Mom

Call with Mom

Sun, Aug 17, 2025 2:47PM 29:28

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Travel plans, work progress, Staples project, procurement meeting, onboarding, Ecuador trip,

Galapagos Islands, remote work, cost of living, cannabis, family updates, Grand Canyon trip,

holiday plans, Atlanta activities, High Museum.

SPEAKERS

Speaker 1, Leisa Bueno, Susan McDowell, Andy Tyer

Speaker 1 00:00

It. It was

Andy Tyer 00:03

easy peasy. Well, good. I mean, it was freaking all day. We Well, we got into an Uber in Seattle

at 730 Friday morning, and we got out of an Uber in nolansville, Tennessee, at 7pm Oh, wow.

Four hour flight, plus the two hour time difference, and all of a sudden your whole day is gone.

So,

Susan McDowell 00:36

yeah, I know that's right. So

Andy Tyer 00:40

Lisa's in the kitchen. She says, Hi, she's making turkey and she's making your dressing. Oh,

Susan McDowell 00:45

well, tell her. I said, Hello. And so have you all got your work all squared away yet?

Andy Tyer 00:57

Well, In what respect?

Susan McDowell 01:02

As far as finishing what you've got to do for staples and all that,

Andy Tyer 01:07

Oh, well. I mean, it's ongoing, I've got a have a meeting with their procurement department

tomorrow morning to negotiate a project that I gave them an estimate for good for like,

$16,000 and, wow, nice Lisa and I should knock that out in about two weeks. So I got my official

staples email address on Friday. Oh, well, good, which is a really good sign, because they

usually only give that to their full time employees and their trusted partners. And so I think

after two and a half years of of continually giving them better and better product, they're

trusting us enough to give me an email address so that I can so that I can access stuff that they

can access, but I have never been able to access, so that was a very good sign, and and I'm

also sort of onboarding one of their new employees in the marketing department, so Oh,

Susan McDowell 02:21

Really, wow. And

Andy Tyer 02:25

it was I found out about her, and so I reached out to who I assumed her boss was going to be,

and said, Hey, I've heard you've got a new person named Nancy. Would you like me to give

them a little tour of what we're doing here in the content stuff? And he said, Yeah, absolutely.

And so, so, yeah, my goal has been to get them addicted to us. And that's, that's basically what

we're doing.

Susan McDowell 02:52

Well, good. It's like

Andy Tyer 02:55

I told Lisa, like, well, I decided this when I knew my time at am Civ was going to be ending, and

so my only option was to grow staples. And so I told her, back near the beginning of 2024, I was

like, my goal is to get them addicted to us, and that's, that's what we're doing. Well, good.

That's

Susan McDowell 03:22

great. Well, not much going on here, just Same old, same old.

Andy Tyer 03:27

How's Mac is doing?

Susan McDowell 03:32

Very well. Oh, good. Yeah. Surgery was successful.

Speaker 1 03:37

Yeah. I'm so happy. I'm so glad

Susan McDowell 03:41

me too, because he was miserable for a long time. So, yeah, he's doing good. I'm doing good.

We all, we all got children. Seem to be doing good right now.

Leisa Bueno 03:57

I like it. So next summer, we're thinking about going for three months to Quito Ecuador. Do you

think you would like to visit? What?

Susan McDowell 04:08

Well, I guess

Leisa Bueno 04:10

we could. We. We're getting a a penthouse for three months, maybe not thin house, because

they don't take pits, yeah, but yeah. But one of the penthouses,

Andy Tyer 04:20

we could say for three months for half the cost of what we stayed in Seattle for half the time.

It's like three months for like 7500 bucks.

Susan McDowell 04:32

Yeah, I'm sure. Oh, it's so cheap.

Andy Tyer 04:36

The temperature is like 72 degrees every day. And all year round, pretty much all year round.

But it's the dry season. Is June through September, and so we're thinking, Well, you know what?

It's still hot as all bejesus out here right now. So maybe we go for the whole summer next

Leisa Bueno 04:54

summer. So we're thinking that maybe we'll, if you and Mac want to come, we'll save the trip to

the Galapagos Islands, because Ecuador is Galapagos Islands is part of Ecuador. Oh, yeah, so

we just take a boat there and we can stay there in a hotel for a couple days and hang out there.

That'd

Susan McDowell 05:12

be fabulous, wouldn't it? Yeah, yeah, we'll plan on it. Plan on

Andy Tyer 05:16

it, yeah. We just basically like this, this trip to Seattle was a delightful proof of concept that we

can basically, we can work from anywhere,

Susan McDowell 05:30

yeah, like, yeah

Andy Tyer 05:33

and so and we love the space. Like, don't get me wrong. Like we love our home, like I spent

yesterday afternoon just marveling at all the differences between here and what we

experienced in Seattle. But the thing that I was very noticeable was like we created a space

here, which is a it's a great space for people who work at home. Hey you what you got a ball

stuck up under there. Sam wants to say hello to mom. Hello, Sam.

Susan McDowell 06:03

All right, hold on, Sam.

Andy Tyer 06:10

I got it. Oh, skinny arms under there, will ya? You're a petite, fun size arm.

Speaker 1 06:20

Okay? Lisa's on the floor, mom.

Andy Tyer 06:31

So, yeah, that's like we started going, you know, what? We can now, pretty much plan to go do

whatever the hell we want to do, wherever we we can afford it. So we're, that's what I'm

Susan McDowell 06:41

That sounds great. I guess I'll start saving my money, because a trip to Ecuador won't be

cheap. It

Andy Tyer 06:47

won't it's not like it won't be horrible, price wise, to get fly down there and and the beauty of it

is, wherever we every place that we get is going to be big enough for that you could literally

stay with us. Oh, well, good. So, like, this penthouse she's looking at has like five freaking

bedrooms. So, oh, wow, yeah. So, yeah, wow. But, and you know the why Ecuador is Lisa's ex

husband lives there, and her daughter, Gabby's seriously going to, is planning to move there

because she can't afford to have a child in Seattle, really, yeah, that's that was one like, we

went to the grocery store, I think I told you this, and we spent $600 at the grocery store when

we first got To ballot to to our Airbnb in Seattle. Yeah, it was $600 we went the second day and

and like the last day we were there, we borrowed Gabby's car and we filled it up with gas, and

it's over $5 a gallon up there. Good, great. Lisa filled up our freaking Pat nissan pathfinder for

30 bucks here. So, yeah, so, yeah, like I spent, it was almost $90 on gas to fill up, to fill up a

Toyota Camry. So wow, yeah, no, so it's She's seriously because her she's got a very close

relationship with her father, at least his ex husband, and so he lives there in Ecuador. And so

she and her husband are starting to plan to to move to Ecuador so that they can have a child,

and because it's insanely cheap to live there, unless you want to buy a lot of American goods in

Ecuador, because they're, like, twice the price. Yes, I'm sure they are. But you know, barring

that, it's something we're gonna seriously, we're going to seriously consider it for a summer

trip, and then we may seriously consider just retiring down there, because, you know, I could

save a hell of a lot more money with the cost of living. And now that I know I can do this job

from anywhere, it's like, yeah, sky's the limit, you know?

Susan McDowell 09:22

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But what about when you have to meet in person with people? Do you have

to do that very

Andy Tyer 09:28

often? I have yet to meet any of my staples, clients in person, and some of them have been

working for two and a half years. Oh, wow, there was more than likely, if I ever meet them in

person, it will because, it will be because they're in the same city as because, you know,

Nashville hosts trade shows well all year long. And some of those trade shows staples people

go to, but I have none of my people at that made me plans to come to Nashville that I know

that would be the only time. I mean, it's half the half the time when I'm on a conference call

with them. Nobody has their cameras on. Yeah, and my, my, the way I approach it is, and I

think this is kind of how it's evolving, is whoever the senior person is on the call, if that person

has their camera on, then everybody puts their camera on. If that person doesn't have their

camera on, most people don't turn theirs on either. And because I'm usually the lowest one on

the totem pole, and any meeting with staples, because they're the client, you know, I just

basically, I mean, I'm ready to turn my camera on anytime, but, but I just follow their leads. So

there are, like I said, there I'll go weeks without actually seeing any of them, but I'll talk to

them, you know, several times a week, or sometimes just once a week, because I don't like

meetings, and I don't do I do one meeting and I'm done with it in 10 minutes. Yeah? I get it,

yeah. So, so, yeah. Thing I'm basically, what I'm trying to do right now is figure out what I need

to do to grow the business more than I've grown it now. I mean, I told, I told Lisa my goal was

25 grand a month billings with them, which is, yeah, that would put us in a very good position

to have a lot of money stocked away for retirement, yeah, so, um, so we'll see.

Susan McDowell 11:46

Well, that ought to be doable, yeah. I mean, you ought to be able to, yeah, we'd love to come

to Ecuador and go to the Galapagos Islands. That's

Andy Tyer 11:57

the galapa like the the Galapagos, I can't even say the damn thing, yeah, that's a that's a

bucket list for Lisa. So I

Susan McDowell 12:06

didn't realize there was a hotel there, though I

Andy Tyer 12:09

didn't either. I guess there's a little bit of civilization there. So yeah, but yeah, Gatti went last

summer. I think when she they went down there for like, a month or six weeks or something,

and they, they, she and one of her friends went there to the islands there, and so it was

awesome. Is amazing. So, so, yeah,

Susan McDowell 12:32

sure, well, I'll start saving my mind. Yeah. Well, we've been trying to decide where we wanted

to go next. Do big

Andy Tyer 12:42

what's, I'll tell you, the other thing I'm really proud of, and I'm happy about, is this is really kind

of, it's, it's, it was a proof of concept for a number of things, and but for Lisa, it was proof of

concept that, yeah, this is what we're doing with staples. That's not just a temporary thing until

we find real jobs. This is our real job. And I think that she I think we proved that to ourselves

while we were there, yeah, and so yeah, we're gonna plan to enjoy this life we got, you know,

Susan McDowell 13:17

well, it'd be nice if you could snag another client, though I hate to see you put all your eggs in

one basket,

Andy Tyer 13:23

yeah, but and traditional thinking is absolutely right, and don't disagree with it, but there are,

there have been now, 1234, clients that I have had really good working relationships, who were

at Staples, who are no longer at Staples, but they're still in marketing, they've just moved on to

other places. Now, what's the odds I'm going to get any work from them immediately, very,

very little, but by the time I start seeing any red flags that say, Hey, I need to to diversify. I may

already be diversified organically, because those people will eventually need me so. So that is

one that's like, I'm not, I'm not, not planning for diversification, client diversification, but my

plan is to do it organically. And right now, the good news is, even if one piece of the staples,

like Staples, is one client, but I have four different clients within staples that I'm working with,

right? And so, you know, in a way, it's a little bit of a diversification So, but so far, I haven't

pissed off anybody. There's only been one client who isn't using us repeatedly, and I think that

it's just because she's got her own people that's doing stuff for they just aren't doing it as well

as we are. But, you know, whatever, but, but, yeah, so that's kind of my that's my Outlook out

there. That or get to a point where staples is so addicted to us that they put us on a retainer,

yeah, which is very much they kind of already are, but it's not consistent yet. So, for example, I

didn't Bill anything in July, but I'm gonna bill a Frick ton in August. So Right? So yeah,

Susan McDowell 15:36

well, gosh, I had something right on the tip of my tongue. I was gonna tell you, and I forgot

what it was. Oh, well.

Andy Tyer 15:46

Well, I'm also like, seriously considering making when I make runs going back to Washington

State to get some of my cannabis, because their product is way more potent than anything I've

seen in Illinois so far. Oh, really like I, I brought some home from Washington State and tried

some, a new one yesterday, and I, I basically had to just sit down on the couch and just wow. It

was pretty intense. Well, I

Susan McDowell 16:20

guess the two the telling thing would be if I was affected by it, because I don't say I seem to

have an extremely high

Andy Tyer 16:30

tolerance. Well, we've got some gummies. We'll bring some down there and let you try them

out. Try the Washington gummies. But Lisa even says her gummies are a little more intense

than she's used to, and I think it has everything to do with the fact that it came from the state

of Washington, and everything that we've consumed has come from the state of Illinois. Yeah.

Susan McDowell 16:55

So do you think there's like, some kind of regulation that keeps them

Andy Tyer 17:02

from it's more like That's good. That's my guess. I also think the state of Washington, the

growers within the state of Washington, have had a hell of a long time to perfect their craft, if

you will. And so whether there's regulation or not, the stuff you're getting out of Washington

has a hell of a lot more experience behind it, then probably because that's one of the things

that's pretty consistent with all the states that have made recreational use legal, is the product

that is sold within that state must also be created in that state. Oh, so you can't sell

Washington State marijuana grown in Washington State, you can't sell it next door to Oregon,

because each state has put that into place, which is smart, because what it does is basically

keeps the entire, let's just say, cannabis supply chain within the state, and therefore you're not

at the mercy of, you know, you're not, you're not going to Mexico to get it and laced with

fentanyl and shit like that. You're and you know, every part of the process is creating work for

citizens of that state. So I see the wisdom in it. But,

Susan McDowell 18:32

well, the gummies that I got from Illinois did absolutely nothing for me.

Andy Tyer 18:39

Well, then you need to up your dosage then, yeah,

Susan McDowell 18:42

I guess I did, yeah.

Andy Tyer 18:46

But poor Lisa, she saw some Netflix thing that this, this woman apparently had a psychotic

episode whilst taking a hit from a bong, and she stabbed her friend to death and stabbed

herself. So Lisa, for you know, a couple of days, was very concerned about this, and I finally, I

was like, sweetie, let's acknowledge something that that did happen. But there were some

extreme circumstances that caused that to happen, and they even talked about it in because I

watched part of it, she she wanted to show it to me and Gabby and, you know, and basically

what happened was she took a very dramatically high hit that her dosage was, you know,

through the roof at once. It was concentrated. So, yeah, you're gonna have it. But to do that via

it would basically mean you'd have to basically, like, eat a tub of gummies, like a five gallon

bucket of dig of gummies, to get that type of of psychotic reaction. If you do that, then you're

probably gonna die anyway. So did that. But but I think you could double your dosage of

gummies to get the effect that you want, and you would be, well, within safe limits, yeah,

because I have to, I have to have probably 15 grams, 15 milligrams of gummies before I even

feel anything.

Susan McDowell 20:19

Well, I don't, I didn't feel anything. And

Andy Tyer 20:22

some gummies. Some gummies are 10 gummies, 10 milligrams of gummy. Some of them are

five. So I usually have to have one and a half of the 10 milligrams before I feel anything from it.

So give a shot. Maybe.

Susan McDowell 20:41

I don't know. I don't know. Well, your brother, your brother, Andy seems to your brother, Randy

seems to be doing fine.

Andy Tyer 20:50

Yeah, you told me about giving, gifting the furniture. And yeah, they're doing

Susan McDowell 20:55

okay. They're working hard. Randy works a lot, yeah, but he's trying to get ahead. He's like

everybody else trying to get ahead.

Andy Tyer 21:06

Oh, I understand that.

Susan McDowell 21:10

And I guess Cammy is doing okay. I haven't talked to her in about a week. I guess she's fine.

And I just don't talk to Toby, and he doesn't call me. So you know, what can I say? Is what

Andy Tyer 21:27

it is, Eliza. I talked to

Susan McDowell 21:30

Eliza yesterday. Invitation from sherry. She's having a beta. Yeah, she's having a baby, and

Emily's having a baby.

Andy Tyer 21:39

How old is Emily now,

Susan McDowell 21:42

Emily's 31

Andy Tyer 21:45

no, she's gotta be older than that. No, Alexa, what's 54 minus 1854?

Susan McDowell 21:56

Minus 18 is 36 she's 36 oh, okay, yeah, well, she's getting kind of long in the tooth to have a

baby.

Andy Tyer 22:06

Elizabeth was 35 when she had Eliza. Ah, so how is Eliza? She called me yesterday. Actually,

she's doing good. Oh, good, miss. She's going back to school Thursday, yeah, and may get to

see her before that, she talked about maybe coming over Tuesday. So my now that I've got

some well, basically, now that I've got finances are looking decent now, and we're not like I

may be able to actually see more of her this semester than I did last year, because I barely got

to see her at all last year.

Susan McDowell 23:03

But do you feel comfortable enough to sit down with her and tell her that her grandmother is

not a liar or a bad

Andy Tyer 23:09

person? I do mother, but I also like and Lisa witnessed this yesterday because she was on the

call, because when she called us, we were on our way to the grocery store, and so I talked to

her for like 30 minutes on our way over to to Brentwood. But Eliza never asks me about my life.

I mean, never. Our conversations are entirely one sided of her telling me about her life and not

even asking me about mine. So that's just know that that's where I am with the one daughter

who will communicate with me right now. So yeah, that's now one of the things that I am going

to do when I do get to see her again is I'm going to tell her how that makes me feel. I'm going

to bring it to your attention in a nice, polite, calm manner, and I'm going to ask her, could you

do me a favor? And just even if you don't really want to know, ask me about my life a little bit,

and let me tell you something about my life. It's been hard to do that, though, with this divorce,

and so that's why getting it come to an end is my goal, and that's going to happen hopefully.

Well, she and I have our first conversation next week, so I'll let you know how that goes. So I

got her to agree to do a a zoom call with our cameras off, so that I can share with her my

spreadsheets, and so that's one of the things I'm doing this week. Is going, Okay, let's plan for

all scenarios, and let's figure out what we want and what we think she'll accept, and then get it,

get it down, and get her to agree to it.

Susan McDowell 24:59

So we'll see how it goes. Oh, I know what I was going to tell you. We're going to go to the Grand

Canyon in a couple of weeks.

Andy Tyer 25:06

Yes, I remember you saying that it's the 26th 26th That's right, August, yeah. August 26

Susan McDowell 25:12

Yeah.

Andy Tyer 25:14

Well, that's coming up. That's like, in a week.

Susan McDowell 25:16

Susan McDowell 25:16

Yeah, it's not going to be a long trip, though. We're gonna take the turn. We're gonna fly to

Phoenix, and then we drive from Phoenix to Williams, and we spend the night in the Grand

Canyon hotel, and then we take the train up to the Grand Canyon. Oh, how cool. And we spend

the day at the Grand Canyon. Then we take the train back to the Grand Canyon hotel in

Williams. That's great. And then the next day, we'll drive to Phoenix.

Andy Tyer 25:47

And how'd you find out about that place?

Susan McDowell 25:51

I just stumbled on it. Yeah, I just was looking at Grand Canyon, and it came up very cool. So I

thought it would be fun. And we've got somebody that's gonna come stay with the puppies and

all that. So

Andy Tyer 26:12

well, that sounds like that will be like a very fun trip for you guys.

Susan McDowell 26:15

I think it will be fun. We're looking forward to it. And then, in September, Matt goes out to

California to visit his buddy their birthdays. That's an annual thing for them to do. And so, you

know, we'll get up to see y'all at some point. I don't know what point the hell be. Well, it'll be

after September,

Andy Tyer 26:42

though, probably okay. Well, just FYI, we've, we both have agreed we're going to do all the

major holidays in the fall and winter here. Yeah, I don't want to. I don't want to travel for

Thanksgiving or Christmas this year. I want to stay home. So that doesn't, that doesn't mean I

can't come down and see you, and it doesn't mean I won't come down and see you, but I just

wanted to to manage expectations ahead of time.

Susan McDowell 27:09

So sure. Well, that's fine. Well, Max brothers coming for Thanksgiving. His brother and sister in

law are coming for Thanksgiving, so and then we'll just do Christmas here, I guess. Well,

Andy Tyer 27:21

we'll figure out time to come and visit and hang out with you guys. And

we'll figure out time to come and visit and hang out with you guys. And

Susan McDowell 27:25

yeah, yeah, we can

Andy Tyer 27:27

find another something to do in Atlanta. Again, we enjoyed that.

Susan McDowell 27:32

Oh yeah, oh yeah, doing stuff in Atlanta. What have you not done in Atlanta? Everything you

haven't done, you haven't been to the

Andy Tyer 27:43

aquarium. Well, we did the aquarium last year. That's that's really like we did the aquarium,

and that was really the only touristy thing that we did when we were there. Oh, well,

Susan McDowell 27:55

you gotta go the colonies. Now you got to do that. And then The High Museum of Art, they have

some unique exhibits at The High Museum. One time when Carrie was here, I took her down to

the High Museum, and they had automobiles, futuristic automobiles on site, yeah, had a whole

floor of them. They were like prototype, yes. And it that was very interesting, very cool. So

going to the High Museum, I know that sounds like Sonora,

Andy Tyer 28:41

no man,

Susan McDowell 28:43

but they really that really put on some good exhibits there. Very cool, but so we might do that

one day. When you come down, it works for me. Good deal.

Andy Tyer 28:56

Well, I'm gonna get off this thing and get back to crunching some numbers, but I just want to

call it Getty calls. You calls. You know, we made it home safely and no issues at

Susan McDowell 29:03

all. Well, I'm glad you did. I'm glad y'all made it home. Tell tell Lisa, I love

Andy Tyer 29:10

her. I love you too, Mama. Okay, you.