Hello everyone and welcome to the Within Range Coaching podcast. I'm Ranger, certified holistic
success coach, and in this podcast, I'm bringing down the journey that entrepreneurs face as
they start their organization, find solutions to the roadblocks in their way, and create
an impact that lasts. So if you're an entrepreneur, nonprofit leader, or purpose driven community
member that wants to learn how to grow your impact and develop yourself as the person
behind the mission, then this podcast is for you. I know you're just as eager to get started
as I am, so let's jump right in. Good morning, good afternoon and good evening, everybody.
And welcome to today's episode of the Within Range Coaching podcast. Guys, I am on the
west side of Arkansas. I want to say finally, but I don't know if that is the right word
for it. It's just kind of like this is just where I'm at in the moment. I made it through
pretty, I'm only like four miles away from the Oklahoma border, I think. So pretty, pretty
close to finishing up my what? One, two, three, four fifth state on my walk across the country.
And getting from Mississippi to Arkansas was one of those things that were kind of giving
me a lot of grief, I was really confused about and kind of worried. A lot of the routes were
taking me through Memphis on Google Maps. And I think I mentioned this on the podcast
before, but when I was in Georgia, I made a post about my route and I got a bunch of
warning, you know, don't go, I wouldn't walk through Memphis, I wouldn't do that doesn't
sound like the greatest idea. And I don't know, got a lot of links and articles, things
like information sent to me that made me go, hmm, maybe Memphis is more of a fly in and
visit the cool places kind of area and not so much a walkthrough area. And that brought
me to trying to figure out the next best bet, which would be to cross a bridge a bit further
south from Mississippi into Arkansas. And while I was making those posts and looking
at the maps, there was one bridge near an area called, what is it, Helena, but Google
Maps wouldn't let me walk across it. Ended up getting over there, I met up with the mayor
of Marvel in Arkansas. And he said, you know, there's not that much shoulder on that bridge,
but I think it's walkable without your cart. Great. He got me a hotel room right on the
border, I was able to walk across the bridge just fine. And I started asking him for a
little bit of help, you know, I was going to be walking through Little Rock in about
a week or so. And I could use some help and support in the middle of the state. He said,
no problem. I'll share it for you. Lee and I shook hands, I kept on scooting across,
heading west through the state. And not more than a day or two later after he shared that
post, I got reached out to by a woman who works for this is what I was getting at, I
guess, or what I was getting from the messages. But she is the executive director for a hostel
in Little Rock. And I've never stayed at a hostel before. I wasn't really sure what to
expect, I guess. But I figured, you know, hey, if someone's reaching out to help out,
I'm more than happy to accept the help and kind of just say yes to new experiences. So
I canceled the hotel room that I had originally had for Little Rock. And I am when I got to
Little Rock, I walked to the firehouse museum and hostel of Arkansas, where I was eventually
met by the woman that messaged me. And she they gave me a place to stay for a couple
nights, showed me around showed me the super cool hostel, we'll get more into the history
of it later. But no, it was just an amazing little experience. And I was able to convince
enroll whatever you want to say, the woman that reached out to me to be on the podcast
for today. So today we are joined by the executive director of the firehouse museum and hostel
of Arkansas, Miss Anne Ballard Bryan. Anne, how are you doing today?
Doing great. But like I said, we've had a lot of severe weather come through. So we
were up most of the night dodging tornadoes.
Yeah, I will get more into that later. I've been I hate this kind of say, but like I've
been pretty lucky avoiding the bad weather. I had a couple host families that either let
me stay an extra day or were able to pick me up, move me around and be on call. But
I can only imagine a lot more of like the stationary folks like how I don't know, it's
such a weird conversation topic to jump straight into, I guess. But how how does one dodge
tornadoes? Like what does that make? How do you deal with all of this constantly?
Well, you watch the local weather a lot. We have a lot of apps on our phone that every
time severe weather starts to approach our phone alarms go off. And then you can tune
into the local weather stations. And we have some phenomenal meteorologists here in the
Little Rock area and all over Arkansas that keep us really updated on the weather, especially
during the spring season when the tornadoes are hitting. And you always constantly have
a safe place in your wherever it is in your house stocked with a charged up cell phone
charger, water, whatever it is you might need. And in our case, in my house, I live in a
1908 house in the historic district, we have a basement where the old coal chute was. So
we just dive down in the old coal chute. When tornadoes start to approach and grab the dog,
we just head down there and just keep our fingers crossed that it doesn't do any damage
to anyone, you know, so yeah, that's kind of how we handle it around here. It's just
a lot of being prepared, being informed, paying attention. Because I mean, I don't know, I've
noticed on a lot of the weather apps or just the day to day weather. It's not very consistent,
I guess. Or maybe I'm just not used to, I don't know, weather in the south. But yeah,
no, it seems like weather, especially right now, it's pretty much all people can talk
about like, not even just from a Hey, how's the weather? It's like a Hey, are you prepared?
Like, or do you have this? And that's something that I get constantly is people asking what
I have, like, preparation wise, which isn't a whole lot. I mean, I have, you know, I typically
have what a day or two worth of water on me at all times. I think right now, I technically
have enough for about a week and a half of food. But when you're walking in the middle
of nowhere, and by nowhere, I mean, not like many stores, not many houses, it's, it's definitely
nerve wracking, especially when it's not sunny and warm out.
Right. That's when you kind of keep an eye out for the culverts and the ditches and things
that in case you have to run go seek shelter. We've been on the road, you were talking about
Memphis coming home from Memphis and got stuck and just pulled over and hid under the bridge
culvert until it passed over. So you know, you just constantly when weather's approaching,
you have to be on the lookout like, okay, where around this area can we go?
Yeah, no, what was I think there was, that was one of the first things somebody I think
in Georgia told me, because, you know, they say, Oh, you're getting here around tornado
seasons, you know, I was like, Okay, what, let's say you were walking on the side of
the highway. What what happens when one approaches Oh, hiding a culvert, like get in a ditch,
chase yourself basically, I'm like, that sounds terrifying. And that was something I didn't
even think of before I really did the walk. Like, you know, I was so focused on the day
to day stuff, I wasn't really so, I guess, worried about those crazy things that could
happen.
And it is terrifying, because like I had mentioned to you before, we had a direct hit on our
house by a January tornado, which is kind of strange. Several years ago, and we were
down in the old coal chute. And the noise was deafening, the air pressure changed. So
it kind of knocked the air out of our lungs. And it all got quiet. And it was pitch black,
because it knocked out all of our electric poles and everything. It was sort of like,
when we opened the door to that basement, we thought we're gonna see like munchkins.
Because we had no idea if the house survived, it was so loud and crashing. And when the
electric poles were getting blown over the explosions of them and things like that, it
took our roof. So we had to get a new roof. But luckily, other than that, we stayed pretty
much intact, considering that our next door neighbor's house was kind of cut in half.
And diagonally across the street, that house was completely picked up by the tornado. And
there was nothing left of it except its foundation. So it's just a strange thing you live with
in the South, I guess.
That's just how we how people out here talk about it. Like, oh, you know, took the neighbor's
house like it, you know, we just rebuilt, like, it's just such like a weird I guess,
the way that it's like a testament to like the human spirit. It's like, well, this is
what you do with like, we're prepared, we're alive, we're safe, you know, minimal injuries
other than now, we need a new roof. And I guess we can just go to the roof store, or
however that works. So but I know that, I guess, to kind of jump into the actual topic,
I know that, you know, emergency preparedness, like natural disasters are something that
are very prevalent. I mean, anywhere. Okay, maybe one more thing about the natural natural
disasters. I was driving with someone and I asked them, you know, that question, like,
Oh, what do you do if there's a tornado? And he kind of looked at me funny and was like,
Hey, didn't you do drills in school for tornadoes? I was like, Oh, I had earthquake drills, because
I'm from California. I don't think we have tornadoes. You know what I mean? So it's just
interesting how they're kind of everywhere. There's something unique all over. But was
kind of combined or like, I don't know, brings everyone together is fire safety. Yes, you
know, fires are doesn't matter where you are, they can kind of hit anywhere and decimate
and all that kind of nasty stuff. I know that's something that is really big on what the fire
house hostel does. And, you know, bringing that awareness, bring information, I know
that's a little bit of what your intention is today. Could you just kind of share what
you'd like walk or listeners to walk away with this episode with? Well, like you said,
fire doesn't discriminate. And we actually lost a home to a lightning strike fire. So,
you know, natural disasters can also cause fires. We've seen all of the fires out west
that have taken miles and miles of casualties in houses and in lives. And so preparedness
for things like that, but also a very conscious effort of what I can do in my house to make
sure that my house stays safe. And since we lost a house to a fire and lost absolutely
everything in it, except for my grandmother's iron skillet, that was the only thing we found
when we went through the rubble. And so I kept it. But now I'm very conscious of cleaning
out the dryer, you know, lint, not burning candles in the house, making sure that your
electricity is up to date and that your fire and carbon monoxide detectors and all those
things are working well. One of the reasons our house was a complete loss is the cell
phone company, it was in the country. And so we had a landline on purpose for alarm
systems because the tiny town where we lived had a volunteer fire department. And then
we also had self-service, but the self-service was very sketchy in that area. So the phone
company was coming in and working on the lines. Lightning struck, hit the house. Because the
phone company had disconnected that area to work on the lines, our alarm did not get through
to the volunteer fire department. And luckily, a person driving down the little highway saw
smoke and got on their phone and called. But by the time anyone got there, the house was
a total loss. And so going, sorry, it's very emotional that going through that experience
of losing everything, it makes you very conscious about fire safety and all of the men and women
that showed up to put out the fire and risk their own lives. It's very emotional. Sorry.
No, no, you're okay. No, we don't push away emotions on this podcast. Yeah. So I mean,
and that's the hard thing, right? Is all of us know fires are dangerous. We all know that
these things are devastating, that they impact people so negatively, but it's not until it
really, it's just terrible to say it's not until it happens to you or someone close to
you that you really see the actual effects and what it does. And I mean, despite the
total loss, you know, if that other person hadn't seen that and, you know, informed the
fire, it could have been worse. It could have spread. It could have been, it could have
gone from a house to a town very quickly, I'm sure. And acres of woods, pine tree forests
all around. It could have been very devastating. And so these brave men and women that when
they leave for work every day have no idea what's going to happen while they're at work
that day. In Little Rock, our fire departments are not volunteer. Our firemen and women are
actually also have to be EMTs. So they're not only responding to fire emergencies, they're
responding to all kinds of emergencies. And so it just gives you such a great respect
for those men and women that go out every day and face a lot of danger.
Yeah, no, my, depending on when you listen to this podcast, my future father-in-law,
he was a fireman, a fire chief for the counties that my fiance and them all lived in growing
up. So yeah, there's definitely some, I don't know, good poignant reminders there. And I
mean, even just going, staying at the Firehouse Hostel, the, what was it? John that does the
tours?
Johnny, yes.
Johnny, yes, sorry. So Johnny does the tours. I mean, he even has some like very unique
items in the tour that are good reminders of the dangers and the real life implications
of, I don't know, what these people go through. And the one I'm thinking of very specifically
is the glove that's melted to a helmet. It's remarkable.
And that young man lost his life and left behind a wife and kids. And I think he was
only something like 29, very young.
Yeah. And it's just, you know, they're out there putting their lives on the line in order
to prevent others from crossing that line, I guess.
Right.
But yeah, we'll get more into the Firehouse in just a moment. But in terms of your background,
what I found kind of fascinating is now you are the executive director for the Firehouse
Hostel.
Yes.
But you weren't exactly, I'm not sure if you had Firehouse background or if you were a
firefighter. I know that you had a very unique career before being at the tip top of a museum.
So can you talk a little bit about what you did?
Well, when I...
You're a designer, but when they said interior designer, it's very much not what I was thinking
of originally. Not HGTV interior designer.
And that's kind of the misnomer of a lot of the HGTV is most of us don't do anything like
that. But my first career, I actually went to the University of Arkansas as a chemistry
major and then went to the University of Arkansas for medical sciences and got a doctor of pharmacy.
And I practiced pharmacy for about 12 years. And it was rewarding, but it wasn't something
that I got up every day and just adored doing. And so I decided to go back to school and
got a bachelor's and master's in interiors. And so I worked for a little while for the
Department of Arkansas Heritage because I obviously love history. I live in an old house.
The house that we lost was an 1850s house and always involved in my own family history
and historical tours and all of that. And so I focused in those degrees on historic
preservation. And but then Hawker Beach Craft called me and asked me to come interview to
in design jet aircraft, private jet aircraft. And I thought, that sounds fun. Okay, I'll
try it. And if I don't like it, I can go do something else. And so I was there for about
10 years designing aircraft. And then because of all of my historic preservation, I got
a call from the University of Central Arkansas to come teach historic preservation class
in their interiors department. And so I just had recently retired from that and started
volunteering for the Firehouse Museum for a fundraiser. And how I kind of got involved
with that was my great great grandfather is the first name on our fallen firefighter memorial
on the state Capitol grounds. And I don't know if you got to see a photograph of it
when you were here, but it's this enormous bronze sculpture on the Capitol grounds that
has different firefighters in different equipment. And then there's a wall of names of all of
the fallen firefighters. And so my great great grandfather was the very first one in Fort
Smith where you are now. And so his coincidentally his wife after he had passed away, his wife
died in a fire. And so it's always sort of trickled in our family history, you know,
this whole firefighting and history kind of thing. And so then they needed an executive
director and I thought, well, I'm retired, so I can kind of do whatever I want. And so
I beefed up my resume and I applied for the job and they were crazy enough to give it
to me. You're like, suckers got them. So I've kind of had a very circuitous route through
my career. Yeah, I was going to say chemistry, the pharmacy to this to that and just like
all these different strings kind of led back to I don't even know if that's a circle. Maybe
it's full circle because of I guess of your own. It's a weirdly shaped circle. Let's go
with that. It doesn't necessarily make sense in terms of the career, but it sounds like
that personal, like ancestral history, a lot of other things align with where you're at
now. Right. And the strangest thing of how I found out about you is the way that I know
Lee Guest, the mayor of Marvel, Arkansas, is Lee Von Helm, the famous drummer from
the band that played in Woodstock and extremely famous in the 60s, 70s and 80s. He was born
in a little place called Turkey Scratch, Arkansas, which is right on the border of Marvel. And
his little sharecropper shack that was his boyhood home is one of the projects I've been
working on for years to restore his home and turn it into a home museum. And so that is
how I met the mayor of Marvel by that historic preservation effort. And so we became
friends and are friends on Facebook. And so it's very strange that my association with
that whole Lee Von Helm story kind of connected me to you.
Yeah. And I think that's something that we kind of like very briefly chat before we started
recording was just it like the strings that you put out, like you never know who they're
going to cross with. You never know what, I don't know, unique experience you had five,
10, 15, 20 years ago will kind of, I don't know, I keep saying full circle, will kind
of bloom or something will happen with that so far down the road that you didn't even
think of it anymore. Right. And it'll be something really random.
Like some homeless guy walking across the country. But yeah, and I think that's such
an another interesting thing is, I mean, that's something that we've I've seen a lot on this
podcast too, is people start off in a very different career than where they are now.
And something that I learned a lot during my financial coach training was there's a
huge difference between the snapshot and the film reel, or you can take a snapshot of anyone
at any time, but you can't think that that snapshot that career that they're in is who
they are the rest of forever. Right. Not to say that that won't affect the rest of the
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and grab some purpose driven coffee today. Of those different snapshots from, you know,
working in the front, working in pharmacy, working here, working in interior design,
how did those experiences influence you as a executive director for a nonprofit? Oh,
wow. That's kind of a hard question. I think you take. Kind of every experience you have.
For instance, when I was a professor for a long time, I would think back on what did
my favorite teachers do that helped me and then those teachers that were just awful.
What did they do and how can I avoid ever doing anything like that? You know, because
I think everyone going through school has the teacher that really helps them and you
think about throughout the rest of your life. And then you have those teachers that were
just the bane of your existence. And listening to other people's experiences, like when I
would when I was designing the jet aircraft. Our clients were extremely wealthy people
because they could afford private jet aircraft. So, yeah, some of them were private people
that had just they were just buying it for themselves. And then some of them were corporations
that were buying it for a business, you know, to get around the country for their various
business activities. And, you know, I kind of had this preconceived notion of what an
extremely wealthy person was like. And then I would sit down and talk to them about what
they needed in this fabulous machine. And they were just really normal, everyday people.
And they also worried about their budget. Now, their budget was completely different
than my budget. But, you know, they would say, really, my coffee pots in the aircraft
is going to cost this or something. And so getting to meet people from all over the world
that way was a great learning experience. And then when I was a professor, I took my
students every summer to Florence, Italy and taught historic preservation, history of architecture
and art there. And so traveling and meeting just random people on the train. And if you
got lost and you stopped a person on the street and, you know, asked for help, that kind of
thing. So I don't know that I can say this one experience plugged in exactly to this.
But I think it's kind of a combination of learning all of that stuff and kind of learning
what works for me and what doesn't work for me. And trying to assimilate all that information
and channel it into what you're trying to do now. If any of that made sense.
Yeah. Well, I think that's the other thing too, right? Is that it's so difficult to say,
oh, this one experience, if it wasn't for this, I would never be the executive director
for the Firehouse Hostel and Museum in Arkansas. You know, like that's not what it is necessarily.
But it's like this collection of experiences. Like, you know, people wear like something
that we get a lot in startups is you wear a lot of hats, but it's like you wear a lot
of hats, but there's going to be three or four of the 10 on the rack that you're going
to get gold plated. Like they're going to be so nice. Like they're going to get, you
know, built up over time. And it sounds like I'm just kind of spitballing here, but it
sounds like, you know, budget management, I'm sure is insanely important for a nonprofit
museum. I'm not sure how much actual design work you do in the Hostel and Museum in terms
of like what can go where, how to move things around. I know you guys have some building
projects coming up, like expansion. So I'm not sure how that those past experiences tie
into, I guess you even just being able to talk to the contractors and know what they're
saying.
Yeah, we have an architect and on our board, we have another interiors expert. And so she
and I can kind of speak that same language with the architect that we're using. And because
of my historic preservation background, I know a lot about how to preserve documents
and books and things like that and what kind of cases they need to go into in a museum
and what kind of HVAC system you need to have to keep all of those things preserved. And
of course, you know, you have to even a firehouse museum has to be prepared for a fire.
Even more so.
And so what kind of system do you need to have in case a fire breaks out in the museum
to help save the artifacts? You need to have an emergency preparedness policy for anything
strange, a tornado, a flood, a fire. Also, just how you accession pieces and maybe deaccession
pieces so they all have to kind of have a registration number and a description. And
all of that has to be kept kind of away from the museum and artifacts. So in case there
is a natural disaster, you can go to those documents and say, we had this firehose nozzle
that was from 1920 from this company donated by this person on this date. Its condition
was X. Its valuation is X. So a lot of detail oriented things.
Yeah, that kind of makes me think of a documented history of the history that you're showcasing
in the museum in case something happens.
Yes.
Interesting. Yeah. And like you're saying, just being able to have those, I guess, educated
conversations with other people, because I would have no idea what any of those words
mean. You know, who knows what people are trying to say. I don't know. My thing is always
like, who knows who's trying to pull the wool over your eye. You know, that's always a thing.
But I'm sure there's also that different level of respect that when they walk in there
and there's someone like you and the other person on the board that knows what they're
talking about. And just being able to collaborate more and say, oh, this works better for us
rather than this or oh, that's a good idea I hadn't thought of. How does this other idea
play into there? You know, it's like a different level of collaboration with those shared experiences.
Yes, exactly. And and it's so interesting. Johnny Reap, the man who gave you the tour.
Well, he comes at it from a whole different angle because he's a retired firefighter.
So then on the front lines of all of that and seen stuff that I don't even I can't
even imagine going through some of the things that several of our board members who are
retired firefighters have been through. And so their whole perspective is completely different
than mine. And you learn so much of, oh, OK, well, I never would have known how to think about it
from that angle because I've not ever shared that experience. When my house burned down,
I wasn't there. I got a phone call that says your house is burning down and I raced there.
And by the time I got there, it was gone. So there's just a lot of that experience that
I don't even know how to digest it because I've not ever lived through it.
Yeah. And it's there's so many different experiences around an event
that everybody experiences so differently, right? Like even if he was the one fighting
the fire there, he had a very different experience of this event than you did.
You had a very different experience from your neighbor who watched it happen, you know, like
all these different people, one event experienced it so differently so they can walk away with
different like take things different takeaways that it sounds like in the case of especially
running and operating a firehouse museum. Like these are all valuable experiences,
which I guess valuable experiences sounds like a weird way of saying it,
but it's kind of hard to talk about and almost, you know?
Right. Well, and they're all very learning experiences because like I said earlier,
fire doesn't discriminate against anyone. And some of the craziest things can happen that
you don't even really think of when you're in your house that at any minute now, something
weird could happen. You can have something going on in your electrical system and have a very slow
burn. Someone could forget to blow a candle out after a party, a lightning strike that you have
absolutely no control over. You know, you can practice all the safety you want, but if your
house gets struck by lightning and catches on fire, you have no control of that. And all of those
wildfires out West, every time I see one of those, my heart goes out to all of those people because
you kind of walk away with the clothes that were on your back and all of the things that
my mother's antique bed was there. Well, I no longer have my mother. So it's these little
things that kind of crop up over and over again that you think, oh, wow, you know, I don't have
that anymore. And, you know, it is just a thing, but, you know, we do get sentimental about our
things. Definitely. But yeah, and it sounds like I know that your intention for today was kind of,
I guess, spreading that fire awareness and emergency preparedness. Like, is there anything
else that you wanted to share there? It sounds like a lot of it is just like, oh,
I'm going to share there. It sounds like a lot of it is just control what you can control,
have some mitigation measures and effects, but you never know when lightning will strike or
someone 20 miles away doesn't put out their campfire and causes one of these crazy wildfires. So
what is there anything else that you would want to share? And I think the main thing is how
it is just to even have your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors always functioning because
carbon monoxide is a silent killer. And I think if you're going to just only do a couple of things,
that would be the top on the list. And to know how to not just go buy a fire extinguisher,
but actually know how to use it. Because so many times people go buy it and they put it in
the, wherever the kitchen, which is usually the place where a lot of fires happen is the kitchen.
And then the grease catches on fire and they get it out and they think, I don't even know how to
use it. So things like that is, and to kind of your whole family, get out fire extinguisher and say,
this is how we use the fire extinguisher. Because what if your 12 year old kid is at home by
themselves and something happens, they need to know how to use those things. They need to know
how to call 911. If the fire, if the smoke detector, they need to know where to go,
where to go to evacuate the house, what neighbor to get help, call 9, you know, all of those things.
So I think it's a big kind of family thing that everybody knows exactly what to do.
You can't see it, but on my doors, we have little stickers that say how many people live in this
house, what animals are in the house. So in case something happens and a first responder has to
come here and we're incapacitated, they know, oh, two people live in this house and there's a dog.
And so they know to look for those things when they come to the door, because it's already
labeled on the door. So all those types of little things that you pray you never have to use.
Yeah. And again, I think that's such like the basic message I feel like is it through almost
every episode of this podcast is it's the little things that matter. Don't get lazy on them. Like
you replace the batteries, right? Make sure they work, know how to use the things, do the training,
watch a YouTube video or two. And it sounds like with certain, I guess like emergency preparedness
or like the worst case scenario stuff, what I've noticed from other folks is it's almost like
people don't want to know how to use it because it almost doesn't make it seem so real. Like it's
not a real risk, right? Right. But by not knowing how to do it, you're making the risk that much
more prevalent and worse. Right. And you know, since we lost a house to a fire, I know how
irrational it is, but before I leave the house, I know I check to see if the iron is unplugged at
least three times, you know, because just little things like that, that are so rote every day.
Like if you use your iron all the time, you don't think about it's kind of a force of habit that you
unplug it, but then you don't really. So you'd like, did I, was that yesterday that I unplugged it?
Or did I, you know, and you go back and check, oh yes, I did unplug it. And if we leave for
vacation, we unplug a lot of things just because you never know what can happen. And we also turn
the water valves off to the things like the washing machine, because you never know when a water
pipe is going to break when you leave the house and flood your utility room. So all of those tiny
little things kind of just have a, develop a checklist of this is what we need to do to stay
safe in our own house, because heaven forbid that anything catastrophic happen. And it's a lot easier
to recover from losing a house than it would be to lose a life.
Yeah. And I think that's, I think that's the greatest way to end the episode really is just
if these are the risks, this is what happens period, right? How can we mitigate those the
most so that worst case scenario, we lose a few things and not someone. Right. Yeah. But yeah.
And I mean, that's all that is so poignant and obvious in the museum in the hostel. I mean,
it's a real firehouse, right? Like you see, you see it all, you see all the history and I don't
know, I would just encourage folks. I know you guys have the volunteer program as well, which we
didn't really get to touch on, but I'm going to link all the info in the show notes. But if you,
people want to stay there for free for, isn't it like a couple of weeks they have to commit to
working or being there. Yes. So, I mean, there's so many opportunities and it's such a low price
to actually stay in the hostel. That's what I was surprised about too, for what you guys offer there.
So, but, and if people want to learn more about the firehouse hostel, want to book a room, book
up, stay, volunteer, whatever, what, what's the best way for folks to get in contact with you?
Um, if they're wanting to book a room, either through the website or Airbnb, we're on Airbnb
and, or you can call the number if any of that isn't working very well for you. So like, for
instance, someone like you, who might be walking across the country and they get to a point where
their cell service doesn't work for surfing the net, but maybe it works enough for them to make
a phone call or they get to a little town that has, you know, a tiny little grocery store and
not very good cell service. Well, that person might let you use their landline.
We still have a lot of landlines in very rural areas because our state is rural and our cell
service doesn't do well everywhere. There's little pockets where I'm sure you've run into them across
the nation where you think, wow, I have zero bars. Where can I get help if I can't use my phone?
So any of those avenues and you know, we love to host people and we were just really thrilled that
you were walking through Little Rock and we got to host you and hopefully draw attention to your
nonprofit causes and how important nonprofits are. And sometimes what people have to do,
like walk across the country to draw attention to them.
Hey, hey, look at me. Hey, awesome. You're looking at me. Awesome. Now look at these guys.
Now look at the people that are doing the real work. Thanks.
That's what it feels like is, hey, hey, look, look over here. Gotcha.
Yeah. So thank you for what you're doing to draw attention to
nonprofit organizations because it is a hard world out there for nonprofits.
Yeah, definitely. So no, I'm definitely glad that I can, you know, highlight those three
organizations I'm raising money for and also find an avenue to shed light and kind of
expand the spotlight to bring folks like you guys into it. So again, Ann, I super appreciate it. I'll
put all the information in the show notes and I will let you know when it comes out.
Thank you for your time. I appreciate it. It was so nice meeting you and glad you got to stay
here in Little Rock. Me too, for sure.
And as always, thank you all of our listeners for spending some time with us today. I personally,
I don't know, I get a kick out of hearing all these different stories and how things are just so crazy.
Like who would have thought 10, 15 years ago that Ann would end up where she is now? It sounds like
she didn't even think that that was the trajectory her career in life was on. So I think that just
goes to show that every experience is valuable in some way, shape or form. And what you learn
today through hardship can be something that you share with the world to prevent more hardship
from happening in the future. So if you want to support the Firehouse Hostel and Museum with all
the amazing work that they're doing and you're in the Little Rock area, consider checking them out.
Even just going there for a tour, I think would be fantastic. And be sure that you leave a donation
for them if you are passionate about fire safety and you want to ensure that they can keep on doing
what they're doing and supporting the communities they support. You can donate straight to them on
their website, which is down in the show notes. You can book a stay with them, check it out.
If you've never stayed at a hostel before and you're going to be in the Little Rock area
a night, give it a night. Just check it out. I mean, it was far better than I even thought it was.
I don't know what preconceived notions I had about hostels before checking them out, but
it was a fantastic experience. Everybody there was so nice and genuine. I mean, I got to even
meet people from the UK, Australia, other side of the nation. So just the experience of meeting the
people that were staying there was even valuable for me. So I'm going to stop singing their praises
for now. Check them out on social media. Check them out on their website. I'll leave it all in
the show notes. And as always, check out our sponsor for today's episode, Cold-Buddied Caffeine Company.
You heard the ad read halfway through, but check them. If you're a coffee lover, if you drink coffee,
tea, I don't know, you like conservation, check them out. All their information is also in the
show notes. And if you use the code ranger at checkout, you'll get 10% off. And if you listen
to the episode that I had with Cold-Buddied Caffeine, there's a secret bonus code that you
could use for some extra goodies. So, um, I don't know if there's a plug to watch or listen to
episode one, but as always, thank you guys so much. I really appreciate your time. Um, stay tuned for
next week's episode. I'm not sure who it's going to be with yet, but it's going to be another banger.
We'd love to see it. Uh, thanks guys. And as always make some good happen in the world, make
something happen and have fun, stay safe and be yourself. Bye now.