We get so caught-up in the presidential election that sometimes we forget that the most important votes are the ones that affect us locally, such as who is going to be the next person to run the town or city you are in. During the Covid-19 pandemic, local leadership was crucial to help small businesses stay in business and your neighbors to be able to stay in their homes. Local initiatives have immediate effect on our lives. So we need to get to know who is going to be leading us heading into the next couple of years.

Travis Stovall believes he is that guy for my hometown, Gresham. He might be right, Travis is a scholar, has a business that helps people find themselves and be able to better deal with others, and is quite possibly one of the most personable people that you will ever meet. 

I originally invited him onto the show because he has a company called eRep (https://erep.com) that offers something called a CVI (Core Values Index) score which does an incredibly astute job of defining the traits and proficiencies for people. Seriously, it blew my mind, and highlighted for me my biggest strengths and made me aware of the things that I could use help with. Go to https://whatsmyCVI.com and take the 5-minute test and see what you get, I bet it is remarkably. accurate! Then, when I found out that he was going to jump into local politics, I thought it was a perfect time to see how something like the CVI could help someone navigate the different personalities and proficiencies of running a city. You can find out more about his quest for the top seat in Gresham at https://www.travisstovall.com

Travis is a really entertaining human, has great stories, and listening to him just feels like you are speaking to someone who has a real grasp on the world. Oh, and we also record a sketch based on a true story.

Sketch: “Pets to the MAX!”

For more episodes, information, and apply to be on the show, visit: http://sketchcomedypodcastshow.com

Sketch Comedy Podcast Show is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

© Copyright 2021 Stuart Rice

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Travis Stovall resides in Gresham, Oregon and enjoys representing this part of the region and its tremendous assets.

A glance at Stovall’s résumé confirms his gift for financial management, marketing and organizational development. As a healthcare administrator, he directed multi-million dollar development projects. He has also succeeded in the role of entrepreneur, assuming the lead in ventures that have greatly exceeded revenue projections.  Having completed more than 20+ corporate and business turnaround projects as a consultant, Stovall brings a unique perspective to organizational health and development. 

Today, he serves as CEO and Co-Founder of eRep.com, a firm focused on helping individuals find work they love and companies build highly aligned teams. Active in the community, Stovall has been featured in The Oregonian for his dynamic leadership of the Gresham Area Chamber of Commerce, as President of the Board of Directors. 

In addition, he is a board member of several prominent local and regional organizations, including Trimet, the regional transit agency board appointed by Governor Kitzhaber.  Along with his fellow Trimet board members, Trimet became the only transit agency in the country with triple A rated debt by all three credit rating agencies.

In 2009 Stovall was chosen as one of the Portland Business Journal’s forty under forty.  In his free time Stovall is a private pilot, plays tennis, cycles and enjoys spending time on Orcas Island in the Puget Sound.

Fun Fact:  Travis helped build 4 different churches in Mexico before he was 18.

Stovall holds a Bachelor’s degree from Union College in Business Administration, Finance emphasis graduating Summa Cum Laude and a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

[00:00:00] spk_1: in this episode, mayoral candidate Travis Stovall and I came up with a couple of sketches,

[00:00:06] spk_0: real estate conversation. Let's go take a look at this house, this floating and then having to disappoint that person. Uh I don't think about being on a date with somebody not being able to tell what their C. B. I. Is. You're in the mayor's office and you've got just people coming in giving you random like crazy things that they're asking for.

[00:00:27] spk_1: Which one did we pick? You'll find out on this episode of it's a sketch comedy podcast show. Welcome back to sketch comedy podcast show where interesting people have intriguing conversations and then improvise a comedy sketch based on what was talked about. It is the only show like it on the internet. My name is Stuart Rice and I'm the host of this crazy thing. You know, we get so caught up in the presidential election that sometimes we forget that the most important votes are the ones that affect us locally, such as who is going to be the next person to run the town or city you live in During the COVID-19 pandemic local leadership was crucial to help small businesses stay in business and your neighbors to be able to stay in their homes. Local initiatives have immediate effect on our lives, so we need to know who is going to lead us in the next huge big issue that we get. Travis. Stovall believes he is the guy for my hometown of Gresham Oregon. He might be right. Travis is a scholar, founded a company that helps individuals and organizations find themselves, has been a board member of Try matt and is one heck of a personable person. In fact one of the most personable people, you'll meet his company, e rep helps people find their core value index, which is what makes you you and you can actually find out what that is by going to what's my CV I dot com links are in the show notes. And now my conversation with Travis Stovall 2020 mayoral candidate, who knows how people tick

[00:02:22] spk_0: Travis. Can I ask you a question with? Of course. All right, Absolutely. What makes you interesting? Just the sheer fact that I'm, Travis makes me interesting. No, I mean, what makes me interesting, you know, for the most part, it's the unconventional way that I exist as a kind of, as an african american man. You know, people ask me what brought me to Oregon, say I'm from Kansas. Originally, people ask me what about me Oregon, instantly. I'm like sleep is in Seattle and they laughed. They're like, really? And I said, yeah, sleepless in Seattle. I was watching the movie hadn't been further west in colorado and it was tom Hanks characters floating house. I mean this isn't a boathouse. This isn't a houseboat, it's a floating house. I mean it's a house that floats. And so I like, I got to go see this. And most people when they, when they hear that, they say, well, you do know you're in Oregon, right? I'm like, I know I made a wrong turn. No, I went to Seattle, spent a year in Seattle, fell in love with the northwest. Um, and then then decided to move here. The interesting thing is when I moved here, I was a windsurfer and a snow ski and people are like a little bit shocked because back in those days, uh, I mean minorities who wind surfed and snow ski where it was just non existent. Right? And so you know, it's some of these things is this this non, can I come from a, I grew up in an all black neighborhood, went to all black schools in the inner city kids city. Uh, but yet made this unconventional move to doing things that were traditionally historically something that people like that look like we do. And so it's always been interesting as I walk into situations and experience the facial expressions of folks as they look at me and they're like um but that's, I mean that's kind of what makes me interesting. It's just that unconventional approach to life. Um So how did you get into windsurfing? Like how does that happen? That's one like I am white and I've never been. So I worked at summer camp in Kansas and most people are like, there's wind in Kansas, there actually is, Kansas has the, has the fifth windiest lake in America. You know that we know that when Dorothy and uh tornadoes and all that stuff And so I worked at a summer camp uh back when I was younger and we had wind surfer and a buddy of mine was the wind first windsurfer instructor said Travis, I am going to teach you how to win sir. So I learned it's, it's just the kick sport. I'm mad. I absolutely love winter. I don't do it much anymore just because it takes so much work to get to the gorge, get your board and all that stuff out. I just don't do it as much anymore. But I do not, I do not. That's definitely a rental. It is. Well, I mean frankly unless you're living in Hood River doing it a lot experience you don't want to win. It is kind of cool that we're so close. Absolutely. There are people that are not that close. Absolutely. Uh sorry that I lived so close to windsurfing. You'd never win. I am offending everything surfer out there, everyone server out there. So you don't just windsurf and you don't just do all that stuff. You are you do something called C. B. I. Yes explain. Absolutely. V. I. S. So the C. B. I. Is the core values index assessment and it is a psychometric assessment tool psychometric says it sounds really fancy but it's just a combination of psychology in math and algorithm. You combine those together to do what we call quantify the human psychology and that's what it is. And so the C. B. I. Is one of the most accurate assessments on the entire market ever produced. It has what we call a 97.7% repeat score, reliability. You can take it multiple times over longitudinal period. The results gonna be the same. That's incredible accuracy. So I can tell you how you are going to generally respond to different stimuli based on knowing your CV high profile. It's incredible. Yeah. It is pretty incredible. And you actually came to attack taught a class on it to a thing I got to be a part of and it was so eye opening. I make everybody take this test. Now I have new co workers. The first thing I do is say, hey, have you ever taken a CBS? Uh absolutely cultivation the way you convert it. Um, but the cool thing about it is that it splits people off roughly like this is very rough. It can get very granular but really into four quadrants. Right? That's correct. And the four quadrants are merchant merchant, right? Builder innovator and banker love is merchant builders, Power innovators, wisdom bankers knowledge, I don't fit into any of those. What does that mean? I'm sure you do. Everybody fits into something place and that's and that's the thing. It's this big picture aggregation of just how people are. So and like you said, it's it's 44 value energy, which is considered a four quadrant. So yeah, it's a four q four quadrant assessment and who like knowing this about somebody else. What does that do for your relationship with? Tremendous, it can tremendously improve our interpersonal relationships because now that I know your profile, I can better communicate with you, interact with you and many times we assess others based on our own CV. I profile because that's the way I see the world. So I see the world as a merchant building, which I am and so I'm going to evaluate and somewhat judge you through my lens, even though your profile maybe dramatically. And that's that's squad because I need to, I need to interact with you the way you want to be interacted with and it would be great if the vice versa occurred and you interact with me the way I want to be interactive. This the platinum rule treat others the way they want to be treated. Yes, that's the platinum rule rather than the golden rule. Yes. So yeah, once we understand how someone's hardwired, we have a tremendous opportunity to then interact with that person the way they want to be interactive with. Without this information, we're kind of shooting in the proverbial guard trying to assess and understand this individual. And we're almost always going to revert back to how we are hardwired because that is what we know. So we are going to lead to lead, others were going to coach, teach, train all of those things are gonna be through our lens And if I had Children, I would want to produce little mini, little mini me because that is the profile that I have. So I want to build a little merchant builders regardless of what their profile is. If I don't know how their hard line I you at home for watching, watch this reaction. So my daughter is an account uh, accountant. What is it? No longer? My daughter is a banker. Uh yeah. How would you handle that If you were uh, you were the parent and your daughter was a banker. I would trade, I would trade her in. I feel like, okay, can I trade this in on a different model? No, I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I yeah, it's not, but it is different. Like once I write it when she took the test and you recognize that I was like oh man that explains so much. Absolutely. Absolutely. So I'm a merchant and so the banker would be a core value energy for me. I'm a six I'm a six banker. Is there's points that you get in each of the categories. I mean since I don't really access the banker for value that's a core value energy that is very difficult for me to understand and appreciate it. So someone who's a high banker I really don't know how they think and so that would be it would be work for me too truly appreciate their contribution to the world. And that's why I said uh the banker right? I mean I I mean now of course before the C. B. I. I didn't understand why bankers even existed. Sure but now I absolutely understand their contribution to the world and we want to leverage that contribution and embrace that contribution good. Um yeah, so I when I took it I was very high innovator, which made me feel good because innovator is a good word, right? Yeah, sounds great. I mean I really good. Um and what I found was in my working relationships, I work best with the building which is kind of the exact opposite. Again it feels very opposite. But when I have a builder, builders are very much like let's get this done with it, do it, do it and that's how you are. Would you lead us to the next part of the conversation? But for me I can sit there and like ponder and an opportunity for a very long time with no action. And when when you said that in the class I was like oh man that's a problem. Like I need to have some sort of building uh aspect of my life. Um people can this test is free, right? So that we do have a free report. So the test is free to take, you'll get a basic report that shows them the primary and the secondary four value energies. But then there's an opportunity to upgrade and get the full report. All the numbers free pdf of the of the core values handbook um and that type of thing. But their initial information where they get their primary and secondary determination is that's free and that's cool. But like getting all the deep down in co and really understanding that stuff really, what it did for me was it it allowed me to recognize my weaknesses and what values that actually bring to a situation a team situation or anything. Absolutely. Now the one thing that I would adjust is we don't we don't actually consider weaknesses anymore because ultimately it's only a weaknesses were expected to access every single core value interview. So because I have six points of banker doesn't mean that I have a weakness. It just means that I don't access that energy. But essentially I'm a merchant builder and those are the two energies that I want to access and I want to leverage from my highest and best contribution. But for folks who haven't taken the C. B. I want to, what's my C. B. I. Dot com? Uh that's a place I can go take. The C. B. I only takes about 7 to 9 minutes. So what's my CV. I dot com tremendous opportunity to understand exactly what you're talking about, understand how folks are hardwired, how they are hardwired. It is just awesome. I love it. I use it every day. I wrote a book on sales and they're hidden in there. I stole some constant telling you that, I don't know if you're gonna sue me now, but not at all. Um, you are, you know, you're, you've got that merchants, so it's love, right? So you're one of your core values is showing other people love and experiencing and uh, being person a lot of times that is associated with being personable and be able to talk to people in those types of things. Uh, that's my experience with you as well. Um, now the builder aspect, that means you're taking action. Yes. Like that's a thing that you're gonna do, you're taking a big action. You decided to do something really big recently. What was that? So, I mean, and all the things that we're doing these days trying to make positive change in the world, an opportunity came up to actually run for mayor, mayor fresh in town here in Oregon Of about 111,000 citizens. And uh, the opportunity came up and I was recommended, uh, to run for mayor. And I spent some time really trying to take a look at it to make sure that I would have the opportunity to lead into this and decided, you know what, at this day and age and the many things that are going on from a social justice conversation through to fiscal responsibility, you wrap all of that up and, you know, at the end of the day, I felt that I'm, I'm really the best candidate to be able to lead our city forward through the myriad of things we need to step through. So yeah, you know, it's all about taking action through that builder. Core value, Energy. Yeah. So the idea of being mayor sound nice. Sound good To people who played Simcity. What are your expectations when you walk into that? I don't know. I said you're in office, You get off. Yeah. You get to go in the first day you sit down like what do you see yourself doing in that situation? I would panic. Well, I mean the beauty of of what we have access to the city of pressure because we've got a great staff into you first and foremost, we've got a city manager. Now we're going through a process of hiring a new city manager currently right now. But that city manager is really the person who is in charge of running the operations of the city. So a person who becomes mayor of the city of Gresham, it doesn't really have to have some significant knowledge, skills in administration of a city. What they do need to bring is the ability to balance, you know, what needs to be balanced, the ability to connect with with individuals, provide leadership and direction. And listen, I mean, those are some of the critical things that the mayor of Gresham should and needs to have is able to be able to lead the city forward. So, you know, your, your sense of of, of being nervous about stepping into the role can be diminished when you understand the city structure and know that you've got professionals who do the majority of things that need to be taken care of in a city like regulations, processes, laws, all of those things are handled by consummate professionals who are hired by the city to execute on those things. Uh, the mayor and the council uh primarily look at policy approval of large contracts, ensuring that as where the where essentially the vector in which the citizens of our community get to work through. Uh And so that's really what it brings me the confidence to know. I used to, I mean, I'm on the tri met board, which is our regional transportation agency here in the metro area and we serve this about two million people. Um We carry about 100 million rides annually, 300,000 writes per day when we're non covid. Um so that's a lot of movement, a lot of things that we have to deal with. We have everything from our own police force to uh to maintenance to you name it, you know, it's encompassed within the tri met universe. And so I've had nine years of opportunity to really exist in a public role or all of our meetings, republic of course, and the discourses public. So it's prepared me well uh to be able to step into the mayor role of the city if the citizens of Gresham honor me with elected me as mayor. Cool, good answer. Um So you're saying that the mayor is not like that man, you're not doing everything, you've got you've got a lot of Alfred around. Well if it was like that man, I couldn't tell you because then everybody would know I would be batman. I mean that's yeah, yeah there is a risk. Exactly, more like Spiderman also, what what is Spiderman's uncle say with great power comes great responsibility. There you go. Kind of more like Spider man. But yeah, it was the role of batman. I couldn't tell you because then you would know that I would be back, right? Yeah, yeah. What are the fringe benefits to being mayor? Do you get there? Like you get like you go to restaurants in town and you're like, okay. And they're like, oh, we've got your table right over here. Well, it's more like, um, it's more like you go to the local grocery store and everybody's like, aren't you the mayor, and then they're requesting certain things we need that stoplight on such and such a road. You know, we're not cleaning the streets enough. That's more like uh, kind of the mayor of a town where you have an opportunity to be, you know, where folks can actually recognize you and also have access. So, I mean the thing about being a mayor in public space is, um, you have to appreciate and understand that not everybody is going to, it's going to approve of all the decisions that need to be made in the city level. Uh, But the whole thing is about being fair and balanced and you know, and that's been the hallmark of any type of leadership opportunities and responsibilities I've had in my lifetime is how do we bring fair and balanced approach everything that we need to have discourse around? But yeah, I don't think there's any mayor, mayor's only parking mayors only seating. Yeah, none of that. Uh Well, well mayors only podcast. Mayors only podcast. Got it. Um Mhm. What what are some uh have you had interactions with previous mayors or other mayors or you talk to dialogue with them? And actually, you know, I used to be the executive director for East Metro Economic Alliance, which is a combination of the four cities that we're sitting right now in Fairview. Um So there's Fairview, the city aggression, this Troutdale, this would village. So all four of those mayors used to actually sit on my board at these metro economic lines. So I worked with all four of them historically as we dealt with economic advocacy here on the east side of Portland of the, well, the multnomah County area. So yeah, no, I've, I've worked very closely with many of the mayors that have existed here in East County over the years, uh, to be able to move stuff forward in a way that's effective and appropriate. So yes, I've been able to work in a number of mayors. So you guys like after these meetings or whatever, do you like have the like go out for a drink, have a chat about what is that? Like? What are the things that mayors get hit with? I mean, besides like traffic lights, like what are the most ridiculous things that you heard the mayor gets hit with? Well, I mean one of the, one of the funniest kind of things that I know that we had to deal with an impression was the question of chickens in the backyard? Yes, chickens in the backyard. It was a serious subject. Um, we had numerous council meetings to discuss chicken in the backyard. Um, I can tell you that in my many years of leading helping lead try match. That's a question that I never had to deal with chickens in the backyard. Nobody's asking if they can ride the max. Well, we did have a llama. We did have a llama that road on the max one time. True, real llama was on the max. Do in that situation. You just let it happen and be like, all right, we got to put up a policy no longer. That's kind of what happened. No longer. You're not no llamas. And I, is that why I see the signs of the llama? It's circle and it is and, and, and it's, you know, and sometimes, I mean it is, it is fun to interact with Republican waste, uh, that we all have fun and enjoyment. But yeah, if we open it up to one mama, we'd have to open up to all mama, alpacas and then goats and horses. And as you can probably imagine before, you know, your animals are in there. Yeah, yeah. We would be overrun with the animals and the max, right? And then they'll start demanding, hey, I don't know. Is that what outback is? I don't think so. I think, um, I'm not quite sure, but you don't have to be an extra enough to be a mayor. I don't know. I don't think you do. So what, what is, so let's speak about Grecian specifically because this is the home of sketch comedy podcast show. No one cares about that. But I listen to, um and what are the big like, what's the big things for you? Like what are you most excited about either improving, fixing continuing things of that nature? So, you know, there's a couple of things. Of course. I mean, we've got to lean into the social justice conversation. You know, I was just speaking with the police officer this morning, uh from another city, neighboring cities police force and just listening, just listening to some of the things. And even he said, he said, you know what? There are changes, there are improvements we need to make in our law enforcement. He goes, yeah, there are there are some some systemic some systemic things have been going on systemic biases that we need to address. So I'm looking forward to leaning into that conversation for the betterment. You know, I don't believe in abolishing the police or de funding, but based on, you know, kind of that conversation, what we've seen. Yeah, we do have some improvements that we need to lean into. So I'm I'm excited about some of these social changes, social justice changes because it's well overdue and long overdue. So we're in a we're in a new space. It's it's just it's it's invigorating that we are here where this conversation actually is getting, it's a new air time. So, uh, so that's exciting, um frustrating that it's taken this long but exciting that we now are on the cusp of I think will change. So that's one thing. We were gonna have some budget challenges based on Covid and the issues that have arisen because of the covid situation, the reduction in revenues, our business income tax is going to come down. Various other things are going to be impacted. So those are going to cost and challenges within our budget. How do we creatively address those? How do we do utilize civic engagement to understand what's going to be the best path forward? So I'm excited about that. I'm excited about ensuring that we are contacting connected with folks civically to get their thoughts and ideas. You know, I really want to continue to work hard on the economic development component and what I say is equitable economic development. How do we make sure that economic development now is shared by all so that everybody has an opportunity to start grow and prosper in their own businesses they want? You know, how do we make sure we can tear down various historical periods, apply? Some could have access to business creation and economic development others. And so how do we make sure those barriers no longer exist? Uh, you know, think about the store garage storefront program, which I, which I believe has been very successful. You know, I know of a business that just restaurant business that just launched our food services that just launched in the heart of covid. So new businesses are really small businesses are the lifeblood of our community, 90 plus percent of business, the small business. And so we have to encourage, again, we have to encourage small businesses to start grow, employ our folks. And then, you know, how do we, how do we support that? So, I'm excited about continuing some of these programs, but also finding other other additional ways to encourage this to happen within our community. Um, education is something that truly passionate about if jimmy falls outside of a city's purview. So our school districts in Oregon or state based. Um, and so we I mean there's no direct control but we I mean I would love to understand how the city and the school district can work together to achieve the outcomes that allow for better access, you know more equitable access and then you know, really closing the achievement because the achievement gaps still exist. And how do we close the achievement by truly equitable funding across, you know, across our school districts to ensure everybody's got that equal opportunity. So those are some key things that yeah, it's really just like to talk about creating actual quality in this day and age. It's nutty to me uh as far as the social justice things you feel like um and do you feel like you're in a way? I feel personally, I feel like you are in a great position to be able to address this because unless I'm mistaken, you are african american. Yeah, Alright. Some people wonder and I have to go windsurfing question. I'm like yes, I'm african american. So I mean I think that that actually um that actually is really important component that you can have these conversations with the police chief that maybe 10 years ago, that might have been a taboo subject. I think it's pretty spectacular. You can have that conversation and they can speak frankly. Absolutely, yeah, we do have issues. Maybe it's time that we look at these things well. And the key thing store the key thing is is that as a black man in America, you know, you and I could argue all day long about whether or not systemic or systematic racism exists. I believe it does, I believe it does. So I'll say that, but you and I could just argue, not saying that you believe it doesn't, that's not the context, but we could argue about that old. I'm, you know, I'm not I'm not I'm not really interested in trying to convince you that it exists, but what I am, what I am more than happy to do is share with you my lived experience, and that's just my story, my lived experience and what I have experienced as a black man, you're in America to allow you to have a bit more understanding about how my life has been here. Um, and so I can bring that lived experience into leadership to help others kind of say, you know, usually you get into situations where it's there's a disconnect between what we're talking about and what someone has experienced. So the person is like, well, you know, it sounds kind of like it, but I know I saw it on television or I read it in the newspaper, but when someone, you know, expresses their just their lived experience, it's powerful. It's absolutely powerful. We hope say, well, that that happened to you, I'm like, yeah, it happened to me, it just becomes more real and it opens up the door to a real conversation that you historically would not have been able to have. And I can I honestly say, I think a lot of the stuff that's going on right now is causing the conversation to become way more in the forefront of what we're doing and what we're talking about on a daily basis than it ever has my in my lifetime. It's same. I don't know how old you are, I assume we're roughly about the same age, but this is the first time that uh people have actually been more open talking about it. I mean, we just we just saw a football team changed its name, very controversial. I think it's the right move. I think absolutely what types of things we need to be doing. Absolutely. And I know this sounds odd, but I've got my own story along those lines, Obviously it was not me specifically. That's my very good for my best friend in high school. Um You want to share one of those stories? Do you have a story that you can think of that? Absolutely. Um, you know, I recently, speaking of the sleeping in Seattle, I recently moved into a floating house, I bought a floating house and uh, this is here aggression. Uh, you know, just, you know, it's here impression. So people tend to think, well, no, our town doesn't suffer from anything like this. Well, I lived in my house for about three weeks and I was essentially walking to um the ramp to get ready to go up to the ramp because I've just gotten done more working on my house with a couple of friends of mine who both were african americans and we were doing electrical, their electric, Thank God you were not wearing hoodies. Well, the store actually, we weren't wearing hoodies, but still we are all three of us. We walk into the edge of the rim to get ready to go up, we're standing there talking and a husband and wife come walking down the ramp. They walked right up to us, look at me and say, what are you doing here? Yeah, And at first this is, this is not even a year ago, so this isn't, this isn't 1975 1970 and this is 2019 and it caught me off your because I just, I've been in the community for about three weeks and I thought people knew me. And so he looks us all three up and down and says, oh, you're working here. And I looked at him and I said, actually, I just bought a house here. I'm your new neighbor, which then he was all fluff office called flustered as he experienced. And you know, just just recounting the story. Just, you know, almost, you know, just wells up the emotion of tell you Stuart no matter what I've accomplished. I graduated top of my class in college, summa cum laude number one college graduate out of the business division to the degree, there's a plaque with my name on it at my college that I went to, went on to get my NBA graduated with honors. You know, people say if you work hard, which I've done my entire life, you stay out of trouble, you'll get the respect you deserve in that moment. Nothing else mattered except for the color of my skin. He had no other way to evaluate whether I shouldn't have been there or I should have been there, but the color of my skin. Um and that's, I mean that's brutal at the end of the day, i it's just exhausting and tiring to exist in a country where we are constantly told and reminded that because of the color of our skin, we're going to evaluate you were gonna judge you based on that external type of marker that exists. Nothing else. Mhm. And so that's the that's the challenge. I mean, that's the challenge. There's been numerous stories, numerous stories of experiences that I've had, but that was just recently. That was that was literally it's just last year later in 2019 and it's just I mean it just just precious your resolve when this happens so often. Did you uh have you had dinner with him? Not yet. But he did say that he wants that dinner with hang out. It's like, I don't know if you ever saw blazing saddles bring that high, but at night. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I know. I know the connotations. Yes. All right, Well, I appreciate you sharing that. I think that those stories all need to be shared because there's a lot of people that look like me that I think that all that stuff has gone away and went away in the 60s. It didn't it's still there. I am very much just to be clear, uh, institutionalized racism definitely exists. And I think it's getting those stories out is super important. So thank you for that. Thank you for your time going forward because now it is time to record a sketch mm

[00:33:24] spk_1: since the election is next week. It's probably too late to register. Although please check your local state rules on that. Some of them are election Day registration, so you can still get out there. However, if you have registered, please make sure to get out and vote and hopefully hearing about Travis and listening to the type of person that's probably running in your local market as well. You get to an idea of how dynamic and how great your local leadership can and hopefully will be Travis. Can you do me a favor and just give us a rundown of all of the different ways people can come and see and learn more about you and what you do,

[00:34:08] spk_0: brush them together dot org. We're all about bringing aggression together. We want we have a major role in Grecians, nonpartisan. And so we're all about making sure that we can all work together to create a better future. Um, and so that's what we're passionate about over on the C b i world were at the ref dot com. So e r e p dot com. And again, if you want to take the c b I, it's what's my CV I dot com. That's my charlie victor, India dot com. So those are the two places you can find us. Uh, if you want to reach us by email, just info at the rep dot com. Again, info at the rep dot com.

[00:34:42] spk_1: Outstanding. And for all of you at home, please head to what's my C V I dot com and take that five minute test it is eye opening. And now our sketch pets to the max with Travis Stovall in three

[00:35:04] spk_0: two from the max stranger in Portland Oregon. We're coming to you live channel 41 today we are actually here looking at how busy the max trains are. There's a massive looks like a massive movement of people that are traveling across the city and we are shoulder to shoulder into the max. So I am going to actually try and stay on the MAC, see when the doors opened, the doors closed, how many people are in on and off. So we have a, we're understanding, we, we believe that trim it needs to increase the number of trains that are going in and out of downtown because of how packed the max streams truly are. Excuse me. Excuse me. Yes, sir, whoa, what is that you have there? I mean, I don't quite know what kind of animal that is. It's a pygmy goat. Pygmy goes, it looks a little large to be a pygmy goat, but frankly, I didn't know animals were allowed on the max. Well, they're people too, aren't they? Pygmy goats are? Take me Well, I'm not quite sure. Pygmy goats are actually people. Well, it is to me, excuse me. Well, there you have it folks, even though the max trains are incredibly cool, we are now actually not just here. Well, I was getting ready to say we're not here with just people, but then again, to some people, pygmy goats are people too, excuse me, excuse me, sorry, ma'am, excuse me, wow, excuse me, wow. And we just had a pygmy goat. Come on folks. And now we have yet another person who has joined us with another animal, but that's actually about 12. Uh, these are all my chickens. I'm just taking him downtown for a nice walk in the park. So we are, are we on tv right now? We are, we are, I am channel 41 I'm news reporter traps hobo. I'm not familiar. Well, I'm actually incredibly famous. Uh, you're in the boston area. I'm a news reporter, so everybody knows investigative, but today I'm just doing a little bit of reporting on the max and out pull the max is, and I see you, you have actually just made the max significantly pull with your 12 chickens. Yes, I just need people to get up out of their seats and let my chicken sit. They need to sit and they might lay an egg. Just watch where you're stepping, Wow. Um, not only is the massacre really cool, but we are still dealing with folks coming on with various forms of ales. Uh, 12 chickens. I am not quite sure what the number of folks that are sitting here. If all those chickens are going to make it back off, Excuse me. Oh, sir. Excuse me. I wo what is? What is that? This? Yes, it's a uh, it's a pygmy moose. I didn't know moose could feed hit me. They're still not very small when they're pregnant. Just go ahead and sit down dirt. You, are you sure that's a big news? Because that looks is pretty large. Oh, I, I just try to make it, uh, found smaller by calendar. Take me, I don't want people to think I'm taking up too much space and max here. Got it, got it. Because to me that this looks very large. Get get your hat off the fan. That's well, I think it's probably good, efficient use of the antler. Uh, if the person just puts her hat on there to hold it while we have a pygmy moose on the match. All right. Are you taking pictures of the moose? Of course we are, sir. Because how often do we have a big me moose on mass trend? Just twice a week? All you write it more than once? Wow. Well, folks, like I said, we're going again and the max stream continues to get more and more cool, based on more and more people bringing their animals, their pygmy goats, chickens. And now they're pygmy moves. We've got just a couple more stops before we get to downtown and, and we step off, but we hope that we won't see too many more animals getting away. They're pygmy goat is people too Alright? Excuse me? Excuse me. Oh, well, sir. Good afternoon. Yeah. Don't look at my jar. And what do you what do you what do you have in the jar? It's my don't tell anybody. It's my pet. And what kind of pet do you have, Have you heard of? Murder hornets. Thank

[00:39:56] spk_1: you so much. Again for joining us at sketch comedy podcast show Travis and I had a blast putting this together and we hope you enjoyed it as well. Sketch comedy podcast show is recorded under a creative commons, non attribution. No derivatives for international license, which probably means nothing to you, but it means the world to us and our words. If you would like to reproduce this in any way, please contact sketch comedy podcast show at gmail dot com To request permission. I designed this show to be a voice for myself. This is how I get my voice out. Not everybody gets that choice. However, if you have registered to vote, you have a method to let your voice be heard. Please do not neglect. You've got one week left. Get out there! Get your voice heard by voting. Please go vote. Thank you so much. I'm excited about the next episode. I'm gonna be sharing with you. It's my chat with a world dominating introvert. See you next episode.