Welcome to Elevate with Elsner. Join us for inspiring conversations with individuals who have transformed their lives and are making a difference through the work that they do. And now, here's your host, Blake Elsner. Welcome back to another episode of Elevate with Elsner. I'm your host, Blake Elsner. And my picture sure How about that? Well, welcome back to another episode of Elevate with Elsner because Blake Elsner and that's Sebastian Rusk on the other end. He had to come into St. Louis and it was like he, I mean, you would have thought this guy had to live on the street for It was very comparable to Southwest, right? If you've ever been to Alcatraz and had to stay for any extended amount of time, St. Louis is very, very comparable. And then he has these two like gigantic asshole dogs that you're forced to deal with. One scratches me. They smell like hot garbage. It was just, hey, it was bad. It was bad. And then there was some sort of like prank between him and his wife where they're like, let's see if we can adjust the AC in the basement down to 52 below zero. And we'll just freeze that And I think we did. I think we were And then of course the last night that I'm there. It's cozy and like comfortable. The dogs come in and jump on my air bed and scratch me again and leave my bed smelling like Trader Joe's salmon doggy treats. But other than that, it was a fantastic Yeah, you got it. You got to admit that that air inside that blowout mattress was not free, just to just a little heads up blowing that thing up. So I hope you enjoyed that. You probably blew that thing up by your with your mouth. Yeah. Took a long took about a week. Cleaned it up, got the got the carpet clean, the dogs cleaned. You know, we were we were ready to go and you came in like a little whiny little child because you had to sit in the middle on Southwest Airlines and get fed and a second on the plane, got OK, OK, OK. So I will say. that going there on Southwest, I did complain and bitch a little bit up until getting there. I fly American and I get to the Admirals Club, I have a nice stiff cocktail, Good quality food. Hashtag unrelatable. When you fly Southwest, there is a Budweiser bar. It's about this big. Okay. Doesn't even sell Budweiser and all the seats were taken. And luckily I had boarding a three. So I was able to get Southwest first class, which is the first row for those of you not familiar. And oddly enough, that first row, I was so worried about it. That row is empty. for about 10 minutes. No one wants to sit there at all, which was great. Now, the flight attendant was just very right. She was. No, it was not. It was a female, older lady clearly having a bad day. I tried to kill her with kindness. She kept on giving me her nasty little snarled look, um, thought about throwing her under the bus to Southwest customer service and getting her fired. But I got to sleep at night. So I didn't, you know, like the stock price will do that. Yeah. The way, the way out there wasn't bad in Southwest sells tequila. So American needs to take note on that. So they, the good old Casa Doris, So getting to I landed, I hopped- You landed about 20 minutes early, if I have to recall. You, I mean, they took off about 20 minutes late out of Miami, but let me tell you, when you fly to St. Louis, it's easy to make up time. I mean, there's- Well, it's the spirit of St. Louis, spirit of St. Louis. Very few planes in So we, I landed and you picked me up in this rinky dink, convertible. I was like, are the wheels going to stay on this thing? And then we went to, which I stole it from my dad. We went right to the And we went right to the casino queen and I took you immediately out of St. Louis and right into Illinois where you belong with the Cubs Yeah. Go Cubbies. How about those Cubbies go to the world series? Can No. So we went into casino queen. How about $2 bushes? Yeah. $2, $2 bushlights. That's, I mean, that is, that's a tough, tall order, but that casino was rigged because 150 bucks, 300 bucks on fire. Some just subjective, whatever you can make back, you know, you can get it back the next day or actually later that day. I think we probably did. So, um, yeah, that, you know, and then where'd we go, I think. And then we went, you Hellens where all of my St. Louis girlfriends Yeah, they really, really enjoyed Rusk and his camaraderie. I believe They haven't let me back in since you've left. You have a chair with your name on it at Helen's. Tell me you're an alcoholic without This guy, you know, you, you know what, when we were there, there was a time where I was like, this, this guy next to me at some point in his life, he might be almost 50 years old now, but at some point in his life, this guy was probably like a pool boy at the, you know, overseas at some resort in Mexico. And I'm talking about you. And now, you know, you're pounding probably shots left right now, sleep There were like, I got to go to bed. There were no shots consumed. Actually, you, you, you forced one down my throat, you know, cause that's how it works. Right. Uh, what was it? A green tea shot, some sort of tequila. Actually, it was very, very good. I don't take shots because shots take shots. Shots will end the party immediately. If, if you're not, you know, careful, but, um, what, what, we were there Friday night on Thursday night. Yeah. And then what, what, but prior to that, actually, now that I think about it, we went and saw Larry leather before. I met my, I met my, I met my wife. Um, what's her name? Maggie. Yeah. Maddie, Maddie. Oh, that's Maggie. I think you're right. You had a few. No, And then, and then the next day, uh, Bella, who I conveniently renamed Isabella to which she said, Oh, you're calling me by my government name now. Huh? And all the flirting came to a screeching halt when I found out that all of these lovely ladies were my daughter's age, 25. OK, so there's But, you know, at the same time, I'm 46 going on 26. But it doesn't mean I can date 26 year olds like bottom. Like there's a. There's like a floor on age, which is for me, I believe, you know, 10 years is realistic. So let's call it 36, maybe 35 turning 36. I guess you did keep up. I mean, I, I mean, Belichick has opened up the world of opportunity and lowered the barrier to He's doing, yeah, he's changing up the scenery and keeping quiet about it. How about that? So then after that, we went to, went to Anheuser-Busch. I had never even done the tour that we did and spectacular tour. You were struggling. You were, you, you know, it was about 10 o'clock in the morning. So you were still, still struggling a bit. Um, but as soon as that, you know, tap started coming and, and Larry Leather Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, easy. Oh, we're free. Wait, Turbo, hold on a second. Hold on. There's zero context here. People are like, what? We went from Helen's to what age? Girls, Sebastian, Dathan, you're like Budweiser. I am. OK, hold on. Yeah, you're right. I forgot. I got to tell people that I wake up the next morning to a text at like nine a.m. that we're going to Anheuser-Busch headquarters for a beer tour. And I'm thinking, cool. Later on this afternoon, I go up there, one eye open, and he's like, get dressed, Bill. We're going to the tasting tour. I go, when? He goes, at 10 AM. I go, I haven't even had coffee yet. That's in 45 minutes. So whatever. I'm on vacation. I rally. You have vacation in St. Louis. Imagine. And so I get dressed. Vacation attire, throw on some shorts, a shirt, put on my flip-flops. It's St. Louis. You can wear flip-flops to a steakhouse. So they don't have steakhouses. They have houses that you eat steak in, but they don't have steakhouses. So I get to the Anheuser-Busch, which by the way, jokes aside, This place is just engulfed in history. Opened in 1876, a whole red brick, takes up like four. You just feel like, and it's 4th of July weekend, Budweiser, you're like, America. And we get in there, and I think we're a few minutes early, and finally, Big Larry, our tour guide, comes over. I think that was awesome. Like I want to drink beer with Larry like every day, like, Hey, big layer. These guys got more stories than Dr. Seuss. So we get ready to go on the tour and he's handing out safety goggles and this hideous Anheuser-Busch hat they made us wear. And then he looks down and he goes, Oh, you can't wear those flip-flops in the beer factory. And I was like, uh, come again. And I'm like, I look at Blake and complete, this is where I went from a complete hungover mute to like, we cannot miss this tour. You know, I can, I can salivating over fresh beer. They had me at, you've never tasted colder or fresher beer. So Larry's like, what size shoe do you wear? And I'm like, Does this guy really have a pair of shoes for me? Walks over to the check-in desk, opens the cabinet below and comes back with these like hiking boot slash sneaker hybrids. He's like, sorry, I don't have any socks. And I was like, well, I mean, beggars can't be choosers. You know, I'm going to put these on. We've had to ride out the very fact that you have my size big layer. So I put these bad boys in and we went and we toured. all through the brewery. We quickly learned that brew masters don't do shit all day. They push buttons and hang out in this control room and that each building connects to another building, connects to another building, connects to another building. And then we get to the grand finale where big Larry says, you're going to taste the freshest, coldest beer you've ever had. In fact, this beer was made, this Budweiser was made 24 hours ago. It's not even pasteurized and it's got this little tiny spout And he poured it. He said, we weren't allowed to go underneath it. I'm walked out at that point. I'm like, that's what I'm here for big layer. And yeah, we had some tasty beer and then we tasted Michelob golden. They don't have that anywhere else, but St. Louis outstanding beer. And then, um, then we had some pretzels and some beer cheese, and then we spent ridiculous amounts of cash in You forgot that, you know, you, you actually told a little joke too. And we were sitting there and you're like, I didn't know I get athletes foot Yeah. Yeah. I did. I put the shoes on. I'm like, I didn't know athletes foot was included, but Those were like true beer master shoes. Nothing. I mean, if anything was falling off of one of those kegs in there and it landed on your Hold on a second though. There's no kegs. We didn't see one keg in True, true. What are those, what are those big barrels? What What do you call those big- We call them beer, we call them beer, beer barrels, Bill. Yeah, so, so, so we left there shit-faced about 1130 in the morning and then what do we do? We weren't shit-faced. We were all well on our way though. Yeah, it was, I think it was lunchtime then, We went to Hellens, yeah, that's where- Right, that's where I met Isabella for the first time. Shout Izzy! Yeah. You got to experience that. And then, and then we saw your boy. Oh, Chris Talia Saturday night. Yeah, Chris Talia. That's right. He was good. Yeah, good. Never seen a bad set from Chris Talia. He absolutely murdered an hour and a half there in Saint Louis. What Yeah, we were at the what was it? The helium funny bone? I Yeah, I could. I could man. I was giggling at that place, but and That was it on Thursday. Got in Friday beer tour Friday. What'd we do Friday night? Oh yeah, we did. Chris Talia. No, no. Chris Talia was Saturday night. What was Friday night? Friday night was your birthday. Oh, that's right. I turned 33. I forgot about that. I was wishing him a Oh yeah, that's where we, we had the, the steak in the house or Yes. Which is a, just this moth ball filled someone's house from 1826. I thought fucking little house in the prayer. We're going to crawl out of the top attic. Yeah, I thought Michael Landon was going to bring me my steak and play smell like mothballs. I'm like, I'm like, I'm taking a bite. And then they bring out this cream spinach that like I'm like, I think the dishwasher just puked in a bowl. They might have warmed it up, brought it out because that was awful. Wow. Sorry. I had the medallions, medallions, I believe I I mean, they can maybe come in and de-mothball the place. That'd Yeah, that's kind of part of it. You know, you like to you get to have a little side of asbestos with your steak. That's just what And I think they might have had a side of asbestos in the scream spinach. Yeah, It'll help you survive a little longer because, yeah, you couldn't wait to get out of here. I think you cut your day off a little. I think First of all, who goes and stays with someone for a week, like a week, like I don't even try. I'm on the road constantly and I'm still like maybe gone three days max. I got there Thursday afternoon and I left Sunday morning. Realistic. Yeah, that's a week. And let me say, you guys were wildly devastated and highly, extremely offended and offended. Yeah. Still offended. They're like, was it because it's cold down there? I was like, it was a plethora of things. You know, your son was punching me all week. I don't even know the kid. You can't hit back. You can't hit kids. You know, I was like, I don't know what to do. I'm just getting hit, you know, like max punching me. And you guys are like, Mac, you can't hit adults. Yeah. Oh, we went to the farm. We went to Grant's farm. Oh, that's right. Another. Oh, that, that was the day after that was, uh, I was Saturday during the day. and had a Gosh, you got to feed the goats. So you got to experience that. You got Yeah, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Don't start with that. You got to. OK, this frickin red haired little ginger made me go grab a baby bottle. I don't even like babies. Grab a baby bottle. and go into this goat pen with baby goats that are pecking away at every ounce of your lower region, trying to get this baby bottle. They smell like hot garbage warmed over with Yeah. Yeah. That's exactly where you got the dog. And those little goats got the biggest buttholes. Not that I was looking, but I don't know if you've ever seen a goat butthole, but wow. I don't know what's the deal with those goats because yeah, the one member. Yeah. So all jokes aside, that's not funny. Okay. Yeah. I Lot Lottie girl was, uh, I'm just saying, but her finger looks like a little nipple on the end of a bottle. And that's probably like when her finger was dangling down, they're like, Oh, it's the bottle. We think that's a bottle. And then she's blood, blood's Yeah. Yeah, it's a little, little irony. Yeah. They got her off. They got her all fixed up, but I got to say you're a lot of girls. She was the highlight of the trip. She's the real MVP. She's a, yeah, she's a lot of, a lot of yells. Her is the real MVP. She doesn't like other adults that aren't her parents or grandparents at all, but she likes uncle Rusk. Yes, she did. She came over. She's highly intelligent and her emotional intelligence And she didn't punch me, which is great. You know, when you don't get punched by a baby, that's always a plus. A five-year-old, that's a little different, you Yeah, he's in that, he's in that stage of destruction a Yeah, he was trying to lock me in the, he was trying to lock me in the basement. That's why I'm still down here. So, um, but yeah, no, I think we had a really great time. I, I, you know, I, I think if anybody, you know, would be like, Hey Russ, you know, Nate was top, you know, St. Louis and your top five destination, It's not a bad place in the summertime. I would never, if I had to go there in the winter time, I think you came for the blues, right? With Builders of Authority, with McChesney. So you came for the blues, and then you came back for the Cardinals. So yeah, you've seen just about Haven't seen snow. Well, we could put you in some snow. I mean, you thought it was snowing in the basement, but apparently Yeah, I'm all set on snow. You know why? Because of ice. And that ice is just not forgiving. Had another experience last year in Dallas, was careful all week long, walked out of a bar the last night there, waved at the Uber and went flying. And ice, you So that's why you're scared of last nights. And ever since then, the last night of, you know, your vacations, you You finally got this St. Louis recap done. You've been calling me like the D.A. looking for child support all day, every day. Like, come on, man. St. Louis recaps. And I just knew this was going to be a prime opportunity for just raw off That's right. That's right. And guess what? St. Louis is a beautiful place. Would never go up in the arch. I I was just about to say, except when you're in the arch, like inside the arch. How many of you ever been to St. Louis folks, but they put you in this little cart that no one wants to be in at all. And you go up like this and then those things break down. Okay. The cart breaks down. Definitely is. But here's what I got to say about St. Louis. The best part about St. Louis is leaving it. That's a mic drop moment. And with that, I got a podcast to record. I know that's shocking. Until next time. Until next time. Find your way. But if you do go to St. Louis, definitely go to the Arch. If you're claustrophobic, you're not going to want to go inside it. Go to the park. It's beautiful. Go to the Visitor Center, downtown, beautiful I've been to Bushfield. Screw the Cardinals. The Cardinals are playing at Bushfield tonight. They are. They are. And I've been to a blues game. Our boy, Adam McChesney, uh, got us a suite in heaven. Um, if you've ever, never been to heaven before, you definitely want to go in a suite at the blues game. We were in the rafters. I saw a guy like fixing a light on the ceiling. I could have grabbed his boot. Um, don't ever eat toasted ravioli. It's garbage. It's horrible. Tastes like a deep fried chef boy RD, but worse. Um, the pretzel bites are amazing with the beer cheese. Definitely go to anheuser-busch for the tour. Incredibly, incredibly awesome experience casino. It's very depressing. I look around the casino and I look around these people and I'm like, I feel amazing about my life. Like there was no like go-getters in there. But then again, if you're in there Thursday afternoon at four in the afternoon, you're trying to pay the rent. We were also in the state of Illinois. Let's not Louis. But all in all, it was a great trip. I definitely will be back in the summer for a Cubs game to watch my Cubs humiliate the Cubs. I think it was the summer when you were here. It Yeah. And then now you're, you're, you're coming here to disrupt my life. Yeah. Yeah. Good times here. Look out rich. Here I come. All right, buddy. Hey, great job with the podcast. Keep up the great If you're AI, if your business needs AI, Elevate with Elsner. He's got something going on. You need to hit Blake up, talk to him about it. If you want to reach out to me, all my contact info is in the show notes. That's the description of this podcast episode. You've been thinking about starting a podcast. That's our jam. We've been doing it for the past decade. We take you from ID and iTunes in 90 days or less by launching a podcast. Then we support you ongoing. We become friends if you're cool like that. Um, I get stuck with This is episode 44 too. He pays me to be his friend. It That's right. Exactly. It's like some of your best girlfriends are All right. Until next time when we continue to Elevate, right? Yeah. Be good. If you can't be good, be good at it. But yeah, start a podcast. Cause You're like, you're just, you're over there going 44 divided by four. Yeah. All right. Until Thanks so much for tuning into this episode. We sure do appreciate it. If you haven't done so already, make sure you're subscribed to the show wherever you consume podcasts. This way you'll get updates as new episodes become available. And if you feel so inclined, please leave us a review and tell your