Tales of 3 Villagers: From Travel to Mastermind Insights to Coors Beer in The Villages

From the heart of The Villages, Florida, we've stitched together a tapestry of tales that spans the gamut from high-flying adventure to the rich froth of brewery life. Gather round as three guests from my Podcasting 101 class—Alex Lakatos, Ken Lee, and Rich Radcliffe—bring their diverse experiences to the mic. Alex unfolds his serendipitous path from electronics to the data communications industry, Ken shares the life-altering impact of mastermind groups and his latest venture, American Dream United, and Rich pours out stories of camaraderie from his Coors Brewery days. Each narrative is a thread in the vibrant quilt of our community, offering wisdom, laughter, and a shared sense of discovery.

Strap in for a journey that will take you from terra firma to the clouds, as I recount my own transformation from acrophobia sufferer to enthusiastic aviator, racing through the skies and exploring beyond borders. The conversation then glides towards the value a travel agent can bring to your voyages, challenging the myth of added expense with a promise of tailored expertise. We chart a course through the nuances of smaller ship travel, like those of Viking, and anchor the segment with a beacon of hope in the fight against Alzheimer's, spotlighting the importance of early detection and cutting-edge treatments.

Wrapping up our sojourn, Ken Lee returns to illuminate the powerful alchemy of mastermind groups, where collective intelligence weaves into the fabric of personal and professional growth. Ken's insights reveal the profound impacts these groups have had, stitching together not just minds, but hearts and ambitions. I close this chapter by reflecting on my own narrative twist from the brewery industry to the literary world, sharing my passion for penning children's stories and short fiction. This is more than just an episode; it's an invitation to join us on a journey through the chapters of life, each with a story to tell.

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Transcript

Emily: 0:11

Welcome to the Open Forum in the Villages Florida podcast. In this show we talk to leaders in the community, leaders of clubs and interesting folks who live here in the villages to give perspectives of what is happening here in the villages Florida. We are a listener. Supported podcast. There will be shoutouts for supporters and episodes.

Mike Roth: 0:29

A note from the heart. Hello, dear listeners, I am thrilled to share our passion project with you Podcast that brings joy, knowledge and inspiration. Creating it is a labor of love, even though it demands more time than I can easily spare. But hey, time isn't something that we can buy back right Now. Here is where you come in, the unsung hero. You can help us keep the podcast alive and thriving, ow by becoming a supporter. You can make a small monthly contribution. Visit our website, open Forum in the Villages, florida, and click on the supporter box. Even a humble $3 to $10 a month makes a difference. And guess what? You can cancel anytime, no strings attached, Free and priceless. Thank you. Your support means the world to us. Stay curious, stay inspired and keep those headphones on.

Emily: 1:20

If you have a book that you would like to turn into an audiobook, let us know via email to micatrothvoicecom. Hope you enjoy today's show.

Mike Roth: 1:28

Today we'll have a really interesting episode. I have three of my students in the podcasting 101 class who've agreed to record their first podcast with us. Each one will have about eight to 10 minutes and we'll hear a little bit about each one of their goals, lives and what's going on here in the villages. The first one is going to be Alex Lakatos, who's moved here to the villages and he's a travel agent. Our second speaker will be Ken Lee, who is going to be running a mastermind group on a national basis, and the third is Rich Radcliffe, who's going to tell us some interesting stories about when he was working at the Coors Brewery in Denver, colorado, in the 1980s. This is Mike Roth on Open Forum in the Religious Florida. I'm here today with Alex Lakatos, so that's pronounced just like it's spelled In English, it is In Hungarian it would be totally different.

Alex Lakatos: 2:22

How would it sound in Hungarian? Lakatos Lakatos, which actually means locksmith. So it's got a meaning, okay, yeah.

Mike Roth: 2:30

That's cool. That's cool. Here it is. My family name, coming from Germany, was Roth Apple or something like that, and it's customs or Ellis Island they cut off the apple. It's fine. Alex was a student of mine in the Enrichment Academy course this year and he volunteered to do a 10 minute podcast with us. Alex, why don't you tell us a little bit about your background?

Alex Lakatos: 2:55

Mike, starting out early, most of my interest was really in electronics and technology, and travel was not a thought at that time. I went to a high school where I learned electronics and eventually ended up going to college Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teanac, new Jersey, taking electrical engineering. I graduated with a BS in electrical engineering. First job I got out of school was for a military contractor, designing inertial navigation equipment for a military aircraft. I realized pretty quickly that being an engineer and designing was really not really for me. I saw myself more and a sales role and as a result that I got myself into the computer industry when it was just in the beginning, early stages, working for companies like Hewlett Packard and digital equipment corporation selling what was called mini computers at that time, no disk drives or any of the great stuff we're used to right now. Ultimately I left those companies and ended up working for a company called Codex who was a leader at that time in data communications, allowing remote locations to talk to a central location. After a number of years I've got to say modestly I became an expert in the field and I really knew my stuff. I ended up meeting a guy at the company who was hired to sell a brand new product of IBM compatible equipment and we became friends pretty quickly. Now, unfortunately, the company let him down and did not support that product line and he ended up going into a business where he wrote a resold IBM, previously owned IBM equipment, which was a huge field, and the thing that made it work was that IBM, as long as you had maintenance on your equipment, would maintain used equipment. So it's like getting an old car and getting a new car warranty on it. And so he said to me says why can't you do that with data communications equipment? I had no answer for him, so I said let's give it a shot. He gave me leads, we did sales together. We did great, really did great, and after a while we realized we couldn't work together. So I ended up starting my own company and reselling very high tech equipment, which eventually led to brands like Cisco systems.

Alex Lakatos: 5:20

Now, this was an incredible experience for me and it led me to do things I never believed I would have done, for example, getting into aviation. I had a fear of flying and fear of heights, so I figured the way to solve that was to learn to fly. So I had some free time and I had the money. So I did that. Ultimately, I was able to purchase my own airplane and flew it all over the place. So my original traveling was really flying from New Jersey, where I lived, to the Bahamas and I was involved with an air race down there and also a trip from New Jersey to the Dominican Republic for a big celebration that they were having down there. And I still love aviation. It's a real passion of mine. Is the long plane? No, unfortunately, it got to be quite expensive maintaining an airplane. I have friends that have planes currently and I go up with them once in a while. But if I win the lottery or PCH or something, I might get a plane, but right now I let some other guys do the flying.

Mike Roth: 6:21

We had one fellow, a couple of fellows on the show who deliver airplanes Cool. Let me ask you this with so much information available to us online today, why should someone use a travel agent as opposed to just booking it with the cruise line, the airline or making it an independent tour? Mike, that's a great question.

Alex Lakatos: 6:41

I think there's a misconception by some people that it cost you extra money if you use a travel agent, and that's really not true at all. I've joined some groups on Facebook that are people that cruise the cruise lines, like Viking cruise line, and it's amazing the misconception that people have. But to answer your question in more detail, a travel agent can offer expert advice Both about the destinations and also about the cruise lines. All cruise lines have a different personality, so a travel agent would have had personal experience both with the destination and with the cruise line. The other thing there's a lot of complexity involved.

Mike Roth: 7:22

Is it okay if I ask you a cruise line question. Sure, with our Mercedes Benz Club here in the villages attempting to plan a cruise for 24 and 25. Naturally, we're more than 55 years of age on average. Some people are up into their 80s. What cruise lines would you think would be a good cruise line to go for five to seven days?

Alex Lakatos: 7:44

I would recommend cruise lines like Viking cruise lines, and the reason I would do that is that it's smaller ships, less people, less crowds. The service is outstanding for people and I've gotten a lot of positive feedback from my clients. They definitely would be high on my list, as opposed to a ship that's got 6,000 people on it and a bunch of two year olds running around. Where does Viking start from here in?

Mike Roth: 8:12

Florida.

Alex Lakatos: 8:14

Viking, would you be finding Viking down in the Miami Fort Lauderdale area? They're not at the Port Canaveral. Port Canaveral.

Mike Roth: 8:22

And what would a five to seven day cruise into the eastern I guess it would have to be the eastern Caribbean. The ground numbers Course, wise you're saying I would say ballpark.

Alex Lakatos: 8:33

You're probably looking at about $4,000 a person. That would be my guess right now.

Mike Roth: 8:39

Yeah, OK, I don't know if I'm going to use that. I think Viking makes a very. I took both of the river cruises and the transatlantic. I went. This has been to.

Alex Lakatos: 8:47

Miami yeah, they have both the ocean and the river cruises.

Mike Roth: 8:51

Yes, the ship is too small for the ocean, my opinion. They made very small stabilizers and so any little way like that. I didn't get seasick, but I found it annoying. That's another whole story. So, Alex, if someone wants to get ahold of you to talk about using you as a travel agent, how do they do that?

Alex Lakatos: 9:11

There's a couple of different ways. One could be a phone call, and my number is 352-268, or they can email me at alexcom.

Mike Roth: 9:21

Alex, was that a cell phone number, so they could text you at the same number? That's correct, mike. Okay, good Thanks for joining us today, alex, you're welcome. Thank you for having me. I'm Mike. I'd like to take a break now and listen to Dr Craig Curtis. Dr Curtis, what do you think the future looks like? Alzheimer's treatment here in America?

Dr. Craig Curtis: 9:37

I think the future looks very good. I think that these blood tests are going to make a significant difference in our ability to detect someone who's developing Alzheimer's disease before symptoms, a person who develops memory loss due to Alzheimer's disease. We know that disease actually started approximately two decades or 20 years prior. We know that amyloid starts building up for approximately 20 years 15 to 20 years which then initiates other brain cells or to die off, essentially, which leads to Alzheimer's disease. We're trying to remove that amyloid prior to that so we can prevent Alzheimer's disease. We're also attempting to want somebody already has the cognitive changes or memory symptoms. We're trying to figure out if reducing that amyloid really slows the disease. We now have, of course, the world's first medicine on the market that is slowing Alzheimer's disease by removing amyloid from the brain. We're looking at newer, more advanced forms of those medications that remove the amyloid much more quickly in a matter of months. So that's very exciting.

Warren: 10:51

With over 20 years of experience studying brain health, Dr Curtis's goal is to educate the village's community on how to live a longer, healthier life. To learn more, visit his website craigcurtismdcom, or call 352-500-5252 to attend a free seminar.

Mike Roth: 11:07

This is Mike Roth. I'm here today with Ken Lee. Thanks for joining me, Ken.

Ken Lee: 11:10

Happy to be here.

Mike Roth: 11:11

Ken is starting a new business and it's all about mastermind groups. Ken, why don't you tell our listeners a little bit about what a mastermind group is?

Ken Lee: 11:21

Napoleon Hill in his book Think and Grow Rich, talked about the concept of a mastermind group. He says that when two people individuals get together to discuss some, a third mind emerges. I found that concept fascinating and had experienced it somewhat. I was singing in a local barbershop group and they have something called upnotes or a ringing a tone and you can have four individuals singing their individual notes and then you will hear if they ring that tone. You will hear a fifth note. It's a fascinating concept.

Ken Lee: 12:00

Going back to the mastermind, I had masterminds with different people, different individuals, where we would brainstorm things and come up with ideas. My wife said to me why don't you do that with your son? I said okay. About a year ago, december, I started a special time with each one of my sons. I have four sons and we sit down via telephone for an hour and just I talk about their life, their work, what I'm doing, hopes, dreams, ambition been going on for well over a year. I have never been closer to my sons than I am right now and I thought, if I can do this for my son, maybe I could start doing this for other individuals.

Ken Lee: 12:41

So there was a young lady who's a real estate broker up in Upstate Upper Maryland and we had done some business things and started talking and she and I started talking, doing a weekly mastermind. It was beneficial for both of us and it was very exciting. And so with my son, tim he is out in St Louis he had a great time, coach, who was raised by a single mom, did not have a father figure, and the fact that my son and I talked an hour a week fascinated him. So we come down to collaborating and we're starting a group called American Dream United and information at AmericanDreamUnitednet and we are offering a monthly mastermind for free, no charge, the third Thursday and for an hour and a half we talk about different topics for people who are in business, people who are trying to balance the family life, work, they're trying to balance the fitness aspect and they're trying to balance their lives.

Ken Lee: 13:44

Because what I have found I'm 71 years old and I'm retired, but I have found that there are many people who reach what they think is success in their life but they're still missing something, still got a hole in their heart, if you please. And what can fill that hole? I'm thinking and the way I'm doing things that significant can do that Success is where I pour into myself, trying to reach my goals, my ambitions, the things I want to do. Significance is where I pour my life into other and help them to achieve the goals they want.

Mike Roth: 14:21

So your mastermind group is going to be done at no charge to the participant, correct? Is it going to be done over Zoom? Yes, over Zoom. So in May, what is the date that the mastermind group will meet?

Ken Lee: 14:33

It will be the third Thursday.

Mike Roth: 14:34

Third Thursday of May, and what time.

Ken Lee: 14:38

Eleven Eastern time.

Mike Roth: 14:40

Eleven Eastern time? And how do they get a whole of you to gain access to the Zoom meeting?

Ken Lee: 14:46

You can get access to the Zoom meeting by going to AmericanDreamUnitednet. That will take you to our Facebook page, give you all the information. You can sign up there and get additional information. I can be reached here in the villages at BeyondSuccessAtTheVillagesnet.

Mike Roth: 15:07

Good, that sounds like a great idea. Many years ago, david Sandler forced me to read the Bowling Hill and in many respects some of the Sandler management meetings were mastermind groups, and so I have a great familiarity with what you're trying to do. It does help a lot of people.

Ken Lee: 15:24

The other topic we wanted to talk about was the other item we were going to talk about is personal coaching. The mastermind is free and people can enjoy that as much as they want. Take advantage of that. The other thing we offer for those that want to go a little bit deeper, we do have coaching available, one-on-one coaching. We'll group coaching. We're going to do Book Club where we get perhaps a John Maxwell book, some other great leader and go through it, and then we have do-it-yourself code through a source called RightNowMedia. We will give individuals access to RightNowMedia where they can, in the comfort of their home, go on view a video and then set up a time to discuss that. And again, it'd be more like a one-on-one mastermind. So those services are available and as we expand that will be available on the website.

Mike Roth: 16:17

But right now the free mastermind is what we're offering and we're hoping people can take advantage of that Just out of curiosity, round numbers what kind of course would it be for someone to participate in the free and then wanted to have some one-on-one coach?

Ken Lee: 16:34

We're trying to target $30 a month as a base for people to take advantage of different aspects of that. We're still working through that, but it's one of those things that, with the free mastermind and other people available, people can get the help that they deserve. And mostly it comes down to accountability, one of the things that my doctor tells me because I need to become less of the man that I am, lose some pounds that I need someone to be accountable to so I have a nutrition she encouraged. It's basically the same. Someone is paying her fee, my medical paying her fee, but if we do that in business, then a peep title. So the prices are all over the place. I know of individuals. I know of an individual right now. He is paying $1,800 a month for personal coaching.

Ken Lee: 17:24

Now he happens to work for a very large domestic airline company, has that in his continuation budget but it runs the gamut of $20, $30 a month up to $2,000.

Mike Roth: 17:35

Okay, so there's a very big variability. And again, if someone wanted to get a whole of you on the phone to ask a question, what's your?

Ken Lee: 17:41

telephone number 352-626-7581.

Mike Roth: 17:44

If they wanted to drop you an email beyond success at thevillagesnet. Good Ken. Thanks for being with us today.

Ken Lee: 17:52

Happy to be here with you.

Mike Roth: 17:54

This is Mike Roth on Open Forum in the Villages, Florida. I'm here today with Rich Radcliffe. Thanks for joining me, Rich.

Rich Radcliffe: 18:00

Thank you, I appreciate this opportunity.

Mike Roth: 18:02

Rich was part of my Enrichment Academy course, podcasting 101 for beginners. Did you learn anything from that course?

Rich Radcliffe: 18:09

I learned a lot, mike. I learned basics, I learned technology, I learned website.

Mike Roth: 18:14

Good. Are you planning to start your own podcast now?

Rich Radcliffe: 18:17

I have plans to start podcasting, probably starting in the summer of this year, that's good.

Mike Roth: 18:23

Any equipment you want, let me know. I'll send you some of the equipment as I buy new stuff. Now. In your background, Rich, you worked for the Coors Brewing Company in Golden, Colorado.

Rich Radcliffe: 18:33

I loved it. It was a dream come true for a person in their 20s and 30s to be working at Coors and living in Colorado.

Mike Roth: 18:41

Now, you worked for Coors during the period of time where Coors was not sold in every state in the United States.

Rich Radcliffe: 18:47

That's right and that contributed to the excitement of working for Coors. The novelty of it and having come from the Midwest and working for a Colorado brewery was just wonderful.

Mike Roth: 19:00

Okay, you still enjoy Colorado Kool-Aid.

Rich Radcliffe: 19:03

I do. In fact, I enjoy it every night. I have one of the beverages that they make and just has fond memories for me.

Mike Roth: 19:10

There was a period of time in my career where I lived on the back of a 727. I would do four cities in a day, had my salespeople pick me up at the airport. And I remember going to Milwaukee, wisconsin. The first sales call of the day, 9 am, was with one of the brewing companies. We go into one of the senior manager's offices and he's got a big pitcher of beer and four or five glasses behind them and he picks up the pitcher, puts a glass in front of each of us and says enjoy one of our beers. I just couldn't believe it.

Rich Radcliffe: 19:38

Are you thinking about Coors and maybe how they maybe had free beer for people in meetings as well?

Mike Roth: 19:45

Did they?

Rich Radcliffe: 19:46

Yes, the answer is. We had free beer in all the cafeterias and people, instead of taking a coffee break, would take a beer break, typically in the afternoon, not in the morning. The beer was very fresh and people did not take advantage of this in a wrongful way. It was just an enjoyable way to end the day. Free beers at the end of the week might be something that'd keep people in the office a little longer.

Mike Roth: 20:12

Say that last part again because my glasses clipped the mic.

Rich Radcliffe: 20:16

At the end of the week you might find employees, including myself, hanging around in the lunch room just having a couple of beers free beers with some friends.

Mike Roth: 20:25

Good. Is it true that at one point in your career with Coors you stood in six inches of beer?

Rich Radcliffe: 20:31

It is true, it is very memorable. How did that happen? What happened was that there was a union strike at Coors and most of the brewery workers vacated their job while and management brought white-colored people in to take over their jobs. My job was running a filler and a closer machine. These are two machines. Their shapes are like carousels or merry-go-rounds. Beer cans come in to the filler machine without a lid on them and they travel around in a circle and the machine is filling them with beer. The cans travel about two more feet up by conveyor into a closer machine that slams a lid on the top of. Hence your beer gets filled. Now this goes at a ferocious rate 1200 cans a minute.

Rich Radcliffe: 21:19

So in the particular episode I'm thinking about, there were a couple problems technically and the filling machine that's filling beer at that rate continued to run even though cans were entering the machine, not entering the machine. My role and I sat in a separate little viewing room was to watch this machine. 12-hour shifts, a lot of beer cans, and when I saw that happening, I hit the normal off buttons. That didn't work, so I had to jump out of my viewing station, go into the small room where the filler and the closer was and hit the emergency shut off. By that time a lot of beer had hit the floor. It was all tiled but there's a drain, so it started running off. I remember distinctly looking at my feet. We wore protective clothing even on like booties on my feet, and my feet were under beer suds.

Mike Roth: 22:10

Wow, that's interesting. Do you have any other memorable moments that happened to you while you were working at Coors?

Rich Radcliffe: 22:17

I think that employee sales was another real benefit.

Mike Roth: 22:21

Employee sale.

Rich Radcliffe: 22:23

This is where late afternoon they opened up the beer trailer and employees could buy beer at super discounted prices. This was not old beer or problems with packaged beer. It was great. A case of beer was $4, with two case limit per week. I made lots of friends in my neighborhood because I could buy them Coors beer at that price. That was great. And one other thing that's memorable there were a lot of benefits at Coors. One of them was the ski club and Coors negotiated ski lift ticket rate that were Very discounted for employees. I remember paying ten and twelve dollars for a lift ticket to a base in the Keystone, to Breckenridge Steamboat and so forth. That's another favorable memory Good.

Mike Roth: 23:10

Maybe you can remind our listeners why, in the 1980s, coors beer was not available in many states, and that's that's what made the movie Smoky and the Bandit.

Rich Radcliffe: 23:20

There are two reasons. One of them was since more popular in public, and that had to do with shelf life of the beer and the idea that Because Coors was not a pasteurized beer, it couldn't stay fresh for long periods of time, that it might take to ship it all the way to, say, massachusetts or New York, or New York exactly. Coors did overcome that by Starting to filter their beer with extremely fine filters that kept it very fresh as it was being Packed. The second explanation and this is the one that I found a lot of truth in is Coors simply did not have the Capacity to make and sell that much beer. We had enough capacity in the mid-70s to supply 14 Western state, but in terms of the whole country we were not geared up with production capacity to Make and sell that much beer. Coors did change that during the 80s.

Mike Roth: 24:18

Is it still only brewed in Colorado?

Rich Radcliffe: 24:20

What I'm reading and it's been many years since I've been with Coors so I may be inaccurate here but what I'm reading is the banquet beer is still brewed only in Golden, whereas the Coors light is brewed at a variety of different brewery sites.

Mike Roth: 24:36

I spent 25 years in Cincinnati and that was a big brewing Capital before prohibition and one of the fellas who was selling beer for a number of brands left the beer company he was working for and bought the formulas for these old beer and in the beginning he had other breweries brew new batches of the old Cincinnati beers and it became very popular in Cincinnati and then he started his own brewery there where he actually brewed the beers using the old Warmule.

Rich Radcliffe: 25:03

I think that was a real major trend that Large breweries like in house or bush Coors, for example, had to deal with this. The craft brewing, the small breweries that started becoming popular in the 80s, and 90s Simultaneously, I couldn't put them up fast enough, I agree, and some of the quality beer that I enjoyed was great in Colorado. We had some of those breweries in Denver.

Mike Roth: 25:28

I understand that you're also a writer.

Rich Radcliffe: 25:30

I write Children's take one. I write books and Short stories for children and currently have maybe a hundred short stories that I've saved in terms of audio cassette. I'm working with a writers group in the villages that focuses on writing for kids and I find a lot of motivation having people that are like-minded and highly skilled as as classmate.

Mike Roth: 25:56

I think you have converting those children's stories to audible books or podcasts.

Rich Radcliffe: 26:01

That's exactly what I'm hoping to be able to do in the course I took with you, and all the information you shared is giving me insight in how to do it. Plus, it's also getting me motivated that there's a way to share a very large number of short stories for kids.

Mike Roth: 26:16

Mm-hmm, do you have the stories in written form or they're only on cassette?

Rich Radcliffe: 26:20

I have over a hundred on cassette and about 20 in written form.

Mike Roth: 26:25

Good, great Thanks for joining us today. Rich.

Rich Radcliffe: 26:27

Thanks, mike, I appreciate the opportunity.

Mike Roth: 26:29

I'd love to be able to play back into my show one of your first Children's books.

Rich Radcliffe: 26:35

I hope so too. Maybe I'll send you a case of beer to Mike.

Mike Roth: 26:39

Thanks very much rich Okay.

Emily: 26:40

Remember our next episode will be released next Friday at 9 am. Should you want to become a major supporter of the show or have questions, please contact us at Mike at Roth voice comm. This is a shout out for supporters Tweet Coleman, Ed Williams and major supporter Dr Craig Curtis at K2 in the villages. We will be hearing more from Dr Curtis with short Alzheimer's tips each week. If you know someone who should be on the show, contact us at Mike Roth voice com. We thank everyone for listening to the show. The content of the show is copyrighted by Roth voice 2024. All rights reserved.