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[music]
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Happy holidays, my ex-homies. It's your
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boy, Jacob Gooden, and we are [music]
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back for another week of the Ex
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Homeschoolers Club. That's right, the
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show where we talk about the good, the
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bad, and the ugly of growing up a
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homeschool kid. This is the last episode
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of the year. Last episode of 2025. Oh my
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gosh, can't believe another year is in
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the bags. It's been crazy. First and
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foremost, I want to say thank you to
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anyone who has listened to the show,
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watched the show, contributed to the
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show, commented, subscribed, all of the
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different things. If you've been on the
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show, huge thank you to you guys. Round
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of applause to you guys. To be to be
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quite honest, this has been an
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incredible year. And as I've been
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reflecting on it and looking at the
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numbers and kind of going back and and
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viewing the catalog and just like the
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people we reached and the messages I
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received and all these types of things,
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it's been an awesome, awesome year.
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Okay, so thank you. Thank you. Thank
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you. Secondly, in this episode, I wanted
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to say happy holidays. If you're
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celebrating the holidays, whatever
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holiday it might be, I hope you're
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having a wonderful, a merry, a jolly old
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good time with loved ones, with family,
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with friends, however you celebrate, I
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hope you're winding out the year in
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style, okay? [laughter]
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And um I wanted to give you guys kind of
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like a little sneak peek maybe at what's
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coming in 2026 and some of the things
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I'm interested in in doing. and uh ask
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for your help. If you want to be a part
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of it, um I want you to be. So, here we
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go. Little sneak peek at January 2026.
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I've got two interviews with current
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homeschool moms coming up and those are
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going to be really fun. We talk about
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how the landscape has changed a little
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bit in the homeschool world. Uh both of
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them have kids that are on the autism
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spectrum and so we talk about that and
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growing up with that and dealing with
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that and and all those types of things.
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So, very fun interviews, very excited to
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share those. Secondly, I had a
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conversation with the director for the
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Coalition of Responsible Home Educators.
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It was a great chat. Not only was she a
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homeschool kid and shared her story, but
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she's going to talk with us about how we
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can get involved, what they are, what
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the coalition does if you're not
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familiar with them. I'm going to link it
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down below. Check it out for yourself.
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But it's been really cool. I've been
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jumping on a couple of the live streams
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that they've been doing uh and and
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chatting with them uh about my alumni
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experience. That's one of the things
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that they they do a lot of work on is
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the al alumni experience and creating
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resources and advocacy for those people,
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but also they work to help kind of
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create some legislation that can help
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current homeschool families um so that
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we don't fall into some of the pitfalls
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that that some of us did back in the
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day. So, very cool, very excited for
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that conversation. Coming up, I've also
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got a conversation with a public school
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teacher. Uh we're going to talk about
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the current state of public education
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and just the education system in
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general. Uh we're going to touch on how
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we can be stronger advocates for that,
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how we can be involved in that. Uh also
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her education experience and stuff. So
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that's going to be really cool. I've got
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a couple other things with some exhomies
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in the works. Nothing solid yet, but
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those are coming as well. And that's
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really what I want to pivot most of the
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content in 2026 to be more about. I know
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this year I've taken us on a couple wild
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I don't want to say goose chases or
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anything like that, but we've we've gone
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into the more of the territory of some
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of the current homeschool system. And
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really in 2026, I want to come back to
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focusing in on the alumni experience and
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the exhomeschooler experience. And so if
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that's you, I want to have you on the
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show. I want to talk with you. You can
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do that. Shoot me an email,
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give me a quick little synopsis of your
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homeschool experience and maybe some
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things you're interested in talking
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about. Um, and then I'll hit you back.
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We'll we'll kind of we'll go back and
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forth. We'll have a conversation about
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you being on the show and things like
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that. that even if you think your story
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is really boring, if you had a wonderful
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experience, if you didn't have such a
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great experience, whatever you would
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want to share about that or even coming
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out of that in the posth homeschool life
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world, you know, we touched a lot on
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that this year as well of like the
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things my friend Carrie was on the show.
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We talked about all the things we
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weren't allowed to do as kids and that
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then as adults we we have, you know,
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been able to do. And so anyway, I want
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to touch on a lot more of that kind of
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stuff. There's more topics that I want
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to hit on. Deconstruction, religion,
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worldview, all kinds of stuff like that
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as well. Um, there's a whole gamut,
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okay? But if you've got a story, if
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you're an exhomeschooler and you want to
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share, shoot me an email,
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I promise I will respond. We will be in
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contact and uh hopefully we'll get you
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on the show. There's a couple other
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things I have an interest in doing, but
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I also know that I can't do them alone.
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And so I don't want to just start them
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or push them if they're not something
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you're interested in. Okay? And so I've
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got two kind of main ideas that have
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been percolating my brain. Um and so
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again, shoot me an email exhibited.
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So first and foremost, I know previously
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I had started the exhomechoolers book
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club. Nothing ever became of that. I
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really fell off the bandwagon and did
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not finish that. I would love to bring
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something like that back. And I know at
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the time we read a book that was like
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very it was about religious trauma and
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and things like that. I don't know if
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that's where you guys want to go. Maybe
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if this is something you're interested
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in in doing a book club, it could be all
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fiction books. It could be fun stuff. It
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could be life stuff. I don't really
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know. So if that's something you're
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interested in, I want to hear your
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thoughts on it. Uh or the other kind of
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thing that's been percolating in my
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brain is just doing some kind of
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exhomeschooler happy hour Zoom call
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hangout session. Okay. And just get to
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know each other, get to reconnect with
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old friends, get to meet new friends. Um
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I don't totally know what that would
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look like. I've never done anything like
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that before. But if that's something
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you're interested in, um, that's kind of
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the next step and the next evolution
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that I see this show going on is
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building out the community in some kind
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of way. Uh, where it's not just me
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connecting with one person and sharing
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it with you guys, but it's also you guys
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connecting with each other. Um, and who
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knows what could come out of that. Okay?
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So, if if either of those things are
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things you're interested in, what I want
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you to do, if you're listening to this
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on audio, some of the audio platforms
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let you drop a comment below. Uh, if
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they don't, send me an email. Uh, but or
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a DM uh at EXHS Club um or if you're on
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YouTube and you're watching this, I want
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you to drop either book club if that's
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what you're interested in or happy hour
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if that's what you're interested, just
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comment that down below so I kind of get
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a gauge. If you want both of them, put
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both of them. And then any thoughts you
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have around those, I would love to hear
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them. And uh yeah, and if you want to
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help, if you want to help facilitate
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anything like that, let me know. If
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you've got other ideas for how we could
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build this community, I want to know
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them. That is I think about it. Okay. Uh
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I've tried to keep this short.
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Hopefully, it's it's been shorter. I'm
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sure I'm going to edit this. There was
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been like six or seven retakes in here,
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people. Um but, you know, as is the life
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of a podcaster. So, again, thank you.
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Thank you. Thank you for a wonderful
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2025.
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2025. Yes. I don't know. That didn't
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sound right coming off my tongue, but
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thank you. Thank you. Thank you for a
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wonderful 2025. I'm so excited for 2026,
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what's to come, we're building something
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cool here, okay? And I want you guys to
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be a part of it. Um, if you've got
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ideas, like I said, if you want to be on
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the show, if you want to know more about
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book club, happy hour, any of these
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things. If you just want to like know me
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more, exhsclubgmail.com.
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Shoot me an email. I don't bite. if I
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get a huge influx of emails, it's going
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to take me a while to get back to them,
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but I promise I will get back to each
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and every one of you. So, with that
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being said, I'm gonna close it out here.
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Have a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful,
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wonderful happy holidays and uh until
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2026. We'll see you
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[music]
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[music]
