Podcast Episode 121: Episode 94: Special Edition with Jay Nestle

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On this special edition of Rock Cast, Jon and Nick are joined by Spark UI Designer, Jay Nestle.

Transcribed Content

This episode of Rockcast is brought to you by Rock partner Triumph Tech, a full service specialist partner. Rock partners provide crucial support for Spark Development Network and important services for the Rock community. Connect with Triumph Tech today at rockrms.com/partners. Welcome to this special edition of the Rockcast podcast. This is Jon Edmiston filling in for Emily as the host. Today, we also have Nick Airdo and Jay Nessel, who is a newer team member to the Spark team. And we want you to get to know him a little bit more just we do. So, Jay, how long have you been here at Spark? Let's see. I started at the March, actually right when all of the quarantine stuff was kinda kicking in. So it's been interesting couple of months. I guess almost five months now at this point. So Yeah. That was definitely not the best way to transition into a new organization. But, , God's timing. It just happens when it happens, and we did our best. But it was interesting that we had never met you for, , months. I know. Until we could kind of come back in the office. We're not fully in the office right now, but kind of. Yep. So what role were you hired in to do here? So originally, the thought was that I was going to be working on some UX and some UI on the core Rock platform, and a lot of my initial work was done on some of the new profile redesign work, and that was a lot of fun. And lately, it's kind of shifted now into doing some mobile app development with that new platform. So that's really exciting. And then I also do a lot of the IT work around the office to help with just kind of setting up laptops and get everybody configured and ready to go. Yeah. You you kind of pinch it in a lot of ways. At the conference coming up, if you haven't registered, be sure you do. That's not too late. But you we are gonna be showing some of those screens that we did for profile page. Awesome. Yeah. Looking forward to it. Yeah. So, yeah, you were heavily involved in that redesign with Garrett and myself. Mhmm. But you did a majority of the work there, so that's really, really cool. Where were you before Spark? So before I came to Spark, my wife and I actually lived in Maryland, just North of Baltimore. And I worked at a startup that I helped my father create called Tempest Dynamics. And I was there for, I guess, about eight years. And I was a, dot net developer there. And I helped out with not only the back end architecture, but also the front end development and design. And, we specialized in autism, research specifically with registries and research projects. And we also kind of grew into other genetic disorders. So yeah, it was a really cool opportunity and I definitely wanted to kind of continue that technical work. And so Spark seemed a great fit. And how did you end up here in Arizona? Yeah, kind of a leap. Well, I grew up visiting here. I have some extended family here, aunts and uncles and grandparents and all that. So I always loved it here as a kid. And I always had this kind of inkling in the back of my mind that I would end up here someday and just never knew if or when that would be the right timing, the Lord's timing. And after getting married and kind of thinking about it, we talked about it for years and the timing was still just never quite right. But we came out here about two years ago to visit for my wife's birthday. We went to the Grand Canyon and got to spend time with the family here. And I think we knew pretty much right away, this is where we're supposed to be. This is what we want. So yeah, it was a leap of faith, I guess, in some ways, but we packed up our entire life in a little five by eight trailer and drove out here in January. And yeah, kind of the rest is history. So Spark was just kind of the natural progression of finding a company where I could do technical work and also be involved with a great company that's doing Christian kingdom driven work. It was super exciting to have this opportunity to join you guys. Yeah, that's really something that I think sometimes we kind of forget and take it for granted almost, that the work that we do has this, , eternal impact and it's is significant significant. And it's easy to walk out the door at the end of the day and and kinda forget how many times, , the work that we're gonna do that we did that day is gonna be impacting people. Absolutely. So tell us a little bit more about your family. Sure. Yeah. So my wife and I, we're gonna be married seven years in November, which is crazy to think about. Time flies. So yeah, it's just us, and we have a little cat, a white fluffy cat named Duke. And I said, I've got extended family here. Back in Maryland, I've got my parents as well as my younger sister Danielle and her husband. And they just had a little baby girl named Lila last year, and they've got another little baby Emma on the way. So it's very exciting. Nice. And what do you to do outside of the Spark offices? I to dabble in a little bit of everything. I kinda jump around. My first thought is I I do to play and listen to music a lot. I played trumpet in all of my school years. I played trumpet in high school marching band. So I think that was kind of what sparked my interest. And my dad was a trumpet player as well, so maybe it ran in the family. But then I picked up a bass guitar around age 14 and taught myself that, and I've also dabbled on drums and piano, electric guitar, things that. And I played bass guitar in the worship band at church for many, many years. And then most recently, was in a metalcore band with my buddies back home. And our third album is actually about to drop soon, so we're very excited about that. Nice. Cool. Now I'm new to that term metalcore. What is I mean, I've heard metal, but what's metalcore? Yeah. So metalcore is a little bit newer. I think a lot of people when they hear metal, they think it kind of more Metallica or the older school stuff. So metal core is a little bit newer. It's a little harder, a little faster. There's a bunch of different subgenres of metal, so I won't even get into all of that. But, yeah, I would say we're probably best categorized as, , melodic metalcore. Melodic metalcore. Wow. Didn't think those terms would go together. Now now I'm intrigued. I'm gonna have to listen to it. Can we know the name of the band? Sure. So, yeah, we're called Brotherhood, and the new album coming out is called Thrones. Cool. Mhmm. Cool. Is that something that could be found on Spotify? Or Yep. We're on all the major streaming services. Nice. Yep. Definitely checking that out. Other than is your favorite band? , say, outside of your own, of course, your own is your favorite. But what Sure. If you someone say, hey, what's your favorite band? What would you say? Oh, that's a tough question. It's kind of changed over the years. August Burns Red was probably my favorite for a long time. They're a Christian metalcore band out of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. I saw them probably 14 or 15 times live over the years. Oh, wow. One of my favorites. So they're still cranking out music ten, twelve years later, however long they've been around. I would say most recently, I don't know, it's tough. I really a band from I think they're from Sweden called Vildjarta, and they play this weird, , Gent metal. I don't know if you've heard of that, but, yeah, they're they're a little wild. Interesting. Now will we be able to hear any of this music on, Air One or, no, K Love? Probably not. Yeah. There used to be a day and time where you could hear good music on the radio, but no more. Is Air One even around anymore? I don't know. They used to play good stuff. Yeah. I don't know. That's those aren't those are terms I haven't heard in a while. Yeah. What else? What else do what are your other hobbies? Let's see. I really getting out and just riding anything with two wheels. So I've got an e bike, so I to ride around. I did probably about 10 miles this morning, but I to just get out and ride. Okay. So tell me about the e bike because I'm I'm kind of intrigued on that whole thing. I've looked at some of them. , what is all that about? So it's basic well, mean, there's a ton of different variations, but the one I have, it's a foldable fat tire e bike. So I can just throw it in the back of my car. And, , you got some off road capabilities with the fat tires, but it's just got a big hub motor on the back. So you can kind of choose how much pedal assist you're getting from that motor. And you can ride it as aggressively or as throttle heavy as you want. The battery's real big. It can go up to 50 miles if you're babying it. It's a lot of fun. My wife is in the mail, hopefully coming soon. So we plan to be riding around and kind of explore different areas once that arrives. Yeah. Did you see in the news where Simon Cowell broke his back on an e bike? I did. That's kinda wondering almost a motorcycle. Oh, is it? Yeah. I was kinda wondering what he did. Yeah. He had a very high end e bike. It kinda gives it a bad rap. But, yeah, I I don't know the whole story, but I heard it was, , not a a typical e bike. Yeah. I'm sure he's got the money. So, yeah, I doing the e bike. I love going out in the desert, riding dirt bikes with my uncle and cousins. They go out all the time, and we've ridden up to the top of mountains and done all kinds of crazy stuff. And we're all looking to kinda get some bigger bikes so we can do some long term, adventure touring and moto camping and stuff that. So we love that. And then I love motorcycling. I haven't ridden for a few years, but I used to ride a little Ninja two fifty back in the day. So looking for a bike right now and itching to get back on the road. So if I'm on two wheels, I'm happy. I have a neighbor, actually. He's in his mid-80s, and he rides dirt bikes, and he's doing wheelies up and down the street. Oh my goodness. And he's such a great guy, but he's so adventurous, and he doesn't let his age at all stop him. , he's always going out. That's awesome. Almost once a week, I'm leaving to come to work at, seven, and he's loading up his truck with his dirt bike or his sandrail. He's got lots of toys. But Very cool. It's it's pretty neat when you see a 80 year old guy doing Yeah. I know a fountain that day. Down the eighty years drive. Yeah. Yep. So well, we're so happy that you found us. We're so happy that you're here. You're adding so much in lots of different ways. I mean, even projects that you've been working on that we didn't talk about today that are going to see the light of day soon. So at Spark, we're always trying to grow and bring talent and then talent who can kind of lead through some of these projects. And already you've had such a huge impact with Spark, the community's going to start to see that first with mobile and then with some of the designs you've done on the internal side and then some other projects that are coming up. Yeah, no, I'm super happy to be a part of it, and it's been an absolute blast. I feel even though it's only been a couple months, I've learned so much and I still have so much to learn. So loving it and looking forward to definitely interacting more with the community. I'm bummed that we had to go virtual this year with the conference, but looking forward to next year when I get to meet some of you guys and see what this community is all about. Yeah, I'm so bummed that I wish you could just see that conference. It's amazing, and the passion and the relationships. It's , I was gonna say it's a high school reunion, but it's way better than that, because most of those are kinda lame. Unlike anything you've ever seen. Right. And I think once you see that, , it's pee peeking behind the curtain and seeing what's really going on. It's next year for sure. Awesome. I'm looking forward to it. Alright. Well, thanks again for joining us. Thanks, John. And we'll see you guys next time. Sounds great. Do a church that loves the idea of using Rock but hasn't taken that leap yet? With managed hosting, churches of any size can get access to Rock's amazing technology, hassle free. With just one click, Rock's managed hosting removes the roadblocks that might stop a church from switching to Rock by making the process simple. Churches get the ease of a SaaS church management system without losing any of Rock's powerful features. 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