Here are the transcripts from the podcast interview Matt Tompkins of Two Brothers Creative conducted with Mayor Jean Stothert. The title of this podcast is How To Get Shit Done.
Matt Tompkins: Hello and welcome back to the Omaha podcast, where Omaha’s most successful entrepreneurs help your business grow. I’m your host, Matt Tompkins of Two Brothers Creative. And on today’s episode, we’re going to learn how to get those big, hairy, audacious goals done. Yeah, we’re going to be joined by Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert, who, whether you love her or not, has gotten a lot of big projects done for the city of Omaha. Today, we actually go on the road to the newly developed Gene Leahy Mall to find out exactly how leaders get shit done. We are down here live on location at Gene Leahy Mall, the newly renovated Gene Leahy Mall. And we’re here because not just because it turned out amazing. It’s beautiful, but we want to learn how a massive undertaking like this actually happened, how it came to be. And probably at the top of that list is a good leader, a leadership. And so joining us is the leader of our entire city, as well as the Leahy project here. Mayor Jean Stothert, thanks for being with us here on location.
Mayor Jean Stothert: Thanks for having me. It’s been a while.
Matt Tompkins: I’ve been trying to get a date with you in the park for I don’t know how many years. And I learned I have to go through your office and make it an official request.
Mayor Jean Stothert: A lot of people want dates with me. You know how that is?
Matt Tompkins: Not any more. Yeah, I mean, yeah. Congratulations. You’re. Yeah, you’re married.
Mayor Jean Stothert: I am. I am. And he’s pretty awesome. So you’ll have to meet him.
Matt Tompkins: Yeah, well, I.
Mayor Jean Stothert: Mean, he’s been to Omaha. He still lives on the East Coast. We’re working on selling his house so he could move here. But he loves Omaha, originally from Saint Louis like I am. And but every time he comes here, he loves it. And so he can’t wait to move here.
Matt Tompkins: So I’m glad it’s a it’s a great city for a long list of reasons. And, you know, this podcast is all about the the local business community and helping entrepreneurs thrive find success. And that’s one thing I’ve really loved in working with Joe and Chris on this podcast is there’s so many just incredible stories. Yes. From from people who just it starts with like a great idea, you know, it starts with just one idea from one person. And then it turns into this manifestation that you see here at the park that is just incredible. And so, I mean, take us back to the very beginning of the LA Mall project. Right. And I mean, it started with that inception. Right. And what what did the leadership look like to get this ball moving on your end?
Mayor Jean Stothert: Right on my you mean this renovation here because boy I could go back to the 1960s in the 1970s talking about downtown. And, you know, I’ll just mention it for a few minutes because it is important because in I’ll go back to 1960, we had right under 50,000 jobs downtown Omaha in 1960. And guess what happened? Crossroads open. So here’s a great big shopping center five miles west of here. And literally people moved out of downtown. The businesses moved out, the residents moved out, the restaurants moved out in downtown Omaha, started to die. And then it was in the seventies is when the leadership at that time, the mayor, the business community, it was a downtown rotary. They got together and they thought, we have got to revitalize downtown. We’ve got to get people in jobs back downtown. And we need to connect downtown with our most important geographic feature, which is the Mississippi River. So here comes the original. It was called Central Park Plaza, but the original Jean Lahey Mall, it was built in the seventies. In the mid seventies, there was a grant from HUD and the business community got together, business and philanthropic community.
Mayor Jean Stothert: And here the Jean Lahey Mall was built. And after that there was under there was about 30 buildings that were rehabbed and redeveloped. There was new buildings. People moved back down to downtown. So what we are seeing is kind of a repeat of that history repeats itself. And when I ran for mayor the first time in 2012 and 2013, I made it my goal that we were going to do something on Lewis and Clark Landing. You know, there were several failed restaurants down there that would bring people down to the landing all the time. And we started talking about that right after I was elected in 2014. I was elected in 2013. We started talking about it and started talking about what could we do in the downtown area like that happened, you know, in the seventies. And that’s how it really all started. So like every big project in Omaha, I try to really engage the stakeholders, the business community and the philanthropic community, and that’s kind of how it started.
Matt Tompkins: And that’s it’s that’s one aspect that I know myself and a lot of people appreciate about this renovation is that it is very inclusive to local businesses and the local business community here. Right. So you mentioned like some of the past mayors, what are some of the skills? Because this is a commitment and it’s a eight, nine year relentless pursuit to get this that come to fruition.
Mayor Jean Stothert: Huge undertaking.
Matt Tompkins: So you mentioned some of the past mayors and how history repeats itself. What are some of the skill sets that you look to or model your own leadership after with a big project like this?
Mayor Jean Stothert: Well, you know, I looked at at what we had accomplished in within the city of Omaha and in in the urban core. And I looked at, you know, our our convention center, arena convention center. I looked at the ballpark. What happened there, the Bob Kerrey Bridge, what happened there.
Matt Tompkins: Over.
Mayor Jean Stothert: The Performing Arts Center, the Orpheum Theatre, which people don’t realize we own, but it’s run by Omaha performing. And I looked at all of these great things that had happened within the past couple of decades or decade downtown. And how did it happen? It happened when you engaged your stakeholders, your business community and your philanthropic community with city government. You try to be as transparent as you possibly can and you seek input. And that’s exactly what I did. That’s how they got that, all those things done. You know, when you talk about the Arena Convention Center, there was about 75 million in private dollars in there. You talk about the ballpark, there was about 25 million of private dollars. When I used to meet with mayors all the time, the pandemic started that when they ask how we get these things done in Omaha and I talk about philanthropy here in private money, they’ve never seen anything like it in Omaha. So to me, that was important to to follow what these other mayors did, to get things done and to work with the private community to. So when this project started down here and my goal at the beginning was just the Lewis and Clark landing, and we started getting people engaged. One of the first things I did is we brought a company into Omaha called Uli Urban Land Institute, and we work with them and they engaged everybody they could think of. They had stakeholders, they had business community, they had citizens, and they really ask them what they wanted to see down here, what we needed it. And that’s how it really grew into let’s not just do Lewis and Clark Landing, but this let’s include Heartland of America Park. Let’s include the Jean Louis Mall, and let’s repeat what happened back in the seventies and really revitalize downtown. And we are really somebody said something to me the other day, which I loved, and they said, you know what, you all are really rebuilding downtown Omaha. And it really is it’s going to look totally different than it had before. And we see that revitalization as being so positive for the entire city.
Matt Tompkins: Oh, yeah. I mean, it’s growing. You see growth moving out west with Omaha, but I think revitalizing certain parts of Benton is another area of Omaha and Midtown and and seeing downtown kind of get this facelift. We, you know, we titled this episode How to Get Shit Done because that’s really.
Mayor Jean Stothert: Kind of like.
Matt Tompkins: That. I don’t know if you can say that at a press conference, but that’s really what it boils down to.
Mayor Jean Stothert: How to get stuff done.
Matt Tompkins: Stuff done. Yeah, yeah. How to get stuff done. Sure. But you know, what I’m hearing you say is that, you know, it takes you have to be tough and persistent. But listening is perhaps the most underrated quality as any leader, whether that’s a city and a big project like this or just of your own company and organization.
Mayor Jean Stothert: To be criticized. I mean, I watch that. I mean, I looked at that and I read about the history when the convention center was built, when the ballpark remember that the big, big push to keep the old ball park in place and don’t build a new ballpark. But I think, you know, you’ve got to have a vision. And that vision, you get those stakeholders together, you get input. But you’ve got to be a leader, too. And say this after listening to all this and all these studies, this is what we need.
Matt Tompkins: You have to make a.
Mayor Jean Stothert: Decision and you got to make a decision. I’m still being criticized for this beautiful park.
Matt Tompkins: I don’t know. I’ve never criticized you for anything.
Mayor Jean Stothert: Well, I think you would.
Matt Tompkins: Never disagreed about anything. Right. But that’s one thing I do admire about you and other, you know, leaders, whether it be in politics and government or with organizations and businesses. Is that you you do listen and you can I mean, we did a TV show where we did comedy bits just out out from making fun of you. And you were a great sport. You said, you know what, I want to be in the next. I know.
Mayor Jean Stothert: Hilarious.
Matt Tompkins: That’s a rare quality today. I think a lot of people we tend to have thin skin with social media and we get we let our emotions in a take over in a bad way and not in a healthy way. And so being able to kind of roll with the punches, as they say, I think is something that is a strength for you.
Mayor Jean Stothert: And, you know, people expect their leaders to make decisions. There’s a there’s a problem, I think, that every newly elected leader has. And they will always think, well, if I sit on the fence, then everybody will like me. And the opposite happens. You sit on the fence. Nobody likes you. Yeah. They want you to be a leader. And they, you know, and I always make decisions the same way you gather data, you talk to people, you get as much information as you can, and then you make an educated decision and you explain it and you stick with it and you take your knocks from those who don’t agree with you.
Matt Tompkins: What is let us in on maybe not all the secrets, but what is a secret? I mean, one of the top three secrets, if I’m a business owner, I’m a local a business here in Omaha, and I want to be involved. I want to be involved in a project like this. I want to work with the city. I want to work with the state. What would you suggest? Like where do you start? How do you begin that? Is it more relationship building and networking or.
Mayor Jean Stothert: I think it’s all of the above. You know, we work really, really closely with the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce. They do economic development for us. I don’t have an economic development, you know, a department within. City of Omaha. We pay the chamber to do that, but to stay and with the chamber has thousands of businesses that belong to to the Omaha Chamber. So we work very closely with the chamber. Another thing that I did that other mayors did not do, which I think is very important, is I hired not one, but two new deputy chiefs of staff for economic development. And their job is to work directly with the chamber and be out in the community and work with those businesses. Because what I heard when I became mayor, I hate doing business with the city of Omaha. Everything takes a long time. I want to do this project. It takes forever to get through planning and public works and law. The two men that I had and I’m replacing them now because they they moved on to other things. They did a great job, but their job was to work with every single project that we have, every single project they were assigned to, one or the other of those economic developers they worked in my office reported to me, but their job was to get things done and sometimes they had to say no. But I always told them, If you have to say no for a good reason, then you come back and help them figure out how still to get it done.
Matt Tompkins: So you mean there are people who complain about the government not getting things done?
Mayor Jean Stothert: Yeah. Yeah, that’s my secret. Yeah. Yes, they do complain.
Matt Tompkins: Well, what I’m hearing, though, is you’re saying that building a leadership team. Yeah, trusting that team. Yes. And then delegating to that team.
Mayor Jean Stothert: Right.
Matt Tompkins: The business owners. And I’m guilty of this, too. We make this mistake or assumption that we have to be involved in every single aspect of everything. Only we can do it a certain way. And we don’t trust other people, other partners and people we hire or put in positions like that. So so it sounds like that’s a not just for the city, but for a lesson to be learned for any business owner.
Mayor Jean Stothert: I think so. And I think if you ask any one of my directors or any of the staff in my office, I like to know what’s going on. I like to be informed, but I’m not a micromanager. I don’t know how to run a police department or a planning department or a public works department. So I hire the best directors I can and I trust them. I always tell them, let me know. I don’t want to hear anything on the on the TV. I don’t want to hear it on the news. First you let me know, but I’m going to let you run your department and we work together. And I think that’s what the golden rule is for. My I can see.
Matt Tompkins: You with like a police hat and a oh.
Mayor Jean Stothert: No. Battalion or a ballistic vest. Yeah, not their privacy. And that’s something I don’t do. But I’ll tell you, like if you use a police as an example, I probably talked to the chief of police multiple times every day. I mean, he’s usually the first person I talked to every morning, lets me know what happened during the night. So they keep me really informed. I know what’s going on and I make decisions with them, but I give them a lot of autonomy.
Matt Tompkins: To usually with me. If the police are the first people I talk to in the morning, there’s a problem. A problem. It’s a it’s maybe a fun night, but not a bad result with that. So you’ve seen a lot of of businesses come and go. You’ve seen them succeed. Let’s talk about what are some of the things you’ve seen that have tripped up businesses that maybe have caused failures the businesses didn’t recover from? What are some of those missteps you’ve seen that, you know, other business owners can hopefully avoid?
Mayor Jean Stothert: Yeah, you know, I mean, the pandemic was once in a lifetime, hopefully, but that was really something that was a huge challenge to me. People used to ask me all the time, what keeps you awake at night? And I would say, nothing. I’m always so tired. When I get home, I fall asleep eating dinner. That was really scary and that really played havoc on a lot of our businesses, especially restaurants in the entertainment business. A lot of restaurants failed, a lot of bars failed. You know, we had a huge loss of revenue with the College World Series, with Berkshire Hathaway, with the swim trials being canceled. And I’m in charge of the budget. You know, I don’t just pass it and forget about it. I had to make sure that by the end of the year that budget was balanced. And so, you know, I made a lot of really difficult decisions and that was a really hard part of probably the hardest part of my whole career is being mayor, shutting down swimming pools and libraries and community centers and canceling, you know, camps and all of those thingÏs that we did because we didn’t know how we were going to survive. But the businesses, tFfhey just kept on moving on. You know, we tried to help the restaurants as much as we can. You know, we receive cares act money indirectly, but then ARPA funding.
Mayor Jean Stothert: We tried to get all of that out into the community and we still are as fast as we possibly can to help individuals and businesses survive. For example, we’ve had over $100 million that we have received that’s been out in the community for for rent and utility assistance. And we’re getting it out into the community because we want to help individuals and and businesses. Huge hit that I mentioned before to our entertainment district. So we’re helping the hotels, you know, a huge help with with the ARPA funds. And so there’s different things that we had to do during the pandemic that was quite different. But businesses themselves, they want lower taxes. You know, that’s the one thing they want to know about the cost of living for their employees. They want to know. How safe a city is. If we want them downtown, they want downtown. What is going to want to attract young professionals? So that is exactly what we listen to. And that’s what we’re doing. You know, they want. They want. They want to be they want to live down here. They want walkability. They want safety. They want public spaces. They want public transportation. They want a safe city. All of those things that we hear in talking to businesses we’re trying to provide.
Matt Tompkins: Have there been any failures you feel that you made along the way? Like things like, man, I wish I would have done this differently, but I learned a lot from that, that misstep or that right. You know? And now I’ve got, like, a lifetime of failures.
Mayor Jean Stothert: Well, you.
Matt Tompkins: Know, I’m still learning. I’m not I don’t know if I’ve learned from them yet. You know.
Mayor Jean Stothert: I honestly could say I mean, I probably can think back to things I wish I would have said differently, but as far as something that I feel like we did as that that was a failure that I could say, oh, gosh, this was awful the way we did it or handled it. I honestly can’t think of anything huge that stands out, you know, I mean, I could think of a few things. Like I said, I could have handled differently, but it really didn’t have a whole lot to do with economic development and job growth. Yeah, I will tell you, I think, you know that the issue that we have, it’s a fact, not an issue that we have such a low unemployment rate right now in Omaha, less than 2% is a double edged sword, because that sounds great when you say we have you know, everybody has a job in Omaha that wants a job. But at the same time, if a business is looking to move here, they’re going to think, where am I going to get employees? Everybody has a job. So it’s kind of a double. That’s kind of a double edged sword. So that low unemployment rate can be a little terrifying to a new business looking here. But we still try to offer what they’re looking for. What I would say that we need more of are incentives, statewide incentives, citywide incentives that we can offer these businesses so that they’ll want to come. Right now we have a tiff tiff our tax increment financing. But other than that, you know, we don’t have a lot of incentives that we can offer businesses to come here.
Matt Tompkins: No, I’m not referring to politics as politics, but there is politics in everything, just in life. I mean, life is politics. How what do you suggest to to business owners and entrepreneurs who deal with whatever their degree of politics is? They have to work with people they don’t like and work with people they like. People who say that’s a horrible idea or that’s a great idea for a restaurant. No, that’s it’s a terrible place. What were you thinking? What would you suggest to entrepreneurs to work through that, to still make progress and make your dream a reality with what you’re doing with your business, but not let that maybe derail your attention.
Mayor Jean Stothert: You know, and I hope I set a good example for that, because if I hire people that that know their business, you know, that, that and I’ve been very successful in hiring people. My like I said, my directors and my staff because I want to know what they know. And I want to I want to hire them based on their ability, not what what political party they belong to. I will tell you, probably I have 19 people that work in my office. I don’t know half of their political party. It doesn’t matter to me. And I can tell you there’s a lot of Democrats at work in my office, as well as Republicans. But Omaha is a Democrat city right now. You know, there’s more Democrat voters than Republicans. And my last election, I won by a pretty big margin. And so I hope people look at me as being nonpartisan, not bringing the politics into everything.
Matt Tompkins: And I that’s something you like do your conscious of. I mean, even just with, you know, somebody who I mean, like we talked about having, you know, kind of a thick skin and a sense of humor, I think is important for any leadership position. But, you know, is that something you walk into and you’re like, okay, I’m not going to let maybe personal feelings or reactions get in the way of, you know, yeah, I, you know, like Matt, I can’t stand mad, but that’s a really good idea that he has and I’ll hear him out.
Mayor Jean Stothert: You know, and I do that. I mean, I listen to people. I’ll hear him out. It doesn’t matter to me what direction they’re going as far as politics. I mean, I’ll be honest with you, I’ve been criticized saying I’m not Republican enough or I’m not far right enough. But, you know, I think to be the mayor of Omaha and also to get things done, like obviously we are getting things done. And it’s not just down here. If you look from the Missouri River to the Elkhorn River, there’s things in big projects going, multi-hundred million dollar projects everywhere. And we’re doing that because I really feel like people have they trust our leadership. They don’t just give you that trust. You got to earn it. I’m in my 10th year now. I think that they see the job that me and my team has done and they trust us. And I think that that’s all part of being successful. You’ve got to say what you mean and mean what you say, you know, and you’ve got to. And you and I never want to be caught in saying something. That’s a lie. That’s not true. If people ask me a. Question and I don’t know the answer. I’m I’m more than willing to say I don’t know the answer, but I’ll get the answer for you rather than to trip up and say something wrong.
Matt Tompkins: You’ve gone from literally, you know, the gift shop to the mayor’s office.
Mayor Jean Stothert: Well, there’s a little more in it.
Matt Tompkins: I know, but I but I say that to to preface this, and that is there are a lot of people and I remember myself when I was working construction, framing houses, right. Had this dream of, you know, it’d be great to to entertain people and, you know, do this and that. And, you know, you sit there and for the person who’s in that place right now, who’s just starting out who they they have this dream. What would be your final your final words of wisdom to them to help them to get moving? What would your biggest piece of advice be?
Mayor Jean Stothert: Well, you know, obviously know your stuff that that’s that’s really important. And and do it and give everything you can to it. You know, you’re never going to win unless you try. And there is no embarrassment in running for a political office and losing. I lost one race in 2006, but look at all of our great leaders in the country. Some of them, a lot of them have lost races in the past. But you’ve got to remember, I started out as a head nurse in an intensive care unit. So I manage the intensive care unit. I did the budget, I did the hiring. I was on the school board for 11 years. That was a volunteer position. But I learned a lot about working with people and listening to all points of view. Then I ran for the legislature. I didn’t win that one. That was a close race. It was a 14 vote loss. But I felt like this wasn’t meant to be and there was something else out there calling my name. So then I ran for city council, won that race. I never, when I ran for city council had any ambition that I’m going to do council and run for mayor. That was not in the cards for me. But after being on city council and taking that job real seriously, I decided I did not like the way the mayor at that time was running the city, and I thought I had two choices. I could run for council again, probably have an easy race, run for mayor, and probably have the hardest race of my life. And that’s what I decided.
Matt Tompkins: Keep dreaming and never give up. I mean, I know when I was when I was building houses, I never thought I would be sitting here, you know, on this beautiful pavilion stage at the mall talking to the mayor of Omaha. So and most of my teachers from high school to this day can’t believe it either. They’re like, what.
Mayor Jean Stothert: Is.
Matt Tompkins: Going on in the right? But you have to stick with it. You have to have that perseverance. Yes.
Mayor Jean Stothert: And you know, I’ve told people that that that loss I had taught me a lot. It taught me a lot about.
Matt Tompkins: Learning about failures. You learn so much from those.
Mayor Jean Stothert: I learned more about that failure or losing that race then. And, you know, I lost by 14 votes. But it doesn’t make any difference if I lost by 14 or 14,000. When you run for a political office, you win or you lose. There’s no second place. So if I lost my 14, I lost I had to move on. That’s all there was to it. But there’s no shame in running and losing and you learn a lot. And because when I ran for city council, I got my team together and I said, we are not going to lose by 14 votes. We’re going to work every area of Omaha that we need to every one in the District five, which I ran for at first. And then we did that when I ran for mayor, too, you know, I when I ran for mayor, I walked the city for a full year. You know, I announced I was running in May, I started walking in June, and I walked till next May when the election was.
Matt Tompkins: And you only you only tripped once.
Mayor Jean Stothert: Oh, maybe if more than I know, maybe. Yeah, I walked in snow and ice, but that’s how I felt that you’re going to win a race that we did so well.
Matt Tompkins: We appreciate you greatly for coming on our inaugural episode of the Omaha podcast, which is all about Omaha. So having.
Mayor Jean Stothert: My player. Yeah.
Matt Tompkins: I guess.
Mayor Jean Stothert: It is. I could talk for another. Oh, I know it’s on Omaha. I mean, there’s so much going on even downtown, even beside this, like with ConAgra.
Matt Tompkins: And the library.
Mayor Jean Stothert: All these different categories of 500 million, the builders district, the maker, the mill works district, those are 300 million each. The New Mutual of Omaha Tower. That is going to be behind us here, Crossroads, that is moving forward. The site where the Civic Auditorium was that will move forward. You look all the way out west, 192nd Dodge, huge projects out there.
Matt Tompkins: Well, the cool thing is, this is a podcast with an endless supply of new episodes.
Mayor Jean Stothert: There we.
Matt Tompkins: Go. So we will continue talking about it. And you are welcome to come back on any time you want.
Mayor Jean Stothert: To invite me again.
Matt Tompkins: Well, we’ll have you over to our new studio so we can have some air conditioning.
Mayor Jean Stothert: Put my long lost sisters Jan and Joan Show. Well.
Matt Tompkins: Speaking of that, I’m glad you brought up Joan and Jan Stothard. So. So, Joe Kenny.
Mayor Jean Stothert: If you missed them, I thought they moved out of.
Matt Tompkins: No, Joe. We actually put together a special gift for you, and I want to butter you up before this last question.
Mayor Jean Stothert: Okay.
Matt Tompkins: So so Joe, if you want to grab the special gift and it’s actually it’s a two part gift.
Mayor Jean Stothert: Okay.
Matt Tompkins: All right.
Mayor Jean Stothert: So is this from my sisters?
Matt Tompkins: Well, we have you. Well, this first one is from the Omaha podcast from two Brothers Creative and 316 Strategy Group. Joseph Kinney, Christopher Slater, myself. No. And of course, Wendy did some. She I think she put the little. You’re the sweetest card on the front.
Mayor Jean Stothert: Oh, well, your wife is the sweetest, so thank her for that.
Matt Tompkins: I think you’re going to like this, though.
Mayor Jean Stothert: I know. I’ll like it. Oh, I can’t be messy. The Omaha podcast get. Stuff done right. I like this. This will be on my day.
Matt Tompkins: I want to see pictures of it.
Mayor Jean Stothert: This is the best. I will get a picture of this. This is great. I love it.
Matt Tompkins: Thank you for you in there.
Mayor Jean Stothert: Thank you very much. That is great.
Matt Tompkins: This next gift here.
Mayor Jean Stothert: Oh, this is Omaha’s greatest mayor. Now this. I like it. Thank you. That’ll be on my desk, too. I have to remind people about this.
Matt Tompkins: So before I give you this, this gift is from your sisters, Jonah and Jan Stothard. Oh, bless. You know, I wouldn’t be you know, I wouldn’t be able to call myself a, you know, a media personality if I didn’t ask. Is it governor? Senator, what’s the next move for.
Mayor Jean Stothert: You.
Matt Tompkins: Know, the mayor?
Mayor Jean Stothert: I don’t know. I honestly don’t know. I really love what I’m doing now. I’ve only been in one year of this term here. I usually wait mid-term to decide. I’m not I’m not ruling anything out at this point. I’m really not. I love what I do. I mean, it would be very unusual to have a four term mayor because it’s unusual to have a three term mayor. But I do love what I do. So I’m not saying yet. I don’t know. I really, honestly don’t know because I want to concentrate on yeah.
Matt Tompkins: On a lot of big projects now you have right now that are ongoing. Oh yeah.
Mayor Jean Stothert: And I’m busy with all of them and I want to see them through.
Matt Tompkins: Well you just, just text me. I know like you used to do on the TV on like. Yeah, it was on like 1215 in the morning in a text message.
Mayor Jean Stothert: And I would say What in the world are you doing?
Matt Tompkins: So this one here, you can open this now because it’s got a it’s a nice little card.
Mayor Jean Stothert: Oh, this is nice. It looks like your wife Wendy had something to do with this.
Matt Tompkins: Yeah. So she is. She is a crafting aficionado and all that. Yeah. So she makes these handmade.
Mayor Jean Stothert: Cards happily ever after. This is from me and my husband. Congrats on your sentiment. Marriage with love from your illegitimate sisters. Look at them. There they are. Oh, I miss both of them very much.
Matt Tompkins: And I don’t know who that is. Yeah, I think she was a poll worker.
Mayor Jean Stothert: She was my sister’s tutor.
Matt Tompkins: No, I think she was. I was deceased, too. There was the work in the polls episode.
Mayor Jean Stothert: I thought maybe there were triplets here.
Matt Tompkins: Yeah, something like that. Yeah.
Mayor Jean Stothert: Thank you very much. I really.
Matt Tompkins: Well, thank you. Yeah. And so frame that hanging up, you know, and the memories last forever.
Mayor Jean Stothert: I well, thank you.
Matt Tompkins: All right. Thanks a.
Mayor Jean Stothert: Lot. Yeah, you bet. Good to see you.
Matt Tompkins: Good to see you, Mayor. On the next episode of the Omaha podcast, we’re going to reveal the playbook on how to do what you love for a living.