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Tim Fulton 00:00
Welcome to the confluence cast presented by Columbus underground. We are a weekly Columbus centric podcast focusing on the civics lifestyle entertainment and people of our city. I’m your host. Tim Fulton this week a conversation about building a business around the people most employers overlook. Most entrepreneurs will tell you their business started with a plan. Jackie Mahan will tell you hers started with a hunch, a deep affection for the autism community, and what she admits was an almost irresponsible amount of self confidence. Jackie is the founder of the awesome company, a Grove City based custom screen printing business that employs autistic adults and is about to turn 10 years old. Her path to running it is a slightly chaotic one that includes an art gallery in the short North a brief and miserable stint as a stay at home mom, a Pilates studio, an in progress EMBA and a small herd of animals on what she lovingly calls a fake farm, including two pigs named doc and Marty. You can get more information on what we discussed today in the show notes for this episode, the confluence cast, com, enjoy the interview, sitting down here with Jackie Mahan, the founder of the awesome company, Jackie, how are you?
Jacquie Mahan 01:34
I am wonderful. I’m so happy to see you. And talking to Walker, it’s like 20 years blast from the past. We’re still here, and we’re still doing stuff
Tim Fulton 01:43
well. And I remember my first, I don’t know if you know this, that I used to work for the Columbus alive.
Jacquie Mahan 01:49
Yes, I remember,
Tim Fulton 01:50
and I was tasked with picking up checks from orange barrel media, which was housed in your gallery
Jacquie Mahan 02:01
my loft, yeah,
Tim Fulton 02:02
in the short arm.
Jacquie Mahan 02:03
Pete Scanlan and I were in that loft together for many years,
Tim Fulton 02:06
indeed, yeah. And I was the basically 21 year old kid who walked across the street from the old, alive offices.
Jacquie Mahan 02:12
And I was the 22 year old kid sitting in that loft going, what am I doing? I think I own a business.
Tim Fulton 02:17
Yeah, you’re running a gallery, but tell us about the awesome company, what you’re doing now,
Jacquie Mahan 02:21
we are about to be 10 years old, which I can’t believe, because I feel like I just started it. The awesome company is a custom screen printing company that employs autistic adults. So we do custom T shirts embroidery, and I felt that autistic people did not have enough meaningful work,
Tim Fulton 02:43
okay,
Jacquie Mahan 02:44
a place to get a paycheck, and I just wanted to create a spot for that.
Tim Fulton 02:49
Okay,
Jacquie Mahan 02:50
it was a very simple idea. It was, it wasn’t super thought out. I thought, I’ll start a business, and this should be good to employ some people with autism. Let’s see.
Tim Fulton 02:59
Can you talk about how you got there? Like, what was? Yeah, the founding story.
Jacquie Mahan 03:04
My son is on the spectrum,
Tim Fulton 03:06
okay,
Jacquie Mahan 03:07
but so I got introduced that community when he was little, and as he grew, he turned into his own person, and kind of bridged off to his own life, and then I kind of stayed in that community, and I it became mine. And so looking around that community, I noticed autistic people, like autistic kids, have a pretty clear path. It doesn’t mean it’s not challenging and difficult, but when you become an autistic adult, it nose dives pretty significantly. The supports not there, the friends aren’t there. It’s really hard to make friends. It’s hard to get and hold on to a job, and it just felt like a lot of adult daycare. It felt like a lot of weird pizza parties for adult people. And I said, I think that I can do better. So I did
Tim Fulton 03:55
okay, or
Jacquie Mahan 03:56
at least I tried.
Tim Fulton 03:57
You have referred to T shirts as the currency of connection. Yes, can you talk about, of
Jacquie Mahan 04:03
course, I can. So currency, like, I think, you know, currencies in a bank,
Tim Fulton 04:07
yeah,
Jacquie Mahan 04:09
connecting. It’s like, you want to help the autism community, right?
Tim Fulton 04:13
You’re
Jacquie Mahan 04:14
not going to come in and volunteer. That’s overwhelming. Or, like, I don’t know what to do. I know what I can do. I The currency that I’m going to connect is I’m going to buy custom T shirts for my for my business or for my family reunion. And when you do that, then you’re connecting with the autism community. You can trust me that I’m going to employ them, I’m going to take good care of them. So that’s what I’m saying, is it connects you to our to our mission in a way that’s easy for you, and then you can trust that I’m really doing it
Tim Fulton 04:40
well. And what other opportunities do you see in the space for companies to form in order? What’s the challenge Do you think that businesses feel like they have in employing this subset of people?
Jacquie Mahan 04:55
Neurodivergent is the word. I feel like autism is actually going down and it’s neurodivergent. Because it’s like, there’s this umbrella of all these different diagnoses, ADHD, autism, gosh, I don’t know, bipolar, there’s, there’s, I mean, it’s a big umbrella.
Tim Fulton 05:10
It’s a spectrum,
Jacquie Mahan 05:11
yeah, it’s a spectrum,
Tim Fulton 05:12
yeah,
Jacquie Mahan 05:13
I would say the biggest issue is transportation, ongoing support being learning to be flexible, but once you get an employee locked in, they’re really good. But the interview process and getting someone trained, it can be a little more specialized. And I would say neuro neuro typical people and neurotypical businesses would be able to handle and really, that’s okay. Again, you have a sandwich shop, and you got to do what you got to do, but if you want to buy shirts, then you can trust that we’ll provide you shirts. And you’re you’re doing that, that the advice I would give somebody who wants to employ or give a chance to somebody who’s neurodivergent is just pick one
Tim Fulton 05:55
person,
Jacquie Mahan 05:56
just one and help them and get them going. And that’s enough.
Tim Fulton 06:00
And so it’s, are you saying that it’s the additional investment in time? Yes, okay,
Jacquie Mahan 06:05
it’s investment in time. It’s understanding what autism is, the limitations. It is a disability. There are some issues, but it’s also a huge ability, and there are some huge advantages. Like, I don’t want to stereotype anybody, but what I’ve noticed in the autism community is the attention for detail, the inability to lie so you’re telling the truth. Those are huge assets when you’re running a business. Is to be able to trust somebody, but it’s, how do we get this person organized? I think with autism, a lot of it is self esteem and feeling comfortable,
Tim Fulton 06:39
okay?
Jacquie Mahan 06:40
And I know that I freak out. I mean, I’m not freaking out now, because I know you, but if I didn’t know you, I would feel a little uncomfortable and settled now, like, amplify that by 10 times. How would you possibly nail down a job and be able to not be fatigued? So it’s the interview process. It’s the getting to know the environment. That’s the hardest part. Once they get locked in, they know where they’re supposed to sit, they know what they’re going
Tim Fulton 07:00
to be doing.
Jacquie Mahan 07:00
Yeah, it’s, it’s great. It works.
Tim Fulton 07:03
And you and I think he still works there. Brian Curtis.
Jacquie Mahan 07:06
I love Brian Curtis. He’s the king of Columbus.
Tim Fulton 07:08
He is at every single thing. But I grew up with Brian doing theater. And, you know, we always sort of like Brian’s a little weird, you know. And we embraced that and loved it. And I think the thing I’m sort of like locking in on is that that there’s a cliff there, right? That there is a support system for folks when they’re kids, but then they end up struggling to find meaningful employment.
Jacquie Mahan 07:37
It’s also trying to find your community. I know Brian too. Brian, his weird is wonderful. It could be very misunderstood,
Tim Fulton 07:45
yeah,
Jacquie Mahan 07:46
and it really frosts my cookies, as Phyllis neffler said in the movie true Beverly Hills, when someone as wonderful as Brian gets misunderstood, because he has so much to give, but he just needs somebody to hold his hand and not let go. And to get him to places where he feels super comfortable. I met Brian when I was 22 when I first opened my gallery, and he came in, and I remember I’d always walk him around and show him the artwork, and I didn’t know how else to connect with him. And then that was always it flash forward to, like, 15 years later, he’s walking up my driveway in Grove City to interview for a job, and I go Brian Curtis, and he goes, Jackie Mahan. And it was so wonderful to have that homecoming with such a great guy. And we love having him. He is, he’s just the best.
Tim Fulton 08:38
How can you talk through sort of the decisions that you have to make day to day employing neurodivergent people. Sure, what are the basically, the values that you have to bring to
Jacquie Mahan 08:50
it, the value I have to bring to it is it’s all about being respected and not treated like children. And I it really bothers me when autistic and neurotypical, neurodivergent people get treated like children, okay, nothing pisses me off more than watching that, and it pisses them off too, right? And I think often they have a hard time advocating for themselves, so I advocate on their behalf. So when they show up, I just say, this is an interview, and let’s just see how you do. And if I get a good feeling, I’ll hire somebody, and I’m okay if it doesn’t work out. My theory in life is, or My motto is, if you leave an environment better than it was when you got there, then that is a good thing to do. So if they come in and to get some work practice, and they go off to other things, or they try it out and go, this is really frustrating. I’m not ready.
Tim Fulton 09:42
It’s
Jacquie Mahan 09:42
totally fine. But when you find an individual who has all of the skill sets and who’s developmentally ready and on that timeline, like maybe they tried when they’re 20, it didn’t work, but now that they’re 30, they’re ready when they get locked in, it’s really wonderful, because. They’re folded into an environment that’s going to be set up for them. If they’re having a day that they’re really stressed out, I’m not going to nothing that bad is going to happen if they do that consistently. You’re like, hey, let’s talk. But there’s a lot of flexibility because of the disability. Because I honestly this might sound really corny, but I tend to focus on the ability, but I can’t imagine any other employer not doing the exact same thing.
Tim Fulton 10:25
Why you didn’t have a background in printing?
Jacquie Mahan 10:28
No,
Tim Fulton 10:29
why did you choose this?
Jacquie Mahan 10:31
I don’t know.
Tim Fulton 10:31
Okay,
Jacquie Mahan 10:32
I know. I do. I started with an art gallery. I did that for a while. I really liked it. It turned into a very expensive hobby, and I had two small kids, and I said, this is just not sustainable for me. I’ll stay home. I stayed home for probably a week or two, and I said, I’m miserable. I need to use my brain. I opened a Pilates studio. I loved helping people. I love moving my body, and I think I needed it because my kids were so young and I could, I could do that. So I feel like I’ve combined the two accidentally, because it’s creative and I’m helping people
Tim Fulton 11:06
and
Jacquie Mahan 11:07
so artwork on shirts and being an entrepreneur and then helping a group of individuals that probably have a very hard time getting employed. I think it’s just what I like. And I fell into printing because I thought I was kind of interested that week I have crippling ADHD, even though I say sparkling ADHD. So I think in that moment, I was hyper fixated on what, what does printing do? But I also thought this profession is going to lend itself very well to the autism brain, because of all of the repetition and attention to detail and folding and counting it which it was perfect,
Tim Fulton 11:41
okay,
Jacquie Mahan 11:42
but I didn’t, there was no, there was no master plan. I just kind of started,
Tim Fulton 11:46
okay, and you are expanding,
Jacquie Mahan 11:49
yes,
Tim Fulton 11:49
tell us about
Jacquie Mahan 11:50
that. I’m so excited, yes, but I’m not just saying, Oh my god. I’m so excited. I genuinely very excited. So I am expanding the awesome company to I would call it a different wing. It’s going to be called the awesome home CO,
Tim Fulton 12:05
okay,
Jacquie Mahan 12:05
so awesome home CO, we’re doing counter spray, dish soap, hand soap. The smells are incredible. I hate gross smelling soap, like blueberry, ocean wave sparkle, like barf city.
Tim Fulton 12:18
Okay,
Jacquie Mahan 12:19
so the fragrance, or the fragrances and scents that I have picked out are so wonderful. However, the reason why I really wanted to do this is putting soap in a bottle is a really good task for someone on the spectrum,
Tim Fulton 12:33
okay,
Jacquie Mahan 12:34
it’s very repetitive. And I thought about like on the I’m a business lady. At the end of the day selling custom shirts is really hard.
Tim Fulton 12:42
Yeah,
Jacquie Mahan 12:43
you really have to find people that need them. Everybody needs soap. We are not running out of a we’re not in a world that’s ever gonna not need soap, counter spray, dish soap, hopefully, laundry detergent, these home products. So I can’t imagine again, like sometimes I my mom has often said I suffer from too high self esteem. And I agree, but I just can’t imagine. People are not going to think, Wow, this is an amazing company. They employ autistic people, and they provide us soap, and we can see the inside of the business and what they’re doing. I know if I saw that, I would rather buy that soap than a soap sitting on the counter that’s from a big, giant warehouse factory.
Tim Fulton 13:24
How did and let’s get into the nuts. And how do you where do you get soap?
Jacquie Mahan 13:28
Oh my gosh, I’ve learned I spent I started this summer.
Tim Fulton 13:30
Okay,
Jacquie Mahan 13:31
so I’m finally getting samples now. Okay, you can make your own soap, or you can buy bulk soap. And there’s different places. I am more of a hippie kind of lady, so I want it to be clean. So I found a company that’s going to create soap. We create this scent, and then we mix it in house and Grove City.
Tim Fulton 13:50
Okay,
Jacquie Mahan 13:50
I’m hoping one day to be able to make, make the soap. But what I’ve learned is it’s, it’s basically, again, it’s kind of the weird thing. It’s the same formula. I buy a t shirt, I decorate it and I sell it.
Tim Fulton 14:02
Yeah? So
Jacquie Mahan 14:02
what I’m doing is I’m buying soap, I’m decorating it with fragrance, putting it in a cute bottle and selling it. It’s the distribution so I realized without knowing it, I’m a distribution lady.
Tim Fulton 14:12
Yeah, I
Jacquie Mahan 14:12
didn’t know that about myself, and I’m good at it, yeah? So I just found a better, well, I’m hoping, fingers crossed, a better and quicker thing that will connect that currency of connection with a customer. Because my whole goal is I want to employ autistic adults. I have 16 employees right now. I’d like to get to 40.
Tim Fulton 14:29
Okay,
Jacquie Mahan 14:29
that’s like, why I’m doing this. That’s my goal. And I have an empty warehouse. I’m just like visualizing and like manifesting like this, this place is going to be filled with soap soon.
Tim Fulton 14:37
Okay? And does it come in, like, a five gallon drum? Or, how does it come?
Jacquie Mahan 14:42
Oh, do
Tim Fulton 14:42
you
Jacquie Mahan 14:42
know? Well, you could buy it as, like, big as this table.
Tim Fulton 14:45
Okay,
Jacquie Mahan 14:46
you can buy giant vats. You can buy barrels. So I think I’m gonna start with barrels, and then I have the fragrance. And I bought a mixer. Okay, so I mix the soap in, and then you can tweak it, like, if maybe it’s too sudsy, you can add water. It’s a little scientific, but. Which intimidates me and excites me. So I’m gonna have to let you know, because I don’t know. I’m just gonna order tons of plain soap and see if I can pull it off.
Tim Fulton 15:06
And so when do you think that you’ll have things available to buy?
Jacquie Mahan 15:10
Well, I’m getting my MBA right now, and I’m graduating may 24
Tim Fulton 15:16
congratulations.
Jacquie Mahan 15:16
Thank you. I’m almost done. I don’t know why I decided to do this at 44 my brain is so tired, I’m hoping to launch it in May,
Tim Fulton 15:26
okay, as like a little gift to yourself for getting through the MBA program.
Jacquie Mahan 15:31
I just want, I want to be done with school, and I want this to launch, and then I want to spend summer being I always say, like I’m stressed out, but I’m just having, like, the best time ever. I want to be really stressed about soap which,
Tim Fulton 15:42
which program are you going to? The MBA
Jacquie Mahan 15:44
for school? It’s an EMBA I’m doing it through Brown University. And they combine. They have a partnership with IE University, which is a business school in Spain.
Tim Fulton 15:53
Okay,
Jacquie Mahan 15:53
so it’s me and 40 other individuals from all over the world. I’ve made so many nice friends.
Tim Fulton 15:58
Yeah,
Jacquie Mahan 15:59
I also don’t like some people in my class. I like lots of people my class, but what? But, you know, it’s really been a wonderful lesson, because I realized I was in a bubble in my life, and I wanted to be bad at something. I wanted to push myself further. And what I’ve learned is and I appreciate the people that I don’t connect with there, because I haven’t spent a lot of time in rooms with people I didn’t like, because I’ve just orchestrated my life to just serve what I want.
Tim Fulton 16:24
Yeah, it’s
Jacquie Mahan 16:25
been great training to meet somebody, have a judgment about them, realize you’re wrong, connect with them. And I just, I feel like, super professional now, before, I was a little mangy, and now I’m like, I’m a professional lady. I can communicate with anybody.
Tim Fulton 16:37
Now. Do you guys get together at all? Or we meet
Jacquie Mahan 16:40
for three months online,
Tim Fulton 16:42
okay?
Jacquie Mahan 16:42
And then two weeks you meet in person. We’ve met in Spain, Providence, Rhode Island. I just got back from Cape Town, South Africa, which was wonderful and amazing and sad at the same time.
Tim Fulton 16:53
Yeah,
Jacquie Mahan 16:54
I just got back. So it’s been a whirlwind. It’s a 15 month program, man,
Tim Fulton 16:58
yeah, it’s please
Jacquie Mahan 16:59
do it, and then you can complain to me, like
Tim Fulton 17:01
I’m playing I’m always interested in those sort of like cohort models, right? And also, as somebody who got a master’s degree just a couple of years ago, it’s
Jacquie Mahan 17:09
really, where did you get when did you finish yours, or where did you get
Tim Fulton 17:12
it from? I got a master’s in the study of law from Moritz, from the law school at Ohio State.
Jacquie Mahan 17:17
I looked at Ohio State, Indian University, Carnegie Mellon, I looked at a lot of programs, but I didn’t want to be the old lady in the class.
Tim Fulton 17:25
Yeah, they have the Executive MBA program at Ohio State, but it’s quite expensive.
Jacquie Mahan 17:30
It’s all very expensive.
Tim Fulton 17:32
But
Jacquie Mahan 17:33
this one felt like I could work my real job, be home for my kids. Oh, I only have one kid at home now, the other one’s college, but I thought it was doable because it was three months online, and then the two weeks I’m pretty the two weeks in person. I don’t think I could have gone in person to anything. I have too much responsibility. So it was a perfect program for me. And a lot most people are around my age, and it’s been wonderful to meet people my age.
Tim Fulton 17:53
That’s great
Jacquie Mahan 17:53
and the same journey. And actually, the gal that my my school bestie, her name is Jen white. She’s the one that encouraged me and came to me and said, We should do the awesome home company. And so she’s been a huge, pivotal part of expanding I wouldn’t have done it without her.
Tim Fulton 18:07
So that’s great.
Jacquie Mahan 18:08
I really appreciate her. So even if I went to school just to meet her, I think it was worth it.
Tim Fulton 18:12
There you go. What else would you want folks to know about just being a business owner in general?
Jacquie Mahan 18:19
Oh my gosh, it’s so open ended,
Tim Fulton 18:20
yeah,
Jacquie Mahan 18:21
like positive mantra, negative. Let’s
Tim Fulton 18:23
go with negative.
Jacquie Mahan 18:25
You can’t fake it.
Tim Fulton 18:27
Okay? It’s
Jacquie Mahan 18:28
really hard. No one cares as much as you
Tim Fulton 18:32
do.
Jacquie Mahan 18:33
And you have to have a certain level of crazy to want to be an entrepreneur. And you have to accept that if you think that when you get to the top of the hill, you’re going to be like, you know that picture of the woman in the sun, like I made it. I’ve done. I’ve gotten on so many hills and accomplished whatever goal I thought was the goal, I felt nothing but more anxiety and stress. So it really sounds really corny and very Miley Cyrus, but it’s like, it’s the climb, it’s the journey. It’s like the game or the fixing of problems. If you’re good at that and you like doing that, you’ll be an excellent entrepreneur. If you are very buttoned up and you like a nine to five and, oh, this is my biggest like work life balance like that doesn’t exist. And if you think it does, like you shouldn’t be an entrepreneur. There’s prioritizing, but there’s no balance
Tim Fulton 19:22
that’s fair
Jacquie Mahan 19:23
at all.
Tim Fulton 19:24
That’s fair. And you prepped for this interview today by watching Back to the Future last night. Is that?
Jacquie Mahan 19:31
Of course, I did. I’m always ready.
Tim Fulton 19:32
Okay, what do you got?
Jacquie Mahan 19:35
Well, you like,
Tim Fulton 19:36
I’m just not even it. Yeah, go ahead.
Jacquie Mahan 19:38
Okay, thank you. Do we get? We got all our business questions over with.
Tim Fulton 19:41
I think so.
Jacquie Mahan 19:42
Was I compelling? Interesting? Do people want to buy T shirts and soaps for me? Would you want to
Tim Fulton 19:47
absolutely well,
Jacquie Mahan 19:48
the job here is done now we can just
Tim Fulton 19:51
now we can have
Jacquie Mahan 19:51
kick off our shoes, take our bras off, and just hang out. So I love back to the future. I think more than you,
Tim Fulton 19:59
I would. Venture to disagree.
Jacquie Mahan 20:01
That’s why I’m starting. This is a challenge.
Tim Fulton 20:04
Okay,
Jacquie Mahan 20:05
we have I love the first one, but I also love the second one, the third one. I accept
Tim Fulton 20:10
I can understand that that is a very common so
Jacquie Mahan 20:13
I would like if you and I could ask some trivia questions about Back to the Future. Only support. It’s okay if you don’t know,
Tim Fulton 20:21
okay,
Jacquie Mahan 20:21
I will snicker in the car on the way home, but I won’t do it in front of your because
Tim Fulton 20:25
you really want to get it. So first of all, I think we should lay out our authority in this space. I have a tattoo. I have a drawing, sorry, the drawing that Doc draws when he imagines the flux capacitor. I have that drawing on my chest. You have named some things.
Jacquie Mahan 20:45
Yes, I live on a farm,
Tim Fulton 20:46
a
Jacquie Mahan 20:47
fake farm. What I would define a fake farm is I’m an animal hoarder,
Tim Fulton 20:52
okay?
Jacquie Mahan 20:53
And I they do know they do nothing but decorate my yard, and it costs a lot of money,
Tim Fulton 20:57
okay?
Jacquie Mahan 20:58
Not creating any products,
Tim Fulton 21:00
okay?
Jacquie Mahan 21:00
So
Tim Fulton 21:01
or food.
Jacquie Mahan 21:01
No, none. Egg, some eggs sometimes.
Tim Fulton 21:04
Okay.
Jacquie Mahan 21:05
I’ve always wanted pigs, so I finally got two baby pigs, and I named them, Doc and Marty.
Tim Fulton 21:12
That’s pretty good.
Jacquie Mahan 21:13
And for the horse people out there in the world, you have to name your property if you live on a ranch,
Tim Fulton 21:18
which
Jacquie Mahan 21:19
is what you call if you live with horses. So I named my ranch Twin Pines ranch after the mall where the Libyans shot doc fake, but also where old man pea bodies. You know, you shot my pine?
Tim Fulton 21:35
Yeah? He, he had this crazy idea to breed pine trees.
Jacquie Mahan 21:40
Yes.
Tim Fulton 21:41
And I joked when you told me about this before we started recording. It should have been called the Lone Pine mall, because that’s what it’s called when Marty returns to 1985
Jacquie Mahan 21:52
Yes,
Tim Fulton 21:53
but okay, which
Jacquie Mahan 21:54
I like, because I was like, Okay, this is a good contender, like we’re at the same level.
Tim Fulton 21:58
Okay, trivia.
Jacquie Mahan 22:00
Okay,
Tim Fulton 22:00
go.
Jacquie Mahan 22:01
All right, this is gonna be a hard one,
Tim Fulton 22:04
okay, and
Jacquie Mahan 22:05
it’s okay if you don’t get
Tim Fulton 22:06
it, okay,
Jacquie Mahan 22:07
so when Marty gets hit by the car by his grandpa,
Tim Fulton 22:11
yes, instead
Jacquie Mahan 22:11
of it being George, it’s him, he goes inside, and he eventually has dinner with his family,
Tim Fulton 22:17
yes.
Jacquie Mahan 22:18
What are the names of Lorraine’s siblings?
Tim Fulton 22:20
Oh, that’s too hard.
Jacquie Mahan 22:23
Sally Milton Toby, little baby Joey.
Tim Fulton 22:26
Little baby. Joey. Uncle jailbird, Joey. I should have gotten immediately. Now it’s
Jacquie Mahan 22:32
your turn, if you want, or I can just keep going.
Tim Fulton 22:34
No, you can go. You can keep going.
Jacquie Mahan 22:36
Okay,
Tim Fulton 22:37
that’s really okay.
Jacquie Mahan 22:39
That’s but that’s where I am.
Tim Fulton 22:40
Okay,
Jacquie Mahan 22:41
what’s Doc’s address?
Tim Fulton 22:43
What street
Jacquie Mahan 22:46
Does he live on?
Tim Fulton 22:47
Well, he lives on John F Kennedy Boulevard. But John F Kennedy, but what I don’t remember the 1955 address.
Jacquie Mahan 23:03
I think it’s 1450 Riverside Drive.
Tim Fulton 23:06
Yes, it is Riverside Drive.
Jacquie Mahan 23:07
Is it 1650 or 1450
Tim Fulton 23:09
do not recall.
Jacquie Mahan 23:10
Okay, all right.
Tim Fulton 23:12
Do you know the date that they travel forward to in Back to the Future at the end of Back to the Future Part One, November
Jacquie Mahan 23:20
5, 1955 or the one going back to 85
Tim Fulton 23:23
the one going forward to 2015
Jacquie Mahan 23:28
I don’t what is it?
Tim Fulton 23:29
It’s October 21
Jacquie Mahan 23:31
ah, it’s a good date.
Tim Fulton 23:33
It is
Jacquie Mahan 23:33
Halloween. There’s no Halloween decorations, though, during that time, did you notice?
Tim Fulton 23:37
Well into in the future, they maybe they don’t celebrate Halloween, but also so I became obsessed with Back to the Future. I mean, when I was a kid, and it wasn’t until 2010 that somebody pointed out, Tim, do you know that on your birthday is when?
Jacquie Mahan 23:58
Oh, what a gift. Yes. Jealous.
Tim Fulton 24:00
It was fantastic.
Jacquie Mahan 24:01
I got nothing on my birthday. Okay, here’s one. I found out I’m I used to be madly in love with Biff Tannen, which also really shines light on my love choices in my past.
Tim Fulton 24:13
Okay,
Jacquie Mahan 24:14
I love Biff Tannen. I’ve always loved him,
Tim Fulton 24:17
just handsome or you like
Jacquie Mahan 24:19
his demeanor. Always like the villain every movie. Ursula, the sea witch, I’m always drawn to the villain. He is the best one. He’s the most compelling.
Tim Fulton 24:30
Like him better in 1955
Jacquie Mahan 24:34
Of course.
Tim Fulton 24:35
Okay, got it.
Jacquie Mahan 24:37
That’s my question. In back to future two, Biff is seen exiting his grandmother’s house. What is his grandmother’s name? It’s written on her house.
Tim Fulton 24:47
Oh, I don’t know.
Jacquie Mahan 24:48
Gertrude.
Tim Fulton 24:48
Gertrude. Okay, these are good little ones.
Jacquie Mahan 24:52
Here’s one that I had memorized and I’ve lost it, but I’d be so happy if you knew. I don’t think you’re gonna
Tim Fulton 24:57
know. Okay,
Jacquie Mahan 24:59
when Biff. Is on the street in the second one, and Marty has been
Tim Fulton 25:04
said the Future Part Two,
Jacquie Mahan 25:05
yeah, when he’s about to get the almanac. Yes, Lorraine is leaving a clothing store. What’s the name of the clothing store?
Tim Fulton 25:13
Well, she’s getting her dress for the dance. I don’t know the name of the clothing store. I don’t
Jacquie Mahan 25:18
remember the one’s name, but it’s like Debbie’s frock shop. It’s a
Tim Fulton 25:21
frock shop. Yes, you know who was, sorry, not originally cast.
Jacquie Mahan 25:28
I know that guy, the guy from Yes, I don’t know his name, though. I knew you’re gonna ask this one. Eric
Tim Fulton 25:34
Stoltz,
Jacquie Mahan 25:35
I’m glad he left. I think I wish him well. But
Tim Fulton 25:38
do you know why he left, why he wasn’t, sort of working out, didn’t
Jacquie Mahan 25:41
they say the chemistry was wrong,
Tim Fulton 25:43
the chemistry was wrong, but for a very specific reason, which I find fascinating.
Jacquie Mahan 25:48
What was it? What was the reason?
Tim Fulton 25:49
I don’t know. He was trying to play it straight. He was trying to, like, get inside the mind of a character in order to be like, Well, how would I feel if my mother was sexually attracted to me? And, like, everybody was like, Dude, you’re just being weird here. Like
Jacquie Mahan 26:07
he was overthinking it,
Tim Fulton 26:08
like overthinking it and making it a serious film. Was
Jacquie Mahan 26:12
he Christian bailing it? Like, getting a little too and,
Tim Fulton 26:15
yeah,
Jacquie Mahan 26:16
Lewis, sing it.
Tim Fulton 26:16
Yeah, calm
Jacquie Mahan 26:18
down.
Tim Fulton 26:18
You could actually argue he’s over Crispin glovering it.
Jacquie Mahan 26:21
I love Crispin Glover. He’s so weird.
Tim Fulton 26:23
He’s so fantastically weird. And also informed a part of my law school experience, because he sued Universal Studios and Bob Gale and Steven Spielberg when they didn’t cast him in the second film, and
Jacquie Mahan 26:41
they had the guy down with the hair. Yes,
Tim Fulton 26:45
they had a guy basically impersonating him to the extent that the audience didn’t really win. He they settled.
Jacquie Mahan 26:51
Okay, it
Tim Fulton 26:51
never went to court.
Jacquie Mahan 26:52
I hope he enjoys that guest, or like his vacation home that he got. Here’s the question just popped in my head. Name each bag feature one and two. Each feature a rock star. Which rock stars?
Tim Fulton 27:03
So? ZZ Top. Well, ZZ tops in the third one, that’s a
Jacquie Mahan 27:08
good one. What’s one and two? They each have one,
Tim Fulton 27:11
like an actual one.
Jacquie Mahan 27:12
Acting
Tim Fulton 27:16
is Huey Lewis in the second one.
Jacquie Mahan 27:17
No. First one.
Tim Fulton 27:18
He’s in the What’s he in the first one,
Jacquie Mahan 27:21
he when Marty and the pin heads are auditioning, you are just too darn loud
Tim Fulton 27:27
to I named a dance party at too darn loud as a result of that great
Jacquie Mahan 27:33
okay, who’s the second second movie? You know this is the tip of your tongue. You have to know, this
Tim Fulton 27:38
is it.
Jacquie Mahan 27:39
I’ll give you a hint.
Tim Fulton 27:40
Okay.
Jacquie Mahan 27:41
Who tricks Marty and then Marty gets,
Tim Fulton 27:44
oh, it’s the guy from red hot chili pepper. It’s flea what’s
Jacquie Mahan 27:48
his name in the movie? So good. I need to pet after the
Tim Fulton 27:51
nails,
Jacquie Mahan 27:52
needles,
Tim Fulton 27:53
needles. Close, close. I was close. Are we
Jacquie Mahan 27:57
boring everybody? Because I could go on forever.
Tim Fulton 27:59
But I know
Jacquie Mahan 28:00
that it’s like,
Tim Fulton 28:01
I think that’s a good amount of back
Jacquie Mahan 28:02
to that, isn’t it? Just like the most wonderful movie ever.
Tim Fulton 28:06
It is. It
Jacquie Mahan 28:07
makes so much Cinema. Cinema, cinematic. Yes, cinematic sense
Tim Fulton 28:13
well, but there are critiques of it, like Adam
Jacquie Mahan 28:17
to me.
Tim Fulton 28:17
Well, at one point there are, like, four DeLoreans in 1955 and it’s like, and that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense because, because there’s Sorry, there are, like, multiple Marty’s running around too, is it? The overlaps kind of don’t make sense. And you have to, sort of like, let it go also, the speedometer on a DeLorean does not go up to 88 miles an hour, and that’s why they had to add the digital readout on the on the dashboard.
Jacquie Mahan 28:52
I can’t believe you didn’t get them the most annoying one,
Tim Fulton 28:54
what’s that?
Jacquie Mahan 28:56
Well? One, why is Doc and Marty? How did they become friends? Like somebody tell me, like, why don’t you
Tim Fulton 29:04
this exists? And
Jacquie Mahan 29:05
do a little like, book or a pamphlet or just some origin story.
Tim Fulton 29:09
There’s a comment,
Jacquie Mahan 29:10
okay, I’ll buy it.
Tim Fulton 29:10
Yeah,
Jacquie Mahan 29:11
I’ll find it. But here’s my big problem, when Marty comes back from the future, it’s 1955 and he’s at Doc’s beautiful house that I wish I lived in
Tim Fulton 29:22
on Riverside Drive,
Jacquie Mahan 29:23
1450 Riverside Drive,
Tim Fulton 29:25
right?
Jacquie Mahan 29:26
He finally convinced him that I know you, because I know how the idea of time travel happened with the flux capacitor, because you hit your head hanging the clock in the bathroom. Let me show you, you cannot hook up a VHS player on a TV from 1955 there is no way. He’s just like, Oh, hold on, let me just plug it in. There’d be no plug.
Tim Fulton 29:48
There’s no RCA,
Jacquie Mahan 29:49
no, I’ve looked it up.
Tim Fulton 29:51
Okay?
Jacquie Mahan 29:52
It bothers me, and no one talks about it.
Tim Fulton 29:55
That is a fair critique.
Jacquie Mahan 29:56
They should put warning labels like, wrong.
Tim Fulton 29:59
Okay? Okay,
Jacquie Mahan 30:00
that’s the one thing that really, really bothers me.
Tim Fulton 30:03
There is a fantastic and Walker had exposed me to it. These guys who basically walk through films, and they’re like, this doesn’t make any sense. I
Jacquie Mahan 30:11
like those people,
Tim Fulton 30:11
but there’s a fantastic one on Back to the Future.
Jacquie Mahan 30:13
I’m gonna have to get that.
Tim Fulton 30:14
It’s good. It’s on YouTube.
Jacquie Mahan 30:16
I listened to it tonight. I have no social life. I’m now a house hermit. Okay
Tim Fulton 30:21
with your pigs.
Jacquie Mahan 30:22
I have three pigs now. I adopted one named Arnie. Okay, then I have doc and Marty, and I have four horses, three dogs, two cats. I hate all my chickens. I hate chickens, but I have them. And then I have a turtle.
Tim Fulton 30:33
Got an
Jacquie Mahan 30:34
animal order,
Tim Fulton 30:35
okay? I end every interview with the same two questions. Great. What do you think Columbus is doing well? And what do you think Columbus is not doing so well?
Jacquie Mahan 30:45
Columbus? I will say this forever, and I started it when I was 22 and I moved back from college 20 Columbus loves people with ideas, and they support them. If you are doing something and you’re authentic, you will get support. You will get people to care about you. You will get on the news. You will be asked to do a cool podcast with old friends you haven’t seen in 20 years. We all circle back and we don’t forget. I really appreciate that about Columbus, because in very big cities, you can often get chewed up and spit out, or you have to pay to play, and that’s just, it’s a really bad omen. So I love that Columbus loves entrepreneurs. I love that it’s still affordable to start businesses here. I have a lot of Midwestern pride from my friends that live on the east and west coast. I am highly offended if anyone says anything about the Midwest. So I also love that that we all really, I think we all have a chip on our shoulder about being from Ohio, like we can make fun of it, but like you can’t, because you don’t get it. And also, I love about Columbus and Ohio. This is one of my favorite things, one of the weirdest things about Ohio. Do you think that people in Ohio really have a hard time bragging and talking about themselves, I do,
Tim Fulton 32:02
yes, yeah.
Jacquie Mahan 32:03
So when you go to self promote, it’s really hard, because you just think, well, everyone knows me, so like you like my stuff speaks for itself. When you’re from the east and west coast or up or down, this idea of bragging
Tim Fulton 32:16
is
Jacquie Mahan 32:16
it’s just like common knowledge. It’s like shameless self promotion. But I feel like people in Ohio literally have a chip on our shoulder about saying anything like, oh, like, Oh, you’re gonna say that you’re this, oh, I don’t do that. I love that about us, like we have an attitude about being modest, which is not modest,
Tim Fulton 32:32
okay.
Jacquie Mahan 32:33
I love that. I
Tim Fulton 32:34
have never thought about it quite that way.
Jacquie Mahan 32:37
I thought about it a lot because I’m like, Why do I have Why am I so snarky about not bragging? Like I have, like, I think I’m better than you because I don’t brag and you are,
Tim Fulton 32:46
hmm,
Jacquie Mahan 32:46
there’s something Midwestern about that. And my son, who is in New York I’ve had often, have told him he wants to be a comedy writer. And I go, you have to put yourself out there. You have to, like, Tell them who you are. And he’s like, ew. And I go, Oh my god, there it is. I was like, but
Tim Fulton 32:59
then nobody’s gonna know who you are. That’s
Jacquie Mahan 33:02
right. So I had to, like, reprogram him, or try to, so I’ve reprogrammed myself, but I’ve watched I love that weirdness, like that weirdy about being from Ohio and Columbus, that we’re very I think we’re all pretty aggressively modest. And then what do I think that Columbus could do better?
Tim Fulton 33:19
Yeah?
Jacquie Mahan 33:21
Hmm, what do
Tim Fulton 33:23
you think it could be doing better? Maybe, like, my brain will pop something, because I need, like, I’m blanking, but I know I’m going to come up with something. Well, I wonder if you go, I mean, you’re speaking Mike Coleman’s love language, right, that, like, Columbus needs to have a little bit more swagger that we don’t. Shouldn’t have that chip on our shoulder about talking about ourselves. I also think, and I’m gonna, I need to write about this at some point, Columbus is a teenager, like, we are still kind of finding ourselves, and this is not the Columbus needs something to put us on the map. But like, we can’t. We don’t know how to infight at all, which is kind of good and kind of bad, but we just don’t know how to, I would say, stand up for ourselves. There’s the common stuff of like, housing is expensive and transit sucks, and like, but, yeah,
Jacquie Mahan 34:24
now I know, because I agree with you, and that actually kind of plays into what I said that I liked. It’s like,
Tim Fulton 34:28
yeah,
Jacquie Mahan 34:29
what we like about ourselves is actually perhaps part of our destruction. Because if we, if the ones that are what I would cry like the try hards, try hards are not in the cool crew,
Tim Fulton 34:41
okay,
Jacquie Mahan 34:42
cool crew people are kind of in the underground, and you can’t find them. So it’s like, I wish that the creatives and the really innovative people could be elevated and lifted and employed and perhaps paid
Tim Fulton 34:54
to
Jacquie Mahan 34:54
bring I would say swagger and coolness, but I also would say authenticity. Not trying to be something that we aren’t. Can
Tim Fulton 35:03
you define that persona a little bit like, Who are you talking about? First of all, who are the try hards?
Jacquie Mahan 35:12
The try hards are the people that are trying to pretend that we’re not in Ohio.
Tim Fulton 35:19
Okay,
Jacquie Mahan 35:20
there is a vibe here, and I think it’s a wonderful foundation to grow from. But if you’re like, I’m a big city girl, you’re like, No, that’s not it. Girl, okay, I think there just needs to be a little bit more authenticity and accepting that having a little slower paced City is a really wonderful thing, and not pretending that we’re some huge, thriving metropolis because we’re not, and I don’t want to be in a metropolis that would give me a lot of anxiety. So I think maybe there’s some identity crisis,
Tim Fulton 35:48
okay?
Jacquie Mahan 35:49
And the businesses that I see thrive, at least the local ones that have lasted a long time, they’ve embraced that authenticity, and they’re not trying to be fancy pants. It’s cool if they turn into fancy pants, but I think it’s the old shoes that fit really great, that last longer, and that’s what I’m trying to do with my business. And maybe I suffer from that no bragging chip on your shoulder thing that might be inhibiting me from growing and working on it. I think Columbus. I don’t know if this is a criticism, but I just I’m really tired of looking at those, like Square Apartments being kind of like sticks, joyless apartments being brought up. And it makes me really sad, because it’s like, well, that’s where this pool used to be, or there was a cool park there, and now that’s just, I understand there’s a need for housing, and I love that. And there’s people moving here, and I love that. I just wish it wasn’t. I just wish there was a little bit more. I keep just saying, like, authenticity of like, embracing who we are and being okay with it, and then just kind of growing there.
Tim Fulton 36:47
Yeah, I think we do a bad job of securing historic buildings for sure. Maybe
Jacquie Mahan 36:55
that’s as simple as it is. It’s I’d love. Well, I live in Powell now, and that little downtown Powell is about the cutest thing I’ve ever seen because of all those old houses. And I love the businesses. I know it’s hard to keep businesses going, but man, it’d be really cool, even if, like, new businesses were coming to fabricate that or create that vibe, instead of these, like, boxes that are brick and glass and it just looks like very joyless like, why can’t we take our heritage and our roots and turn it into something new and fresh, or like downtown Dublin, all those cool kind of row house buildings? Yeah, wouldn’t it? And I think that Dublin has done an exceptional job with that downtown area, combining modern and an old but the way that they’ve built new buildings to look like the old,
Tim Fulton 37:38
yeah,
Jacquie Mahan 37:39
I feel like that is what we need to keep doing, is remembering who we are and what we are and being proud of it without being I don’t know the negative. I don’t know if it’s the negative, but
Tim Fulton 37:49
it’s fair.
Jacquie Mahan 37:50
Let’s just embrace our Midwestern ness and maybe brag about it a little bit
Tim Fulton 37:55
more good.
Jacquie Mahan 37:56
How about that? I’m really thank you so much for inviting me. This has been great. I love seeing Walker. I think it’s been 20 years.
Tim Fulton 38:03
Fair,
Jacquie Mahan 38:03
we had babies, and our babies are in college and driving cars. I have nobody at home. I have nobody to take care of. It’s crazy. You’re in the middle though. You have a 10 year old,
Tim Fulton 38:14
indeed, I’ve got some time left. Is
Jacquie Mahan 38:15
her name Indy?
Tim Fulton 38:16
No, oh, I thought
Jacquie Mahan 38:17
you said, I was like, I want to name my kid Indiana. I was gonna be really jealous if you did that just
Tim Fulton 38:21
Piper.
Jacquie Mahan 38:21
Piper’s a great name, too.
Tim Fulton 38:24
Jackie, thanks for your time.
Jacquie Mahan 38:25
Tim, thank you. Walker, thank you and I love living in Columbus, so I’m glad you guys are here with
Tim Fulton 38:31 me. Thank you for listening to the confluence cast presented by Columbus underground. Again. You get more information on what we discussed today in the show notes for this episode at the confluence cast.com Please rate, subscribe, share this episode of The confluence cast with your friends, family, contacts, enemies, your favorite screen printer. If you’re interested in sponsoring the confluence cast, get in touch with us. We can be reached by email at info at the confluence cast, calm. Our theme music was composed by Benji Robinson. Our producer is Philip Cogley. I’m your host. Tim Fulton, Have a great week.