Thank you for checking out The Community Conversation, brought to you by Prototype Training Systems, home of CrossFit Prototype!  The Community Conversation highlights a different member of the Prototype Community each week and allows them to tell their story, share their life experience, and communicate their perspective on all things fitness.

We’ve all listened to podcasts and watched YouTube videos that highlight some of the world’s greatest leaders and visionaries. We believe we have some AMAZING people at Prototype and we want you to get to know them! (Check out our last episode here!)

This is our 25th episode of The Community Conversation and I am SO PUMPED to introduce our guest Graham Pettengill. Graham has a great story on how he got started at Prototype… basically, he was training for The Boston Marathon and his kids (who were coming to Prototype) made him come! Since then he has been hooked! He’s built a ton of relationships, he has helped out a lot of folks are Prototype as a Community Business Sponsor (Check out Graham Pettengill ERA Key Realty here!) and he’s just an all-around awesome guy! Oh, by the way, he’s a Grateful Dead Head, which makes him extra awesome!

So, click the link below to watch this Community Conversation on our YouTube page! You can also check out The Community Conversation on all major streaming platforms including Spotify! Don’t forget to subscribe!

Michael Collette 0:03
All right, Graham, we are live. Appreciate you being on the community conversation, man.

Graham Pettengill 0:09
Thank you so much for having me, Mike. It’s a great pleasure to be with you.

Michael Collette 0:13
Yes, sir. So Graham, if you listening the community conversation, don’t like to start things off with just giving a little background on yourself and how you found prototype, how you got involved in the gym, how you found CrossFit, all that sort of stuff. So I know the folks listening would love to hear.

Graham Pettengill 0:29
Cool. So I guess it starts off with high school, I thought I was kind of an athlete, but I went to a pretty small school. So everyone had to be an athlete, you had to play in some kind of sport, I think there were 44 kids in my class. So you know, they needed enough bodies just to fill out a team. So I was always picked for something. I played hockey, lacrosse and football, but always weighed about 155 pounds. And those of you that know me, I wish I could be 155 pounds. Now I could never put on any weight, never did anything. And then got into corporate America where I was sort of involved in opening up stores for you know, various retail chains, some of which are no longer with us. The last one was target, which will be with us for a while. And unfortunately, that involves a lot of travel, which the kids if you talk to them, I thought they loved it moving every three years. But they hated it. They never got to be in a community long enough. But for me, it involves a lot of time on the road, lot of meals, lack of exercise, things like that. So I ballooned up to like 250 pounds. So I was I was big, not very healthy. And I started running, which is kind of like, you know, we talked about often at the gym and things like that I used to run one mile, and die. You know, and then it got up to two, and then maybe three. And then over the years, it got more and more. So I was basically a runner, and then my daughters, Caitlin, and now Brooke, who you guys know joined the gym before me kept telling me you need to do something more, you need to do something more. And I was like, No, no, no, I’m losing weight, I’m feeling pretty good. I’m doing fine. But I had no upper body strength at all. So they signed me up for the whatever it was the three month package that you guys offer for Christmas. And I was dreading it, because I did not want to do it. I’m great with Christmas gifts and things like that. They’ll tell you anyone they give me I’m always like, I don’t like this, Nick, I wanna. So that was the one I really hated. Because I was training for Boston that year. It was the first year they’re going to run Boston and all I could tell him I was like, I’m gonna get hurt. You know, this doesn’t make any sense. Why are you guys doing this to me? So I got in and then was the trainer at the time, you know, took me through the beginning classes. And then, you know, the great thing about you guys is I mean, everyone knew that, you know, I wasn’t in great shape, you know, upper body wise, or lifting any of that stuff. So I think I lifted the bar for the first you know, two months, which was great. You know, they watched me every time I remember Brian, you know, sneaking up behind me going, that’s enough. You’re good with that last week. But it’s something that you guys always take care of, and watch me and then try to tailor the workouts to for what I was doing for running and things like that. So I feel like I’ve gotten in much better shape than just being a runner. And believe it or not, I hate running. You know, everyone thinks I love it. And probably just like everyone to I think I hate every workout right? But I’m in the middle of it. And then when you dive in like that was awesome. It felt really good. So yes, so my, you know, the one thing is I think you bring it up often too is a lot of people leave gyms, you know, they get started, they get into a little bit, you do it for a couple weeks, and then you’ve got

the community has been so good. You know, and I know it’s overused, we talked about, you know, prototype community and what a great group it is, and things like that, but literally every single person is supportive of you. I know I’m the cute old man in the group now. So it’s kind of fun, you know, people see that I do you know, the scaled stuff and things like that. But uh, you know, every single person is pushed me and tried to make sure I do the best I can. Those of you that know the 7am class, and I think everyone was 7am classes picked up on this. But Russ Schwartz always likes to sort of pick on me and go like my Graham, you can do it. So I think everyone’s done that now from john to everyone in the class. Like Come on, Graham, you could do more than that. Because as Jonathan I I tend to be a little lazy if I can do it the easy way. I’ll do it the easy way and then when he corrects me, I’ll go but that’s hard. It’s supposed to be so it’s it’s been a great journey. I mean, I feel Much better about myself. You know, and the nutrition is another really, really big part of that. You know, I’ve taken nutrition with john and recently with Sam. And, you know, I think it’s like anything with coaching, you know, I’ve taken coaching and my real estate career and things like that. I think we all know the things we’re supposed to do. And we know, you know, if we did those things Incorporated, or lifestyle, we’d be, you know, more successful, more fit, whatever it is. But when you have a coach that kind of asks, you know, how’d you do last week? You know, what we talked about? Where are you at with this? Where are you at with that? It really, really helps. And then I’ll give one plug I meant to get tell Sam about this. And john, too, I just signed up for something recently, which I think is really, really great is a community share at southborough, at the Chestnut Hill Farm, and they give you like, a stack of vegetables, which you’ve never eaten before, half a month. And then you get to try to eat them and incorporate them in your diet, you’ve got one week to eat all this stuff. And it’s all vegetables, which normally I would just like, I don’t want those and want like a nice steak. So it’s it’s been really, really good. And it’s exciting to see what they have each time.

Michael Collette 6:15
That’s awesome. I love community shares, you get veggies they do for like meat and stuff with like different places. And that’s our thing. Now, that’s awesome, gram. And I love you that you were talking a little about training for Boston and then transitioned in started doing CrossFit training. Did you feel that that helped with your training with Boston? And then why don’t you talk a little bit about that experience, because I know the last couple years 2020 now 2021, Boston has shifted to more of a virtual. I know, in 2020, it was more of a virtual event, they had to move it, unfortunately, but what was that experience like for you?

Graham Pettengill 6:52
Well, I think the biggest thing was, you know, it really wore on my body when I first did it the first few times. And I don’t think you realize that, you know, it’s like, you think it’s all legs when you’re running a marathon or something like that, but it’s not it’s you noticed, my back hurts. You know, why is my you know why my arms tie or things like that. It’s a lot of core strength, you know, to keep you up. And then it’s like strength to you know, the stronger I made my legs and the more we did different things like that. It really helped with my endurance and things of that nature. The other thing too, is it just, you know, it makes you a little bit quicker. But also it was a little less painful to for the marathons and things like that. So, you know, the the big, big one, too, is really lack of injuries. I’ve had some nagging injuries when I’ve done them pull grinds, things like that, but with CrossFit, and then you know, and that’s the other thing too, like we talked about, the coaches are really mindful of that, too. They look and they say, you know, Graham, what are you doing for running? What do you got for long run the next day, they kind of know that a Friday, I’m here for a workout, and I’ve got a longer on Saturday, that it’s gonna be not as much pressure on me to really do all the everything there, but just really get a good stretch and things like that. That’s probably been the biggest thing, though, is not just the strength and things like that. But learning how to stretch, I mean, I think you’ve seen and john likes to joke about it too. I mean, my squats before were like, you know, maybe got down close to my knees. You know, it wasn’t anywhere near below my knees. And now I can get down, you know, pretty much below the knees, which is pretty amazing. Because as we get older, we’re gonna get less flexible, and I should be way less flexible I am now I think the strides I’ve looked at in the five years, you know, just feeling better doing different things like that. And you know, daily life, you noticed that too. So it’s great

Michael Collette 8:52
flexibility, man, it’s such an important component. And that’s the thing is that, you know, you incorporate that into every single one of the workouts you do in the beginning and a little bit at the end, but you don’t really think about the stretching that goes on when you’re actually performing the movements and like focusing on doing those movements like you putting the work into the technique on a squat. And you’re literally improving your mobility just by working the technique of that, of that movement. And you know, you’re just a perfect example of that putting in the work and putting in the dedication and be mindful of it and listening to your coaches. Thank you. Thank you.

Graham Pettengill 9:29
I don’t think I listened very well. But I do show up well show up just about every day. So that’s good. That helps.

Michael Collette 9:37
You mentioned community has a big part. You have any like stories or any like moments or things that stick out in the back of your head. I know, getting coffee on Fridays after the 7am classes is like a tradition that you that you guys do what are what are some other things or maybe you want to talk a little bit about that. What are some things that stick out in your mind that kind of goes beyond the maybe goes beyond just working out component,

Graham Pettengill 10:00
thank you. And I think that’s probably one of the most fun things that we’ve done. And you know, with 7am, and you know, getting people into that, too, it’s just, we have a little routine that we started a while ago, where all this get together and we head down to read more. And it’s probably one of the nicest parts because you kind of, you know, recap a little bit from the workout, but you also hear about what’s going on people’s lives, things like that. I know, I do not miss a Friday workout, just because I know it’s gonna be coffee afterwards. And it’s kind of a nice start to the weekend. And then I’ve learned so much. And I think everyone’s learned so much about me and my grandchildren and things like that. What’s important to me. And we have great discussions, I mean, discussions, we even discuss politics sometimes. So it’s, you know, it’s interesting and fun. And it’s been great for us to do that. The other social things, too, are just like, you know, some of the events we do, too, are just so much fun, because you get to meet so many people that, you know, and that’s when my kids kind of sold me on this was like, it’s not just a workout. It’s also getting to meet people, you know, and you guys know, I’m a member of a running club to Hopkin and running club. And that’s sort of the same thing we did we have, we run for whatever it is that we all meet for coffee afterwards. And the coffee afterwards is probably I don’t know if I’d be a runner, if I didn’t, you know, do the coffee afterwards, just the relaxing time, and meeting people and talking to them and finding out more about it.

Michael Collette 11:30
Well, you are a super social guy, man. And that, that brings me to the next thing I want to talk about is like you’ve you’ve transitioned right? You mentioned that your prior like work life was in like corporate america working on retail, and you know, opening different companies, you said specifically last was target, but you transitioned into the real estate world, and you’re one of the community business sponsors here at prototype. I know, being social is a huge part of that, because my mother in law is probably listening to this right now. Because she’s interested in it, we’d love to hear from you, is, you know, being social is a big part of like, the real estate side of things. And we’ve been in a crazy market here over the last like year or two or plus, with, with the housing market and everything. I’m sure folks would love to hear from your perspective, what that world has been like, for you, but also just like what your what you’ve seen over the last like year plus, and maybe like what your what you think is gonna happen going forward. Cool, this

Graham Pettengill 12:33
is this is kind of my, it’s fun, because this was supposed to be my retirement job. And Joanna and I, we moved, we moved, like every three years. So I think we bought and sold seven houses. So that’s 14 houses, then we bought other properties, too. But every time we bought one, we were kind of like HGTV you know, we show up for a weekend, go for a tour, look at five houses and then end up buying. So we were a realtors dream. I mean, it was awesome. We just walk in, we wouldn’t really, you know, make it too hard. We had to have something quick, we had a place for the kids and me to get started in my new job. So and we always looked and said, You know, I never I don’t think there was one realtor we ever wanted to use a get, you know that we really were impressed with their service and their follow through or things like that. So I saw a big gap for that I started in real estate is funny too, because I grew up in Greenwich, Connecticut. And my mom was a realtor. And what I used to do in high school was help her and some other realtors by like painting houses and fixing them up and getting them ready for sale. So I guess as in real estate when I was like 17 I didn’t really know it. But I think that’s the thing that was really lacking in the industry and probably still is just you know, personal contact, personal attention. Things like that. My my dad and Greenwich ran a small agency. And I think that’s my slogan to on the wall. And there is you know, personal attention you deserve. Because he was technical agency and personal attention. So I thought that was that was a great little thing for us. So, you know, it’s something I started when I first started, I didn’t know you know how I do. It’s kind of an iffy business, you can do very well, you can, you cannot but I went into it. Like everything I do a whole hog. Learn as much as I could very quickly listen to people around me and took the training very seriously to do that. And the first year I was Rookie of the Year which was great. And then pretty much a top performer top 10 right from year one. So the last few years I’ve been the top agent in my company, which is about 400 agents in the Massachusetts area. And last year I was in the top 50 for national. So it’s been good, but I’m not so happy with that I’d like to you know, share that as I’m more happy with people People who, you know, call me up and say, Hey, Graham, you know, Mike Collette used you as a realtor and he wants you, you know, he said, You’re great. So I’d like to use you too. those are those are the best clients to work for, and the best thing so. So I’ve enjoyed that, I think we do a good job, my team, I’ve got an admin, a couple people that work for me do marketing and things like that. So we tried to do things a little differently, you know, stay up to date with electronics, things like that. So that we’re, you know, on the cutting edge of that. And it’s funny, because era is called the electronic real estate agency with their company name, because they were the first ones to have a fax machine. So they were on the cutting edge of that. So when you look at, you know, what the markets been like? And it’s really funny, because Can I get into this like 12 years ago, I think. And within a couple years, everyone was talking about lack of inventory, lack of inventory. So we’ve been saying that for, you know, past 10 years, probably. So people probably think I’m making it up when they asked, you know why it’s real estate. so

tough right now, it’s because a lack of inventory. But this year, really, we saw, you know, probably the worst year ever for lack of inventory. Last year was unusual, because there was some inventory, I don’t think buyers were really interested in buying as they were now. So a couple things we’re seeing, which is really interesting in the market right now. And we saw this last year was, it’s people who lived in the cities, and we’re thinking about a moving flag, and I’ll use you and Aaron, as an example, if you guys were living in Boston, you probably be loving it right now. But then you’d be thinking, you know, maybe a couple years, if we’re thinking of family or dog pod or something like that, we’d love to be out there. So what the pandemic did was a kind of escalated that because people now are stuck in their apartments, you know, they’re, you know, 800 square foot and southie was awesome. But when all the restaurants were closed, it was it was terrible. So it accelerated that move. The other thing that really accelerate is interest rates, interest rates being at, you know, 3% I know, some people like I’d say, you know, they may go up to 4%. And people like, Oh, my God, that would be terrible. Well, I remember, you know, Joanne, and I buying a house once and it was like, nine, five or something, we were thrilled because it was under 10%, you know, under double digits. So, you know, interest rates are driving it too. And then the other thing is just, you know, the the extreme extreme lack of housing, because it’s a double edged swords when interest rates are that low. And you can’t find houses, people who own real estate are like, Well, why would I sell my house that I bought for 30 300,000. Even if I sell for 600, I’ve got to buy a new one. Now that’s more expensive. My interest rate is 3%. You know, so I’m paying like 1200 bucks a month for that in a rather than move up. So that’s kind of a tough thing to get people to realize, I think COVID at first was a driver and that, you know, people were afraid to put their house on the market, people were afraid that we would, you know, be a chaotic open house with people walking in and touching everything and coughing all over their house. And, you know, we did a very good job very responsible with it, you know, as realtors to make sure we got as many people in safely. So, you know, those are some of the things that are driving it. We’ve seen, you know, anecdotally, you know, this year, in January, February, March, we saw 3000 homes on market in all of Massachusetts, single family homes. That’s like nothing. I mean, you can look at any community now it used to be, you know, say, you know, you and Mike, we’re going out to look at houses and disagreement, I look at the four to five hundreds, in one town, there probably be 10 to 12 houses we can look at, we’ve narrowed it down to four, and we go pick those best for now. There’s one, there’s like 10 on for like, Westboro and like there’s probably like 1516 homes on the market. And then every, every weekend, the cycle out, they sell, and then we get you know, five or six more. We’ve seen now an increase, but it’s still only up to I think this today was 4500 homes on market in Massachusetts. So those are incredibly low numbers. I don’t see them, you know, going up I think this summer is going to be unusual, though, because I think we’re going to see a lot more people putting them on thinking about it. And then the buyers, you know, it’s just so frustrating right now because I have you know, buyers who maybe go out for seven, eight weeks in a row, you know, putting offers in each time and not getting a house. You know, finding when we do when we hold on to it. People are being very aggressive to their offers, which is very difficult. They’re looking at waiving contingencies. So no inspection, no appraisal, which is very, very risky. I don’t like to do To my buyers, because, you know, if you lose your job and the inspection doesn’t go, well, you’re stuck to mine that house. So you’ve got to be very careful with that. So those are a couple of the obstacles I see. But, you know, the big, big thing is, and this is what I talked to my clients too, is, it’s not, you’re not playing a price point, you’re not buying a $600,000 house or 700,000, you’re buying a monthly payment. So with interest rates as low as they are, I mean, that’s 600,000 and the nice downpayment, maybe $3,000 a month. I mean, that’s, you know, the other lines, 2800, I have two dogs. So it’s even more than that. And if you have to do that sort of thing. So, you know, while the payments are good, that’s what you want to keep looking at. My wife was the master that we used to buy houses, you know, we’d be looking at $600,000 house, and she always go well, for seven, it’s only, you know, an extra 300 bucks a month, we can get this house and not suddenly be up in, you know, way above that number.

This was just a little bit more a little bit more. And he kept doing that, but it’s a good value. And, you know, it’s a good opportunity, as we all know, I know you’re loving your house. So, you know, it’s a great thing to have.

Michael Collette 21:13
We got super lucky, because it was right. At the beginning of the pandemic, it was like March, April, and it was like, right before everything started to go up in price, because like you talked about, there’s a few factors, but it’s, you know, I think what you’re saying is well down to the supply and demand, right. And then it must be challenging to for a lot of buyers now, like based on what you’re saying, you know, a lot of full cash offers no contingencies. But also the prices of the houses are a lot higher because of that supply and demand. So when you have, like clients that you know, might be working in within a particular price range, and from what I’m hearing, you’re saying it’s like they’re almost getting too competitive for them to even be able to purchase a house that they might have been able to get a year or two years ago.

Graham Pettengill 22:06
And the key thing is that you have to remind people around remind myself to even because we’re thinking of getting a little like a place on Cape or something. This even though the price appears high. Now, if interest rates do creep up next year, even like a full point, that’s probably going to add, you know, $800,000 to your monthly payment. So, you know, the price of the home is still relatively cheap, even though it’s gone up 100,000 or 200,000, whatever they have. I mean, we’ve seen them fairly consistently going up. 5% is bad every year, the last few years. And we know that’s not sustainable. But, you know, Boston has been great. I mean, even in oh eight when the market crashed some of the communities around the West Burroughs Hopkins and things like that barely dipped. I mean, they were flat for a little bit. But, you know, not not a big dip some of the more outlying ones with more land, and when there’s more construction, those got hit a little bit harder, but they rebounded back quickly. I mean, we’re such in such a unique situation here that, you know, with between technology, pharma, things like that we have so many high paying jobs that people can afford that and I think back to your search, and I know a couple of my clients who have been successful. Everyone wants to move in ready? Okay, so those move in ready houses with, you know, the granite and the nice appliances and, you know, it looks and feels young. Those are the houses that go quickly. One of my clients just got a great house in Hopkinton for a great value. It was definitely grandma’s house. I mean, it was ugly carpet, you know, Formica counters, you know, some wallpaper, but all that stuff goes away quickly, you just got to get over that and look by and say, hey, these are things will add value quickly to this house. And they’ll do well. So yeah, that’s my tip for anyone out there now is you know, avoid the shiny pennies, I like to say, because everyone’s gonna want those, you know, it’s something that we can just do, you know, get a hardwood guy to come in or, you know, vendors like that and take care of it. That’s great. And that’s the other really good thing about the community that we’re in here. I mean, I’ve met so many and you’ve you’ve done a great job too with you know, connecting the vendors with each other. You know, I call Jeff foster up for anything you know, real quick takes care of me. Then I’ve got a Scott dryer with insurance. He’s phenomenal with any problem you have anything he has, I mean he’s got that same energy you see in the gym out there with his business so you know, they’re great people and you know, you can trust them which is really good. So yeah, there’s some fantastic folks.

Michael Collette 24:52
This guy he’s a good guy to golf with just like you are which is I know that’s probably one of your favorite hobbies to trade getting out on the on the on the court. Today, when did you start playing golf By the way, when did you that becomes something you love and you, you why you tell people because I don’t want to, I don’t want to spoil it. But you’re out there like everyday ripping around the course and trying to set the course record land speed record.

Graham Pettengill 25:15
I just set the speed represents that he got to the records. As a golf golf is funny though, because my parents were members of a great club in Greenwich. And I had the opportunity to take lessons and do all that stuff. And I absolutely hated because as a kid, if you’re not good at something, it’s horrible, you know, so I think I took a lesson at 13, when played with someone once and I had like a 13 and a 14 on too old and I was like, I’m out of here. And I won’t do this anymore. So I gave up on it. And then the funny story is, then when we were like 18, we used to sneak on a lot of courses. So we we’d run around play, you know, the back nine are a bunch of really nice courses down in Connecticut. It’s funny, because some of my friends are members of those courses now. And they say yeah, I had to join because I just see what the front time look like. So I I never played, you know, played a little bit, you know, kept doing that. And then it’s just been been really nice to have the opportunity to play some cool courses and things like that. And some friends who have some good ones too. So, yeah, golf is fun. But golf to me. It’s like CrossFit. I mean, CrossFit, I wake up in the morning, you don’t always feel great, you know, in fact, many mornings, I’m like, I don’t think I can go do it. I’m a little stiff too much. But once you get into the gym, it’s like, everything goes away again, in the stretch, you do this, everything’s awesome. And the golf course is the same way. Cuz you know, all of us have stressful jobs and things like that. things going on, and you get out there, you know, it’s just all sudden, you’re outside. It’s beautiful. You know, I don’t play well, but doesn’t matter, you know, still pretty place and, you know, lots of grass, and it’s awesome.

Michael Collette 26:57
I think one good shot to bring you back. Maybe was the higher pipes putting those good jobs together, I’ve learned how to learn that we’re sure that I’m tired. But I’m so alright, so golf has to be your one of your favorite hobbies? Because that’s that we’re getting into our Spitfire around the questions here, Graham. Is that is that confirmed? Or what are your other hobbies outside of you know, working out? Maybe time spending your family and know your you know your grandfather now. So what are your your favorite hobbies and things new?

Graham Pettengill 27:33
Yeah, I think, you know, golf is obviously awesome. But I love spending time with Cooper Cooper’s two years old, and my little granddaughter Blakey who’s seven months old. But Cooper’s amazing, because my kids like to laugh because I definitely probably have a DD or something like that, where I’m kind of all over the place all the time. And a two year olds the same way. So it’s awesome. I mean, we can go look at you know, a bird and then go see a cricket. And then we’ll go look at an ad. And we go run around, we went to, we took him, I took him swimming the other day. And we got to go while we waited for the pool to open up. We got to go sit on a golf cart. And then we got to go look for turkeys. And then we got to go watch where they store the golf carts, which was the coolest thing in the world for him. And then we got to watch them clean the golf carts. So it was you know, for me, that’s perfect. We did 10 different things in five minutes. And, you know, Brooke and Caitlin were playing. That’s kind of the way I schedule my day too, which is they don’t understand how I could do it. But it’s like, you know, like today I’ve got you know how to call it like the gym first and then a call a 30 then this one a 10 and another call and then I’m going to try to play golf later. So you know, and I squeeze everything in. So I’ve got like 15 minutes between each one because that’s a waste of time. Otherwise, I got nothing to do in the middle of those.

Michael Collette 28:56
I can relate to that stuff for sure. Next question, Graham in the Spitfire around is what’s your favorite movie, and TV show of all time? And also to add to that, what are you currently binge watching if you’re binge watching anything right now?

Graham Pettengill 29:13
Alright, so the movies are hard to get because everybody’s got a bunch of movies they’d love. My wife laughs at me all the time. She’s like, you seen that movie seven times. I mean, like a Denzel Washington movie. I could watch again and again, I mean, mattifier, things like that. But Apocalypse Now it’s probably one of my favorite movies. Just because it’s got a Charlie Sheen in it. And what’s in it, Robert Duvall and just some of the lines that are just phenomenal, you know, the smell of napalm in the morning. And then it has the doors for a soundtrack and rolling stones. I mean, he can’t beat it. So that one’s pretty cool. It’s a little hard to watch though, because it’s 79 was when it came out. So it’s a little older cinematography. I’m going to go old again, too. On famous favorite TV show we used to love to watch 24 we then that was just the coolest thing because every every day, we learned some important life lessons from that, you know, I always told my daughter that Yeah, I would sacrifice her for the terrorists because I know we’re gonna die anyway. So when they say that when they say they’re gonna kill you, your daughter’s like, you know, they’re gonna kill them. So you might as well jump now and take care of it take action quickly. Because they always like to be hearing Yeah, and then stuff we’ve been just we didn’t really want binge watch a lot. But we did get and it’s funny too. Because at the gym, and I coffee we talk about you know, what are you watching? What are you doing on TV, things like that, and shits Creek came up. And that’s just a really funny, funny show. And then we just started the crowd, which is kind of interesting, but we got to get into that one a little bit more.

Michael Collette 30:52
Cool. I like how you referenced the doors and the Rolling Stone? Because that brings me to my next question, which I think I know the answer. What is your favorite band or musician of all time?

Graham Pettengill 31:05
favorite favorite band is definitely the Grateful Dead. Have that plan all the time. It’s my thing. There’s a lot of artists that I like to which are, which are cool. So we’ll get back to that. But the dead are fine this because I used to follow him as a kid. And I didn’t follow like, I mean, like, you know, seven states and like nine days, I think the most we did was like Vermont to Portland, Maine. I think that was about it. And then a couple others, I mean, and then we went to Portland, Maine, you know, when my buddies was like, oh, they’re playing in Wisconsin, two days, we should go there next. I’m like, we didn’t mind driving, hours to go do that. But we saw some great shows. A good friend of mine is friends with a lot of the guys who play in the dead too. So we got to actually meet some of the guys backstage to things like that. So that’s awesome to know that but they’ve been fun. And I think now, it’s pretty incredible to watch them because with john mayer, it’s like an entirely different fields of music. It’s still the same music, but it’s got a really good bluesy feel to it. It’s, you know, and it’s bringing a lot of young people to hopefully keep the band going. So see what the next iteration of the Grateful Dead will be. But I think it’d be awesome. And that’s my deal too. I can’t wait to either run a marathon with Cooper and maybe take him to a dead shell. So it’s a ways off to see if we make it back.

Michael Collette 32:30
That’s awesome. Two things on that is one is I know you’re going to love so you loving the endurance sort of stuff. And then also music. Our rover crows event is happening again this year, September at Chadwick Stokes, in the Pintos are playing one of three additional bands, food trucks, beer, all that fun stuff, it will be the fitness and fitness and, and music festival coming together. So you got a you better make sure you make a team team before rolling 21,000 meters 21 and 21 is a is a theme. So it’s like a half marathon row and a team of four. So it’s, it’s going to be a lot of fun. And I’m sure that you’ll if you can make it epic either. Get that team of four together maybe Caitlin and john and Brooke and be on a team with you or something. I think they would dig it. There’ll be a fun time. They’ll be family and family and kids and family friendly as well.

Graham Pettengill 33:22
wouldn’t miss it fun to sponsor that event. That’s a really nice charity to they have put together for it.

Michael Collette 33:27
Yeah, it’s awesome. Calling all crows is awesome. And then the second thing I want to ask you is what’s your favorite dead song? Now one down. Ha Hmm.

Graham Pettengill 33:38
I don’t know. I guess it’s I guess friend of the devil probably is one of my favorites just because I got to see them play acoustic. But uh, you know, also like birth, I just killed the drums and things like that, you know, and but, uh, I guess it’s the other one. I don’t know. I don’t know. I guess I guess friend of the devil is probably one of my favorites. Spinning around with that one. Yeah. Especially when you hear some of the new singers sing it to like Bob Weir’s done it with. I forget her name a couple of just incredible new women singers who are out there now. It’s phenomenal.

Michael Collette 34:16
Awesome, man. Well, Graham, love and in the community conversation talking about a little Grateful Dead. I know my my father model appreciate. Appreciate that when you listen to this. Appreciate you being a community conversation today. appreciate all you that are listening tuning in. Again, we do a new community conversation every single week to get your week started. So tune in. We are broadcasting on Spotify, also on YouTube and on our website. If you’d like to be on a community conversation, you’re a part of the project community to let us know we’d love to have you on and again, Graham, thank you for being on. appreciate having you man.

Graham Pettengill 34:51
Thank you, Mike. Have a great day. You too.