The Voices for Voices Podcast Episode 32 with Guest, Event Director and Lego Enthusiast, Bud Perry
Welcome to the Voices for Voices podcast sponsored by Redwood Living.
Thank you for joining us today I am Justin Alan Hayes founder and
executive director of Voices for Voices host and humanitarian
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are you or somebody you know looking for a volunteer opportunity you can reach out to us today via our
email at president voicesforvoices.org
I founded Voices for Voices to supply a platform for folks to share their
stories with others as we work to break the stigma around mental health
accessibility and disabilities helping get people the help they need
while also helping them prepare or transition into the workforce with the
Voices for Voices career center where we connect Talent with opportunity for job
Seekers and employers alike from coast to coast and in every industry and job
level today we are grateful to be joined by Bud Perry
I want to take a little bit of a step back so how I know our guest
today to be helpful for the audience of knowing how those connections
are made so actually through my wife Charlene she had worked for
many years with bud and at one of
her places of employment in in one of buds as well knowing that careers
and job changes you know they come over the course of time and through
through that connection and that relationship at work one evening
we had an extended conversation on Facebook Messenger just about uh
random topics and ideas so when
our podcast was switching over from Audio Only to now where we are also
television YouTube as well as all the audio platforms and through the
transcripts for those that would like to read I knew that I wanted to at
least ask Bob if he would be interested in in joining the conversation for an episode so I
would like to introduce Bud Perry with us today and want to thank
you for joining the Voices for Voices podcast absolutely yeah I have more of a
face for audio but me as well yes so for our audience uh
friends family colleagues really from here and across the world
really do you want to do you want to get into maybe some of your
background kind of leading into where you are today and obviously
closing how people can get in touch with you and find out more about what you do what you're a part of and might
be able to meet you at a future event right well I originated from Oregon uh
my entire family settled there in the 1700s they came across on the wagon train half of them did the other half
died of dysentery and that's yeah 1980s joke computer joke
let us see currently we started a
company a couple years back that do events specifically that feature drag
queens which can be somewhat controversial in some areas uh
Southern Ohio maybe that's very rural um
but it is actually it's been very successful one of the drag queens we
talked to I think it has been two years ago now said why aren't you doing drag and I thought I
I don't have any interest which isn't exactly true because my father was very much into Halloween and
dressing up and so I got that bug and so to me that's what it is it's a costume
man it's then you can do a performance I usually do a little bit of stand up and I introduce the other queens who dance
and stuff I'm a little too old to do a lot of those kinds of stunts that they
do they do those death drops sometimes my knees who would never handle that so I'm better just standing and talking
into a microphone usually but I do drag I do it as a candy dish is my
Persona I took the name Candy for my mother because that was actually her
name and so it's a little Ode to her for my father I got diabetes and a heart
condition oh so you know equal contribution yes
but it's really taken off we found kind of a home base in Lakewood at the bottle house and with Eugene's uh
kitchen providing the food so we do brunches on every last Sunday of the
month we do drag bingo at and I'm not in drag for those at uh
I think it's every second Wednesday third Wednesday it's on the website yeah it's on Uncle
lulupresents.com so there is a whole calendar we also are now starting up art
classes we have a drag queen who majored in art at school and painting so they're
going to be doing that along with we have a drink sponsor who turns out does this
kind of stuff as well speaking of which we're going to be doing cocktail making classes so we're
starting to fill up the calendar yeah we are doing a charity event in February
it's a drag Bingo it's on a Tuesday maybe I think it's on the website and
that's going to be for the Democratic Club and it's going to be at the bottle house in Cleveland Heights which is the
east side so we're branching over the river yeah so when the different
events and the sponsors that how does that come about do you do the reaching out or due to events people
finding out about you for the most part we do ticket sales so
then you know we try to put out posters and we were on Eventbrite but they take
such a large chunk they do of the tickets that we kept having to raise the price and now they've raised their
price again so we are we've stopped using that but that was another method that people were getting a hold of
tickets for the most part my husband is more the promoter he gets on Facebook
Instagram we are branching in The Tick Tock that is going to be the next
big thing oh yeah okay everybody is yeah as long as it stays you know and Congress doesn't shut it down right
but that's mostly it yeah I if
you know if we're getting into it talks of a little bit of mental health I mentioned my father was really into
Halloween and I remember early on in life one of my friends said you know you seem to have a lot of conflict with your
father do you think that's what made you gay and I was like oh the exact opposite I
think that the me being gay has opened my eyes to things that that sets me at
odds with my father yeah I will say though as time progressed my father became more and more Progressive and his
eyes were opened and we got along just fine but growing up there were times when he worked you know we were very
rural Oregon so Andy worked at a plywood Mill so it was kind of tough you know leatherneck
kind of thing and so I heard a lot of racist jokes and even as a kid I
thought this just doesn't seem right and as I started getting friends who were
people of color for instance or Latinos different languages I started
realizing you know these are all people yeah and so then I really knew that those jokes and things that my dad
would say were wrong and like say as time progressed he started realizing that too and he left that that World
so everything was fine so it's taking a step back doing drag it's so painful I cannot I
hate wearing the shoes I don't like how the bra is a is it's a nested necessity
it's awful I can't I feel so sorry for women I have to do all that uh
it is a costume for me it doesn't fulfill anything in me other than being
out in public to do stuff I'm an extrovert
there are people that put it on and go oh my gosh this is this feels good
this is my home yeah and there's body dysmorphia and there's all these things plugged into it
so when I first started doing drag my sister called me she goes I just have one question is this a whole lifestyle or you know
whatever you're wanting to do or what it's just a costume it's just a performance it's that's what it is
for me yeah and it and it goes to show that there are different areas that
within that that doesn't have to be if somebody's thought process this thing oh well if I hear that it's
all the way and it's the lifestyle but it doesn't have I mean it doesn't
have to be it can be it can be it doesn't have to be we have in our events we make we try as much as possible to
make certain to include drag Kings you know which are women born at Birth as a woman and perform as a man
not always some drag Kings and many drag queens now are what they call afab
which is a female at Birth or assigned a female at Birth okay and they are performing as
women can high drag kind of reminds me of Phyllis Diller or
or share at many times yeah you strip those wigs and all those all that layer
of makeup and the eyelashes and all the gowns and things and you would never recognize them that's drag
yeah talking a little bit about the workforce and the workplace
and mental health and ethics and just that whole conglomerative
things that comes with going to work with maybe some people you like some
people you don't like but and all that through your career what
type of Dynamics have you have you seen you know have been helpful and maybe
detrimental you know to somebody's mental health or just the organization as a whole sure we just got out of a
situation where my boss had hired a very toxic employee it was very
difficult and the most unfortunate thing was maybe because I'm usually the one who helps train people and gets them going
and typically fairly amenable yeah and jovial I got placed with this
person for every project and it really was difficult and I kept complaining
about it and saying we need to do you know make a change that was that was hard it was until after they were gone
that I found out every other person that they encountered had also complained
it took far too long looking back Year many years ago
there was a I was working for a firm architecture and there was a man they
had hired for sales but he didn't really do anything and you
could it was very visible you could see he wasn't doing any work never making any phone calls just walking around with
this coffee mug and what that did was it made all the other employees think why
am I working so hard when this guy's not doing anything and he's getting paid so
much more than I am so that was its own Texas City he was a nice guy but it
itself was a bad thing that happened and it drives employees away it makes
them not really work that hard do the quiet quitting yeah thing
it's always difficult if you have some kind of toxicity in in the workplace and
some employees don't know that I'm going to say probably most of them don't know that they're toxic Charlene and I had
our own boss that was most the time really Pleasant actually on the outside
but would Institute all these policies that were so you know confining if
you're gone to the restroom for more than like 10 minutes to go on a hunt for you why
and it had no idea that that was something she was causing you know a lot
of angst in her employees but yeah it's like extra energy is being
expended for something that isn't work I mean it's work related because it's
happening at work but the activity itself is impacting whether it's
hearing that you know an individual talk and you know not really doing their
their job it's like they're carrying around the mug and the typical office space you know and Lumberg and
having that like what are they doing you know come in on Saturday and Sunday and that satire or that
that that that yeah I guess how however that gets that's classified and
then it some of the stuff is so funny but it's so funny because it actually
happens it's true yeah, it's like oh my gosh like that's kind of extreme it's a little bit out there and that's one
thing talking and with my students is trying to share like some of those type
of thing like the workplace isn't always going to be you know it's not always you know fun and games and you know they
yeah there's that aspect but you need to find yourself as an individual and I
think especially with you and going through with your father you know kind of at the beginning and button
heads if you're like look I've I'm kind of where I'm at and so this is this is me
and there's going to be external factors and forces but you know once you kind of got
there it made your life a little bit easier because you're like all right well I don't I don't have the like pretend
and to make somebody happy to you know to say something and I think that happens at work too you know sometimes
we pretend like how are you doing this morning good morning and I mean I'm
telling Charlene about some of those things like I got yelled at
because I didn't I'm not like the most like happy person in the morning like I'm not the person that goes around says
good morning and she's like well just say good morning but I can't yeah like because like it
takes energy and I just don't ha it's fake we have a Monday morning
meeting that every Monday that starts with tell us something good that happened during the week or the weekend
and most of them like pass it was just a normal weekend I'm not going to invent
something just for this kind of small exactly and some of the stuff you're like why I don't want to share like
some of things are just like personal and personal so we whether we want to
why do I have to share and some of that I know from some of the experiences
like it just makes you it makes me just like it's embarrassing and it's like
you're being put on blast like okay well Justin's not coming up with something or you know he's saying that he had a great
time at this trade show but you don't sound like you had a great time
yelled at it for it is terrible it should be yeah it should be
voluntary right now I'm working with the employees we're supposed to come up with goals for
the year and okay kind of loosely and I'm working with a few of them on things
behaviors and stuff that you know some one of them thinks that they're slow at work yeah
actually getting things out and they're really not but they have a perception that they are and of course
somebody has said well they're really slow at that they're just very methodical and they have these stumbling
blocks of stress that happen when they are trying to predict what their boss is going to say or their
project manager you know is going to actually say why did you do it this way or why you shouldn't have done it this
way and so they get paralyzed a little bit right which is a stress point and so I think my going forward you know for a
long time now I realized I just want to reduce stress you know I think people get addicted sometimes to that cortisol
going through their body where they like the stress or they just can't live without it maybe they don't like it I
just don't want it yeah so and there's other all that like that so like I like
working at home right now and I'm sure you know they're paying rent on a building I'm sure my boss would love
it if everybody just came into the office I like where I'm at I like working at
home with my own bathroom my own food and my cat and I don't want to have to go back into the building I find that
stressful so I'm just not going to do it and you're doing your work like so
you're getting all the things done yeah I'm just not in that physically like in
there and I was like okay well come on in and show your face like on like something like politics like go do
fundraisers and it's like wait I'm going to pay this much just to see somebody show up for like 30 minutes and I think some
of it with how we're got through covid how
work and still get done have to have the systems in place and
security and that to make sure that hackers and from that but you know if you're able to do your job why does
it matter where you're really at yeah like is it is yes we just had a one of the employees
was very afraid because they sold their house and moved down to
Columbus to be closer to their family and now that she she's going to be having a baby and so
she was worried am I going to have to quit my job just because I'm moving to Columbus right and we're like no because you're
going to be on teams or Google you know all these different we have all the software and the ability to work and do
work from home there's no reason why you have to live right here which now I think you know
we've narrowed ourselves down too much now we could hire people in different
time zones in different cities and it just opens up that pool it does so much
more exactly it takes some if they end up selling the building and you use some of
that for those employees and like oh well we're only working you know eastern time during these hours well you
could add on an employee here there that are in those different time zones that
answer those questions or be that point person and like okay I can answer
50 of what could possibly come up and then the person will come in tomorrow I
want to address some of the bigger things I mean it is like you know we are doing architecture so there are drafting Services out there and a lot of times
you know they'll do the Drafting and then you come in in the morning and there's the there's the drawing there so
that we can easily work that way so how did how did you get into the
field in the industry from a work standpoint I know a lot of a lot of
my students are like well if I go into this major or do I have to stay in it
and you get you get some people like okay well I'm waiting tables and I got I got this master's degree in it and or
I'm in the gig honey I'm driving Uber Lyft and all those things depending on where you're at different cities and
and how that that makeup is but from just like your experience maybe there's you know the person or
somebody has a child or know somebody that is you know in those phases like so
like what Drew you to yours and what keeps you into it I'm not sure what
keeps me into it other than I just had poured everything into it that is that is the lane I'm in yeah
actually I can easily trace it my grandmother as I'm a little kid gave me Lego sets and kept saying you should
be an architect so we had us I don't know if they still do this but in school
at the time this is back in the late 60s early 70s they had these little tests
I can collected aptitude tests I think and it always asks what do you want to
be so I always write architect and I remember one time a school counselor I
think it was like it was sixth grade said and we've got your you know these for every single year and you've always
written architect where other people you know other kids have gone I want to be a fireman I want to be a football player I want to do this
and I'm like that's what I want to do so I stayed you know very focused I stayed
on that all the way up through college and that's what I'm doing and then at one point I went to set for
the exams I set for one and didn't do that well on it and thought I
architecture field is so weird you never really have to stamp a drawing unless you're the head of the Architecture Firm
which I have never been so I've never had to stamp a drawing I don't see any reason to have to pay
all that money for it I didn't really want to take any more of the tests so finally I'm like I and I'm still doing
the work I wanted to do so I thought I really don't think I'm not going to be an architect I'm going to work for an
Architecture Firm and go from there it's worked out I will just at some point retire yeah
and get away from it is not a passion though I'm I like design I like
Interiors I like buildings but it's not something that I find fun or
you know that emotional tie to it it's not I can leave it very quickly leave it very quickly which I'm so glad
that we started up you know like the drag thing or the we're all I forgot we're also going to be having a stand-up comedian thing where I'll be hosting it
but it's not a drag event really so hopefully you know we'll keep
expanding those kinds of things and that'll take more of my time away and that'll fulfill that yeah I have noticed
over the years when I would be doing work that was very
very technical that creative side of me was kind of dying and I'd find that was when I would paint and draw the most
okay or even sculpt yeah whereas if I was in a job or a project that was very
creative and I really had to use that those creative chops I didn't do any artwork at all so yeah it's a you know
yeah you have to fulfill the sides of you that need that and that's good that you you've realized that and sometimes
Heinz Heights 2020 I say oh well that's why at that time I did that because it
I wasn't getting fulfilled on this this side or that side
yeah so you're Lego so you're you still do legs you still do that like to this day oh yeah does that is that
part of that creative I mean because these aren't like small like Lego accessories are building they're
expensive yeah they're expensive they're very nice great looking when they're done it's like oh my God like I could
only do like a Porsche they're like okay it's an expensive Hobby and I do there's a little bit of guilt in there because
that is a lot of money to spend on things and I have to I have always been fairly good at compartmentalizing uh
that compulsion of collecting we at one point many two decades ago
when Star Trek was at its height I think Series wise probably late 90s I you know there were action figures
out there for everything and of course each action figure had many different iterations and things you could buy for
accessories and all that kind of stuff and I said no I don't I don't need them I'm not going to buy them they're cool
but I'm not going to buy them and then I think it was for one of the holidays one time I think yeah my
husband found the ones from Voyager the series and got me like the 12 action
figures that they started out with so now I had those well that meant now I'm collecting yeah but I could I could
compartmentalize and say I will only collect Voyager and tell at some point I got something
else in it then I was able to expand it the same as with Lego I have only certain Legos I don't collect Star
Wars I go because that's a huge giant thing and you know there's just there's whole parts of it I can step away and go
I'm not having what so I guess what kind of the Lego sets do you do you like and when they uh
every year they come out with a modular set which is an architecture architectural building with interiors and everything oh those I always
get this year was the jazz club with a pizza parlor okay next to it what's the
like what's the hardest part of that like when you have the interior the exterior is it the shape of the
pieces or no I think I do not I don't know that there's really anything difficult about it that they have you
know they have an age thing on the box you know three to six years old and six to twelve or whatever
I think kids could easily put them together but it's more and then you know I've laid them out in a big city
with roads and cars yeah I mean yeah it takes a huge amount of room
yeah like so there's a little bit ago we had a very close friend who runs a
charity that we have donated to before but they came to the house and they saw all this and they're like
that is so much yes
it's guilty pleasure yeah I mean I'm kind of jealous because
those are the types of things like I like seeing it but like once I get started it is like oh my God like even
just like a puzzle like I like doing it I like the idea of it and it
gets a little bit creative for me away from the technical aspects but
yes, when getting started like Charlene she is big in the puzzles I mean she's great and it's like I just wish I
had like a little bit of that so because then it's like do I sit and when she and
rosemary like go on and they're working on it and like the baby's not doing it do you have hobbies
music playing music and this turn and this was my hobby of
kind of you know helping in just little ways and then it finding I was
finding myself and the mental health led me to like okay I have an event and
then like do I want to do more and then it is this organization and I am
bad at asking it whether it be in a chair like asking for money and it is like oh charity they're
always asking me for money like the conversation's fine and then it's like money it's like you don't have to donate
like I'm just kind of letting you know like here here's what we do and here's what we're trying to do and try to have
some goals and showing it gives me challenging times you are like you're so Nar you say you're come from being
narcissistic all about yourself and then like all I see or post is like Google media the organization is like well I've
never had an I've never had like a multi-million dollar organization so I don't know like
what you got to do something and reach out and see you know what
hits and I mean even with the podcast you know we're doing now and it being able to do it in from television cameras
and getting it to a broader audience of just even finding out it was even an option of how things just happened it's
like oh okay like I like doing it and from cost and time versus what I also was
doing another way I spent a lot more money doing it and getting kind of half of the product and now it's like wow
like this this opens up and it helps the community and it helps the people that
are coming on and be like hey like I know it's coming on a podcast but I didn't like know it was like this and uh
and so I even though I taped three episodes today like it's still like fun
and I still have like the end the good thing yeah that's what it is when you're doing the creative things I think you
get that energy that you know there's something in it yeah and so trying to I mean
Charlene and like having that Dynamic of we have that created this was just like
it comes in different ways and areas and when she's talk about designing buildings and all
the different like I think it's cool I just don't like I can't I can't wrap my mind because I have to like know like
all the ins and outs of it and if I don't if I'm if I don't have the timer I'm not going to be able to it's like oh
okay like I am just going to kind of do my thing but then trying to we're trying to like to explain like those creativities
and right where it's like okay we kind of like have that respect of like okay like what you're doing it's working for
for you for what fulfilling you know that creativity side and so
that's obviously with the relationships you know there's always oh yeah always something that's you know two different
people so that always has something I read your book I thought it was great
you know hearing somebody's personal journey is always interesting to me my
family had I I'm blessed from other than the diabetes and the Heart yeah I do
have evidently good brain chemistry my mother and father were just always
bubbly and having fun they were the greatest people to go to Disneyland with on the west coast when we were there my
sister and I both share that and my sister in fact had gone to a marriage counselor and
with her husband that they were forced to do for the church and then they're
also adopting all this kind of stuff but anyway long story short she
was there and the doctor was saying well there's obviously some trauma in your
past that maybe makes you who you are it's just like I don't think I had any trauma she's like oh you're suppressing
it then so talk to your older brother maybe he remember something so she called me up and I'm like what's she
looking for there's nothing there yeah but the funniest part was the therapist actually said well you know this isn't a
Disney movie you don't hold up your finger and birds light on it and her my sister's husband started laughing he
goes That's a terrible example because my sister actually did find this Robin on the ground oh my God hand fed it and
from then on generations of these Robins would if she went out into the yard and held her finger up they'd come to her
but and that's just kind of a you know synopsis of our mental things I don't
know if you if you're familiar with Bob Newhart the comedian he used to do you know a record albstuff and they
redid one of his skits on silent live recently where I think it's hilarious he
plays a therapist and an unusual therapist and somebody comes in they're like I've got the fear of being buried
alive you know everywhere I go I'm paralyzed I can't work or do anything because I'm going to get buried alive
and his answer to Is we'll cut it out you're not going to get married life so stop it yeah
I and that is the whole skit it keeps on going like that and you know in many ways in my past
I've thought that because I haven't had deep depression or any of these other kind of episodes and so I'd think well
just snap out of it what is wrong with you why can't you just do something yeah not understanding you know there's
chemicals and there's all sorts of things you know that that impinge upon it so it anyway long story I enjoyed
the book thank you yeah and that's how I
was a person before it's like I can handle everything I can do it and then once
yeah work and you know certain things started like the eat eating or not
eating and losing weight ones like those types of things I was like okay like it's a little bit and now like even
when I was admitted they asked if I was like suicidal and I was like no I'm not like I'm not I don't have a plan and
they're like but look at like all these activities you're like withdrawing from and you know your body's kind of
shutting down and it was I mean I do not know what it was I mean
going to different doctors and I don't know if the doctors could see like well he's not ready to accept it so like
we're just going to say he's like he can go see whatever specialist in two minds
and I'm like I don't know if I can make it two months and I mean there were times where
I mean since we've obviously both know Charlene she's like why are you like why are you crying when you're
waking up and what and it's like to talk about like those things like oh okay and like in a very public Manner and not
only about myself but about you know a spouse sometimes there are just dynamics
of like if I want it if I wouldn't have gone through it
and kind of accepted it myself since my family and me hadn't gone through
anything similar it was kind of like he's telling us to call the
the emergency Squad and he's just having a panic attack and the pain and the
squad comes we're not going to take it because they're just having panic attack and you know what's going on and it
wasn't until like these things like I'm literally going to like if I'm not accepted into the hospital because
they're like well we can't just you can't just accept you into the hospital and just start doing like random tests there's probably like a
reason and yeah and it was it was tough I mean
we said we were just married not even six months and I'm like what do I do
and that was like the first time they brought like the psych staff in, and the emergency room and I was like
oh I can handle everything and I was like what do I do she's like whoa it'd only be a couple days and you
know but do whatever you know you think and I'm like all right that is a CAT scan of my or what I think there are
the Scandal looks inside like your stomach I put like the dye in and
look to see if like because I was like oh there's something around my stove I'm not eating and my body's rejecting food and so that's why my stomach isn't it is
hurting and so they did all that did all the blood tests they're like well you're not dying right now
so we can either leave or you can do this I'm like I don't want to be one of those people I can't have like a bell
like they're taking like my shoelaces and it was I'm like I'm not suicidal and
and so those are like things just so they get over like myself but like I If I needed to take medication
if I need to see someone and it I just will and alcohol and things for me it
was just so big in my life at that such a big part of my pie you know like if
I'm going to do something like oh I got to get you know I got to drink a lot before or I'm traveling so I need to drink on
the plane and I don't care if it's a city like I I'm going to have a couple and
those were like kind of like my coping mechanisms of when I would find myself and so that's where I thought I was a an
extrovert and I saw my psychiatrist and he goes oh no he's like you're an
introvert like what do you do kind of like in like your spare time when you're just kind of like hanging out like what
and I'm like well I like to take naps and just kind of like relax and read and he said see like you're an
introvert he's like you can turn it on at like certain times because I'm like well I teach I'm in front of groups and
and then all those things that I had thought it was just a misconception so once he once I was told that I was like
okay like here's somebody like with education and it like sees me kind of like from the outside not this in my
head and I'm like how do I look and like you look fine like are you just saying that because you're my wife because
you are my mom you're my dad and it's because it was in it was inside
and I was like oh you look fine you don't have any bruises and anyway so
you get off a little tapping a little bit but about that and so
sometimes you know family members you know we love them and but then there's certain times where it's like okay I
need to go to this appointment or I need to do like these things for me I need to unplug for an hour whatever
those things are I think that's just helpful and when you're explaining kind of you
finding that creative side and finding those things to fulfill that it's that's
kind of what you're doing in a way of finding a way of like this is what I like to do and so I'm going to find a way
if it is at work if it is not at work and that is where I must find myself with okay if I need to just take
a breather like it's okay like I don't have to answer this particular email today it can be tomorrow I'll just put
it on the calendar respond to whoever it unless it's something that they have to know
if they're booking something like that have to know like right now by this time because I'm like well I can just do
it right now it's easy it doesn't take time a lot of time yeah it's like well it doesn't have to take a lot of time
but it's just another rumination and going down to rap but it's still taking energy
I mean regardless of how long it'll take yeah that's where you know I was
saying I had problems with my father early on and there were you know the certainly the Discrimination things like
that that he had but that was mostly due to him being raised in Rural Oregon I
have to blame it on that but some of it too as I became a teenager his
extrovertness was an embarrassment you know walking in the mall and he'd just talked to somebody I'm like you don't
know them it's like a one of those Progressive results you don't know them you don't know them talk to that person
my dad liked to perform he liked to be on and just and he played the guitar and he sang and and all those things
were terrible you know terribly embarrassing yeah because this was my dad
as I've gotten older now I realize well I like to do that all the time I talked
to walk in I'm like oh what are you eating over here and people are like you don't know them right yeah
it's like those the commercials that are out like your parents exactly it's like you don't know them
like that in the parking lot like you don't know who they are yeah and I
find a little bit of that now looking back on at my dad with I mean he
reads at church and there's been times where he's spoken in front of groups accepted
awards for my grandma's brother where he was inducted in like the like the county
Football Hall of Fame and so my his sister or cousins they didn't want
to they didn't want to be the one to talk they're like I'm not going to talk like I'll get the pictures but I don't want to talk my dad's like oh I'll talk
and so he prepared remarks and stuff and he did that and that's now kind of like thinking like
those are like they're not exactly like what I like but in a way they kind of
are you know in in our own ways we do you think he was perfectly comfortable doing that or was it a struggle for it
no I think he'd like to do it and then so when I had him on him my mom on uh
the podcast and I and my mom's like writing notes and she's like when
is it exactly are we taping and what topics and then my dad and he
came and he had like I mean they both were prepared but it was and he talked like I remember him talking now like
event like as far as how he was speaking and just in that the tone and the manner
like oh well maybe that's a little bit of things that I've
gotten from my you know family and it doesn't have to be exactly like them
it's just we take kind of how like feeling situations like all right I like to do this I don't know
why and maybe I'll find out why at some point but if it it's helpful and I'd like
to do it and it's not like breaking the law like those you know those types of things you know not going to bankrupt
the family right okay do you have to do that no but it's not going to bang your
own family but if you do enough of them maybe like maybe you know like enough 50 or you
know Facebook ads or whatever well it's the same like our it's going to be these events that we're doing you know the
first few we were we were buying all the prizes for Bingo we're paying the
entertainers which we still do yeah you know we have a commitment where we make certain they're paid first if we
don't sell many tickets that's just all out of our pocket and so the first few times you know we were in the red and
then we got to where we're breaking even and now we have enough of these things and I think there's enough impetus and
enough advertising that people are starting our branches usually sell out
which is a good thing I would love it if our Bingo also sold out also yeah but you know it's a Wednesday yeah a lot
of people don't necessarily go out on a Wednesday but this is something they can do so do you think like the marketing
like that has been like what has kind of push to get you to where
you're at and continuing yeah into growth and Word of Mouth absolutely yeah I went and did this I participated and
then the next week or the next month right we you know we're on excuse me uh
you know Instagram and Facebook and that kind of stuff and that certainly helps but you know I go
around and ask people how did you hear about this where it's usually word of mouth or I'm surprised how many of them
see a poster we put them in coffee shops and places where people just happen to be and
this will be a fun thing to do and no kidding don't do it yeah that's that
I mean it's old-fashioned it's old-fashioned and it works and you're asking the consumer the customer
of what how they found and so you're like okay well this is work and we'll
still work on this and this might help incrementally kind of right and then you bring the pictures in and
tagging people and I mean it they look like your events look like they're like
a good time like they are like enjoying themselves Yeah we actually we just had
one on last Sunday and one of the performers Monica lexin did a third
number for us and came out and did a Showgirls I'm not I'm a terrible gay I
don't know musicals and stuff but I don't like them but she did a song from
Showgirls and did this had a full gown gigantic hair did this thing and
then disappeared behind the curtain and when she came back out had stripped that off and had this dance harness kind of
thing on and a big Contraption and a different wig you know I think
it was underneath of her other wig okay because she was like that and then the music Tempo came up and there was this
Crescendo and she was dancing and people were on their feet and two different people told me they actually burst into
tears just because it was just such a spectacle yeah I was like well that's I would love that that's amazing that is
yeah because you're really hitting people like on that super emotional level and that's probably going to bring
them back and yeah and where that word of mouth kind of comes from like and I was helping her collect the money you
know people give dollars as tips and or sometimes fives and others and we
have little baskets for them to so they don't just fall all over the floor and I was bringing back baskets after that
just dump on my head I was like this is this is amazing that is yeah and that gives you like I ideas
to go before like okay you know what this this did very well like let us think of how we integrate that yeah so, I
mean it's really any type of a business or marketer it it's really it doesn't
really matter what you're doing it's kind of like you said it's kind of operating a business
and find what's working what's not you start where like okay here's where you think we need to start and then over
time you're getting a different Intel intelligence from the consumers and yeah
and then just continuing to grow and that is something that I am finding with our organization is to try to
try to continue to build that and so to get other ways and so I haven't thought
about the coffee shops and those I'm like I'm like who's going to like I'm the
person that you're talking about like at work that is going through something and they're instead of just
going through a particular project and doing it it's like they get to a certain point they're like okay but you
know Justin's going to say this so I got to do this and like knowing what whether they say it or not it does not matter
like they're just like okay I got to go this other direction and they start doing those things and that's like
I'm like some of the ideas were like no like who sees those and like
but there's so many and do I and then I get in like do I do a card or a fire and then how big like I do I just need to
like go ahead and do it and you never know I think sometimes it's a gamble we decided I and I thought it was
a really good idea we had decided to create little lapel pins like this one
this one's of me yeah I see it it's too tiny on there I'm sure but that one's of me but we made one for each of the
different performers and we were saying they are five dollars apiece if you buy a bunch, you know they'll be yes and I
thought people were just going to be like oh give me those nobody wanted them
so he's like okay we tried you tried it and probably we won't do that one again but we'll try you know do other things
and maybe that Cycles around or gets to the point where people are like remember those pins you had like last year and
you're like oh okay and you already have that that supply chain of like who you go to and then or the photos taken and
and all that like yep let's just put that in and let's do that I had made stickers and people love those but I was
handing those out for free but yeah and maybe if we just had to do that for free that probably would kind of get to it
oh man yeah so how can people find out about your events
follow you sure you want to share that so we the audience can get in touch
and potentially be a participant of your account so it is our calendar
and different events stuff are posted on Uncle Lulu presents.com and it's l-u-l-u-l-u yeah Uncle Lou all one
word Uncle Lulu presents Uncle Lulu the name was actually taken from it means something in like Vietnam there's
a lot of Uncle Lou's there so that's the main website we're also on
Facebook and Instagram my drag Persona candy dish that's d-y-s-h is on
Instagram and I believe we have just Uncle Lulu in
Facebook but I'm not I can't remember okay that's right Uncle Lulu is definitely on Instagram as well okay
and that's the that's the overarching and then get into the personas as far as
yeah if people want to like find out like at the what what's going on specifically Uncle Lulu's that's when
we're post we'll post photos and stuff from past event and also posters for the upcoming one and it's yeah calendar okay
yeah okay is there anything we didn't cover
that I mean we're all over the place yeah we're all over the place but I mean it's
all relevant it's just you know having that human connection and talking about things that are going on and how
different us as individuals like there's certain things that one person likes somebody
does and it is just about finding that for them the individual and
say yeah, I'm interested or I'm not and maybe this is why and sometimes just
informational you know to have hear people laugh see people laughing oh yes like just stuff that we like Overlook
because we're like so in speaking for myself so in like the details and then the weeds I'm like that's not funny like
what you know when is the when is this when's the seed going to produce fruit, I'm like I'm planting all these seeds and
I am talking to my class I am like I need to like I'm the instructor and I'm like I'm going to have
to just like talk and like when you plant the seed like you don't eat the fruit the same day but it's like this
mental talk that I'm really giving to myself but like I've said a device too it's kind of like that that therapy like
sorry like for the next 15 minutes I'm just going to kind of well I don't know you know it's also kind of a networking
thing we met with some people that might want another
want to do some drag things at their space and it's because their bartender
had been to one of our drag brunches loved it came to them and said this could be fun yeah
and then I mean then there's just I mean they say like it can go to
Infinity like which direction and go Partnerships and work with just like hey like this is kind of what we're doing
and if as long as the numbers work, and people are having fun and enjoy
doing it and why not see where it goes and right I mean I think that
especially for the audience is just sometimes we just try things and you know sometimes they're going to work
sometimes they're not and sometimes it's like half of my jokes yeah half of them they've grown yeah
they have to laugh it's like can somebody just tell me which ones well like I know like I'll take these ones
out because I'll get those questions like what do I do and like when do I start and is it a conflict of interest
like some things are only in conflict of interest when you get to a certain size like the IRS isn't going to
per se like be like all into like the details or you're auditing if you're you know pulling in a hundred dollars a year
or two I mean I see I'm advocating to do your taxes and so this is I'm not
a certified public accountant so anybody's listening this is not
Financial advice but sometimes questions everything is so big and it's like well
like don't take that energy now to think I mean yeah I think and have those
creative ideas like here here's like my big idea but where I've gotten caught
is thinking about all the details of like what's out here instead of like why don't I just like focus on right here
but the here and the now like it may never get there or the it or that they it might come in a different form
and it might be already there before I have a chance to think about it is like you know what we don't know just do
what we what we enjoy doing have fun and really you know just kind of
live life and kind of get into that that the stress of the employee just
adding energy positive negative energy that could be spent doing nothing or to
be spent doing something important but when there's all that energy and you're talking about like you know I just want
to lower this lower stress absolutely like that is what I want to do, and I mean that's why we feel so
good on vacation yes going to a tropical place and laying around is because thank you for lowered the stress and we enjoy
that and think oh I could live here well you're not working there you're not having to buy groceries there you should
probably yeah and then that's like coming back to the reality it takes so long because it's it feels like so
relaxing of just like wow like this was like it takes me usually a couple days
to get into that like I'll be on vacation and take a couple days and like okay and then once I'm there I was like
I do not want to go back to the regular like I am Going to Change what I am doing in
certain instances and make things less stressful and then I always go back to kind of like not all the way back to
exactly how I've been but you know some things are like into Cycles yeah I only
look at my phone like only a couple hours a day like yeah that works for the first maybe week if you get that long
and then after that it's like oh crap I find myself doing these things and
yeah well thank you for being for being on and really at me excited following I
mean everything from the events that you have to the Persona in the event
and then I really enjoy the Legos like and am I it's only like maybe like a once a year type now yeah like and you
never know until like people like I didn't know that person watched this interview when they're putting a pose out there like I didn't know like
they took a picture of their screen like so that was like legit yeah you just never know so I guess I'm the Lego
stalker well I'll post it all right I we keep talking about we're going to do
little like clips of some of the characters in there and maybe make up a little story yes I don't know
something fun yeah I'll check it out you know at least
one person yeah okay good yeah well thank you to our
audience to our listeners our viewers for watching this episode and
joining us on the Voices for Voices podcast again a very special thank you to Our Guest today bud Perry for sharing
his time his experiences his journey and hopefully a couple laughs for
you so until next time I am Justin Alan Hayes founder and executive director of
Voices for Voices host and humanitarian have a great day and be a voice for
yourself or somebody in need
Thank you.
Please donate to Voices for Voices, a 501c3 nonprofit charity today at: https://www.voicesforvoices.org/shop/p/donate
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