these people, and then they would tell them, they would tell bad jokes, you know, and it was kind of, I thought, well, but they were such great friends and I thought I wish I would have pursued it. So I dropped band. I didn't really hang around a lot. I have these roommates in college, and we all were roommates that that, that transferred from a community college. So we had that kind of camaraderie like a lot of people went to Central as a freshman, and then, but we all transferred in you know, because Because whatever reason, and we all have these, we all came with different life experiences. And these are the guys that I roomed with, right. And so, you know, we would all bring different people to the parties. Yeah, you know, and so it'd be this hodgepodge

Sarah Huffman  20:50  
it's like a walk of people. Right? It's not a weapons Well, no, I don't

William Huffman  20:56  
Yes, I know what a wop is, but in if there's any like Gen Z listeners, they don't in they're gonna think of the song lop.

Sarah Huffman  21:04  
I don't even know that that was a song. Oh,

William Huffman  21:07  
yeah.

Dave Lawson  21:08  
What is the wop song? What is I can't even say it Google.

Sarah Huffman  21:14  
Yeah. My terminology for the web? Nine terminology for the web.

Dave Lawson  21:24  
Would you look it up? You're gonna be like, I could never say that again. Really? I've literally Yeah, cuz look it up.

Sarah Huffman  21:31  
I don't I don't know if I want to

William Huffman  21:33  
WAP

Dave Lawson  21:34  
so it's something you don't want to say in polite conversation. It's not

William Huffman  21:36  
wine and pizza, that's for sure. Okay, and Cardi B? Yeah. Yeah.

Sarah Huffman  21:43  
Or in this house? There's some pores in this house.

Dave Lawson  21:48  
Oh, um, I have something totally different. Oh, yeah.

Sarah Huffman  21:54  
We cannot say this. We cannot say this on our podcast, it will. It would turn explicit really fast. If anybody else wants to look it up. Look it up at your own time. So my. So what I was referring to for the whop was

Dave Lawson  22:17  
I spelled it wrong. I spelled it wrong. I couldn't see how to spell it. No, no,

William Huffman  22:23  
it's not wine and pizza.

Sarah Huffman  22:25  
Okay. Moving on. Well, yeah. The what was a I lost my I don't even know why I brought up that word. Because it was like y'all bring someone else to the party like

William Huffman  22:36  
whop is where you pour in like high seed punch and Bacardi and seven. Clear and like all the things Oh, that's a different way. That's the wrong way. Well,

Sarah Huffman  22:45  
that's the I will wait.

William Huffman  22:46  
Moving on. Okay. You

Sarah Huffman  22:48  
know, it's like a whole mixture hodgepodge of people I come, drinks, that's what it was. But like, I was thinking of like the people I was not thinking of the thing we just Google is

William Huffman  22:59  
Yeah, yeah.

Dave Lawson  23:01  
Thank you. Shame on you for no well you are obviously and polite. Our company.

William Huffman  23:09  
I tick tock man. That's on tick

Sarah Huffman  23:11  
tock.

William Huffman  23:12  
Well, there's a there's parodies about it like wine and pizza. Okay. Moving on.

Sarah Huffman  23:18  
David, this is your this is your show. Well, okay. Can we please?

William Huffman  23:24  
I don't know how you met your wife. No, no, we cannot. Oh, my God was about to say how he borrowed something in college one. Oh, yeah.

Sarah Huffman  23:31  
Oh,

Dave Lawson  23:32  
I McDonald sign. Tell me more. It was on this side of the building. It needed to be somewhere else.

Sarah Huffman  23:42  
And see, this is what happens. This is the type of stuff people steal that are in line or borrow. They returned it

Dave Lawson  23:50  
and the two slowest ended up in jail. See, there's more to this story. And the next day we had to go bail him out. But that's about it. I mean, we were pretty good. Okay. Yeah, you know, we didn't drive anywhere you could walk to hurt anybody. I was telling my son. I don't know if it's a great story for my 15 year old son. But I said Son, you know, I used to go to the ATM and withdrawal five bucks and we used to pay $1 to get into the wayside. And it was $1 for a pitcher of beer. Oh, yeah, bucks will do the trick. Five bucks. You could go out on five bucks. Yes, you could. And my son said that's great story dead. Yeah. Yeah.

William Huffman  24:27  
Now five bucks.

Sarah Huffman  24:28  
Come on the line. I'll give you five bucks.

Dave Lawson  24:32  
Exactly. Exactly. So yeah, no, I think we were you know, we we we had a like you sir. We had a great time in college. It was like I remember right before graduation, laying on my bed and just thinking I'll never have these days again. Like there's something there was something special that happened over these past four years. Yeah. And when I go my next place when I move or Around Me will be people of all different ages having all different issues and problems, and it'll just be different. I recognize that back then. And I still think back to those days and you know, it was a special time. It was a very special time.

William Huffman  25:14  
So what did you do? What degree did you graduate with?

Dave Lawson  25:17  
I had a Bachelor of Arts. So I had I had a double major in broadcasting and political science.

William Huffman  25:24  
Okay. Okay, so

Sarah Huffman  25:24  
what time was your radio show? Did you have a radio? I

Dave Lawson  25:28  
did? I did. I had a radio show in college. So

William Huffman  25:31  
good. Q Good. Q. We almost missed that.

Sarah Huffman  25:35  
Well, no, but I mean, I was assuming you did. And I'm like, I wonder what time of day it was. Because I'm sure it wasn't like the

Dave Lawson  25:41  
well, I worked at the you know, you did whatever you could do at the college radio station. But then I got enough material that I needed to put together what's called the demo tape. And then you submit the demo tape to the local radio station. Then I got a call and I've worked the evening shift. So as seven to midnight. Oh, that's actually a good time. Yeah, it was great. It was fantastic. And it kept me out of a lot of trouble actually, the last two years of school because I would join my buddies at the bar afterwards. Yes, you know, and, but ya know, it's great. I was on the top 40 station. So that's the music everybody was listening to and I would get go On make a little money. Have some fun and then and then go out and then amazing.

William Huffman  26:18  
You mean you didn't make millions of dollars doing the seven to midnight show?

Dave Lawson  26:21  
I did. I just Yeah, I was just swimming in money. That's the one thing people don't realize about radio. It pays women money. Super. Wow. Unbelievable. Yeah. Fantastic. That's why my kids will never go into it.

William Huffman  26:40  
You already got too much money. Yes. Yeah. Like yeah, let somebody else do

Dave Lawson  26:44  
this. Yeah, yeah. No. So then I, I, when I graduated, I just moved that same shift to a different radio station in a bigger town. So I had that experience that right after graduate I got to go do radio in a in a bigger at a bigger station actually making Summerlin

William Huffman  27:00  
Nice. Yeah, yeah. Very cool. Okay, so you had a radio show in college? You graduate with a poli sci? Which I don't even know what that is political science. Yeah, I know. But nobody can explain to me what they do with the political science. I don't know. It just sounded

Sarah Huffman  27:14  
really good. Right. Usually they go to law school, are they?

William Huffman  27:19  
Yeah, we don't nobody knows. No, but they become a liberal arts degree. Yeah. Good job on that one baby.

Dave Lawson  27:25  
Well, from like my parents, they would say what are you a liberal now?

William Huffman  27:33  
Yes, yeah.

Dave Lawson  27:34  
It's everybody. The teachers are socialist, right? Yeah, absolutely. Marxism.

William Huffman  27:37  
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So Stalin? Yeah. My gosh. I'm just going back to Russia. Whatever. Moving on. I'm just trying to be Did you have some gluten today? Well, last night I did.

Dave Lawson  27:52  
Oh, yeah.

Sarah Huffman  27:53  
I hear it. Yeah, cheese on my coffee.

William Huffman  27:57  
No, I don't need caffeine right now. What did you have pasta made some pasta?

Dave Lawson  28:02  
Sometimes you just can't it was I've been gluten free now. Yeah, usually I am gone made free. alcohol free and gluten free. Yeah. I don't miss the meat. Believe it or not, I don't miss the alcohol. But the gluten is tough. That's the toughest one

Sarah Huffman  28:19  
but and you know now there's so many decent gluten free options there are but you still have to watch because sometimes they might take the gluten out but then add a ton of other crap.

Dave Lawson  28:28  
A lot of sugar. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's like well,

Sarah Huffman  28:34  
basically Skittles. That's far from a pasta is like a Skittle?

William Huffman  28:40  
That's what's always pastas artists. Yes. Okay, so I'm gonna keep us on track here. Okay, awesome. All right. So, college, where do we move after college? Alright, so

Dave Lawson  28:49  
that was in Mount Pleasant, Michigan, I move about an hour to the east to Saginaw, Michigan. And I signed on with a big radio station there wi OG and this is a radio station at the time that would get 30 shares when the ratings came back. Now stations might get two or three shares and do well you know now that was it. 30 shirts. Just amazing. Yeah, they just sort of get on a station like that was was absolutely incredible.

William Huffman  29:18  
Was that a part of like Clear Channel or one of those?

Dave Lawson  29:22  
I forget the name of the company. But that was before the big Clear Channel for they kind of buy out yeah, sometimes these big companies start buying out radio stations. But it was a beautiful building. They actually paid me a salary. Oh, wow. Yeah, to go on and just do radio. I didn't have to do anything else about radio and it was just, uh, you know, it was you know, I had a roommate that was a good friend of mine and we just had a really good time. But again, you know, like, you moved away and it was a different it was just different. It was like being you know, being away from college took a little bit of time, but it was, it was a really good time. And, you know, and then I went from Did you want me to move on? No,

William Huffman  30:00  
So I have a question about radio. So you are working, quote unquote, working from seven to midnight. Right? Right. That's what five hours? What do you do? Is there a lot of prep beforehand? Or like how do you get ready for that five hour shift? Or is that just kind of what you're expected to? Do? They show up and go,

Dave Lawson  30:16  
yeah, no, there's prep. I mean, you gotta get ready for it. You know, you know, you know, you know what you're supposed to be doing who you're talking to all that kind of thing. So you,

Sarah Huffman  30:26  
you kind of do like a random show. So yeah, you're gonna get

Dave Lawson  30:30  
I would design it, you know? Yeah. Like, Hey, Joe, when it comes to that, I like to know what I'm going to do know, structure it out that kind of

Sarah Huffman  30:37  
so this is really got to throw your mind right now.

Dave Lawson  30:39  
Yeah, you guys. Yeah. It's just like, I don't understand it.

William Huffman  30:42  
Yeah. Well, you went on a great rant, when I wasn't recording earlier. So that was awesome. Right. But yeah, no, this this somehow works. Like it was like we think the editor, but I

Sarah Huffman  30:53  
just think it's interesting, because it's like, I always wonder like, with radio, like, how do they have all that material? Ready, but you do have a random show. You've got your jokes. You've got your funny things. Your acts? Yeah,

Dave Lawson  31:04  
yeah. And then you get your fallback things, you know, ever you're gonna have to do it a while. It's like, yeah, you sometimes you repeat a couple jokes that you've done in the past. But yeah, you get prepared, but it's not. It's not your typical job. Like in your typical work environment. It's just it's a it's a very strange environment, radio, and it's, it's wonderful at the same time, like people are just, you know, real loose. We're laughing about dumb things all the time. It's just it was it was a really fun environment to be in.

Sarah Huffman  31:38  
And so when you listen to the radio now, like, do you listen to the radio? Or do you are you on Spotify? Or like, what do you do? Yeah,

Dave Lawson  31:44  
I don't listen to a lot of radio now can radio is kind of broken my heart and this kind of, I don't know, where you know, where you'd like to go, eventually with this. But you know, as I started wind down radio, it really broke my heart i in the latter half of my career, just before I left radio to open the business I have now it you know, with all the digital options, people were straying away from radio. Yeah. And I was on with iHeartRadio I was on their network. And that's how I kind of wound up my career. I was on like, 30 stations across the country. And so I would do a little bit of traveling to some of these stations. And you would walk into the stations and they would just be bare you know, that just it was it was skeleton crew there. You know, a lot of this a lot of the day parts were empty. There'd be nobody in the studio because guys like me were you know, doing them from afar. You know, I was on and I was on some dream stations. I was on a station in Detroit, a station. I grew up on to an afternoon drive. Oh, Primetime baby. And I was doing it for my basement, Minneapolis. Get out of here. No. And I was on a station in Grand Rapids, Michigan, a station in Portland, Oregon, a station in Phoenix, Arizona station in Cleveland, Ohio, you know, some of these big stations that I would have dreamed of being on in the 80s and 90s. When I used to get these these videotapes. Yeah, you know, I'm doing them from my basement. And and then I would go to these stations. You know, I went to the station in New York City. Like the station. Yeah. See, 100 where, you know, if anybody's in radio, they know exactly. Stations are like the best of the best. And I walk in, there's like nobody there.

William Huffman  33:22  
Well, I mean, people forget that. And because our age grew up with television, but there was a time when radio was the the newest medium that that was used to deliver news and information and entertainment to people around the world for first time in the history of the world. And the radio was, it was revered as the highest of highest things to do like the journalism that came through the study of the world of the wars or war of the world. Yeah, I mean, literally thought that was happening. And that was on the radio. And like the first time a president given a dress on the radio, like these huge, huge announcements came through this medium. That is it's it's quite amazing. I truly, I love the radio. I love audio way more than I enjoy TV and visual. Absolutely, it's because it allows me to paint the picture in my head with the help of the person narrating the story, and guiding you through the experience that you're seeing there. And we forget how just how iconic the radio was.

Dave Lawson  34:28  
Oh, yeah. Do you remember growing up as a kid and and and it would be snowing outside? And you would turn on the radio and they'd be running down the school in alphabetical order, alphabetical order, and you're just like, you're just like standing up in your chair and you got your cereal right there and they're waiting for it and then they announce your school is closed. It's like Christmas morning. Yes. Oh, and that was on the radio.

William Huffman  34:52  
Yes. Yeah. Oh, you didn't know you get texts on your own from the school or you

Dave Lawson  34:56  
get to that or or maybe you see a thunderstorm caught or something Bad coming over. What's the first thing you need the radio radio, they would be live. You don't get that anymore.

Sarah Huffman  35:06  
I remember as a kid. I can't remember what the radio station was. But we would call in for contests, radio. It wasn't radio, Disney, but it was like before radio, Disney. There was party lines. It was like a local and you would like call it and you would win the prizes and like you would wait and it would be like, it would be a big part of your day, or a

William Huffman  35:27  
Sunday mornings and Albert Lea, remember this Saturday and Sunday mornings listening to the party line with my grandma. It was on the am station, and people would call in and offer services. Yeah, it'd be like the Craigslist of today. Hey, this is William and I mow lawns do garage cleanouts. I have my own equipment. If you're interested in reaching me, please call me up this number. And then it'd be it'd be your ad. And he'd go on to the next person have a garage sale coming up. And it was amazing. You know,

Dave Lawson  35:59  
where they still have this kind of magic is in small small towns. Like if you go to Ely. We're up in Ely last year. And you turn on w e l y. Yeah, I don't know where they got that. But they they would have like Trey do like like looking Oh, Martha has a piano. Yeah. And she was willing to get rid of it for $500 If you're willing to come pick it up. Oh, my call this number. And it was like a full hour of that. Yeah, I thought this is that intimacy, that community of radio that I loved that I miss so much. That's not there anymore. Wow, that makes me

Sarah Huffman  36:39  
sad. It makes me sad because as a consumer of radio. I don't I never once thought about the life behind the radio. Dude. Like how you were recording these shows from the basement of a house in Minneapolis. Yeah. And how it was sad to go to the studios because they're empty. Yeah. Because as the consumer of the radio, you didn't notice any different

Dave Lawson  37:04  
notice any different? Yeah, yeah. Well, yeah. And then there's, you know, there's no new blood going into radio. It's just, it's really sad at the same time, it is what it is. Because there's such a switch now to on demand content through digital media with you know, what you guys are doing, it's so easy to, to get your own voice and it's so easy for people to go on and do this. And it's it's I think that is cool, because it's really even the field for everybody to get on. Something. I mean, radio like if you look in the 70s 80s 90s you know, Radio Television used to be an exclusive club used to have to have a lot of money to buy to get on you know, and it's you had to now anybody can can do this through content.

William Huffman  37:46  
Anybody can like the corn kid, it's corn like he can that's very relevant right now. Tik Tok. Thank you. He's everywhere. It's like, anybody can go viral. Anybody can it take up a platform, anybody can spew or speech, your preach what they want to preach. And you just need a cell phone to be quite honest. And you can do it on YouTube or Facebook or wherever. So Right. Yeah. And that's a that's a fantastic way of approaching that it has leveled the playing field. Maybe some people shouldn't have the microphone and stuff, you know, but hey, that's the first amendment and you know,

Dave Lawson  38:20  
standards are increasing, though, like the professionalism with podcasting. Yeah, you know, some of these, they get weeded out pretty quick. You got to have a seriousness to it, you know, when you get on but I just love that. Especially with me, you know, there's something there for everyone. If you're a movie fan, if you're a golfing fan, if you're a fishing fan, if you love disc, golf, whatever, there's a there's something there for you. You know, so that's pretty cool to me. Yeah, we

William Huffman  38:50  
have a friend who is a tequila, get reviews, tequila

Dave Lawson  38:52  
review, and it has a whole platform around that

William Huffman  38:55  
modern 30 Some 1000 followers on Instagram, just

Sarah Huffman  38:57  
love it. How cool is that? I think it allows people the permission to truly like be themselves and and exploit their interests. Yeah, you know, where you don't have to be like everybody else. It's like, No, you can actually have a platform and be yourself.

William Huffman  39:11  
And it can be for a story of one it can be for yourself. Yes, that's the cool thing about it. When we started doing this, Sara, you are very ABCD whatever they call that structure structure weird. And so for someone recording a podcast, she's like, well, what are we going to talk about? She has all these ideas. And I'm like, I don't know, like, who's the somebody else who's our target audience and like me, I'm doing this for me. I want to talk to people. I want to talk to myself, I want to have conversations, and I'm not doing it for anybody else. There's there's nothing wrong with having an agenda and going after a certain demographic. One of the one of the freeing things I truly appreciate about this type of technology and platform is I don't have to do it for anybody else. And whether or not it goes viral or blows up or gets 30 down. Almost 5000 downloads or a million downloads, right? It's okay. I put it into the universe because I appreciate what we're talking about. And that's like you said, leveling the playing field. And it's, it's it's such a strange dynamic.

Dave Lawson  40:12  
I think it's that is the perfect way to go. But I think when people start by saying I want to go viral, or the start their starting position is I want 5000 downloads. They've skipped ahead to the point where it's not going to happen. You got to start with your passion, right? You've got to start with why am I doing this that big? Why? And if you know why you're doing it, it has nothing to do with going viral or selling something, then you're going to get the people that are attracted to that message.

Sarah Huffman  40:43  
Yeah. And to me, it's like if we ever got went viral, or when I say when we go viral. It's not because we're we tried to go viral. It's because we've built a following. We've built content, we've built a platform that no matter when we hit that viral state, we're gonna keep going. Right? So many people go viral, and they're done.

Dave Lawson  41:05  
They're done. Because they've got nothing to back it up. Yeah, that one video. And then the people will say, Well, what else does this person have? Yeah. And then they haven't done anything else. Really? It's just that one video in that one moment of time, where they caught someone doing something. Yeah. And it's been spread well, and then what? And then what, and then you got to redefine, and we might want to stop this because I'm getting really nerdy here. But you kind of have to redefine what what is viral mean? Yeah. What is viral, you know, how about instead of viral, you say, how many lives have I impacted here, you know, like, if somebody comes up to you and said, You know what, I've heard this on your podcast where, you know, people have said, You guys showed up just at the right time when it was almost over for me. And that, to me, is a life well lived. That to me is all the effort that you put into this, that makes it all worth it. That's viral to me. To be honest.

Sarah Huffman  42:01  
You were at Dave, you were in the room when well, and I shared our financial story with Brenda. And when we went that day, we didn't have an agenda. We didn't know what we were going to talk about. We didn't know what she was going to ask us. And you know, it was one of those things where I just remember, I think I told you this will, where it's like, I'm willing to do whatever we need to do and be as honest as we can. Because if it can help one person, it was worth it. Yeah. And I think like that really is like this whole life behind the highlight. Concept. Highlight Reel concept is like sharing these stories, because it might help one person. And you might summon on this, someone might listen to this episode and hear like how you, like did radio and did all these things. And like you were true to who you were and that's gonna help someone. Yeah, you know, it's,

William Huffman  42:50  
well, here's the thing is, people might have thought you were weird, or who's this strange little boy who wants tapes of behind the scenes radio, right? And you're like, you're like pound sand. I want the tapes. I want to this is what I want to do. There might be somebody listening, like, you know what, I want to do this and I'm going to do it because because you know what I can because I can because I can although my

Dave Lawson  43:13  
dad would always give me pamphlets of law school. He would always of course he did. Emily's. We support you. But you know, take a

Sarah Huffman  43:21  
little bit poli sci degree.

Dave Lawson  43:24  
Lawyers pretty good profession, too, right? Not a big DJ.

Sarah Huffman  43:29  
But now like looking back, right? Like looking back? Would you have picked a different path?

Dave Lawson  43:34  
Um, no, no, yeah. No, again, you can't change the past you just right. You just You just learn from it and, and move on. I mean, I love it. I still love it. I love you know, helping people create content like I do today. I just, every time I sit down to edit your podcast or anybody else's podcast, it's just fun. You know, it's just I

Sarah Huffman  43:56  
What are they going to talk about today? Right times as we're gonna burp.

Dave Lawson  43:59  
Right? Exactly, exactly. Well had gluten, you guys will say stuff. It'll just crack me up. And I'll just think, you know, gosh, I get to do this. And you know, and get paid for it. It's just a lot of fun. And that's how I've always, always viewed it.

William Huffman  44:14  
That's awesome. I'm not even going to try and bring it back. Because this is one of those things where you can't force a conversation. And this is a great conversation. So we're just gonna keep going. I can tell when you're talking like in your eyes and your smile in your face like this. This is truly your passion. Yeah, yeah. Like there's no bullshit here. This isn't like, hey, enjoy doing this. You love doing this and you love talking about it? Yeah. So we're, what why did you start doing the podcast route? You were in radio? You said like 28 years? Yeah. And then you're like, I'm done.

Dave Lawson  44:48  
Mill. Well, kinda. They helped me. Okay. No, it was just kind of the way I heard was going. It was it's it's a long story and I could have stayed in it, my wife and I moved here for her job. And I talked with her, I said, I think I want to go this direction. And she's so supportive. And we thought, well, this would be the perfect time, you know, just kind of segue out of radio, take advantage of what they're offering there. And, and it was hard to say goodbye into and I, I still miss it to this day, like doing this with you guys reminds me of because I Mars majority of my career was morning shows, you know, with multiple people in the room, and we sit around and have fun and laugh. And you know, what we're doing here, this was every day for me this is every day is so much fun. And I do miss it. Like I used to love to go out to the state fair, because we'd be live for cool went away. And we used to go live from the State Fair. And that was a lot of fun, because you get people coming up and but all of that was gone. So I decided that as I was winding down my career in radio, that I would help a real estate agent, start his own podcast, and he wanted to do a podcast in Edina Minnesota in interview business owners, and I thought, well, this is gonna fail. You know, I just want to, I said, who's gonna listen, he goes, Well, we're hoping people, you know, in the community will listen and blah, blah, blah, blah. So I thought, well, I got to do it, I got to take over this to see if we can make it something. So I took it over and you know, helped him through the interviewing skills. And you know, we got the guests and we put it on within the first year, it had like 10,000 downloads, and it made me realize how it made me realize the power of podcasting, and that people were really listening and consuming this stuff. And they wanted, you know, not only the national stuff, but they wanted the local stuff to, you know, they really wanted to get to know and the feedback this guy was getting was amazing. So we decided to open up a business, and it's just focus on podcasting, and helping business owners start podcasts and do some short form video as well. Basically just

Sarah Huffman  46:54  
content, you know, and is this are you talking about? Tim? Yeah, Tim Murphy. Murphy. Yeah. And the reason I just wanted to call Tim Murphy out, because you are you business partners with Tim for the editing side? What I see from Tim and I don't know, Tim, like, it's not like we don't have like, a friendship or relationship or anything like that. But what I love about what you two are doing is it is with such an abundance mindset, because there's enough room for everybody. Yeah, there's enough room for everybody to produce their style of show. It's not limited to like, Oh, I already work with this realtor. Oh, I already work with this business owner. It's like no, like, everybody has a story to share. Everybody has an interest. Let's get it out there.

Dave Lawson  47:33  
Yeah. And it doesn't have to be you know, everybody thinks, Well, I got to do a podcast about my business. Well, no, not at all. No, what you want to do is you want to create content that lets people get to know you. Yeah. And that's what you guys have done with this. And we we learn more or as much about you as the guest. Because the stories are shared, like you're at a party, you know. And that's when people have an affinity and a closeness. That's, you know, the business comes after that. But that's not even the important thing at the time.

Sarah Huffman  48:05  
And that's a driver. No, it's like for us the driver is like, how do we meet and talk to people?

William Huffman  48:11  
Right? I love swapping lies and solving all the world's problems. Yeah, that's all we're doing. You could do in one hour. Just need more beer. Just

Sarah Huffman  48:19  
usually yourself. You don't even drink beer.

William Huffman  48:23  
I know. I'd miss beer. That's the gluten.

Dave Lawson  48:25  
I miss beer too. Yeah, a lot.

Sarah Huffman  48:27  
I don't drink anymore. So it's

William Huffman  48:30  
nobody. Oh. You're welcome. I care. I care. I do care. That was rude. I do care quite a bit. I

Dave Lawson  48:39  
just thought I'd jump in. But yeah, yeah.

William Huffman  48:42  
William, everybody cares every Awesome, so

Sarah Huffman  48:49  
I have a question could be I would love there's so much more to talk about

William Huffman  48:54  
my gosh, we haven't even talked about so much stuff. But that's okay. We're not forcing anything to do. But like

Sarah Huffman  48:58  
I feel like I'd love to have you back on because I still don't know how you met your wife. And no, I feel like we talked so much like there's many stories that you can bring to the table. Yes. And this really was an amazing way to like get to know you on like the like this especially on the personal level, but personal slash professional with like how you came to podcasting. But I if you are willing, I would love to schedule you to come back and like now we can get to know like, Dave The dad Dave the husband, Dave, like the person.

Dave Lawson  49:31  
Yeah, no, that's that's fine. And I appreciate it. Because I I drove here just so nervous because I I don't know what's interesting about me, you know, you This was so I know the kind of questions you're gonna ask. I am not. I don't like that. They're gonna be so disappointing. No. And then so then we got a little bit of personal but when we got to the podcast, he still has a lot of fun. Oh, absolutely. So I appreciate it. But yeah, I mean, there's, you know, meeting my wife that was a fun that's a fun. That's a Funded pensions and we're gonna we're

William Huffman  50:01  
gonna we're gonna hold on to that she is gonna hold on to that one she can even come in.

Dave Lawson  50:05  
You should interview my wife. She is she's got a fascinating story and she is a very driven person. And it'd be fun to ask her why she stuck with me. To be honest,

William Huffman  50:18  
in the in the screw up part where I wasn't recording for 10 minutes. You said your wife has grit. And that's a Detroit word. And we have some Detroit fans that fans and friends that will be listened to this and we have a coaches retreat. They're coming up next week because we're real estate coaches, blah, blah, blah. And we were talking with our coaches and our head coach Kate was talking and they were brainstorming their word clouding around words destruct to describe what we need to have as a as an organization. Oh, grit and

Dave Lawson  50:51  
grit is one of our rate words. That's like, it's grit.

William Huffman  50:54  
Look, I mean, look that word up, not not Wow. Okay, so And also, when in the screw up, I had you give us the plug for yourself. So if somebody is interested in learning more about podcasting, and because you are a full service, literally, you or Zach will walk in, sit down all the stuff and like help guide you through it. Or you just actually just do our editing. So no matter where you are on the journey of your your podcasting or your short form video because you do video now and stuff to what to do.

Dave Lawson  51:28  
Yeah, yeah. Which is, man, if you want a tour of a video studio, just come in and see. We'll and Sarah they are setting are getting there. Yeah, network studio.

William Huffman  51:38  
Yeah. So how can somebody

Dave Lawson  51:39  
reach you? Okay, podcast. legend.com. You can start there. You can contact Willer Sarah and talk to them? Absolutely. Or call me 91975725929199.

Dave Lawson  51:54  
That's North Carolina. My wife and I traveled around we're both broadcasting nerdy. We

Sarah Huffman  52:00  
haven't gotten to. Well,

William Huffman  52:03  
yeah, that's okay. i

Dave Lawson  52:05  
The whole wife thing is killing you as it is.

Sarah Huffman  52:07  
Here's the thing just means there'll be another episode.

William Huffman  52:10  
Normally I'm I want to. So you when you talked about interviewers, and how it's so I one of the things when I listened to when I watched stuff, or when I go to places when there's a presenter, I'm really fascinated how people interview and then are some like Guy Roz does this wonderful thing. Where, on how I built this podcast, every episode listened to it. And what if you listened to it? Now you're going to recognize this once or twice. He missed represents some information that only the person he's interviewing will know. Oh, that's cool. So he'll say, Oh, I do believe in like 1989. Your gross sales were like, eight, 9 million. And they actually guy they were 15 million. And he does it every podcast once or twice. And as soon as he does that, that guest you can you can tell that they're engaged beforehand. But afterwards, you're like, Oh, I gotta make sure he tells my story. Right. And they're way more engaged. So it's super cool. Watch it, listen to it. So I'm paying a lot of attention to how to interview people there and read the room. And I like to control things you do. Yes. So but when when the flow started going really well into the different mediums. I didn't want to interrupt that spoke next time when we have the wife in and everything. What's the wife's name? Kelsey. Kelsey, when we have Kelsey in? Well, I'll be I'll be a little more stories. Yeah,

Sarah Huffman  53:36  
I've got so many questions you do. Okay. As

William Huffman  53:39  
you know, Dave, we end every podcast asking somebody with their top five favorite restaurants of all time I wrote them down and it can be because of nostalgia. It can be because of food. It can be anywhere. As you know that we have a gentleman on our podcast who said Olive Garden wants in a game with stank guy. It's because he used to go there with his mother all the time. So as an astrologer thing so let's go ahead and go with number five.

Dave Lawson  54:01  
These are a hodgepodge. My wife and I are not big restaurant people. We don't go out a lot these are just like you said yes, these means something. Yes. Awesome. Okay, the first number five is picking pig. Weirdly more not picking pig is in Carthage North Carolina. All right. It's the greatest barbecue restaurant on earth because you can sit out on the deck and they've got a landing strip right out and guys will land their planes right in front of you. And they'll get out in the order barbecue get out and so you can watch planes take off and land right in front of you. And I'm a big aviation nerd. And I that was that was always like my father's take take me to pick and pick and they eat banana pudding. So if you ever in North Carolina, Carthage North Carolina pick and pick they should have rebuilt it burned down. But they should have rebuilt it by now.

Sarah Huffman  54:54  
You got well at the barbecue and you got me at the Banana

William Huffman  54:57  
pie. So I had to know so then Do you like North Carolina sauce? They Carolina sauce whatever sauce Do you like

Dave Lawson  55:03  
east or west? Yeah. So I like I think it's the East is more vinegary. Right and then the West is yes thicker. Yeah Saucier I like the West. The Saucier stuff. Yeah, more sugar. It's

William Huffman  55:16  
thicker. Yeah.

Dave Lawson  55:17  
Okay. I like that. I like that. But the great thing about North Carolina or anything in the south where they take barbecue seriously is their sauces.

Sarah Huffman  55:25  
I love sauce. Yeah,

Dave Lawson  55:26  
they all take a lot of pride in their sauce. They

William Huffman  55:28  
do. Yeah, they do. They they tasted Okay. All right. Number four.

Dave Lawson  55:33  
Loggos tacos is an Excelsior. All right, the Loggos tacos.

Sarah Huffman  55:37  
We have not been there.

Dave Lawson  55:39  
Fantastic. Tacos. Yeah, yeah. Well, you

Sarah Huffman  55:42  
know where it is too.

Dave Lawson  55:43  
Spicy Shrimp. Okay, tacos, because I've gotten meat free. And over the last year because of the stuff I went through, which we get through in another episode. So it's just fantastic.

William Huffman  55:55  
Number three,

Dave Lawson  55:57  
hope and anchor is in is InsurTech, Wisconsin, okay, it's a small coffee shop. A family owns it sweet, sweet family, and they decided to start serving sandwiches. Just fantastic. And then they decided to knock down a few walls and put in a big kitchen. So now they've expanded their menu, but they're just it's just fantastic food and I I really love them for the atmosphere because you get your food and you go out on the patio and they usually bring in some high school band or dads, the dads a teacher at the local high school so they come and perform and it's just it's fantastic because it like performed some hard rock and their grandma's sitting there. You know, and she's just looking at I'm so proud. It's just, it's the best and what dominance is that InsurTech Wisconsin. Nobody knows where that was constant chain of lakes. We have a little cabin there

Sarah Huffman  56:48  
will be Googling that it'll be safer than googling walk

William Huffman  56:51  
yet. Number two.

Dave Lawson  56:53  
I flicked people's organic. Yep, yes. Yeah. Okay. Look for your approval me. Yeah. You're very nervous. Well, we'll tell you.

William Huffman  57:02  
Oh, yeah. That's horrible. No, I think people's are getting it. What's your order? People's

Dave Lawson  57:05  
organic breakfast burrito? I do a breakfast burrito.

Sarah Huffman  57:09  
I do enjoy that. And

William Huffman  57:10  
they open early and they serve their full menu all day. Yeah, that's why they open at 6am. And they'll get you can get a bison burger at 6am. Yep. With bacon, jalapenos, onions.

Dave Lawson  57:20  
Not that you would order. That's literally

William Huffman  57:25  
all right. And number one.

Dave Lawson  57:27  
Okay, buckle up. Yeah, I'm ready for it. I'm ready for the arrows. You're ready. Yeah. Now this isn't number one restaurant, right? This is just

Sarah Huffman  57:35  
number one, either? Yes.

Dave Lawson  57:38  
Taco Bell.

Sarah Huffman  57:40  
No way. I mean, you were in radio. You're up all night. What's your order at Taco Bell?

Dave Lawson  57:46  
Simple bean burrito. Really, they? I don't know what it is. Okay. I'm going to take it back. That was the first restaurant. My brother and I used to hang out in he when he started driving in his barracuda. We used to go to Taco Buddha. Yeah. We used to go to Taco Bell. And we used to eat like four or five tacos at a time. And so that was kind of my brother. That's that's where we hung out, which was really nice. And you know, he was older. So the heat kind of took off early. So

Sarah Huffman  58:15  
are you a hot sauce? A mild sauce, like what was your kind of mild sauce?

Dave Lawson  58:19  
mild sauce, but you know, so then as I went through my radio career, they were always open, right? They're always Oh, yeah. So I would get off the air. And when they were they were open. So I'd stop by and get a Mexican pizza. And I remember eating the Mexican pizza every single day for 45 days. And I still I started sweating, Mexican pizza, and I realized I got a problem. So I stopped, but still to this day, you know, I'm 54 now and I still go through and eat the eat the bean burritos and I love them. I will looks disturbed. He's looking at me like take me

William Huffman  58:53  
now. i We had one other person say Taco Bell. And that was Evie. Oh, I'm not the only one. No, but she's also 22

Dave Lawson  59:05  
So what is what is me? She she's not old enough to have the passion. I talk why what what is it about Taco Bell? You don't like?

William Huffman  59:14  
Where do we start? Everywhere?

Dave Lawson  59:16  
Can you not like Taco Bell? Because it's literally this is gonna get out like

William Huffman  59:22  
horse shit won't even eat that shit. It's so disgusting. I am so picky. And I'm glad you have the nostalgia reason for it.

Sarah Huffman  59:31  
But I'm like ready to go to Taco I don't think Taco Bell. mild sauce.

William Huffman  59:35  
If we ever get a sponsor it will be Taco Bell.

Dave Lawson  59:39  
I know there's a lot of sponsors. You won't get many episodes. No one will grow or tell you what every time I drive past Applebee's, I smile. I hate apple. I know why you hate Applebee's and I look at it and it reminds me you and it makes me smile. And that's the power of this day. All right, exactly. That's the power as

William Huffman  1:00:03  
well. My god, that was awesome. Well, Dave, thank you so much for being here. I super appreciate it man. It's been a hell of a ride. So as we deploy, as always, we

Accouncer  1:00:18  
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