Tuesday Announcements: Chad Hopkins, Lots of Events this Week, Utah Pride, and This Week's "Authentic" Guest

The sweltering heat of summer has arrived in Salt Lake City, but so have a wealth of exciting events to pull us outdoors and into community. This update brings you the perfect blend of local happenings and profound conversations that define the Small Lake City podcast experience.

We kick things off with a nod to our recent conversation with Chad Hopkins, the visionary behind Hopkins Brewing Company in Sugar House. More than just a brewery founder, Chad has become the unofficial ringleader for small businesses in the area, creating a gathering space that reflects his deep roots and passion for the neighborhood he grew up in.

The coming days are packed with opportunities to connect: Global Running Day at Sugar House Park offers the chance to find your running tribe through a creative bingo-style community mixer. Whether you're new to Utah's iconic trail running scene or a seasoned enthusiast, this Wednesday evening event promises community connections and potential prizes. For the shoppers among us, Lift Threads warehouse sale brings discounts up to 70% on athletic wear, while the Dia de los Churros celebration at Lehigh Harmons delivers free churros, prizes, and unexpected delights like an "itty bitty petting zoo." The weekend culminates with Utah Pride Festival downtown—a $20 per day celebration of authenticity and community.

But perhaps the most surprising element of this update is the preview of our conversation with Jacob Badsgaard, founder of Disruptive Advertising. What began as a marketing discussion transformed into a profound exploration of mental health, spirituality, and authentic living. Jacob's journey from the brink of divorce to self-discovery offers powerful insights about shedding the person others expect you to be in favor of your true self. His forthcoming book "Authenticity Wins" captures these hard-won lessons.

Ready for running, shopping, churros, pride celebrations, and conversations that might just change your perspective? Join us this week throughout Salt Lake City as summer's energy brings us together in celebration and growth.

Join Erik as he supports Fork Cancer, a night of food, drinks, and live music—all for a great cause. Grab your tickets at utah.acscanforkcancer.org and enter Erik Nilsson to help him hit his $12,000 fundraising goal!

Please be sure to like, review, follow, subscribe and share the podcast with your friends and family! See you next time 

Chapters

• 2:34 Welcome and Podcast Introduction
• 2:58 Recent Episode with Chad Hopkins
• 3:39 Global Running Day Celebration
• 4:52 Lift Threads Sale and Churro Festival
• 5:56 Utah Pride Festival Upcoming
• 6:30 Preview of Jacob Badsgaard Interview
• 7:50 Closing Remarks

Transcript

Speaker 0: 1:38

What is up everybody and welcome back to another Tuesday update. It is me, eric Nolson, the host of the Small Lake City podcast. A handful of announcements coming up this week that I'm actually really, really excited for. In case you didn't realize, summer's here. It's been really hot, but thankfully this weekend should be just about perfect and thankfully there's a lot going on that will take us outside and thankfully there's a lot going on that will take us outside.

Speaker 0: 2:02

Before I jump into the events coming up, I want to remind you all of the most recent episode with Chad Hopkins, founder of Hopkins Brewing Company in Sugar House. Chad is the man. He has truly built this amazing brewery, created some amazing beer and created this place, sugar House. It really has become the center of so much, not only congregating and a place to get together with people, but he is almost seen as the ringleader of so many of the small businesses around the area. He was born and raised right around the corner in Sugar House and has a huge passion for the area. Great episode with him and learning a little bit more about him and why he decided to do this.

Speaker 0: 2:43

But as far as upcoming events, one tomorrow that I will be at and I'm excited for is Global Running Day Celebration at Sugar House Park, hosted by Salt Lake Running Company. So it's going to start at 5.30 and go all the way through 7.30. And they have a pretty cool concept where you show up, you get a bingo card and you fill it out by doing different things, like talking to groups or doing a shoe demo Lots of different things to participate and really get the most out of it. But the best part is you turn that in, you get a ticket for a raffle and you can win some free stuff. There's going to be a ton of running clubs there for you to meet a lot of people, figure out what vibe is the best for you, almost like your own running sorting hat of sorts, I would say. Running, and particularly trail running, are some of the iconic Utah hobbies. So, whether you're just getting into it or an enthusiast, come check it out, come make some friends, come find some communities that have already been built and see if there's something that makes sense for you. So again, that will be tomorrow, wednesday, june 4th, Sugarhouse Park, starting at 5.30, going till about 7.30 that night. Make sure to wear some running clothes because you get to try out some shoes and some other things there as well. So be ready to move Also this Friday and Saturday.

Speaker 0: 3:56

So, past guest on the podcast, johnny Johnson, he is having a warehouse sale for his company, lift Threads, this Friday from 1 to 5 and Saturday from 9 to 1 down in Bluffdale where you can get up to 70% off all of his amazing athletic wear, athleisure wear. If you're looking for new clothes golf clothes, running clothes, gym clothes, lazy clothes for around the house, there's going to be something there. I'm really excited. I'm going to be going on Friday to help support him and I just need some new clothes in general. And the best part is, while you're down there on Friday, you can keep going a little further to go to the Lehigh Harmons where we are celebrating the Dia de los Churros with San Diablo artisan churros. So come, get a free churro, win, win some free prizes. There's going to be some surprises pinatas, photo booths, ice baths, an itty bitty petting zoo. I'm curious what that entails, so come down and join me in one of my favorite sweet treats of all time.

Speaker 0: 4:56

And then, lastly, on the event side of things, this weekend is Utah Pride. So down at the city county building, which is in between 4th and 5th South, in between State Street and 3rd East, we'll be celebrating Pride. I'm excited for it. This year I have so many friends and family that are members of the LGBTQ community. I'm excited to celebrate them and support them in all that they do and being their authentic selves. So you can go to utahpridecom for tickets. It's about $20 per day, or if you buy both days, it's 35 bucks Pretty inexpensive, so fun every year, so many people there. So make sure to come join me and come hang out.

Speaker 0: 5:34

But lastly, I want to introduce this week's guest. Now I'll be completely honest. When I set up to record with this week's guest, I kind of thought I knew what I was getting myself into. His name is Jacob Badsgaard. He founded a company called Disruptive Advertising, which is a marketing agency geared to help companies get more awareness and attraction in their brands. But when we sat down, I got so much more than I thought I was going to get.

Speaker 0: 5:59

So we talked a lot about mental health, a lot about spirituality, talk a lot about mental health, a lot about spirituality, a lot about being more present and authentic in your life and not being the person that you feel like everybody else needs you to be, but being the person that you know that you need to be.

Speaker 0: 6:15

And after going through life almost on cruise control, finding himself with his wife at the precipice of divorce, he looked himself in the mirror and said that he needed to change and be a better version of himself, moving forward. Now he's taken those principles, created online courses and is now writing his book, which is going to be coming out later this year, called Authenticity Wins. Really great conversation. We agree on so many things, read a lot of the same similar books and it's actually one of my favorite conversations I've had in recent memory, especially around some of the topics that are near and dear to my heart. So that will be releasing this Thursday wherever you prefer to listen and or watch on YouTube. But besides that, come hang out on Wednesday at Sugarhouse Park with me and I'll see you this weekend down in Bluffdale, lehigh and downtown in Salt Lake. But yeah, enjoy a great week and I will see you soon.