Owning The Coast
Owning The Coast is your weekly deep dive into the people, places, and possibilities that make Santa Cruz one of the most inspiring places to live. Hosted by real estate pro Brandi Jones, mortgage and market expert Ryan Buckholdt, and insurance specialist Jerry Seagraves, the show blends their unique expertise with candid conversations and dynamic guests. Each week, you’ll hear stories that go beyond property lines — from navigating the local housing market to discovering hidden trails, tasting the best bites in town, and meeting the entrepreneurs, artists, and community leaders shaping the coast. Whether you’re a long-time local, a newcomer, or dreaming about making Santa Cruz home, Owning The Coast offers the insights, inspiration, and insider knowledge you need to thrive in life and living by the sea.
Owning The Coast
Santa Cruz Roots, Skate Art, And A Leap Into A Creative Life w/ Scotty Greathouse
What does it really take to leave a steady job and build a life in color? We sit down with Santa Cruz artist Scotty Greathouse to trace the leap from concrete trucks to murals, from surf-shop inspiration to a 160-foot Trader Joe’s wall in San Francisco. Scotty opens up about the turning point—a LinkedIn mural that made strangers stop and say this is awesome—along with the messy, honest parts: dry spells, self-doubt, and the discipline it takes to keep showing up when the phone goes quiet.
We dig into the roots that shaped his eye: 80s deck graphics, neon surf palettes, and the kinetic energy of skate culture. Scotty explains why he often works solo to protect a design’s integrity, yet celebrates true collaboration like the Seawalls project that unified 12 artists under a single ocean-up perspective. His Boardwalk restoration stories reveal how you navigate brand feel, public expectations, and the craft of fixing what time and traffic wear down. He also shares why Felton made sense, how he and his wife rebuilt a red-tagged home, and why time wealth with kids makes the risk worthwhile.
Beyond the art, we get practical. We talk Instagram as a living portfolio, websites as curated galleries, and how AI SEO and narrative-driven blogs can boost discoverability for creatives. Then we zoom out to the region’s hard truth: wildfire insurance is rewriting the rules of owning a home in the Santa Cruz Mountains. With Fair Plan rates surging, we break down real steps to soften the blow—policy structure, deductibles, and home hardening—while calling for recognition of new mitigation tech that could save properties and budgets.
If you care about creativity, community, and carving a path in an expensive place, this one lands. Subscribe, share with a friend who needs the push to commit, and leave a review with your biggest leap of faith—we might read it on the show.
Welcome to the Only Coast Podcast. Thank you, thank you. You are back, we're back. Welcome to OTC Podcast. This is Brandy Jones with Keller William Thrives. And to my left here, I have Jerry.
SPEAKER_02:Jerry Seagraves with Seagraves Insurance. And Ryan Buchwald with Cross Country Mortgage. And Hide Out vodka. Hideout vodka. Always represented.
SPEAKER_05:We harassed him about that. But our guest today is Scotty Greathouse. Scotty, thank you for being here.
SPEAKER_00:Thanks for having me. Yeah, Scotty.
SPEAKER_05:We just found out that Brian, who's our producer, is best friends in grade school with your sister. Now we can go home.
SPEAKER_03:That's it. Podcast over. You can find it everywhere you stream podcasts. Hope you enjoyed it. Analytics can be terrible on this one. We're going to put into SEO Kirsten Greathouse, Brian Upton, and no one will ever listen to it.
SPEAKER_05:So, Scotty, you've been here a while. Probably since your very first memory, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz County. Kind of tell us a little bit about kind of your childhood memories. I don't know, just a few, like you went to school where you got into the skate culture. Like what about your like childhood made you you right now?
SPEAKER_00:I think that yeah, skateboarding and surfing were definitely two things that I was like always gravitating towards and doing. And I just remember, you know, always loving the ocean. And my grandparents had a house on Sunny Cove when we were kids. And so I was right around the corner from Portola Surf Shop. And so when I was 14, I worked there. And I think from there that's when everything kind of set in and took off. You know, just all the we carried skateboards, we had surfboards that had like custom airbrush jobs on it. Locatelli days. Yeah, yeah, Locatelli. Yeah. Legend. And so I was just super lucky to be able to actually like watch people airbrush surfboards. And so it just it just got me, and there it went, you know.
SPEAKER_05:Is it the vibe? Because I know as an artist, I'm not a very famous artist, but I do like my creativity. As you know, in the 80s and 90s, you have skating, which is new, surfing, which is vibrant, and now you get the artistic creative side of all of it. Like, what about that? Just was it the rhythm? Was it just like the joy, or is it that it expressed so much of what words don't uh you know?
SPEAKER_00:I just I think it like for me, it was just always looking at skateboarding graphics, were always so captivating. I mean, we all went to go skate when we were younger, you know, and and you just you look at all the artwork and it's like comic books, it's just like and the lettering and just the I don't know, some had messages, messages behind them, and yeah, just the uh I don't know.
SPEAKER_01:I I always thought the art on skate decks in particular was so innovative. You know, it was like you said, it was like comic books, but it wasn't like comic. It was totally unique to skating. And you know, every year you waited for your favorite skateboarder to come out with his new deck, and that was like like you said, you go down to go skate and look at the wall, and you're like, oh, look at that. Look at you know, and the art was so unique, you know, it was like so unique that my parents hated that I was buying certain boards because they didn't know what it meant. Yeah, exactly. Exactly, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And what's rad is it's all came back around. Yeah, like 30 years later, they're doing those production of those boards again. It's it's cool to grow up in a time where like our kids know all the stuff, like the music has come back.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, for sure. My kids listen to like 90s playlists in the car. I'm like, you don't have to put that on for me. He's like, no, you know this band.
SPEAKER_05:Speaking of that, I'm going to garbage tomorrow now.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, come on. See?
SPEAKER_05:Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, take my son with you.
SPEAKER_05:I think there's an age limit for so, Jerry, you know and Ryan, you guys both know Scotty pretty well. What would you say his legendary moves or his imprint is on the community?
SPEAKER_01:I gotta tell you, Scotty's one of my favorite people in the world. Like he hangs with everything. So we ride Moto together. I don't think we've ever surfed together, but I've totally seen him surf. He surfs really well. But he he worked at O'Neal's when I was like a brand new youth working at O'Neill's and kind of shaped my vision for like you know, uh people that I had faith in being good humans, right? Right. And made work fun, like he's hilarious. Like we banter at each other all the time and say the most ridiculous things. And yeah, it's just it's he's a fun guy, and I I definitely he made working out Neils memorable for me.
SPEAKER_05:I love that.
SPEAKER_02:You know, it's his art, it's his art that he's able to make a life out of. Like it's that's a hard thing to do. It's a hard thing to do. And the fact that you know you see his stuff everywhere and he's always putting new things, new ideas out there. You just he's legendary for that.
SPEAKER_05:So, Scotty, what is your legend right now and where can people find you? As they talk about it, they might be scrolling, wanting to check you out on Instagram or your website.
SPEAKER_00:My Instagram is uh at Scotty Greathouse Art. And then my website is ideasforwalls.com. And yeah, that's where you can find me or just see what I've gotten into the last 10 years. I think that you know, the last 10 years have been, you know, like giving it my all 100% towards a creative life. Before like I I'd always been drawing, I'd always been painting, but I was moonlighting with it. And I had a commercial driving job here in town for seven years where I moonlit with art on the side, and I did projects at night just whenever I could fit them in. And and then lightning struck, and I got a big mural job at LinkedIn, and the pay was super killer. And I was like, I think the vibe was really different too, because you know, when you're working, I was delivering concrete, and people are not the happiest people, you know, in the world. Like when you're having to work with you know, stuff that's like going off and and it's weighs super, you know, a ton, and it's just we're always too early, we're always too late. The concrete's never always come in. Yeah, like every it's just a fight. And so, but with the art, you know, when I was painting my first mural at LinkedIn, it was in the IT department, and people would like peek their head in the door and go, This is awesome. And so I just remember that like vividly, the contrast between my two worlds, and I'm like, This is this is what I want to do. And so yeah, pulled the plug on the day job and went all in. I was 40, 41, and I had to find out.
SPEAKER_05:Wow. I mean, that takes courage. A lot of people get ideas, but the courage and the reward, I mean, how cool. It's like black and white. You can work with people who are you know heavy lifting, lots of you know, concrete isn't easy because of timing and big trucks and stuff. So when you went to LinkedIn and you're like, this is it, the courage to like just say I'm I'm all in. Did you worry about it's already expensive to live in Santa Cruz? I have a family. Did you let those fears creep in, or did you plan accordingly and everything went to plan? Or how how did you go about that? Because some of the topics we talk about is just in general, this is paradise. And then how do we cut out a notch of our paradise that's authentic to us and yet we're not homeless or you know, sitting on the side of the street?
SPEAKER_00:Still afford the lifestyle.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah. So it was it was kind of like serendipity, I guess you could say, just the people that I was talking to about wanting to make a leap. I think there's people that can either stifle you or send you into like the unknown, but with a positive attitude. And so my buddy Chris, he I was explaining to him that I, you know, I had one foot driving the concrete truck, and then I had you know, one foot in art, and he's like, you know, well, neither of them are gonna flourish if you have if you're half in, half in. So he's like, you you just you have to go all in. Like that's the only way to allow, you know, like the opportunities, like you have to be open for the opportunities because if you have a full-time job and a big opportunity comes your way and you're locked in nine to five, like you're gonna miss that meeting and and you're smoked. And so I think that for me I was super lucky because my wife is a wedding coordinator. Oh, and she used to be employed by a local event center, and but they laid her off, and but she always knew she wanted to do weddings, and so she started her own wedding coordination business, and she loves it, and it it took off. Like it just for her, it was just so fantastic. She just like got in and started getting weddings, and so it was actually a culmination of that too. I had support at home where I was like, I want to do this, and and she was like, Go for it. And so, because if you don't have that, like you're dead in the water cooked. You can't you can't, you know, like if you don't have support from home, you have to be defiant, kind of, you know.
SPEAKER_05:So, like and secret, like you don't get to be what the family unit is. We get to share the ups and downs, we get to encourage each other, and the kids get to watch that.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:And then now they watch mom and she's flourishing. Now it's dad's turn, and the family's giving you that space to sort of kind of do it your way with some guidance and boundaries.
SPEAKER_01:It's kind of interesting to me. We've had two guests like almost in a row that said that the way they made it happen is not having a backup plan. Right. Like it was like you gotta fully commit. Uh we had Shaw DeWitt on from Beer 30, and uh, you know, his whole story was he sold everything, his house, all of his cars to make Beer 30 happen. Like he was barring a truck from me for a little while, you know? And that's that's the level of commitment that people like you guys have, you know.
SPEAKER_05:And his wife was very, very involved. Your guys' wives are very, very involved. And yeah, because there's a she just rips people's teeth out.
SPEAKER_03:There's a gnarly part in the middle. You know, there's no doubt that that jump is one part of it. I think what we talked about, Jerry, was we always reference that shark tank sort of mentality that you'll eventually get to Mark Cuban, and Cuban's gonna ask, how are you finance this? And you saying I kept my other job, and he's like, I'm out, right? He he knows you're not all the way in. Um but like Brandi said, man, that is a big jump. And I think a lot of my friends that have made that, eventually their infrastructure could crumble, you know, and in the in the wake of starting something jumping that far. And and so kudos to that. But I think you're right, Jerry. There's there's a common theme coming in these podcasts, which is you know, uh we even talk about it on Nelly's podcast, maybe it's stretching out, but it's that word commit, and that could be dropping into a bowl for the first time. It's that feeling of like trusting, and and you know, it's not so much watching other people do it. There's a big difference when you're standing on that lip the first time and trusting yourself, trusting gravity, knowing it's probably gonna hurt.
unknown:It might work out.
SPEAKER_03:It might work out, but that's sort of like business, right? I mean, is that what you kind of felt doing that? Were you a couple days in there, like vulnerable-wise, where you were like, what am I doing?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I mean, shoot, I honestly I still feel vulnerable, you know? Like the the nature of the beast is it's it's a challenge. It's it's a challenge mentally because it's like you you get on a roll and then it'll go crickets. And and then you're just tripping and it just it gets really rough, you know. So it's it's kind of the highs and lows. It's I always relate it to a roller coaster. But I think that you know, in regards to like the the pay of it is my time, you know, like I've had I so like my wife and I, we've both had full-time jobs, you know, we've both been W-2'd for somebody else and locked into somebody else's program, which is has its benefits, but you know, being self-employed, like shoot, we both got to volunteer at our kids' schools. Like I I would do their art program at the elementary school. And shoot, today I just went and did a career day presentation at Soquel Elementary, you know, and it's it's those things that like you know, I I worked for a guy that he he was a like a heavy equipment mechanic, and his three kids, he never saw them at all through their whole childhood. And he he told me straight up, he's like, if I could go back, I wouldn't work so much. Right. He was super bummed that he didn't get the time like just to just to be there. So I think in that that sense of it, I'm like so wealthy, you know, because I know I've I've got we've all we all have friends that you know have to you know spend time away from their kids and it's it's it's really heartbreaking for some people.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it's hard on the kids, you know. Like I I know my kids have been complaining about me being gone, and it breaks my heart every time, you know, like that they they heard enough to reach out and be like, Can you be around more? You know, so that that's huge equity in your family. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:It's I think there's a balance though, too, because if you're around too much, then it's they're like, Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's almost a night feel like I need to leave. I'm just like, man.
SPEAKER_05:It's play hard to get parenting 101 by Scotty Greyhouse, though.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_05:But you've done a lot for the community, as in murals, and you know, the there's big projects. How do you get those jobs?
SPEAKER_00:Well, you know, like the the story that I always say, like I'd done a bit of work for Trader Joe's, and the first Trader Joe's gig that I that I got was mountain biking. You know, I had a friend, it was just everything's so random in my life. So like I had a buddy visiting from Canada, and he's like, Oh yeah, we're gonna go and ride, you know, let's meet at the Rincon parking lot. And I was like, Cool. So I met him, and then one of his good friends from back in the day that he knew was riding with us. And so on one of the climbs back up, his name's Gus, and Gus was like, Well, what do you do for a living? And I go, Well, I do specialty paint, I you know, paint murals and do all kinds of things. And he's like, He's all no way. He's like, I run a Trader Joe's over in Mountain View, I've got work for you. And I was just like, I'm so rad. Wow, and it was and it was it was really insane because the work he had for me was like it was substantial, but it led to uh like my craziest job I've I've had, where the Mountain View store it just needed a a couple things, like it was like an artichoke and a slice of watermelon, and you know, just some some little splashes here and there. And then he passed my name on to the regional manager, and she gave me basically like let me join in the mix to get this job up in San Francisco. And so I long story short, I painted a 160-foot-long mural in a Trader Joe's and S.
SPEAKER_05:Oh my gosh, I wish we had pictures for that right now.
SPEAKER_00:That is crazy.
SPEAKER_05:How long did that take you? And and how excited were you?
SPEAKER_00:A month. It it took me a month, but beforehand, it took me months to like planning. Yeah, because like you gotta get the design all like nailed down, and their vibe is their vibe. And you know, Trader Joe's has a certain look to it, a certain feel, and so it had to like match colors, it had to match feel. It was it was like the one time in my life that I actually like felt like I was getting like design fatigue. Oh, which was crazy because it was rendition after rendition after rendition, and it was just this one part of it was just driving me crazy. But yeah, so that that was just that was really, really interesting. It took a month and it was a grind. It was we were there like every day.
SPEAKER_05:Wow.
SPEAKER_01:Do you have a crew that you take out when you do stuff like that? Like other artists that you call on, or is it is it like you just have people doing fill work?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, well, I think that with me, I love working alone personally, because then I don't because I've had I've had projects go sideways where the other artist might kind of have a little too much bravado or you know, a little they want to put their twist on something, but it's it's like some jobs, it's like you get the design done and that's what you're delivering. That's what people expect to see. But if someone's trying to like put an umbrella where a canopy, you know, like they're they're trying to put their own twist on it, and and it's just like sometimes I'm not very confrontational, so like it can get the best of me. Like if someone's stronger than me, like opinion-wise, then I'll just kind of be like, dang, dude, I didn't I didn't see this coming.
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_00:So that's why I work alone because I can control my own talking to myself.
SPEAKER_05:Well, that's interesting because in sales we have the same situation. You can work in your business or on your business, and when you're on your business, you're like CEO, manager, you're overseeing everything, and then in your business, the creativity of the colors. Speaking of that, how particular are you to color? Like, do you know like what a color like means? So you're like Jeremiah Killy, he is so particular about his colors. It's interesting. Is there something about your art you're very particular about?
SPEAKER_01:No, no, not at all. I actually you shake those cans and you're like, uh, I got some more yellow.
SPEAKER_00:I just I just go, I you know it's funny. I just I never went to school for art. I never even took painting when I took ceramics when we were at Harvard, you know? So like Ms. Vanducci. It just uh yeah, you know, so color. I I think what happens with me is I literally just because I'm you know definitely an 80s kid. Oh yeah, it's like the surf culture. It had like a lot of I use like a lot of like pinks, hot, hot like neon orange, oh yeah, um 80s colors, just full 80s colors, you know, like turquoises and baby blues. Like I I just love them. And I I think that like the old surf graphics and and I was like a total surf kid, and so like that sort of flavor, it just naturally is embedded in me. Like I don't have like color theory or anything like that, but it seems to work, you know, like with the Trader Joe's one, like people would come in. We painted in front of hundreds and hundreds of people.
SPEAKER_03:Oh the airplane, the owl and all that stuff. Yeah, I'm looking at it right now.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and so people would be like, I love the colors.
SPEAKER_05:Oh, I see.
SPEAKER_00:And that was kind of uh interesting thing because I I just picked them out, I wouldn't say haphazardly, but I just kind of like you like at least quicksilver stuff, you know.
SPEAKER_05:So all of you have raised how many kids do you have?
SPEAKER_02:Two sons.
SPEAKER_05:Two sons.
SPEAKER_02:Boy and a girl. Two sons.
SPEAKER_05:Okay, so we got the two son team here. What about Santa Cruz? Where you're like, I'm so glad they're here now, and then maybe some other things you're like, if they weren't in Santa Cruz, they w that wouldn't affect them.
SPEAKER_00:You know, we're in Felton, so it's it kind of almost seems like a world away in a sense, but uh you know, we're we're just really stoked with where we are in in regards to like our neighbors and like this I I just like the mix of people that we have here. I think that if we were somewhere else and it was just primarily white or primarily whatever, you know, color or background, it's like you know, it's good to have diversity and have you know our kids see a diverse people, you know, and in like functional nature, from the ocean to the forest, to you can still go grocery shopping, you can still be right next to an airport.
SPEAKER_05:Like we miss that we have so much blendedness in just what exists.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it's it's really cool. I I was just telling my son the other the other day because he just got his driver's permit, and we were talking about cars and how people like you know just put all kinds of crazy things on their cars, and I'm like, I'm like, yeah, dude, it's totally fine because people are doing crazy stuff all over the place, and it's the freedom that people have. It's great, you know? It's like self-expression, yeah. It's like, and he's like, What about lifted trucks? I'm like, dude, that's great. Like, if they're into it, that's fantastic, you know? Like, he's like, Uncle Jerry.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, what's wrong with that guy? He's so small. Why does he have such a big truck?
SPEAKER_03:Did you do the library, Scott? Did you is that was that free reign? Was that your out of your brain, or did they give you direction?
SPEAKER_00:This this piece right over here. So that was with like 12 other people, and we did that in two days, and that was so that it was freestyle. Yeah, yeah. We just when all those murals popped up in Santa Cruz for the seawalls thing, we were it was the crew that was delivering paint and doing texture washing and background colors and fades for people. Yeah, we had like a day, it was like a day and a half because we were still working, but they were like, This wall's yours, you uh you have to attack it. And we were like, What? You know, and so it's incredible though.
SPEAKER_03:Are we stoked on it?
SPEAKER_00:Totally, yeah. It was it was one of those things like Pangea Seed, which was the nonprofit that we worked through. They they gave us all these like gift boxes, and in the gift box was this this super cool hardcover book, and I was like going through it while we were waiting, and there was this picture from like someone took it from the bottom of the ocean, like looking up, and it was like I think it was like wharf pilings.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, but then you saw like the sunlight and it was like silhouette, and then I shared it with you know the other people that were with us, and I was like, this perspective is so cool. It's like yeah, you can have dark and light, and and so everyone was like, Yeah, that's a great idea, because we didn't really have time to like think of anything else, really, you know. But I'm like, look at this picture. And so I think we just kind of like vibed off of that, and then it was insane how like how much harmony we had.
SPEAKER_03:That's what it feels like. That's what the image ends up feeling like it it you know. First time I'm hearing that that was a collab that way, because I just didn't know because it there it is a cohesive feeling, and and to know what five, six hands on that thing or more?
SPEAKER_00:12.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, like so that'd be 24 hands.
SPEAKER_03:Thanks, Brandy. That was off by one. Holy holy cross is not good at math. Super good at English, not good at math.
SPEAKER_02:What about the pieces that you've been a part of in Santa Cruz? Because they're like everywhere.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, like shoot, my buddy Taylor was kind of the one of the people that really put me on to things like Kind Peoples, and we did one at Plantronics, or when it was Plantronics, it's kind of it's a big one back like in the parking lot by their koi pond. And uh, you know, shoot. There's just a bunch, yeah. The library did you do the Ross Street from Shoppers Corner? No, but I that one, like all those, I we kind of played a hand in it, like like prepping them. And yeah, we we did a ton of work like prior to those artists getting to town so that they could just start putting their elements on. And so um yeah, we did all kinds of stuff. Met so many awesome, awesome people during that.
SPEAKER_01:Did you do the one at the backside of East End? Or were you involved in that one at all? I was, yeah.
SPEAKER_05:So that was everything.
SPEAKER_01:Everything's he's got his hand all over to the city.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, no, it's it's been it's been really wild. Like ever since I jumped ship and like went all in, it it kind of like started. I don't know, the it wrote itself in a way that I could have never imagined. Yeah. Especially, I think like, you know, today I was talking to the kids at Soquel Elementary and it was third graders. And so with the elementary kids, I'll show them my boardwalk stuff. And like my boardwalk stuff is like Neptune Gardens, all that stuff. Yeah, so I did I like repainted the the front of Neptune's kingdom, and then then that led to doing the it's called the Aloha Terrace, it's like the main arcade picnic area, and then and then they had a problem in the Neptune's the mural inside on the second floor of the miniature golf. Like people were putting their golf clubs like in the wall and into the paint of the mural. And so what happened was they filled the holes, like maintenance filled the holes, but then took like a roller and primered like these big patches of paint like primer over, and it just it was just the mural at the bottom was just like blocky and crazy, and and so they they asked me, and it was a kind of a gnarly one. They were just like, Can you fix this? Yeah, and I hadn't really done any like restoration, but I think that my whole vibe is I say yes and then figure it out later. I figure it out.
SPEAKER_05:You know, there's a book, The Uncovered Soul. You remind me of him. Where it's just like if it's an opportunity, I have two seconds to figure out yes, and I go down that road. And it leads me circling back to why Felton. And then I have a question for you regarding Felton.
SPEAKER_01:Insurance coming up. Yeah, but you can't, before you go on, you can't get about the mural you did at Seagraves Insurance. Nobody's talked about it. Oh, here we go.
SPEAKER_03:Here we go.
SPEAKER_01:There's the plug.
SPEAKER_03:30 28 minutes and 57 seconds for the gratuitous plug.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I gotta have like that's in my contract.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, why are we doing this if not?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Well, so that's that's like you know I'm just joking, but it was such a rad one. You didn't know. But I'm glad you brought it up because both Jerry and Ryan have been very generous to me. And so starting with Jerry, when I was like starting out, he had me do an install around his office. And it was so cool. It was like, you know, just to get work and have a friend trust you and put it, you know, around his whole office was kind of like, you know, that you gotta have a lot of trust.
SPEAKER_01:What is it? What are we talking about? Well, it was so I wish I had photos on my phone, but we've since moved from that office. It's stored at my house, and I want to break it out again. But he did, as you come in, like it was like skyline backlit by sunset trees, kind of matching the surroundings we were in in Soquel. And then as you got to the south end of the building, it turned into like the white church over at in Soquel here where the sick. And then it had like rolling hills for Watsonville, and like it was so colorful, and it was everything I wanted. And then it came to the to the front side of the building, got it wrapped around, and it had like a moon and some ocean-like kind of artwork, stars. It was it was super sick. Everybody commented on it.
SPEAKER_03:It's like aesthetically pleasing in a love letter to the locals. Like if you don't, if you're not from here, you walk in and you dig it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and it had an autograph on it. Like I knew immediately it was Scotty's work, and you know, it wasn't like a generic piece, it was super unique, and I was so like honored to have him park my place.
SPEAKER_03:You've contracted Ryan a little bit for stuff?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah. Well, so so Ryan, so Ryan, well, when we were growing up, he was what, like a grade older? Yeah, I think one year older. And so this dude was old. Always cool to me, you know, and it was just like our vibe has always been super good, you know, and just always been great friends. And then with Kristen, she had gone into she she broke her ankle, yep. Had you know, long story short, she had her leg amputated.
SPEAKER_05:Oh, I didn't know that.
SPEAKER_00:And so we we went through a really, really gosh, it was just like the most trying time of our lives mentally.
SPEAKER_01:And Kristen's your sister. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Okay. Yeah. And so, so, you know, we we had like it was it was a really wild time, but long story short, again, because there's a lot to it, yeah. A GoFundMe popped that we didn't really do, but but it was it was up and alive. And so I was just like, I was like, well, if I don't share this, I didn't really want to, yeah. Because I think we are kind of a private family, but but I was like, well, it's here, I'm gonna share it. And Ryan sent like 500 bucks.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:You know, and so that was you know, that was really heartfelt, and I appreciate that so much. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. It's what this that gets back to what Brandy was talking about. We need to celebrate it more, we need to tell these stories. Before we were on the air, we were talking about what are we doing this for? And it's it's that's the reason we're doing it. And not necessarily what this dude did that time period. It's sharing that story that there's different ways to lift up the community. And in this podcast, if a hundred people, 200 people listen to it, maybe they hear that story, and you're like, you know what? Maybe I will kind of reach out to somebody, or maybe I will do, because clearly it meant something, and it does mean something. But it also is what makes Santa Cruz, it's not like this Santa Cruz strong kind of thing. Everybody says that, but it is a unique, it's a big, small community. It's a very large county. A lot of people live here, but it does not feel like that most of the time.
SPEAKER_05:You know, my fascination has been with the amount of technology and how fast we've gone. And then as soon as COVID hit, it went even more it's like we were unplugged from each other, but plugged into the system. Yeah, you can call it whatever you want, the matrix. And so my fascination has been like, I want to recreate even on the smallest level. Like I wasn't raised here. I came here after to go to UCSC. And so I sensed it and smelled it and sniffed it out. Then, and then obviously I'm a realtor and I'm in real estate. So now it's like, how do you describe the communities? And and there's always been this like mystery, like mysterious piece of like that second and third generation. Like, what did they see? I came from Nevada City, Grass Valley, kind of like middle school, high school, and we were no growth for sure. So you had orange groves, you had apple groves, you had cattle, you know, you had little small like gold mining towns. And so it was like people own 13 acres or more and they did not want development. So I came down here being like, this is the big city, and you're like, no, honey, this is not the big city, it's over that way. And so just recreating that those pieces where we're going so fast that that one piece, that one time you got a door open from one of these guys or a gift from one of these guys is like, I don't want us to miss that.
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_00:Totally. Yeah, I think it's you know, technology has its like, you know, pros and cons. I think it's it's great to keep everyone connected, and there's you know, yeah, there's I think there's always ways to look at things in either a positive or a negative light, and then there's everywhere in between. But you know, like I I like technology and you know, for instance, Instagram, we went on a family trip to Europe, and my son, my oldest son, when he was 13, maybe 14, he is a trampoline kid, and he had befriended some trampoline kids from Switzerland, and he at that young of an age, he coordinated a meetup. A little tramp-off, yeah, yeah.
unknown:Wow.
SPEAKER_04:In Switzerland. Wow.
SPEAKER_02:Dude, that's insane that you can do something like that. And like that's community.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that's it. Totally. Is next level. He came over to our house, and my kids are pretty much boneheads on the trampoline. They just jump up and down.
SPEAKER_05:Is this the trampoline where they jump up the wall and then they do you see? I'm sure he can do that.
SPEAKER_01:But he was like doing triple front and back flips at my house at like 14 years old. He's insane.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah. He yeah, he's super into it. And I see the you know, it's it's similar to because he's into, you know, kind of like freestyle trampoline. He's not into form, he's just into pushing it. Love it. And so, so it's kind of like skating, or just like any sort of like self-expression where you're like, I'm gonna try this like double back half twist, but I'm gonna go the hard way for me, or whatever it is, you know, because land on my face. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:One time. Gonna try it one time. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So you know, so technology, I think, is is like, you know, shoot. I think Jerry, you are those glasses? Oh, yeah. Meta glasses. Yeah, yeah. So my first introduction to those was mountain biking, and it was like Steve going, Hey Meta, record video spot. Yeah. And so we were at this punk track, and and it was like he followed me with the glasses on, and it's super cool because it's just where you're looking, yeah, films.
SPEAKER_01:How long have you had those? So I found out I had uh an eye issue, and I got prescribed glasses like four, well, more than four weeks ago. It took a while to get. And I was like, just like Scott said, I'm like, dude, I'm doing so much stuff that I could take video of, and I'm using a GoPro for already. Like, I wonder if these will be good. And they've been insane.
SPEAKER_03:Are you getting are you getting information as we're talking? Because you're much better today. Yeah, my phone. I'm like, oh yeah, that's 24 hands running. That's exactly it. Yeah. Hey, Scotty, Scotty, the other thing too, you I was doing the little homework uh when we found out is like where the box has been these murals, but that's not your only medium artistically, right?
SPEAKER_00:No. I think that like we were talking about in Santa Cruz, just I mean, just life's expensive. I think even life in Tracy is really expensive. Right, right. And so it's like yeah, I always use the term you gotta have a lot of irons in the fire. If you're self-employed, it's just like, what are you doing to make it? And I'd like to say all day long that I'm like full-time artist that only creates art for money, but it's like, no, there's all kinds of different things that I do. But as far as like creative type endeavors, yeah, woodworking, I've definitely done my share of crazy custom. I just there's so many brilliant minds around here. Like my friends at the idea fab lab on the west side, they have a CNC bed, so you can put a full sheet of plywood down with a computer image and it'll router whatever you want just perfectly. And so you can create insane.
SPEAKER_03:Are they over there by the old Wrigley building?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, they're yeah, they're in there.
SPEAKER_03:Are they in the old Wrigley? Yeah, they're in there. There's so much innovation going on in that area. That's a podcast alone. You got swell cycle over there, you got so many people doing amazing things over there.
SPEAKER_01:We should have him on. I'm super tight with the owner of that place. So we should have him on 100%.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. And then I saw something come across also like restorations and stuff. I mean, a little bit of like you're just hustling. Yeah. Right? On outside of it. Is the passion murals and then the rest is hustle, or is it just all artistic?
SPEAKER_00:It's all like, I think that what it is is you know, once if there's anyone out there that's like wanting to go all in on like a creative endeavor, if you're showing people what you do and you're not scared to show it, because I think there's there are some artists that are so good, but they don't show their work or they don't they don't share it. And so for for me, once I started sharing, people started to kind of like connect me to creative endeavors, you know, painting, woodworking stickers, right? Stickers, hats. I mean, I was doing, you know, I've tried all kinds of different things. And so I got some Scott Greyhouse. Yeah. And so, like, but that's the thing is like, I think what happens is, you know, when I say my network, it's like all our friends from school, yeah, all their friends out that way, and just the people that we know, right? And so people will come across some weird creative project that needs to be done. And even if it's something I haven't done or shown anyone, they might throw me in the pool because of the variety of things that I've shown. So they're like, he might be able to do this too, you know. And like I said, I just say yes. I just I just figure it out.
SPEAKER_05:How oh no.
SPEAKER_01:I well I just had one follow-up question to that is how important for you is a thriving Instagram page?
SPEAKER_05:I like your Instagram page, by the way.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, thanks. I think it's I've talked to a lot of different people about Instagram pages, and there are oh I think it's I think it's important so you can have somewhere that you can send people to see, you know, what you have going. A website is probably more important to me because then I can like really put down the way I want to, the imagery that I want to show. But yeah, it just it comes down to kind of more like the the prayer, like the the power of thought, you know, and just really like being all in and being like this is what I'm doing, and yeah, and this is what I want to do, send me work.
SPEAKER_05:I have something for that. So we are learning how it used to be Google, right? SEO optimization for your website. Well, now it's chat GBT or AI optimization. So if you actually go into Chat GPT and you say optimize my website for AI searches, and AI searches by lists, like thing, it's very interesting. It'll come up with that. And then if you have a website that allows you to have a blog, if you can blog as much as you can, it can be any one of your Instagram posts, you just throw it in chat GPT, say AI optimization, you'll get more searches when people are like looking for artists and you've already put in the work already for your stuff on Instagram. It's super creative and fun. I did it for my website. I immediately started getting more views on my blogs, and nobody looks at my blogs. Like I haven't been that really interesting.
SPEAKER_03:There's no doubt. We were talking about off-air, Brandy, that the trend right now is narrative.
SPEAKER_04:Right.
SPEAKER_03:It's community, it's connection. Even like with the California closets, I met with them last week. They're checking all the boxes. You have to do all these things. You have to pay into Google AdSense, you have to do your Instagram work. But really, what you have to do is work a little bit harder. And a little bit of insist from chat's not the worst thing, but people have to start kind of going that Patagonia route. You start you need to start creating narratives for your business that are real. That's kind of where it's drifting right now. It's experience-based, things like that. Nothing's gonna go away in the short term, but you do have to get on that treadmill and do work like that where you're telling the story of your business as much as just hoping a rat image is gonna transact. It doesn't work that way. It does, but not it's it's one slice of the pie.
SPEAKER_05:You can take this podcast and tell it to translate for your life.
SPEAKER_03:That's exactly it.
SPEAKER_05:We didn't finish with the why, we've got a couple more minutes.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, you're fine.
SPEAKER_05:So why Felton? Because there's so many cool areas around here. And then I wanted Jerry to comment on like insurance right now, on all insurance, but Felton is one of those, you know, tough airplane.
SPEAKER_01:That's actually why we brought you here today. We're having trying to get you signed up with Sea Grave.
SPEAKER_03:First 43 minutes was a setup.
SPEAKER_01:And if you need a refi, there's right.
SPEAKER_03:This podcast will cost you money.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. So Felton was just, you know, to break it down, it was in the price range. Right. Yeah. That's that's what it was. We bought, you know, house that was vacant for a year and a half, had a a red tag by the environmental health department.
unknown:No.
SPEAKER_00:But you know, my my I had a short stint in the um mortgage business, and you know, I learned about red tags, and you you can lift them, you know, they're not impossible, but yeah, we bought basically a condemned property.
SPEAKER_05:Oh wow.
SPEAKER_00:And but we were we were optimistic and and it was awesome location, plenty of sun. I think that was the condition that we had was like we just didn't want to be like completely in the shade. And so, like, yeah, we found this place and we had we spent eight months tearing it apart and put it back together.
SPEAKER_05:Wow.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. So um, you know, it was it was that thing is never getting sold. No, I I I still have an ulcer from you know like it was crazy.
SPEAKER_05:Well, thanks for sharing that. Jerry, what's your 10 seconds of what's going on in the insurance world?
SPEAKER_01:Oh man, we've got uh fair plan rates going up again, which is crazy.
SPEAKER_02:Is that a certain date and a certain amount?
SPEAKER_01:Or after 1115, anything that renews is gonna be th at minimum 35 percent. Wow. And at maximum 50 percent. So it's pretty crazy. I and I'm sure it's selective properties. I don't think it's a blanket uh increase, but in our county, that's what they're calling for. So it's gonna be challenging. I mean, I was just on the phone before I came in when I was outside with you, Scott, wrapping up a call with my friend. He's like, Well, what do we do? Like, my rate's already 20,000. I I can't afford to pay any more than that. And I have no answers, right? Like that's the thing. I said, well, I think really what they're looking for is like there's discounts you're missing out on, wildfire hardening discounts. I think they're gonna, you're gonna have to find a way to make that happen to save that money. And it it's the problem is in our Santa Cruz Mountains is a juxta juxtaposition. You've got guys like Scott that may have their home with State Farm still for$1,900 a year or$1,200 a year, and then his neighbor who just moved there is paying$16,000, right? And that is totally insane, and we see it all the time. And you know, if Scott ever moves, he's not gonna get that again. He's grandfathered in. But we're we're up against a wall that I think that needs the uh it needs to be on the news more. I mean, this whole thing is gonna be detrimental to our local economy when people start moving away because they can't afford the home rates. And insurance used to be a secondary thought to buying a home. Now it's the primary thought. It can make it so you can't even get a loan, which is crazy to me. And it shouldn't be like that. Oh wow.
SPEAKER_05:It it in many places, people we have some of this bubbling anger towards things that are out of our control. And when this first came up a few years ago with the insurance commissioner, it really was bad person, not elected, using their power for not good. And that you make a villain victim situation out of that narrative. Well, here we are. It's happening again. What would be your advice to like call you so you can walk through it? Do you see that?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I mean, absolutely call me. There's ways to build a policy to benefit you know your financial outcome. There's things that you need to have, there's optional things in the policy that you can remove. Uh, there's deductibles you can change, there's a lot you can do. The base cost is still gonna be expensive, right? But if you're dead set on owning that house or live living in that house, staying in that house, there's ways to make it more comfortable. You know, and I hope down the road they're gonna start introducing discounts for things like roof sprinklers. And there's all kinds of fire mitigation programs that aren't currently accepted by the Fair Plan. One of them we're looking at it right now is a sprinkler system that's on a heat sensor on the roof. And if there's a fire, it goes off. That seems to be a pretty good way of mitigating or at least helping save a property, and right now it's unrecognized by any insurance company. So, you know, I think they got to think outside the box a little bit. Currently, they're letting us take a lot of the pain and they're claiming that they're receiving a lot of the pain, but you know, the consumer always pays the price, and that's the unfortunate part. So if people out there need to bounce ideas or ask questions, they can call me always. I just did one today for one of your clients. I told her to stay with who she was with.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And for me, it's like, yeah, there's no way I want to displace that.
SPEAKER_02:You've got but you gave her information on how to save and where to go and exactly that you can.
SPEAKER_01:Took me five minutes, created a you know, client for life in the end, you know, and it's not it's not even really about that. It's just uh helping people navigate this new situation, this new this new environment.
SPEAKER_05:All right. Well, thank you, Scotty, great house for being here. And now that if you need new insurance, you know where to go.
SPEAKER_02:If you need done after you talk with him, yeah, you will need that.
SPEAKER_05:I don't have any ulster guard here, but I apologize.
SPEAKER_01:If you need to get some sick laps in at my house, the track is ready to just so you know. There we go.
SPEAKER_03:Your sister just texted, she says hi.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, right.
SPEAKER_05:Well, thank you, everyone. I'm Brandy Jones with Keller Williams Thrive. I'm at 831-588-5145.
SPEAKER_01:I'm Jerry Seagraves, Seagraves Insurance, 831-239-9425.
SPEAKER_02:Ryan Buckholt, Cross Country Mortgage, and Hide Out Vodka. Hideout vodka. 831 818 2339. And Scotty, where do they find you at? Uh Scotty Greathouse at ideasforwalls.com. Nice. Yes, sir.
SPEAKER_03:Nice job, guys.
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