#161: Rick Stockburger (BRITE) — Unleashing the Energy Revolution

(AI-Generated)
--

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [00:00:00]:
My dad worked for the steel mill... he was a union man and put his whole life into this company, and that company was able to just decide to leave. And he thought he was doing the least risky thing that you could ever possibly do, which is work for 27 years at a place and have, you know, stability and all of that stuff. And, I actually saw a quote recently about entrepreneurship, something along the lines of, like, entrepreneurship has 1 of 2 outcomes, either you quit before you're successful or you're successful. The really like resounded with me because I never really thought about you quit before you're successful aspect of that. it's like, oh, you fail or you're successful. Right? And like, I can think of every single company that I've ever helped that's came through BRITE. And they might not have had the best business plan at the time, but if you can learn and you can pivot, you can be successful in entrepreneurship. You just have to be able to take feedback, take data, take feedback, and then make a decision.You just keep iterating. You keep doing that.

Jeffrey Stern [00:01:07]:
Let's discover what people are building in the Greater Cleveland community. We are telling the stories of Northeast Ohio's entrepreneurs, builders, and those supporting them. Welcome to the Lay of the Land podcast where we are exploring what people are building in Cleveland and throughout Northeast Ohio. I am your host, Jeffrey Stern. And today, I had the real pleasure of speaking with Rick Stockburger, the CEO of Bryte. Located in the city of Warren, just outside of Youngstown in the Mahoning Valley, Bryte was founded in 2000 ten as a nonprofit focused on the acceleration of energy technology across Northeast Ohio. Since then Land under Rick's leadership, BRITE has helped over 600 companies creating approximately 21 100 jobs Land channeling over $250,000,000 of investment into BRITE's network of companies. Providing signature Stern up programs, a network ecosystem, and strategic presence to unleash the energy revolution across Ohio, Appalachia, and the Midwest writ large, Wright serves a variety of clients providing solutions to today's challenges Land defining tomorrow's opportunities across energy storage, grid resilience, and mobility and transportation.

Jeffrey Stern [00:02:21]:
Rick comes to BRITE as a Northeast Ohio native, decorated combat veteran serving the US over nearly 7 years in the early 2000, as well as a a kindred believer to myself in the power of storytelling, having spearheaded Land award winning Red, White Land Blueprints, a Rust Belt documentary, telling the stories of some of the most innovative initiatives, individuals Land ideas in the Rust Belt from Detroit to Buffalo to Cleveland and beyond. This was an awesome conversation. We cover Rick's journey to BRITE involving a serendipitous run-in with Dave Grohl, a fellow Warren, Ohio native. Voltage Valley, the dependency and interconnectedness of really everything energy related. Some of the most compelling companies within BRITE's network, including some whose stories we've actually shared here on Lay of the The, like Lay Energy, back on episode 48, and Octet Scientific back on episode 118 with their founders, Scott Colicimo and Onis Bolton, respectively. We talk about the changing perception about nuclear, Rick's learnings along the way, and ultimately, the opportunity and ability for this region to lead in energy production, the electrification of things, and energy storage going forward. So please enjoy my conversation with Rick Stock Stockburger after a brief message from our sponsor. Widely recognized as one of the top business schools in the region.

Jeffrey Stern [00:03:48]:
As we've heard time and time again from entrepreneurs here on Lay of the Land, many of whom are proud alumni of John Carroll University, success in this ever changing world of business requires a dynamic and innovative mindset, deep understanding of emerging technologies and systems, strong ethics, leadership prowess, acute business acumen, all qualities nurtured through the The College of Business. With 4 different MBA programs of study spanning professional, online, hybrid, and 1 year flexible, the Buhler College of Business provides flexible timelines Land various class structures for each MBA track, including online, in person, hybrid, and asynchronous. All to offer the most effective options for you, including the ability to participate in an elective international study tour of unparalleled opportunities to expand your global business knowledge by networking with local companies overseas and experiencing a new culture. The career of a bowler MBA is formative and will help prepare you for this future of business and get more out of your career. To learn more about John Carroll University's bowler MBA programs, please go to business.jcu.edu. The Buller College of Business is fully accredited by AACSB International, the highest accreditation a college of business can have. Before we get to energy Land sustainability and electricity and all things BRITE, I wanted to start with something that I think we share in common, around this this belief that storytelling matters, and particularly in in places here like like Cleveland and throughout Northeast Ohio. You know, my sense since coming to this region has been that perception may not reflect reality.

Jeffrey Stern [00:05:38]:
You know, kind of opposite as the old saying goes because, you know, my perception of what it is like here having not been from here, it didn't map to my lived experience. You know, seeing all these people every single day who are making things happen and building impactful businesses and products that matter at really kind of formidable scales who could change this narrative, this perception of what it is like to be here. And so, you know, of of thinking about this discrepancy between perception and reality, you know, I kind of honed in on that this challenge, that storytelling is at the heart of it. It. And and we're not just we're just not telling enough of these stories to, I think, amplify what it looks like to build great and to inspire others who may be inclined to to want to realize their own dreams via entrepreneurship. Land in many ways that's kind of what Lay of the land to me has, has become. So, I I have a feeling that resonates a bit. Yeah.

Jeffrey Stern [00:06:35]:
So, I wanted to start there. You know, if you take us back in time to the the formative parts of your life as we make our way to BRITE, I I believe you came to a similar understanding, and so I I'd love to hear, you know, how it is that that you came to that realization.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [00:06:48]:
Yeah, man. You know, I'm a Northeast Ohio native, so I am from northeast Ohio, but, I've always loved and been passionate about Cleveland. You know, I'm The son of a steelworker. You know, my father lost his job, you know, when I was in high school. And our big debate as a family was, you know, do we move to Indiana The follow that job or stick around? And, you know, I was very blessed that my family decided to stick around. And we did it for a couple of reasons, but thank God we did it because first and foremost, The plant in Indiana shut down a year Lay, and we would have been in Indiana without any kind of safety net. But, you know, that's where it's at. And so, as I went into the military Land I gained a really large appreciation for the rest of the world, I was fortunate enough to be in places like Budapest and Germany and really experience the rest of the world Land not so nice places like Afghanistan and some others.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [00:07:47]:
You know, I was really able to get kind of this global understanding of what was going on. And I got back from the Army in 2010. And one of the first things that happened to me specifically was Forbes came out with this article that said Cleveland was the most miserable city in the country. And it was just like it was it didn't register right with me. I was just like, well, wait, why? What are we doing? How are we making these rankings Land why are we crapping on each other? This is just a weird thing that this national publication just decides like, this is the most miserable. So like, me being me, I'm like, Hey, how do who wrote this? I'm going to send an email. Right? Like, and just be like, and you know, I was an infantryman, so like, I'm kind of in for the fight, if you will. And so, you know, I wrote Land I was just like, hey, like, I'm not mad.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [00:08:45]:
I'm just confused. Like, because I am not miserable. There's a lot of things that like are happening that I wish were better, but like miserable is not remotely a way that I would describe like my life in Cleveland or in Northeast Ohio. And so like, how did you come to this conclusion? Like, have you been here? Like, did you have a bad experience? Like, what came to this? He actually responded, which was awesome. I was like because I probably wouldn't have responded to that email, but he responded with a very short response that said, Well, that's what the data says. And I was like, Oh, Land, like, how do we quantify feelings with data? Because miserable is a feeling. Like, that's something that is very subjective. And I love data.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [00:09:37]:
Like, I live my life by data right now, like, as The CEO of BRITE. And like, I work with numbers quite frequently. All I could think about was all The people that I knew that weren't miserable, but were being told that they were miserable. And like, what does that do? And it does 1 of 2 things. It either makes you crap on your city and say, Oh gosh, we're the most miserable place in the world. Like, Or it makes a response. And I've never been slow to respond to much of anything. You can see in my emails, of you send me an email, you usually get a response within 24 hours.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [00:10:17]:
I kind of pride myself on that. It might not be the best response, but you'll get one. Land me and a couple of my friends got together and were like, Well, let's just talk about this. Right? Like, let's find some people and see if we are miserable. Land at least like then we've defined it. Right? We would find a problem that we can fix. And if you find a problem, you can fix the problem. And Cleveland being miserable was a problem that I didn't know we had.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [00:10:43]:
There were real, very, very real economic stress problems The we had, but like my feelings were not on the list of things that I was concerned about. So we got together at an old abandoned flower shop that is now a parking lot for the Cleveland Clinic on the east side of town and threw a party. I was Land infantryman, so like there's very few things that I know how to do well, but throw a party and fire a weapon at 300 meters. I was great at that at this point in time in my life. And I'm glad I chose the shooting not shooting, glad I chose throwing a party on the response to Forbes Magazine on this, right? And so, we invited these folks Land 15 of our friends turned into a 100 of our friends Stern into at this time, they were having The 1st election for county executive. And I had invited our friend, Tim McCormick, who was running to potentially come and talk to The, you know, couple of kids that were trying to figure out what was going on and young professionals. And, you know, in that crowd that night was Justin Bibb as a young professional trying to find his way and get going on. And all of the other candidates decided to come because they wanted to talk in front of these like young professionals that just like weren't accepting being miserable in Cleveland.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [00:12:01]:
Land like, what do these guys got going on? You know? And so through that, also, The Atlantic showed up in a couple of magazines and Harvard Business Review. And my business partner and I, Jack, and Chris Schroeder, you know, the night before were like, We should call this thing Saving Cities. Like, that's a great name. Because like that's what we're gonna try to do, right? And just name it after what you want the end result to be and see how that goes. And, you know, 2 days later, after this really cool party that I thought was fun Land we had painted walls and whiteboard paint and put prompts up and like said, Hey, like, are you miserable? Like, what's Cleveland look like? What's non miserable Cleveland look Right? Like all of just kind of fun, kitschy things The, people were writing. And we found out like not only were people not miserable, but like they really gave a damn about the city. Land but it wasn't the city, right? It was the people. Like The gave a damn about each other and their stories and their individual stories.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [00:13:05]:
And so, a couple of days later in The Atlantic, there was a headline that said Saving Cities Solves the Rust Belt Brain Drain. I was like, that's a bit much, but yeah, that's how we started the company. And we realized that I had some audio background and Jack and Chris got their degrees at Full Sail for video production and said, Let's shoot some movies. And we originally when we went out and recorded Red, White and Blueprints, which is a feature length documentary focused on urban revitalization in the Rust Belt. We thought we were going to tell stories of cities, right? We went to St. Louis, which we consider the Hawaii of the Rust Belt. Just like geographically, it's really kinda out there. Yep.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [00:13:53]:
But, like, culturally, it's very similar to Detroit and Cleveland and Pittsburgh and Buffalo, which were the other cities that we went to. And just that kind of post industrial midwest. And so we we thought we were gonna, like, do these interviews and people were gonna tell us about the history and how proud of they were of the cities. And what we found out is people were telling their stories of why they cared. And like The stories we tell ourselves about ourselves are the most impactful things that we can ever do when we care about a place. Like it really connects because humans don't connect to a city. Like The connect to people Land the idea of people and friendship and Lay. Like, it's, I'm not in love with the terminal tower, but I remember very distinctly the time, like I went for a walk with my wife and we looked up and saw the terminal tower Land it was New Year's and it was snowing.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [00:14:55]:
And the way that I felt with that city as my background was super important. Land it's something that's like foundational to my marriage from that perspective. And so that was a really long answer to storytelling is unbelievably important because like people connect to each other. And like I said, the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves are the most important stories we'll ever tell.

Jeffrey Stern [00:15:21]:
When you reflect with storytelling and your service as part of your experience, what do you feel is your path to entrepreneurship?

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [00:15:31]:
So the short answer is service. Right? Like, for me, you know, the military is a very clear, like, service. Right? Like, that is like very much the armed services, if you will. And I grew up in a very blue collar, half farming, half like steelworking. Like I spent my summers bailing hay and working for farms. Land, you know, I spent the winters you know, helping my dad with whatever we were doing. And so service has always been something that has defined my life. And I've found for myself that I get a lot of edification.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [00:16:09]:
I get a lot of happiness from seeing other people be happy and helping them achieve their goals. Like that's really, for me, what has led to my entire career trajectory Land like what I've because I find enjoyment out of other people. I'm like the opposite of Schadenfreude. I don't know. I'm sure there's Land actuary, there's a word for The, but like, if I think about my time in the The, I really worked on helping my soldiers pass all of the tests that they could to get advanced and get promotions Land like, really tried to spend as much time as I could setting them up for success in the system that was the army. Like, I just loved that part of of. Land hilariously, like some of my soldiers got promoted over me because I was spending so much time helping them do what they were supposed to do, and I just wasn't doing what I was supposed to be doing because, like, I wanted them to be successful. And so, like, you know, there's that first.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [00:17:08]:
And then secondarily with Saving Cities was very much like a service to the region. Like being able to tell help people tell their stories was what we were doing. If you talk about some of the other stuff that I've done with mining, manufacturing equipment Land others, like entrepreneurship and starting businesses at the end of the day is like, what tool can you give to somebody that makes their life better? And they get it at a price that is, you know, affordable for that trade off? Like that's, at at the end of the day, like, that's what we're selling. Right? Like, is is The, like, every product has to make your life better in some definable, measurable way. And I call that service, you know, whether it's clean energy or whether it's, coal mining or anything Like, The justification for product development is service. And so that's why I've always loved it, and that's why I've always been super engaged. Land because when you speak something into Stern, Land that's what Entreprenuership, The, Land then, like, at the end of it is like this thing that you get to, like, Land out if it helps somebody. If you find out if it helps somebody by saying, This is the price for this.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [00:18:30]:
Will you buy it? And then they do or they don't, and you get feedback Land you get better, and you've tried to make your service better, your product better, your system better. And so, you know, that's that's what's exciting about, like, all of this is you're consistently putting yourself out there to better serve your customer, your constituent, you know, whatever in that space, and it gives you a higher sense of self.

Jeffrey Stern [00:18:55]:
With this unifying theme of service, how did that ultimately coincide with with BRITE and your path to it? And, you know, tell us a little bit about what BRITE even is.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [00:19:07]:
Let's start with the path real quick because it's kind of fun. I mean, BRITE's fun. Don't get me wrong. I will tell you what BRITE is and you're going to be like, this is so fun. This is the most fun thing ever. But my path to BRITE is a little bit special too. So at the time, I was running a consulting firm. So I was doing like some government affairs work, some business development work, some workforce work.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [00:19:33]:
I am insatiably curious if you haven't figured that out. I like to learn new things a lot and then be able to test if I've actually learned that by participating in the thing. And so, you know, I've been in manufacturing. I've been in lobbying. I've I've been in software development, not as a software developer. I'm not that smart, but on the business development side of it and cared about it a lot. And so at this time in my life, my kids were just born. My, you My wife and I were living in the Akron area.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [00:20:04]:
We grew up in the Mahoning Valley region. Both of us, you know, we went to high school together and met actually many years after high school, but opportunity came up for this organization that was like an energy incubator. Didn't really have there wasn't a lot of definition around it, right. But it was in Warren, Ohio. They were looking for their 1st full time CEO. One of my dear friends, Courtney Grass, had been contacted, head hunted, you know, for the job because she actually had a startup in the incubator a couple of years before. And, you know, she was going on to do great things. And at the time she was actually I was running a nonprofit too called Launch League The was a community for scalable startups.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [00:20:48]:
And, she was the executive director that I had hired to run that. And they were trying to steal her from me. Land so she had said like, Hey, are you interested in this? It's in the Valley. Like, I know you're from there and all that. And I was like, Ah, I don't know. Not really, but maybe. And so I went and did a couple of interviews. A, first and foremost, the board chair, John Pogue, at the The, which is like one of these people that just deserved, like, excellence.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [00:21:17]:
Like, he had done so many great things in his life. And I, you know, to this day, consider him one of my greatest mentors, but meeting John and like what, what they had tried to do with this organization in a town, you know, frankly, with the 3rd lowest educational attainment rate in the country, but a town that had really strong history, like the 1st Packard automobile rent came off the line in 18/99 in Warren, Ohio. Like then Packard Electric was spawned Land like Delphi Land now Aptiv has a research center here. Land it's just a really cool small town that like is the epitome of all the things Saving Cities was talking about. I was meeting people and getting the stories told of what the city was, but what the city still meant to them. And so I went to the last interview, they offered me the job. I said, no. And I walked out the back door and for whatever reason, hadn't been here, hadn't been out the back door before.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [00:22:16]:
And out the back door of our building is David Grohl Alley. And, Dave Grohl is the lead singer of the Foo Fighters from Warren, Ohio, my favorite musician of all time Yeah. History. My and I've played in bands, and I can say I can play the majority of Foo Fighters and Nirvana songs on guitar. I'm not a drummer like Dave, unfortunately, better for my wife that way. Land so I was like, I just kind of said no to this job. And, was walking down the alley Land, was actually going to a Foo Fighters show that night. And Dave Grohl walked out the back of a comic book store and walked down the alley.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [00:22:58]:
And I was like, that's Dave Grohl. I'm gonna, I'm gonna go say hi to that guy. And it was my 1st time meeting Dave Grohl. And I said I was interviewing for this energy incubator job Land he said, You gotta take it. Like, clean energy is the future, man. You gotta do it. And I was like, The world The spoke. Yeah.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [00:23:21]:
So I kind of ran back in and was like, Hey, I talked to my wife. Like, we're going to do this. Also Dave Grohl. Yeah. And it is hands down the best career decision I've ever made. We've taken it from 1 employee to 20 employees to, you know, working with 6 to 10 companies a year to we're over a 100 now. And so to tell you what BRITE is, we're really an innovation first ecosystem, focused on transitioning to a clean energy economy. Land, you know, how we do that is through programs, presence, and our ecosystem of network.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [00:24:01]:
And so, we have startup programs that run all across the state of Ohio, totally free to startups to participate that are before a B round of funding. And those programs are run by Jing Lay, who's just like an absolute rock star. We're really, really fortunate to be able to bring her on the team. And, you know, The, some of the best things that we do is get companies ready for funding and get their 1st institutional capital. And so we've helped raise over a quarter of of $1,000,000,000 of venture capital in clean energy in Ohio, which like just, I can see your face and these people can't see your face, but like that's absurd amount of money for clean energy in Ohio. And then to add on to that, it's been like less than 5% of that funding's come from Ohio. And so, you know, we've built really a national international investor syndicate that believes in what is happening in Ohio because we have people that build really amazing things Cleveland they've been doing it, and their parents have been doing it, and their parents' parents have been doing it. And, you know, if we're talking about the future of clean energy, like, we gotta build shit, man.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [00:25:12]:
Like, like, it's it's hard tech. Like, it is real technologies that are, like going to be active on the grid and otherwise. And software is going to be a huge part of it. Don't get me wrong. Like everything is software enabled, obviously, but like we actually have to build things like wires and pipes are going to be unbelievably important to this energy transition. And guess what we do in Ohio. We make a ton of wires and pipes. And so, you know, we as an organization have really been blessed to be able to surround ourselves with people that care, people that care about the story, people that care that climate change is real, but also believe that we can create good jobs and we can create this amazing economy that includes everybody.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [00:26:01]:
You know, when an economy is in transition, like you kind of have choices to make, and you can choose how you build that. And, you know, that's why we've, as an organization, have really focused on vehicle electrification, energy storage Land grid resiliency is kind of our 3 technology pillars because we see the job creation potential that everybody can participate in this transition, but we also see the equity aspect that everybody can get equity in these companies right now and have an opportunity to start something new and be a part of this because it's so, like, crazy what's happening right now. It's the wild west. And where there's disruption, there's opportunity.

Jeffrey Stern [00:26:44]:
And it is so critically important. And I think so many coinciding factors that kind of all Stern from this idea that, you know, Ohio is known for historically building things.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [00:26:55]:
Land moving things. So like Land moving things. And one of my favorite like it's a super bizarre like history quote, but like in the Civil War, the state of Ohio had more miles of railroad than the entire south combined. Because in Ohio, we were building cannonballs in Youngstown Land we were like, we were building creating munitions in Cleveland and like all this stuff to get to the war. And that was the civil war. And then if you look like at what we did in Akron and Cleveland and Youngstown, Northeast Ohio during World War II, where, you know, Rosie the Riveter, like was like a model of, you know, a woman in a factory in Akron, Ohio, that was a rubber factory The, you know, turned into a tank factory. And like it's so cool, all of the amazing things that we've done here historically. And to know that we're on the cusp of yet another transition Land we are going to have to be creating new products, like, there's no place better in the world to do that.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [00:27:58]:
And Land I mean that. Like, China can build as many battery factories as they want. They're not gonna dump as much money as they want. Like, they're not gonna innovate. Their time to market is not going to be as fast as what we can do in here in Ohio.

Jeffrey Stern [00:28:11]:
It it reminds me of, I don't, you know, don't don't ask me how I remember this quote, but it always just resonated with me. There's this other fellow from the the 18 thirties in Ohio, Caleb Atwater, who, and I'll probably butcher it, but something to the effect of Ohio's position in the nation is so peculiarly felicitous as to the soil and the nature and the climate and the general standing The it would be our own fault if we were not the most productive and happy place.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [00:28:43]:
I've never heard that, but that's I'm so grateful for that now. And you used 2 words that I'm going to have to look up in a dictionary, which is awesome.

Jeffrey Stern [00:28:51]:
Of are the 2 words that I remember from it because I'm like, I didn't know what those words were right.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [00:28:57]:
That's how you know it's a good story. You were intrigued enough to actually find out what it meant.

Jeffrey Stern [00:29:02]:
Yeah. Well, if you'll indulge me on maybe a relevant detour for a sec. Are you familiar with Buckminster Fuller?

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [00:29:08]:
I'm about to be. Okay.

Jeffrey Stern [00:29:10]:
Well, you're gonna love this man. He he's one of my favorite authors, and he writes about many things, but often about energy. And the way that he frames it has always stuck in my mind. And it's essentially that, you know, by harnessing the power of the solar system and sun, and he, you know, he's kind of an eclectic guy, but, you know, through its various mechanisms, whether that be nuclear or solar or otherwise, that we've essentially figured out the plumbing and installed the valves to turn on infinite wealth in society. And I always thought his his equating of energy and wealth was really interesting because it just actually made a lot of sense to me, just how interconnected it is to everything, and especially even when you think about that here in in Ohio. Yeah. Right, like Rockefeller. Yeah.

Jeffrey Stern [00:29:56]:
And the the energy organization really that he built. And and to your point about moving things Land transportation and, you know, whatever it is, it's just energy is is requisite to to all of it.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [00:30:06]:
Yeah. I mean, if you, I mean, look at some of the most wealth in the world, it's the Middle East, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, like, it's because of the oil, supply that they have there. And if you look in the United States and you look at Texas, like, yeah, historically, obviously, who holds the energy, holds the opportunity for growth, both from an economic standpoint, as well as just from, you know, some of the best places in the world to be. But I do, that's really interesting, The, that like equation of energy to wealth. And I actually feel that too, like in my personal life, just like the days that I have more energy, I feel a lot more rich.

Jeffrey Stern [00:30:45]:
So, you know, with, with all this, you know, Land I appreciate, you know, you going with me on those detours, but, you know, kind of ground us in, you know, a term I've heard you use before, that that I'd love to unpack and maybe as a way to explore some of these topics that you mentioned, like mobility and energy storage and grid resilience, and even some, you know, I think examples of companies would be fun to talk about. But, you know, this concept of a voltage valley, as well.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [00:31:12]:
Yeah. Well, you know, Lay, I'm a big proponent of great names. And so I think technically, Stern Burns, the founder of Lordstown Motors coined Voltage Valley. But I'm here to say I said Voltage Valley The Steve Burns before he put it on the map from that perspective. And The Warren, Ohio, where we're located is the headquarters of Voltage Valley. And you know, when I think about Voltage Valley, like, I think a lot of people might go to saying like, oh, we only care about electric vehicles, you know, in this region Land stuff like that. And I think historically, like, we've learned a lot about putting all of our eggs in 1 basket. But when you think about Volted Valley, and when I think about Voltage Valley is really this Greater Mahoning Valley, Greater Ohio region that is looking towards the future.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [00:32:04]:
As we think about vehicle electrification from a building standpoint, like from a creating it standpoint, like it is highly beneficial. And we're seeing this play out in real time to GM and Ford and Tesla and all of these companies to create electric vehicles. Like it lowers the amount, frankly, it lowers the amount of things that you have to do to create an electric vehicle and jobs and all The.

Jeffrey Stern [00:32:28]:
So it

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [00:32:28]:
lowers your CapEx and your OpEx to actually create the vehicle, which is Land important aspect of all of this that like a lot of people leave on the sidelines. Like, you either care about climate change or you care about making money. And I've always been really confused by, like, of of these things have to be these weird false dichotomies, you know, around this. Like you can create money and make the world a better place and vice versa from that perspective. So going back to Voltage Valley, like the Mahoning Valley got the 1st battery plant, like, in Ohio. And at the time, it was a $2,300,000,000 investment, which was really, really big at the time. Now if like Intel showed up and people were like, oh, it's like a little $2,300,000,000 thing in the Mahoning Valley. Like, It'll be fine.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [00:33:19]:
But we've got intel. And I'm here to say The investment in a place that really deserved a good investment was so important. And so, like, BRITE relationship with Altium has been amazing because they did all of their training in our facility here before the building was open. So we'd have 100 employees at a time learning battery 101, right outside of our research Lay. While in our research lab, like we would have kids from Second Baptist Church that Stern Todd Johnson runs Land The, oldest black in our community. Land we have these group kids in our Lay, and they'd be learning about batteries too, and look across and be like, Hey, my dad's over there learning about batteries too. I'm like my dad. For me, going back to how we started The story of my dad lost his job when I was in high school.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [00:34:10]:
Like, I had no opportunity to do what my dad did. That was not a career path that I could possibly ever have. And places like Altium are giving kids in this area hope that they can stay here and have a good paying job and have benefits in all of these things that we talk about. And so if you look at that Land then you look at what's going on with Foxconn now and the Monarch Tractor and some of the other opportunities that are coming into that Land, like The region, Voltage Valley, has a huge opportunity to be a leader in the nation like we were with the steel mills and what we did at that time Land creating the products that the rest of the world loves and desires. And like that's what voltage valley is about. Like whether it's about electrification or not, I don't really care. Like I want the Mahoning Valley and I want Northeast Ohio. Sometimes I want Pittsburgh, sometimes I don't.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [00:35:05]:
But I want this region. I want these Rust Belt cities, if you will, these post industrial Midwest cities to once again be creating things that the rest of the world wants and desires and is willing to buy. And that's, like, what's exciting about it to me and why I care a lot about it, you know, the voltage valley or, the future of electrification and what and what we're gonna do Land, like, how we can create good paying jobs and create wealth Land also have a world that our kids will live in because they have jobs Land the, earth is not on fire. So I think, you know, as Americans, it's our obligation to walk and chew gum and to try to do this right. And that's, I think one of the things that's helped BRITE stand out nationally with our counterparts is, you know, we only help companies that A) products are gonna reduce carbon and, b, are gonna be real companies that have financial viability in the market. If if it's not both, like, we can't help you because if it doesn't have financial viability in the market, there's only going to be so much money in the IRA that's going to prop your company up for, you know, a couple of years. And if you haven't figured it out, like, you're all those people are not gonna have a job that you hired. Land, like, all all like, all these bad things happen that we've seen happen here in the Mahoning Valley Land and Cleveland and and in The in these places.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [00:36:32]:
And so, you know, we have to build sustainable companies while building sustainable products for a sustainable earth.

Jeffrey Stern [00:36:39]:
Land when you think about, you know, BRITE role specifically to play in in this transition, in this evolution of what, you know, I think you would like for us to to become, how do you think about what Sprite role what BRITE role is Land and measuring, you know, the impact and the outcomes? You know, right

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [00:36:59]:
now, our, KPIs are are based around venture capital investment and jobs created. Like, that's that's what we're measured on by our funders. We're a nonprofit organization. So fortunate to be supported by Biohats or Frontier and all of that, as well as the foundations and corporate partners that we have that, you know, invest in us. And that's some of the metrics that they care about. In 2024, we're utilizing the Crane tool to be able to address the climate impact of the technologies that are in our portfolio. And so we'll be able to start measuring that in a much more meaningful way, which is super exciting, from that perspective. But if you go to the role, so you take those 2 things, right, like venture and carbon reduction.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [00:37:44]:
Venture usually is a leading indicator of jobs created, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And when you're measuring community Land like when you're measuring long duration impacts of like, suddenly The is a great place, you know, the suddenly this is a great company. You know, it was really, really slowly and then happened all at once. As some people say, you know, you gotta find those leading indicators, from that perspective. And so venture is certainly a leading indicator Land then, you know, having community impact. And so BRITE sees ourselves as as an ecosystem. You know, for for startup companies to be successful, what do they need? They need capital. They need customers.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [00:38:24]:
Those are really the 2 things. Land, like, they have to create great products. That's kind of assumed if you're gonna come through BRITE, like, your product's gonna have to be great because our experts Land residents are gonna help you make it great. But you're gonna need those 2 things. You're gonna need capital and customers. You're gonna need talent. Like, you're gonna need talented young people that care about and are inspired by your mission and are really excited about creating amazing products that are gonna change the future. And so, you know, as BRITE role is is how do you convene all of these things that get the outcomes that you want of, you know, capital Land carbon reduction? And, you know, it looks like BRITE.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [00:39:05]:
We have great events that bring people together, but we participate in workforce studies and trying to understand, like, manufacturing for clean energy. Like, what are the job skills that are it's gonna take to be able to do The? And how do we make sure that the folks at Cleveland State and Youngstown State and Tri C and Eastern Gateway Community College and all of these great academic institutions on, like, training the worker are ready and and capable and that we are ready to be able to do that, but also the Case Western Reserves and the Carnegie Mellon's and the Ohio State Of Land, the Center For Automotive Research there and all of that. Like, how are we training the engineers like The those folks, and and and how do we bring that together? And then how do we get that research out of NASA Glenn? How do we get that research, out of case in Ohio Stern for having business development folks actually get engaged and create really interesting, cool business models for these products to be successful. Land, like, you know, we see companies like Land Energy, And one of the coolest things they're doing is, like, really The bike is just a vehicle for a battery. It's like they're selling they're selling a battery on a really, really cool platform that, you know, moves you around The city. But at the end of the day, like, that battery that you can pull out of your bike and you can take camping and you can take into your office or, you know, do whatever you need to do, run your house off, run a couple of off of it, you know, if their power goes out. Like, that's their product. And that's pretty cool.

Jeffrey Stern [00:40:36]:
It's very cool. Land for, you know, actually The I'll pull on the the plug for Scott. I think he if I'm gonna get the number wrong, but I think he told his own story on Lay The Land back on episode 48.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [00:40:49]:
Nice. Worth checking out

Jeffrey Stern [00:40:51]:
because it's amazing.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [00:40:52]:
Yeah. Land is a proud, BRITE portfolio company, and we've been so fortunate to be able to support Scott and the team through their entire, their entire growth process. And so it's been a lot of fun, but, you know, companies like Land, Octet Scientific is like just another really cool, you know, Onus Bolton and Emily and the team Land, it's like, they're doing such cool stuff because like and such Cleveland Stern, right? Like, I don't know if you know anything about Oktep, but

Jeffrey Stern [00:41:20]:
Absolutely. He came on to talk on 118.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [00:41:23]:
Oh, my gosh. Like, apparently, you've already done all of of of my talking points. I'm just going to be like, these people are great. And you're going to be like, Yeah, I already talked to them. I'm like, All right. Cool.

Jeffrey Stern [00:41:32]:
But they're they're fantastic. It's really incredible.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [00:41:35]:
Yeah. Okay. Tony Frazon from Czar Power. Have you talked to Tony yet?

Jeffrey Stern [00:41:38]:
No, but I should.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [00:41:39]:
My man. Alright. So Tony is amazing. So Tony and I are both Afghan war veterans. And Tony came up with this idea. So he was an engineer. And he was like, man, like The US war machine is just like built on diesel. Like, all we do is just transfer fuel all around the country.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [00:42:00]:
And guess what? The only time we ever get hurt or killed is when we're doing fuel convoys all around these countries. Because you know that we're going to drive down the road very regularly to transfer fuel so we can run our Humvees Land so we can run our bases and like all The stuff. And he's like, there's this nuclear reactor in the sky that could totally power the American war machine. Like, how do we how do we do how do we use that? And, like, what are the things that are in the way? And Tony's co founder Nelson was getting his doctorate at MIT and came up with this idea of just, like, how can we more easily route, electrons? And one of the things that we run into is like all of the stuff that it takes to like put solar on your house or solar in the field. And like, so you're capturing the electrons through that or creating The, and then you have to take them and then go into a box, but that box is technically an inverter because you're going DC to AC, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Like, all of this Stern. And it ends up being like $40,000 worth of microelectronics to like have solar on your house that goes to your house and goes to the grid and goes to a battery system and charges your car Land, like, all these things that you, like, wish you could do and get, like, off the grid as a human or as a military entity or all of these other things. And it's like all this Stern.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [00:43:24]:
And forward faster. Right? And, like, that's what they did. And so, like, it's so cool Land, like, the work that they're doing and The story that, you know, you tell. And, like, that's that's one of the things that I find a lot kind of in the national ecosystem or otherwise, and Tony does an amazing job of it. Tony is a conservative. Tony is a big army dude that's like, guns. Like you know? And going around and talking about how important this clean energy transition is because of fiscal responsibility and because of energy resiliency and because of energy independence Land, like, all of these things that conservatives really, really care about deeply, like is fundamental to a conservative perspective. It matters how you tell stories.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [00:44:23]:
And so if you go to a conservative group of Republican congresspeople Land you're like, hey, climate change is like the worst thing ever, and your kids aren't going to be around Land blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You need to give us money. Like, they're gonna be like, No, I don't need to do that. I don't even know if what you said is real. Or I think the line now is more like, I don't know if humans can have an impact on climate change the way that like we need to or if it's just something that is happening to us. Like, that's I think more of the conservative Land right now is like climate change is real, but like, we're not sure if we actually can affect that or if that's just something that happens in cycles as it does. And I like, I don't know that I have a 100% answer against that. But either way, like that's what they'll say.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [00:45:11]:
Or if you go in and say, hey like we had a great conversation, Tony and I, with Jim Jordan Land his Stern. Land like he was asking some of the most amazing questions, like going into like jobs and like the skills that are needed and like all of this Stern, because we're with one of our companies, The Power, who's creating this really cool technology for long duration energy storage. Of batteries that go on the grid that don't need critical materials, Right. And so, as we talk about what we were talking about earlier, like China, all this stuff like critical materials, The critical material supply chain is mostly owned by China. That's an issue. And we mostly look the other way about how we're mining lithium and zinc and, like, all of this stuff to get our electric vehicles. If we could get off critical materials, that would be great. And so Adena Power outside of Columbus, Ohio is like creating this really, really cool technology that's noncritical material batteries.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [00:46:12]:
Like, it's clean energy. Like, it's clean energy. Like, as clean as like from The whole supply chain, like, this is amazing. Right? Land but so we go in and talk to Jim Jordan and his staff about how amazing this technology is and how it's gonna create jobs in his district Land, like, how it's going to be able to support the grid so it doesn't fail when we put electric vehicles on the grid, like millions and millions of electric vehicle. Like, all of these things, real solutions for, like, the things that we see as, like, inhibitors to this clean energy economy. And guess what? The guy's totally engaged with the army veteran and the guy that's doing noncritical material batteries. Land so, like, once again, how we tell those stories really matter. You can reach people that seem fundamentally at odds with your perception if you're willing to bend what your perception is, right? Like, if you're willing to say, well, this guy cares about this.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [00:47:10]:
I also care about this. And you don't have to say, well, I don't care about him if he doesn't care about it for the same reason that I care about it. That's how we get better. That's like how we consistently get better as a country Land, as individuals Land all of that is to have empathy for other people's perspectives and then be able to have meaningful good dialogue about creating amazing things.

Jeffrey Stern [00:47:32]:
When you think about all these entrepreneurs building incredible things and also layer on, you know, the 250,000,000 that that you've helped, you know, bring into these organizations over the last few years, What do you feel is the biggest barrier to more entrepreneurs building in The space Land order of magnitude increase on the funding side?

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [00:47:53]:
Yeah. I mean, capital, like, is, like, hands down, the hardest thing. But we also have to be better as a region, as a community. Let's just use the word community here. We have to hold ourselves to higher standards. We have to be able to take criticism in, like, a very, very meaningful way and look at every learning opportunity that we can. Honestly, a lot of the companies that complain about not being able to get capital aren't as capital ready as they think they are. And the other aspect of that that we have to figure out, we need more founders.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [00:48:33]:
Like we need more experienced, successful founders. And like, I don't really wanna say this out loud, but I'm gonna say it to the lay of the land. We need our talented young people to go found companies in other places and then come back here to found companies here. And there is a ton of expats that are currently in Silicon Valley that are founding companies that need to be coming back to Ohio right now to found their next company because they will be able to take their capital further and they'll be able their staff will be able to be happier and do really cool stuff and not have to worry about natural disasters. And, like, we're basically climate proof for a little while on that. So we got plenty of water and good stuff happening, from that perspective. So we need more founders to move to Ohio. We need more experienced founders, and that will be get more capital.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [00:49:25]:
And, you know, everybody needs to be working on each other to be the best versions that we can be and take meaningful, meaningful feedback that is going to help your company grow. You know, at BRITE, like our experts in residence, we hire them from all over the world because I don't let somebody give advice to any of our companies that hasn't founded a company. I don't understand how anybody that is in my space as your job of mentoring and growing companies allows somebody to give advice that hasn't been there. Fortunately, just like we are right now today talking, you know, over the internet, we can find really talented people from all over the world to give advice to our founders here in Ohio and help them grow, and give them honest, hard feedback so we can get them in front of VCs that are from around the world, you know, who are interested in investing in talented people that want to create amazing products. And I mean, for them want to get their money back times 10. And you have to understand that that's what they want out of this, right? Like they care that you care about your product, but like The the end of the Lay, from a venture perspective, like they want their money back times 10 from you. And you have to prove to them that you are capable of doing that. And not only you're capable, but you've surrounded yourself with talented people that are also capable of that.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [00:50:52]:
And I think that's probably the other thing that I would say. Solo entrepreneurship is dead. I very, very rarely will ever recommend a company to a VC that has a solo Entreprenuership. Almost never. Because, like, as we talk about the ecosystem Land the community of BRITE Land, like, how we're able to have universities and corporate partners and all of this, like creating an ecosystem to help, you know, our companies thrive. Like a company is a micro ecosystem. And I haven't met anybody that knows how to create an amazing product and knows the science behind it and can create a viable business plan through that Land can relay that business plan to a customer, to a 1000 customers.

Jeffrey Stern [00:51:41]:
It's certainly sufficiently more difficult. Yeah.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [00:51:46]:
Land like the other aspect of just like understand that a 100% of 0 is 0. And so I would much rather have 50% or 51% or whatever of something The value. And if your company or your idea is not gonna get anywhere, you have to be willing to lose a little bit of it to make a lot. And that's, you know, some of the things that we have to, as a region, get better at. You know, from a nonprofit perspective and the support organizations, we all have to work better together. You know, I'm trying to get as many people from, you know, software companies to realize, like, climate tech is pretty important and they can make money in it. So, like, I appreciate that ecosystem. It's great, but y'all can come over and start some companies that are gonna change the world Land we could use you and we could use your talent.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [00:52:39]:
So, you So, I don't know what your diaspora of listeners are.

Jeffrey Stern [00:52:45]:
Yeah, you'll hit some software people here.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [00:52:47]:
I'm sure. I'm sure. But like, as far as geographic diaspora of people from around the country, around the world, or that are currently there, like, come build your stuff in Ohio. We will support you. And, like, BRITE is a top 5 program in the country. Like, we compete with LACI in Los Angeles and Greentown Labs in Boston and Elemental Accelerator in New York. Like, we compete and oftentimes beat them most times, actually, you know, from that perspective. So, like, get your ass back to Ohio, build awesome stuff, and we're here to support you and tell your story Land, and cheer for you.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [00:53:28]:
Like, that's I don't know what more you could want.

Jeffrey Stern [00:53:31]:
Yeah. No. It is important. You know, more anecdotally than anything based in in hard statistics, but I feel there's been sort of a resurgence of people returning from wherever they have gone.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [00:53:44]:
Yeah. I, I was quoted a while ago in some national media on a very true statement that I would like to correct overall. So, the quote was, Our greatest export for the last 20 years has been talented young people. That's what I believe it was The New York Times or The Washington Post quoted me as saying it was the The, which has some readership I hear.

Jeffrey Stern [00:54:10]:
Maybe, yeah.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [00:54:11]:
From that perspective. So that's what they printed. What I said was, our greatest export for the last 20 years has been talented young people. And now, it's the time to come back to Ohio. That would have been the full quote. The lot of leaders in the Northeast Ohio region that gave me a phone call and was like, why are you saying this? Land I'm like, well, Lay. It's true. Look.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [00:54:37]:
I I went to a high school outside the Mahoning Valley. When I graduated 22 years ago, we had 2 30 people in our graduating class. They've got like 110 now. They're literally half the size. And part of that is because everybody told my generation, you've got to go get a college degree and go somewhere. And we all got college degrees and realized there wasn't any jobs for college educated people where we grew up. So if we were gonna use the thing that we put ourselves in crippling debt for, we had to go somewhere else, unfortunately. And so now my generation, I just turned 40.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [00:55:14]:
Like I am an elder millennial. I believe that's what they call us. I like Xennial because like I feel a lot more akin to generation X. I'm a little more grumpy than your average millennial. I think that's the difference. Now, I think we're all far enough in our careers in many ways to like actually make meaningful decisions about our future. We don't have to go to wherever the job is. Like now we can go to wherever we're happy.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [00:55:44]:
And I can say this unequivocally Lay, you know, a father of 2, and a husband The there's no place I'd rather raise my kids than Northeast Ohio. And I think there's a lot of people that are going through that right now that are looking at their taxes and are looking at, you know, everything that goes that, like, they have to do to survive in other places and how much that costs. I'm here chilling in Northeast Ohio, like of, my community and enjoying my kids' games and, like, being a good dad, being a good husband, and also working and being passionate about what I do Land like loving going to work every day. Like, I'm one of those people Lay on Sunday night, I'm like, I can't wait to get at it. Like, you know, tomorrow's tomorrow's going to be a good day and this is going to be a great week. And and I get to do that here. I've lived a lot of other places Land I've dragged myself through a lot of days to get to the weekend or to get to, you know, wherever I thought I wanted to be. And, you know, I'm just realizing now The, you know, this is this is where I wanna be, and this is where I want my kids to grow up, and I want my kids to have opportunities.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [00:56:53]:
And, like, going back to it, like, that's what the voltage valley is about. Like, that's what Cleveland can be is a place that, you know, I'm still watching Browns games with my kids in 40 years. And hopefully, we have a Super Bowl by

Jeffrey Stern [00:57:07]:
then. Yeah, hopefully. Hopefully. Well, as you, you know, reflect on on this this whole journey overall, one thing I've I've heard you talk about before Land I just appreciated your perspective on both of them. So I'd love if you could, you know, unpack them and and share a bit, but just your thinking on on risk and on the importance of of asking for help.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [00:57:29]:
Oh, man. You're you're you're going deep into the archives here.

Jeffrey Stern [00:57:34]:
Yeah, yeah.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [00:57:34]:
That's fun. So, a fun, sorry, a quick fun story about that risk video that I think you might have found on YouTube.

Jeffrey Stern [00:57:41]:
Yes, yes.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [00:57:42]:
I had just gotten out of the hospital that morning with mono. And I don't know if you know what like mono does to you, but it just like makes you the most tired person you have ever been in your life. And so The, I think that was a Pecha Kucha, or The. I'm not sure I'm never sure how

Jeffrey Stern [00:58:00]:
However you pronounce it. But I, a, I

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [00:58:02]:
was so grateful that it was that because I really had like practice. Like, I had to say these words in this amount of time. So sometimes form is good. But, you know, going into The, like, risk talk was really just we talk about risk oftentimes, like just being like, oh, you know, you're gonna do this or you're gonna do that. Like and I and I said earlier, like, you know, you go into 40,000, 50,000, 60, $70,000 of debt going to college when you don't know what you even wanna do and accomplish in college. And, like, that talk, you know, is really Land of foundational for me about thinking about, like, as I said earlier, like my dad worked for the steel mill and like he was a union man and like put his whole life into this company Land that company was able to just decide to leave. And he thought he was doing the least risky thing that you could ever possibly do, which is work for 27 years at a place and have, you know, stability and all of that stuff. And, like, I actually saw a quote recently about entrepreneurship, something along the lines of, like, Entreprenuership has 1 of 2 outcomes, either you quit before you're successful or you're successful.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [00:59:12]:
That really like resounded with me because I never really thought about the you quit before you're successful aspect of that. Like, it's like, oh, you fail or you're successful. Right? And, like, I can think of every single company that I've ever helped that's came through BRITE. And they might not have had like the best business plan at the time, but if you can learn and you can pivot, like you can be successful in entrepreneurship. You just have to be able to take feedback, like take data, take feedback, and then make a decision. Land you just keep iterating and you keep doing that. And like you're, you know, you need money, you need to live, but like all of these things can happen for you. And it's exciting from that risk is, like, technology risk as it's applied to making the world a better place in energy, right? Like, there's this huge debate over nuclear technology Land where we're at.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [01:00:14]:
And like, as soon as you say nuclear, like 70% of people are like, Chernobyl, We don't want that. Like Fukushima. Like, you know, all of the like, they just think like, boom. That's, like, the first thing that they think about when it comes to red nuclear. Land, you know, we got to tell stories better. But, like, also, if you think about Chernobyl and what happened there, having affordable energy and available energy is so important. And so you think about like all the nuclear plants in the world and we're talking like we've, I mean, there's hundreds of of. And we've had 2 or 3 that have gone awry, but those nuclear plants have created power for millions of people that if they did not have power, they would not be able to cook.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [01:01:05]:
They would not be able to heat their home. They would legitimately die. But we are afraid of technological risk because I think Chernobyl, we can look up the numbers, but it was less than 50 humans died from that. Like, Fukushima was, like, I think, less than 10. Like and there were really bad, like, environmental issues with those areas in general, but, like, cost benefit analysis of technology and, like, where we're going Land, like, if we were able to bring more nuclear online and like the amount of lives that that would change. And I'm obviously also getting more into the new version of nuclear, I think it's in Washington Stern, they just got, a small modular reactor permitted as a particle accelerator, which is like the same permit that you need for a hospital. And so what a lot of people are saying right now when it comes to nuclear and the risk with nuclear and all of that is like, we've only got 1 nuclear plant permitted in the last 30 years Land it took 30 years to get it permitted. This one is potentially going to be delivering power for Microsoft in less than 6 years.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [01:02:19]:
Oh, my gosh. But there are still people that want to push back on any of that permitting because they're like, oh, it could explode. And I'm like, yeah, it could. Also, the world could catch on fire. Like, also, if we do not have cheap, affordable energy, going back to my dad in Ohio, in this region of Ohio, like we get most of our power from natural gas and coal Still, if you increase my dad's electric bill by $10 a month, my dad has to skip a lunch. Like, legit. Like, he is on a pension that he literally, like, budgeted to the dollar of what he's allowed to spend every month. Land then if that happens too many times, my dad can't pay for his power anymore.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [01:03:08]:
And then my dad has to come live with me, which nobody wants. So so, you know, like if you think about risk from that perspective, and I think that's something that like we as a community, as a society, like have to talk about risk as it pertains to, like, what are we losing if we don't invest in the future in a very, very meaningful way? And, like, what are the technologies that are coming on, like, nuclear in this perspective? Like, The, like, we have to get to market. And you can talk about climate change or not talk about climate change. Like, if we put electric vehicles on, our grid's gonna break. It is going to break. It's gonna take a while to break, but it's gonna break. If we don't add a ton of generation, it's going to break. And so, we have to figure out how we're going to add a bunch of generation onto our grids to be able to electrify our lives, which then we might be able to mitigate some climate change with, which would be great, or we just have electric vehicles that are super fast and fun to drive.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [01:04:13]:
That's what I like about mine. Like, it also gets me from a to b Land it's way cheaper on fuel and all The Stern. Like, and I don't have to worry about an oil change that I always missed in my internal combustion engine. And I will tell you, I ran out of gas more times than I've ever ran out of electric in my car from that perspective too. So like range anxiety is a real thing when you were driving the car that I was driving. So sorry. That was my really, really long rant on risk.

Jeffrey Stern [01:04:42]:
I appreciate it, though.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [01:04:43]:
Yeah. Sorry. I can tend to be a bit loquacious, which is good in this format, you know, from that perspective. So the other thing you asked me about was help.

Jeffrey Stern [01:04:52]:
Land so,

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [01:04:53]:
and at least I have a decent memory about the questions that you asked. But, you know, as I mentioned earlier, I'm a combat veteran, Stern suffer from post traumatic stress disorder. You know, that happens like when your job is to kill people and to be in combat. And it is a time in my life that I Stern think about a lot Land I think about, you know, my kids and, and the future and like all of that. But, you know, for me, my life changed when I had kids. And when I realized like, oh my gosh, I have to get my shit together because like there's these little people that rely on me. And I am saying this message overall is like, don't wait for that. Like, actually, you know, you should be and could be asking for help, like at any point in your life that you need it.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [01:05:42]:
You don't have to have some existential dread of like, oh my gosh, if I'm not awesome for my kids, my kids are not gonna be awesome. And if my kids aren't awesome, like, I'm not gonna be able like, I will never be able to forgive myself, from that perspective. Land, like, how do you be a good dad? And so, you know, when it comes to entrepreneurship, when it comes to your mental health, all of these things that you could have going on, there's so many resources that are available. And more importantly, like, going back to storytelling or whatever is like people. Exclude resources. Like, there's people, like, willing to help that have been in the situation that you're in. Like I've also found in my elder millennial years that like there isn't much going on that like somebody else hasn't dealt with before. You can talk about my post traumatic stress disorder.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [01:06:31]:
You can talk about postpartum depression. You can talk about just anxiety about like the existential dread of the world. It can be a Lay. And it doesn't matter like that I came about mine because of combat situations Land somebody else came about theirs because, like, the world's scary. And, like, and we spent 2 years or 3 years, like, in our apartments or somewhere not being able to communicate and have human interactions. Land, like, that can do things to your brain. That sucks. You know, I just think it's unbelievably important that you are capable and willing to ask for help and connect with other people that, you know, care about you because like The there's always somebody on that list.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [01:07:15]:
And for me, like honestly, like I've gone through, a transformation in the last year of my life. Like, I don't know if it's, the dread of turning 40 that happened, in October of 2023. But, you know, Land in 2022, I tore my Achilles tendon, not doing anything, like literally walking into a concert. Wasn't running a marathon. Wasn't like doing anything awesome. Like, I just tore my Achilles walking. And a, gave me a huge appreciation for, like, American Disability Act and, like, accessibility into buildings and all of that stuff because, like, when you can't walk, like, you're like, wow. This world is hard.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [01:07:58]:
And from that's perspective but, like, also just like I totally went into a depression of just like, I don't know that I can do anything. Like, I couldn't walk and I hurt myself. And then I ballooned up to almost £300, like eating and not doing anything with my life. And then I realized I was turning 40 Land I'm like, oh my gosh, I hear when you turn 40, like your everything hurts all the The. Land I'm not going to be able to do anything anymore. Land so I just reached out for help Land The of my actually going back full circle. So Courtney Grass, she's an ultra marathon runner, reached out to her Land I was like, hey, I used to be in really good shape Land now I am in a really round shape and I can't walk. Like, what do I, could I could I not have this be my future? And, you know, she helped me work through of plan, and I spent the 1st 3 or 4 months of 2023 walking on a treadmill and, like, trying to get my life together.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [01:09:03]:
And in October of 2023, I ran a half marathon at a 9 and a half minute pace. It was down to £225. May of 2024, I'll be running the Cleveland marathon Land super excited for The, and I'll be doing it Oh, that's awesome. A half iron Land in the summer of 2024 in Sandusky. And once again, it's just a testament to if you recognize that there's a problem in your life, there's somebody out there that'll help you and that'll take time out of their day to get you on the right track. And so I'm fortunate that I have an amazing wife who always reminds me how much I messed up and is there to support me, you know, along the way Land, my kids and all of The. But, I've got an amazing friends group as well that, you know, supports me. So, like, you have to ask for help.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [01:09:53]:
There's no reason. We are we are social humans. Like, that's what we do. We build community Land we work with each other and, like, all of that stuff. And, you know, that's what we want out of life really is to be able to help somebody. As I said, like with service for me, I have a lot more fun helping other people than I do asking for help for myself. But realizing that, you know, other people can get benefit out of seeing your success too, and you don't wanna, take that away from them is something that I think is important to realize too.

Jeffrey Stern [01:10:24]:
Well, thank you for for sharing that. Yeah. I think we can bookend the the conversation here with with our traditional closing question. Oh. If of you're ready.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [01:10:35]:
I know. It

Jeffrey Stern [01:10:36]:
is. For, a hidden gem in in Cleveland, something that other folks should know about that that maybe they don't.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [01:10:45]:
So, a, first off, I'm gonna go to North Collinwood.

Jeffrey Stern [01:10:48]:
Mhmm.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [01:10:48]:
I spent a lot of time in North Collinwood during the saving cities days. You know, I mentioned, you know, my wife and I being able to walk and seeing terminal tower and The, but honestly, one of my favorite pictures of my wife and I is in North Collinwood during the Waterloo Arts Festival. Yeah. You might have been asking that question, like asking for a place The, like, you got to go and check out. But, like, once again, like, it's about the people and the things, and people that you can meet. And I think North Collinwood is one of those communities that is so unique, has really cool Stern, like Beechland Ballroom Land, like, the kaboom sign, like right next to that where Danny Green do you know this story? Lay. So, Jem of Cleveland, here we go. Perfect.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [01:11:38]:
So, there was a time in the 1970s where Cleveland was known as Bomb Town USA. There's a movie called To Kill The Irishman about Danny Green who lived in North Collinwood Land that kaboom sign on the side of, Beachland Ballroom right there on Waterloo. Danny was in an upstairs apartment in his bathtub Land somebody set a car ran a car into the apartment building and set off a car bomb in that to kill him. This did not kill him by the way, because Clevelanders are badass. But so that's why that kaboom sign is there because of Danny Green, but you have to look up, Northeast watch the movie To Kill Lay Irishman, but really cool mob. Not not really mob, like, just history of of Cleveland and some of the like cool things, interesting things. I don't know if car bombs are cool. But just like an interesting fun, story that, you know, Danny was this guy that just, like, you know, handed out turkeys in the community, you know, was The union president of The longshoremen, Land, you know, also maybe ran organized crime syndicate.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [01:12:54]:
So fun fact, go to go to North Collingwood, check out Waterloo Road, get a get a show at Beachland Ballroom, and check out the Waterloo Arts Festival. Yeah.

Jeffrey Stern [01:13:03]:
That's that's perfect. Alright, guys. I just wanna thank you for, for coming on and and sharing your story and your thoughts and reflections.

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [01:13:14]:
Awesome. Well, I appreciate you. And most importantly, like, as we started this out, like, keep helping people tell their stories. You know, it's one of the best things that we can do Land people fall in love with people, not necessarily with Lay. They have experiences with people in places that make the places special. And so thanks for putting this together and having this podcast that reaches so many people to fall in love with Cleveland and all the great things that are going on.

Jeffrey Stern [01:13:42]:
I appreciate that. If people had anything that they wanted to follow-up with you about, what's the best way to to get in touch?

Rick Stockburger (BRITE) [01:13:49]:
Rick@brite.org. B rite.org. Perfect. Well, thank you again. Awesome, man.

Jeffrey Stern [01:13:57]:
That's all for this week. Thank you for listening. We'd love to hear your thoughts on today's show. So if you have any feedback, please send over an email to Jeffrey at lay of the land dot f m, or find us on Twitter at podlay of land or at Stern, j e f e. If you or someone you know would make a good guest for our show, please reach out as well Land let us know. And if you enjoy the podcast, please subscribe and leave a review on iTunes or on your preferred Northeast player. Your support goes a long way to help us spread the word Land continue to bring the Cleveland founders and builders we love having on the show. We'll be back here next week at the same time to map more of The land.