Tonight on Colorado.

Stories from studio 12.

Co-Founder and CEO of evolve, a vacation rental company, shares the hard lessons of building a business from the ground up, including why knowing when to say n is one of the keys to success.

And it's a Colorado shrin honoring a woman who cared for immigrants, miners, and orphaned girls.

But the story of how Mother Cabrini came to Colorado actually begins thousands of miles away.

Up next, our Kyle Dyer takes us to Italy for that story.

They fought for the right to vote, but they didn't stop there.

Colorado women were breaking barriers long before that.

Up next, we're taking you inside the votes and Dreams exhibition at the center for Colorado Women's History, honoring the women who changed Colorado's history.

Stay with us.

We've got all of these storie and more right here on Colorado.

Stories from studio 12, from the Five Points Media Center in the heart of Denver, Colorado.

This is studio 12.

Good evening.

I'm Bosie Kanani, and I'm Ryan Hare.

Thank you for joining us.

This is Colorado stories from studio 12 from 21 properties to more than 30,000.

Denver based vacation rental company evolve has experienced remarkable growth at Colorado Startup Week.

Franny Mathe sat down with Evolv co-founder and CEO Brian Egan to discuss his journey of building a rapidly growing business.

Egan shared lessons learned along the way, including the challenges of scaling a company, raising capital, making difficult decisions, and recognizing when saying no can be just as important as saying yes.

Brian Egan, thank you so much for joining us today.

You are the CEO of evolve.

Tell us a little bit about your business.

Sure.

Thank you for having me today, Franny.

Evolve is a vacation rental management platform proudly built here in Denver.

We've invented what we call hybrid vacation rental management, which means that we partner with owners and operators of short term rental properties all across the country.

Over 30,000 of them.

We handle everything they need in terms of, driving rental income and handling all the guests inquiries.

And then we partne locally for the local services like housekeeping and light maintenance, snow removal.

And we can introduce our owners to those partners, or they can, in some cases bring their own partners to the platform.

So we've built something really flexible that owners find, makes them more money, charges them lower fee and gives them more flexibility and control over their short term rental.

Well, what I know about you is that you are very passionate about, hospitality.

I am, and you've had such an interesting background.

You started out in hospitality.

How many jobs did you have that, befor you went out of the restaurant?

Yeah, it's kind of.

I was going to say it was probably 10 or 11, but it was kind of one.

Right?

It's, it's all the restaurant business.

And I think there's a commo denominator to everything there.

Started by scooping ice cream.

Did every job in the back of the kitchen.

And, spent the last few years of my restaurant career as a server in a fine dining environment.

And I say that I think I learned everything I needed to know in business.

In in the combination of those restaurants.

Well, what's interestin is we're talking a lot about AI.

And what you're talking about is what human is huma centric and human special.

Yes.

So you had a wild journey in hospitality.

Tell me a walk me through it.

Yeah.

So, I always viewed the restaurant business as, You know it was what I got started doing.

Working summers, working winter breaks, just making money to, you know, fund my life as a college student and what have you.

And then I went to law school, when I was a lawyer in Silicon Valley representing VCs and startups.

And, this is in the late 90s, early 2000.

And I found myself very quickly in a position where I knew I was at the right table.

I was with all these amazing companies and venture capitalists and builders and disruptors, all the things I wanted to be about.

But I was in the wrong chair.

I didn't want to be their lawyer.

I wanted to be an operator.

I wanted to be on the field and doing that.

And I had the opportunity, and it's what brought me to Colorado to be one of the earliest employees of a company here called Exclusive Resorts.

And so for me that was a marrying of the love I had for hospitality with this desire to be an operator and be in a startup and building something new and exciting.

And, you know the fact that those two things came back together again, I think it was opportunistic.

I wouldn't tell you it was my design, but I also think it's important in life.

Sometimes you see those opportunities, you have t seize them.

And, that was the.

That's what brought me back here, right?

I think that that is a really important lesson is saying yes, even when it may not look can be.

That's exactly right.

We only you know, Steve Jobs famously said you can only connect the dots moving backwards.

Like, I can tell you a story that sounds very, thoughtful and and, you know, well thought out and planned and planned.

And that's not at all how it actually played out in real time.

Well, and I don't think that's how it works in life.

I mean, you'll have one decision.

You think is meaningles that will turn you down a path.

And I, we are fortunate to have twin boys.

My wife, Erin, and I have thes twin sons who are 20 years old.

And, you know, I talk to them about this all the time.

You just don't kno where this is going to all go.

And so just keep turning over cards, keep saying yes, keep trying new things.

It'll all make sense, you know, someday.

Exclusive resorts was the company that was the travel industry.

And it was an early, version of of, putting people in homes instead of hotel rooms.

I mean, it was that simple is very high end.

We were trying to build kind of the Four Seasons of a network of homes, and took a good long run with that business over seven years building it up to you know, a considerable size.

And what that taught me, one was I got to do just about every job in the company is kind of like the restaurants, right?

I wash the dishes and, you know, prepped, cooked and served.

So I saw what it took to build the business.

But two, when you stepped back from the fact that it was, I call it luxury or high end experience.

When you talk to the members of Exclusive Resorts, our customers, what they would say is that what was so magical was staying in that home.

Instead of staying in multipl connected hotel rooms and using travel to get back together with friends and family.

Because we are in a place now where over the last 30 or 40 years, we have all moved further apart on average from our friends and our family like we used to be more, you know, community based, and people would stay where they grew up.

And so now travel, rather than being a way to get away from people, is usually a way to get back together as people.

And I think home are a wonderful way to do that, because you can enjoy a cooke dinner and, you know, you know, make dinner in the kitchen and you can get together on the couch for the movie.

You can, you know, come in and eat breakfast in your pajamas instead of in the lobby.

And so we just fell in lov with that idea of that market, and then also realizing.

And this was in 2011, 2012, that this, this industr was going to be mainstreaming.

There was a lot of it was very early days as a bit of a wild West, and we saw an opportunit to help to organize and wire up and make the supply side of the business, bringing the properties to the market much more organized, something that guests could rely on and something that could create value for owners in new ways.

What I find really interestin and and the conversation of an experience economy.

So you've got the end user.

Yeah.

For your customers.

You're in the supply chain and all of these complexities that you're solving for the supplier.

Yes.

And and, and making ultimately this experience awesome.

Yeah, it's a great point because this market has so many different players and you've got the owners of the homes themselves, you have the guests of course.

And, you know, nothing's going to happen until a gas pulls a credit card out of their wallet.

You have a Volvo as a management platform.

And then we also have our partners like Airbnb and Expedia and Booking.com, where we're distributing our, owners properties under our brand across all the major players on the internet, including, you know, even Marriott.

It's amazing.

When we started the business, you would never think in a million years that Marriott would have a component of their business that was in short term rental, and now they have a big one, and we're the biggest supplier to it.

So we really have a number of stakeholders, throughou the ecosystem of the industry.

So you've been doing this for 15 years.

So you started out with an idea and then, I, I'm assuming you guys have got minimum viable product in as minimum, like capital minimum, you know, lowercase viable.

Yeah.

Is pretty scrappy.

And so how did you get into the leap into growth and how did you look at, accelerators and, and capital.

Yeah.

So this is, this is a part of the story where I can tell you the good version today.

That's just what we were saying.

Yeah, yeah, I can connect the dot now that I can look back at it.

At the time, it was like, you know, figure it out as you go along, beg, borrow and steal and, you know, keep going.

We we raised about a hal $1 million ish, of seed capital.

It was all friends, family, network, whatever.

We could get connected to.

There was no significant fund or organize institutional capital behind it.

We went out and got 21 very brave souls to put their homes o the platform that didn't exist.

And we turned it on.

And, two days later, a day later, we took our first booking.

It was literally August of 2011.

I know, because it was just a few weeks ago and that's the day by which we celebrate our 15th anniversary as a company was the day of our first booking.

And, and then we jus started to work it from there.

It was, you know, figure out the right ways to market to these owners figure out how to convert them, figure out how to get them live and get them performing on the platform.

20 became 200, 200 became 400.

And we just went off and running.

And now we're at, you know, 33,000.

There's a lot of of course, points along the way.

But I would say it was we were very much an overnight sensation that was built in ten years.

It was, toiling in obscurity for a long time before anybody like you would want to talk to me.

I don't know, it sounds like was probably.

We'd had some interesting stories, but I think you may have, accelerated.

I did, yeah, that was on fast forward.

Yeah.

Yeah, that was, that was the fast forward version.

Of course, there was a few breakthrough points.

I think one that's really important for every entrepreneur is especially if you have a solution that has a potentially broad audience, is figuring out a more narrow definition of your customer.

Who do you who is the right customer?

Because if you go try to push on ten parts of the wall at the same time, you're not going to get anywhere.

So, you know, this is classically thought of as like the thin edge of the wedge, right?

You that' how you drive through something.

And I feel like there's always this obstacle to the growth.

And so for us, it was really figuring out that we were a great partner for these individual owners who didn't want what was the status quo offering a full service management in the market?

They didn't want to pay those kinds of fees.

They wanted to be in a bit more control and have more of the data.

They also didn't want to do this on their own.

Right.

This is the other option.

You can do this just by you know, putting your own house on one of these platforms Vrbo or Airbnb, what have you.

But for some people that is like, yeah, it is increasingly a complex and competitive business and it's a big job and it can become a full time job.

And for them, they may not be up for that.

And so we had found this middle lane that we now call hybrid management.

And, you know, we had to learn which kinds of owners were attracted to it and would perform well, and that we could provide value for and they would retain on the platform.

And then we had to learn where to find them and how to convert them.

So it was that that's what took the years.

But once we got that formula working, it was, you know, pretty much off to the races.

That's that's interesting because, finding that that right target market is I hear that a lot in, in kind of stepping back.

And a lot of people spend time on the marginal yes client.

And that's not the place to be.

It's not often the place to be.

And I think the other thing that can happen is you're, you know, depending on the, the scale and the ambition.

But for us, the ambition was really big.

And, you know, so you want to devise a business model and a strategy that could potentially be, you know and one of the biggest companies that's ever been built in hospitality.

And I still believe that today.

But, you know, give you an example.

We are still 99% in the US.

If you had told me that I was going to have the opportunity to lead this business for 15 years, I would have told you, surely we've gone international by then, but we haven't done it becaus the US market is still so big.

It's kind of a huge greenfield market.

There's so much for us to do here that at this point we haven't needed to go international.

We want to stay focused.

And there's a myriad other examples, but saying no to a lot of the opportunitie and staying narrowly focused on where you believe you have a differentiation and the right to win is a is a key component of building a business.

Yeah.

Well, and it's very easy sitting at the table to think this is all linear.

And I doubt if this was all that linear, maybe a little bit a the dips everywhere couldn't have been any less linear.

You know, many near-death experiences.

Happ to talk about those, by the way, the earliest of which was when we lost sight of that customer definition and when we started to chase growth is the term I use.

It's you know, we started to see that there were in this example, there were property managers in the market that, you know, wanted to partner with us, but not on an exclusive basis and not, you know, under our normal terms and conditions and not in some of the other ways that would work for the business.

And we went after it because it represented an opportunity to, quote unquote, scale.

But, you know, if you're scaling something that doesn't work, it doesn't help.

I actually makes it worse.

Right?

If you if the unit economics rate, if you put a dollar in the to and $0.80 comes out the bottom, the more dollars you put i the top, the worse off you are.

You're right.

Right.

So it's like, get back to basics.

And, you know, make sure that what you're building makes sense at a small level first.

That's, you know, that's the I think maybe the biggest lesson learned along the way.

Brian.

Thank you.

Your brush, a breath of fresh air, I appreciate that.

It's great to meet you.

All right.

Thanks a lot for having me.

Funding for the business o Colorado is provided in part by Collegiate Peaks Bay, Colorad Business Roundtable and I Bora.

And from the generous support of viewers like you.

Thank you.

To learn more, visit pbs.org.

Dawg, Brian Egan's journey is a reminder that growth isn't always about doing more.

Sometimes it's about getting very clear about the customer you serve.

Staying focused on where you have an advantage, and saying no to opportunities that pull you away from it.

Be sure to tune in to our show in the coming weeks, as we'll continue to feature more Franny's interviews from Colorado Startup Week.

And of course, you can find all of these interviews on our website and on our YouTube channel this coming Monday, October 5th is Cabrini Day in Colorado since 2020, the first Monday of October is a paid state holida in honor of Saint Francis Xavier Cabrini, who befriended Italian immigrants in Denver, consoled minors in the high country and cared for orphaned girls in Denver, the land in Golden that is now home to Mother Cabrini Shrine was the first summer camp for those orphaned girls.

It became a shrine 80 years ago, the year she was canonized a saint.

But the shrine, the missionary work she did in Colorad would never have happened here if it weren't for what happened thousands of miles away.

Earlier this year, our Kyle Dyer traveled to Italy with three dozen Coloradans to learn more.

Via first, Cabrini is an unassuming, tree lined street in Codogno.

But what happened in this small northern Italian town is anything but small.

It's historical and sacred wealth.

There.

This building is where Mothe Cabrini founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in November of 1880.

So this was the very beginning.

Being here in the motherhouse where it all started is such a gift.

It's such a blessing.

So grateful to be here on the pilgrimage with people from Denver, Colorado, for the Shrine of Mother Cabrini.

The realness of Mother Cabrin life and her far reaching legacy will not be forgotte by those who, until this trip, mostly knew Saint Francis Cabrini from her time in Colorado.

Now, their connection t the Colorado Saint runs deeper as they were able to see and feel what she built behind these wooden doors.

Please come in.

It's holy.

It's sacred ground.

They allow you to go into her bedroom, which is the most sacred space for any of us, because it's where we sleep.

We reflect, we pray.

We were told if we wanted to, we could bring petitions from the community in Denver and to ask Mother Cabrini intercessions and the traditio is that you put those petitions under her pillow, and Mothe Cabrini will take care of them.

I always ask her to intercede for me health and well-being, safety, our children and our family, and then just the vulnerable, the homeless, the helpless.

Those are the ones that I know that she will intercede for the most.

I just wanted to be in her roo for some moments of gratitude.

Right now we're asking for her intercession and Robbie's healing because she's been diagnosed with cancer.

I've been trying to beat the cancer holistically and through prayer with six kids.

We just blessings for the and our marriage for 33 years, I had a couple that friends of mine had given me, and so I was abl to put those under her pillow.

As I walked out of the room.

I just put my hand on that pillow.

Other of us and I just have every confidence answer the whisper.

Those prayers are going to get answered.

All because she sai that she would intercede for us.

And I believe that igniting.

I think you can feel her spiri just like, you know, people say when they come to the shrine, they feel something.

And I think when you walk up that path in Codogno, you feel it and you can't miss it.

That's just that's really special.

You go.

To learn more about Mothe Cabrini, whose life and impact we have a hal hour special ready to go for you with more of Kyle's storytelling.

It's called Beyond the Shrine Discovering Colorado's Mother Cabrini, and it airs right after this show tonight at 9 p.m.. They fought for the right to vote.

They challenge the status quo, and they helped change Colorado forever.

Now, the stories of the women who stood up, spoke ou and pushed for a better future are taking center stage in a new exhibition.

The exhibition is called The Votes and Dreams, and it's being showcased at the center for Colorad Women's History here in Denver.

It explores the women who clai their hard won political voice and those who are still left on the outside.

Here's more.

The center for Colorado Women's History is located within a historic house that is over 140 years old.

The stories we tell are relevant to us every day.

Those of us that are living and walking around Denver and Colorado.

My name is Margo Miller, and I' the exhibit and guest services coordinator here at the center for Colorado Women's History, one of History Colorado's community museums.

The Declaration of Sentiments is a declaration of 16 grievances, and it is this small pamphlet to my left here.

It was written predominantly by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Stanton and the others were seeking to define the agenda for this convention, in which they were going to discuss ways to improve women's religious, political, and social rights.

The declaration is with us here at the center for Colorado Women's History.

This documen allows us to reflect on women's rights across the country, as well as here in our state.

The writers of the Declaration of Sentiments intentionally modeled it after the Declaration of Independence.

To boldly assert that women were citizens and thus deserving of the same rights as their male counterparts.

Colorado's story cannot be told without including the stories of the women who helpe shape the state, and the women who were here before Colorado became the state.

It's known as today.

So women are part of the story.

And one of, Colorado women's unique experiences in history is that they were some of the first in the country to have the right to vote in state, local and federal elections.

They were granted this righ by popular referendum in 1893, very early.

Colorado was the first state in the United States to grant women the right to vote.

The popular referendum.

So Colorado is quite unique in this way.

On the left is a ballot from November 1893, when the measure of women's suffrage, if women would be able to vote, was put into a segregated all male voter base.

And alongside of it, we have a ballot box from about ten years later around 1903.

This brings to reality the type of technology that women and men were voting for the early 19 campaigns.

We are in the tea parlor.

This space reflects the time period we are talking about today.

The late 1880s, 1890s, when women are activating their newly achieved voting rights.

This tea parlor would have been used by wome as a part of women's clubs, and women's clubs were a large force in the grassroots organizing that got women the right to vote in 1893.

You're now in the front room.

In this space we explore women's civil independence and how, legislation and social norms impacted how women were able to show up in their communities.

Votes and dreams covers about 100 years of time.

So, many years, many moments of Colorado women's history that help us express the political and advances that women worked so hard for in this state.

Behind me is a portrait of Colorado's beloved, Pat Schroeder.

She is one of our, newer, more recent pieces of history that required space.

Pat Schroeder was the first Colorado woman elected to the US House of Representatives.

A trailblazer, for sure.

It's a privilege to have these precious pieces of history around us and available to us to share with the public.

It's a pleasure to share this history with our neighbors, and we hope you join.

The Votes and Dreams exhibition is running until March of next year at the center for Colorado Women's History.

And for more information, you can go to History colorado.org.

What if growing your own foo was easier and more accessible than you ever thought?

A new program is helping people do just that.

Professor of Landscap Architecture at CU Denver, Jody Beck, is volunteering his time to teach a group of students how to start small and grow with confidence.

This is in partnership with Denver Urban Gardens, and it's a new program with an impact that goes well beyond what's on your plate.

PBS Twelve' Erica McLarty went to check out this seed starting program to find out more.

From apartment shelves to background greenhouses in Denver.

Something small is growing into something much bigger.

A new seed starting program is teaching people how to grow their own food and rethink their connection to it.

All right, so what we have here.

So these are all of my, these are peppers.

You can see there's al the different, varieties there.

Leading the effort is Jody Beck, a professor of landscape architecture at CU Denver, who says this goes far beyond gardening.

It's the ability to feed yourself is the basis of political sovereignty and autonomy.

And so giving you know, helping spread that, helping make that more availabl because it feels so mysterious and it's really pretty basic.

These are all 16 different kinds of tomatoes.

I started.

And tortillas, and a ground cherry.

Jody grew up around agriculture, but came back to it with a new purpose.

Now he's teaching others how to grow at scale, not just for themselves, but for their communities.

So yeah, I just planted this side.

So this is all lettuce and then radishes.

So you can see here's some radishes sprouting.

This is collard.

These are collards I started last summer.

That came all the way through the winter.

And I got the ide to start teaching more people, not how to start seeds.

A lot of people do that, but how to start at this scale and what it would take to do neighborhood distribution or community distribution or small scale sales.

Through a partnership with Denver Urban Gardens, Jody mentors a small group of students helping them grow hundreds, even thousands of seedlings.

The goal to create a network of growers across the city.

I'm hoping that you know that an additional five or so people every year want to do it, and that everybody, you know, slowly scales up their operatio until there's a real network of, of people doing a lot of different varieties of starts and seedlings.

But the lesson isn't just about plants.

It's about understanding food itself.

There's been a lot of research that has show that if people grow some plants, they understand what tomatoes taste like, what they should taste like, and they get more selective and they look for local produce and actually boos the local economy for farmers.

And that understanding is already taking root.

And the.

For Danielle, entering the mentorship started with a simple idea.

It would be nice to be abl to provide these started plants for my gardeners as well as have some of my own, without necessarily needing to go buy a $6 started plant.

It's kind of taken over, one of my bookshelves.

And so, you can start small.

So over here, we've got loads of started seeds, as you can tell.

So, what I do is I organize them and I use tape to identify what it is that I'm growing.

So you get two variants of kale?

Definitely some basil, different spices arugula, eggplant, bell peppers.

Down here.

We've got some flowers, we've got some, herbs.

And then down here we've got to break down, you've got snapdragons, rosemary, spinach, Brussel sprouts, lemon balm, carnations.

And despite what people might think, she says, it' not as complicated as it looks.

I would not classify it as challenging, but I will say that there's a little bit more thought process than you might think that there is.

Once you've set it up, once you've.

I just use command strips for the lights where once the seeds are in the dirt, I put it on.

I missed it with water once a day, but, I check to make sure there's water in the tray, and that's kind of it.

Danielle has been happy to hav Jodi as a mentor along the way.

I also grew a mushroom, in one of my, cells, and I took a photo of it, and I'm like, does this just mean that it's healthy?

But there's a good decay in my soil?

And Jodi was very quick to say, well, you should pick it, because it's mushrooms have spores.

And you don't want that to spread across the rest of your cells.

So we did.

But it's it's really been a lot of, I would say, like, how often should you water or you know, something's growing, and that wasn't what you expected to grow or, maybe the different soil compositions.

I got a lot of that insight from Jodi as well.

Jodi and Danielle say that with just soil light and a little consistency, anyon can do it even without a yard.

The reason that we're usin these here is because you want to make sure that your plant are closer to your light source.

The intent is that you get less leggy plants, because if your plant is focused on reaching the light and getting enough light source, it's not going to be focusin on actually growing the plants in a healthy way.

It's more it's it's busy stretching instead of growing out.

I live in an apartment.

I have planters on my patio.

And so what comes out of this?

Some of it may go into the ground to friends and family, but a handful of it is going to stick here on my patio growing or herbs that I might decide to grow, and keep inside of the apartment.

So it's it's not truly, but depending on what you grow, you can keep it pretty manageable in size.

It's very therapeutic to just not be sitting in front of a screen.

Which is most of my job.

But I think the, another big thing to consider is that it's expensive to not only go to the grocer store and find the right produce picking between different variants of this or what's available.

What growing the garden does is it allows me to not only, again kind of get away from my screens and kind of focus on something that I can bring back into the house, but it's also a place where we're like, oh, we know exactly what went into growing this produce, right?

We know where these we know that there weren't pesticides used on these tomatoes, or we know that the squash that we grew last season is going to last, you know, so it gives you the opportunity not only to actually grow the things that you're you know, feeding your body, but it also saves you a lot of money in doing so.

Right.

Kale sauteed in scramble eggs is my favorite breakfast.

I was a little irritated recently when I went to, the grocery store and like a bundle of kale, was like $3.

And I was like, I can grow that.

So.

So I went a little crazy on growing Miguel.

And so I think that people understanding what it means to grow food and what kinds of foods are available and is important, anything that gets people outside and off their phones I think is important these days.

What starts as a seed becomes something more a skill, a connection, a community, and maybe a new way to grow together.

For PBS 12 I'm Erica McLarty.

It is amazin to see how something so simple can have such a big impact and amazing how Danielle is able to grow all of that just in her apartment.

How cool.

Yeah.

Really cool.

For more information on program that Denver Urban Gardens offers, you can go to their website Denver Urban gardens.org.

Hi, everybody.

Teachers and school administrators across our state are so aware that Thursday marks the start of a new month, and specifically the month of October, because that means it's time for the October count.

The annual head count of students across the state.

How many students are enrolled and how many are actually showing up?

Because those numbers help determine how much funding school districts receive.

And with school funding measures on our ballots across Colorado in November.

There are also question being raised about how schools are spending the money that they already receive.

It's something that we'r talking about on Colorado inside Out.

Here's the lesson.

So the October count is coming up.

That's when schools acros Colorado count their students.

And those numbers help determine how much state funding follows them.

There is a lot of talk about money right now, especially within Denver Public Schools.

Voters are being asked to approve another $44 million in property tax revenue for DPS, while the district is also dealing with question about leadership and spending, including hiring an outside law firm that could charge up to $8,000 an hour to wor on the superintendents contract.

But through all of this, right, the focus has to stay on the kids who are in those classrooms and learning.

Priscilla, you have just opened a brand new school in Centennial after retiring last May from 25 years in DPS.

Wow.

Congratulations.

Quite the educator you are.

Thank you.

When you see all this going on, what comes to mind?

It's heartbreaking because it seems like every electio we're asking voters for money, for more money for the schools.

And people have to ask, what are we getting for the money that we're giving to the school district?

And I can tell you, as someone who's been in the classroom, it doesn't really trickle dow into the classroom where we keep promising voters that it's going where it really counts.

It's it's really unfortunate that we see all of this turmoil in the Denver Public Schools board, one in particular, a former student of mine from George Washington High School who's now under investigation for allegedly making anti-Semitic comments.

And so and then you've got a superintendent who's looking in Chicago, looking in Florida, saying he's committed to to Denver, but he's out looking for a jobs and a school board who should not have extended a contract way too soon before really vetting his, his progress.

And so we have very little to show for all the money that we're putting int the Denver public school system.

But we fortunately have a governor, Governor Polis, who's very pro, education choice and supports early childhood and supports parents in their in their in their journey towards giving their children a great education.

And so that's one of the reasons why I retired from Denver Public Schools and opened a private classical school.

And, you know, we're losin students from the school system.

And it's really important for us to take a look at these numbers.

Okay.

Hey, when we were talking about the October count, you didn't think we'd be counting all the money going to outside attorneys.

It's not just the DPS.

You see it in Jeffco where they've had big problems in the Cherry Creek School District, where we continue to find out how much they've spent and at the DPS.

So I would say mayb $1,000 might be a good payment right now if they can deal with the contract in advance.

Have an outside group do it instead o have a conflict within the DPS.

But meanwhile that boar has got to stop acting like kids and start thinking about the kids.

The behavior has been incredible.

If we all, if we all acted like this on the table at this table, be better TV, but it would not be very efficient communication.

And this is not your law firm that's getting $1,000 an hour.

No, I didn't get that city contract or the DPS contract.

All right.

Your thoughts on all this?

I agree we need to focus on the kids.

And speaking of focusing on the kids the nine high schools in Aurora where the flock cameras are, apparently.

Yeah, focusing on the kids and storing, a year's worth of their data, accessible to national, folks and law enforcemen who have been running searches.

I think the count was at 1400 plus.

I mean, that as someone who sends their kids to school every single day, the idea that there could be these warrantless surveillance of them, and not only that, but to have that data stored for as long as it as i just really, really concerning.

And I think simila to what we're seeing with these under the table, clandestine deals with data centers, with private prisons, with surveillance.

I, it just starts to feel like part and parcel of all the, the same things.

Yeah that flag story was interesting.

And apparently there were als some in the Cherry Creek schools that are in Aurora, but they pull those out.

And a lot of times I don't even know that they're there.

And then when they find out, they're like, they get those those out of here.

Yeah.

That's what I mean.

A lot of this stuff seems to be getting done under the radar.

Okay, Carlos, two years ago, over close to $6 billion was approved in bond measures for schools two years ago.

So as we're looking at now in 2026 and we're looking at increasing TPS, another 44 million, I think one of the things that I'm hearing a lot, folks, is like we're being asked to give more, give more, but what's the results?

As Priscilla was talking about, what's the impact that we're having?

I would love to know, as a Denve what is this, 44 million going to do?

How are you going to go ahead and and show m the impact that this is having?

And I thin with a lot of school districts where enrollment is declining, especially here in Denver.

So we have less students and you want more money.

The county doesn't seem to go with it because they usually just give us a broad, you know, overview, but they don't really tell us we are going to really move the needle on X, Y, and Z. Some of that money in this, this measure for Denver voters has to do with increasing teacher pay.

You've been there.

You were there for a long time.

Just how tough is it for teachers to afford to teach and live in Denver?

It's a lot better now than it has ever been.

I think, it's manageable now.

And coming from Denver Public Schools, they do a really great job o of compensating us as educators.

But if you look at other school districts, like, for example, Douglas County, where I live, where the pay isn't as high, but the achievement is higher than in the Denver Public schools, it doesn't always, connect to, teachers staying at a school.

It's not enough, because when you have all of these other problems in a school, a high paying salar sometimes is not enough to keep a teacher long term in a, in a building.

So, you have to really make sure you're making sense.

Fewer top heavy positions, more classroom educators, smaller classes, great updated, curriculum facilities so that the scholars are in a school where they can actually learn, where things aren't broken where we have air conditioning.

They keep saying we're going to put air conditioning in the schools, and they don't.

And you're in this heat.

So there are a lot of things that, Denver is going to have to be accountable for.

And then we saw in Boulder this week announcement some forc elementary schools are closing after this school year.

It's it's a tough, tough time okay.

We spoke about a whole bunch of other topics as well on our most recent Colorado Inside Out.

So catch our entire show on our YouTube channel or the PBS passport app or PBS 12 website, or listen to the conversation on our Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

This Friday brings a brand new show with four new insiders addressing four new topics.

So join us this Friday night at 8:00 in tonight's heart of the West segment.

We're celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month and Dia de Los Muerto as we follow artist Cal Duran, who is giving new life to an age old tradition.

Cal shows us his ofrend installation at History Colorado in honor of the late Rita Flores de Wallace.

Wallace was known as Denver' First Lady of Mexican Folk Art, a teacher and storyteller who helped shape Colorado's cultural heritage.

Now, through Cal's hands, her legacy continues.

We caught up with Cal as he created his alter, blending his own indigenous an Latin roots with Rita's textile work in a powerful tribute that connects generations.

Here's more I grew up, my mom was adopted and my father was in and out of prison.

So we didn't have this, like, grounding of a cultural presence, but I always had this longing of knowing where I come from.

So art was a way for me to remem I didn't go to art school.

I didn't graduate high school.

It was my senior year, and they wanted me to go to a gym class, and it was two months before my graduation, and I was in art like art class all the time.

I was winning awards, with this organization called Scholastic Art and Writing Awards.

My art got sent to New York, and I just knew I wanted to be an artist.

So Jim was just like, so they kicked me out and I was like, okay, I'm not going to go to art school, but I am just going to keep creating.

So I work with clay, and Clay, I believe, hold all the memories of the earth.

And it holds all the elements.

It's earth, air, fire and water.

And I teach clay as well.

And when I see that when students creat from clay, it's that intuition.

It's that inner remembering of working with the earth.

And so my art is really about honoring my ancestors, my identities.

Yeah.

I'm Doctor Rene Fajardo.

I am the director of the Metropolitan State University Journey Through our Heritage program.

So I was one of the very fortunate young people back in the day, and a young member of the Chicano Humanities Arts Council in the 80s to come upon a teacher, ou maestro Rita Wallace de Flores, who was one of the people that came to Colorado, and really helped young Chicanos establish, what Dia de Los Muertos was and began teaching it.

And Rita Wallace, the Flores and the Luna Boys, as we call them, from the pirate Bob Luna specifically, were really instrumental in bringing those traditions here to Colorado.

I met her probably when I was about 17.

I was in an organization called Chuck Chicano Humanities for the Art Council, and also had a gallery called Pirate Art Gallery.

And every year they did Dia de Los Muertos celebration.

And you can make an a friend, an altar.

It was extremely important that when she came, she brought a lot of the traditions surrounding the building that for our friends, the traditions of this, the cuantos storytelling.

So timelines kind of traveled.

And then about five years ago, I met Renee, and she' just been a great advocate and, just really a beautiful, kind, open hearted person I've been learning from.

And Rita was her teacher.

So it was kind of this full circle moment.

And Rita was, you know, kind of ailing and, has dementia.

She was in the hospita a few times, almost passed away, but she told me I'm not ready to leave the earth.

I have one more student, and lo and behold, she was right.

She had Cao.

Cal is her last student.

And, she was iconic, for her Ojos Dios and we all know that.

Cal Duran.

We're talking ojos Dios.

He is the cream of the crop.

So she really brought her knowledge back in the, my native me back in the 70s and 80s because she was from a small town in Mexico.

And really just shared those traditions with the community when she came here.

And she brought the traditions that she knew of Dia de Lo Muertos, she was very adamant.

You have to understand that this holiday is this syncretic holiday.

It's a woven mixture now of many peoples traditions that have come together.

And where they live is the way that they celebrate it.

And there is no right or wrong way to really celebrate it.

She was very, very, intent upon us realizing that you come together as a community.

Is it time to support each other?

So she passed away on April 27th.

Close to the, day of the children.

Dia de Nino.

When it came time to celebrate he life, Cal made her a huge altar.

So she passed away April 27th.

And then this is really jus in honor to her and her legacy.

There's also photos of other, women, and lineage.

They're called the Queen mothers, that have passed away as well on the altar.

The marigolds represent the ancestors.

So they say when you smell a marigolds, it's the, food of the ancestors.

It's the scent of the ancestors.

That's why, that's always represented.

I've been creating friends all over Colorado, probably for the last 15 years.

Probably ten years ago.

That was one of my first skeletons I created.

And it survived.

I wanted to give it wings as it's flying.

Back home.

And then these are all photos of Rita.

An ofrenda is an offering.

So meaning offering.

But it's an also an altar.

I referred to as an a friend, as a little pit stop.

Like a beacon, a beacon of light.

This is actually one of Rita's, pieces.

So she worked a lot with corn husks and paper.

She loved dolls.

And called Monica's up.

There is a big Sacred Heart.

Me and my friend built about ten years ago.

I saw a paper maché.

And behind it is an author de Dios.

That's, a God's eye.

And traditionally, Rita, made those as well.

And we made those together.

The other us, those can really be celebrated by anybody.

And why I say that i because we're all going to die.

You know, we're all on this universal code of death and life.

And I see the other as my toast, as a celebration of lif and death, as one more of those.

We think it's just about honoring our ancestors and those that came before us and their hard work and their sacrifice.

But the very core of it is gratitude.

It's celebrated so differently, like in Mexico and each Puebla they celebrate it differently.

So it has deep, roots in the Mexican roots.

And it was, celebrated was, meets the aunt Lee.

She's the goddess of the dead.

Since colonization happened and really moved on to like All Saints Day, but I wa always taught it was three days.

And November 1st is when all the little babies come and lead the procession.

And November 2nd is really when we build the ofrenda we like, kind of build the bones of the friend on the first and the second is really when our loved ones come and greet us.

And then on the third da is when we get to say goodbye.

I think it's good that, you know, that culture of Dia de Los Muerto is brought into that forefront, and that kids are really recognizing that, and then it's not so taboo to talk about death, you know, and to really, you know, be grateful that we get to wake up every day and to really just give offerings that, you know, every footstep that we take is an offering, you know, for the ones.

And, before us, when I was younger, I think it was kind of a smaller pocket.

But I think, like with the commercialization of it, too, it's gotten wider spread.

But I think that's also, a gift because I think people need to know more about it.

I think we definitely.

And preserving traditions in a way, because this is honoring Rita and her traditions of what she taught us.

And I'm always kind of a big I have an open heart.

And I think, you know, we can preserve and preserve, but also that kind of puts a lid lid on our traditions when I think we need to meet our community where it is now and having it in front and center here, you know, this is a community altar.

So people could add messages to their loved ones.

This is just isn't about Rita.

This isn't just about the women on the altar, but it's really a connective thread to everybody.

And that' really what I want to preserve.

And this and I think that's what Dia de Los Muertos is really about is the connective thread within everybody.

And these are all messages I see that, community is already offered.

I believe that osmanthus is every day, all day.

We should celebrate, you know, the ones that have left this realm, because their memories are like seeds planted inside of us.

And we get to just really share that with everybody we meet.

We continue our Hispanic Heritage Month celebration with tonight's doodle desk.

In this episode, Kyle Dyer sits down with Colorado Inside Out panelist an president and CEO of the Latino Community Foundation of Colorado, Carlos Martinez.

They talk about leadership, service and creating opportunity across Colorado.

Plus why building strong communities start with listening to one another.

And of course, it wouldn't be the doodle desk without a little friendly competition.

As they talk, they're als drawing each other's portraits, so be sure to catch the reveals at the end.

Here is the doodle desk.

Carlos Martinez is deeply thoughtful, mindful, and hopeful.

From my first conversation with him, I just knew that he would bring such great insight to the Colorado Inside-Out table.

And perspective that aren't always surface, yet always needed.

He is humble, and he genuinely cares about the conversations that he has with us and with so many others in his role as the president and CEO of the Latino Community Foundation of Colorado.

Carlos, you've been leading this organization from was 12 years now, and it's a much different organization from when you started.

Yes it is.

What is it about you taking the reins and saying, I can lead this group that has changed things for not only organization, but for so many people in Colorado?

Well, you know, I think for me it's the opportunity presented for me was how can an entity play a critical role throughout the stat in helping to shape a community.

And so for me, I've been fortunate of having a lot of opportunities throughout my career, and it was an opportunity t bring a lot of those experiences under one umbrella and be able to see if we can really look at creating some change an transformation in communities.

And you guys have made a huge difference.

We have we we really have.

You know, when I took over, we we're down to our last dollars.

But, you know, we've grown now over to, an organization right now with assets over $19 million.

We've invested over 32 million in the community, leveraged another 50 million, and have just been helping the community not just the Latino community, but also, in the Asian, the black, Native American, the LGBTQ communit as well, and rural communities, because we also have a focus on making sure our dollars go out throughout the state and that they just don't stay here in the Denver metro area.

What was your first job since you said you've been doing so many things?

What do you what did you think you first wanted to do?

God, you know, well, my ver first job was cleaning stables.

Really?

Yes.

So down the street from my house were some horse, horses and so forth.

And, you know, as an immigrant kid, we didn't have a lot of resources.

And so I would always go out and look for jobs.

And so I went there and I said, you know, you guys need help.

And they're like, sure, we can go and help cleaner around.

So that was my first job.

And from then I'd been working, I haven't stopped.

What brought you to Colorad and will you stay in Colorado?

So you seem like such wonderful addition to our state.

Yes.

Well, I love Colorado.

And it was my husband who brought me here.

Oh, yeah.

We met in DC, and, I was living in California.

He was living here.

I went to visit a friend.

We went out one night.

So happens that her friends were at this one lounge.

And those friends were with my husband and my husband was with them.

And so that's how we were introduced.

We exchanged email and we continued to communicate, and we just started developing a relationship.

So love bright to Colorado.

Yes, exactly.

And it's keeping you here?

Yes, exactly.

So, you run this fabulous organization with a wonderful group of employees.

You're a busy man.

You're crazy artists over there.

Why?

Why spend time?

Why invest time in Colorado inside out?

Because you always come prepared.

It's not like you just can come in and wing it.

You, like, put work into coming and being a part of our conversations.

Well, I think I, you know, I was brought up that when you are prepared, you know, it's yeah, it shows.

Why do you like talking about, like, some of the issues that we're facing?

Because some stuff is difficult right now.

We all have a perspective to to be able to share.

Yeah.

And I think I'm very fortunate I've been able to come into contact with so many people actually on a daily basis on a weekly basis, on a monthly basis.

And that contact has allowed me to really kind of like, understand a bit more of what's going on in Colorado.

And I think at the en it's really about relationships.

And so when you're able to build relationships, okay, you're able to go ahead and really bring people together to take the kind of chances or the risks that you want to take.

And I think for me, when I'm able to go ahead and have the relationship, I'm even a bigger risk taker.

Are you always thinking always, always, always.

What?

How do you relax?

You know, by thinking how I have to be, you know, honest with you.

Because I think my my mind has to be active.

Okay.

What I do like to do.

So because I didn' become an artist, I collect art.

So.

Yeah.

So I have, more painting that fit on my walls a lot more.

Yeah.

So, like, every quarter, I will rotate the artwork and just do things differently.

And when I like, when I come home from work, okay, to be able to decompress, I just go and visit my art pieces.

Yeah, I love that.

And from all your travels and from all our travels, so both decorative arts as well as I want to paint the house, I want you to come to my house, okay?

And help me figure ou where to put things on my wall.

Okay.

And so, Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

I'm coming here.

Yeah.

So that's kind of like, for me.

Oh, that's all right.

Relax.

Oh, yeah.

All right.

So are you about ready?

Yes.

Now, don't get scared.

I told you, this is abstract.

And and don't get offended.

No no no no no no.

All right.

Oh, look at me and look at you.

Oh that's wonderful.

Oh, no.

This is good.

Okay.

Shall we show the cameras?

Look at me.

Wow, Carlos you are such a joy to have on.

Well, kind of mad you have Harry Potter glasses.

There.

Yours are a little more stylish than Harry.

No, that's fine, but anyhow, thank you for doing this.

Well, thank you for your story and for sharing as much as you do on color inside every week at your fabulous member of our cast.

So thank you so much.

Thank you.

That was just a snea peek of one of our conversations with our panelists.

For our full conversation with all of our insiders, check out the Doodle Desk on the passport app, PBS Twelve's YouTube channel, or on our website, PBS 12.org, or wherever you get your podcasts.

We look forward to seeing you the next time at the Doodle Desk.

We hope tonight's stories inspired you to be informed, explore, and connect with the people and communities around you.

You can watch these storie again, plus more of our Colorado storytelling on our YouTube channel or at PBS 12.org.

Thanks for joining us.

I'm Ryan Har and I'm bazi kanani.

Great week.