If we design the world we live in, if we wanna experience something, we need to just create it here. We can't wait for somebody else to do it. Like there is a relationship that was created all because you doom scrolled on Instagram one day and found this event. People will come up to me like, thank you for hosting this event, and I'm like, no, thank you for coming because I would not have this event if nobody showed up.
Has there been an event that you hosted that just like blew your mind that you were like, how the heck did this happen? From South Bend to Evansville and everywhere in between. This is Get IN, the show focused on the Hoosier State and the incredible stories happening here today. I'm Nate Spangle, founder of Get Indiana, and I will be your host for today's conversation.
My guest today is Bo Turner and she's the founder of FIND, a rapidly growing company that helps bring your social life into real life through friend socials and singles events. This is an in-person dating and social experience that's shaking up how Hoosiers meet without the swipe fatigue. She's a proud Indiana State University alum. Go Sycamores.
She's an entrepreneur. Bo blends her background in communications and consulting with a passion for genuine human connections from these crazy coffee shop raves that are all over social media blowing up to curated local events. She's proving that love and friendship can be found right here in the Circle City and beyond.
Shout out to our friends in Cincinnati. Shout out to our friends in Louisville. I'm really excited to learn more about your journey from Terre Haute to Indianapolis. All the The Truckstop food trucks in Terre Haute, like there is so much to unpack here. I have been a fan from afar for the last, I don't know, four or five years.
You've been doing incredible things. I'm excited to sit down and talk. Bo, welcome to the show. Thank you so much. I'm so happy to be here. Let's go. Okay, so if I had to think back of when Bo Turner first got on my radar, I had heard about. The Truckstop, I believe out in Terre Haute. Yep. Was that kind of one of the first forays into entrepreneurship?
My first entrepreneurship journey was actually a marketing agency. Yeah. Started that with one of my best friends about four years ago, well, five years ago. And we were just small startup agency. I did project management. She was a creative. Um, and that was when COVID hit. So we really wanted to work for ourselves, have that freedom and flexibility, decided to just try and jump in and see how it went.
We had a amazing four years and we actually yeah, did shut that down last year. But in between that, I did start The Truckstop, which was Indiana's first park for food trucks in Terre Haute, Indiana. And that was such a learning experience and I had a great time with it. Did it for about a year and a half, um, and just decided to, to move on.
It just wasn't my, wasn't my forte, but yeah. Okay. This is an interesting piece 'cause I, along the journey, I feel like, uh, every. Seasoned entrepreneur has their own set of, I'll call 'em like headstones. Mm-hmm. Of like failed ideas. Or maybe not necessarily failed, but like not, you know, multi-generational decade long enterprises.
Right? Yep. From a marketing agency, what were you guys focused on? Startup businesses. Yeah. Content creation, social media websites. Heck, that's so much fun. I feel like, and that is a great, uh, for like entrance into internet money. Mm-hmm. Like figuring out how to, you know, make, you know, sell your time and your, your capital and your intelligence and what you've learned through, you know, being online.
Uh, I feel like that's a really good starting point for entrepreneurship. Mm-hmm. I dunno, is that like your experience of like, Hey, if you learn how to make content on social media or design websites, or do. And, you know, build all these things, you can go out there and, I don't know, make money and not have to, I don't know, do the normal first person job.
I had a project management job for a couple years before doing the agency, so it was nice to be able to, yeah. Kinda get that foundation right after college, but wasn't making a lot of money and I was like, I think we could probably do this for ourselves. Yeah. And just, uh, travel is a huge part of my life, so having that flexibility to travel and explore the world is really important to me.
I mean, if you don't follow Bo on Instagram, you really need to, because I'm always curious of like, where in the world is Bo and what are you all up to? Crazy. There's like a whole part two episode that we could talk about, like poker tournaments and just like the crazy stuff that you're posting about on social media in like the best way.
Like I am just, I just love hanging out with like people that have crazy lives that are doing like really like in the best, the best sense. Like the cool crazy. Yeah. You know, it's so fun. It's like, oh my gosh. Every time I feel like if, if we got together once a quarter, we, we'd both have like. Wild news stories to tell about what's going on all around.
So, uh, I'm excited to, to learn some more today. So take us through what the The Truckstop was mm-hmm. And why this was important to Terre Haute. Yeah. The Truckstop was a park for food trucks so essentially like a food court, the garage or the amp, but outside. Um, so we had a plot of land. Um, I was able to get the land for a really good price, and it was in a, so you had to do real estate, like you had to buy a piece of land.
I leased it. So you, okay. That was really nice. It was, I mean, it was ridiculously low. It was like a hundred dollars a month, so it was just a slab of land in a place called 12 Points Revitalization, um, 12 Points District in Terre Haute. So it's like a revitalized area in, in the area in, in Terre Haute that is, has a lot of businesses.
It was a very historic place a long time ago, and there's a lot of business owners that are trying to revitalize it. Um, so I wanted to be a part of that. Revitalization started The Truckstop. We put. A giant electrical panel on there so that food trucks could hook up to it. And we had capacity for seven food trucks at a time.
It was really focused in the community and third space aspect of like, how can we get people to be outside, have outside experiences, dine outside if they want to, and also be able to try a lot of different foods. Yeah. Um, you can, you know, bring your family, have a bunch of different options and just yeah.
Kind of sit and hang out. Where'd this idea come from? It came from Portland, Oregon, so, oh. My husband and I went there, uh, during COVID and their food truck scene is so vibrant and poppin there is a food truck park in every neighborhood. It's, the food is phenomenal. It was one of the coolest food experiences I've ever had.
And we would search out five star restaurants and like really good reviews and we'd drive to them and it'd be like a food truck. I was like, wow, this is really cool. And when I came back to Indiana, I. Was curious if there's a park for food trucks here. And I couldn't find any, I was doing a lot of research, um, and just decided, I was like, well, let's try it out.
See, see if it'll work. People loved it once we opened up. Got a lot of good energy and yeah, the food trucks were really happy. A lot of things out of my control that I like the weather and just kind of, yeah, coordinating the food trucks. And also, I was living in India at the time and I would have to drive to Terre Haute, so it'd just be a lot of back and forth.
But I loved that experience. I wouldn't change. Anything about it? Was it a hard decision to move on from that venture? Yes and no. And what did the town say? Like, were they like upset about this? Like, yeah. Yeah. This town was really, was really sad, which broke my heart. Um, it was, honestly, it was just hemorrhaging money.
I just like, could not even break even on, on this experience. Really. Yeah. Why? What, what was the, what was the, how did the economics of it work? So I would, uh, lease the land for about a hundred dollars. The big overhead expenses, there wasn't that much compared to a, a restaurant of course, uh, or brick of like have a building, but we still had trash, electrical.
Um, I paid $10,000 for an electrical board to put on that property. How were you making revenue? Like were the, we were charging food, trucks, rent, essentially. Ah, so like, they would pop up for either a day or a weekend and pay. $75 a day to be there with the electrical as like a part of it. And then people would Yeah, they would just keep a hundred percent of the food.
Yeah. So it's like you're putting a ton of time and effort in it and you're getting a rep, which is important. I think that a lot of entrepreneurship is about just like getting your reps in. Yeah. But it's like you're talking, I don't know how many food trucks have to come there for $75 a day for you to make $10,000 plus trash and, and your time and gas to drive to Terre Haute.
And you're, you're raised in Terre Haute, correct? Yes. Yeah. I was adopted from China and grew up in Terre Haute. So I went to all the, the high school and went to Indiana State University. I was lucky enough to have a full ride scholarship there, so that was, oh, I was gonna say like, like staying at home. Uh, I was like, oh, you just just loves Terre Haute, baby.
Let's go. I did live on campus, which was nice. Nice divide experience. Yeah. Okay. So You studied marketing. Yep. Correct. At, at Indiana State. Go Sycamores. Let's go. Yeah. And then when did you end up coming to Indianapolis? 2020. What was. Appealing about Indianapolis? Did you think about going other places?
Obviously you're very well traveled, you've gone and I mean, just from the short amount of time that I've been following along the journey, it feels like you go all over the place. Why did it make sense to move to Indianapolis, uh, for the next step in your professional career? Yeah, my, all my friends are here and I'm a big people person, like community is, my friends are exactly what I wanna be around.
Like I'm not moving anywhere unless all my friends move away. And I'm like, okay, well then there's nothing really keeping me here. But I also met a boy in 2020 and it worked out. He's my husband now, but that was also another driving factor those boys classic Oh, that's amazing. Okay, so you end up coming to Indianapolis and you already had friends here, but like plugging in.
To the entrepreneurship community here. How did that, was that an easy experience? Was it a hard experience? Was there, did you know what to do? Like how did you start to make professional connections? I leveraged my network of people that I met at ISU, a lot of my bosses and mentors, and they would introduce me to other people in Indianapolis.
I am not afraid to talk to strangers and that is, I would never guess that. Um, yeah, I'm not afraid to talk to strangers, so I just sought out different organizations, a big organization that has helped me throughout my journey as a Young Professionals of Central Indiana, YPCI. Yeah, I think it's like a really good investment.
It's like, I don't know, $200 or something. 75. $75. It's cheaper. Yeah. But you get 12 beers a year. Yeah. Like if you do the economics on that of like an $8 beer or a $7 beer, it like totally math. Mm-hmm. And the people that you meet is just phenomenal. I met a lot of good friends there outside of just like professional things.
Heck yeah. Okay, so you get plugged into town. At this point in 2020 you did, did you have a a normal person job? No, that was when I went pretty much full all in on the marketing agency. Yeah. So I had a lot of time to meet with people for coffee. Kinda leverage. Yeah. My time on that side. When was the last time you had a normal person job?
20, 25 years. Half a decade into this whole entrepreneurship journey. Mm-hmm. Is that kind of crazy? Yeah. I never thought I was gonna be a business owner, entrepreneur when I grew up, and I've just fell in love with it. I don't think I would ever go back. Time continues on, you end up closing The Truckstop.
Mm-hmm. And you're all in on BoCo Collective. Is that what it was? Yes. BoCo and The Truckstop kind of ended around the same time? Oh yeah. Okay. When did The Truckstop Close Last year and so did BoCo. Oh, okay. So you were running the agency as well as The Truckstop through 2220 when The Truckstop started in 23, 22.
Yeah. I did The Truckstop for about two years. Okay. And then BoCo is four years. Nice. So then where did you get to the decision to spin down the agency? I'm really into signs and there were multiple signs of that we should just kind of, kind of do something different. We had a really big contract with the Indiana Small Business Development Center for the past three years where they would send their clients to us and we did pretty much like their, all their marketing services.
Yeah. Um, that contract expired and we were trying to decide like, okay, do I like ramp up and try to get new clients or do we just kind of let it fizzle, like, do something else. Yeah. So that was a, a big decision for us. And then also my, my business partner at the time, she was starting a family, so we were trying to figure out the, the ins and outs of her Yeah.
Her, her future. So I feel like what we were doing was just kind of monotonous in the sense like, we weren't really growing, but we weren't doing bad. It was just kind of steady. And I'm very much like, I love, I thrive in chaos. Yeah. I love having new things to like, solve and, and manage and figure out. So, yeah.
And it's like, though I'm sure with the small, like small businesses across Indiana, it's like you're probably refreshing a lot of websites, doing a lot of social media. Like it's, it's similar problems. Enough that like after a couple years you're like. Okay. How many different, I dunno, Shopify instances do we set up for the small business or whatever?
Yeah, yeah. Um, are there any really, like, like brands that you worked with during that time that are just crushing now? We were contracted through Mom Water for a couple photo shoots and when we designed their website. Yeah. So that was cool. Subtle plug. Go back and listen to our episode with Bryce and it's crazy.
Their journey is wild. 'cause they exploded. I mean it's in 20 19, 20 20. Like they're not that old and they have a huge national footprint. Yes. Crazy. Yeah. And honestly, if while you're scrolling around on businesses in Indiana, you're gonna end up on a website and you'll scroll to the bottom and you'll see BoCo Collective like, you know, like you'll see.
And I was like, ah, this is why this one's good. Like I just started to pick up like, um, 'cause sometimes unfortunately out there, small business owners like make a website when they're starting their business and now it's like 10 years later. And it's still the same website. Right. And you're kind of like, Hey, like this could probably use a little refresh.
Like, you know. Um, so it's always fun to see the small businesses that are just crushing it on social or crushing it, uh, with their websites. So fun. You come to the end last year and your time with the agency is, has run its course. Mm-hmm. You're, you're looking at the signs, you're talking with. The Truckstop is run its course and you kind of get a fresh start.
What brings you to wanting to start FIND? I was doom scrolling on Instagram, as we all do sometimes. And I kept coming across, I came across a, an event in Los Angeles and it was called Pitch a Single. It was like called All Hands on Deck. So it was basically pitch a single friend. Yeah. And I became obsessed with idea and I just messaged them.
I was like, Hey, um, I wanna bring this here to Indiana. Like, how do I do this? How I have single friends, I want to pitch them on stage. Like they're freaking awesome, but they're, the dating apps are not working for them anymore. How can I do this here? And they message me back. They're like, well, yes, we do host this event, but actually we do primarily like speed dating.
And they're like, we also have this technology that helps run speed dating events and we are ready to license it to other people to to use it. And I was like, speed dating. Like people are speed dating again. And like, oh yeah, they're like, it's a big hit. They're like, we do 10 to 12 speed dating events a month in Los Angeles.
I was like, all right, well sign me up. They got me onboarded and did our first kinda speed dating event in September of last year and it went really well. We sold out and just kind of been moving that ever since. But I guess also to throw it really far back, my, I always love hearing the story of how my parents met and it was at a singles dance.
Oh, and my, it was always like my dad approached my mom and her friend and asked, asked my mom's friend to dance. And her friend was like, she was kind of being like, no, I don't wanna dance right now. So my mom felt bad for him, and she's like, I'll dance with you. So they did a dance and then they talked the rest of the night and, and the rest is history.
The rest is history. So I love hearing like those meet cute, that beautiful stories isn't that My grandparents met at the, there was an organization before FFA that was like farmers hosted barn dances, basically. I can't remember what the org was. And they met at, they, their first date or whatever, was going to one of these.
And they talk about like, uh, going and dancing at this square dance thing. And I love it. It's great. Like, it's just like. And that doesn't, there's obviously, there's a place for dating apps and you know, there's been a lot of success stories from dating apps and some people just have really good game when it comes to texting and other people do not have said game.
Yeah. So like getting to be, uh, in person and, you know, creating more of those opportunities. 'cause it, it is, we do live in a time where if you were a single person and you walk up to someone. At a bar and you just started talking to them, they would look at you like you have a third eye growing out of your forehead.
Right? Like the majority of people would be like, like, they're like, oh, I want to, like, I wanna meet someone the old fashioned way. And then someone tries to meet the old fashioned way and you're like, okay, creep. Get away. Like, right. So it's hard for, for sure. It's tough out there. So, so you host this speed dating, where's it at?
The first one is at The Hangar downtown. You host it. Oh. 'cause you also shout out to The Hangar, you also drive a HandleBar, right? Yes. I just quit though. Oh, sorry Steve. Sorry about that. It's okay. We're we, we love the hangar. It's, my schedule is just, it's. Too heavy with the events and stuff. Yeah. But I love, they've been great.
I loved my, I've been loving my time as a HandleBar driver. Yeah. It's, it's been so much fun. If you have, if you wanna, it's the best way to be outside. You get to hang out, dance, listen to and meet cool people. Yeah. Highly recommend doing it. Oh my gosh, absolutely. I could just see you thriving. Yeah. And crushing that.
Um, okay, so you host this event at The Hangar. You bring how many singles together? We had 54. 54. And this is not a Pitch a Single Friend. This is a true speed dating event. Yep. Okay. Speed dating 54 singles. They show up and like, are you, are you nervous? Are you excited? How does he, are people awkward? Like how did it go?
Yeah, it was phenomenal. The thing is, we had a hundred percent show up rate for that event, which that's never happened before. How many of the 54 did you know? I think I knew one person. Oh, so this is 53 randoms. These are, yes. This wasn't like you like going through, like trying to like find all of your single friends No.
That you actually know. This was like, you marketed this and people showed up full strangers. Yeah, it was, it was, and the only market we really did was social media, like, yeah. Facebook, Instagram, marketing. So that's how people found out. So 54 singles show up. Mm-hmm. How many dates do you get at a, how does a speed date for those of us not familiar with the game?
How does it work? We sign up online. You create a. You go through a brief questionnaire just to help with the matchmaking process. Uh, you're not meeting with everybody in the room. It is 10 to 12 of the most compatible people there. So we do try to prioritize your deal breakers. And those are basically, you know, kind of high level on age kids, those things.
You go on speed dating rounds. So how long is round? Five minutes. So you sit down there? Yep. Sit across side by side. Wait, side by side? Well, I mean like across from each other. Oh, okay. I was like, whoa. Yeah, no, because it's like, because I don't like respectful out there, but anyone who like goes on a date and sits side by side, like they're, I'm already looking at them.
A little funny. Yeah. You know, like, unless there's something that you're watching or like a show or something. Like, I think that I'm a, I'm a face-to-face kind of guy. Face-to-face? Yes. Yeah. And then so they go on five minute dates, um, and rotate. Do you give them questions? We do have, do you, do you like seed the conversations with some stuff?
Uh, we have table signs and they have a couple questions on them. Yeah. What's the greatest icebreaker you've heard at a speed dating event? I would say the typical one is like, you know, what brought you here? Have you been speed dating before? Yeah. And that's kind of what people always ask, like, have you been doing this before?
So I gotta say, shout out to Lauren. I'm not going to any speed dating events. You know, you're the best. Cool. Uh, I feel like at a speed dating event, I would like end up on a rabbit hole, like in somewhere totally different. And like the five minutes would be up and we, we talked about like the software or something like silly, and you get to the end, you're like, I still don't even know your name or anything about you.
We just talked about this app for five minutes. You know? Yeah. Like, I would just get so sidetracked. It'd be very hard, but, um. Okay. Yeah. So they sit down, they have 12, 10 to 12 five minute rounds. Yep. And they're just chitchatting. And then do you like rank your people? How does that work? After each round, you either know on your phone if you wanna continue the conversation or not.
So if you both say yes, at the end of the night, you get mutual matching emails sent via email. So you both have to say yes. It's not one sided, like a dating app where you can see like, oh, that person liked me. You both have to say yes. 54 people showed up to night one. How many matches were made? Oh, we had a really high match rate.
I think we had over, I think we had like 82% matches. Yeah, that's sick. Our average is 76%. Okay. Um, so kind of depends on the audience and Yeah. And how many people show up. But um, yeah, and it could be interesting. A two is amazing factors too of like the energy in the room, the space, the weather. Like there's a lot that, like what I mean, how people's days went, you know, like you could be interested in having, you know, like, yeah, I want to meet all these people, and then maybe it's a tough day and you go into this thing and.
You are like, oh gosh, no one was really clicking today, but 82% match rate. That's pretty impressive. It's awesome and it makes me so happy that people are so, you know, willing to go out there and talk and meet people in real life. Yeah, it's such like a breath of fresh air and, okay, so September, that was the first event.
Mm-hmm Last year, September 24. Are there relationships from that September event that are still thriving today? There actually is. Oh, let's go. Yeah. My, my friend Michael, he is actually friends with somebody that met at that very first event and he like keeps me updated on it. They are probably 12, 13.
They're over a year. Yeah, they're over. I'm waiting for an engagement, knock on wood, but yeah, come on, gimme a few months. Hey. That's real. So let's, I mean, that is something that's very, very impactful. Like there is a relationship out in the world that was created all because you doom scrolled on Instagram one day and found this event.
Yeah. Oh, I like that. That's pretty cool. It is, yeah. When you think of it that way and, and I think that that's an interesting piece where if you are, like, I would say I'm chronically online. Like I'm just always on the internet to sometimes to, uh, fault. But there are cool things happening. A lot of times I feel like they start to pick up traction on the coast in la Like for some reason there's just like trends that hit there and people are, I don't know.
I don't know why, I don't know why not. All the trends start in Indiana, we're working on that. But if you're kind of like in tune and you're like, oh, we could do that here and we could like put a Midwestern spin on it and we could do again food trucks, the food truck park. Mm-hmm. It's like that comes from experiencing things and then figuring out how it's.
Sometimes I would say when, uh, when someone from the west coast tries to put something down in Indiana, we kind of like shun it. We're like, oh, I don't know if I like that. You know, like these outsiders are coming in and trying to capitalize on, or us Hoosiers. But if a Hoosier discovers something out in the wild and that it's like, and brings it more of like, Hey, we're gonna put our own Midwestern spin on this and we're gonna bring this to Indiana.
It can largely be accepted and like, and can take off and do something very, very cool. Like what you've been doing with FIND, honestly the most favorite part is seeing Yeah. What, what's other cities, other countries doing? And then how can I Yeah. Bring it to the hometown. 'cause it's, it, it's really frustrating and I mean, I find myself doing this too.
It's like we travel to other cities for concerts, events, experiences. It's like, why can we not experience this as Indiana? It's like we designed the world we live in. And that was something that my mentor. Told me, it really stuck with me. We designed the world we live in. If we wanna experience something, why not?
We need to just create it here. We can't wait for somebody else to do it. Yes. And that is the, oh my gosh, that could go on the talk track about this forever. It's like build it. Like if there isn't something that you want, or maybe there's something that someone else has, or like another place has build it here.
Mm-hmm. Like, but it just takes people that like you, they're just gonna go out and figure it out. Like it's all figureoutable. Yeah. I was like, if that person over there can do it, I can figure out how to do it. I love that is so powerful. That's incredible. I was the one I'm seeing now, I've started see on the internet that's happening around the world and in big markets is the TikTok Shop, like live booths.
So imagine walking into a flea market. Mm-hmm. And instead of them selling things in person, it's everyone is just live streaming on TikTok Shop. And so it's like ev there's these, there's these studios. Like imagine a flea market, but they're all just little video booths. Wow. So there's 10 on one side and 10 on the other.
And they're just people in their lives selling on TikTok Shop. Like you can check out this one, you can check. And it's, it was the, it was mind blowing. And they're like, this is coming to wherever you are. This will be here. Like the, imagine this caramel, Carmel Farmers Market. Randy, she listens to the pod.
Randy, imagine if you had video set up at the Carmel Farmers Market and there were people live selling their produce on TikTok Shop and people were coming up and buying it too. Like you can buy it in person. Yeah. And it's on the live stream. Like That's crazy. That's phenomenal. Like that's the, I was watching and I was like, oh my, like I got my plate full at the moment.
Like I can't do everything all at once, but that's on my list of like I'm filing that away of like a TikTok Shop studio. Yeah, it could be something. Hey, Indiana, if you're a business owner with big plans, listen up. Whether you're expanding, renovating, or breaking ground on something brand new, you need a banking team that's ready to back your vision.
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That's elements.org/GetInBiz Elements Financial, like a bank only better federally insured by NCUA and equal housing lender. Now let's get back into the episode. Um, okay, so we get back to the first event. And I think that sometimes people host this event and it goes so well and they're like, great.
That was fun. Like, we'll do it again next year. A lot of events are annual. When did you know that you wanted to dive deeper into this and even expand out of just singles events to social events? The amount of happiness and energy that I felt from that first speed dating event was so phenomenal and I kind of get addicted to it.
Like I love, I love the whole process of FIND: planning, like seeing the events, planning it, trying to execute it, figure it out. Then actually executing and being there in real life, seeing the interactions, the people being happy and then following up when I do hear a love story or somebody that met somebody, it's just so fulfilling.
So that entire thing kind of just cycled the reason that we, we planned another beginning event the next month and it kept selling out. So the faster the events sell out and the more people that come, we're like, okay, we need to increase. The speed dating events. Um, and then we kept getting requests for different communities to do speed dating.
So we, you know, do a lot of hetero, we also do LGBTQIA+, we've done Christian, we've done child-free, people of color. So we all, we are trying to figure out how people want to meet, what is important to them when they are coming to a dating event and trying to provide those spaces, especially when people are very frustrated in an online dating world.
You, you eventually expand outside of just dating, correct? Yes. So, and then the social events really come from me selfishly wanting to experience like coffee shop clubs. Did this come off of Instagram? Yeah, a hundred percent. I thought it might have, 'cause I had seen that on it. We should do that. That's sick.
Where was the first coffee shop club at In Indianapolis? It was at Neidhammer Coffee Company. Did you just DM them like, yo, let me host a rave at your spot. Yeah, I, yeah, it was, it was fun. It takes a very special type of coffee shop that wants to have, you know, a lot like loud music, people dancing inside. But the thing is, it's sober.
It's like, depending on the coffee shop, they may serve alcohol or not, Broad Ripple. Thieves. Thieves. Let's host one here. I know, I know. I, we just open, we'll get people in the door. It'll coffee shop. It'll be fun. And they're like a coffee shop cocktail bar, so that would be perfect. Yeah, we had one at West Fork Social House and that was phenomenal.
That was, yeah. I think that was, which one? Blew up One of 'em like got hundreds of thousands of views. That actually was not even an Indy, that was an inspo video. Isn't that wild? But I'm so glad that hurts my soul. I was like, because we had not had our first one and I used. Like inspo video to get Yeah.
But it worked. It got me, I was so pumped. I was like, dude, where is this? I gotta go. Yeah. Uh, but that helped spur people to know about it. Yeah. And, and to come to the first, I, and we might need to, we might need to host one here in the village somewhere. One of the coffee shops in town in Broad Ripple and blow it up.
Like make it just the craziest cool coffee shop club ever. I, I'm, I'm in for it. That needs to happen. Okay. This is another thing that I, that I saw. Uh, someone in South Bend is doing this and I wanna do it in Broad Ripple as well. What is that? I'd be curious to hear your feedback. Alright. The company, or like the account is called Permit Pending.
Mm-hmm. And they're finding vacant spaces, commercial spaces, and doing weekend popups love this. So like, there's a lot of vacant real estate in Broad Ripple, but like, let's call it spade a spade, there's a lot of vacant real estate. It can sit there, get vacant, like be vacant, probably get vandalized because people are people.
Or one weekend a month we just get different 'cause people are, are a little hesitant right now to pull. To like be the first one to come, you know, fill one of those spaces here in Broad Ripple. Mm-hmm. Like the businesses we have here are like, they're all in, they're, they're investing here. But getting someone new to come in has been, you know, slightly challenging.
'cause no one wants to be the first one. Mm-hmm. Everyone's okay. Yeah. We'll invest in Broad Ripple but no one wants to be the first. So if you got some of these brands, like a West Fork Whiskey to get a weekend at the old Sun King location. Mm-hmm. And then you got our friends at, uh, Huse Culinary and Rare Saint.
They, they're on the other side of the street and they're doing something and we just say like, Hey, this is pop-up shop weekend in Broad Ripple. We have a flower shop, we have this, we have that. And it's just the Permit Pending. It's like you, the city works with it. Oh. And it's like, hey, these aren't forever, this is one, one weekend only Friday, Saturday, you have to come.
You gotta be here and we're filling up these vacancies. Mm-hmm. I think it would be so sick. I am obsessed with popup ideas, so yeah. I need to talk to the Permit Pending people and figure out how Yeah. They're outta South Bend. They don't even know that I know them, but like, someone said this and they're like, yeah, this is like an idea.
And I was like, oh my gosh. That's so smart. My biggest popups that I've been dying to do is a parking garage rooftop popup. So you take the top of a parking garage. Yeah. Deck it out. And like pumpkins. They do this in New York. It's like a popup pumpkin market. They, I can get you this parking garage right over here.
Oh dude. They're, I'm telling you, people in Broad Ripple want creative ideas and if we just put a little bit of oomph behind it, we can make that happen. Okay. A hundred percent. I wanna put a movie theater on top of that for the summer. Uh, yeah. Yeah. And do like weekend movies. I went to this in The Vogue one of these.
Yeah, The Vogue right here. We could give 45 in the full Shout out Jenny. Jenny. Listen to this episode. We are, so right now there's currently a job opening for the executive director of Broad Ripple Village Association. Oh yeah. I'm, they need to hire someone that's like, I don't know, 25 and creative and just like willing to take chances on stuff like this.
Yes. I fully saw that position and we'll see. So someone sent it, someone sent it to me and I was like, I love this. I would love to do this. I didn't have time to eat lunch today. Someone was like, you should do this on the side. And I was like, I, I literally like physically we did not have time to like schedule in lunch and I was like, I, there's no side anymore.
Like sides are all gone. But I love it. I will support whoever gets that role to the full extent of my ability. My thing, I think it should be a team position. I do not think it should be a one position, one person position role. Yeah. I think the position should be. Reduced in half. And then use that for, and hire a contractor to do strategy and then use the rest of that budget for marketing and bringing in contractors to actually implement the work.
And that is how I would restructure if that was my president. That's free consulting right there. We're not even gonna invoice for that one, but whoever gets the job. Yeah. There are two advocates that are, that have vested interest in the broad Ripple bull area. Oh, yeah. I'm very involved in, in, in Broad Ripple village.
Yeah. And the, I'm on the marketing committee for the BRVA, so it's Oh, no way. A lot of fun. That's sick. I love that. Thanks for my invite. Whoever's in charge of the marketing committee. Cool. No, I'm just kidding. Uh, okay, so FIND starts to work in Indianapolis. People are excited about it. You're doing different events for whether it's singles, whether it's socials, like it's all starting to come together and then you decide, you know, who needs this?
Our friends down south in Kentucky, you know, who needs this? Our friends southeast in Cincinnati. And you start to host events in these other cities as well. Mm-hmm. I mean, what, what inspired, and was it harder to start in places that maybe you don't have as deep of relationships? Oh yeah. I've, over the past six months of expanding FIND, I've definitely understood how important it's to have a local host or have somebody that is a touchpoint that is in the community and very active.
Basically, I need to find a me in these other cities. So we do have, you know, we have events that, um, less frequently there, but it is fun to be able to, to have people come and come, speed dating, still figuring out a lot of things about expansion and systems and operations. So it's actually, I'm talking to a lot of business owners and experts that do that.
That's like my current, I guess if I was an apprentice. Like that's what I'm trying to learn and aspire for. Yeah. So I, I'm not afraid to ask for help and. I've been asking a bunch of Yeah. Kind of mentors and things on how to do systems and processing and it's like you're, you are expanding these social events, right?
Like though, though it's not necessarily this, you may be talking to a mentor who expanded their franchise, you know, like maybe they opened up another Yeah. Java House Coffee in where? In Lafayette. And it's like, though it's not the same, it's similar. Yes. Like, and you can pick up a few things from here and a few things from there and learn like kudos to you.
We have been very, very, uh, slow in growth when it comes to all things we're doing with get in of like, we started our South Bend newsletter. We just acquired a, a newsletter outta Fishers and we're slowly starting to build up some of these other markets, but people are always like, oh my gosh, are you gonna do Ohio?
Are you gonna do Illinois? Are you gonna do mis? And I'm like, it's hard to find people that want to do, like, wanna do this mm-hmm. And that are like the right person to do this and the right to be the. State's unofficial hype person like is not necessarily like, it's not, you put a job posting and it's like, yeah.
Yeah. It's interesting. So kudos to you of like going and figuring it out how to do it well, still figuring it out. I do say I, I do love everything I'm doing in Indy though. That is like my baby in that sense, like that is, yeah. I just am obsessed with it. Has there been an event that you hosted that just like blew your mind that you were like, how the heck did this happen?
The Pitch a Single Friend event that we've had, that was one of my favorite events. Especially since it's what it started the entire all of FIND. Yeah. Explain to us how a pitch a single friend event works. People apply to pitch their single friend on stage in front of an audience with a four minute PowerPoint presentation.
So it's really them hyping up their best friend on why they are awesome and should find love. Did you, did you pitch one of your friends? I have pitched some friends. So who, who did you pitch? Can we pitch a single friend right now? Who are we pitching? Oh, goodness. I have, I have one of my best friends. Her name is Carolyn, and she is recently single, so, okay.
I've been asking if I could pitch her on stage for a while, but, all right. I'll, I'll pitch my friend, my good friend Zach Okay. Has been absolutely grinding on being the best version of himself over the past, I don't know, 12 to 15 months. He's been crushing runs. He's been just doing all of these things that just make him a great person.
He's in this, like, he deleted the dating apps and he's like out there meeting, like trying to meet people and Yeah, you're right. It's tough. No, it's, it's not easy to find single. He's gonna be so pissed at me. I love that. But he's, but he's great. Like, yeah, he's crushing it. He's, I don't know, a college graduate.
He's done all the, he's got a lot going homeowner. Nice. He's got a lot of things going for him. Yeah. And I would love, he would never let me, he'd be, he's probably gonna, good thing he doesn't listen to the show every week, but he would be the perfect candidate. I would go up there and hype him up and he'd be sitting in the back with his hands over his face like, bro, no, he's gonna be on stage too.
We don't, you can't, he can't learn. Oh, did you have anyone get embarrassed? Like, I feel like that would be, like, I would, because I don't, I think a lot of people don't like it when you like to get hyped up like that. Like they like you internally. I know they like it internally, but like externally, they're like, oh, no, stop.
No, don't. Yeah, it is, it takes a very specific type of person to be willing to be on stage and also to have a friend that is open to like public speaking and you know what the cool part that would be, like the second level of that is? Mm-hmm. Like maybe in your pitch of your single friend, you say something that you never just outright said about your friend to their face.
You know, like Zach, you know, like you've been crushing it. I don't know if I tell him every day or every month that like, I'm really proud of what he's been doing. Mm-hmm. But if you were to do that and say like, you know what this person loves deeper than anyone I know this person is the ultimate go-to wing person will be there for you.
When times get to, like, how often do we say that to our friends? Right? That is we should True. We should just pitch, we should just have like the Friendship Awards honestly do like that idea, like black, black Tie, gala. We're just like, Hey, I'm, I'm nominating this person. Like, you guys can't have them 'cause they're my friend, but like, this is friend of the year.
Like, they drove in the middle of a snowstorm to help me change my tire. Like, you be a friend. A friend would like to have that. Is that I like that concept. Concept come up. I think there's something, there's a, there, there, there's something there. Okay, so you're, you're hosting these events, the Pitch a Single Friend event.
How does that go? It goes Awesome. Originally, my goal was to get a hundred people to the first event and the first event had over 200. Then the second event we had over 300 people. The, honestly, what makes the entire event is the pitchers. They are just so creative. People sing songs. They, you know, they do dances.
There's flash mobs, like they are phenomenal. What's, what's been the most creative pitch at the pitch? A single friend event. Somebody created an entire parody song for their friend and that, and she sang it on stage. That was awesome. Um, did, did that person get a date? Once you get pitched on stage, people can virtually raise their hand.
So they just fill out a form. And say they wanna go on a date with them. So that's the extent of our thing. That's wild. That's so cool. And then somebody had like a money gun and they were like making it rain. Another one did a flash mob and it was so funny. Was it Jennifer Magley? Did she have the money gun?
'cause she always pulls out the money gun. Actually it was, it was actually Sarah Harker from the City Moms who pitched her sister. It was her Jenna's money gun that she borrowed though. I was gonna say there's only one money gun I've seen around Indianapolis and it all goes back to Jennifer Magley. Yep.
And she's, she's the owner of said Money Gun. Yep. That is her money gun. So it is Jennifer's, I love, that's Indiana right there. We know to the t, the owner of a money gun. If it's being used at a specific event. Oh my God. It's still in my trunk. I actually need to get back to her. I love that. Okay, so you're doing the pitch a single friend event.
Mm-hmm. And that was kind of like a, wow, like this is the genesis. Mm-hmm. Like I was scrolling on social media. I saw this thing, I believed it needed to exist in our community. So you built it. Yeah. That's freaking cool. I have had a lot of mentorship, so that's, I don't, I haven't done this completely by myself, the company in Los Angeles, um, they have been amazing advisors and, and mentors in this process.
Yeah, that's good. We like that. But they are also very much what I, what I love about them is that they provide a lot of good advice, but they're also like, this is your business. Like, do what Yeah. Is best for you in Indiana. Well, and yeah. Like, and, and I'm sure they are experts of like the software and the events and like they know what works out there.
Mm-hmm. But I don't, I don't know what works out there. Might not necessarily work. Yeah. In Indy. And what's also crazy is this is a time where there's such a desire to do things in real life. IRL. Mm-hmm. Like. I've been doing running, I've been in running clubs since they were not cool. Like at 2019 I feel like maybe 2020.
I got into a, I know 2020 was popular, but before everyone and their brother was in a running club, like I was in a running club. Mm-hmm. And now everywhere I look there's run clubs. Yeah. It's sick. It's, it's a really cool community that it's popped up. And I love, like Casey Springer from We Walk, she does like the walking clubs around.
She has been also an amazing mentor and just providing me so many resources and help. Yeah. With getting started with FIND too. Why do you feel like there is such a desire for people to meet in real life through these structured events? COVID really just put everybody very much online and then we are lacking, we either are so lonely, we're like lacking these.
In-person experiences. And I was watching a video from the author who wrote The Art of Gathering and she was saying how people want to go to social events and be social, but there's very few people that are actually willing to put on those events. So people wanna show up to them, they just don't wanna coordinate and organize it.
So I think there has been a resurgence of people that do selfishly, just in a great way, want community. And they're like, I'm gonna put this on for myself, whether there's gonna be three or 30 people here, like I'm gonna do it. And people just. Love the people that have put on these events. And I just, I think it's a beautiful, it's like, I love not just going to the singles events and hosting it, but I love like talking to the people there and learning their story and figuring out how the dating world is, and like, how can we, yeah.
Like how, what can we do for singles that are tired of being online? How can we give them, uh, an avenue to meet people in real life and just connect as humans? Again, like when you're in a relationship, when you're in a friendship anyway, it's, it's not gonna be online. Like you have to, you're gonna meet with people and just that social interaction is super important for happiness.
And I love watching all the happiness podcasts with like Jay Shetty and, and Simon Sinek. And so that's been a really cool experience too, just learning about friendship and relationships along this journey. And it takes a, the catalyst, it takes someone to organize and put all the pieces together and.
And do it for that reason, not necessarily do it because it's a good business model, right? Like both can be true. Like, you know, it's a business, you're like, it's a company that you want to grow and expand and all that fun stuff. With this genuine passion in the problem, in this genuine passion with making the change in the world that we see and in our community.
Mm-hmm. Like that is just going to, I mean, I sky's the limit, the moon's the limit. Let's go. Right? And this generation, our generation, Gen Z, we're really focused on in-person experiences. Like we're willing to spend hundreds, thousands on a concert, on comedy shows, on experiences and meeting people. And there's, yeah, definitely less emphasis on material items.
This is the crazy piece that I've noticed too. This is kinda like a fun episode where we've talked about a fun, a bunch of fun side quests. This is the piece when I was 21 and I went out, I was. You, it didn't, you could have put me in the basement of whatever, sticking to the floor. Dark smells kinda weird.
But I would take my $25 and I would buy the most amount of beers that I could afford with $25. Mm-hmm. And I didn't care about the aesthetic, like turn on some music, I don't care. I'm sticking to the floor, whatever. Now I feel like people will take their $25 and it's not just about the quantity that you can get, but it's the quality and the aesthetic.
And it's like, you know, is it, is it five beers at rest or no, sorry, is it five beers at Rock Lobster or is it one drink at three up? And I think a lot of people, even younger down the market are like, oh, I'll just take one drink at three up and enjoy the view. Mm-hmm. The experience is just a little bit, it's, it's more Instagrammable, you know, like I think that's a real thing.
And in big cities atmosphere is so important, especially when people are, like you said, like spending their time in money. Into going to get a drink, going to hang out. I, when I personally, like if I'm gonna go out to eat, if I'm hungry and I am gonna go out to eat, it's going to be like with friends because I value like the restaurant experience with friendships.
I will go out to eat by myself. I'm not afraid to do that, but I'd rather just cook at home and save that money. But if I'm with my friends and we wanna go get a drink, I would a hundred percent rather do that. Yeah. Like where the atmosphere is. Cool. So yeah, I think we really need to put yeah, emphasis on atmosphere and experience because that, and not just 'cause it's Instagramable, but I mean also that it helps justify like what people are, are coming to your store for.
Yeah. Like I think that the mindset though is like drink specials and, and I think a lot of people are like, oh, happy hours are gonna save the bar. And it's like getting good value is, is fine and good and all that jazz, but like. They, I think consumers today, they're not just buying the liquid in the cup.
Right. They're buying the whole shebang. Mm-hmm. Like if you go up to Midtown Carmel, nobody cares about the price of the drinks up there. No. Not one. And if anyone's like, oh yeah. It's like you don't see the sandwich boards outside that are like, and, and if you do, I have not seen them, and I don't think they've worked on the majority of people up there.
They care about the ambiance, like the 1933 lounge up there or three up or wherever you're going. It's not like looking for the Tuesday night Yeah. Discount. It's, Hey, I'm paying $15 for this cocktail, but I get to see the sunset. Mm-hmm. I'm paying $15 for whatever it is, but I'm right along the Monan trail and it's on a patio.
Yeah. It's a great aesthetic. It is. It's, it's an interesting piece. Buyers are, they're putting their dollars into, not necessarily just quantity. Mm-hmm. And I actually, I would say go back and listen to our episode, Martha Hoover. Anyone out there that wants to learn about the value equation of. Whether it's food or drink.
And a lot of time, I think buyers' perspectives have shift from getting the most, for the least. Like getting the most amount of drinks for the least amount of money to like, oh no, I value the ambiance and the experience and the, the vibe and the aesthetic. Yes. All about the vibes. Interesting. It's all about the vibes.
Looking into 2026, what can we expect for FIND, Ooh, I wanna do a lot more social events. Speed dating is our bread and butter. Speed dating is gonna be happening always. Um, but I wanna get a little bit more creative with the social and community events. So I wanna partner with a lot of different organiz.
Like I've been partnering with a lot of organizations, but in Houston, Texas, there's this giant picnic party that they do, and I wanna do that in next year. It's just, they have a giant picnic blanket. They go to the middle of a park, they have DJs, crafts, art activations, they have speed friending. And it looks awesome.
Speed friending. Yeah. That's sick. I know. Which honestly, our software that does speed dating, we can do speed friending very easily. I mean, I'm in, I don't know what you need. I don't know how I can help. Yeah. And, and, but I want to help. This is sick and it's so, there's such a need for it. Like I do think that we live in a, we've never been more connected, but yet less connected.
Mm-hmm. You know, like we, like we have all the followers and the connections and the email and like, I have contact information for everyone, but I've, but also at times it's like you're never less connected because we start to take some of those for granted. And so getting out in person and scheduling time, I hate that.
But like I schedule time of like, yeah, I need to be in intentional and I wanna talk to my friends. And if I don't like, remind myself to like, go out and hang out with people, like it doesn't happen. 'cause you're like, well I kind of know what's going on in their life. 'cause I see it on social media or like, I see the LinkedIn post or whatever.
Congrats on the new job. Did I actually set an intentional time to talk to my friend about their new gig and how it's going and man, it's so important. Yeah. I love it. Yeah, meeting with people, super important. That's also another thing I've loved about these events, that people also find their people at the events.
So yeah, meet new friends. We also, uh, on a lot of our social events, we always provide compliment cards. Um, so this is also something I found on the internet. Basically, you just have a little card that says, best outfit, best smile. You know, nice shoes, cool, but quiet. And then you also have an open-ended one where you can write in your own thing.
And it's an icebreaker for people to hand out. And it's so fun to see, like, people get these cards and their face just like lights up. And even people giving me, I get so happy when people like, give me cards. So we always bring these cards out. We go through hundreds of them. Like, I just ordered like, gosh, like 10,000 more cards because we go through hundreds each event.
I'm fired up by this. This is so, so, so fun, so, so smart and so, so rewarding. You know, like I think that you talking about just sitting back and taking that all in of people find their people, they find their tribe, they get to connect, they get to learn about each other in a physical space. I think that's, that's really, really impactful.
You're doing incredible things. The city of Indianapolis, the state of Indiana is lucky to have you. running FIND and doing these crazy cool things. Um, well, I couldn't do it. I love it when people say that, but honestly, I couldn't do it. Do it unless people want to come. That's the most rewarding thing about it.
Yeah. It, and then people always, like, people will come up to me like, thank you for hosting this event. And I'm like, no, thank you for coming because I would not have this event if nobody showed up. This episode of Get IN is sponsored by Accounted For a team of Indiana CPAs who believe accounting should work for business owners, not against them, instead of hourly bills and slow responses accounted for gives you everything, tax, bookkeeping, consulting, and virtual CFO services under one fixed monthly fee.
It's all cloud-based, transparent and designed to keep your business moving without interruptions. You'll have direct access to a real CPA who knows your numbers and your goals because they think like business owners too. Learn more@accountedforcpa.com and tell them the Get IN team sent you. You think a lot of people are, oh, I go to networking events or do like, I.
Not that I network events have a time and a place and they're fine, whatever. But it's like, I think that we're getting into an age where people wanna do business with people that they like and enjoy and, I don't know, could sit and hang out and have a coffee with and, and not be like totally corporate the whole time.
Right? Yeah. You go shopping with your friends. Yeah. You do business with your friends. Heck yeah. I love it. Uh, we come to the part in the show where we talk all things Indiana. Yay. We got a little rapid fire around. This next question is brought to you by our friends at J.C. Hart. They're a leader in creating enjoyable living experiences at apartment communities all across Indiana and beyond.
Check them out at homeisjchart.com. My question for you, Bo, why do you call Indiana home? Indiana has been so welcoming and inviting everything that I want to do. Everybody's just been so rooting for me. Like the best cheerleaders being a young entrepreneur, like I started my business when I was 25.
Now I'm 29. It's like, I didn't know what was ha like I did not have years of industry experience. I didn't know what I was doing. So people have been so kind with giving me their time, their expertise, and now I want to, like, as I've gotten older, I wanna be able to give that back to, to people as much as I can.
So Indiana has just been so kind and welcoming with sharing their experiences. And my family's here. They live in Terre Haute. All of my friends are here in Indianapolis. Shout out Terre Haute. Terre Haute. I know. Rebrand it. Yes. Um, it's, it's been wonderful. Um, I think Indiana's phenomenal to be able to actually do stuff that you wanna do.
I mean, with the food truck park in Terre Haute, I a, I was like talking to the city and stuff. I was like, alright, what, uh, what permits, what stuff do I need? They're like. There's Just do it. I was like, okay. Done. Sick. Yeah. I was like, so there's just less red tape, there's Yeah. Amazing places for people to actually get stuff started.
Yeah. Indiana rewards action. Yeah. Like Indiana rewards people who are driven by impact and want to not just talk about the change that they want to see, but actually go out there and figure out how to do it. And I would say at a lot of journeys, at multiple stages of whatever your company, whatever your thing is, if there's something that you want to see, people won't stand in your way because that's the way it's always done.
Like, and that's not maybe true about everything, but my experience has been people will root for you. Mm-hmm. And not just say like, good job. Go. Like if there is an ask that you have, they will help you. Yes. And I think that's a really big thing that everybody, and no matter if you're entrepreneur or not, you've got to ask.
It's like I get, like you have to ask and know what you want and people are going to help you like. They might not know how to solve that problem, but they will probably know somebody that does. Yes. I'm not the expert there, but I do know the expert. Yeah. Do you want, by the way, do you want their, like their birthday, their email address, phone number, social security number, credit card last four of the zip C like yeah, they got everything and it's like, oh yeah.
Like I will physically take you there and introduce you to this person. Yeah. And it's, and I'll buy you lunch. Yeah. It's so easy to, yeah. People are so awesome to just get coffee. Correct. Uh, I love that. That is a great answer. Now we've come to some rapid fire questions. How many dates do you feel as though you've helped spark throughout your over one year of hosting speed dating events in Indianapolis?
Oh, I don't know. I, I only know when people tell me How about matches? How many matches have you guys helped create in the last year at speed dating events? Oh, man, I didn't know I needed to quantify things here. Just roughly we've had over f. 3,500 people come speed dating average, 76% match rate, you know, thousands of matches, thousands of matches, thousands of match.
You've helped create thousands of matches for dates in Indianapolis. So you're kind of a dating expert. I love it. So, so as people talk through it, what would the ideal, what, what would your recommendation be for a first date in Indianapolis? Something active, low pressure, not super expensive. Active, low pressure, not super expensive.
Yeah. Um, it also depends on the type of person, but I would say just like going for a walk or just meeting up at a third space. And I think that is, you've said that word twice. What is a third space? A third space is someplace that is not your work or your home. It's merely met as a third space, like a community space.
A lot of people good equivalents for third spaces that we don't really have in, we don't really have third spaces in the United States, but in Europe it's like the, the squares, it's the, the town squares or it's those little parks. Yeah. Like for example, my favorite third space in Indiana that I know of is, is Midtown Carmel.
Because you, it's free to go, there's no barrier to entry. There's outdoor activities. You can, you know, go to shops and restaurants if you want to, but there's not a big obligation financially to be able to hang out, meet people. Um, so coffee shops are a great third space. So what's been the best first date you've heard someone say, oh, I just wanted my first date, and this was it.
Like, what's the best one you've heard? I would say my recommendation for a good good first date is going to a place like the AMP at 16 Tech, getting a bite to eat coffee or a drink. And then you can also like walk around. Yeah. See the different businesses. I also like when people like go to Fountain Square and kind of bop around to different businesses and restaurants or like going to.
parks like, or like an activity like Newfields where you can like learn and talk and also experience something. Yeah. I think it's cool when you can partner like a first date with an activity and also learning something new. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I love that. I I 'cause you learn a lot about people, like what are they interested in?
Yeah. You know, like, like I love history and Lauren on the other hand is like, oh my gosh, if I have to hear another historical fact about the state of Indiana, I'm gonna lose my mind. Yeah. You know, you know, it's okay. My first date Alec, my, my husband took me to a Colts game. So like, that was my first date experience with my husband.
Are you, are you a sports gal? I'm not a big sports girly. No. Unfortunately. I don't know a lot, but I love going to the games though. There you go. But we had fun. It's experience, that's the thing. Like I love the experience of the atmosphere. Yeah, that's fair. Okay. That's fun. Um, what's the best piece of dating advice you've received given, like what have you heard throughout your time in the speed dating network?
Speed dating is like going to a music festival and it's like one of my. Favorite analogies in the sense of you may go for the headliner. You may know one or two artists at a music festival, and that's kind of like, I mean, you might have a certain type of person that you're looking for. But you also get a chance to meet and experience a bunch of different people, personalities, and then like you're able to experience a bunch of different artists and you might find an artist that you've never thought that you would listen to by yourself, but you found that you fell in love with your music and now you're a big fan of them.
Or you might, you know, listen to a song. Appreciate it for what it is and then yeah, move on. So I, I think just having an open mind and just going into the experience of I'm going to make friends first and I'm really here to just to meet new people and make friends. And if something romantic comes from it, then even better.
I actually found myself thinking in that mindset like two weeks ago, uh, we went to uh, Clayton's new bar downtown. Yes. I love country music. Yeah, I love country music too. All genres, all generations. This is what happened. We go there and the band that's playing is like nineties and early two thousands.
Outlaw country. Mm-hmm. I like it. I'm here for it. I know the songs 'cause I am a country music. Fanatic. Mm-hmm. I'm with some friends and they're one of 'em just like, ah, this band sucks. And I was like, oh, wait, wait, wait. Hold on. They are shredding on the guitar. They are electric musicians. And I say, well, does the band suck?
Or is it just not your taste of music? And, and we then reworked it back and was like, yeah, you're right. This is not what I was in the mood to hear. Mm-hmm. But like, the musicians were very talented. And I think that's a, a way that we can all think. It's like sometimes there are things in the world that actually are not good, you know?
But like there, there's hundreds of people in this bar listening to this band absolutely shredding it. And it's not their fault. You don't know the words to this song. Like, it's not, and we actually got to, they're like, yeah, you're right. Like, it just wasn't the vibe that that person was looking for. But it doesn't mean that it's bad.
It doesn't mean that it's, yeah. Like you can appreciate something for what it is, but it's still not be like, Hey, I'm not saving their music to my Spotify tonight. Yeah. That's how I feel about food too. It's like, you might not love, I don't know, Mediterranean food, but you can still appreciate. What it is.
Yeah. Dude. I go, is that gyros? I love Mediterranean food. So that's, I am not a picky eater at all. Yeah. All right. Respect. Uh, yeah. It's like that people say about tenderloins, it's like, ah, I could never, and it's like, Hey, don't yuck my yum. Exactly. Don't, yuck. My yum. What's your dream location in Indiana to host a FIND event on the rooftop bar downtown?
On the Circle? Astrea. Oh, we were just that how you saved just, yeah. What's that? Hotel? Uh, InterContinental. InterContinental. Hey, I think they, they commented on one of my posts recently, so if you see this video, let's do an event. I also wanna do a a, a daytime rave up there. Yeah. Well shout out to my friend Georgia.
She said we had to go up there. Her, um, she is engaged to one of my great friends of Brooks, and she was like, guys, when we left literally the same night we left Clayton's and she was like, Hey, let's go here. Mm. And we go up there and she's like, total vibe. Place A total vibe. Yep. Hey, Astrea, meet Bo. Bo meet.
Come on everyone. Let's hang out. Dream City. To launch a FIND event at Indianapolis has been phenomenal. I That's love it here. Like, I'm glad that I did it here. Yeah. Mm-hmm. So if there wa but if there was another city that you would, that you wanted to host, one that you haven't yet, what would it be?
Austin, Texas. Hee-haw. Let's do it. Talk about food truck parks. Come on. I know cha. Yeah, like what's the spot? If you could just like, snap your fingers and host one of your coffee shop clubs, where would it be? Bovaconti. A hundred percent. Bovaconti. Come on. I love Bovaconti. That would be sick. It's beautiful inside.
Yeah. And especially the Carmel one. They have that like little patio space out in the garden. I'm sure they listen. I'm sure they'll see this clip. Let's do it. Dream guest to show up at a FIND event. Oh. As in like, as a single person, if any. Single or social? Single or social. Okay. Single or social. Who's your dream guest to show up to one of your events?
Um, besides you, nay. Um, I'm honored. Uh, probably like Sampson Levingston. Sampson. I love him, bro. He's the, he's like one of my favorite humans, dude. Sampson. All right. Sampson and I will come and we'll hang out at the next FIND event. Yeah. Like, what are we doing, bro? Terre Haute. He, I know he loves Terre Haute. Nice. He's a big content guy, man.
Okay. We've come to the part in the show where we ask the same three questions to every guest who sits in that chair. Obviously, you've, you've traveled around to many different places all around the world. You've, you know, brought some of those experiences back to Indiana, and sometimes Indiana doesn't get painted in the best light across the world, across the nation.
You know, people are like, oh, Indiana, whatever. What's something the world needs to know about Indiana? The amount of opportunity, the things that are happening, the amount of sports that are here. I'm not a big sports girly, but if I was, I a hundred percent have my butt here in Indiana. Yeah. The world is what you make of it, so it's like, and people need to talk.
It's the thing, it's like really frustrates me whenever. It's when people say negative things about Indiana and their, like what? Who they live in. 'cause it's like only, the only way people get those perceptions is because other people are talking shit about it. You know, so I want everybody to say good things about Indiana.
Be proud of the city that you're living in. Yeah. And it, and that doesn't mean necessarily like, oh, it's all perfect and it's sunshine and rainbows of everything. Right. But I think that so often. And this is modeled from all mean, all levels of media, government, the whole, it's like we focus so much on all these negative things mm-hmm.
That we like, kind of become numb to the positive things. Fortunately, and we don't have this appreciation. And, and this is my whole, I have a whole shtick and literally I, like, I've said this like 10 times, but in the last like week I've said this 10 times, it's not some top down approach. It's not like the state funding $20 million to create pure Indiana.
And all of a sudden everyone loves it here. It actually starts at the bottom. Mm-hmm. And it builds up from there. And it's how you talk about Terre Haute, like, is everything perfect? No, everything is not perfect in Terre Haute. But are there things that people are discrediting, have they been to the mill to hang out for a concert?
No. It's incredible. Like there are really cool things happening there. And if we can help shine some light on those things and talk about those things, and then work to fix some of like the issues that are, are everywhere instead of just focusing all these negative things like. Ugh. It would make such a big impact.
And that's the thing, whenever I travel, I love talking to the locals and understanding, you know, what are the issues that you all are having? What's your government, what's your city? What, what are the things that you like and dislike about your city or your country? And I kid you, not everybody says the same thing.
It's all common issues that we are all experiencing no matter what city or country or continent you're on. That's the one thing that I love about traveling and experiencing things is seeing how, how the same and similar we are, no matter where we're at. Yeah. And then also if sometimes, like in Singapore, they, you can learn just so many things of how, what they're doing That's good.
And it's like, how can we bring that back or like take elements of that for, for our, our area. I am a big advocate for Yeah. Talking and traveling and just experiencing new things. Not just to, to do it, but to really. See the humans that are on the other side. And I think what's interesting is a lot of people travel with the mindset to get away and not necessarily travel with the mindset of you're going out to see things and thinking about what you could bring back.
Mm-hmm. I think that's a really impactful way to travel. Um, with, I mean obviously, you know, you're going out and you're seeing all these things and it's really cool and like, yes, Indianapolis will never be Singapore, you know? Mm-hmm. But are there aspects of that that would be really cool activated in our city?
Exactly. I was just in Lisbon last weekend and they classic were like, oh, I was in Lisbon. That's Portugal. For those out there that don't know geography, we were, we were just walking along an area and we stumbled upon a Parke where they had a dj. It was Sunset. They had a sunset dj. Everybody was just dancing.
They had drinks like a little market and it was so much fun. And then now I'm trying to figure out how we can do a similar activation and where to do it at in Indianapolis. And that is, you call it sunsets? Sunsets. Like, like a DJ plays a set. Oh, sunsets. I love that. Come on. Snaps. Sunsets, sunsets. Trade market.
That's great. Yeah. That'd be fun. That's like in, in Chicago, they do house calls. Huh. And it's, it's called house calls. Oh. And it's house music. Mm-hmm. On call and there's like pop up house calls. That's fun. It's pretty cool. That's cool. Pretty interesting. You know, I do stuff on rooftops. There's so many rooftop venues that they do in other cities that I want do here.
Who does not love a good rooftop. Exactly. Come on. Alright. This is your opportunity to shed some light on part of the state that more people need to know about. What is a hidden gem in Indiana? I'd Say, Parke County Indiana. Covered Bridge Festival out of every CVB. That's a, that's visitor bureaus. Mm-hmm. Across the state that represent their communities.
I would say Parke County has one of the best aesthetics on the gram. You know who that was? Who that is? Who is it? It's my old business partner, Courtney. She does all the marketing. That's the most Indiana thing. She does all the marketing for for CVB over there. It's beautiful. And that's why they get stuff that goes viral.
Yeah. Granted, they take a lot of swings. There's a lot of swings at the little map that like zooms into Parke County. Mm-hmm. That is a common intro, but it works like one out every like five times I suppose. Yeah. And the Covered Bridge Festival, the largest multi-day festival across the state. It's like 10, 14 days long, something like that.
Yeah. It's two week. Yeah. It's weekends, very long. Weekends, two weekends. Yeah. Through the week. Nuts. I'm obsessed with the bridge. 10 different locations. Yeah. Something like that. It's, it's wild. I love it so much. It's the Covered Bridge Festival is the highlight of my entire like festival year. Wow. Yeah. And I know, so I, I actually am next week and I'm leading a group of people that want to like go to Covered Bridge.
It's never been, 'cause it is daunting. There are so many festivals and my priority is food, so I know. All the good food spots. Yeah. Um, so it's just so much fun to experience the Yeah. The Parke County Country Life. And it's, besides the Covered Bridge Festival, the nature of the Turkey Run state park just everything there is beautiful Parke County.
Yeah. That's a good one. We've come to the final question of the show. This is where we uncover new guests or just interesting people doing interesting and inspiring things. Who's a Hoosier? We need to keep on our radar. Someone who's doing big things. Casey Springer from We Walk Indy Casey Springer.
Mm-hmm. Who this, she runs a free walking group in Indianapolis. Um, she has the best energy and just wants to collaborate. She has, yeah. She's just one of the best humans that I've ever met. Shout out. Yeah. Casey. Casey. Casey Springer. She's in Broad Ripple. Oh yeah. We do the dance walks together. Uh, so we do dance walks.
What don't you do That's incredible in Broad Ripple. So it's been a lot of fun. I mean, that sounds like a vibe I would say. Like there are sometimes I like, I like will see this and it's like, dude, we're, we're in the world's bo what's Bo doing? Uh, we're lucky to have you as a proud Hoosier doing big things across the city of Indianapolis, the state of Indiana.
And I think that that Indiana will continue to grow as long as more people are willing to take chances and build. Things build the change they want to see. I think it takes so much courage and just a, a, I don't know, there's a mindset, maybe, I don't know what it is, but I always love seeing people that are willing to go out there, put themselves out there, build something, and know when it's time.
Like you're seeing signs and it's like, Hey, there's, there's this new opportunity. There's this thing coming up. And just dive headfirst in there. Don't be afraid to ask for help. I love everything you had to say today. I resonate with, uh, if people want to connect with you, if they wanna find you, if they wanna show up to one of your social or singles events, how can they do that?
Social media is the best way to stay connected and understand. I do a lot of behind the scenes and explaining what the events are about. The latest one has been, you need to show up. Like, no, don't, no call, no show to a speed dating event. 'cause it makes B'S life hard. Yeah, it makes my life hard and also just, it does hurt my soul.
Whenever people. Want to come to a speed. We do sell a lot on our events, so it's like whenever people want to come and you're waitlist someone, we're waitlist people and it's like, if you don't show, I understand things happen, but if yet, if, if there wasn't an emergency, please just let me know. I mean, who is too busy to find their soulmate?
Anyone? Like, I don't know any, I haven't met anyone. If opportunity's knock, you're supposed to answer the call. Yeah. Social media is the best way. I love, I love social, I love, yeah. Yeah. Creating these experiences. So how often are events happening? Like if someone's listening in, you know, as we go into 2026, what can they expect for a cadence of events?
Yeah. Speed dating, we do several a month, so we do probably three or four speed dating events for different art, for different groups. Um, and then for social events, probably one to two friend social events a month. Um, that's lit. I love it. You're doing incredible work. The state is lucky to have you, uh, keep it up.
Seriously, keep charging you, uh, you, this is fun. Thank you. And it's so cool to see the impact that you're making and as you help continue to get people outta the house in person, making valuable connections, bringing your social life into real life. Yeah. It's been a pleasure and I'm sure we'll talk soon.
Thank you so much for having me, Nate. This show is made possible by our friends up at Sweetwater. Whether you're looking to start a podcast or take your content to the next level, click the link in the description to see all my gear recommendations at Sweetwater. If you want a behind the scenes look at everything we're doing across the state.
Make sure you follow me on Instagram and TikTok at Nate Spangle. Thank you so much for listening and being a part of what makes the Hoosier State great. We'll see you next time here on Get IN.
