#11. Adam Dick: The Story of Dick Taylor Chocolate

Scott Hammond: Hey, welcome Adam Dick to 100% Humboldt.

Adam Dick: Thanks. Thanks for having me.

Scott Hammond: It's, it's great.

Adam Dick: Exciting to be here.

Scott Hammond: And we're excited to have you, man.

We're, uh, we're big fans around here, and, uh, just wanna learn more about you, the company, your journey, your family. And, uh, so what… Let's just start there. Where, how'd you get to Humboldt? What's your Humboldt story?

Adam Dick: Uh, let's see. So,

uh, where do we start? Way, way, way back. I mean, it really starts prior, pri-

Scott Hammond: At the beginning.

Adam Dick: Yeah, in the beginning. [laughs]

Scott Hammond: [laughs]

Adam Dick: Uh, well, uh, when I, I went to… My parents, uh, divorced

really young, and I moved kinda all around with my mom. And, uh, we… She has family in the Midwest after I graduated, uh, grade school, we moved back to be with her

family-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Adam Dick: … in Kansas City.

And I, uh, went into middle school and high school there. And, uh, when I was getting close to graduating, I, wanna go to school in Kansas or in the Midwest.

Scott Hammond: Right.

Adam Dick: I wanted to be out of that area and-

Scott Hammond: Snow or-

Adam Dick: Uh-

Scott Hammond: … bar- barbecue?

Adam Dick: Yeah. [laughs]

Scott Hammond: [laughs]

Adam Dick: I mean, I, you know, I was born in California. I

Scott Hammond: All right.

Adam Dick: And, uh, went to grade school in Southern

I feel like I'm from California, you know?

Scott Hammond: So KC would be a shock in every-

Adam Dick: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I, I liked going to high school there.

You know, there's, there's something nice that Midwestern pace of life.

Scott Hammond: Oh, yeah. Okay.

Adam Dick: So, uh, so I liked that. I mean,

and sisters and then that whole cousin-

Scott Hammond: Oh, yeah

Adam Dick: … thing, was all, was really, really great.

But when it came to go to college, I, I wanted to come back out to California. And, uh, my dad, uh, always lived in California, That was also-

Scott Hammond: Oh, that's cool

Adam Dick: … really important.

Scott Hammond: Benefit.

Adam Dick: Yep. And, uh, the,

you know, the only school I ever applied to for

University.

Scott Hammond: Ah. [laughs]

Adam Dick: [laughs]

Scott Hammond: You too?

Adam Dick: [laughs] I had no backup, no-

Scott Hammond: Did you get in? [laughs]

Adam Dick: [laughs] I did, but ironically it took them forever to get

information.

Scott Hammond: So funny.

Adam Dick: Anyway,

so, you know, I wanted, I wanted somewhere… I didn't wanna live in LA. I don't, didn't wanna live in a big city. I wanted somewhere-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Adam Dick: … you know, remote and unique, and, uh,

you know, I was going to be… I thought I wanted to be a forestry major.

I had this-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Adam Dick: … dream that I was gonna be a park ranger.

Scott Hammond: That's funny.

Adam Dick: And I don't know why in my mind I thought that a park ranger needed a

forestry, [laughs] but that's where I started.

Scott Hammond: So funny.

Adam Dick: It lasted a semester, and then I,

got a degree in recreation administration.

Scott Hammond: This is so weird for me to just, uh… I almost stopped the show.

Don't stop the show. So same story from San Diego.

Adam Dick: Oh, really?

Scott Hammond: I wanted to be a forest ranger, me and my friend Philip,

be driving around in a four-wheel drive and smoking weed and be those guys. And I thought, "Hey, I'll be a forestry major." Humboldt? Oh.

Adam Dick: Right.

Scott Hammond: Found it on Microfish. Do you remember that stuff?

Adam Dick: Yep, yep.

Scott Hammond: At a, uh, career center in National City where we're

and, um, immediately went into recreation Weird parallel.

Adam Dick: Wait, you have a degree in rec, in rec?

Scott Hammond: In rec, yeah, at Humboldt, before Chip.

Adam Dick: Really?

Scott Hammond: The guy p- right before… You knew Chip is your guy, right?

Adam Dick: Yeah. Oh, yeah. And Greg Simmons, I think, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Right.

Adam Dick: Yep.

Scott Hammond: Nice guys.

Adam Dick: Yep.

Scott Hammond: And they were right after a guy named Bob St.

Peters who forged his, uh-

Adam Dick: Okay

Scott Hammond: … his credentials and found his way selling yachts in

Adam Dick: Wow.

Scott Hammond: Weird journey.

Adam Dick: I didn't realize y- yeah, man, and the funny… the…

If you wanna take it even weirder, Dustin is also a rec major.

Scott Hammond: Really?

Adam Dick: Yep.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Adam Dick: [laughs]

Scott Hammond: The, the Dick Taylor, the Taylor part of-

Adam Dick: Yeah. [laughs] Yep.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Adam Dick: Yep.

Scott Hammond: That's funny.

Adam Dick: The Dick, I'm the Taylor part of it.

Scott Hammond: Were you guys same y- same class?

Adam Dick: No, he's two years, I think, behind me.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Adam Dick: Yep, so.

Scott Hammond: Is that a dig at Dustin?

Adam Dick: That he… [laughs] He's t-

Scott Hammond: Wait.

Adam Dick: He is two years behind me. [laughs]

Scott Hammond: You know, I'm a little ahead.

Adam Dick: No, I'm actually a little jealous of Dustin

around a little more spryly than I do.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Adam Dick: I'm like-

Scott Hammond: He's got some spring.

Adam Dick: Yeah. I'm like, "Ah, that two years makes a big difference."

Scott Hammond: [laughs] Just wait.

Adam Dick: It might be three actually, but anyway.

He'll, he'll catch up one of these days, and then I'll say-

Scott Hammond: Oh, I hope you

Adam Dick: … "I told you so."

Scott Hammond: The, the DNA catches us. So, so you wound up at Humboldt,

Adam Dick: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: Did you meet your wife there?

Adam Dick: Uh, no. Um,

another story. So, uh, when… [laughs]

Scott Hammond: Ha.

Adam Dick: There's so many stories.

Scott Hammond: There's all stories.

Adam Dick: But when I was a junior in high school, I had, uh,

you know, found myself on the wrong side of the law, well, playing a little too much in high school. That was my junior year. So the summer after my junior year, my parents, uh, shipped me out to Lake Tahoe. They had a house there. My dad always did.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Adam Dick: Uh, to get a job, be away from my bad influence friends in

Scott Hammond: Sure

Adam Dick: … and hopefully get my life, you know, straightened out again.

Scott Hammond: Kansas City gangster-

Adam Dick: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … people, yeah.

Adam Dick: So, uh, spent the summer, you know, basically trying to find a

job. It was very difficult 'cause all the local snatched up all the high school jobs.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Adam Dick: So I, I did, like, a few odd things,

invited on a backpack trip-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Adam Dick: … uh, with some other local high school kids.

I had made a, a friend of, you know, a common friend. And, uh, my wife Deanna was on that trip.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Adam Dick: And so we, uh, kinda met and kindled a little romance at the

end of that summer of our junior year, and then I went back to Kansas City,

Scott Hammond: Mm

Adam Dick: … did the whole long distance thing.

And, uh, she applied to Humboldt State as well as financial backup. She was gonna go to some other private

Scott Hammond: Oh.

Adam Dick: So she ended up going to Humboldt too, and it wasn't that we had,

it, but it was certainly a definite benefit

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Adam Dick: … we would be both at the same place.

Scott Hammond: What do they call that? It's not coincidence. Uh, providence.

Adam Dick: Maybe. Yeah. [laughs]

Scott Hammond: Oh, yeah. Nice. Yeah.

Adam Dick: Either way. So then we, you know, went to,

graduated, and were kind of a little bit on

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Adam Dick: … eventually got married.

Scott Hammond: Nice. And you guys have four daughters?

Adam Dick: Three.

Scott Hammond: Three beautiful daughters.

Adam Dick: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: Nice. Yeah. 'Cause I remember our kids,

ran with your daughters at-

Adam Dick: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … Sequoia Park here in Eureka, which

see-

Adam Dick: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … Sequoia Park. Anyway.

Adam Dick: The odd part is our oldest daughter

met my wife.

Scott Hammond: Whoa.

Adam Dick: That, that part's tripping me out right now.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, you gotta deal with that.

Adam Dick: Yeah. [laughs]

Scott Hammond: It's, uh…

Adam Dick: [laughs] Something to think about.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Adam Dick: [laughs]

Scott Hammond: Yeah, we were married at, I was 21 and she was 20.

Adam Dick: Oh, wow.

Scott Hammond: In Humboldt, and I was, uh, going, being a senior in recreation.

Adam Dick: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: And got a job, uh, Trinidad Rec Program for five bucks an

I was making bank, man.

Adam Dick: Yeah, right. [laughs]

Scott Hammond: Taking the bus.

Adam Dick: [laughs]

Scott Hammond: This guy, living in a Victorian upstairs in Arc-

the, uh, um, Esther Homes. Remember,

uh-

Adam Dick: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … Char- oh, Charles McCann.

Adam Dick: Yep.

Scott Hammond: In the c- McCann home.

Adam Dick: Oh, wow.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, back in the day. They called it the Honeymoon Suite,

Adam Dick: Wow.

Scott Hammond: No first or last, and it worked out great.

We rec, rec stuff, and then, um, anyway, nine kids later, that's my story. Your journey, so who, who were you at 15? What were you all about? Were you in KC then?

Adam Dick: Yeah. I was, you know,

gosh, this is where it starts to, you get my, in my inner underbelly. But I, you know, I-

Scott Hammond: [laughs]

Adam Dick: … I was just, like, in high school, I was very, you know,

like kind of a socially shy, awkward person. I don't, not really outgoing or gregarious, don't make friends, like, So high school was not my favorite time.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Adam Dick: Um, pretty happy, you know, when that was over.

I, I think it was hard. You know, I moved from somebody already who was, little bit not socially as strong as others-

Scott Hammond: Right

Adam Dick: … moving from Southern California to Kansas

Scott Hammond: Thrust into-

Adam Dick: … the only person that I knew was my, you know,

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Adam Dick: … he's my same age. And so, and we were really good friends, but

it was just one of those things. Like, I, I just always felt like I was on the outside.

Scott Hammond: The other guy.

Adam Dick: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Adam Dick: Like, I mean, he, my, my cousin did a great job of assimilating

of friends.

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Adam Dick: But, you know, they have a lifetime together-

Scott Hammond: Right

Adam Dick: … going to grade school and all this, and I'm here, you know,

side. So yeah, high school was, you know, wasn't really, like, the most amazing time for me.

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Adam Dick: And, you know, I kind of w- got into, you know,

and things like that, just trying to find a way

Scott Hammond: Right.

Adam Dick: Um, when I came out to Humboldt State, though,

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Adam Dick: I was like, I felt like f- all the sudden, like, you know, I,

wanted to be.

Scott Hammond: Right.

Adam Dick: Everybody came to Humboldt State. Nobody had previous friends.

It was a blank slate for everybody.

Scott Hammond: That's a great point. It's a fresh start.

Adam Dick: Yeah, it's a fresh start.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Adam Dick: And it, it was like I'd just found my, like,

stride, and I, I loved college and all of that-

Scott Hammond: That's cool, yeah

Adam Dick: … scene. It was so fun.

Scott Hammond: I think h- you know, shout out to all the homes- homeschoolers.

[laughs]

Adam Dick: [laughs]

Scott Hammond: All the high schoolers who are, you know, we romanticize that,

I don't know. High school is a weird time.

Adam Dick: It is, yeah.

Scott Hammond: You know? And it's like you're finding your,

and… But college, yeah, you come to Humboldt, hike, and bike,

Adam Dick: Right

Scott Hammond: … and there's people of, in the rec program that you-

Adam Dick: Right

Scott Hammond: … small enough department you could get to

Adam Dick: Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

Scott Hammond: It's not… Yeah, it's low-key.

Adam Dick: And Humboldt State, in general, is a,

pretty-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Adam Dick: … small, you know, very welcoming-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Adam Dick: … really friendly campus.

Scott Hammond: Another hard stop. Cal Poly Humboldt is the new

Humboldt State.

Adam Dick: Yeah. [laughs]

Scott Hammond: [laughs]

Adam Dick: We will probably refer to it as Humboldt State-

Scott Hammond: I think-

Adam Dick: … regularly-

Scott Hammond: Everybody has

Adam Dick: … throughout this podcast. [laughs]

Scott Hammond: Everybody on the podcast, "Oh, yeah, I went to Humboldt State."

Adam Dick: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: "You went to where?" [laughs]

Adam Dick: Yeah. We're old, we're old-timers here.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. It used to be Humboldt College.

Adam Dick: Right. It was a teacher's school.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, yeah. It w- they did a thing on TV the other day.

It was really interesting, so… Who were you at 20? Were you at, you were at Humboldt then having a good time?

Adam Dick: Yeah. Let's see, 20.

Trying to think. I think that would've been my junior, junior year, I think.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Adam Dick: It was actually-

Scott Hammond: Did you work? Did you work?

Adam Dick: Um, I worked in the summers. I was actually quite fortunate, uh,

to, you know, have parents that were able to kind of support me through I didn't have to work.

Scott Hammond: Mm.

Adam Dick: I did, I did work in the summer times.

I occa- a couple summers I went back to Tahoe

Scott Hammond: Nice

Adam Dick: … actually, I worked, uh, one summer in the receiving department at

Pearson's Building Center.

Scott Hammond: Sweet.

Adam Dick: And, uh, did a few summers, you know, doing construction

kind of stuff. But I think in my junior year, if I'm, I was actually really fortunate to do this program, uh, called Semester at Sea. Have you heard of it before?

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Adam Dick: It- it's through the University of Pittsburgh

Scott Hammond: Mm

Adam Dick: … and it used to be through

Chapman College, somewhere I think in Southern California.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Adam Dick: But, um, it's called the Institute for Shipboard

cruise ship.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Adam Dick: And you spend a semester on that cruise ship-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Adam Dick: … traveling all around the world.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Adam Dick: And, uh, I had, my stepmother had done it when she

Scott Hammond: Mm.

Adam Dick: And I had, fortunately, I had a grandmother that was willing to,

bill.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Adam Dick: And so it was a really, really neat experience.

I guess at, at 20, that was a pretty-

Scott Hammond: Cruise ship

Adam Dick: … formative thing. We, we started, uh…

Let's see. I'll give you a quick overview. We started in Vancouver, British Columbia-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Adam Dick: … and then went

over to Kobe, Japan, uh, Shanghai, China, Hong Kong, Vietnam. Then we went all the way around to India.

Went to-

Scott Hammond: Whoa

Adam Dick: … Egypt,

um, Cyprus, Greece, Spain, Morocco, and then back to Florida.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Adam Dick: Went all the way around the world.

Scott Hammond: Did you get off board every time?

Adam Dick: Mm.

Scott Hammond: Did you go do the stuff?

Adam Dick: Yeah, so when you were on the boat,

schedules. You had like an A, an A schedule, an B schedule.

Scott Hammond: Hmm.

Adam Dick: And then, uh, in port, all the classes had

a certain amount of port assignments that you had to accomplish.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Adam Dick: So it wasn't like you had a, a assignment in every port,

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Adam Dick: … stopped, usually you had to do something for one of

Scott Hammond: Gotcha

Adam Dick: … um, it was, you know, a really neat experience. It was,

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Adam Dick: It was, the most we ever stayed in one place was,

six days I think, so-

Scott Hammond: That's a long time in port, actually.

Adam Dick: It is.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Adam Dick: Yeah, but it, I kind of felt like you just got a little

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Adam Dick: … snippet of a country.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Adam Dick: And then it was basically to decide

Scott Hammond: Yeah, we went to, um, uh, Ireland, and, and Scotland, and England

last summer, and you get a day in port.

Adam Dick: Right, yeah.

Scott Hammond: It's like, ah.

Adam Dick: Yeah, just enough to kinda, like, wet your whistle.

Scott Hammond: I wanna go back to Edinburgh for a week just-

Adam Dick: Right

Scott Hammond: … Ed- Edinburgh's cool, man. It's just Scotland's

so bomb. So how many months was that at sea?

Adam Dick: It was a whole semester, so three or four months I think.

Scott Hammond: Man, what a great opportunity.

Adam Dick: Yeah, it was, really.

Scott Hammond: Did, did you have to work on the ship, too?

Do they make you-

Adam Dick: No, no, no

Scott Hammond: … serve or?

Adam Dick: No.It was, uh-

Scott Hammond: 'Cause there's a whole crew of those guys.

Adam Dick: Yeah, there's a huge crew. I mean, I think there was

six or s- 600 crew members, something like that. I mean, it's-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Adam Dick: … yeah, quite extensive.

Scott Hammond: No, they get off and go, go play. They go nuts.

Adam Dick: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: At least that's what I saw.

Adam Dick: [laughs]

Scott Hammond: These guys are all over the world. Really nice.

Adam Dick: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Amazing.

Adam Dick: Yeah, it was neat. It was really neat.

Scott Hammond: So you came back to Humboldt after that and finished up?

Adam Dick: Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Nice. Did you graduate?

Adam Dick: I did. Yeah.

Scott Hammond: [laughs]

Adam Dick: I graduated in 2000 with a degree in recreation administration and a

bus-

Scott Hammond: Nice

Adam Dick: … business minor.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Adam Dick: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: And so how did that translate into, um,

uh, your building career, your, your early building, building career and-

Adam Dick: Yeah, I mean, I,

th- I wo- I don't, I guess I wouldn't say it transferred I mean, other than I, you know, I got a lot of great… I got, I learned how to like, you know, be responsible. You know, I feel like college, you know-

Scott Hammond: Sure

Adam Dick: … a, to a, to a large degree,

first time you've lived alone, the first time-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Adam Dick: … you've had to… Your parents aren't really telling you to

done. I mean, you gotta be, uh, motivated-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Adam Dick: … intrinsically, you know? So.

Scott Hammond: Lau- laundry.

Adam Dick: [laughs]

Scott Hammond: There's dishes.

Adam Dick: Exactly.

Scott Hammond: [laughs]

Adam Dick: But I think, you know,

Dustin and I, or my, you know, myself I guess, I'm, you know-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Adam Dick: … I like making things. I'm really interested in,

made.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Adam Dick: And

always fascinated with traditional ways of doing things, you know?

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Adam Dick: And I think that that's why, you know, when we,

what we really liked was, you know, doing architectural millwork-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Adam Dick: … and finding, you know, replicating or duplicating old-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Adam Dick: … casework and things like that.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Adam Dick: And so, you know, that's, that's I think what's been always like a

that. So I think that that's kinda why I like,

was-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Adam Dick: … because it, it scratched that itch.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Adam Dick: Um, paid really well, you know, in Humboldt-

Scott Hammond: Sure

Adam Dick: … County. It's a, it was-

Scott Hammond: Oh, yeah

Adam Dick: … a great, you know, pay. And it's fairly flexible.

Scott Hammond: I was gonna say, unlike recreation.

Adam Dick: Yeah. [laughs]

Scott Hammond: Five bucks an hour, folks.

Adam Dick: Right. But I, you know, I, I liked carpentry 'cause it was like,

worked three days, four days. It just was very easy to, you know, and-

Scott Hammond: Sure

Adam Dick: … to say, "Okay, I'm not gonna be here for a week

allowed us to recreate and have like a real flexible-

Scott Hammond: And be flexible.

Adam Dick: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Adam Dick: And it, and it was, it was fun and interesting and…

Scott Hammond: So you guys hung out, um, immediately after college,

Adam Dick: Yeah, I mean, we knew each other-

Scott Hammond: Part, as a partnership and a friendship?

Adam Dick: Yeah. We were friends before-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Adam Dick: … uh, that. I mean, ma- mainly through church

Scott Hammond: Mm.

Adam Dick: But I think what we had even before the carpentry thing was really

a, just like a, we liked music. We had a very common bond in music.

Scott Hammond: That's great. Yeah.

Adam Dick: And so that's probably like

initially what brought us together.

Scott Hammond: Mm.

Adam Dick: And then I think there was just like, you know, Dustin's dad

carpenter and my dad's a contractor in LA, so we both were kinda raised around

that, so-

Scott Hammond: Right

Adam Dick: … seemed kinda easy to…

Scott Hammond: Yeah, was there industrial science at Humboldt?

Was that gone, industrial arts program?

Adam Dick: I don't even know.

Scott Hammond: I think it was gone by the time you got there.

Adam Dick: Really?

Scott Hammond: Yeah, there was a, it was a pretty big program for a long time.

Adam Dick: Uh-huh.

Scott Hammond: It's one of those they, they whacked, but anyway.

Adam Dick: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. So I remember Dustin when, when Steve

Hawaii-

Adam Dick: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … 100 years ago.

Adam Dick: [laughs]

Scott Hammond: Known those guys a long time. So, uh, 25, what's happening now?

Are you, you're graduated, you've got a, a budding business. Are you married at 25?

Adam Dick: I think I got,

I don't know, maybe it was 26 or 27-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Adam Dick: … that we got married. I had, um,

I had… You know, by this time I, I had graduated from college-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Adam Dick: … uh, from Humboldt State.

Um, I didn't get a rec job like right out of I applied at-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Adam Dick: … um, I just got a random interview through a

Scott Hammond: [laughs]

Adam Dick: … Point Loma.

Scott Hammond: Same journey. No, no, no, yeah, not, not big.

Adam Dick: They were, yeah, they were looking for, you know,

director, so I was like-

Scott Hammond: Oh

Adam Dick: … it seemed like a great fit, but-

Scott Hammond: City of Point Loma?

Adam Dick: No, the university.

Scott Hammond: Oh, okay.

Adam Dick: The, the private Christian school.

Scott Hammond: The Naz, yeah.

Adam Dick: Yeah. So I thought, "Okay, you know, we'll give it a shot." So I,

I mean, arguably, I, it was probably quite a long shot, you know-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Adam Dick: … about that. But so anyway, I didn't get the jo- that job, and so I

moved home back to Lake Tahoe. My parents still had the house there, just decided like, "You know what? I'm just gonna…" You know, I'd been going to school continuously, anything, so I'm like, "I'm just gonna like ski bum for,

two."

Scott Hammond: Why not?

Adam Dick: Yeah, exactly.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Adam Dick: Had a cheap place to stay, and so, um,

that, that's basically what I did for a couple

I, um, never like lift op-ed or anything like that-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Adam Dick: … which is kind of ironic.

Scott Hammond: Mm.

Adam Dick: But I did get a job. Um, first job I worked after college was

I was the receiving manager for Swigert's True Value Hardware in Tahoe City, California.

Scott Hammond: Sweet. [laughs] Because why not?

Adam Dick: Because why not? Yeah, I mean, it was, you know, it paid the bills

and-

Scott Hammond: Sure

Adam Dick: … they were gonna hire me. So that, that was, that was great.

Um, so I did that, but I, you know, it was one of those things, it was, it, it, it provided me a paycheck-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Adam Dick: … but it was not that interesting.

Scott Hammond: Mm.

Adam Dick: I really didn't love that job.

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Adam Dick: Um-

Scott Hammond: Well, people work to ski there, right?

I mean, they t-

Adam Dick: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Adam Dick: Right. So

I, I can't remember how many months I worked

Scott Hammond: Mm.

Adam Dick: And I got a job

working at the Rubicon Deli.

Scott Hammond: Nice.

Adam Dick: And it was a little, uh, deli inside the, this place

called the Tahoe Tree Company. It was like a nursery, you know,

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Adam Dick: And the owner's name was Cherie Corselia, and she-

Scott Hammond: Mm.

Adam Dick: That, it was the first like food job I'd ever

Scott Hammond: Mm.

Adam Dick: Um, I liked to eat. I always have. I like cooking.

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Adam Dick: You know?

So I got a job at this little deli, and it was like, it was a hoppin' place. I mean, every morning-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Adam Dick: … we baked all the bread fresh,

you know, when lunchtime would hit, there, it was just like this.

Scott Hammond: Is it still there, Rubicon?

Adam Dick: I don't think that it is.

Scott Hammond: Mm.

Adam Dick: I think that Cherie is in, in Reno maybe-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Adam Dick: … or Chico. I can't remember. She had a son that,

business too.

Scott Hammond: Mm.

Adam Dick: But anyway-Just made delicious

sandwiches.

Scott Hammond: Nice.

Adam Dick: And her, you know, her love of food and her-

Scott Hammond: Hmm

Adam Dick: … just like she was so cool. And so I, you know, I really,

I loved that job. So I worked at the Rubicon Deli during the

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Adam Dick: And then a few nights a week, I would deliver pizzas at this place

Pizza, this total like dive-

Scott Hammond: [laughs]

Adam Dick: … ratty pizza place. But it was, you know, it was at night,

and-

Scott Hammond: Hey

Adam Dick: … any of that.

It was great. So those were the-

Scott Hammond: [laughs]

Adam Dick: So I actually, I loved those jobs.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Adam Dick: I loved delivering pizzas, was so great. Just chill.

Scott Hammond: Drive around.

Adam Dick: Yep, just dri- just drive around, you know.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Adam Dick: Nobody-

Scott Hammond: Beautiful night in Tahoe

Adam Dick: … yeah, nobody like hounding you for anything.

So, and I, I, I really liked that. Um-

Scott Hammond: And no one complains 'cause it's Jiffy's Pizza, and you're gonna just

get a basic pizza.

Adam Dick: Right. [laughs]

Scott Hammond: They're not gonna get mad 'cause-

Adam Dick: Right

Scott Hammond: … [laughs] it wasn't Round Table.

Adam Dick: Exactly.

Scott Hammond: [laughs]

Adam Dick: So, uh, so did that, and then, um,

got in… I was… So I did that for… I think I was home for two years, and then I, um, after that, I s- I got involved with a, with a Christian missions organization called Youth With A Mission.

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Adam Dick: And I did a… They had like a kind of an entry level,

training school that I did. It's like a semester long thing, and so-

Scott Hammond: Is this the one in Hawaii, the big one?

Adam Dick: It wasn't in Hawaii. The school that I did was in, uh,

Victoria, British Columbia.

Scott Hammond: Oh, very nice.

Adam Dick: So we did that and [clears throat] worked with some

Christian, like snowboarding and skate groups. It was mostly like a board riders-

Scott Hammond: Hmm

Adam Dick: … type thing. Um, and so did that, and when I was

done with that, that's when I moved back up to Humboldt, pretty much since then.

Scott Hammond: Nice.

Adam Dick: Kind of thought I was going to stay with that, m- you know,

really kind of, the carpentry thing-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Adam Dick: … took over again.

Scott Hammond: Is it okay to ask about how you and your wife finally made full circle

and-

Adam Dick: Oh

Scott Hammond: … it was such a cute story

Adam Dick: Oh. [laughs]

Scott Hammond: But-

Adam Dick: I don't know if we got enough time left on the podcast,

Scott Hammond: Yeah, yeah. [laughs]

Adam Dick: [laughs]

Scott Hammond: You have 10 seconds.

Adam Dick: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: No, uh, you guys… So she had, she had been overseas, right,

Adam Dick: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … doing stuff?

Adam Dick: So she… Right. So, um, you know, we, we kind of dated mostly on,

off through college.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Adam Dick: And by the time we graduated, we were not together, but, um,

she… And she went a- uh, overseas, and she started doing, um, midwifery work. She got trained as a midwife, um, overseas, and she did a bunch of midwifery work-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Adam Dick: … in, um, Nepal, in Nigeria.

Um-

Scott Hammond: Does she still do that?

Adam Dick: Uh, she's, she's not doing much with midwifery

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Adam Dick: Um, she does, you know, occasionally, but she, so she,

overseas, um, and she worked as a midwife overseas for ca- came back to the States, and-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Adam Dick: … we, you know, kind of, we were like, well, either we're, we

married, 'cause we had kinda been talking

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Adam Dick: And,

um, so sure enough, she decided to marry me, and-

Scott Hammond: Nice.

Adam Dick: Yeah. [laughs]

Scott Hammond: Hey, way to marry up, just like me.

Adam Dick: Exactly. So-

Scott Hammond: A lot of parallels here.

Adam Dick: Yeah, so it took a, a… You know, from the time that we met,

the summer our, of our junior year in-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Adam Dick: … high school till the time we got married

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Adam Dick: So.

Scott Hammond: That's a long courtship.

Adam Dick: It was, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Adam Dick: I felt like I, I knew her pretty well-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Adam Dick: … uh, by the time that we got married.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. [clears throat] That's wonderful.

Adam Dick: Yeah, which does help, 'cause marriage isn't,

It's-

Scott Hammond: No, no, it's, it's work.

Adam Dick: It's, it is.

Scott Hammond: It can be.

Adam Dick: It's for sure work, and if you want it-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Adam Dick: … if you want it to last, and you want it to be, you know,

takes a lot of work.

Scott Hammond: It does. It's communication. I wanna drop in a real pithy quote right

Adam Dick: Okay. [laughs]

Scott Hammond: But I really can't think of one.

Adam Dick: Hmm.

Scott Hammond: But if you think of one out there.

Adam Dick: [laughs]

Scott Hammond: Um, so tell me, tell us about your current job. What,

What's your title? What, what's your per… I mean, besides performer, and we know, we'll get there, but tell me about, uh, what… Tell me about the Dick Taylor journey.

Adam Dick: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Uh, he, what a great guy he is.

Adam Dick: Yeah. The, the, [laughs] the Dick Taylor journey has been,

you know, consumed [clears throat] my life for the

Scott Hammond: Right. So, so the building thing made segue,

some way, I'm sure.

Adam Dick: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: 'Cause he was provider of materials, and then-

Adam Dick: Right

Scott Hammond: … provider of space.

Adam Dick: Of rental space, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Adam Dick: And we, you know, so we, we were, we had been doing carpentry,

12 years, and we had restored some wood boats.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Adam Dick: Did a lot of millwork, architectural millwork, and, uh,

furniture. And so that was just, you know, we were kind of on that clip, and-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Adam Dick: … you know,

typical in Humboldt County. We'd, we'd work part-time for cash, you know, doing little side jobs, and occasionally, we'd bounce around from contractor to contractor, and-

Scott Hammond: Sure

Adam Dick: … you know, I think that Dustin and I, or at le- at least my,

as a, as a craftsperson.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Adam Dick: A craftsman.

Scott Hammond: Hmm.

Adam Dick: I, the, the word contractor to me was like, I

don't know, somehow like a derogatory word.

Scott Hammond: [laughs]

Adam Dick: You know?

Scott Hammond: Builder, contractor.

Adam Dick: Yeah, 'cause that wasn't, that, it didn't seem to capture-

Scott Hammond: Hmm

Adam Dick: … who Dustin and I were-

Scott Hammond: Right

Adam Dick: … um, at, at, at the core. Uh, you know, we,

contractors. But, you know, as you, you know, as you now start to have young families, and you're thinking like, "Is this, is this my career path for the rest of my life?"

Scott Hammond: Sustainable, yeah.

Adam Dick: And it, and if it is, which is fine, then we probably should,

take the leap and get our contractor's license-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Adam Dick: … and, you know, and like do a real business.

We're like in 30s now, and it's like time to-

Scott Hammond: It's go time.

Adam Dick: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: [laughs]

Adam Dick: Let's be adults finally.

Scott Hammond: [laughs]

Adam Dick: So, you know, I think that we were, we

seemed like at the time we were just gonna shift deeper into doing

Scott Hammond: Hmm.

Adam Dick: And a friend of Dustin's, who's a video guy,

local videographer, passed him this video of these brothers Brooklyn. It was like a little-

Scott Hammond: Hmm

Adam Dick: … YouTube thing. Very innocent, you know?

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Adam Dick: His friend liked it 'cause the cinematography was really cool.

Scott Hammond: Oh.

Adam Dick: And these two guys were sailors, and so there was like,

probably get a kick out of this." That was-

Scott Hammond: Huh

Adam Dick: … I think his intent.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Adam Dick: We saw it and thought, "Whoa."

Scott Hammond: Whoa, whoa.

Adam Dick: This is really cool. Like, I had never-

Scott Hammond: Epiphany time.

Adam Dick: Yeah, like I never-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Adam Dick: … thought, like where does chocolate come from?

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Adam Dick: Who knows, even? I mean, at the time, who knew?

Scott Hammond: Pennsylvania.

Adam Dick: Right, exactly.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Adam Dick: Just like a, just there at the grocery store.

So-

Scott Hammond: It's there at Safeway. [laughs]

Adam Dick: Right. Who cares where it comes from?So to see

from these like rough, dirty, dusty cocoa beans, and then s- you know, series of steps or whatever, it comes out as these like beautiful chocolate bars, you know?

Scott Hammond: Right. Right.

Adam Dick: And I'm thinking, "This is, this is really, really neat."

And so that kind of got the wheels turning, and I think that, you know, had this like hatched business plan instantly. It was more of a, this curiosity like-

Scott Hammond: Huh

Adam Dick: … could I home brew a chocolate bar?

Scott Hammond: Right.

Adam Dick: You know, I mean, when, you know, I've built violins be- I, I c-

buy a violin or I could make a violin.

Scott Hammond: Hmm.

Adam Dick: You know, you make the violin

and you're probably gonna make a violin that doesn't sound very good.

Scott Hammond: Right.

Adam Dick: And you have to be okay with that-

Scott Hammond: Right

Adam Dick: … getting into the process. But going through all those steps really

understand and connect-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Adam Dick: … with the finished product a lot.

So I was like, "Let's, let's home brew some chocolate bars. You know, why not?"

Scott Hammond: Let's do this.

Adam Dick: "Can we do this?" So you know, I, we looked around online

there's a place in Eugene-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Adam Dick: … called Chocolate Alchemy. You can buy cocoa beans from around the

pound.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Adam Dick: And they got a little blog that talks, tells you, you know,

Scott Hammond: Huh.

Adam Dick: And a little, few user forums, and then they also sell some

like grinding equipment to, you know, make a chocolate bar on your countertop.

So we got some simple stuff and started experimenting and-

Scott Hammond: Making stuff?

Adam Dick: Yeah, making chocolate, and I mean it was awful.

Scott Hammond: Ah. [laughs]

Adam Dick: It was, you know… It, I mean, what do you expect, you know?

[laughs] If you've never made any before, you're probably not gonna-

Scott Hammond: It's not gonna be that great

Adam Dick: … nail it first time.

Scott Hammond: That first batch of beer is not that great.

Adam Dick: Right, exactly.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Adam Dick: So you know, so it wasn't great, but it was, uh,

it was very different than w- you know, it didn't taste like a Hershey bar.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Adam Dick: It didn't taste like anything that really you were bou-

grocery store. I mean, it didn't have vanilla in it for one-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Adam Dick: … which is a huge, you know, flavor

enhancer or adulterant, depending on which way you look at it-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Adam Dick: … in most chocolate bars.

Um, so what, it had no vanilla, and it was really like fruity flavored or floral flavored. I mean, it was like-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Adam Dick: … the, the chocolate was like alive, you know?

Scott Hammond: And it's something else.

Adam Dick: Yeah, it had something else. So I think that that's, that

Scott Hammond: Mm

Adam Dick: … and that kept us, you know-

Scott Hammond: Huh

Adam Dick: … home brewing and home brewing and-

Scott Hammond: So you continued to do that while you built, and then-

Adam Dick: Yeah, I mean, we were-

Scott Hammond: Approached Eric at some point?

Adam Dick: Yeah, I mean, you know, you have, eventually you've got, you know,

making so much of it that, you know, you're giving it to friends and, you know?

Scott Hammond: [laughs]

Adam Dick: And someone's like, "You guys should sell this stuff." It's

Scott Hammond: Sell it

Adam Dick: … yeah, why don't you sell it?

And so you know, then we're like, "Yeah, why don't sell this?" And that, so that's when we, you know, got the like the, you know, started doing a little market research and finding out what was going on at the time. And when we started in 2010, there was, you know, maybe, maybe 20 chocolate manufacturers in the States period.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Adam Dick: You know? It's not-

Scott Hammond: Big, big and little?

Adam Dick: Yeah, big and little.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Adam Dick: And that, that's like not, you know,

You're not even at one at half the states at that point.

Scott Hammond: Opportunities right there.

Adam Dick: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Adam Dick: So at the time there was like, there was probably about

five maybe craft chocolate makers, people that had started about three or four years before us-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Adam Dick: … and kind of had these little fledgling

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Adam Dick: And the rest were the large-scale manufacturers.

Scott Hammond: Right.

Adam Dick: You know? So imagine if there was like, you know,

now.

Scott Hammond: Right.

Adam Dick: Craft breweries, there's hundreds and hundreds

Scott Hammond: Sure

Adam Dick: … of them. You know, imagine a time when it was like Sierra

Nevada-

Scott Hammond: Was it?

Adam Dick: … and Budweiser, uh, you know?

Scott Hammond: And D- Deschutes.

Adam Dick: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Adam Dick: And like that. So it was, you know, we were like, "Okay, so there's,

many of these-

Scott Hammond: Right

Adam Dick: … craft makers. There's probably some market share to be-"

Scott Hammond: And then it went-

Adam Dick: "… gained."

Scott Hammond: And then the beer thing certainly blew up.

Adam Dick: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Adam Dick: And the third wave co- you know, coffee's gone kind of that same-

Scott Hammond: Right, right

Adam Dick: … wave.

So we felt like there was, you know, market share, well, where do we, we need a commercial kitchen and all,

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Adam Dick: And then like you said, you know,

our-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Adam Dick: … materials for making all of our projects.

Scott Hammond: He probably know, knew you loved him.

Adam Dick: Yeah, so I, you know, we walked past in the front of the

know, there's like a little cafe that had been vacant for years. And so we're like, "Well, it's vacant." You know, on it. So we, we, we talked to Eric Ahlquist and said, "Hey, you know, how much for the space up there?" And he,

song-

Scott Hammond: A song

Adam Dick: … including utilities and-

Scott Hammond: 'Cause that's who he is. He's-

Adam Dick: Yeah, he's a great guy and, you know-

Scott Hammond: He's a mentor kind of a guy.

Adam Dick: Yeah. And, and he believed in us I guess.

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Adam Dick: But you know, we had-

Scott Hammond: Why not?

Adam Dick: … Dustin and I had figured out,

the rent there, I think it was, I don't know, or something, 350.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Adam Dick: And utilities included.

Scott Hammond: It was a gift.

Adam Dick: It was a gift, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Adam Dick: But even at that, you know, we were looking at like in order to just

rent, not pay ourselves, but just like pay the rent, you know, I can't remember. It was like 25 chocolate bars a week.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Adam Dick: You know? And I'd never sold any.

Scott Hammond: Ah. [laughs]

Adam Dick: So it seemed like just this crushing…

You know, I think to myself, how am I-

Scott Hammond: The numbers didn't-

Adam Dick: Yeah, like how am I gonna-

Scott Hammond: Encourage you.

Adam Dick: Yeah. [laughs] I was not stoked with that.

Scott Hammond: 100 a month?

Adam Dick: Yeah, like this is nuts. How am I gonna make that

But you know, we kind of like believed that we could or, you know, had figured-

Scott Hammond: Right

Adam Dick: … well, a couple months of this,

Dustin and I'll split that rent each, and then we'll fold-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Adam Dick: … the business up, you know?

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Good, good business plan.

Adam Dick: Yeah. [laughs]

Scott Hammond: Lot of hope in that one.

Adam Dick: [laughs] A lot of… Dustin and I have always had many…

We like to keep like a lot of off ramps all the time.

Scott Hammond: The Plan B guys.

Adam Dick: There's always a plan B.

Scott Hammond: C and D.

Adam Dick: Yeah, very strong plan B always.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. [laughs]

Adam Dick: So you know, we were like, "Okay, well let's give it a shot,"

chocolate on Mondays-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Adam Dick: … and then doing carpentry every other day

Friday.

Scott Hammond: The day job.

Adam Dick: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Adam Dick: And then, you know, we would like,

their like retailer list.

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Adam Dick: You know, 'cause they have all,

their chocolate so that the customers can find it. So we're like-

Scott Hammond: Chocolate

Adam Dick: … "Oh, sweet. Look at all these accounts."

Scott Hammond: Jeez.

Adam Dick: So then we started emailing, contacting those accounts,

and like-

Scott Hammond: Sure

Adam Dick: … just guerrilla marketing and-

Scott Hammond: You wanna try this?

Adam Dick: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: It's free.

Adam Dick: And sure enough, you know, you pick up,

you know, like the, in Portland there's a chocolate shop

know-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Adam Dick: … if you can get your stuff on the shelf in

Scott Hammond: You're huge

Adam Dick: … yeah, then all the other stores are,

what's the trend, what's coming in.

Scott Hammond: Right.

Adam Dick: You know, they like peruse at The Meadow so then-

Scott Hammond: And then there's a big gap and then there's Whole Foods.

Adam Dick: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Which would be So, a quick question. So what's the top three things

that were the breakaway things that sent you to a bigger, bigger volume?

Adam Dick: Hmm.

Scott Hammond: I know you were rec- you've been recognized at the,

chocolate shows.

Adam Dick: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: But-

Adam Dick: I mean, one thing early on that was, that

like important I guess in our, some of our decision-making, we… When we first started, you know, uh, wanting to have lots of plan Bs and low, low in, you know, input cost-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Adam Dick: … we decided we would just use, like,

something that was very standard.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Adam Dick: And we were wrapping it in these, like, l- Italian printed papers.

Like, our bra-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Adam Dick: … our packaging doesn't, didn't look anything like it does now.

Scott Hammond: Oh.

Adam Dick: Right?

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Adam Dick: Very different. With just, like,

elegant-looking package. So we were selling our chocolate bars, and we had a little quasi, like, online website-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Adam Dick: … you know, that you could shop a few things, and-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Adam Dick: … a chocolate blogger in, I think, New York,

or she might have been in Michigan, I can't remember, but anyway, she bought-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Adam Dick: … a, a r- a pretty famous or well-known chocolate blogger-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Adam Dick: … uh, picked up some of our bars

Scott Hammond: Huh.

Adam Dick: And, uh,

r- you know, reamed us pretty good for lots of was… That was kinda the first point, this had only been maybe five months or so into it, um, that we realized, like, hey, there might be interest outside of Humboldt County for this stuff. You know what I mean?

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Yeah, could be.

Adam Dick: Like, pe- people are seeing it at a much wider audience.

Um, and so that was when we kinda felt like we should redesign the mold and, and really try to do what we can to make this thing, like-

Scott Hammond: Presentation.

Adam Dick: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Adam Dick: Present well.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Adam Dick: And so yeah, that's when we, that's when we designed the mold

design, and-

Scott Hammond: I had a, I had a bar here. I was gonna-

Adam Dick: I, I brought some.

Scott Hammond: Oh, did you? Oh, okay.

Um, do you want to just really, 30 seconds, walk us through,

uh, kinda what, what a bar looks… I'll hold one up, and you can hold one up. Maybe the graphics and how-

Adam Dick: Oh, yeah.

Here, you can take that one.

Scott Hammond: Thank you.

Adam Dick: Um, yeah, so this is our, th- you know, th- these are our, these are our

72% Belize.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Adam Dick: When we first started making chocolate, we just made, um, plain,

single origin dark chocolate bars-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Adam Dick: … like this. Two ingredients, just cocoa beans

Scott Hammond: Wow

Adam Dick: … is very different than what you typically

chocolate.

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Adam Dick: So the formulation was pretty simple-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Adam Dick: … really stripped down. Um,

and, uh, and yeah, so this is kind of what we, you know, like, this kinda stuff, but we now have, you know, a whole line of bars with the-

Scott Hammond: The packaging's gorgeous. I mean, so you guys did all the,

Adam Dick: Yeah, all of the line work. You know, um,

so when we were, when we were doing this, all this packaging design and trying to kinda really brand ourselves and come up with a look, um, Garrett, uh, at the time was an illustrator at Pixar.

Scott Hammond: Right.

Adam Dick: And so it was really… He, you know, we loved Garrett's style.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Adam Dick: Garrett kind of, you know… Well,

kinda really knew what drove Dustin.

[laughs]

Scott Hammond: Right.

Adam Dick: So it was really easy. You know, Garrett's…

Everything Garrett drew were like, perfect, sweet. Yeah.

Scott Hammond: So is this-

Adam Dick: All of them

Scott Hammond: … are, all these his illustrations?

Adam Dick: They are, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Adam Dick: Um, and Garrett also designed the bar mold,

filigree-

Scott Hammond: Right

Adam Dick: … thing is also Garrett's design.

But, um, you know, with the, with the boat m- kind of

motif, uh, you know, for us this really… We wanted something-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Adam Dick: … that told the story-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Adam Dick: … of what was inside

without telling you, like, what was inside.

Scott Hammond: Right.

Adam Dick: You know what I mean?

Scott Hammond: Right.

Adam Dick: You know, when we were looking at, when we

almost all chocolate bar wrappers are brown or black.

Scott Hammond: With a butterfly or something that's-

Adam Dick: Yeah, and they're most always-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Adam Dick: … glossy. You know, so the, it has, like, a whole look.

When you go to the grocery store, there's, the chocolate bars have, like, a look.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Adam Dick: Even though they- even though they're different brands,

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Adam Dick: So we were like, "Well, we don't want brown."

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Adam Dick: "We don't want glossy."

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Adam Dick: You know, noth- We wanted everything that

kind of where we had ended up with a white very-

Scott Hammond: I don't see any flowers on there.

Adam Dick: Yeah, there's no flowers.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Adam Dick: But I think for us, you know, the image of the boat, um,

obviously kinda speaks a little bit to, you know, who Dustin and I are-

Scott Hammond: The culture

Adam Dick: … the things that we're really in- interested in.

Scott Hammond: Certainly at Humboldt.

Adam Dick: Yeah, we both lo-

Scott Hammond: Maritime.

Adam Dick: Yeah, exactly.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Adam Dick: And I think that, you know, as far as building a wooden boat, um,

it's, it's one of the more complicated

undertake.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Adam Dick: You've got… You know, on a boat, you've got,

uh, curves that are constantly changing-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Adam Dick: … throughout the length of the boat,

It's not-

Scott Hammond: It's not a bo- it's not a box.

Adam Dick: Right, it's not… It's like you never,

expect it to s- you know, match up to the next one.

It, the-

Scott Hammond: Right

Adam Dick: … the angle is constantly changing, 12, 11, 10, and-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Adam Dick: … you know. So you're constantly having to cut these

Scott Hammond: You can't-

Adam Dick: It's all done by hand.

Scott Hammond: So the metaphor with that and chocolate b- b- building a few-

Adam Dick: Right, I'm like, the, yeah, the amount of craftsmanship

wood boat-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Adam Dick: … a high degree. So we wanted it to speak to, you know,

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Adam Dick: That was kind of our idea. Um, but then like you had said, a

lot of the early lumber schooners that sailed timber up

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Adam Dick: … were built on the Humboldt Bay, right,

our factory is, you know?

Scott Hammond: Isn't that funny? Yeah.

Adam Dick: Yeah, and you know, the Thayer that's down at Hyde Street-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Adam Dick: … uh, in, in San Francisco at the Ma-

Scott Hammond: Right

Adam Dick: … Maritime Park there, that was built-

Scott Hammond: Huh

Adam Dick: … right out there on Samoa.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Adam Dick: And it's-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Adam Dick: … still, still floating and sailing, you know?

Scott Hammond: Huh.

Adam Dick: So I think it gives us a sense of place, like you were saying,

Humboldt County-

Scott Hammond: Like a-

Adam Dick: … of, of boat building and of that craftsmanship, um,

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Adam Dick: That, I don't think most people probably pick

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Adam Dick: … that little bit up, but it's definitely was something

lot, you know, how do we, how do we give it a sense of place?

Scott Hammond: Would you be offended if I popped this open?

Adam Dick: No, no, no.

Scott Hammond: 'Cause-

Adam Dick: I brought these for you

Scott Hammond: … I, I think that, um…

So this is our favorite thing. This is our date night. Joanie and I go up to, uh, Huda Point and, uh, have a whole thing. Nick, this is for you, too. So we pop open the, uh, the van. Here comes the Dick Taylor Chocolate, the picnic, the music, bottle of red wine maybe, and then, uh, and then this happensOh.

Adam Dick: Hmm.

Scott Hammond: The wrapper.

Adam Dick: [laughs]

Scott Hammond: And I, I think it's really key, um, I don't…

Really? Uh, I think it's really key to see the What did you call it? The, it's not called the imprint.

Adam Dick: Well, just the, the bar mold. You know, we had,

um, the bar mold, you know, designed-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Adam Dick: … and that's what gives the bars,

'Cause the, the chocolate's obviously poured into the

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Adam Dick: … state.

Scott Hammond: I would normally not break this, these open like this,

to see that. Can you see that imprint? The Flori- Flora Lee.

Adam Dick: Yeah. We had, we had told Garrett, who designed it,

we kind of like argyle socks." That was, like, his desi- you know, it was some of his design inspiration-

Scott Hammond: [laughs]

Adam Dick: … and, and he came out with that and it was just-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Adam Dick: … it was perfect.

Scott Hammond: It's nice.

Adam Dick: And the funny thing is, you know,

uh, you know, we didn't have a lot of experience at the

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Adam Dick: … but, you know, typically when you design chocolate bar

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Adam Dick: … the more detail that you have in the mold,

is-

Scott Hammond: Sure

Adam Dick: … to get it to mold without air bubbles

Scott Hammond: There's a lot of detail there

Adam Dick: … pockets and-

Scott Hammond: Ah, man.

Adam Dick: Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Oh, and, and as… When we did the tour a couple month-

fun. Uh, i- it has the pop. Oops.

Adam Dick: Yes.

Scott Hammond: It's a little softer.

Adam Dick: Well, and it's a milk chocolate,

Scott Hammond: Oh, it wouldn't pop as much.

Adam Dick: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Oh.

Adam Dick: Milk chocolate is al- always a lot softer because-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Adam Dick: … of the milk protein in there.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Adam Dick: So-

Scott Hammond: I'm sitting here, my mouth's watering.

I'm going, "Man, I wonder do I get to pop into this thing."

Adam Dick: Yeah. And the, you know, the milk cho- I brought that as…

Milk chocolate's now one of my, like, favorite things now.

Scott Hammond: That's a great milk chocolate bar though. Yeah.

Adam Dick: We use, um, you know, Alexander Family Farms.

They're down in, uh, they have a farm in, in Crescent City, but also down in

Ferndale.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Adam Dick: And they make, um, a2a2 milk, which is a,

it's a… a2a2 is the way they describe the milk

Scott Hammond: Right.

Adam Dick: Um, and it's a… It was kinda how, I think, cows,

tr- traditionally was a2a2.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Adam Dick: And then we've, through the years,

that actually, I think, is harder to digest.

Scott Hammond: Huh.

Adam Dick: So some people that have lactose problems can handle-

Scott Hammond: Can eat this

Adam Dick: … a2a2 milk, no problem.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Adam Dick: So that's the first thing that's cool, but what's, uh, we,

make that a2a2 milk into a whole milk powder.

Scott Hammond: Sweet.

Adam Dick: Yeah. Organic a2a2 whole milk.

Scott Hammond: Which plays right into your-

Adam Dick: Which is exactly what we need for chocolate, so it's like i-

the world. They're the only ones doing it. It's so… And we feel so fortunate to have that.

Scott Hammond: Locally sourced.

Adam Dick: Yeah. And-

Scott Hammond: Drive over and get some.

Adam Dick: Yep.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Adam Dick: And it's just delicious. It's, like, really, really amazing.

The hazelnuts come from Oregon.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Adam Dick: You know, the, the, uh, filbert, as we call it here.

Scott Hammond: Filbert, yeah. Filbert.

Adam Dick: Is the state, it's the state nut of Oregon.

Scott Hammond: And they, they make the best, 'cause they-

Adam Dick: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … yeah.

Adam Dick: But what's interesting in the, in the chocolate industry,

Italian hazelnuts, you know-

Scott Hammond: Is, is the-

Adam Dick: … are the ones

Scott Hammond: … best.

Adam Dick: Whatever, but I'm like, why don't…

I didn't wanna import Italian hazelnuts, and I'm like, it's the state nut for

Oregon.

Scott Hammond: They're up in Eugene.

Adam Dick: Yeah. [laughs] I'm like, let's just get it there, you know?

So-

Scott Hammond: That's funny

Adam Dick: … yeah. So we're a much more Pacific-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Adam Dick: … Northwest, uh, chocolate.

Scott Hammond: A French wine versus Napa Valley's got,

Adam Dick: Sure.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, so. So walk us through, um, a l- a quick little

timeline if you would be willing to, from, from Almquist, some of the early breaks, uh, the first location down on 5th, 4th-

Adam Dick: Mm

Scott Hammond: … and then your new location

uh… 'Cause you, markedly you d- you've done this. I mean, you guys have turned some sort of a, of, uh, I don't know, success, production-

Adam Dick: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … joy.

Adam Dick: Jo- [laughs] Tiredness.

Scott Hammond: Tired-

Adam Dick: [laughs] And exhaustion.

Scott Hammond: Ti- [laughs] Sleeping a little.

Adam Dick: Yeah. But, uh,

let's see. So we, you know, we were at Almquist for a total of about five years, I think.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Adam Dick: I think we did two and a half years or two years where we

almost full-time, you know-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Adam Dick: … and then we quit that. Um,

you know, and Almquist was the place where we, like,

Scott Hammond: [laughs]

Adam Dick: We had our first, like, marketing director, you know, when we

and, uh, but it was… You know, we were still r- you know, p- pretty small.

Scott Hammond: Right.

Adam Dick: Um, but we kept acquiring equipment,

acquiring space there at Almquist.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Adam Dick: So we were, you, initially we were renting

Then we needed a place to store our beans and do some of the bean prep, so then we started renting the break room-

Scott Hammond: Oh

Adam Dick: … the employee break room there at Almquist

Scott Hammond: [laughs] They loved you.

Adam Dick: Yeah, they literally loved us. Then

we needed even more space, uh, and so we rented their h- they have a conference room that was right above our production area-

Scott Hammond: Oh

Adam Dick: … and so we rented that whole conference room.

And so we were probably using up a total of, like, 1,200 square feet-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Adam Dick: … maybe by the time we left Almquist.

Scott Hammond: I bet the rent went up from 350.

Adam Dick: It did-

Scott Hammond: [laughs]

Adam Dick: … but Eric still kept it… He was-

Scott Hammond: What a guy. Yeah.

Adam Dick: Yeah, he was very good. Then, uh,

we were, you know, we were feeling like we were needing a new-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Adam Dick: … spot. We were getting kinda tight.

And it was about that time that we were approached by a guy named David Mulhern. Do you know Dave Mulhern?

Scott Hammond: Sure, yep.

Adam Dick: He, uh,

was a, you know, he's a land- landlord, property owner in Eureka-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Adam Dick: … and he had a property next to the co-op

Scott Hammond: Mm

Adam Dick: … on Fourth Street, and he was like, "I want you guys,

there." And we're like, "Dave-"

Scott Hammond: Can't afford it.

Adam Dick: Yeah, I'm like-

Scott Hammond: Wish we could

Adam Dick: … "I, I got 1,200 square feet here,

square feet," like-

Scott Hammond: Not gonna happen

Adam Dick: … yeah, like, I don't, I'm not even selling-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Adam Dick: … that amount of chocolate a month to even

So he realized that he had, you know, probably barked up the wrong tree, and so then he kinda l- let it go, and then he came back to us probably six or so months later, and he's like, "I, I just really want you in the building." He's like, "What's it gonna take?"

Scott Hammond: Awesome. Wow.

Adam Dick: Yeah, it was really awesome.

Scott Hammond: [laughs]

Adam Dick: I mean, he-

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Adam Dick: I, I, you know,

our landlords have saved our bacon-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Adam Dick: … over the years, I would say.

Scott Hammond: Invested, yeah.

Adam Dick: Yeah, and so, you know, he, we're like, okay.

He gave us, you know, made us a deal that we couldn't refuse.

Scott Hammond: Right.

Adam Dick: You know, and it, and, and he had, we had, you know,

where we were gonna have, uh, rent increases that would-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Adam Dick: … be tied to, like, our sales increases,

business, but he, he wanted to get from what he

actually-

Scott Hammond: What a great way to escalate, yeah

Adam Dick: … worth.

But, you know, he, he was-… kind, generous, flexible, and you know, and he, he made it work. And I, you know, I think Dustin and I were thinking, "Ah, five years to get up to what you want your rent to be," and he knew different.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Adam Dick: So it was like, I think it was

maybe a year or maybe two years we were-

Scott Hammond: 'Cause you just started producing your own-

Adam Dick: Yeah, we started producing and-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Adam Dick: … you know, and it was, it was going well.

And it was kind of like around that time, you know, you had talked about the Mike Rowe thing, and we were still at Almquist, right towards the end of our

time there-

Scott Hammond: [laughs]

Adam Dick: … and uh, we got approached by

m- you know, M- Mike Rowe.

Scott Hammond: Is it Discovery Network? Is that-

Adam Dick: It was on CNN.

Scott Hammond: Oh, it was CNN.

Adam Dick: So-

Scott Hammond: That's right

Adam Dick: … he had a show on Discovery called Dirty

Scott Hammond: His big one, yeah.

Adam Dick: Yeah, and that ran for a bunch of years.

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Adam Dick: Then he… How, I mean, I don't know the whole, like

everything that went on, but basically, long story short, he ended up at CNN-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Adam Dick: … with a similar themed show called

Scott Hammond: Somebody… Yeah.

Adam Dick: And it was just about people doing unusual things-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Adam Dick: … that they enjoyed, you know, and making a career out of it.

So that was, that was-

Scott Hammond: So they called you guys and said, "Hey, Mike wants to come out"?

Adam Dick: Yeah, actually what happened

Scott Hammond: Oh, that's right, Mary. [laughs]

Adam Dick: 'Cause they wanted to do, uh, yeah,

Grove-

Scott Hammond: Uh-huh

Adam Dick: … and you know,

God bless the folks at Cypress Grove, they were like, "You know who else-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Adam Dick: … you should go see while you're here is Dick Taylor." So

Scott Hammond: It had to be Mary Keene at the time, right?

She's-

Adam Dick: Um, I don't know if it was Mary.

department there.

Scott Hammond: Okay, so they pointed you guys out.

Adam Dick: Yeah, so then we, then the show kind of instead of just

uh, uh you know, about Cypress Grove, w- we had a spot, um, and with Dennis Real from Los Bagels, he was kind of moonlight,

yeah.

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Adam Dick: And uh, so yeah, that… And so we, we recorded that out at

Almquist.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Adam Dick: But by the time it aired,

we were at the new building.

Scott Hammond: Oh.

Adam Dick: You know? So it was weird watching it in this like time

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Adam Dick: But that show gave us a real hu- a, a real big boost for

online sales.

Scott Hammond: Interesting.

Adam Dick: Yeah. Whenever that show airs, even to this day-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Adam Dick: … 'cause it's still, 'cause it-

Scott Hammond: 'Cause they just dropped it-

Adam Dick: On YouTube

Scott Hammond: … pub- publicly or-

Adam Dick: Right

Scott Hammond: … YouTube, yeah.

Adam Dick: And we got a hu- not a huge s- spike, but it-

Scott Hammond: But it still h- still works.

Adam Dick: It was like one day we showed up at work,

and you're like normally, you know, we have, say, 20 online orders-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Adam Dick: … you know, overnight or whatever, and you're like,

in the morning and you're like, "There's

150?"

Scott Hammond: Huh. What's happening?

Adam Dick: "What's going on here?" You know? [laughs]

Scott Hammond: What's happening? [laughs]

Adam Dick: Yeah. You're like, "What's wrong with this?"

Scott Hammond: [laughs]

Adam Dick: You know, so we can, we can see where the click-throughs came

Scott Hammond: Right

Adam Dick: … and it's like, "Oh, everybody clicked over to our website from

Scott Hammond: Perfect.

Adam Dick: And then you go to YouTube and you're like, "Oh."

Scott Hammond: Oh, that's what happened.

Adam Dick: The show's airing again. But yeah-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Adam Dick: … it's amazing. It's like it just keeps-

Scott Hammond: And he just… He did a great job 'cause he's just a cool

Adam Dick: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: You could tell he just like connected with you guys.

Adam Dick: Yeah. It was really fun.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Nice, nice man.

Adam Dick: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: So d- new, new location, and now

five… How long were you at the lo- the, the new old location?

Adam Dick: We were there for eight years. We had a five-year-

Scott Hammond: Right

Adam Dick: … we had a five-year lease.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Adam Dick: Um, and right at the end of

you know, cannabis was becoming legal-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Adam Dick: … and property values on our particular

roof.

Scott Hammond: It went cr- everything went crazy.

Adam Dick: And so, you know, our landlord, he, he decided he was,

He's, I think, r- you know, getting ready to retire, kind of, trying to, like-

Scott Hammond: Sure

Adam Dick: … unload some stuff and, you know, when the market's real hot-

Scott Hammond: Yeah, that's when you-

Adam Dick: … that's a great, great time to sell.

Um-

Scott Hammond: Sell high.

Adam Dick: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Adam Dick: And f- we weren't ready to move then,

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Adam Dick: … for him.

Scott Hammond: Did he have a buyer right away?

Adam Dick: No, he didn't. Um, he did not have a buyer right away.

Um, and he also wasn't gonna kick us out, which is the most amazing

thing.

Scott Hammond: That's cool.

Adam Dick: You know, he could have, he s- he could have said, "Hey, you know,

lease anymore. You guys need to get out."

Scott Hammond: Right.

Adam Dick: But he, you know, he, he would always check in on us and,

how much longer…" And he… 'Cause he, what he wanted to do was to write a little extension in the lease-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Adam Dick: … and so even if he sold, we would still be protected, you know,

amount of time.

Scott Hammond: What a guy.

Adam Dick: Yeah. He's… They… I can't say enough great stuff about Dave

He's-

Scott Hammond: I knew him when he owned, uh, Arcata Audio.

Adam Dick: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Back on the plaza-

Adam Dick: Okay

Scott Hammond: … 100 years ago, yeah.

Adam Dick: Anyway, so-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Adam Dick: … so he, um, so we ended up being there for eight

Three years out of our lease-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Adam Dick: … he kept us in there and-

Scott Hammond: Huh

Adam Dick: … charged us through the nose for rent, but,

Scott Hammond: Still.

Adam Dick: Yeah. [laughs]

Scott Hammond: It's more, more money to leave.

Adam Dick: He deserves it, he deserves it at that point-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Adam Dick: … you know?

Scott Hammond: And so then the rebuild of the, the,

that, that all's con- concurrent-

Adam Dick: Yes

Scott Hammond: … to that?

Adam Dick: That was… Yeah, and I mean, that, that process took us

four years.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Adam Dick: Oh, it was-

Scott Hammond: That'll age a man.

Adam Dick: Yeah, it was, it was painful.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Adam Dick: It was real painful, but

you know, just, just the way that like things go, you know, Dustin like the biggest business geniuses-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Adam Dick: … and so, you know, you think, "Okay,

reality of things setting-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Adam Dick: … like, "Oh, this is how it's actually gonna look." [laughs]

Scott Hammond: I think if… Pay a compliment,

not you guys. I think you have tons of mentors

Adam Dick: Yeah. I mean, we do

Scott Hammond: … and fans and people that love you guys, and supporters,

What do you… I mean, name another word, but that it's, it's been a team thing, and you guys have paid back in spades in to the community-

Adam Dick: Oh, yeah, I mean, it's, it-

Scott Hammond: … with jobs and-

Adam Dick: … it definitely has been-

Scott Hammond: … goodwill, and-

Adam Dick: … has been, you know, yeah, a huge network of people

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Adam Dick: You know, our, our wives, for one. Um-

Scott Hammond: Let's not forget the wives.

Adam Dick: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: They're, they're right at the top.

Adam Dick: But, you know, I mean, I think that when Dustin and I w-

like, "Okay, is this chocolate thing gonna work?"

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Adam Dick: I think, you know, we felt like, okay, well, you know,

a wonderful intensely buy local, they support local

businesses-

Scott Hammond: Oh, yeah, we do

Adam Dick: … in a, in a way that's just unbelievable.

And so I think that that's what gave us the courage to start this thing-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Adam Dick: … is we're like, "Well, if we can just get a booth at the farmers

probably could sell the 25 chocolate bars a week to keep-"

Scott Hammond: Right

Adam Dick: … you know, the rent. [laughs]

Scott Hammond: 'Cause they wanna buy local.

Adam Dick: Right, exactly.

Scott Hammond: And if it's amazing, they're gonna buy double.

Adam Dick: Right, and so that, you know, so it, it, it has been-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Adam Dick: … the, you know, the, our local community and, and people

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Adam Dick: … that wanna eat chocolate

They wanna-

Scott Hammond: Oh, yeah

Adam Dick: … take pictures of it when they're, like,

o- overseas or whatever [laughs] happened.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Adam Dick: You know, we get pictures sent to us of store

Scott Hammond: Right.

Adam Dick: People are like oddly proud of it. It's fun for-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Adam Dick: … I think for people to go, you know,

know, in some bougie place in New York City guys. That comes from my town.

Scott Hammond: That's pretty cool.

Adam Dick: That's my chocolate right there.

Scott Hammond: That's where I'm from.

Adam Dick: Yeah, [laughs] exactly.

Scott Hammond: That's a great point. Yeah. There's a local ownership, which is…

I don't know how you market that, how one could market that magic.

I mean-

Adam Dick: Mm

Scott Hammond: … I, I love Lost Bagels, but-

Adam Dick: Right

Scott Hammond: … I- and I'm proud of them, but

I can't think of another product. I mean, you know, Johnny will pull out a Dick Taylor bar when we're in, I don't know, LA or something.

Adam Dick: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: "Hey, do you guys wanna try some of this?

It's like, it's like holy communion."

Adam Dick: Yeah. [laughs]

Scott Hammond: It's like… Yeah, no, I, I'll have that. It, it…

[laughs] The fir- the first thing, is there any cannabis in it? No.

No, it's-

Adam Dick: Mm-hmm

Scott Hammond: … it's not cannabis. Okay, just try it.

Just got, you gotta let it sit there and-

Adam Dick: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … and so there's always that coach approach.

So, um, I'm gonna bring this in, so, uh, I'm gonna ask you three things of, and then maybe kinda the legacy you wanna we'll wrap here. But, so three things that you're proud of in your life thus

Adam Dick: Uh,

gosh. I just celebrated, uh, 19 years of marriage. I'm, I'm pretty, pretty proud of that right now.

Scott Hammond: Nice.

Adam Dick: We had a… It was, you know, this last year, I mean, just in all

honesty, has been really, really tough. I mean, from Labor Day last year-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Adam Dick: … uh, until basically the first week of

December, you know, Dustin and I worked seven days a week.

Scott Hammond: Crazy.

Adam Dick: And, and long hours, you know, into the evening.

Scott Hammond: Just moving everything over and getting it all set up.

Adam Dick: Yeah, and, you know, we, we needed to…

Dustin and I needed to do a lot of the finish work in the building-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Adam Dick: … because we, you know, we needed to cut some stuff out of the

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Adam Dick: So the cheapest way to cut it, to, you know, the-

Scott Hammond: Labor

Adam Dick: … yeah, is the labor, so that meant that Dustin and I-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Adam Dick: … you know, kinda reluctantly

the load of all the finish work.

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Adam Dick: So anyway, that was just like a long push and-

Scott Hammond: Sure

Adam Dick: … and it's hard on a family

Scott Hammond: It's really rough.

Adam Dick: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: So recovery time.

Adam Dick: Yeah, and so, you know, just we… You know, it,

get through that, my wife and I, but I feel like we're on the other side of

Scott Hammond: Nice.

Adam Dick: I, I feel like our marriage is, you know,

Scott Hammond: That's sweet

Adam Dick: … in a while. So anyway, that to me, I'm like, I'm so, so,

that.

Scott Hammond: That's great.

Adam Dick: Um-

Scott Hammond: That work-life balance and-

Adam Dick: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Adam Dick: You know, and I'm, and I am obviously real proud of the,

that Dustin and I have built. It's-

Scott Hammond: Mm.

Adam Dick: I, I, you know, daily I walk through that building-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Adam Dick: … and I think, "How did I get here?"

Scott Hammond: Right.

Adam Dick: How, how is-

Scott Hammond: It's this palace of-

Adam Dick: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … chocolate.

Adam Dick: How is this, like, how is this even possible?

Like, all this equipment, where did it all come from?

Where did-

Scott Hammond: It's magic.

Adam Dick: Yeah. [laughs] It… You know, when you're in the,

you don't… It's like the frog being boiled in the

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Adam Dick: Like, I, I don't necessarily feel all, you know,

the business-

Scott Hammond: Right

Adam Dick: … 'cause you're just, like, in it, in it, in it, in it.

Scott Hammond: You're in it all the time.

Adam Dick: But if you step back and you're like,

yeah.

Scott Hammond: Like-

Adam Dick: We were out at Almquist with,

you know, $100 of countertop grinding equipment and-

Scott Hammond: Not that long ago.

Adam Dick: Yeah. [laughs]

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Adam Dick: Not that long ago.

Scott Hammond: No, it's, it's true, and I think just to see the fruit of your

mind, mind-boggling.

Adam Dick: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Adam Dick: So that, that's really fun and, you know, and I'm,

Gosh, there's lots of things I'm proud of. I'm, I'm proud of Eureka. I think that Eureka is poised to do-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Adam Dick: … some really, really neat things.

You know, like, when I came to Humboldt State-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Adam Dick: … um, you know, you live in Arcata,

It always feels like-

Scott Hammond: Right

Adam Dick: … Eureka's a little bit more of, like,

I guess that, you know, when you're, when you live in Arcata-

Scott Hammond: Oh, yeah, you're a blue blood

Adam Dick: … you know, you look down your nose.

Scott Hammond: All right, Eureka.

Adam Dick: But, you know, then w- then when I thought about, like,

well, I wanna buy a house or I wanna, you know, where can you afford that, and-

Scott Hammond: Eureka

Adam Dick: … Eureka.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Adam Dick: But, uh, and so that was, like, initially the thing

I really, I just feel like all of the things that are going on, I feel like, you know, a pretty, you know-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Adam Dick: … forward-thinking-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Adam Dick: … um, vision. And so I'm, like, proud of our town.

I love it when people come up here-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Adam Dick: … and I like to show them around and-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Adam Dick: … like, show them all the, all the cool stuff that, that Eureka-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Adam Dick: … you know, has got to offer, so I'm proud of that.

Scott Hammond: That's good.

Adam Dick: I like to be, I like to… I'm, I'm really proud

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Adam Dick: … and that it's, you know, it's a place that we're trying to,

and, and make really cool.

Scott Hammond: And move forward. Make it ready for our kids.

Adam Dick: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Grandkids.

Adam Dick: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Which is probably not that far away.

For, for some of us.

Adam Dick: [laughs]

Scott Hammond: Some of us had grand-dogs till 10 year, till five years ago.

Now we have 10 grandkids. It's like-

Adam Dick: Man, time flies

Scott Hammond: … what's, what's-

Adam Dick: Wow.

Scott Hammond: This stuff happens quick.

Adam Dick: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Adam Dick: Real quick.

Scott Hammond: No, I love it. And, and yeah, thanks for sharing that. So what, what…

This makes perfect segue. So what do you see for Humboldt's future? What would you like to see? What do you think the needs are, the, the strengths, and ju- maybe briefly what you would wanna, uh, if you could wave your, the magic chocolate wand and fix it, what would you see for… What do you see for Humboldt and Eureka?

Adam Dick: I don't know. I mean, I, I always say this, I think that, you know,

I think is, like, really… It's just such a unique place.

Scott Hammond: Mm.

Adam Dick: You know, and part of it is our isolation.

You know, so that's a, that's something that makes us unique. We're, like, five hours north of San Francisco.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Adam Dick: You know, we get a lot of chocolate folks come in to

whatever, and they're like, "Yeah, we're in San Francisco, visit." And I'm like-

Scott Hammond: [laughs]

Adam Dick: … "Okay."

Scott Hammond: It's only, you're only a couple hours, right?

Adam Dick: Yeah, right. So-

Scott Hammond: Yeah, no

Adam Dick: … you know, so, so the isolation I think the,

that.

Scott Hammond: Mm.

Adam Dick: But then,

you know, we've got this, we've got the university here.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Adam Dick: And that is always this influx of,

of, like, new, fresh, creative energy.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Adam Dick: Right? And so I, I feel like, you know, Humboldt County,

it's like if you take, uh, if you take peop- if you take really creative people-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Adam Dick: … with a really, like, intensely can-do spirit.

Scott Hammond: Mm.

Adam Dick: Like, we're, we're out here behind the Redwood Curtain,

yourself-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Adam Dick: … or find it yourself. So I think when you combine can-do people

then you-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Adam Dick: … get the people that live in Humboldt County.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Adam Dick: You know what I mean? When I think of, like,

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Adam Dick: … um, Kokutat still here, big, you know-

Scott Hammond: Sure

Adam Dick: … water business. Lacey's Cookies, I mean, they make-

Scott Hammond: He's been around for a while

Adam Dick: … they make a giant amount of cookies here

US.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Adam Dick: Cypress Grove-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Adam Dick: … obviously. So it's like there's,

"Well, I wanna stay in Humboldt County, so how can I use my-

Scott Hammond: How can I do it?

Adam Dick: How can I do it, you know?

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Adam Dick: So we, we, we do it ourselves. We make it ourselves.

Scott Hammond: We're gonna make it, yeah.

Adam Dick: Yeah, figure it out ourselves. I, I think that that's just something

f- I see time and time again. And obviously I'm kind of in this like business, entrepreneurial, you know, segment of-

Scott Hammond: Sure

Adam Dick: … the population,

but it's just something that you see like time and time again.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Adam Dick: And so I, I've, I just really hope that that's kind of,

where Humboldt can really kinda like land, as this place of like-

Scott Hammond: Right

Adam Dick: … intense creativity and kind of this hot bed for,

"Wow, I can't believe that came out of there?"

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Adam Dick: You know?

Scott Hammond: They make these new bikes in Humboldt. They're great.

Adam Dick: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, whatever it is. Yeah.

Adam Dick: And certainly, you know, I mean, I, I think that the, the,

you know, the, there's a lot of talk about the wind

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Adam Dick: … to things. I mean, I, it just seems like for so long,

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Adam Dick: … really in a resource extraction-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Adam Dick: … type of economy. You know, we had fishing.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Adam Dick: And that's kind of largely failed.

Timber has largely failed.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Adam Dick: Cannabis-

Scott Hammond: Is largely failing

Adam Dick: … largely failing.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Adam Dick: So it's like it, it, you know, we've, we've just,

We've moved from like one resource extraction like kind of thing,

it's, you know… I, I, there's other industry

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Adam Dick: … that hopefully is like a little more sustainable

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Adam Dick: … long term and-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Adam Dick: … so I think-

Scott Hammond: And I, I think we're doing that.

Adam Dick: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: 'Cause P- Pittsburgh really didn't do

Adam Dick: Mm-hmm

Scott Hammond: … or Detroit after cars were gone.

Adam Dick: Mm-hmm. Right.

Scott Hammond: So it's kinda…

Hopefully we w- won't be a rust belt as it were.

Adam Dick: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Um-

Adam Dick: And I mean, I, and, and I just, and that, and I,

some, I, some, I'm, I'm confident that it, that it won't be like that.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Adam Dick: I think that there's enough,

there's enough uniqueness and variety.

Scott Hammond: There's a, there's a can-do thing that is-

Adam Dick: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … spirit that's, that's alive and well. I like it.

Adam Dick: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Um, so let's talk about your legacy

What do you, um, what do, what would you see as your legacy? What, what, what are they gonna say about you at the service at the Adorney? [laughs]

Adam Dick: Oh, man.

Scott Hammond: What, what, what would you, what would you like them to say?

What do you think they…

Adam Dick: Uh,

I don't know. I, it's funny 'cause I do think about this I'm like, "When I die, will anybody show up at the f- [laughs]

Scott Hammond: Of course they will. Come on. Yes. There'll be 20 or 30 people.

Adam Dick: Yeah, exactly. [laughs]

Scott Hammond: [laughs] A handful.

Adam Dick: Um,

I, you know, I, I, I would just love to, I would like to be, you know, uh, seen as somebody that had, that made a positive impact on-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Adam Dick: … you know, on the community.

Um, somebody that was, yeah, like a, you know, a, a team player, somebody that always worked towards moving the, moving the dialogue forward-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Adam Dick: … you know, pushing,

pushing growth in a responsible and sustainable way.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Adam Dick: And I, I don't know. I mean, I, of course you're like, "Yeah, I'd like-

Scott Hammond: It's good

Adam Dick: … to be known for like making great

Scott Hammond: Sure

Adam Dick: … I, like I, I just want people to be like, "He

He was like just a nice guy."

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Adam Dick: "He was a, he was down to earth. He was level-headed.

He was reasonable."

Scott Hammond: He was a good family guy. He was a dad and a husband.

Adam Dick: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Adam Dick: It's like I guess on the one hand, you're like, I just wanna be like,

normal.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Adam Dick: I don't know.

Scott Hammond: That's good. I like that. What is it gonna say on your, uh,

Got a phrase? [laughs]

Adam Dick: [laughs]

Scott Hammond: I'll let you think about it while I grab-

Adam Dick: Yeah, I don't know if I have a-

Scott Hammond: … I'll put a couple ideas up there

Adam Dick: … I need like a life phrase.

Scott Hammond: So a couple funny ones that have come forward, uh,

Another one was, um, what did Linda Cooley say? She, she tried.

Adam Dick: Oh, she- [laughs]

Scott Hammond: I like, I like that. It's like, oh.

Adam Dick: She-

Scott Hammond: Yeah, gave it a go.

Adam Dick: Yeah. [laughs] Gave it your best shot.

Um, I, I don't know if I have an answer for you on that.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Adam Dick: But that's something that I will,

Scott Hammond: Yeah, think about that, "I should've said that one thing.

I know I've got it, but it's…" We'll edit it in later.

Adam Dick: [laughs] Punch my voice in.

Scott Hammond: Somebody, somebody said, "Uh, I don't have anything 'cause I wanna be

a tree in the backyard."

Adam Dick: Mm-hmm.

Scott Hammond: "No tombstone." I go, "That's a good answer."

Adam Dick: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: So, uh, it, you know, wouldn't be, wouldn't,

about Huck Flynn for a minute, just the band.

Adam Dick: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: You guys are, are, um, stellar in the community and,

um, um, I, I think you brought your mandolin, right?

Adam Dick: I did, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Do you, do you wanna, you wanna hold it

question-

Adam Dick: [laughs]

Scott Hammond: … just for like 30 seconds-

Adam Dick: Sure

Scott Hammond: … and-

Adam Dick: For a visual aid

Scott Hammond: … we'll tie it off. I was thinking,

what I was thinking is that you could do, uh, you know, another hour on the mandolin as we sign off.

Adam Dick: Right. This-

Scott Hammond: And, uh-

Adam Dick: So here, this is my, my current axe.

I've got a couple-

Scott Hammond: Nice

Adam Dick: … couple mandolins that I play.

Scott Hammond: Weber.

Adam Dick: Yeah. This is a, this is a Weber Bitterroot.

Scott Hammond: That's older, right?

Adam Dick: Uh, this actually isn't super old.

This mandolin I think is from, uh, two… Dated in here?

No. I have a serial number and not a date.

Scott Hammond: Huh. Beautiful.

Adam Dick: Um, but is, uh, b- it's a Bend, Oregon, uh, Weber.

They've moved around a little bit.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Adam Dick: And it is, um, it's signed by Bruce Weber as well.

Scott Hammond: Made in Bend.

Adam Dick: Yeah. Um-

Scott Hammond: Nice. Beautiful.

Adam Dick: Yeah. The, it's, it's great. This mandolin, um, when we played…

Sorry, I should talk into the microphone.

Scott Hammond: There you go.

Adam Dick: When we played at the, uh, Arkley Center, it was like, uh, one of,

first like big-ish gig, you know, and-

Scott Hammond: Was it a Christmas show or-

Adam Dick: It was our Christmas show, yep.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Adam Dick: And we, and we had ma- played a few weddings earlier that year,

enough money to buy this mandolin. So this mandolin, all the money to buy this came from

mandolin.

Scott Hammond: Oh, that's cool.

Adam Dick: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Makes sense.

Adam Dick: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Adam Dick: So anyway.

Scott Hammond: So t- real quick, uh, o- one minute, two minutes on the band.

How did, how did the band come together? What's, what's your trajectory?

Um, I, I, it's almost unfair, but, to k- [laughs] but we gotta bring it up 'cause-

Adam Dick: Yeah. No, no, no, no

Scott Hammond: … part, part of who you guys are.

Adam Dick: Yeah, so we, we started,

I mean, basically ri- 2008 or s- like it was before, it predates the chocolate business.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Adam Dick: And, uh, I, like I said, I went to high school

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Adam Dick: And, uh, m- my mom's always been into like b-

She was in, when we lived in Tahoe, she had a clogging company called the Tahoe Truckee Clogging Company, and they would-

Scott Hammond: Clogging?

Adam Dick: Yeah, they would clog at like-… rodeos

Scott Hammond: Is that the wood shoes and doing the whole thing?

Adam Dick: Not wood sh- they're like tap shoes.

Scott Hammond: Okay

Adam Dick: But they, you know, the guys, her, her sis- her and her, like, brother,

brothers and some sisters were in the, this Tao Trucking Clown Company. They, uh, had their, like, little overall outfits and-

Scott Hammond: Nice

Adam Dick: … whatnot. So

always been around kind of, you know, bluegrassy-type

music.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Adam Dick: And so in high school we started going, uh,

Walnut Valley Festival. It's in Winfield, Kansas.

Scott Hammond: Hmm.

Adam Dick: And they have a four-day annual bluegrass

festival there.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Adam Dick: They, they also hold the national, like,

mandolin championships and so it's all, like, really great musicians. I, I actually, I watched Chris Thile win the national mandolin championship at-

Scott Hammond: Hmm

Adam Dick: … uh, at Winfield when he was-

Scott Hammond: Young

Adam Dick: … 10 maybe.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Adam Dick: I mean, he was just this, like, tiny little, you know,

Scott Hammond: He's the guy now, right?

Adam Dick: Yeah. Now he's, you know.

Scott Hammond: Who's the other guy? Marty Stewart?

Adam Dick: Oh, there's a lot of guys.

Scott Hammond: He, he's bigger though. Those, would those guys come to a show like this

venue?

Adam Dick: No, they're a little bit big for that.

Scott Hammond: They're … Yeah.

Adam Dick: But Nickel Creek, Nickel Creek played at Wa-

Scott Hammond: Nice

Adam Dick: … all, like, 14. They were all-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Adam Dick: … little kids. The Watkins and Chris Thile, they

Scott Hammond: Who's the new grass, Sam Bush?

Adam Dick: Yes.

Scott Hammond: Would, would Sam come to a show like that?

Adam Dick: No.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Adam Dick: Little bit too big.

Scott Hammond: Well, yeah.

Adam Dick: Yeah. Um, but anyway, so

we went to Walnut Valley Festival, you know, a lot of years.

Scott Hammond: Hmm.

Adam Dick: And there was a, there was a band one year called The Wilders.

They're from Kansas City. They're not, they're not together anymore.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Adam Dick: And that was another thing, like, watching these brothers play

was like The Wilders were insane.

Scott Hammond: Really good.

Adam Dick: They all played around one microphone.

Scott Hammond: Huh.

Adam Dick: And it was like, it just seemed like a, like a V8 engine

running. When they were playing and it was just like the heads going up and down like the pistons of the engine.

Scott Hammond: [laughs]

Adam Dick: I mean, it was just, it was raw and-

Scott Hammond: Nice

Adam Dick: … I was like, "This is amazing." And so, uh,

year that I saw The Wilders, and I was like, "Dustin, we need to, we need to do this. We could do this." You know?

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Adam Dick: They weren't, they weren't amazing musicians.

Like, they, they weren't just all flashy on their

Scott Hammond: Right.

Adam Dick: But the amount of energy and the, like, what they could captivate

on stage was unreal.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Yeah.

Adam Dick: So, you know, Dustin and I started fiddling around

and we, uh, his s- sister-in-law, Mary Beth, played the violin.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Adam Dick: And so we kinda started this, like, little trio thing,

you know, Arts Alive in Old Town-

Scott Hammond: Hmm

Adam Dick: … in front of Eureka Books and-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Adam Dick: … brought on a bass player and, you know.

Scott Hammond: Was that Ray at that point or?

Adam Dick: Uh, no, it was not Ray at that point. It was a guy, Nick Hoffman.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Adam Dick: Yep. And, uh, so Nick played bass for a long time.

Scott Hammond: Huh.

Adam Dick: And, you know, we

just kind of did whatever we could, you know?

Played-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Adam Dick: … mostly for free. Little fundraising events or whatever.

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Adam Dick: And it, you know, it's just kind of been always this thing

background-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Adam Dick: … the whole time.

Scott Hammond: Part of that creative outlet to the-

Adam Dick: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … the whole deal.

Adam Dick: And then Mary Beth moved away, and so we didn't have a fiddle player

we brought on a, a couple, a guy and a girl, and he played electric guitar, and she-

Scott Hammond: Huh

Adam Dick: … played keyboard. That was, uh-

Scott Hammond: Hmm

Adam Dick: … Brian Pilger and,

well, it was Lauren Hoffman, but now sh- they're married, so.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Adam Dick: Uh, and so that was kinda when we started kinda more down the road

now.

Scott Hammond: Hmm.

Adam Dick: A little more electric, kind of rock-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Adam Dick: … vibe. And then they moved away,

Scott Hammond: He's great.

Adam Dick: Yeah, he is very, very good. And then Dustin's sister-in-law now

band, and-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Adam Dick: … her name's Evangelia. She s-

Scott Hammond: She's wonderful

Adam Dick: … yeah, sings. Got a great voice,

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Adam Dick: Yeah, that's kind of, you know, the thing.

And, and it's amazing, the, the band now outdates,

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Adam Dick: You know, my marriage. And I'm almost getting to the point

years where I'll have been, I'll have spent more time in my life

band-

Scott Hammond: The band [laughs]

Adam Dick: … than not playing in the band, you know?

It's weird when you are, start to enter your 40s and you start-

Scott Hammond: You have a family.

Adam Dick: Yeah, and you started things in your 20s.

Scott Hammond: Been around with these guys.

Adam Dick: Half of my lifetime with these guys.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. So, so my experience with the band is

see these guys, Huckleberry Flint. Huckle- You gotta check 'em out. They're great." But they, they ever play? Oh.

Adam Dick: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Well, they play at Christmas, and they play at the Arcata Playhouse.

Adam Dick: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: And, and finally, um,

it was '17 or '18 we saw you guys at, uh, Humboldt Folklife at Blue

Lake.

Adam Dick: Oh, yep.

Scott Hammond: Where we saw Mary Beth two weeks ago.

Adam Dick: Yep.

Scott Hammond: First time.

And, um, I don't know what happened at that show, that, that energy from, from Kansas came.

Adam Dick: [laughs]

Scott Hammond: It was like, woo.

Adam Dick: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: And I'm going, "This is g- I mean,

Russ has got this thing dialed in or something or something."

Adam Dick: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: I mean, they're, they were just-

Adam Dick: Yeah, the sound guy was good, you know, really good.

And I, and-

Scott Hammond: Was that a b- w- I, is there better shows, uh, th- than a,

don't know if you can rank them, but was that, was that a g- good,

for y'all?

Adam Dick: Yeah. I mean, I honestly don't remember that, like,

we played that show there for-

Scott Hammond: A lot

Adam Dick: … a lot of years.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Adam Dick: So I'm not, don't totally remember that year.

Scott Hammond: Pa- Patrick?

Adam Dick: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Or no, is it just this last one this year?

Two weeks ago.

Adam Dick: Oh, that the energy-

Scott Hammond: In Blue Lake

Adam Dick: … was so good?

Scott Hammond: Yeah, in Blue Lake at the Folklife.

Adam Dick: Oh, you're s- you're saying we're getting better.

Scott Hammond: Ye- yeah, I, I inferred it and implied it.

[laughs]

Adam Dick: No, that, that show was, I'm, I'm just teasing you. That show

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Adam Dick: Yeah. You know, we, we've been doing it now for, you know,

time.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Adam Dick: And the cool part about doing something for a long time is you don't-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Adam Dick: … get as nervous about doing it-

Scott Hammond: Right

Adam Dick: … you know, anymore 'cause you're, you're-

Scott Hammond: Right

Adam Dick: … you're like, I've familiar with it.

Scott Hammond: I'm a natural podcast host.

Adam Dick: Totally.

Scott Hammond: Hello. Hey.

Adam Dick: You're killing this, so.

Scott Hammond: There's Nick, and thank you-

Adam Dick: Right

Scott Hammond: … for being here.

Adam Dick: Yeah, no, you're right. It's, it, because-

Scott Hammond: So it becomes more fun though because you're, y- you know,

probably like, "I don't know what to say," or,

Adam Dick: It's kinda weird, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, but now-

Adam Dick: I'm gonna make it weird

Scott Hammond: … right. But once you've done it enough,

fun."

Adam Dick: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: You get to hang out with somebody.

Adam Dick: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: So for us, you know, we get to, you know, we are performing,

nervous, but-

Adam Dick: Sure

Scott Hammond: … at the same time, you know, the,

I wanna have a good time too.

Adam Dick: Oh, man.

Scott Hammond: So you're like, if everybody just wants to have fun,

pressure-filled, you know?

Adam Dick: Right. It becomes a joy.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Adam Dick: The joy factor.

Scott Hammond: That's the tr-

Adam Dick: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … that's the, the hope.

Adam Dick: And, uh, and Russ is, he's the sound man for Bruce Cockburn,

Scott Hammond: Yeah. We, we're-

Adam Dick: He's, he's the dude, right?

Scott Hammond: He's [laughs] , he's beyond the dude, Russ.

Adam Dick: He's like the seventh band member or-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Adam Dick: … Dustin called him some, some point.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, Russ Cole is, he's really amazing.

Adam Dick: What a nice man too.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. And he's, you know, he, he has done or, you know, so many shows

at Center Arts. I mean, he's a, he's incredibly talented.

Adam Dick: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: And he's one of those people that, like,

he's beyond Humboldt County in his abilities-

Adam Dick: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … but he's still here doing it and-

Adam Dick: He's a, he's a, he's an example of a lot of the things

somebody that, that can do and-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Adam Dick: … is magical and gifted and all, all the, all those words.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. So, uh, any parting shots before we go?

Adam Dick: Uh, no, just, like, super, super thankful that you'd,

and it's, it's-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Adam Dick: … great to connect and, and really just chat.

I feel like we've just been mainly hanging out for an hour now and-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Adam Dick: … shooting the breeze, which is-

Scott Hammond: Yeah, no

Adam Dick: … really, really great.

Scott Hammond: Appreciate you a lot coming in and, um,

dicktaylorchocolates.com.

Adam Dick: Yep.

Scott Hammond: And, uh, Huckleberry Flint.

Adam Dick: There's probably not a .com there.

You'd have to find us, I think Huckleberry Flint Band on

Scott Hammond: Or on Amazon or-

Adam Dick: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … or Siri or somebody's got you.

Adam Dick: Yeah. I mean, you can find our, we're, yeah,

We have a couple albums out.

Scott Hammond: Alexa, play Huckleberry Flint.

Adam Dick: And, and that will happen.

Scott Hammond: It's weird. You know, there's a whole catalog.

Adam Dick: [laughs]

Scott Hammond: It's actually 20 years.

Adam Dick: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Anyway, thanks, Adam. Appreciate you.

Adam Dick: Thank you.