From Maui To Goats To Clean Windows

Maui to the mountains is a big leap, and David Carmona made it with a three-year-old, a newborn on the way, and a vision of a life built by hand. We sit down with the man many locals know as “David the Window Man” to talk about what people rarely see behind a home service business: the values, the culture, and the long game. If you care about Black Mountain NC, Asheville small business, or how to build a company people genuinely love, this story delivers both heart and practical insight.

We get specific about what it means to take care of your team. David explains why he joined the chamber for access to a health insurance program, why he’s committed to certified living wage standards in Buncombe County, and how he thinks about a “dignified wage” as the floor for fairness. From there, we unpack customer service as a craft: creating a safe, respectful, even joyful experience in someone’s home, earning word-of-mouth referrals, and winning over the self-proclaimed “tough cookie” clients without ego or assumptions.

The conversation widens into homesteading, building a home with no banks and no subcontractors, raising animals, and the confidence that comes from stacking small wins over years. We also talk outdoor life in Western North Carolina, mountain biking spots like Gateway in Old Fort, how nearby towns each have their own identity, and why “collaboration over competition” isn’t a tagline but a daily choice. David even shares his long-running role with Asheville’s Lazoom tours, which helps explain the energy he brings everywhere he goes.

If you enjoy stories about community pride, service leadership, and building a life that matches your values, you’ll want this one all the way to the final line. Subscribe, share this with a local business owner, and leave a review so more people can find the show.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:29

David Carmona, it is good to have you here today.

SPEAKER_00 0:32

I am honored to be here.

SPEAKER_01 0:34

I met you when you walked into the chamber one day and said, I want to be a chamber member, which, you know, that happens almost every day. Not. But when you came in, you were looking for or you had a specific reason to join the chamber. Do you remember what that was?

SPEAKER_00 0:50

Well, I recall it had something to do with uh access to the health insurance program and general community connection and outreach.

Living Wage And Employee Care

SPEAKER_01 0:58

But the first reason was the health care, which which is which is interesting because it sounds really boring, but it it it's a launch into why I just am enamored with you and your energy and your excitement for your people who work with you. And so tell me why you wanted that. I don't really want to spend the whole time talking about David the window man because that's your business, but I love how you treat your employees and your team and all of that. So tell me about why you wanted to add healthcare to your what's the word? Cornucopia of of things you give to your people.

SPEAKER_00 1:35

Cornucopia of good treatment of my employees. There you go. Yeah. Well, someday in the future, I hope to offer health insurance to my full-time employees. At the moment, what we do is, of course, I'm certified living wage, which is an excellent uh I guess program launched by Just Economics that uses metrics to understand what is a living wage in Buncombe County, which this year is turning to$24.10 an hour. Nobody on my crew will make that little. I always try to be above the above the minimum dignified wage is what I kind of I like that.

SPEAKER_01 2:13

Dignified wage. I like that. Is that a thing or is that a is that a David thing?

SPEAKER_00 2:16

It's it's well, I think I may have invented it or, you know, gleamed it from the the ethos of great wisdom out there. But yeah, certified living wage is a excellent bar for small businesses to try to get to. And not everybody can do it for various reasons, but I'm it's something that I'm really committed to. Having been an employee of other folks a hundred years ago, it I I never really felt appropriately compensated. And I really always kept that in mind when bringing somebody on of like, I really want to always be existing on the generous side of fairness.

SPEAKER_01 2:55

All right. And what is your uh I promise not to talk about your business the whole time, but I'm just so intrigued by your business. I love talking about my business. Well, I know, but that's not what this podcast is supposed to be about. Okay. But one of the things you said was that you wanted something about your customer service you wanted to provide for people. I want you to tell me what that was, the kind of what you were thinking there.

SPEAKER_00 3:14

Yeah. So one of the one of my several mission statements is for my customers, you know, public facing, I say, I want to be the greatest service person experience you will experience across all trades for the entirety of your whole entire life. And this is a high bar to reach, but I'm telling you, we are soaring over it. And in fact, somebody even left me a Google review without any of my prompting, except please leave me a review. And they said those words. This was the greatest tradesman experience of my life. That's awesome. And that is such an honor to have. I mean, I got cheery-eyed reading that, like, oh, it's happening. It's it's actually happened. But, you know, what are what are I want people to say that to me if they're entering my home. Hey, I want to be the best person to enter your home. Well, we're off to a good start. So, you know, I've got this incredible crew that we've co-created of just good-hearted folk, courteous and competent crew members is how I tell the people out there. And, you know, we we brighten people's day with our good attitude, and of course, we brightening their actual home with with clean windows. And and often people will report back to me, they'll say, you know, I love having your crew over. In fact, I can hear the laughter coming from the front of the house before you guys even ring the doorbell. There's just cool. There's just that good vibes, kind of family feeling of of safety and fun that that we bring to the house.

SPEAKER_01 4:45

Well, and I just I I think that's what like was the hook for me. That was what we first started talking about. And then then we went down trails. I mean, we we went out on a rabbit trail for a long time. I think you were there maybe an hour. It was great. We know each other. We had fun, yeah, we know each other pretty well now. But what's also funny is since then, you know, I've been pretty active on Facebook and that sort of thing. And I've had several opportunities to tag you and say, hey, this is your guy. But it's funny how many other people are tagging you and they're not saying he does the best job cleaning windows. They're like, you've got to call this company. They're awesome, they take really good care of you. Oh, the windows look great, but and they're telling you all these cool things. And so I thought that was I love that because I'm gonna trust what somebody else says about you more than what you say about you.

SPEAKER_00 5:33

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 5:33

And that is definitely evident from, I mean, and I've talked to people, everything. So yeah, you made a really big impact on me that that one little short visit. And I love when you come to our business community club because you let's brighten up the room. People are always like, wow, I have to go after that. And it's always somebody who's like in some sort of finance job where they're like, I try to help people make money. Hey, important, which is super important, but they always hate to go after you because you're just so much fun.

SPEAKER_00 6:01

Sure. I yeah, I get a little excited. I I I'm enthusiastic about, you know, the life we've built and the company we've built. And and to speak to the the community, you know, public comment that the community make about me, it is uh yeah, it's a joy to be a part of it. I I've I've over the years have come to understand, oh, I'm kind of like the that old school milkman that like you know about me, you know more than just that I'm bringing my service, you know, that people want the updates of how's life, how are the kids, and of course I've seen people's children go from actual like newborn babies to college. Now I've been in business that long. So there's that relationship. Well, thank you. Yeah. Your wife must be feeding you well. Yes, I we are.

SPEAKER_01 6:45

Emma's awesome. Emma is we love her. Yeah, we're keeping her.

SPEAKER_00 6:48

Oh, forever.

Moving From Maui To Black Mountain

SPEAKER_01 6:49

Yeah, yeah. You better. Anyway, so I want you to tell us also like you moved from a pretty cool place that most people would be like, Really? You moved from say here and you're still here? What anyway, true. Tell me about that.

SPEAKER_00 7:03

So we, my wife and I, and our three-year-old son at the time moved from Maui, Hawaii, to actually Black Mountain in the year 2000. And we had some dear friends here, and we were trying to get them to come out to Hawaii, and they like, we can't do it. It's you know, it's 5,000 miles away. We've got three dogs. It's too much for it's it's a lot to move to the middle of the ocean. So, you know, they kept saying how great this place was, Asheville area, surrounded by national forest and all the stuff we wanted in life back in the day, affordable land and a big homeschool community, big homesteading community, and those were a big home birthing community, and those were the things that we were very interested in. So we came out having never been to the south.

SPEAKER_01 7:49

No way.

SPEAKER_00 7:49

Yeah, and Emma was pregnant, actually. And so here we come, the young family from Maui, and you know, made it across the nation and landed in Black Mountain way up number nine, uh, you know, near, I guess what is that, uh, Reeds Reeds Creek up there. And wow, what a I mean, these mountains felt pretty pretty much like um pretty quickly coming over from Tennessee. It's it was like, oh wait, something, something is right here. And then life has unfolded in this most beautiful way here. I mean, we've in Black Mountain, just everything everything we ever set out to do in life, we we've achieved here. And it's it's a real it's an honor to be a part of the community. And it's so wonderful to be so well received in the the many entities that we are, which is many things. You know, I'm not just a window cleaner, not just a window guy. No, no, I've been an enter man. I am David the window man. Pay attention to the name, folks, you'll find me online. Uh but yeah, I've been an entertainer in Asheville with Lazoom, and I've been uh you know part of the homeschooling community and many, many, many things of weighted tables back in the day and all the stuff. But it it Black Mountain is a special place in the Asheville area. It's just been it's its home. I've never lived anywhere longer.

SPEAKER_01 9:07

Well, that's great. We love that. What made you stay? Obviously, you just answered that question, but Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:12

Well, specifically, you know, it wasn't an immediate It wasn't an immediate this is forever for us. You know, the autumn happened. So easy to fall in love with Western North Carolina in the autumn when the mountains are like on fire, when everything is, you know, on fire with color, to be clear.

SPEAKER_01 9:30

Yeah.

Homesteading And Building A Home

SPEAKER_00 9:31

And it just looks so wonderful. And then, you know, all the leaves fell and it was like, hmm, this is a different kind of place than Maui, where it's always green and sunny uh or raining. But uh, you know, what what really sealed it for us was, you know, making some friends, and then we we were just blessed with this opportunity to buy some land up highway nine, a couple, couple acres, with some friends that own property next to us. Oh, that's great. And that was like that shifted everything. That completely shifted our life. We we moved up to the land pretty pretty quickly after purchasing it and spent the next 15 years building a home from the ground up. It's it's it's our one of our lives masterpieces.

SPEAKER_01 10:14

So did you live on the ground before you had the house?

SPEAKER_00 10:16

Well, we had some kind of temporary sort of uh housing of various degrees of what some might consider substandard housing, but it was our paradise. It worked. Oh, it worked. And we learned we learned everything up there. We I mean, we did everything from road building and tapping the springs to have w you know water. And then we eventually built our house from the ground up with no subs, no banks. So it was like clean a window, go buy a board, bring it up the mountain.

SPEAKER_01 10:46

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 10:46

You know, and we were homeschooling the kids up there at the same time and having another baby up there, and then we decided to start uh animal husbandry. So now all of a sudden we've got I think at one point we had fifteen goats and 150 chickens and hogs and you know, when you're young when we some of us, when we're young, we know everything.

SPEAKER_01 11:07

Right.

SPEAKER_00 11:08

We're invincible, right? And we can do anything. So we used that energy to do it all. It was Are we writing about this?

SPEAKER_01 11:20

I mean, I look like recording this somehow.

SPEAKER_00 11:22

Well, I guess we got Peter recording it too.

SPEAKER_01 11:25

What do you mean recording your story?

SPEAKER_00 11:27

A little bit, a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 11:29

Think about it.

SPEAKER_00 11:30

Yeah, no, we we would like to.

SPEAKER_01 11:31

No, no, not we would like to. We're going to start.

SPEAKER_00 11:33

We are going to start. Should we more meeting it?

SPEAKER_01 11:38

I think it's a great story that people that's why you're here. I wanted you here because I want to get your story going. Because I I don't know, there's so much more to David the Windowman than the window man part.

SPEAKER_00 11:51

There is so much more to me than just David the Windowman.

SPEAKER_01 11:53

Yeah. Yeah. So tell me also, like, okay, so you go from Maui, which people would think was paradise, to what we call God's country, or like up here in the mountains. It's just I mean. So so I used to live in Georgia, and where I lived was a great town. I loved my town. I still love my town. It was fabulous. Cartersville, Georgia will always be half of my heart. We're part of it anyway. It's getting smaller. I think I think this area's sort of taken over. But I always, when I came here, I always called it I called that God's country, and I called this almost heaven. Oh, okay. Because it was just a little bit a step higher, you know, just sort of like a little bit better. But I would think it'd be hard to explain to somebody, yeah, I moved from Maui to this this thing on the top of a mountain where I had substandard housing and I built my own house. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:44

Interesting. My dad once said, you know, son, it's interesting. Your dream come true is some people's worst nightmare. And, you know, for us, it was it was it was the opportunity of a lifetime, truly. And we we would, you know, we dreamt of owning property and doing some homesteading. And by homesteading, I mean, you know, moving on to a piece of land and developing the land by, you know, with your with your own two hands. And just kind of, you know, uh being at one with the land, raising food and and that type of thing. It was never going to happen in Hawaii. Just it was just the the money was not there. First of all, I didn't go to Hawaii to make money. I went there to be, you know, a beach bum and then eventually fall in love with my wife, of course. And then moving here was yeah, that that mountain, Stone Mountain, is yeah, a total life changer for us. Stone Mountain in North Carolina. I know. There's kind of a Stone Mountain everywhere.

SPEAKER_01 13:46

I didn't know that. I'm from Georgia. Stone Mountain's kind of a big deal in Atlanta. Correct. So that threw me off. Sorry, don't do that to me.

SPEAKER_00 13:53

Yeah, sorry.

SPEAKER_01 13:53

I have blonde hair. I'm from Georgia. Be careful.

SPEAKER_00 13:55

Okay. Be very careful. Stone Mountain Black Mountain, North Carolina.

SPEAKER_01 14:00

Okay.

Empty Nest Rebrand And New Adventures

SPEAKER_00 14:01

Yeah. It was it it was a total game changer. And it was the most empowering thing to to build to build a homestead like that. Yeah. To build our home and and to raise our kids and then to all the things, kind of all these small successes led, you know, led to greater successes or at least greater bravery or greater confidence to, well, if we can do that, we can do this. If we can do this, we can do that. If we can raise two kids, we can certainly raise 15 goats. We can raise 15 goats. We can certainly handle 150 chickens. And well, we've got this half acre of garden, I guess. So you need a German shepherd. We no need one. I think you do.

SPEAKER_01 14:40

We had a great Pyrenees. I I didn't ask about that. I asked about a German shepherd who needs a place to run.

SPEAKER_00 14:47

Oh, I see. You're trying to get rid of a German shepherd.

SPEAKER_01 14:49

I'm not trying to get rid of her. I'm trying to find her a happy place.

SPEAKER_00 14:51

Got you. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:52

I'm kidding, though. You can't have her.

SPEAKER_00 14:54

No, good. Yeah. Great. Yeah. So uh you know, and and really the homestead and that kind of empowerment phase and coming into power, I guess, time of our life was, you know, part of also what sort of led to the eventually the David the Window Man experience becoming like a real grown-up business. Because at first it was just, I I'm gonna I found this trade through uh through our midwives, actually. We were at a birthing class, another couple in the class owned a window cleaning business. They said, Hey, you're amazing, come work for us, be our partner. Okay, I will. And then quickly they they separated. So the business was gonna be part of custody battle, and so therefore I was gonna be part of a custody battle of sorts, and I thought, you know, I'm gonna just exit now and honored the non-compete clause until they called me up and said, Would you like to buy the business? And I said, No, thank you. And and then actually started my own thing.

SPEAKER_01 15:49

That's cool. Um But that was like nine years of you doing windows before you wasn't it? Is that the wrong number?

SPEAKER_00 15:55

Well, I've been actually this year is the twenty-fifth year of me cleaning windows in Asheville.

SPEAKER_01 16:01

But you're not doing a lot of the cleaning yourself anymore. Not not anymore. That's what I'm saying is for a little while it was David the Windowman before it was David the Windowman.

SPEAKER_00 16:09

Yeah, for a long time it was just David the Windowman. And David the Windowman came from my I need I guess I better create an email so that my so that people will be able to email me, and David the Windowman was a natural fit. And then, you know, I went to this. Yeah, there's been many phases, and I went to a branding company, and they helped me figure out and make this incredible logo.

SPEAKER_01 16:31

And here we are.

SPEAKER_00 16:32

And here we are.

SPEAKER_01 16:33

So another thing that I remember about you from business club. From business club is when I think it was Hope Burke said that she was just learning how to live in an empty nest. And you changed it.

SPEAKER_00 16:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:48

This was another beautiful David the Winterman thing.

SPEAKER_00 16:51

This isn't Emma thing. Emma, Emma is uh the big brains. I'm the big mouth, but she's the big brains of Okay. And uh when our baby, who's 21 now, left for college, she goes to Warren Wilson. We were becoming empty nesters. And Emma said something to the effect of empty nesters. I mean, we're excited for this, but empty nesters does sound a little bit sad. We're gonna rebrand and we're gonna call it free flockers. I love flockers. So we've been free flocking for three years now, and it this is a little better term for us because we're still part of, you know, our flock.

SPEAKER_01 17:26

Well, of course. And you still have flock members at home.

SPEAKER_00 17:29

Right. Well, okay, on the summer. In the summers, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:31

Oh, wait, right. So so the 21-year-old was the youngest?

SPEAKER_00 17:35

Right.

SPEAKER_01 17:35

Oh, I thought that was the oldest.

SPEAKER_00 17:37

No, no, no. I'm we we've been parents our whole life.

SPEAKER_01 17:42

That's right. That's right. Because you look 23. There you go. Sure. Well, maybe a little older. I don't know. I don't know. So tell me, what do y'all do when you're not homesteading, birthing, feeding all the things? What do you do?

SPEAKER_00 17:56

Sure. Well, we've graduated from all of that. We now live in the town of Black Mountain near Lake Tomahawk. Oh. We still have the homestead. It's wonderful. Um, we just did a big renovation uh after Hurricane Helene. We needed to put some energy somewhere after doing all the wonderful volunteer work and cleanup work, and we we renovated our our uh mountain cabin, um, which we now just enjoy as a retreat and sanctuary. But we full-time live in a town of Black Mountain. Okay. And when we're not doing window cleaning stuff, I spend a lot of time hiking and mountain biking. We are outdoor enthusiasts and lovers. Yeah. We getting out there in this amazing, these amazing mountains of ours. And we do some extensive traveling when we can.

unknown 18:41

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 18:42

And uh last year we spent, I think it was six or seven weeks in Utah, where my wife is from, Emma's from, and our son now lives. After the storm, he had to move away because, you know, the economy kind of shut down. He's an amazing chef. I'm gonna just give my son a little bit of love. He is now the junior Sioux chef at a James Beard nominated restaurant out there in Salt Lake City. And big exciting news, actually, we just were able to uh purchase a piece of property in southern Utah uh last year. Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere. Okay. Looking at your face. You're not this was not this is not an exit interview. This no, no. And it was kind of a pinch-meaning moment, in fact. It still is a it's a it's unreal to say that. But uh when we were visiting, we've always dreamt of spending time in the uh extensive time in southern Utah. And so now we've got a little pizza property around. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:35

Well, that's cool. Favorite mountain biking place for someone who doesn't mountain bike yet.

SPEAKER_00 19:40

Right. So I mean, most frequent is uh Gateway over here in in Old Fort, which is an incredible resource. I mean, that is it's unbelievable that we have that here. And shout out to Old Fort for becoming even cooler.

Trails Tourism And Local Town Pride

SPEAKER_01 19:59

Yeah. Oh, well, let me just tell you, I and I don't I don't generally sell other towns. Okay, but I went to a uh training or a class or whatever you want to call it last year in Burnsville, and one of the speakers was the person who's taking Camp Greer and making it into all of the hiking and I mean it's gonna be a what did they call it? They had a word for it. It was like like when you use the word agritourism, it was like hike a tourism. That's not the right word, but outdoor tourism. I don't know, whatever. There's a word for it. Um the tourism girl should probably know that word. But anyway, but but the things they're doing down there are amazing. And their chamber director is a friend of mine, and she's amazing, and she's just really excited about she's as excited about that part as I am about everything that we have going on here. And so it is there's a lot going on down there, and there's a lot coming there. So that's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_00 20:55

It's a very cool, whatever we would call. I guess I would just call it a neighbor, neighboring town.

SPEAKER_01 21:00

And neighboring town. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:02

And and, you know, just another thing just about the specialness of Black Mountain is we have this cute little downtown, you know, clear, clearly defined little town of Black Mountain. And as you know, I I'm everywhere with my job. I go to all the all the towns and areas. I've seen, I've I know this area quite well. And Black Mountain is a is a gem because it does have that defined, small downtown. And to be neighbors with old forts is it's just this it's a kind of this other world of the quote Asheville area. I I'm I'm honored to be out here, and it's such a sweet, sweet, beautiful situation, and the trails are I tell you, we gotta go. Pretty awesome. Yeah, we do.

Tough Customers And Respectful Work

SPEAKER_01 21:51

I'm writing a grant right now, and I had to write about how Black Mountain Swann, the whole valley works with the rest of the area. And I had to really dig like how does that pan out? How does that work? And it and it and it truly is. I figured it out. I mean the people who come in the visitor center figured it out for me. They come in and they're like, Wow, we're staying in whatever town, usually the big one to the west of us. But they they'll come in, we're this is so different. Every little community and town around here is like going to a different country in Europe because every single one of them is different. And I thought. What a great picture. You know, you can almost go to our area and go to a different town every day and really see a whole different atmosphere. And I thought that was really cool. And they always say, Yo's is the cutest town. Yours is the sweetest town. Yours is the prettiest town. You know, they're my god, those are really good things to be called. There are worse things. So anyway, but I do think that's a good description of, you know, kind of the area that I mean from here to Old Fort is what 12 miles, 10 miles? And it's a whole different game. So it kind of works together. That's really cool. All right. So I have a question for you. We're gonna go back to your business.

SPEAKER_00 23:05

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 23:05

Even though we we said we weren't, but we are. So tell me how far away you go and and and do you have like this great story of some crabby old person that you went to their house and you left, and they were like, all of a sudden they were David the Window Man fans.

SPEAKER_00 23:22

Okay. So great question. I let's start with the easy one is I I pretty much work between Lake James and occasionally as far as Waynesville. I need some pretty pretty big uh big jobs to get me out that far. But in general, I'm within about a 20-mile radius of of Asheville. I would never say I've met a crabby person on the job. No. Liar. Oh but you know, there's something, something about the way I'm I'm wired. I I really somewhere along the line I recognize that I can be a really good force, uh, whether it's you know holding the door open or helping helping, right? Right. And so to be invited to a home, you know, like hey, I need my windows cleaned, some people have had enough of subs in their house, especially people that have are trying to sell their house or getting stuff ready for that or uh just having build a house. They're just they're really people can be over it. And you know, I've certainly met my share of folks that have just had enough of the home repair or home care process, but I I love a challenge and I love uh I have met some customers that are that have identified as like, I'm a tough cookie, I'm not easy to satisfy. And and for me, that's that's just oh, I love yeah. Oh, I I want you to love me and and let's let's let's try. And and typically that person that would identify as a tough cookie or not easy to satisfy, the whole neighborhood is clocking that person to see I get the thumbs up or the thumbs down. And I I I always get the thumbs up. I always get it. And because I'm not assuming I know what you want, but I I know I'm here for cleaning windows, but also like we're gonna be, you know, there's gonna be a sense of safety, there's gonna be some fun, and there's just generally gonna be a lot of respect and goodness in your home. And some people that maybe are identifying as, you know, to use your words, crabby or not easy to satisfy, are are lacking a positive experience. And so we're bringing a positive experience. I love it. We all win. That's beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 25:42

On Lazoom, are you the guy who goes upside down with the pants on and your legs are up over the bars?

SPEAKER_00 25:47

No. But you look like that guy.

SPEAKER_01 25:49

You look like that guy.

SPEAKER_00 25:50

Well, uh people always want me to be the nun. Oh, you work for Lazoom. Oh, are you the nun? Yeah, well, that's the guy with the pants. Yeah, nope. I'm not the guy, I'm not that guy. Which guy are you? Well, I am the guy that's not worked in a little bit because of the storm. So I uh for the last 11 years have been the host of the Fender Bender tour, which is Lazoom is this incredible purple bus tour that's very important to our culture. And, you know, it's a it's a good thing. Anyways, we have a band and beer tour. So if we put a four-piece band on the bus, we go to three tour uh three breweries, and I'm kind of the hype man slash MC slash security guard.

SPEAKER_01 26:30

You would be good at two of those things. Yeah. Security guard would be a- I don't know. I don't know. I can't see that. I can't see that. Yeah. All right. What have I not asked you, or what do you want to talk about? What do you want to share while we sort of sort of close this little podcast out?

SPEAKER_00 26:49

I guess I would just want to share that I'm continually grateful for the opportunity to be a part of the Black Mon community. And I love the amount of small business owners and small business appreciators. There's something really special about folks cheering on other folks. So, you know, I don't feel a sense of competition out there. I don't really acknowledge a sense of competition. I'm really about cooperation. And Black Mountain, I have found over and over again, whether it's me hiring somebody or me being hired by someone, there's just such a lovely sense of community and cooperation available. And maybe some folks may need that reminder of like, hey, I'm I'm not competing, I'm just collaborating. But the amount of receptive and good-hearted folks in our area is a very special place, a very special thing. And, you know, visitors will come here and tell you that, but and sometimes we'll remember ourselves, often we'll remember ourselves as residents, but boy, the to be a part of a community this special with all the things of the wonderful arts community, wonderful nature, and wonderful people. I feel like we've landed in a special place. And I hope anybody listening, I'm sure they're nodding their heads in agreement. We've we've got something special here.

SPEAKER_01 28:11

Well, that's really cool. Coming from a guy who came from Maui. I still can't like I can't fathom that. And from a guy who says he never reads my newsletter. My big tagline is collaboration over competition, which is COC, Chamber of Commerce, Collaboration over Competition. So for a guy who never reads my newsletter, I would think you just did before you came because you said the right words.

SPEAKER_00 28:34

But we're on the same boat.

SPEAKER_01 28:35

But we're on the same, we're on the same page.

SPEAKER_00 28:37

Perfect.

SPEAKER_01 28:37

Anyway, I appreciate you coming in today and uh give your wife and fam. Well, when you see your your flock, tell them um that we love them and we're grateful that they're here.

SPEAKER_00 28:47

Thank you so much for having me.

Closing Thoughts And Farewell

SPEAKER_01 28:49

Of course. Thanks for joining us on Exploring the Valley. Until next time, keep celebrating the pride of our community and discovering the magic of the mountains. In the meantime, you're free to move about the valley.