David Boye interviews Andrew “Bear” Barinowski, Project Manager with Malmquist Construction, on how he is making it work in Montana and what led to his move to Whitefish.

Bear has spent 20 years in Montana, and he is everyone’s friend! He truly explored the world and settled in Whitefish, MT. Bear was recently featured on the highest viewed HGTV Dreamhome giveaway, with a slopeside ski area home built by Malmquist Construction. Bear is a man of the community that has “made it work in Montana” … stay tuned for the 2nd segment where Bear explains his “counter cultural” view of today’s social media. Bear is one of the most honest and genuine people that I have ever met!

After listening to this podcast episode, check out this quick interview Bear did talking about that HGTV Dreamhome in Whitefish, MT on (video shared from the KBXK channel 7 Montana News website)

And see more of Bear and the Malmquist Construction team at http://malmquist.com/

and follow them on Facebook here 

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Transcribed here: You are listening to another episode of the podcast, Making It Work in Montana. My name is David Boye and I’m your host. I own
Black Diamond Mortgage and White Whitefish, Montana. And I’ve been living in Montana since 1996.
[00:00:18] And over the years, I’ve met many people that have made it work in Montana in the areas of community life, the outdoors and in
business.
[00:00:31] And today I have with me somebody who most people consider him to be their friend, who is known all about the Flathead Valley.
He’s a community influencer, for sure. And you may have seen him recently on the HGTV Dream Home episode, which had one
hundred and thirty five million entries to win a free home built on the on the slopes of Big Mountain. It was the most watched TV
show for New Year’s ever. And a multi-million dollar home was given away that was constructed in just six months. And Bear was
on that TV show. Bear is our guest.
[00:01:11] Andrew Barinowski. Welcome. It’s great to have you. Yeah. Dave, thanks. I’m super psyched to be here with you.
[00:01:17] Now, I’ve known you for a long time. We met and about 2000.
[00:01:22] And I wanted to have you on because when I was creating the podcast, making it work in Montana, I immediately went through my
network of people that are doing great now that they’ve been living in Montana.
[00:01:35] And you’re one of the guys that rises to the top of that list of people that have made a great life for themself in Montana. So it’s
great to have you. Yeah. Thanks, Dave.
[00:01:43] A lot of people may know you, for example, they may have met you through Malmquist construction or they may have met you, you
know, living here in Whitefish, but you didn’t always live near Whitefish. So maybe if you could, just introduce yourself to this
audience. What happened bringing you the Whitefish, Montana?
[00:02:04] Well, I grew up in North Carolina and a little town called Banner Elk, which is sort of in that northwestern corner where it meets
Virginia and Tennessee. And I had a great household. And I think, you know, that that’s the one thing I would probably go back to, is
my parents gave me an enormous amount of confidence. You know, compared to the way I looked, the way I acted, how smart I was
or how athletic, they just instilled a lot of confidence in.
[00:02:32] My father was a career Air Force guy that went off and became an entrepreneur. And he if I said, dad, you know, I want to be a
professional race car driver, we would kind of playing out like, hey, here’s here’s how you get there.
[00:02:45] Here are the things you do.
[00:02:48] Every year at New Years we would write down our goals, whether it was, you know, emotional, physical, spiritual. All these other
things, we would write this out.
[00:02:56] And then the next year, we would come back and read those. And I think that had a lot to do with focusing me. And one of the things
that I’ll say, I sort of negotiated with my father.
[00:03:09] My brother was a he was a 3.9 A student in college. And he was a dual sport. He was an all-American athlete. He went on after that
when in the military he taught at West Point, got his masters, excelled at school. And I distinctly remember coming home after my
first semester of college and showing my dad my report card.
[00:03:30] And I was so excited to have straight C’s like I was I guess I didn’t get a single D.
[00:03:36] And my father kind of pulls me aside and said, you know, I just want, you know, here’s what your brother’s been doing. So, you know,
academically, I don’t think school was the best environment for me, but it was a great place to learn. And I think I was sort of myopic
in that I looked at North Carolina and the high country and thought, I can kayak here, I can bike here, I can sort of ski here. And it
was kind of utopia for me. But once I went to college, I experienced a lot of other people in a lot of other places that really opened
my eyes, I think, to the world beyond. So I think that had a lot of those formative years were really strengthening and having a solid
family and knowing still to this day, if, you know, my dog died, my house burned down, my car blew up like that. Everything went
south. I feel like I had a foundation that I could go back to and a support network there. So that’s probably, I’d say, the most
formative thing that happened. But after college, I moved to Austria and I lived there for three years just outside of Vienna and
really met a lot of great people.
[00:04:45] I went to a kind of a local church, got involved comically in a folk stands group and just met all kinds of people. And I saw how their
relationships really differed. There was a guy in this folk stands group who was trashman. Lots of folks stand. It’s like I guess like, I
guess you call. Square dancing or clogging like traditional Austrian?
[00:05:07] And the thing that happened is, as I would do my German homework in this park every Wednesday. And these guys would dance
and I would just kind of watching in the background. And then about two months into it, this girl grabbed me and she said, You’re
dancing with us. And I said, you know, I really can’t speak German. She said, We’ll teach you. And she said, the bars the best place to
learn German anyway. And so but these guys ended up being great friends. And I think the interesting thing was, as I was saying, is
this garbage man and this mayor or son, we’re both friends in in some of the first conversations, they would say, hey, well, how much
money do you make and what do you do with your money? What are your investments? What are your taxes? And they would ask
these questions that were stereotypically questions that we don’t ever ask. But a lot of their relationships were socio economically
based in that, you know, the lowest level guy, the guy with no money and one of the richest kids in town work. We’re buddies. And
that always impressed me. And I think another thing that impressed me as I think back about it now is whenever you said goodbye
to somebody or this group of people, you’re never like, hey, I’m out of here. See you. They would go around and look everybody in
the eye and say, hey, goodbye.
[00:06:19] It was nice being around you. And they would, you know, walk around this table of 20 people. And I’ve thought about it really till
now. But that had a pretty deep impact on me as far as recognizing who each individual is and their and their worth. So I lived in
Austria for three years and then I came back to the states and I was kind of not a transient lifestyle, but I was guiding in North
Carolina rock climbing, kayaking, canoeing, rafting. And then I was spending my winters in Breckenridge and I was driving.
[00:06:53] I was part of a race crew for the first year, which really wasn’t that much fun. It looked glamorous from the outside, but it wasn’t.
And I saw these guys driving around on Snowcat and I thought, man, that makes a lot of sense. Every day is free and you’re not
going out at night.
[00:07:09] You know, it can alternately be used as a dating machine, kind of like taking a date to the laundromat. Did you ever take a date up in
a snowcat?
[00:07:16] That’s how I met my wife. Well, not how I met her
[00:07:19] But that was our first official date. You played that card. Of course. Yeah, but it was great. So we.
[00:07:26] So I did that for about five years between the two. And then my wife and I, well She wasn’t my wife the, Lynn.
[00:07:33] I met Lynn there in Breckenridge and we decided to spend a summer hiking the Appalachian Trail.
[00:07:40] So it’s two thousand one hundred and fifty five miles. And we did it in about four and a half months, which averages right around 20
miles a day or so. And it was an incredible experience being so close, you know, being 50 feet within beside somebody for, you
know, four and a half months. And we weren’t married yet. We’re engaged in the first half of the trail. We just argued not all the
time, but it we decided, hey, we’re gonna finish this trail together.
[00:08:07] But after that, we’re done. And then when we hit Pennsylvania, it it wasn’t, you know, bliss all the time.
[00:08:17] But we really started, I think, having a lot more fun and being open to who the other person was, because my wife is in amazingly
detailed, like she would write journals and she would say, OK, here’s when we’re gonna get water and here’s how much we’re gonna
do and then here’s where we’re gonna buy food. And I was just kind of a pack mule the roar along for the ride. So she was the
planner and organizer.
[00:08:39] And, you know, I instead of that annoying me, I realized the benefits and appreciated it. And, you know, we kind of fell in love all
over again, came back to Breckenridge for the winter and then got married that summer.
[00:08:54] And then that summer we ended up we ended up leaving and moving to Sicily and working with a group called Young Life There for
about three years, which was a fantastic experience. How old were you at this point? Oh, gosh, I got married when I was 30. Okay.
So. Yeah. So right then and there. And then we we came back from Sicily. My wife, she was mathematics and computer science. And
she decided that she wanted to have more of a helpful role in people’s lives and became we were on a service project in Romania.
[00:09:28] And it kind of changed her life. I think seeing tennis street kids and sort of the grim and dire circumstances that a lot of people live
in.
[00:09:38] And so she came back and had to do a lot of hours just to apply to go to PA school. And so she got accepted with amazing. The odds
were against her in every way. And she got accepted to PA school at Duke. So she got her master’s of social health science.
[00:09:56] And then at that point, we ended up right after she graduated, we moved to
[00:10:03] Afghanistan with a group called Samaritan’s Purse, now Afghanistan.
[00:10:07] What year was that? Dave, I cant tell you what it was.
[00:10:11] was it after we invaded? It was way after. And I think that makes a big difference.
[00:10:15] I think the main thing I forgot to say is we. Sorry. Jump in back is. Before she went to school, as we did a bike trip, pedal bikes and
we we flew out to go see some friends in Portland.
[00:10:28] And her brother lived there. And we rode around Portland for a little bit. And then we went to the San Juan Islands and rode around
there. And then we went to Vancouver and then got up to Jasper and then rode the Ice Fields Parkway down. And we came through
whitefish and we both thought, oh, my gosh, it’s it’s a ski town. But it’s not just it’s a town that has a ski resort. It’s not just a ski
town. It’s not just a tourist town. It has other economic bases. It’s got an airport close by. It’s got water. It’s got a national park close
to the Canadian Rockies. It has a substantial town near it. If anything went south medically that you could access pretty easily and it
kind of checked all the boxes.
[00:11:09] So that’s when you found out that a lot of people do that. Montana is not just people ride around on horses and there’s actually like
a cool place in Montana that you could live.
[00:11:19] Oh, yeah. You know, we were so drawn to ski towns like we knew we wanted to live in a town that had a ski resort. So, yeah, but I
think, you know, a town that was at the time, probably 5000 that had a substantial community when we were in Breckenridge, I felt
like you didn’t see, you know, grandkids and grandparents.
[00:11:41] I mean, it was that twenty five to thirty five year old male demographic that was, you know, just hitting it hard. And I thought this
seemed like a really different town. It seemed like a community.
[00:11:52] So you get a glimpse of what life this Montana was like. I do want to hear a little bit about Afghanistan. So you’re Afghan. So what
are you doing there?
[00:12:00] Well, I’m drilling wells. We did twelve hundred houses a year with hand tools.
[00:12:07] We’d get beams out of Russia and guys would draw pencil line down. And they’d saw down it. And so we were they were making
their bricks for their buildings. But we were providing windows and doors and rafters.
[00:12:20] So were you there in the rebuilding after the war?
[00:12:23] Yeah. And you know, those were some of the most. Those are probably the kindest, most generous people I’ve ever been around in
my life.
[00:12:31] As far as the things they would give you. And just to show appreciation. And the fathers wanted schools for their kids. They want to
close on their kids back. They wanted shelter and they wanted food. And they it. They didn’t have all these needs. And the Taliban
was really brutal to them. I mean, they ended up you know, you couldn’t have a picture of yourself on the wall. Your kids couldn’t fly
a kite. So, you know, they they came through and tore all the power lines down, any infrastructure they had. So they were very they
were just really kind sort of desperate people. But we you know, the hugest impact we have is we’d go to a community and say, we
talk to the leaders and say, hey, we can build ten houses here this year.
[00:13:10] Who do you want them for? And so it was beautiful that it everybody bought into it. You know, they everybody had ownership. It
wasn’t sort of, you know, coming in from the ivory tower and saying, here’s what we’re gonna do and here’s who we’re giving it to.
And you have to accept that or you don’t get it.
[00:13:24] So and even, you know, we gave away an enormous amount of just like Christmas gifts, small things in a community.
[00:13:33] They made a big difference if you care for people’s kids. They you know, they kind of care for you. And we also drove well, as I went
down to the very bottom, I think was like a hundred and thirty or a hundred and sixty foot hand-dug well started out as six feet.
[00:13:48] No shoring whatsoever. They had written in Cyrillic all the way down and narrow down about three feet because in the middle of
this town.
[00:13:54] So that was I think, you know, my wife said that water changes the community. Clean water makes all the difference. You know, we
saw people in towns drinking out of troughs that animals were drinking out of. And so. Yeah.
[00:14:10] So Afghanistan, then you got to tour and he’s got a glimpse of whitefish. When did you make the move? The white fish. Like, how
did that happen?
[00:14:18] Well, when we came back from Afghanistan, I grew up, as I said, in this small town called Banner Elk, North Carolina. And we had a
family Christmas tree farm. My father was into real estate and rental properties and I had a small building business where we were
building homes. And we kind of packed up the farm and said, we’re done with the east. We’re moving west. And we didn’t have any
any prior relationships to Whitefish, didn’t know anybody. We knew some people who had driven through and we showed up in
town.
[00:14:51] We had a nightly rental at a place until we could find like a monthly rental. And then we had the U-Haul for, like, I don’t know, an
extra four days or five days and just had bare essentials and. Moved into this monthly rental, and so and in that time we ended up
looking for a house in town that we found one and made brownies and wrote a note and sold it to us, but we just bought directly
from the seller.
[00:15:20] Oh yeah. Well, no, we actually used a real estate agent, which worked out great. OK. But you found it, though.
[00:15:25] Yeah. And so what we ended up doing is during that time for the summer, we didn’t have we weren’t desperate to make money. So I
ended up working for a lot of people for free in the valley. And I worked. I really enjoyed building. As I said, I worked in North
Carolina and that and I did some in Austria when I lived there and a little bit in Italy. And so I ended up working for a bunch of people
for free for probably two months or so. Id come and Say, Hey, do you want me to you know, I can do takeoffs, I can run materials, I
can, you know, put on my toolbag, whatever you want to do. You don’t have to pay me, but I just want to see who you are. And we
were in a building boom, so I knew I would have options.
[00:16:06] So this is pretty cool. So were you consciously thinking that if you did some work for free for people, that later you were going to
look for a job for these people, but you were trying them out? As potential employers or potential business partners or.
[00:16:21] Oh, I guess I was interviewing them is what I felt like in that I wanted to see what the crew said about them behind their back, how
they ran things and, you know, how it was just the ebb and flow of their daily business, see if they were respected. And part of that,
put together a spreadsheet. Have I said I love spreadsheets?
[00:16:41] No, that’s a great idea. You know, your story is is is feels completely unique to you.
[00:16:47] But actually, Jen and I moved to under similar terms where we had a spreadsheet and we showed up. We didn’t know anybody.
[00:16:54] And we were checking boxes and we were figuring things out.
[00:16:56] So I get a kick out of how many people do that and don’t realize that a lot of people are doing that.
[00:17:03] Yeah, but a great way to do it.
[00:17:05] You know, like the things I mentioned before. But I had you know, one of the things was if I stop in this town, like to try and cross a
road at no crossing. Does traffic stop? Are people friendly? Do they wave at you? You know, I had a lot of these sort of, I guess,
esoteric things in there, too. But part of my job spreadsheet, not my moving here spreadsheet was yet, you know, what do people
say at the bar about this company and what is the equipment rental say, you know, and what does the building supply say? And, you
know, asking the equipment around here, are these guys, do they pay their bills on time? You know, when I’d narrowed it down to
five people and then I said, hey. Who’s paying their bills on time? You know, who’s asking for a deal? And so, you know, there’s a
breakfast spot in town and there’s a, you know, kind of a nightlife spot in town. And so I would go by and talk to working class guys
to kind of get a broader view of who these people were. So and the thing is, one of the reasons that I ended up working with
Malmquist Construction, when Casey was there, is one of his tenants was I don’t ever want you to be here just to show face time.
Like, I don’t want you in the office to be in the office if your jobs are going well, I want you to be out playing. if you can do your job in
20 hours. Great. I don’t think you can.
[00:18:23] But if you can, like, I want you to be with your family in a way and have fun. I want you to experience Montana.
[00:18:30] And that was very different than a lot of the other guys, which which would be evidenced by the fact that now I mean, how many a
year. I know that the path was a completely linear, but you’d been related there had been somehow working with Malmquist for
what, like 18 years now.
[00:18:48] Close. Yeah, it’ll be that’ll be 17. Yeah.
[00:18:51] And and as I’ve noticed, just living here in the community, I mean I mean success is just going awesome at Malmquist right now. You
know, like you guys are doing very well.
[00:19:02] Yeah, I think so. And I think it’s gonna sound corny. You can laugh at me after this, but it’s the it’s the products that we’re producing.
It’s the people that work there and the people that we work with. And there’s the processes that we have, I feel like.
[00:19:18] And I coin those three piece every piece. Yeah. But that’s the you know, I think that’s it.
[00:19:25] And we make mistakes. Wonderful mistakes. But I think it’s owning up to the mistakes and saying, hey, here’s where we went wrong.
Here are three ways to fix it. How would you like us to do that? I think it’s I think having a accountability with people and having a
similar character with the people that you work with and, you know, beliefs in these things, I think really makes a difference.
[00:19:50] You know, I’ve had people I worked with say, hey, you didn’t mean that. Like, why did you say that? And it’s like a right. I really
shouldn’t have said that because I didn’t mean that. And it’s pretty superficial.
[00:20:00] So now I think your job kind of gets into why you plug well in the community. So real quick, what’s your job title I project? Court
jester. Court jester. Well, I think that’s a good drag. A project manager, OK. Yeah. So real quick, like what’s what’s kind of the day to
day operation of the project manager?
[00:20:21] I have a vision in my head and maybe just explain like somebody is building a five million dollar house and it’s high quality.
[00:20:29] There is a lot of different people involved. What’s your job?
[00:20:32] Well, you know, if lenders say, hey, what’s your what’s your what’s your day look like? I have a concept of what it looks like to know
some things that I have to do, but I can never predict what it’s going to be.
[00:20:43] And I think as a company, we really like working on difficult projects, you know, complex projects that are on the lake that you have
to work your way out of or up on the mountain.
[00:20:53] You guys did a nice high value treehouse. Yeah, yeah. We did three tree houses there. The Snow Bear ski chalets that are amazing
there, right beside the slope and there these tree houses.
[00:21:05] And we’ve never done anything like it. And they’ve I think the only project we ever worked on that’s been in Architectural Digest and
in Reader’s Digest.
[00:21:16] So what’s the hardest part of your job?
[00:21:23] Well, I could probably tell you the things that I don’t excel at.
[00:21:26] But it’s I think it’s the amount of time I’m on the phone or messaging or.
[00:21:33] Yeah. I told you. For you because you’d rather be yelling directly face to face. Yeah.
[00:21:39] You know, I had I think ninety six phone calls on Wednesday and that’s OK. And I always feel like it’s better dealing with it at
immediate. Instead of pushing it down the road or waiting there.
[00:21:51] I think the hard thing is as we’re always building prototypes where you have this what this wealth of not hopefully this will help the
knowledge, you know, this base of knowledge.
[00:22:00] And yet you’ve asked us, hey, I want to build a truck, but I want to use like a Ford axle. Now I use a GMC motor and I want to use
these Dodge seats. And, you know, I want to have, you know, a Tesla hood.
[00:22:11] So we’re always putting parts and pieces together of things we’ve done before, but we’re never doing the exact same thing. So I
think that’s the challenge of it. But I think two is from what I’ve noticed, if you’re not fully engaged with things, then some it’s not as
enjoyable, it’s not as much fun.
[00:22:31] And you’re just you’re not doing as good a job.
[00:22:32] If there’s some I think as you probably see in your business, like raw enthusiasm for mortgages, you know, like if you have raw
enthusiasm, it’s going to show and people are going to know it and you’re gonna be engaged and it makes a difference to people.
[00:22:48] I really enjoy the sales aspect of our job. I enjoy the day to day stuff. And I think the thing I’ll say about Montana is we don’t have a
transient labor force. You know, our our subcontractors are amazing men. And, you know, our electricians see, he might see 30
houses in a year and I only see three or four. And you know, what he brings to the table is accountability for me. And also, hey, well,
we’ve done this before and the plumbers have done this and it’s worked together really well. What do you think about that? And I
think what I’ve seen is these guys have been on project a project, and they’re very accountable with their their their numbers will
shock people and make sure that we’re still getting really good bargains and really deals, but they’re fully invested.
[00:23:37] And I think that makes the biggest difference if people are having ownership. You know, if they’re part of this. Like that makes a
difference to people.
[00:23:45] So so Malmquist Construction’s got a great group of peoples that are saying culture is good, they’re everybody’s into the job. And so
they’re able to get excited about what they’re doing every day. You’re a part of that.
[00:23:58] One of the things I wanted to highlight about you today was your community involvement, because I’m not involved in construction,
but I know you really well and I feel like you spent a lot of time doing cool things together and like for the audience or the podcast.
[00:24:13] Like, I remember one time Bear sent me a text and it says we’re having a downhill and meet this time.
[00:24:22] And literally like 40 people show up on the summit of Big Mountain and they’re all different people from different walks of life. Like
when we’re not all hanging out on a regular basis and then we all ride our bikes down to Bear’s house. You have a great community
connection to a lot of people.
[00:24:40] What if you lived here about 20 years? What are some of the to put you on the spot? I guess what are some of the best community
interactions that you’ve got to be part of?
[00:24:49] Because I think your job and your life, you have so many different life experiences. Clearly, it plays into why you are well connected
in the community. What have you seen in this community in Montana? Whitefish, that you’ve been part of that. I’m impressed you
or things that you didn’t like that you’ve been a part of.
[00:25:08] Well, I think it’s it’s an intentional community where they’re trying to get change is inevitable here and it’s growing at a rapid rate.
But I think they’re trying to make that change go in the right direction.
[00:25:23] And I have an enormous amount of respect for, you know, people that are in public service here. And that goes from building
inspectors to our mayor to, you know, people that are positively trying to make a difference. And I think I might not agree with them
on all the policies.
[00:25:40] And but I think that their intentions are always right there. Their intentions are to see Whitefish as a, you know, a greater and bigger
community.
[00:25:49] And I really like, you know, the outdoor world and those things. I think our ski mountain is is fabulous. As far as I wouldn’t really. It’s
somewhere between Aspen and a mom and pop resort. But I think it’s hit a really sweet spot in that they’re part of the community
and more part of them.
[00:26:07] They appreciate us and we appreciate them. But, you know, the events they do are family oriented.
[00:26:14] And I think the amount of change in the past five years, these huge things that they’ve done have.
[00:26:22] Expanded the resort and made it viable, financially viable to our community in our town and to themselves, too.
[00:26:29] So, you know, as far as things that are happening in the community, it’s probably hard for me to pinpoint one or two things kind of,
you know, randomly thinking through. But I just think there’s a lot of great community action on a ground level of people doing small
things for people. You know what you’re doing with the Tires.
[00:26:52] I mean, that’s it’s a tangible, very simple thing that most people would overlook. And it’s a safety for a family. It provides a necessity
and it’s a great thing to do.
[00:27:03] Bear’s talking about there is Tires for a change. The Glacier Skate Academy, if you want to look it up on Facebook, is giving away
free tires to families in need. Thanks for mentioning that. And yeah, I think with what I heard you say that a little nugget of what
you’re describing there was you because I because I was trying to see.
[00:27:23] I’ve seen you many times involved in things where the community was kind of rallied around something.
[00:27:30] And I feel like you’re one of those guys who can look over to the different sides of the aisle, say, I know this guy’s got a good
perspective and they care about Whitefish.
[00:27:39] And you can give him that assurance that people can talk together and get get somewhere with a goal. I’ve seen you do it before. I
think it comes probably from your job, too, because in the construction management, you essentially do have all those things going
on all the time.
[00:27:53] A lot of people with a lot of other things going on, all trying to work together for a common goal. That one house you guys worked
on the the six month, multi-million dollar house.
[00:28:03] Was that crazy or was it? It was. It was.
[00:28:08] We had a pretty unique group of people getting involved in it. You know, Tyler did a bunch of the book work on it, a guy I work with
on Tyler and the scheduling.
[00:28:17] And it had national recognition, too, I think. And we knew that every day was we had five cameras on site and made a big TV camera.
He was filming all the progress. And it was it was I think I filmed about five hundred hours and they compressed it down to a forty
two minute TV show.
[00:28:36] But it was great recognition for us as a company that we finished on budget ahead of time and we had accolades from the network
and the people that worked there. And it was it was a great thing, but it was insane how many people were on the job at one time.
[00:28:53] It was a good thing not just building the house. It’s also a lot of people wanting to want to build a.
[00:28:58] Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So it was a fun. It was a good experience for us as a company, for sure.
[00:29:04] Well. Baer So I I’ve known you for about 20 years.
[00:29:08] And what I brought you on the show to just highlight an example of somebody who’s moved to Montana, made it work in Montana.
You’ve given us a lot of illustration of some of the things that you’ve gone through both before and during. I think a lotta nuggets for
people who are thinking about establishing himself some good ideas.
[00:29:30] But you’re you still have a long road ahead of you. So is there anything in the future for Bear that you’re like, oh, this is coming up or
is or something? What’s next for Bear? I mean, you’ve been doing a lot of great , I mean, Afghanistan, the great job. The wife.
[00:29:46] Yeah, you’ve got a kid growing up in Montana. So what do you what do you see coming up down the road? Anything.
[00:29:52] My son is he’s 14 now. And I think this might be my last year of coaching soccer as he gets into high school sport. But I think we’ll
always consider Whitefish our home.
[00:30:03] As far as a staging point, if it’s a springboard to some somewhere else, we’re not real sure. But I tell you, it the sounds hokey.
[00:30:12] But one thing I really like about Whitefish is I feel like I know people and I know and I feel like I love people and I’m loved.
[00:30:20] And that’s hard to give that up. You know, for a long term and ready to form that again.
[00:30:26] But in my opinion, there’s no place like Montana as far as the natural beauty we have the environment. There’s so many great things.
And economically, it’s really solid future.
[00:30:41] You know, I don’t know. I’ve got some some kind of hairbrained ideas. I’ve kind of got a wanderlust, but nowhere. We won’t be
moving anywhere until my son gets out of high school. But then we’ll be we’ll see.
[00:30:54] That makes total sense. I’m in the same boat. Well, Bear, it’s been a pleasure. You know, I’ve known you for 20 years, but just sitting
there for 30 minutes, I learned a few new things about you.
[00:31:04] So I hope people that already know you got a few nuggets of what makes Bear tick. And I appreciate it. Really. Joining for making it
work in Montana. If you have feedback for making it work in Montana, please share it on our Facebook page. We want to make this
something. You want to listen to on a periodic basis.
[00:31:24] And we also just want to see if you have a guest that you feel like would be a great example of somebody making it in Montana. Now
we want to highlight them, so reach out. Thank you for joining us.
[00:31:37] And we look forward to having you listen to us on the next episode of Making It Work in Montana. We’ll see you later.

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