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We're chatting about the people, places, events, and flavors that make Johnson City, Tennessee a lovely place to live. An interview show hosted by Colin Johnson.
Proud member of the Maypop Media family of podcasts.
[TRANSCRIPT]
0:00:00 - (Colin Johnson): It is a beautiful may day here in Johnson City. It's not May Day, but it is a May day. And I'm excited because we've got Allie Bynum, and she's going to share more about the Northeast Tennessee Tourism association with us on the podcast. She has a podcast herself, right?
0:00:16 - (Allie Bynum): Yeah, right here in the same studio.
0:00:18 - (Colin Johnson): Right here with Mitch. I thought I was the only guy doing it. You're the only podcast, Mitch. You're two timing me, man, which is great. We want you to ten time us, like, get lots of people doing podcasts. So if you are thinking about doing a podcast, call Mitch McGarry at May pop Media. He's awesome.
0:00:35 - (Allie Bynum): He is. He's awesome.
0:00:37 - (Colin Johnson): He's awesome. He is awesome. So Johnson City living. You live in Johnson City or around?
0:00:43 - (Allie Bynum): I do. I live in the rural areas in northeast Tennessee.
0:00:47 - (Colin Johnson): What is your favorite thing about Johnson City?
0:00:50 - (Allie Bynum): My favorite thing about JC? Hmm. I would say there's a few things I like about Johnson City that come to mind. First of all, I really like the downtown art scene. I feel like we have a lot of murals that have popped up over the last several years, so that's probably the first one that comes to mind.
0:01:07 - (Colin Johnson): I think you're the first person to mention the murals, really? Which is super cool because we forgot about this. Not forgot about them, but you drive by them and they're so unique. They're unique.
0:01:15 - (Allie Bynum): None like them anywhere else.
0:01:16 - (Colin Johnson): They are awesome. Yes. 100%. Need to high five whoever's done murals around, for sure.
0:01:21 - (Allie Bynum): So the murals. And then I also really just like the people in JC. I think we have a very niche community here of folks. And then also just all the merchants downtown speak to me. And in the community, you know, we have like Pierre's marketplace up the street, the generalist main street pizza. There's such a local vibe here with some farm to table goods and services.
0:01:44 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah, it is a great place to visit. Downtown is rocking and rolling.
0:01:48 - (Allie Bynum): Yeah.
0:01:49 - (Colin Johnson): And it really comes alive, too. In the spring and summer, starting to get even. More and more people are showing up and walking around. It's really just farmers market's back going, which is cool.
0:01:58 - (Allie Bynum): So super cool every Saturday.
0:02:01 - (Colin Johnson): Johnson City is a great place. So where did you grow up? Where did you live?
0:02:05 - (Allie Bynum): I grew up in Bowmantown. Oh, so Johnson city was coming to town for us.
0:02:09 - (Colin Johnson): That's right.
0:02:10 - (Allie Bynum): You know, we didn't have dollar generals on every roadblock corner side, so we had to drive 35, 40 minutes to get to Walmart or the grocery store. But Bowmantown was a wonderful place to call home. Out with the farms and the cows.
0:02:23 - (Colin Johnson): And the beautiful scenery around the mountains in the background.
0:02:25 - (Allie Bynum): Rolling hills. Yeah.
0:02:27 - (Colin Johnson): Did you guys grow up farming?
0:02:28 - (Allie Bynum): No, we didn't. But I grew up surrounded by farmers.
0:02:31 - (Colin Johnson): Gotcha.
0:02:31 - (Allie Bynum): So I feel like a farmer at heart.
0:02:32 - (Colin Johnson): But I did the exact same thing. We lived in the neighborhood and there was one little cul de sac deal inside a farm land, basically. And the farmer sold off some land and built a little cul de sac. And I felt like I was a farmer. I ran around with the cows every day. My mom had a bell shoot ring.
0:02:46 - (Allie Bynum): And be like, climb hay bales for fun.
0:02:47 - (Colin Johnson): Same. Yes. Yes. Just don't touch the electric fence.
0:02:53 - (Allie Bynum): Nope. Which you had. You know, when you're younger, you might have done it just to see what happened, but never again.
0:02:58 - (Colin Johnson): Yes, you do. You touch it with the back of your hand. If you're listening, touch an electric fence with the back of your hand so it doesn't.
0:03:03 - (Allie Bynum): Or not at all.
0:03:04 - (Colin Johnson): Or not at all. That's better. But if you're gonna do it, do it with the back so it doesn't shock your hand and you close down on it.
0:03:09 - (Allie Bynum): I have a quick story I can share about an electric fence.
0:03:12 - (Colin Johnson): Let's do it.
0:03:13 - (Allie Bynum): So growing up out in Bowmantown, you got the hills, and we would ride our bikes and climb the hay bales, explore the neighbors barns for fun. One time we have our little red wagon and we would hike it up the hill, steepest hill off Keys Road. And then we would jet down the hill. And this one particular time, we flipped right at the bottom of the hill and there was an electric fence. And that was my first experience with.
0:03:36 - (Allie Bynum): Let's see, what, what happened.
0:03:37 - (Colin Johnson): Yes. And it zapped you a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. Because it's set up for big cows, not little kids. Yeah, it's pretty good. Little Joel. We used to do red wagons driving down the hills, too.
0:03:47 - (Allie Bynum): Did you?
0:03:47 - (Colin Johnson): It was so much fun.
0:03:48 - (Allie Bynum): It's a great Tennessee pastime.
0:03:50 - (Colin Johnson): It should bring it back. Red wagon rolling down the hills time.
0:03:53 - (Allie Bynum): Yes.
0:03:54 - (Colin Johnson): So did you stay in Bowmantown and lived there all your life?
0:03:58 - (Allie Bynum): I lived there til I moved away for college. So I went back and forth between my parents. So I was in Bowman town is like my home base. Most of my youth, I would say.
0:04:09 - (Colin Johnson): But where'd you go to school? Where'd you leave to go to school, too?
0:04:12 - (Allie Bynum): I went to Etsu.
0:04:14 - (Colin Johnson): Yep.
0:04:15 - (Allie Bynum): So went to Daniel Boone High School, Sulphur Springs Middle School. So grew up, went to EtsU, left to travel for a little while. Okay. Went out west and did that whole thing. Came back and went out west again and then came back and then finished school.
0:04:29 - (Colin Johnson): What drew you out west?
0:04:31 - (Allie Bynum): The mountains.
0:04:32 - (Colin Johnson): Just the bigger, sharper Mountain. Mountain.
0:04:35 - (Allie Bynum): The vast unknown of the journey, I think.
0:04:38 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:04:38 - (Allie Bynum): Yeah.
0:04:39 - (Colin Johnson): That's cool.
0:04:40 - (Allie Bynum): Yeah.
0:04:41 - (Colin Johnson): And anywhere specific that you went and spent most time.
0:04:44 - (Allie Bynum): Yeah, spent some time in the Tetons, went up through Canada a couple times, and throughout a couple different trips back and forth from home to out west. Ended up settling for a couple years in New Mexico when I had my daughter. Oh, that's cool. Yeah.
0:05:00 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:05:00 - (Allie Bynum): Well, that's awesome. Yeah.
0:05:02 - (Colin Johnson): And now you're back.
0:05:03 - (Allie Bynum): I'm back, yeah.
0:05:04 - (Colin Johnson): And what do you do for a living, ally?
0:05:07 - (Allie Bynum): I am a membership and marketing curator with northeast Tennessee tourism.
0:05:11 - (Colin Johnson): Okay. Tell us what that is. What is that?
0:05:14 - (Allie Bynum): Yeah. So we are a destination marketing organization. We serve as a regional catalyst for economic and community growth in the area. So we kind of act as the umbrella connecting our tourism entities from city to city, rural area to different communities around the region, working to promote and attract visitors to northeast Tennessee.
0:05:35 - (Colin Johnson): How does one attract visitors? Are you, like, sticking ads in magazines? Like, in boring places? We do have a magazine, Boise, Idaho. Like you want to, you know, or something? I don't know. I'm just saying.
0:05:45 - (Allie Bynum): Yeah. So we have a magazine and a visitor guide. That's one of our tangible ways that we do advertise. We actually have a new publication coming out here in a couple months. But we also do a lot of digital ads. We have a digital brochure. We do billboards. I would say a lot of word of mouth. And we work with the state and our communities. A lot of social media, of course.
0:06:08 - (Colin Johnson): That's cool. How is the association funded? How do you guys make money?
0:06:14 - (Allie Bynum): Yeah, we are a membership organization. We're also a nonprofit. So again, we work closely with the state, the Tennessee department of Tourist development. Okay. And then we also, again, we have a membership. So that part of my role is to work with our smaller businesses and communities. We work with Bristol Motor Speedway, trustees airport as a collective and just helping support those businesses and their needs so that we can all kind of grow together.
0:06:43 - (Colin Johnson): Cool.
0:06:43 - (Allie Bynum): Yeah.
0:06:44 - (Colin Johnson): What does membership look like? If somebody's listening on the podcast, they've got a small business in town. What does that look like then?
0:06:49 - (Allie Bynum): Yeah.
0:06:50 - (Colin Johnson): How they get involved?
0:06:51 - (Allie Bynum): Well, you can reach out to me@alicnesey.org. Dot. I'll be your point of contact. And it looks a little different from business to business. Different businesses have different needs so, for example, I might have a small business in Elizabethan who needs more in store visitors to their sales. So that action plan might look a little different opposed to a retreat looking to increase their reach on social media.
0:07:16 - (Allie Bynum): So we have different packages curated for each individual. So I would just kind of meet and go over your specific needs as a business and then we'd make a plan from there.
0:07:27 - (Colin Johnson): That's cool.
0:07:27 - (Allie Bynum): Yeah.
0:07:29 - (Colin Johnson): How do you feel like it's going? I mean, Johnson City seems like it's blowing up. Is that all your fault?
0:07:33 - (Allie Bynum): Oh, we're growing like crazy.
0:07:35 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah. Isn't that amazing?
0:07:36 - (Allie Bynum): It's nuts.
0:07:37 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah. I mean, and if you're listening, you're going to want to come to Johnson City. It's just an awesome place. And so, um. Yeah. Do you have any statistics on how it's growing? Because I don't. I'm. I feel like we've got tens of thousands of people moving here every, every year.
0:07:53 - (Allie Bynum): I don't have specific statistics on the, the moving rates, but I can tell you that tourism brings in $841 million economic impact to northeast Tennessee. So that's just our region alone.
0:08:05 - (Colin Johnson): $841 million is what tourism brought in.
0:08:09 - (Allie Bynum): That's right.
0:08:10 - (Colin Johnson): Per year. Yeah. That's pretty amazing.
0:08:12 - (Allie Bynum): Yeah.
0:08:13 - (Colin Johnson): What's the major driver of that? Like, are there certain events, like, that bring a lot more people?
0:08:18 - (Allie Bynum): Or I would say the outdoors? Music, of course. Our restaurant and downtown shopping scenes, events, festivals.
0:08:28 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:08:28 - (Allie Bynum): Yeah.
0:08:30 - (Colin Johnson): What's your favorite thing, like, on the list of things to do in Johnson City? Like, so if somebody's like, hey, ally, I'm only in town for a day, what do I. But I want to check it out. What should I do?
0:08:41 - (Allie Bynum): I love them all. But of course, I'm very partial to the outdoors. My heart's in the outdoors. And public lands and conservation.
0:08:49 - (Colin Johnson): Cool. So, like, when you say outdoors, just driving around with the windows down, walking through the streets, going to parks, getting in the water. What is, what's outdoors for you? What's your favorite outdoor activity?
0:09:01 - (Allie Bynum): All of the above. Um, I could definitely take a cruise down some back roads with the windows down. It's always fun with the dog.
0:09:07 - (Colin Johnson): So much fun.
0:09:07 - (Allie Bynum): Dog hanging its head out the window.
0:09:09 - (Colin Johnson): Carly and I love riding around in our area. It's just beautiful all the time.
0:09:12 - (Allie Bynum): Oh, it is just mountains in the backdrop. My favorite thing to do is probably hiking. I like to be able to use my own 2ft to get to the summit of a mountain. I also really enjoy mountain biking, snowboarding, kayaking, whitewater rafting, camping, backpacking. I love it all.
0:09:29 - (Colin Johnson): Where did you get the itch to do all the outdoor activities? Well, or was that. Did your family do that growing up? Or.
0:09:38 - (Allie Bynum): I mean, besides just running around? I said that before, Colin, I would say my first vivid memory ever is. Well, the first. There's two. One of them is being on a backpack on my father's back overlooking a waterfall.
0:09:52 - (Colin Johnson): How cool is that?
0:09:53 - (Allie Bynum): I just remember, like, the feeling of the mist hitting my face. So that's always been one of my first memories. So I kind of trace, like, my love for the outdoors back to that.
0:10:01 - (Colin Johnson): Moment for some reason. Yeah, that's really special.
0:10:03 - (Allie Bynum): Very special. And then also being at Bays Mountain park, if you've been that little cave in the bottom as a kid, I remember being in that also on a field trip or something. So I don't know, just, I guess, shows you, like, the importance of hands on education, for one, and how it can stick with us through.
0:10:21 - (Colin Johnson): Sure, yeah. Getting the kids out of school, going to different places. And I remember the planetarium there at bay's mountain was just awesome. When I was a kid and Chloe and I went probably ten years ago, and I was like. And it came back to me. I was like, I was here. It's just cool to relive something familiar.
0:10:39 - (Allie Bynum): When you do it again in nostalgia.
0:10:41 - (Colin Johnson): Yes. I love planetariums.
0:10:43 - (Allie Bynum): Me too. Me too.
0:10:44 - (Colin Johnson): They're so beautiful. I need to now thank you for reminding me about that. Yeah, they're awesome.
0:10:49 - (Allie Bynum): No, they are.
0:10:50 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:10:51 - (Allie Bynum): Something else we have here.
0:10:52 - (Colin Johnson): Do I?
0:10:52 - (Allie Bynum): Something else we have here.
0:10:53 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah, exactly. Yeah, we've got it all. Talk about hiking. Where do you like to hike? What are your top three places to go for people who are like, oh, I'm gonna come take a hike because I had a guy in the car the other day and he wanted to go do Buffalo Mountain.
0:11:06 - (Allie Bynum): Yeah.
0:11:06 - (Colin Johnson): When I was showing him houses, I was like, all right, I'm gonna show you houses for the morning and you're releasing you, and you can go get lunch and then go do a hike. And they did.
0:11:14 - (Allie Bynum): Yeah. Well, there's just endless places to go. My top favorite in my heart is road mountain.
0:11:20 - (Colin Johnson): Yep.
0:11:20 - (Allie Bynum): I just think it's like no other. I go up to road mountain and I just feel like I'm at home.
0:11:25 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:11:25 - (Allie Bynum): You know, they're not in the world. Yeah.
0:11:27 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:11:28 - (Allie Bynum): And you can go as far as you like. You have the appalachian trail, so if you want to just really get out there and not hear any traffic for miles, you can just keep on walking.
0:11:35 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:11:35 - (Allie Bynum): Um, so that's my first favorite. Um, Laurel Falls, of course, we have tons of waterfalls in the area, and that's another favorite. And then let's see the third. Hmm. Maybe. Maybe beauty spot. I'll just. I'll say beauty spot. Or one of the. The lesser known waterfalls. Kunden.
0:11:56 - (Colin Johnson): That's my favorite. Yeah, I haven't heard of that one. Yeah, we'll have to check that one out. So did you get a degree in, like, tourism in advertising? Is that where you got started in this, or did you have other jobs that kind of led you into the tourism realm?
0:12:14 - (Allie Bynum): I would say I kind of took the behind the scenes path. I had jobs in outdoor recreation and customer service that led me to where I was in tourism, and I got my degree kind of parallel to that. So I went back to school, like, two or three times before I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I mean, I ended up with this. Create your own type of degree in interdisciplinary studies with digital marketing and advertising as a double minor.
0:12:40 - (Allie Bynum): So that really worked out in tourism because I use a lot of analytics and reporting tracking now that I'm thankful I learned at ETSU. But I would say definitely my customer service and background and hospitality led me to my gig in tourism and passion now for tourism.
0:12:56 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah, that's cool.
0:12:58 - (Allie Bynum): Yeah.
0:12:58 - (Colin Johnson): What are some goals you have this year for tourism and your position?
0:13:03 - (Allie Bynum): Yeah, I would say continue to increase our membership, for sure.
0:13:09 - (Colin Johnson): How many members do you have?
0:13:11 - (Allie Bynum): We're. I won't say for now.
0:13:14 - (Colin Johnson): Okay.
0:13:15 - (Allie Bynum): Let's keep that kind of mysterious.
0:13:16 - (Colin Johnson): We just need more.
0:13:17 - (Allie Bynum): We like to always have more in the community and we're growing, and it's also fun to kind of graduate from membership because when we have small businesses come in and do, for example, our marketing package to see them meet their goals and then say, we actually no longer need this support. We've got our own marketing person now, or it's. So it's not. You don't expect to come to membership and be with us forever as a supporter.
0:13:40 - (Colin Johnson): Okay. I was thinking it was more like an ongoing membership kind of deal that you would.
0:13:45 - (Allie Bynum): But you can. A lot of people stick with us because also you have the connection with the state. You know, we. We go to Nashville and lobby for certain bills that help tourism and different taxes and things like that. So it is helpful to be within the membership. It's a great network and community of support, ongoing, but some goals for this year, I'm really, like, doing a deep dive into our campaign analytics right now. So I've been doing like, goals to increase reach, increase engagement.
0:14:14 - (Allie Bynum): And I guess those are more, like, on the paper goals, personally. Um, but I just want to continue to grow in my role, and I enjoy building these relationships with the community.
0:14:25 - (Colin Johnson): Right.
0:14:26 - (Allie Bynum): And, uh, continuing to be appreciative of the outdoors. And while we promote all these places we love, I guess a personal goal of mine is to equally promote the sustainability and conservation of these places, because we are growing really quickly.
0:14:40 - (Colin Johnson): We are. It's like, we got to do it well, too.
0:14:42 - (Allie Bynum): Yeah.
0:14:43 - (Colin Johnson): So I love that you're thinking about that ahead of time. So you help with marketing. Like, if I was, let's say, Carly and I wanted to become members and join. Take me through it. Let's talk about how you could help us increase our reach to bring more people here to want to buy a house.
0:15:02 - (Allie Bynum): Yeah. So, for real estate? Well, I mean, first of all, we'd sit down and have a conversation. We'd take an hour. So I could really just listen to what it is you do and the type of consumer that you're interested in reaching and the current platforms you're on. And then it's really like. It's really parallel again to how we help you grow. It's also helping us grow. So I would use some of our similar tactics that, you know, across.
0:15:30 - (Allie Bynum): We use Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. It's our top three. So I would see. Are you on those platforms, first of all?
0:15:36 - (Colin Johnson): Yes, ma'am.
0:15:37 - (Allie Bynum): And then I would say, what's your current reach? What are your goals? You know, do you want to get more conversions to your website? Do you want to just have a bigger audience on your social media? So I would sit down and see what it is you need.
0:15:49 - (Colin Johnson): Gotcha.
0:15:49 - (Allie Bynum): Then I would go back to the office and write up a follow up. Here's how we can do this step by step. If I felt like you could benefit from an extra package, I would say, here, let's do this. I can create your graphics. I can run some ads for you through this additional add on package, and then I'd send it back your way. And then it's just kind of a toss back and forth till I feel like you're as my. Basically, like you're our client.
0:16:11 - (Allie Bynum): Your needs are met in that way, so.
0:16:13 - (Colin Johnson): Okay, cool. Yeah, that might be something we have to talk about, because you kind of. We're always looking for ways of, you know, to engage with people and help them. And after selling a ton of houses here, we feel like we can take good, great care of people and transition their family here. And so, absolutely, I want to get in front of as many people as we can so we can help as many people as we can.
0:16:34 - (Allie Bynum): That's what we're here for, is to promote, again, the community and economic growth in our region.
0:16:40 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah. What's one of the coolest projects you've worked on in your role that would share with somebody you could share?
0:16:48 - (Allie Bynum): There's so many. So I get to do the marketing, but I couldn't do it without our executive director, Alicia Phelps. So she. I was listening to your podcast earlier about that. I'm gonna say it wrong. Enneagrams.
0:17:03 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:17:04 - (Allie Bynum): And it was so funny that the part y'all were talking about where one is a one and one is a. I can't remember, but the one initiates the tasks and the one is the creative.
0:17:13 - (Colin Johnson): Like, yes.
0:17:14 - (Allie Bynum): It reminded me of how Alicia and I bounced stuff back and forth because it's like we. I couldn't fulfill my tasks without her. Like, being, like, it doesn't have to be, like, exactly like this, but here's the go.
0:17:26 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:17:26 - (Allie Bynum): And then having the room and the ideation to create and put, you know, some fluff behind it.
0:17:31 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah. It's like a perfect team combination.
0:17:33 - (Allie Bynum): Yeah, yeah, I think so.
0:17:34 - (Colin Johnson): Same with Carly. Like, she's great on a lot of the stuff that I'm terrible at, and I do a lot of things that she doesn't want to do. So we. It's just awesome how it works out.
0:17:42 - (Allie Bynum): Yeah.
0:17:42 - (Colin Johnson): So. Yeah, for sure.
0:17:44 - (Allie Bynum): So some of our fun projects this year. So right now we're working on the visitor guided magazine.
0:17:49 - (Colin Johnson): Okay.
0:17:49 - (Allie Bynum): That's super fun because we get to change that from year to year with new, updated content, including outdoors, food, thanks to doing the region. So that's always a fun time. We're doing ad sales, which is super exciting. We. We are wrapping up our spring campaign. So that had a big element of outdoors downtown, and I really geek out, pulling in all the analytics. That's where I get really excited to see what the numbers were. What were the goals we set? Did we achieve the goals? Did we overachieve the goals?
0:18:20 - (Allie Bynum): And how can we use this campaign for next time, next quarter? So that was super fun. And really, Alicia has really just given me a lot of freedom to create those campaigns.
0:18:31 - (Colin Johnson): Cause she's not geeking out on it. She's like, me probably like, did we do great? Yeah. Okay, good. We did good. We did bad. That's all I need to know. How do we redo it? And you're, like, down to, we only had 14.2 people look at it every day, and this is when they looked at it at 03:00 a.m. And that's.
0:18:45 - (Allie Bynum): Where I am geeking out, and I'm thankful. That's when she's out there lobbying and, you know, she's doing the meetings, the face to face. So, yeah, I feel like we work very well.
0:18:53 - (Colin Johnson): I just got off a call with our dad from place, and he was looking our website, and he was saying, this person's looking at four and five, between four and five, and then they're looking late at night at nine and ten, and I'm like, okay, great.
0:19:03 - (Allie Bynum): It's crazy how deep you can dive into it now, isn't it? Crazy rabbit hole.
0:19:07 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah. And you're like, so you should call them around five because they're off work and they're looking at your website and you're like, yeah.
0:19:12 - (Allie Bynum): And you have, you know, you have Google Analytics, you have Facebook meta. LinkedIn has its own analytics now. I think Twitter is bringing its own or x. Yeah, but they all have their own platforms. It's crazy.
0:19:25 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah. Well, tell me. Tell listeners how they can listen to your podcast. Tell us about your podcast.
0:19:30 - (Allie Bynum): Sure. Meet me in Tennessee is a podcast sponsored by the Northeast Tennessee Tourism association. Okay. It's produced by Maypop Media and hosted in downtown Johnson City.
0:19:41 - (Colin Johnson): May pop media.
0:19:42 - (Allie Bynum): Yeah. We love Maypop.
0:19:44 - (Colin Johnson): You're the man.
0:19:45 - (Allie Bynum): And Marissa. Yes. And y'all can find that on Spotify, apple, and we also, because I do like to look at the data. Some people listen on Alexa.
0:19:54 - (Colin Johnson): Oh, really?
0:19:54 - (Allie Bynum): I don't know what that's about.
0:19:56 - (Colin Johnson): That's cool.
0:19:57 - (Allie Bynum): Yeah.
0:19:57 - (Colin Johnson): Can you just say, hey, Alexa, I guess you can meet me in Tennessee podcast or the Johnson City living podcast, and I'll just keep going.
0:20:04 - (Allie Bynum): You can? Yeah. I don't have Alexa, so I don't know.
0:20:07 - (Colin Johnson): We got one. Carly says it's listening all the time. I'm like, well, we gotta be on. I'll be on good behavior, which is good. I need to be on there. What's. So meet me in Tennessee. Who are the guests typically you have on there and what is it? Yeah, what's exciting about it? Like, what are our lists? They're gonna go right after they listen to this. To your podcast?
0:20:25 - (Allie Bynum): I hope so. Y'all should definitely check it out. We talk about upcoming events. Right now we're into spring and summer, so we just hosted Emily Thompson with fun fest. We also talk about the outdoors and conservation. We had some guests on from the national forest, Cherokee National Forest.
0:20:41 - (Colin Johnson): Cool.
0:20:42 - (Allie Bynum): And we got to learn kind of behind the scenes of what it takes to build a trail and the appreciation that you can have from, you know, hiking that trail to. It didn't just appear overnight.
0:20:53 - (Colin Johnson): Yes. Isn't that crazy?
0:20:54 - (Allie Bynum): Yeah. There's a lot of work, a lot of volunteerism that goes into it. We talked with some folks from Bays Mountain during the solar eclipse.
0:21:02 - (Colin Johnson): Oh, yeah.
0:21:02 - (Allie Bynum): So we had those.
0:21:03 - (Colin Johnson): I bet that was crazy.
0:21:04 - (Allie Bynum): So I would say just a lot of, you know, hands on museum things to do in the area. We talk a lot about what you can do, how you can experience northeast Tennessee. Yeah.
0:21:13 - (Colin Johnson): I love it. Yeah. I had, a long time ago, Josh Collins was on. He builds mountain bike trails.
0:21:20 - (Allie Bynum): Cool.
0:21:21 - (Colin Johnson): And so he worked on tannery knobs, and you're like. You go up there and you're like, oh, yeah, this is. I mean, they were stacking rocks by hand. I mean, big stuff. It's just super cool.
0:21:29 - (Allie Bynum): Oh, yeah. Sometimes they got the little excavators in there.
0:21:31 - (Colin Johnson): Oh, yeah. And this building. Unbelievable trails. You said you mountain bike, do you like tannery knob?
0:21:36 - (Allie Bynum): I do like tannery knobs. It's, um. I kind of like to get more in the cross country out there and get lost a little bit. I like tannery. Last time, last two times I rode out there, I went off the mountain.
0:21:47 - (Colin Johnson): That's not good.
0:21:48 - (Allie Bynum): Yeah. Yeah.
0:21:49 - (Colin Johnson): Now he needs to stay on the trail.
0:21:50 - (Allie Bynum): Steep. But, you know, you have the pump track, so you can practice beforehand.
0:21:53 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah. Get warmed up.
0:21:55 - (Allie Bynum): It's real big trails out there to have right here in downtown.
0:21:58 - (Colin Johnson): Where do you. So where do you like to go? What's the cost country?
0:22:01 - (Allie Bynum): I like riding up at Warriors Path. That's a good close one. Also, like, kind of getting lost up in Pisgah, which is north Carolina, but it's still right over the state line, so it's. It's still a day's ride. I like to go out there towards Brevard.
0:22:16 - (Colin Johnson): Gotcha.
0:22:17 - (Allie Bynum): Yeah.
0:22:18 - (Colin Johnson): Tell me about your whitewater excursions. What do you like doing there?
0:22:21 - (Allie Bynum): Yeah. So before I worked with northeast Tennessee tourism, I managed our office at USA Raft adventure.
0:22:27 - (Colin Johnson): Oh, wow.
0:22:28 - (Allie Bynum): Resort. And before that, I was a raft guide way, way back in the day, and I was not a seasoned raft guide. I did it for, like, one or two seasons and on the lower Nola Chucky. But I've always had a passion for the Nolle Chucky river.
0:22:40 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah, it's beautiful.
0:22:41 - (Allie Bynum): It is. My mom used to take me there at Big Rock when I was little girl, so I just. It's very peaceful and homey out there. Homey. I guess that's not like you're my.
0:22:51 - (Colin Johnson): Homie, but you can meet your homies out where it's.
0:22:54 - (Allie Bynum): You can meet your homies at the river, that's for sure.
0:22:57 - (Colin Johnson): I love it.
0:22:57 - (Allie Bynum): But we have world class whitewater right here in our backyard.
0:23:01 - (Colin Johnson): Isn't that crazy?
0:23:01 - (Allie Bynum): Oh, it's nuts.
0:23:02 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:23:03 - (Allie Bynum): We got USA raft. We got blue ridge paddling. You can go up there and rent a funyak if you want to do it solo with a guide, or you can take a raft down. And it's stunning scenery.
0:23:13 - (Colin Johnson): It is. It's beautiful.
0:23:14 - (Allie Bynum): Sometimes I don't want to share it, but I do want to share it.
0:23:17 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah. We kind of, like, keep it going down the river, and it's just a lot of fun.
0:23:20 - (Allie Bynum): Yeah.
0:23:20 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah. And we've had a lot of rain lately, so I bet it's rolling.
0:23:22 - (Allie Bynum): We have. This is whitewater season. It just kicked off with noly Fest. Like, we're into it.
0:23:27 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah, it's probably rolling this week. Cause it's just been nonstop rain for the last couple weeks.
0:23:31 - (Allie Bynum): For sure. It's a good season.
0:23:32 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:23:33 - (Allie Bynum): Everything's so green right now.
0:23:34 - (Colin Johnson): It is beautiful. I love this. I was talking to somebody. Their mountains are just turning a lovely light green, and they just kind of get darker through the year, and it's just always changing. Always beautiful.
0:23:46 - (Allie Bynum): You know, I think spring's kind of an underrated season because we're so known for our fall colors.
0:23:51 - (Colin Johnson): Yes.
0:23:51 - (Allie Bynum): But the spring after you go from all the trees being bare and kind of coming out of that cocoon phase into, like, everything is bright. There's flowers, wildflowers everywhere.
0:24:00 - (Colin Johnson): Wildflowers. Trees are blooming.
0:24:02 - (Allie Bynum): Yeah.
0:24:03 - (Colin Johnson): I think everybody gets a little, like, allergy fear going, and they're like, oh.
0:24:07 - (Allie Bynum): I'm a little rusty right now with.
0:24:09 - (Colin Johnson): I want to be this. Yeah, spring. Spring just brings on pollen, and that's gonna. She's gonna wear me out.
0:24:14 - (Allie Bynum): Yeah.
0:24:15 - (Colin Johnson): It's not that bad.
0:24:16 - (Allie Bynum): I don't know.
0:24:17 - (Colin Johnson): And the rain helps knock it down some, so that's good. That's where we've been, too. What's somebody who's been, like, a huge influence in your life you'd like to maybe talk about?
0:24:27 - (Allie Bynum): Sure.
0:24:27 - (Colin Johnson): Give a shout out to my dad.
0:24:30 - (Allie Bynum): Yeah, definitely.
0:24:32 - (Colin Johnson): Tell us about dad. What does he do?
0:24:33 - (Allie Bynum): Yeah, he's retired now. My dad is just. I don't know. He's my number one fan and my number one person role model in life. He's just always had such a true, sincere heart. And growing up, he just. I don't know, without, like, trying to teach me. He just really taught me to appreciate, I guess, like, the small things in life and, you know, working hard to get to your goals and having goals. He taught me how to change attire.
0:25:02 - (Allie Bynum): Made sure I could do that before I could drive, you know, he wouldn't let.
0:25:06 - (Colin Johnson): Sounds just like Carly's dad. She made him do the same thing. Yes.
0:25:09 - (Allie Bynum): And now he's, you know, a papa of my daughter, and I get to see them have that bond and, I mean, yeah, I just couldn't say enough about it. Like, he's definitely been my rock and my biggest support, like, supporter through life. Yeah, it's like, any crazy idea. Like, one time I decided I was gonna play electric guitar in the 7th grade, and he's like, get you geared up. You're gonna be rock.
0:25:30 - (Colin Johnson): Stairs are gonna rocky.
0:25:31 - (Allie Bynum): Listen, so I'd be upstairs in our old farmhouse playing smoke on the water. Cause that's the only song I knew. Every night I'd turn that amp up. I smoke on the water I love it. I think he might have kind of regretted it.
0:25:42 - (Colin Johnson): Exactly.
0:25:43 - (Allie Bynum): Okay, I'm just gonna put my. Then I moved on to the bongos next week, and he was down with that. She's gonna be a bongo spider. Let's do it.
0:25:50 - (Colin Johnson): One lady band all the way around. That's awesome. Yeah, that's awesome. I'm sure he appreciates those wonderful comments. You know, parents have been. Yeah, I can't thank my parents enough either. They're just huge influences and just. We're so lucky.
0:26:05 - (Allie Bynum): I mean, for sure.
0:26:08 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah. Just to be here in east Tennessee. My dad said he got offers to move numerous times for jobs, and he said, no, I'm staying here. Cause it's just a great place to raise a family.
0:26:17 - (Allie Bynum): Yeah. My dad always said it was a great place to raise kids as well, because he's actually from St. Louis, Missouri.
0:26:23 - (Colin Johnson): Oh, wow.
0:26:23 - (Allie Bynum): So many moons ago, he met my mom in Florida, and, you know, ended up coming back here to be able to raise me, and he's like, it's beautiful. Like, I can't leave. And this is where he wanted to come back to, so I love it.
0:26:36 - (Colin Johnson): I love it. All right, let's get into some hard questions. So you're over northeast Tennessee. What's your favorite town?
0:26:44 - (Allie Bynum): My favorite town?
0:26:48 - (Colin Johnson): Which one you like the best? Is it Johnson city? Kingsport? Bristol?
0:26:52 - (Allie Bynum): Are we talking about, like, anywhere in the country? What is that, then?
0:26:56 - (Colin Johnson): What? Which is. All right, let's talk about suburbs, like, Jonesboro, Elizabethan. What are some of the little towns around? Because tri cities gets, you know, Johnson City, Bristol, Kingsport, where they get the major. You know, people hear about those because they're bigger.
0:27:09 - (Allie Bynum): Sure.
0:27:10 - (Colin Johnson): So let's talk about the other sleeper towns around that are awesome that you.
0:27:13 - (Allie Bynum): Need to go visit for visiting. I guess Jonesboro is one of those personal favorites because I spent some time growing up in Jonesboro.
0:27:23 - (Colin Johnson): Same.
0:27:23 - (Allie Bynum): My mom moved around a lot.
0:27:24 - (Colin Johnson): Quintessential downtown. It's like right out of a Norman Rockwell painting. It's awesome.
0:27:28 - (Allie Bynum): It's. Yeah, it's historic. You know, it's the oldest town in Tennessee. I remember learning how to ride a bike down that sidewalk, and there's the stairs where the carriages used to park, so that's cool. And the farmers market scene. Yeah, that's one of those definitely quintessential areas. And we're talking about, I guess that's not really a lesser known one, but mountain City, Johnson county, such a beautiful, spectacular rural area.
0:27:53 - (Colin Johnson): Yes.
0:27:53 - (Allie Bynum): You know, they have sunflower festival and now the Copperhead. Copper road. Copper road music festival coming up.
0:28:01 - (Colin Johnson): Oh, am I saying that right?
0:28:02 - (Allie Bynum): Copperhead Road.
0:28:03 - (Colin Johnson): Copperhead Road. That's a song.
0:28:05 - (Allie Bynum): Okay. Copperhead road music fest is coming up for the first annual this year.
0:28:09 - (Colin Johnson): That's cool.
0:28:10 - (Allie Bynum): I'm in Johnson county. Super cool area. It's kind of under the radar. You have Watauga Lake sailing out there. You have hiking, you have Doe mountain recreation area. So you have mountain biking, atv riding, shooting range. I mean, it's definitely undersold.
0:28:25 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:28:25 - (Allie Bynum): I would say.
0:28:27 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah. Because I don't know that anybody's mentioned Johnson county on or mountain city on the podcast. So we talk about Watauga Lake for sure.
0:28:33 - (Allie Bynum): Yeah.
0:28:33 - (Colin Johnson): And then there's butler up there. But, yeah, Johnson county is awesome.
0:28:37 - (Allie Bynum): Yeah, it's beautiful.
0:28:38 - (Colin Johnson): Carly and I, Christian, had to play a tennis match there last year, and we're driving up there, we're like, oh, man, we haven't. We should come up here more. We haven't been up here forever.
0:28:46 - (Allie Bynum): Yeah, it's beautiful.
0:28:47 - (Colin Johnson): It's beautiful. Yeah, that's a good one. We've got Irwin. We've got Greenville.
0:28:51 - (Allie Bynum): Yeah, I'm very partial to Irwin Telford.
0:28:54 - (Colin Johnson): Bowmantown.
0:28:55 - (Allie Bynum): I love Bowman town.
0:28:56 - (Colin Johnson): Elizabethan.
0:28:57 - (Allie Bynum): Irwin's a great place for, you know, base camp of adventure because you have the appalachian trail that crosses right over the Nola Chucky river. You got kayaking, mountain biking. They just had their Unaika mountain bike park built, what, one or two summers ago. So everything's right there for the outdoor enthusiast.
0:29:13 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:29:15 - (Allie Bynum): But I love all of our cities.
0:29:16 - (Colin Johnson): They're all great. I was just putting you on my spot. I know you've got friends in every one of them, and I was just making you. So let's say you're going to go get a cup of coffee. What are your top three coffee spots? Because we don't want to eliminate anybody.
0:29:27 - (Allie Bynum): Yeah, my top three, several of them are right here in Johnson City. I love open doors right up the street.
0:29:35 - (Colin Johnson): Give Sherry, Marion, and Mike a little shout out.
0:29:37 - (Allie Bynum): Dos gatos makes a mean latte.
0:29:40 - (Colin Johnson): Yep. I'm a latte guy. They do a good job.
0:29:42 - (Allie Bynum): And then the coffee company and Elizabeth. Oh, yeah, such a good one also.
0:29:46 - (Colin Johnson): Yes, it is super good.
0:29:47 - (Allie Bynum): Those are the top three.
0:29:49 - (Colin Johnson): Okay. You're gonna go get a hamburger cheeseburger, probably.
0:29:53 - (Allie Bynum): Yeah.
0:29:53 - (Colin Johnson): I don't know if any. Does people eat hamburgers still or do everybody get a cheeseburger? Pretty much.
0:29:57 - (Allie Bynum): Oh, I'd say cheeseburger.
0:29:59 - (Colin Johnson): I'm a cheeseburger. Yeah. So let's say you're getting a cheeseburger. Where are you going for a cheeseburger?
0:30:03 - (Allie Bynum): Okay. I don't know if it's still open.
0:30:04 - (Colin Johnson): Okay.
0:30:05 - (Allie Bynum): But it's one of those hidden spots that, like, if it is open, you, like, you have.
0:30:08 - (Colin Johnson): Maybe one of our listeners could go and find out.
0:30:10 - (Allie Bynum): You have to go find out.
0:30:11 - (Colin Johnson): Radio in and say it's open.
0:30:13 - (Allie Bynum): Watauga diner.
0:30:14 - (Colin Johnson): Watauga diner. And where.
0:30:19 - (Allie Bynum): Makes the best cheeseburger I've ever eaten.
0:30:21 - (Colin Johnson): Really?
0:30:22 - (Allie Bynum): Yeah. They also have, like, fried Mac and cheese bites.
0:30:24 - (Colin Johnson): Mitch, you want to go get a cheeseburger? All right. We're rolling to watauga diner. That sounds good. Yeah, I bet they've got that griddle where it's just super season, kind of black, and it's perfect.
0:30:40 - (Allie Bynum): One of those pitting. Yeah.
0:30:41 - (Colin Johnson): So fun. Carly's dad likes a place in Bristol called Tutti's. It's a little hole in the wall, and they have great burgers. Oh, man. So good.
0:30:49 - (Allie Bynum): So I'd like to check them out.
0:30:50 - (Colin Johnson): Yes, it was super good. Super good pizza joint.
0:30:54 - (Allie Bynum): Oh, used to be scratch before they closed.
0:30:58 - (Colin Johnson): Everybody says, I don't know why anybody doesn't just grab that up.
0:31:01 - (Allie Bynum): We gotta bring it back because it's. It's one of a kind. I really like main street.
0:31:05 - (Colin Johnson): Oh, main street's good.
0:31:06 - (Allie Bynum): They got some good pizza for sure.
0:31:08 - (Colin Johnson): Big slices.
0:31:09 - (Allie Bynum): Yeah.
0:31:10 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:31:10 - (Allie Bynum): And they. They source their veggies right from their garden, River Creek farm and limestone. So cool. I didn't know that Jamie and Elisa are great folks.
0:31:19 - (Colin Johnson): We. We went to Sims last night for dollar slice night.
0:31:22 - (Allie Bynum): Oh, that's a good one.
0:31:23 - (Colin Johnson): So good. Sims pizza is so good. If you're going out for dessert, something like that. We're gonna go for ice cream, cake, whatever.
0:31:32 - (Allie Bynum): And ice cream.
0:31:35 - (Colin Johnson): You scream ice cream, we all scream for ice cream.
0:31:38 - (Allie Bynum): Yeah. I'm trying to think of a dessert.
0:31:40 - (Colin Johnson): You know, a dessert joint. You don't take your daughter out for ice cream. Occasionally. There's a place called the scoop in gray.
0:31:46 - (Allie Bynum): Is there? I've not been there because we used to go to marble slab back in the day, but they closed down.
0:31:51 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:31:52 - (Allie Bynum): So I'm trying to think of, like, a new up and coming dessert place, but, um. Hmm.
0:31:57 - (Colin Johnson): I think this is maybe top secret, but I have one. They're gonna come out with ice cream down in Jonesboro again.
0:32:06 - (Allie Bynum): Yes. All time favorite. And I can't believe it slipped my mind. Is the southern churn photoshop in Bristol? Downtown Bristol. Have you been there?
0:32:14 - (Colin Johnson): No. Carly's from Bristol, too. I don't know.
0:32:17 - (Allie Bynum): So they have hand dipped ice cream. They have all the. It's like walking into a nostalgic kids candy store.
0:32:22 - (Colin Johnson): Uh huh.
0:32:23 - (Allie Bynum): And then they also have the homemade fudge. And they. I think they source their chocolates from, I don't know, somewhere from out of town, but they're delicious. Like they do little fudge chocolates. They're really good.
0:32:34 - (Colin Johnson): Super good. It's called the fudge churn.
0:32:36 - (Allie Bynum): The southern churn.
0:32:37 - (Colin Johnson): Southern churn. Okay.
0:32:38 - (Allie Bynum): So, yeah, I wanted to check it out.
0:32:40 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah. What. What am I forgetting to ask you about around here that you should share with our listeners? Something we haven't talked about? We got a ton of parks too, right?
0:32:53 - (Allie Bynum): We do like, recreational parks. Yeah. Bays Mountain park, for sure. Johnson City, founders Park, Sycamore, Shoals and Elizabethan, Steel Creek and Bristol. You've got the green belt and kingsport. I mean, we're just. We're so blessed and fortunate for the amount of parks and green spaces that we do have already. And I hope to continue to. To welcome more to the area. Yeah.
0:33:19 - (Colin Johnson): And on your website, what kind of information can people find there? My brain was going, oh, if they go to your website, they can get to the park information, they can get to all kinds of cool stuff.
0:33:28 - (Allie Bynum): So, folks, y'all can visit northeast tennessee.org to find trip ideas, things to do in the area, historic sites. We have some features on there that have been really popular with guests like the Bluff city swinging bridge, Tipton Haynes historic Site. Folks really like to come here and learn about the region's history.
0:33:45 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:33:46 - (Allie Bynum): And an ancestry is kind of science. Yeah.
0:33:47 - (Colin Johnson): One of my friends was just got rained out. He was supposed to be doing a reenactment at Tipton Haynes this past weekend.
0:33:52 - (Allie Bynum): Isn't that cool? That is on my bucket list.
0:33:53 - (Colin Johnson): That's super cool. He loves it. Yeah.
0:33:55 - (Allie Bynum): Yeah. I think that's so cool. Sycamore Shoals is a big place for that as well. We've also had a lot of folks interested in Mahal and Mullin's cabin, which is in Sneadville. It's not in this general area, but the, you know, we recently launched our bootleggers and burnouts self guided heritage trail. So that covers a lot of those historic bootlegging sites as well as some Tennessee distilleries. And we don't recommend drinking and driving ever. But there is a historic approach to the trail.
0:34:22 - (Allie Bynum): And then also the Tennessee night sky trail we recently launched in the winter, which is also self guided night sky.
0:34:30 - (Colin Johnson): That's cool. Things I hadn't even thought of.
0:34:33 - (Allie Bynum): Yeah. And all that's on the website.
0:34:35 - (Colin Johnson): Have a get there again. Northeast tennessee.org.
0:34:37 - (Allie Bynum): Dot on the socials. It's northeast ten. N o r t h e A S t t e n n. That's a mouthful. It is. And of course, check out the podcast. Like, that's a great place for up to date events and happenings.
0:34:52 - (Colin Johnson): I like it. All right, I'm going to turn it over to you since you're a podcast host. Hit me. What? What would you. Yeah, we'll. We'll just turn the mic over to you for a second.
0:35:01 - (Allie Bynum): Chat all day.
0:35:02 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:35:03 - (Allie Bynum): So call in.
0:35:04 - (Colin Johnson): Yes, ma'am. Thanks for having me on your podcast.
0:35:08 - (Allie Bynum): Thanks for being here. If you're on a road trip to a new place that you've never been.
0:35:12 - (Colin Johnson): Yes.
0:35:13 - (Allie Bynum): What would somebody catch you listening to on the radio like you're totally in jam mode?
0:35:18 - (Colin Johnson): Well, I like to defer to my wife. She's got way better music taste than I do, and so she'll agree to that 1000%. I'm listening to a lot of Morgan Wallen just because he's awesome. Toby Mack is coming. We just bought tickets into. He's going to be here in elizabethan, so I like a lot of christian stuff. He's.
0:35:38 - (Allie Bynum): Do you see? Malone has been, like, collabing with Morgan Wallen.
0:35:42 - (Colin Johnson): Oh, really?
0:35:42 - (Allie Bynum): I find that very interesting.
0:35:43 - (Colin Johnson): No, that's crazy. But I do have a friend who makes. Well, he knows a guy who makes knives. Well, he was making some knives here locally. He's a, like, a, like, world class knife maker or whatever. So he asked my buddies, like, hey, do you know this dude named Post Malone? And he was like, yeah. And he goes, well, he's dming me and trying to get to talk to me about the knives and stuff. He's like, I don't.
0:36:08 - (Colin Johnson): He was like, I don't know. And so wound up, he. My friend said, yeah, you should talk to him. And so we wound up hanging out with him. Right, right. He didn't know who he was. And so I think he's probably made him multiple mouths now, which is super cool.
0:36:19 - (Allie Bynum): Some guy named Post. I don't know.
0:36:21 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah, it was actually. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, I don't know. Post something alone. I don't know. Okay, so I'm gonna defer to Carly to run the radio. I like listening to podcasts a lot.
0:36:31 - (Allie Bynum): Okay, so I'll listen to me, too.
0:36:32 - (Colin Johnson): Some business stuff. I like real estate y stuff sometimes.
0:36:35 - (Allie Bynum): I love podcasts.
0:36:36 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah. And I probably just put on some, like, eighties jam, too. Cause nineties music, I like.
0:36:42 - (Allie Bynum): Eighties jam's always good.
0:36:44 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah.
0:36:45 - (Allie Bynum): Do you have kids?
0:36:46 - (Colin Johnson): I've got two boys, one who's 21, and he lives in Knoxville. Cam, Renton Cam. And then Christian, 17, getting ready to graduate from Providence.
0:36:54 - (Allie Bynum): Okay.
0:36:55 - (Colin Johnson): And so Carly and I've been consumed with prom and graduation stuff that's coming up, and so, yeah. Yes, we got two boys.
0:37:02 - (Allie Bynum): So, what are some of your y'all's favorite family activities to do in the area?
0:37:07 - (Colin Johnson): So, Christian, Cameron and I, when Cameron's in town, we try and play golf. We like to play golf. And our area has some great golf courses.
0:37:14 - (Allie Bynum): Oh, it sure does. Y'all ever played disc golf?
0:37:16 - (Colin Johnson): We did. We took regular frisbees to wing deer park and played golf over there. We played Frisbee golf. We had a blast, but they're not the exact right ones, but we made it through. We just say we crawled through some weeds and probably got some poison ivy. Finding our.
0:37:35 - (Allie Bynum): Yeah, that could happen.
0:37:36 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah, our frisbees.
0:37:37 - (Allie Bynum): But for. For your listeners, there are some great disc golf courses.
0:37:40 - (Colin Johnson): There are some great disc golf and regular golf courses. And regular golf courses, for sure.
0:37:45 - (Allie Bynum): Yeah. What's. What's. Some places that you like to eat at locally that you can only find here in Johnson?
0:37:51 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah. Carly and I, we love going to. We used to go to barbaritos every day. Like, when we were. We had our. When Christian was a little guy, we were just there every day almost. And I saw Sonia. She's kind of one of the managers there and saw her yesterday there, and she was like, you know, he's coming every day now. I'm coming in, like, once every three weeks or two weeks or something. But we love, um.
0:38:11 - (Colin Johnson): We love bar burritos. Just cause my buddy Andy and Brian, they're great. And we like supporting, ma'am. We like holy taco. We like white duck taco. There's a taco thing. Cause bar burritos makes tacos.
0:38:23 - (Allie Bynum): You know, we got some good taco, Joy.
0:38:24 - (Colin Johnson): We got some good tacos. Just had lunch with my pastor Spencer. We went to Ridgewood barbecue. Had some blue cheese and crackers and.
0:38:33 - (Allie Bynum): The words out about Ridgewood.
0:38:34 - (Colin Johnson): So good, we didn't have to wait. So that was good. So if we went a little later, 1230, we got right in.
0:38:40 - (Allie Bynum): That was the first meal I had.
0:38:42 - (Colin Johnson): After my daughter, fire. Oh, really?
0:38:44 - (Allie Bynum): Yeah.
0:38:44 - (Colin Johnson): Firehouse barbecue is good. I like barbecue. Southern craft. We like thai food. So we have some great thai food. Zapp lies. Really good. We like them.
0:38:53 - (Allie Bynum): There's that new one off the boone's Creek exit. Can't place what it's called.
0:38:58 - (Colin Johnson): Oh, yeah, Carly saw that the other day. I forget what it's called. We'll have to try it out.
0:39:01 - (Allie Bynum): I love zeppelin, too, though. Very cool.
0:39:04 - (Colin Johnson): We like to eat a lot of different stuff. Yeah, we eat out too much.
0:39:07 - (Allie Bynum): A good mix.
0:39:08 - (Colin Johnson): But then pals is great, too. Yeah. Red maze is fantastic.
0:39:12 - (Allie Bynum): So what's your favorite coffee shop? Now, I'm curious.
0:39:15 - (Colin Johnson): I love open doors because I love that they support. Rise up. They started it, and they're, you know, they're supporting it through their coffee shop, and I think it's awesome. Those guidos is great.
0:39:24 - (Allie Bynum): You know, they just have great customer service, too. Both of them.
0:39:26 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah. There's a manager up there now, and he's just awesome. So I love open doors. That's probably my go to. And then do Scotto. Second or the moon right up here, too.
0:39:36 - (Allie Bynum): Yes.
0:39:37 - (Colin Johnson): Is great. Brett. He's really such a nice guy.
0:39:40 - (Allie Bynum): He's surrounded by wonderful coffee shops and wonderful people.
0:39:42 - (Colin Johnson): I think that's what makes it for sure. Yeah.
0:39:45 - (Allie Bynum): And just side note, we have bean roasters right in Elizabeth. And to do rivers.
0:39:48 - (Colin Johnson): Yes. They roast a lot of beans right from the source. Yeah.
0:39:52 - (Allie Bynum): I got one more question for you.
0:39:53 - (Colin Johnson): All right, last one.
0:39:55 - (Allie Bynum): Johnson City living podcast. What's your passion behind that? What's your motif?
0:40:00 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah, so I wanted to. It was during the pandemic. I want to start a podcast because I miss people. I'm a people person. And I wanted to talk to more people. And so I was like, I told somebody, I looked at microphones for a day and a half, like, which microphone should you choose, and why should you choose it? Then what do you do with the cord? You got to plug it into something. And what does that plug into? And then you got to mix it, and you got to have some kind of thing that do, do, do, do. And I was like, I don't even know where to start. I'm gonna freak out. And.
0:40:27 - (Colin Johnson): And so I saw my friend Leighton, and I said, hey, I'd like. I hear you've got a podcast. He's like, yes, I do. And I'm producing them. So, he did what Mitch did, and he said, you could just come do it there. And I said, okay, that's great. And he goes, actually, I'm ready to hand over the tuna city living one. And so I was like, this is the best thing ever. And so I talked to Carly. We said, this is great. Let's do it.
0:40:46 - (Colin Johnson): And so I just connect with awesome people.
0:40:49 - (Allie Bynum): How fun.
0:40:50 - (Colin Johnson): All over the area, and then share what all their awesomeness is to all the people that are on the airwaves listening and want to come here. And so it's just a resource. So I'm looking, and I hope you know that I can connect great people with great people.
0:41:02 - (Allie Bynum): For sure. A lot of connections can be made with podcasts. A lot of conversations can be started.
0:41:06 - (Colin Johnson): Yep.
0:41:06 - (Allie Bynum): It's a great way to pass time on your way to work, coming home from work.
0:41:10 - (Colin Johnson): And see, now I've got a great connection through the tourism, so I'll be like, oh, you need to talk to Ali. She'll hook you up. She'll get your business rocking and rolling, and you'll be getting lots more impressions at, you know, four in the afternoon or whatever on your website.
0:41:23 - (Allie Bynum): So, lots of magic happening here at may pop media.
0:41:26 - (Colin Johnson): Yes, exactly. Exactly. Lots of magic has happened here. And like I said earlier, you need, if you have an itch to do the podcast thing, come talk to Mitch. He'll let you talk to him all day for free. And then if you get into it with him, you're gonna. It's the best thing ever. Like, literally, I walk in, say hi to Mitch, say Ali, we sit down, we talk, and I leave, and it's just done. And it's his wife.
0:41:48 - (Allie Bynum): It's a fun game.
0:41:49 - (Colin Johnson): Markets it all and does it all. It's just. It's great. So, yeah. Yeah. All right. My last question for you is, what gets you fired up. Like, oh, let's go. Oh, get doe time.
0:42:01 - (Allie Bynum): Come on, allie.
0:42:02 - (Colin Johnson): What do you.
0:42:02 - (Allie Bynum): What is doctor enough? There you go. Doctor enough.
0:42:07 - (Colin Johnson): Yes. The consummate tourism person is going to pick a beverage that's born and raised and built here and still modeled here.
0:42:15 - (Allie Bynum): Yes, it does, though.
0:42:16 - (Colin Johnson): I mean, it gets you jacked up. It's all the vitamins and minerals and soda, so that's awesome.
0:42:20 - (Allie Bynum): Yeah.
0:42:21 - (Colin Johnson): Yeah, I love it. Well, thanks so much for coming on the podcast. I learned a lot. I'm learning that you're a fellow podcaster, so thank you for doing that and connecting with people and bringing people to our area and making it better. And so I'm excited to just continue to watch our area grow. You know, I've been around a while, been here 50 years, and so I'm watching it now, and I'm like, what's the next 50 years going to look like? Because in the last 15, it seems like it's just really transformed, and so it's just. It's really cool.
0:42:50 - (Allie Bynum): Yeah.
0:42:50 - (Colin Johnson): But thank you for what you do and helping all the people who come here.
0:42:53 - (Allie Bynum): Thanks for having me, Colin.
0:42:54 - (Colin Johnson): You're welcome. You're welcome. And thank you guys for listening to the podcast. Of course, if you want to move here and meet Allie or just go around and eat pizza and ice cream and get a coffee at Doscado's european doors, call me. I'll take you right there. But if you want to buy a house and invest in real estate, I love your help with. I'd love to help you with that as well. So thanks so much for listening. Have a great day.