8 Second Strong

After leaving the comfort of a corporate job and venturing into the entrepreneurial world of rodeo apparel, Nicholas Reynolds has a story that promises to inspire. Our guest, Nicholas, alongside his partner Josh Gershom, has built 8 Seconds Strong—a brand that’s more than just clothing; it's a mission grounded in faith, family, and community.

The narrative deepens as we explore tales of personal transformation and redemption. Hear the impactful story of a young rodeo enthusiast who transcended rebellious phases and substance struggles through spirituality and faith. With raw honesty, Nicholas talks about his path toward sobriety and the continuous effort to overcome challenges. This heartfelt segment invites listeners to reflect on the profound bonds of faith and family, and how they forge resilience and hope in life's tumultuous rodeo.

Rodeo isn't just a sport—it's a vibrant community full of camaraderie and shared experiences. We bring you highlights from women breaking barriers in ranch bronc and bull riding, along with exciting tales from the Northwest rodeo scene. From mentoring the next generation to expanding into new markets, the future of 8 Seconds Strong is bright, brimming with potential to impact and minister to the rodeo world, one unique product and inspiring story at a time.

Nicholas Reynolds 

Instagram: @8secondstrong

@https://www.instagram.com/8secondstrong?igsh=MXMxZWtmenZrMDZiNg==

Website:

www.8secondstrong.com

Shoutout to :

Nicholas Reynolds 

Josh Gershom 

The Reynolds Family 
The Gershom Family 

8 Seconds Strong 

Wild Kiger Designs

Elaine Kimball

Emma Folz 

8 Second Strong team 

Be on the lookout for The Hold Fast Podcast

Alter Ego Ambassador: https://alteregorunning.com/

Miles & Mountains Promo Code: Milesmountainsyr3

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:27):
Nicholas Reynolds, how are you?

Speaker 2 (00:30):
I am well, how are you?

Speaker 1 (00:33):
I'm doing all right, man.
It's been raining all day,something that you're probably
used to.
Not us, not us in easternWashington.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
Yeah, okay, so you're in eastern Washington, I'm in.
Yeah, I'm in.
Yeah, I'm in eugene so yeah,you guys are used to the time
from washington but not easternyeah, well you got, you were in
yakima just recently yeah, no, Imean, I actually lived in
washington for a while.
So oh yeah, what park I livedin everett snohohomish

(01:04):
Marysville area.

Speaker 1 (01:06):
Oh, up there, up there.
Okay, all right, yeah, up there.

Speaker 2 (01:13):
What can I say?

Speaker 1 (01:15):
Yeah, up there.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
You know if I had a place, oh yeah, yeah, If I had.

Speaker 1 (01:20):
if I had to live anywhere on I-5 corridor, it'd
be South of Olympia man.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
Sure It'd be south of Olympia.

Speaker 1 (01:27):
I like that area just because it's not too crowded.
I mean, when I was therestationed in the Army, it was
crowded.
It was getting there.
I'm pretty sure it's even morecrowded.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
But I would live around that area just because
don't know the traffic south ofolympia or north of portland and
then south of portland, northof sacramento, on iphone, yeah
yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm tellingyou I wouldn't, well, I won't

(01:59):
want to live there.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
I lived in 97 a few times, but, um, yeah, that's as
far as I would go.
So when I asked you earlier ifit's still on, if this episode
is still on, you said yes, wecan call it the the two nicks
episode.
Yeah, I think I'll do it.

(02:20):
Aka you knowka you know, but inactuality, it's going to be
eight seconds strong.
It sounded witty at the time.

Speaker 2 (02:30):
It doesn't sound as good now that you say it out
loud.

Speaker 1 (02:32):
Yeah, yeah, want me to say it again I'm good, I'm
good.
To Nick's episode yes, it's notthat bad, yeah, yeah.
So you're the mastermind behind8 Seconds Strong.

Speaker 2 (02:48):
Sort of I wouldn't call myself the mastermind, I
guess I'm the face of and dailyoperations guy.
So I have a partner, my partnerJosh Gershom.
He has been doing, you know,rodeos and horsing events with
his company Wild Kiger Designsand they do more of like a ranch
horse person type clothingstuff and he he had, he had some

(03:15):
stuff mixed in there that wasrodeo specific and it was eight
seconds strong shirts and hatsand things like that.
And I've been doing events forcorporate entities for for
decades now and so he came to me.
I met Josh at it was the NPRAfinals rodeo, one of those

(03:39):
finals in Salem, and I had abooth next to him when I was
working as the uh events managerfor the state of oregon.
For leaf filter they sell agutter protection device.
It's corporate, you know, superboring, but I had a booth right
next to him and we got totalking and became friends and

(04:00):
stayed in touch and didsubsequent events where he was
there and my wife did someevents that he was at.
She, my wife, surreal Design,she burns custom cowgirl hats
and so we just kind of stayed intouch and he reached out to me
at one point and said, look, I,I've got this brand Eight
Seconds Strong and I really wantto branch it off as a separate

(04:21):
thing because it's very rodeospecific and it's not exactly
completely on brand with what Ido and I can't think of anybody
better to head that up than you.
So would you like to buy in 50%of the company and take it over
and run with it?
And it was at a kind of a pointin life where you know, the
corporate thing had just drug onlong enough and then it was

(04:45):
growing in my faith and had somethings just internally and
emotionally telling me you knowthat money isn't everything,
that you know, my faith, myfamily and my, my mission in
life is bigger than a paycheck.
And this fell in my lap and I Iran with it.
I said yes, I, you know,stopped working, doing what I
was doing and kind of gatheredup all the resources that I

(05:09):
could and I bought half thecompany and dumped in a bunch
more money.
Grandmother had just passedaway and, unfortunately, but on
the fortunate side, thank you.
But it turned out to be ablessing in that she had left a
small nest egg, not a ton ofmoney, but a little bit, just
enough to get this thing started.
And so in December I believe ornot, we just started in December

(05:33):
we branched 8 Seconds Strongoff into its own thing and
started the social medias andthe websites and the design
process, went and bought a toyhauler and started booking
events, and so it's.
It's been incredibly wellreceived.
You know, we like to say thatwe're not owners of the company,

(05:56):
we're just stewards of God'scompany, basically, and so and
that's kind of been our whole MOand it's snowballed into this
huge thing.
We've got 1,200 followers inthe last 30 days.
We've got you know we'll getdeeper into that, but yeah.
So that's where we are now andwe're excited, yeah.

Speaker 1 (06:17):
Yeah, because I've been in this game for a bit, you
know, since 2021, august andeverything else and of a sudden,
you know, just doing theresearch, you hit me up.
I was doing research and howlong have you been doing this?
And then, yeah, you guys haveuh following quite big one, but
then you also have a few uh, uhsponsors, uh, you, you sponsor

(06:39):
athletes.
Man, how many athletes do yousponsor at this moment since
starting?

Speaker 2 (06:44):
so I think we're at 43 athletes, which is an insane
amount.
Um, we're, we're a family-ownedcompany.
We don't have any money.
Um, we're totally, you knowwe're not totally broke, but
we're we're pretty close until,uh, summer rodeo season hits and
so we're not doing cashsponsorships this year.
I would love to, but really whatthe relationship looks like is

(07:07):
athletes who um kind of have thesame value system as us and see
the, the mission and um kind ofsee what what our goals are and
align with those goals.
Um, they've, they've jumped onboard with merchandise
sponsorships, and so I thinkwe've got it's between eight and
10, um riders and rodeo Queensthat are um merch sponsored, and

(07:33):
so we hook them up with thehats, the hoodies, the shirts.
Um, we help out where we canmonetarily, just as far as you
know, buying tickets to aQueen's coronation or throwing
some hoodies at theirfundraising auction or whatever
we can.
It's going to be a lot moreonce we get this thing rolling,

(07:54):
and so that's kind of a top tiersponsorship right now, and then
below that we have what we callthe reserve team, and these are
riders who again align with ourcore values and see the mission
and kind of just want us, wanttheir name on the list, you know
for for when we do get biggerand can offer sponsorships with

(08:14):
cash and things, and so thatlower tier I don't want to call
it a lower tier.
They're just as important to us.
But we can't offer everybodyhoodies or we'd go broke like
day one yeah, hoodies areexpensive, man they are
expensive, but like the reserveteam riders, they get stickers,
they get hat stickers, they getpatches for their vests so that,

(08:35):
um, I don't want to say provethemselves, but they can kind of
show us that they they're readyto ride for the brand.
Um, you know they're, they'rethey want to ready to ride for
the brand?
Um, you know they're, they wantto wear the colors and the
patch and just represent what westand for.
And then that kind of you knowputs them more in our purview
for next season or the seasonafter, when we do have, you know

(08:57):
, more to offer.
And so, yeah, we support themhowever we can on social media.
You know, we we did a couplecontracts with some of our
bigger writers, but other thanthat, it's just kind of a
handshake.
And I said some stuff and wehelp each other on social media
and yeah, yeah, that's, that'swhere we're at.

Speaker 1 (09:13):
But we, we do want to do, like you know, full, you
know writer sponsorships as soonas possible yeah, you guys are
getting big, it's trying manyou're like two and a half
months in man, yeah yeah, it'sbeen a, it's been a whirlwind,
for sure that's, that's what Isay.
You know, balls of the wall,man.
Go big or go home, man.
You guys are doing it, man.

(09:34):
I see that you guys have uhdylan riggins right yep, dylan's
on dylan's awesome.
Yeah, dude, he's an athlete manyeah, killer, I love that guy
and then you got peyton peers,who junior uh nfr yep yeah,
peyton, uh has got baby coming.

Speaker 2 (09:51):
We're gonna do something special for the baby.
Actually, I don't know if it'sa spoiler or not, if I'm
supposed to leak this, but I'msure this won't come out before
next monday, I don't know.
Anyway, he finds out the uh,the gender next monday, and so,
nice, I won't spill the beanscompletely, but we're gonna do a
little something special forjunior and nice, get him rocking

(10:11):
the brand day one tried to hithim up when he was still living
at home.

Speaker 1 (10:16):
You know, get him on the podcast and he's like
parents aren't gonna let me, allright.
So went to the nfr this lastyear he was, you know, uh,
competing and everything else,and he saw that I met up with
del brisby and he was like dude,what was this?
I was like his booth man, he'salways at his booth, he's all
right.
Well, I was like, hey, man,meet me here and we can meet up

(10:39):
and everything else.
And, uh, he didn't get the memo, I guess, or the message, and
so we, we didn't cross paths,but one day, peyton, pearson
trying to teach him to be alittle more on top of his
instagram messages.

Speaker 2 (10:53):
So he's young, he's young, yeah, he's young well,
you think that would make him alittle more apt to be on there.
But yeah, not the, not theyoung dudes we ride around with.

Speaker 1 (11:04):
I guess Right, exactly.

Speaker 2 (11:05):
Got other stuff going on.

Speaker 1 (11:07):
Those rodeo athletes, man.

Speaker 2 (11:08):
Yeah, they're all getting dirty, not on their
phones.

Speaker 1 (11:11):
Exactly, Exactly.
And if you're going to NFR, ifyou're competing at NFR, I mean,
dude, go ahead by all means youcan.
You can ignore me, I'm just ascrub.

Speaker 2 (11:25):
We love that kid and and he and the way that that
relationship came about.
He actually met Josh, mybusiness partner, at a rodeo
somewhere and came up and boughtone of our Get Tougher, die
shirts.
Okay, and so after NFR, he hadposted with his girlfriend I
think it was her, I'm prettysure it was her birthday, and
they had taken some picturestogether and put them on
Instagram.

(11:45):
He was wearing that shirt andso I hit him up like dude,
that's our shirt.
He's like this is my favoriteshirt, man.
So we just you know thisconversation snowballed and I
said man, I don't have any moneyfor you, but I'd love for you
to rock the brand.
He's like a thousand percent, Iam totally in.
So he's our team captain now.

Speaker 1 (12:04):
So oh nice, yeah Young for captain man.
All right, all right.
Has faith always been in yourlife, man?

Speaker 2 (12:14):
It has.
Yeah, so I grew up in thechurch.
My mom she had a couple ofChristian albums out.
She's a singer.
My dad, when he was around dad,was a guitar player, player in
the in the band at churchworship team um.
He then went on, you know,after they got divorced, went on
to play um a tour, played bassfor the beach boys for a tour

(12:35):
which is pretty cool themaster's at the art institute,
seattle for music and mediatechnology.
So big, big music family Mom.
Still today she's actually inthe back room there she lives
with me.
Now those roles have reversed.
But yeah, woman of faith throughand instilled that in me.
I didn't stick to it.

(12:57):
You know I I grew up in thecountry and you know horses,
cattle, the whole nine.
But I was the kid who couldn'twait to get to the city.
You know I couldn't get out ofthe country and do something
quote unquote cooler, you knowand be one of the city kids and
get get to get a taste of thatlife and I did that and faith
kind of went out the window withit.

(13:17):
But uh, it's back stronger thanever now.

Speaker 1 (13:20):
So what makes a man good?
Get back into it, man know.

Speaker 2 (13:29):
So what makes a man good?
Get back into it, man, you know, I think, just maturing, just,
uh, growing up, I've got twokids, they're grown now they're
moved out and you know, seeingpeople pass on, um, just getting
older, really, I guess,realizing what's really
important in life, you, I guessthat comes later for some of us,
and so you know that.
And then, just you know, I wasdrinking a lot and, and in a bad

(13:51):
way, you know, went through thewhole bout with drugs and drug
abuse and alcohol abuse and itreally caused a lot of you know,
horrible things to happen in mylife.
And you know, I guess at somepoint you just go, this is
enough, and it was God thatpulled me out of that and it's
God that keeps us out of that.
Now, my wife and I and you knowI can tell you that in the past

(14:15):
five years, as you know, we'vebeen serving in the church- and
you know, studying the Bible andpraying together and all these
things life has never been asgood as it is now.
You know, and I will never goback and we found just a whole
different level of joy andhappiness and peace in life.
That, you know, I, I I'm bummedthat I missed out on for so

(14:38):
many years, but I'm just sothankful that we have it now.

Speaker 1 (14:41):
So yeah, yeah, gotcha , I gotcha thankful that we have
it now.

Speaker 2 (14:49):
So yeah, yeah, gotcha , I gotcha sober now.
Oh yeah, I actually haven't hada cigarette or weed or a drink
of alcohol and going on fouryears in july.

Speaker 1 (14:53):
So congrats, man that's tough, that's tough yeah,
it's easier than I thought I've.

Speaker 2 (14:59):
Still, I gotta kick the vape pen, though that's what
I used to get off of thecigarettes I smoked for 27 years
, and so, uh, I started vapingand I was able to quit smoking,
and now that's my last advice Igotta gotta get rid of that
stupid thing.

Speaker 1 (15:13):
So everybody's doing zens these days, man is that the
thing now?
Straight up nick man, nickdoing nick.
I don't do Nick.
I've thought about it becauseyou know you hear all things
about why you're taking nicotineaway from cigarettes because
you know to keep the man down.

(15:33):
You know, you know I'm a rebelman.
I got you but yeah, I'm notreally anymore.
And then you know they got youknow, zenz.
They're mild but they're soldin the States.
And then Germany they gotnicotine for like rated 49 or
something, 50, dude, can youimagine that in your bloodstream

(15:56):
?

Speaker 2 (15:56):
Yeah, it's crazy.
What are these Zenz?
Are they like the littlepouches for your lips, like a
chew?
Okay, yeah, okay.

Speaker 1 (16:04):
Yeah, they even do it for mushrooms.
Now it's a thing.
Now, dude, it's like thepatches are no longer, it's just
the pouch.
You get that kick.
You do the mushrooms, you cando the caffeine, you can do
coffee grounds.
I did coffee grounds before.
It was even cool, you know.

Speaker 2 (16:21):
I saw a buddy of mine I I was, I grew cannabis for
years and I was semi-famous onthe cannabis scene on the west
coast.
I had a brand called west cushand yeah, we did some pretty big
things.
I mean, a lot of people, if youasked them in that world would
know exactly who.
I am not in that scene anymore,obviously, but uh, and we had

(16:42):
these, uh, cbd zins I guesswould call them, but they're
little flavored pouches.
You get the strawberry or thepeach or whatever and drop the
CBD in your lip.
You know.

Speaker 1 (16:52):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (16:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (16:53):
Yeah, I don't mind the CBD.
I think there's some things.
No, I don't either, especiallyfor the dogs.
Yes, the dogs need it.

Speaker 2 (17:01):
We got mastiffs, and so they got joints that need
taking care of, and I think thatstuff helps them.

Speaker 1 (17:07):
Oh yeah, oh yeah, but now mushrooms are the thing.
Now, man.

Speaker 2 (17:12):
I tried it.
I mean I tried the funny story.
I tried micro.
I mean I've done mushroom as adrug to get to get, you know,
buzz off of several, well, abunch of time yeah.
But we get to get, you know, uh,buzz off of several, well a
bunch of times, yeah, but uh, wetried it as an antidepressant,
microdosing, okay.
Or you get the capsules andit's just the tiniest little
amount.
You really don't even feel it.

(17:33):
You take it a couple times aweek and I don't know if it
worked or not, but yeah,microdosing is different.

Speaker 1 (17:40):
What I'm talking about is, you know, the lion's
mane, the turkey tail.

Speaker 2 (17:43):
You know yeah, just gotcha, okay, yeah, they do?

Speaker 1 (17:49):
they do the the little zen thing there too,
without they got the coffee nowyeah, that's what I'm saying,
man, it's a mushroom coffee.

Speaker 2 (17:56):
It's actually pretty good.

Speaker 1 (17:58):
We I had does it clear out your system, just like
regular coffee I don't know, Idrink decaf, man I can't, I
don't.

Speaker 2 (18:04):
I don't really do stimulants atf, man I can't, I
don't, I don't really dostimulants at all anymore.
I just can't handle it.
I guess I'm just being old, Idon't know you're not that old.

Speaker 1 (18:11):
How old are you?

Speaker 2 (18:13):
I don't know.
My wife gets home in like anhour.

Speaker 1 (18:15):
I'll ask her shout out to the wife mid 40s
somewhere I think I'm 43.
So we're the same age man, Okay1981.
Yep 81.

Speaker 2 (18:27):
Okay, july of 81.
So I'm 43.

Speaker 1 (18:29):
Thanks for reminding me.
No problem, man.
I'm not calling you old Nahit's all good, I got you, man, I
got you.
So you're saying no matter whatchallenges trying to buck you
off in life, hold fast for justeight more seconds yeah, that's
kind of our slogan.

Speaker 2 (18:48):
So we've got, you know, obviously, eight seconds.
You've got bronc riders, yougot bull riders and see, these
are some of the toughest dudesout there.
I mean, and for that eightseconds, I mean you've got to
just be on your game, you've gotto be, you know, as strong as
you possibly can be for thateight seconds.
And so we want to take thateight seconds of strength and

(19:08):
kind of project that ontoeveryday life.
You know, I mean you get thosemoments in life where you're
just down and you feel beaten,or you feel like you know you
don't know what to do next, andor you're angry or whatever.
And if you can just stop andhang on, you know, clear your
mind and just pray or whateverit is, for eight more seconds,

(19:32):
just eight seconds at a time.
One step at a time.
You know, bible says he's alamp unto your feet and a light
unto your path.
It doesn't say he's a lightfive miles down the road.
It says he's a light under yourfeet, right here.
One step at a time.
And so eight seconds at a time.
If you can just hang in there,usually it turns out all right.

Speaker 1 (19:51):
What can you say about the steer wrestlers then?

Speaker 2 (19:54):
You know I might get a lot of flack.
So it's funny because we rollup to one of my sayings to Josh.
It's kind of an inside jokebetween him and I and I'm
probably going to make a shirtat some point that says I'm here
for bulls and barrels, likethat's my bulls and barrels,
that's that's why I'm at therodeo to watch bulls and barrels
.
And so I get a lot of flackfrom the tight end guys and I

(20:17):
love breakaway too, don't get mewrong.

Speaker 1 (20:19):
I was going to say breakaway breakaway.

Speaker 2 (20:26):
You blink, it's over, dude.
You know, yeah, I lovebreakaway, yeah, um, and then we
have several, uh, women andyoung, young women riders who
are riding ranch bronc and redbulls on.
I saw that, which is so epic tome.
I love that.
I want to see a ton more of thethe ladies get into that.
But yeah, I mean, I love allrodeo.
You know I I don't want todiscredit any of the sports, but
uh, you know I can't, I can'tcome up with a slogan that

(20:47):
encompasses them all.
Man, that's that cool, you knowthey get it.
I think they're all right.

Speaker 1 (20:52):
Yeah, I know, I know, I just I was just throwing a,
you know a curve ball manbecause dude, I'm a huge star
wrestler fan and uh yeah.
So I was just like team ropingguys too.

Speaker 2 (21:01):
You know I, I was just like team roping guys too.
You know I got a lot of buddiesthat do team roping.

Speaker 1 (21:07):
Those guys make sometimes they make more than
bull riders man.
Yeah, oh, yeah, yeah, hedder orHaley or man, you know we love
them all, man yeah.
All right.
Hebrews 10 23.

Speaker 2 (21:22):
Yes, sir, that's the one you'll see.
Hold fast on the sleeves ofjust about all of our shirts.
Hold fast is kind of like oursecond motto, I guess, or it is
our model.
Hold fast and again like holdfast for another eight seconds.
But uh, hebrews 10, 23 is letus hold fast to the confession
of our faith.
And uh, it goes on to saywithout wavering, for he who has

(21:44):
promised is faithful.
But that first line, let ushold fast to the confession of
our faith, is another core valueof the company.
So, basically, being open aboutyour faith, being outwardly
Christian and you know you'llsee it on our shirts, you'll see
it on our website, you'll, youknow you'll hear me talk about
it in the booth if you come by.

(22:04):
But that's, that's the maingoal, that's the whole reason
we're doing this is to spreadthe gospel and that's what we're
all about.
And so, again, you know we'rejust stewards of this thing and
I'm hoping someday it turns intoa bigger platform that we can
use to do that.

Speaker 1 (22:21):
So you and the co-owner came up with that.

Speaker 2 (22:26):
Yeah, yeah, I hold fast, josh.
Josh came up with hold fastbefore I came along or right
when I came along, but we wewent back and forth.
It was going to either be holdfast or what was the other one.
It was another one, hold, holdfirm.
And we went back and forthbetween the two different

(22:49):
scriptures and we we looked updifferent um translations of the
scriptures and, like you know,we dug into it a little bit and
made a call on hold fast andsome people still come up and
ask us hold fast, what's thatmean?
I love that.
You know.
Now I've got a big bannerbehind.
You know where I sit in thebooth that has that scripture on
it, like this kind of pointbehind me.
And uh but yeah he and I kind ofwent back and forth and

(23:12):
narrowed it down to that one andwe both kind of felt like in
our spirits that that was theone that we should go with.
So hold fast, it is man.

Speaker 1 (23:29):
And it means what?

Speaker 2 (23:30):
to you.
To me, it means don't be scaredto be outwardly a man of faith,
you know.
Don't ever be ashamed to be achristian.
And um, yeah, because it's it's.
Hold fast to the confession ofour faith, you know.
And so if anyone ever asked me,they're always going to get the
same answer yes, I believe inGod, yes, I'm a Christian, you
know.
So, yep, and it's just kind ofuh, it'll be a little more in

(23:54):
your face here pretty soon.
We've got some ideas coming forsome shirts that are, uh, you
know, you can't mistake whatwe're about.
I don't think you can now, butit's going to be painfully
obvious very soon.

Speaker 1 (24:06):
So Well, rodeo is pretty much high in faith and I
mean he picked a good slogan andyou know a great slogan, you
know scripture and everythingelse, and so my question is when
?
When are you going to get Biblestudies?

Speaker 2 (24:25):
That's a that's a great question.
I didn't even think of that,but I would love to do.
I mean, we do Bible studies,josh and I, you know, in our own
lives and our personal lives,and, yeah, I wonder what that
would look like, how we couldmake that happen.

Speaker 1 (24:40):
Yeah, I mean they're there, they're.
Yeah, I mean I hear these kids,you know they meet up with
other kids bible study, you know, on a saturday or sunday, and I
mean I can see it working,especially if you're going to
these, uh, these events, youknow pretty much weekend, on
every weekend.

Speaker 2 (24:59):
I can see it working, I can see something working out
yeah, if we do like an athletebible study, we we advertise it,
you know, on our page and justsay, hey, we're going to be at
such and such rodeo.
Um, we'll be there earlysaturday morning.
If you guys all want to meet upfor prayer and bible, say
that'd be a.
That's a, that's an awesomeidea.
You're killing me with it, noworries.

(25:20):
Okay, I've got to make somenotes here.

Speaker 1 (25:22):
Hold on, I got my pen , I'm writing it right now yeah,
no yeah, you're good so myquestion is how much does the
wife have to say in thisbusiness, man?
She?

Speaker 2 (25:38):
you know she she's's the first person I consult
second person next to God.
But and she, you know I willmake this.
We'll make the short answerlong if you don't mind.
So, because there's a wholestory behind it.
I, working in the eventsindustry, you know I worked for

(26:00):
it's tough.
Yeah, yeah, on a corporatelevel.
It know I worked for.
Um, yeah, yeah, on a corporatelevel it's, it's a little crazy.
So I worked for Arcimoto, whichis, uh, an electric vehicle
manufacturer out of EugeneOregon.
They make a really cool product.
It's a trike, it's freewaylegal, it's, it's open air
electric trike that goes 80miles an hour it's awesome.
Electric trike that goes 80miles an hour, it's awesome.

(26:25):
Um, but I was, uh, I was there,um, can't remember my title
lead senior events producer, Iguess it was.
But uh, before that for them, Iheaded up their rental
department and so I traveled allover the country, you know,
scoping out different locationsand literally setting up an
entire rental program for thesevehicles in Florida and in

(26:45):
Hawaii and all over the place,so that people could rent them
out, kind of like you'd rentlike a go-car or like a scooter
or whatever, just to ride aroundthe city.
I got into the event side.
I had been doing events inhip-hop for years before that
and started running up theirentire national program, me and

(27:06):
a good friend of mine, miles.
I had hired him as a consultantin san diego for the company
and they brought him on andactually put him right above me
and so he and I were just, youknow, coast to coast, constantly
doing the corporate thing.
You know know, jet setting andand, um, it was fun for a while.
Um, it was a publicly tradedcompany.

(27:27):
So you know, there's a lot of alot of rules and a lot of
things you can and can't say.
You know, and it was.
It wasn't as cumbersome, Iguess, as it could have been.
But you know, unfortunately thecompany sort of crashed and, uh
, stock tanked, and so I movedon from that to Leaf Filter
around the whole state of Oregon.
For Leaf Filter we had, I think,30 employees underneath me,

(27:51):
different teams in differentcities, running to events every
weekend and doing everythingfrom the home shows to the
farmer's market, whatever wecould be at setting up that deal
.
And then that turned into mehooking up with a company out of
Bend, oregon, that had theirown bath planet dealership.

(28:11):
You know they bathroom remodelsand so I went and set up their
their events department for themand kind of got them started
and did that for a while and Ijust was super unhappy with it.
There was no fulfillment in itat all for me.
You know, and at the end of theday, you know when you're I
guess you could say when you'repeddling these things to.

(28:33):
You know, primarily elderlypeople that probably don't need
them and you kind of feel likeyou're hustling old people out
of their money and it's like youknow it's just kind of a bummer
at the end of the day.
And so my wife knew that Iwasn't happy in this.
She knew I wasn't beingfulfilled in my spirit with this
thing.
You know she saw in me that,you know, I really wanted to

(28:55):
disciple, I wanted to ministerto people and you know I've got
this background of marketing fordecades and events.
And you know I've got thisbackground of marketing for
decades and events and you knowit all just kind of was this
perfect storm of things thefinancing coming in when it did,
josh approaching me with whathe approached me with and him
being a really strong, devoutChristian too, and the way that
we vibe and the way that ourwives get along, and it just was

(29:23):
kind of this perfect thing.
And so you know, when westepped into it at first, first
I had kind of poured the moneythat I had gathered up into the
thing and you know we got kindof our ducks in a row and got
the designs nailed down and gotour first batch of um clothing
and you know had to purchase allthe stuff for the booth and
still had to have money.
You know some of these biggerrodeos are 1500 bucks to set up,
and so you got to have money todo 20 or 30 of those a year,

(29:46):
you know.
So it started looking like youknow, is this thing going to
work out?
You know, we were a littlestressed out and I got a call
from Jacuzzi Everybody'sfamiliar with Jacuzzi, I'm
pretty sure they called me.
They wanted me to be thedirector of events on a national

(30:06):
level for them and it was likepushing a quarter million dollar
salary.
I took a lot of praying man,because we were at the point in
eight seconds strong, where itwas like you could cut your
losses and walk and take thisthing and still be okay.
Cut your losses and walk andand take this thing and still be

(30:27):
okay.
Or you could pare down eightseconds strong, way, way down,
take this job and use that moneyto kind of fund it and grow it
slowly.
Yeah, but I had had thisconversation with josh several
times, like are we just going tokind of trickle this thing
together?
Are we just going to go, youknow, all out, a hundred percent
in, and do it right the firsttime, and just go, you know,
full speed ahead?
And both of us really wanted tojust go all out with it.

(30:51):
And so, after a lot of prayer,you know, I, we had a
conversation, my wife and I hadthis conversation and I had to
ask myself what would be thereasons that I say yes to this
corporate gig.
And the only answer at the endof the day was the money.
And I just I couldn't live withthat man.
I couldn't live with that.
Is that who I am?

(31:12):
Am I going to just puteverything that I believe in on
hold for money, like that's notme anymore?
Five years ago I would havebeen like hey man, sorry man,
sorry, but we're gonna have toput this on pause.
Go get this money, but now I'mat this point in my life where
money's not.
You know, money's not asimportant you want to have fun?

Speaker 1 (31:33):
do you think I want the freedom?
Yeah, I want.

Speaker 2 (31:36):
I want to do my own thing, I want to work for myself
too.
I feel like god has given methese jobs and these roles
throughout my life that are kindof glamorous and kind of cool
and and you know, at the sametime, it just been preparing me
for this thing my whole life,and so I'm here for it, man.
I'm here for it, man, a hundredpercent.
So if it doesn't work, itdoesn't work, but it's not going

(31:57):
to be because I didn't go allout.

Speaker 1 (32:00):
Yeah Well, man, for the two and a half months you've
been at it and you've beendealing with jacuzzi and that it
goes fast, man, oh, dude, morepower to you, man, it feels like
we've been doing this a coupleof years, honestly, at this
point, I tell you what during,you know cowboy Christmas and

(32:20):
you, during, you know cowboyChristmas and you know, when
it's cowboy time, it's, it'sgoing to go fast and you're
going to be like, wow, I've beendoing it for a year.
Wow, I've been doing it for twoyears, wow, three.
You know, I mean, that's how Ifeel when I get some of these
athletes on.
Some of these boys were 14, 15.
Now they're seniors.
You know what I mean?
It's crazy.
Crazy.
And it goes.
It goes quick, man.

(32:41):
You're going to have the timeof your life and I'm glad you
got that lady next to you thatis, you know, wanting to have
fun with you.
So keep it going, Keep it going.
Yakima, how was that?
Was that your first event ofthe year?

Speaker 2 (32:56):
No, so we've done some O-Set events.
You guys have I guess it'sWOSET up there or WSET, where
it's like the uh high schoolequestrian teams, and so so we
do those meets, we I tell thisstory all the time but, uh, I I
book a lot of fairs in my days.

(33:16):
We have set up our booth at alot of different fairs and we
support FFA and 4-H and teens inOregon, mustangs and things
like that, things like Oset andWaset, because when I'm at the
fair and I'm in my booth I see,you know, there's the 12 year
old girls walking around wearingthings that, as a father, I

(33:37):
would absolutely not approve of,and using language and things
that would not fly at my house.
But then you walk back to thebarns and you see these kids in
a hundred degree heat wearingtheir corduroy, ffa or four.
And they're shaking your handand looking you in the eye,
saying yes sir, yes, ma'am, andit's like a different breed of

(34:00):
people and we want to promotethat as much as we can.
So we do the O sets, we do teensin Oregon Mustangs, which is an
amazing program where they takewild Mustangs.
I don't know if you know, butlike the wild Mustang population
in pins, in a lot of thesestates they're just there's
thousands of these horses pinnedup with nobody to adopt them,

(34:23):
nothing.
You know, they're wild horsesand they have to be taken off
the land because they're justwrecking the grazing lands and
like we get it.
But there's a program whereteenagers can adopt a wild
mustang and I think they havesix months to train this horse
to get into a trailer, to berideable to, you know, go

(34:44):
through the arena, through someobstacles, things like that, and
at the end of that six monthsthey get to come show off how
well the horse has been trainedand then auction the horse off
to someone that'll give her aforever home and a lot of times
these kids make really goodmoney off this.
A lot of times you knowcompanies like Les Schwab or you
know different companies meetcompanies that are local or

(35:08):
whatever, will buy the horse andlet the kid keep it, and this
is a really cool program for thekids and for the horses, and so
we do those too.
But a short answer is no.
Yakima was our first rodeo, uh,but not our first event, not
our first event.
And yakima was good, man, itwas fun, you know.
We yeah, it was good to youguys.
Yeah, we did pretty good.
We uh, we almost died a fewtimes on the way there.

(35:30):
I don't know if you heard i-84in oregon had a hundred car
pilot.
One of them was on fire.
They just caught him and wedrove right past that at.
You know it took us I thinkit's a four and a half hour
drive.
It took me eight on solidsheets of ice 30 foot trailer
with my 1500 denali, you know,on mud tires not not safe sketch

(35:53):
.
But uh, by the grace of god wemade it.
And uh, it was just raining onthe way home, so but it was fun.
You know, we got to meet up.
Obviously, emma falls was thefirst time we got to meet her in
person.
Amazing human being.

Speaker 1 (36:07):
Uh, emma's awesome uh , 21 years old man yeah, and
she's uh, she is killing it.

Speaker 2 (36:13):
She's gonna be, she's gonna be up there in the
photography world for rodeos.
I know elaine's kind of takenher under her wing, and Elaine
is just another epic human being.
Both of those ladies are areare awesome.

Speaker 1 (36:27):
She's good people.
You gave her a shout out, toldher, I'm done giving her shout
outs, but you gave her a shoutout.

Speaker 2 (36:34):
Okay, well, yeah, it wasn't you this time.
But yeah, elaine, she's one ofthe coolest human beings.
I, she's one of the coolesthuman beings I know.
Man, this is genuine wonderful,both of them, just wonderful
people, and I know that I listento actually listen to both of
their interviews on the way homefrom yakima okay yeah lane
always gets shots out.

Speaker 1 (36:54):
Man, she, she's, she's a good lady and she has me
on speed dial and lady istearing life up.
I know it hits some speed bumps, but she is tearing it up and
I'm so proud of her.

Speaker 2 (37:08):
So she said the same for you, man, you had some speed
bumps too, and you're tearingit up.
So she had nothing.

Speaker 1 (37:16):
She was at Yakima, though.

Speaker 2 (37:19):
Elaine, no, as much as I bugged her and bugged her
and tried to get her there, no,she, I think she was at
something else, wasn't she?
Or no, yeah, she was somewhereelse.
She had a NPRA gig to go to orsomething, I don't know.
She didn't make it, but I'm notsure.

Speaker 1 (37:38):
She doesn't come On the east side that much
Goldendale maybe, but I've tried.

Speaker 2 (37:43):
I've got dogs, man.

Speaker 1 (37:45):
She's got the pups at home.

Speaker 2 (37:48):
She's a dog mom.
I'm a dog dad, but I got mywife at home.
She gets to deal with themastiffs.
One of them's just a baby toosix months.

Speaker 1 (38:01):
Okay, that's why she's a little terrible.
Yak six months.
Okay, that's why.
Okay, all right.

Speaker 2 (38:04):
She's a little terrified.

Speaker 1 (38:04):
Yakima was good, then huh.

Speaker 2 (38:07):
Yeah we had a great time and it was cool just to see
the actual rodeo crowd insteadof the kind of ranching horse
crowd, to see the booth and getto talk to those folks.
And some of our riders were out.
You know we had Dylan Rigginswas out there, so yeah, uh, and
then we did um, what was theother?

(38:30):
we did one in california, oh,the red bluff.
Uh, bull and gelding sale,which is a big, big deal.
Uh, not a rodeo again, but um,another one of our riders was
out there, got to hang out withhim, yeah.

Speaker 1 (38:44):
Good times.

Speaker 2 (38:48):
Mike Reed, did you run into him?
No, I don't think so.
Okay, should I have, I wouldhave liked to yes.

Speaker 1 (38:54):
Yes, you need to run into those kids, man, those
college kids, dude, they'rehungry, man, they're hungry.

Speaker 2 (39:01):
He was there.
I'm pretty sure he's over atTCC yeah.

Speaker 1 (39:06):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (39:07):
I saw him walk by with his girl.
I don't know what I was doing,but yeah, I'm sure I saw him
Pretty sure.

Speaker 1 (39:15):
You can't miss him, man.
He looks scrawny in thepictures, but when you see him,
dude, he's massive.
Was he there?
Yeah, he was he.
Was he there?
Yeah, yeah he was.
Yeah, he was riding I shouldhave.

Speaker 2 (39:28):
I should have grabbed him.

Speaker 1 (39:29):
Yeah, I'm pretty sure I saw him yeah, okay, how many
events do you have lined up thisyear?

Speaker 2 (39:35):
oh man so far so that's been another huge
blessing and we'll I'll dig inwith you real quick, if you want
.

Speaker 1 (39:42):
But uh, go for it.

Speaker 2 (39:44):
A lot of these bigger event and this is true with
most events to home shows orwhatever.
You know what have you forvendors?
You get first right of refusal,and so if you can get into one
of these big events, you'repretty much good to go for the
next year and the next yearbecause you're the first one to
get the application right.
You want your spot back, youknow, and so.
But to get in the first time isthe hard part, and we have been

(40:09):
crazy blessed to get into thevast majority of these major
shows on the you know over herein the pacific northwest that we
want to get into.
So, uh, and for the people outthere that are listening, if
they want to know where we'regoing to be at, let me rattle
off some of these names, becauseI'm super proud of this list of
of events we're going to be at.

(40:29):
I'm stoked man, I can't wait.
So we're going to be at sprayum okay, josh's favorite spray,
super cool um, snake river andcrooked river.
So we're going to get out toidaho.
Uh, this year, saint paul,which, is a big one.
We're stoked to get out to Idahothis year St Paul, which is a
big one.
We're stoked to be at that one.
We'll be at Philomath, we'll beat Saniam, we'll be at
Jefferson County Fair, we'regoing to do the Benton and

(40:52):
Umatilla and Canby, all three ofthose fairs, and then we're
coming out your way a little bitNorth washington fair.
That'll be fun.
I think that's uh pretty surethat's a prca, might be mpra.
Uh, we're gonna do ellensburg.
I hope so.
Fingers crossed for ellensburg.
Haven't heard back but itsounds good.
Uh, we're gonna go out tolewiston for the roundup in

(41:15):
idaho.
We'll be at pendleton, which ismajor for us, uh, main street
cowboys yeah, first year, andhere you come, man yeah, man, uh
.
And then we got invited out touh some friends of ours they own
a pretty popular horse trailercompany that's out here close to
us in harrisburg um, they'regonna have us out at the elite

(41:37):
breakaway finals, so that'sgonna be okay, uh.
And then we'll be at, uh, thenational finals for um team
roping in reno, which is uh,what is it?
Actra finals, yeah, and sothat's a.

Speaker 1 (41:54):
That's a pretty big, big man geez well next year.

Speaker 2 (41:58):
I hope you see us at um.
I hope you see us in Houston.
I hope you see us in Arizona.
Josh is headed out Friday withhis kit and his company to do
Art of the Cowgirl, so that'smajor.
You might see us at the RenoRodeo next year.
I mean, who knows?

Speaker 1 (42:15):
Yeah, wow man, a lot of stuff coming on at the NFR
too, so that's kind of the dreamthere.
Yeah, you go to NFR too.
So that'd be that's kind of thedream there.
Yeah, you go to NFR.
Let me know I'll definitelycome visit man you can ride with
us, man that'll be fun.
That'll be fun, yeah.
I've never been to Vegas, so no, you're not missing much, but
hey, during NFR it is the Reno.

Speaker 2 (42:38):
I guess that's like little Vegas right it's
different man Is it Reno's alittle more country, yeah.

Speaker 1 (42:45):
It's a lot different.
But you know Vegas is coolbecause you know you get all the
like-minded people in onebuilding.
You know Cowboy Christmas andthen pretty much all the hotels
are loaded with people wearing,you know, cowboy hats and boots
and you know they wear their,their uh, red carpet wardrobe
and everything else.

(43:06):
So you're like nfr.
But you know I go to nfr justfor cowboy christmas in the
environment, right, I watch thestuff at the bar or in at, you
know, restaurants, because, dude, that's a lot of money to just
sit there and watch for likemaybe an hour or two.

Speaker 2 (43:21):
You know it is yeah should see the vendor fees, man
yeah, I could only imagine it'sa few grand to set up down there
.

Speaker 1 (43:29):
So but uh, cowboy, christmas is man.
It's crazy.
I took my wife this last uhyear for the first time and
she's like this is how it is.
I'm like yeah.

Speaker 2 (43:41):
Yeah, my wife's not allowed to go.
Bring a lot of money, that'sall I have to say you got
another mortgage or something,yeah.

Speaker 1 (43:49):
Bring a lot of money, yeah, or don't go at all, just
okay, sightsee, sightsee.
You spent more in Pendleton,though, than the NFR, for sure.

Speaker 2 (43:59):
Yeah, yeah, for sure, yeah, yeah, I've been out there
, and then the last time I wasout there was for my birthday.
Last year we went out for themusic festival.
That was fun okay, all right.

Speaker 1 (44:12):
The rodeo though the rodeo.

Speaker 2 (44:13):
I haven't been to the rodeo, no, I mean, I've been in
benton a bunch of times, I'vebeen in the music festival, but
not the rodeo yeah, I'll nevergo the last saturday, man, I'll
never go to the saturday yeah,it just seems like a kind of a
mess to me, like it's just toomuch, man, unless I'm down there
vending, then yeah, I'll watchit on the cowboy channel soon

(44:37):
yeah yeah, yeah that, that's.

Speaker 1 (44:38):
That's it.
I'll go watch, you know, theslacks and everything else
during the week, but, man, Iwon't go saturday ever again.
If I do, I'm gonna go, you know, out in the street because you
see all and every uh tv for free.

Speaker 2 (44:53):
So well, maybe we'll set up a tv at our booth there
you go come hang out with us.
Man there you go, we'll be downmain street cowboys so okay,
all right.

Speaker 1 (45:02):
My question, man, which blew my mind.
You said earlier, this is theother way around.
You're used to interviewingpeople.
You interviewed hip-hop artists.
Yeah, man.
Okay, how does one go fromhip-hop to country man?

Speaker 2 (45:20):
uh well, I mean, I grew up country.
I grew up in a little town,keno, oregon, middle of nowhere,
yep Out of Klamath Falls.

Speaker 1 (45:27):
Yep, klamath Falls.
I graduated college there.

Speaker 2 (45:29):
Did you really go to OIT?

Speaker 1 (45:31):
Yeah, oit Yep.

Speaker 2 (45:33):
All right.
So, you know, a couple of daysin the summers up there with him

(45:55):
and you know I just kind offell in love with that city vibe
and so, long story short, Istarted going to college in Coos
Bay, oregon, on the coast there, and I was going for a degree
in journalism.
And so I think I was in like awriting, like a low writing
class, one of my first writingclasses, and we had to write
some essays and short stories.
And my writing teacher came tome one day and she's like this

(46:17):
is amazing, like you're reallygood at writing, have you ever
thought about writing for theschool paper?
Like you're really good atwriting, uh, have you ever
thought about writing for theschool paper?
And I hadn't.
But she said we'll give you afull year scholarship and books.
Uh, if you write for the schoolpaper, I'm like, well, sign me
up.
So I came up with this idea todo a food critic column and so

(46:40):
basically the school would payfor my meals and I'd just pay
for me and my gas to go out andeat at restaurants, take my mom
to restaurants, you know and and, uh, write a review on food.
And that was my gig.
That paid for school for thatyear and it was awesome.
Um, but then you know, I I had,you know, previous to college,
I I kind of ran away from home,I'd gotten into some trouble and

(47:02):
ran up to live with my dadoutside of Seattle and ended up
in Everett and, you know, kindof ended up getting in with an
old, longtime friend of mine now, sammy P, who was a rapper.
I had a record label and I hadtraveled all over with those
guys, you know, doing tourmanagement and A&R stuff and

(47:25):
just tons of record label stuffwith those guys, and so I had
already kind of been immersed inthat world before college.
Yeah, and so I think one ofthese artists Tech N9ne or the
Game or somebody was coming tomy town.
And so I went to the schoolpaper, the editor, and I said,
hey, what do you think about meinterviewing this rapper?

(47:46):
If I can figure out how to getbackstage, will you guys pay for
my tickets?
They said, yeah, if you can getan exclusive with him for the
school paper, then yeah, we'llpay for the tickets.
And so, long story short, Iwent on this year's long journey
of just learning how to getahold of a tour manager short.
I went on this years-longjourney of just learning how to
get a hold of a tour manager,learning how to get a hold of
the, you know, the, the mediarep or whoever I had to find, to

(48:07):
get in front of these rappers.
And I ended up spending years,um, you know, I had gotten
offers from the source magazineand double xl.
I saw my stuff somehow hey,such and such is going to be in
your town.
We saw your stuff in the schoolpaper.
Uh, on MySpace Cause I, youknow, I made a fair amount of

(48:28):
money back in the day runningMySpace pages for rappers too.
And so, yeah, I just I keptgetting approached by websites
and magazines like, hey, willyou interview such and such for
us?
And I'm like, yeah, so I endedup, you know, interviewing 40
and too short and tons of hipartists.
And, um, yeah, man, I've beenpublished I think 200 something

(48:49):
times in a past life as ahip-hop writer.
So random, random knowledge,yeah, random facts about keno,
kooz bay and hip-hop rap man.
That's crazy right yeah, I'vedone it all, man, it's uh gosh,

(49:13):
all right.

Speaker 1 (49:13):
Well, who was your favorite artist?
Uh, that you interviewed technine tech nine.

Speaker 2 (49:17):
Why is?
That just because he tech ninewas like the most down-to-earth
intelligent I heard guy that Iand I got to tour with him for a
while.
You know he has this persona,you know, of course, as a rapper
, but as a as a human being inreal life, he's.
He's really nothing like that.
The guy is just super smart, uh, business savvy, you know down

(49:41):
to earth doesn't drink, doesn'tdo drugs.
You know you'd think he doesfrom his music, but yeah, yeah,
tech night was the guy okay,gravitated to the most.
My least favorite interview, Ithink, was the game the game I
could only imagine.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, guys say nofurther man, so jerk shout out

(50:04):
game.
Yeah, man too short and e40were both fun ones too, but I
could only imagine man, mancrazy life, man.
It was a crazy life.
A lot of flights, a lot of youknow popping dom p in hotels and
a lot of debauchery.
And I mean mean you know youget your travel paid for and

(50:24):
you're backstage at these hugeshows with famous people all the
time.
It sounds very glamorous andfun, but at the end of the day,
a lot of hangovers and a lot ofregretful actions and at the end
of the day you're getting 50bucks a page for what you write
and you know.

Speaker 1 (50:42):
So it's like yeah, like yeah, bad kids, you have to
stop doing it.
You know and thank god for thatkeno to the bigs man, keno
kuzbay to the bigs dude yes, sir, been around a little bit, yeah
, crazy you know, kiddo is sosmall man yeah, yeah I went from

(51:06):
you know playing with uhplaying with milking cows and
and calves across the street toflying around the country
interviewing rappers.
And now, uh, now I'm now in arodeo clothing company, so yeah
life's crazy man life's crazyyeah, I used to deliver pepsi
product at that gas station orthat that mart in keno yeah,

(51:30):
keno store.

Speaker 2 (51:31):
I got a keno store hat, right where.
You'll see me wearing it oncein a while nice nice that's cool
.
My travels, I was through thereand they used to have.
They used to have jars, likelining the counter in a Kino
store and some were nickel andmost were a penny and they had a
little candies in them.
You know you get like candycorn, gummy bears.

(51:54):
Yeah, man, you go in there andget a little sack for you know,
15 cents worth pennies.
So I thought to myself, drivingby, what if they still have
those penny candy jars in there?
And I'm sure the fda shut thatdown at some point, you know
yeah, oh yeah but so I went inand I saw that they had a couple
hats up on the shelf.
I thought, man I gotta get me akeno store hat.

(52:16):
So now I've got.

Speaker 1 (52:17):
I've got a keno store hat you ride one of the
cheapest hats and gas stationads.
Man, oh, they did.
Uh, they did have the bestjojos and uh burritos oh yeah,
so yeah, yeah, good ranch too,oh yeah it was the same lady, by
the way.

Speaker 2 (52:35):
When I went out there and I'm like, hey, you still
have the, she said how do youknow about that?

Speaker 1 (52:41):
like I grew up out here, yeah, that's crazy, man
small recognize me, but yeah,same lady okay, sponsorships,
man was who's behind the talent?
Who's behind the talentwatching?
I'm curious about that, man.
Uh, as far as what we mean isthe lady behind that of who gets

(53:07):
what with you, I mean, like,how do you pick?
How do you pick?

Speaker 2 (53:13):
um, you know, to be honest, it was the first people
who came on board got the merchsponsorship.
And once I got to a point whereI started seeing, uh, what it
was going to cost to, you know,fund the clothing, and actually
I just shipped it all outyesterday, day before yesterday,
yeah, day before yesterday.
Um, once we got to like 10, youknow, because hoodie retail is

(53:37):
at 55 bucks, 10 people withhoodies, you know, you're 550
bucks and like yep, and so we,we kind of stuck at 10, and so
basically the 10 first 10 peoplethat came on board got the
merch sponsorship.
Now, it's not going to be likethat forever, you know, and I
don't want to sound shallow, no,I got you in any sponsorship,
there's's an ROI aspect to it,you know.

(54:00):
And if I, if I see a kid who isjust naturally talented on fire
for God, you know, aligns withthe values you know and things
like that, or if we just, youknow, pray about it or we feel
in our spirits that this kid,you know, is some special, then
that's's different.
But at the end of the day, ifyou've got 14 followers and two

(54:23):
crummy pictures on yourinstagram page and you want 1500
, for, you know, to wear mypatch, it's like yeah, oh man,
this is a business at the sametime.
So I got you.
But I'm totally down to like,help these kids build their
online presence and give thempointers and shout them out and
stuff like that.
So, you know, at the end of theday, it's not all that, but I
do want these kids and theseathletes thinking in those terms

(54:45):
because, you know, I want, Iwant to see them, you know, get
to their full potential.
And if you approach Wrangler orAriat or one of these companies
for, you know, a majorsponsorship, that's what they're
going to be looking for.
They're going to be looking forstage presence, you know, per
se, and they're going to belooking for how you handle

(55:07):
yourself, how you you know yourinterview skills.
There's a ton of things that gointo branding yourself.
You know I learned that fromfrom.
You know, back in the day itwas all about how many cds could
you sell, and then cds turnedinto mp3s.
Mp3s got pirated and so thenthat turned into.

(55:27):
You know, in the hip-hopindustry our main source of
income for several years wasringtones.
I don't know if you rememberthat craze, but ringtone money,
dude Right.
And so it became.
It came to a point where nobodywas selling music anymore.
You had to brand yourself, youhad to create a brand around you
and your persona and so andthat's kind of how it is still

(55:50):
today.
And so I want to see these kidsdevelop.
But you know, long story short.
So I want to see these kidsdevelop, but you know, long
story short.
This first round is kind of whocame first.
This second round is going tobe much more about who spent
this season liking, sharing,repping the brand you know,
conducting themselves in publicand at rodeos in a way that you

(56:13):
know aligns with our values,things like that.
Are you posting?
You know reels of you?
You know smoking herb with yourbuddies and cussing and doing
stuff like that.
You know, then it might not bea good fit for us next season.
So yeah, there's a lot thatgoes into it.
We didn't put a ton of thoughtinto it this time, you know.

(56:34):
I just if you kind of have thesame values as us and you want
to roll and rep the brand thisyear, then then let's go for it.
But, um, we are going to haveto put some, you know, guard
guard rails in place for nextseason and and really put some
more thought into it.
So, but everybody we have rightnow is just they're awesome,
awesome people, great group ofriders.

Speaker 1 (56:54):
I'm sure you saw most of them, yeah yeah, well, I
asked if the lady is behindbecause, man, you got a lot of
lady athletes do a lot ofcanadians, ladies, and a lot of
canadians.

Speaker 2 (57:04):
Yeah right, they are ba dude they are ba they yeah
yeah rodeo's big in canada.
Man, it's crazy nuts, uh.
But yeah, a lot of ladies, alot, of, a lot of canadians.
You're right, you're not.
Somebody asked me the other dayis what is this?
Nix angels?
And I'm like what?
I guess I didn't really noticehow many ladies there were, but

(57:30):
maybe they're the ones.
They're more vocal, they reachout more, I guess.
Yeah, the guys are just like alittle.
They're not as quick to reachout about, I guess I don't know.

Speaker 1 (57:42):
No, but man, those day, the canadians man, I tell
you what when I had live peterson I did, the number skyrocketed
.
I was like, what is this?

Speaker 2 (57:51):
that's right.
Live was on there too, Itotally forgot about that.

Speaker 1 (57:55):
They roll deep, man, and it is crazy.

Speaker 2 (57:58):
Yeah, liv's on the team too.
It was awesome actually.

Speaker 1 (58:00):
Yeah, yeah, she yeah, she's, she's BA, she has a.
She has a couple peopleunderneath her wing that's
younger than her and they're upand coming.
I told them I was like, hey,I'll keep an eye on yeah, and
you know they were asking forpointers.
They're like what should I puton?

Speaker 2 (58:22):
there.
I was like more rides, pleaseput.
I want to see more rides.
Once I see more rides, I'llhave you on, man, even if you're
hitting the ground in 0.5seconds.

Speaker 1 (58:27):
Post it right.

Speaker 2 (58:27):
You know all of them especially the ones where you,
you eat it hard.
You know, yeah, oh yeah.
We don't want to see eightseconds every time.
It's not the real world, butactually live is one of the ones
that pushes it.
You know, kind of the most.
She likes everything, she, youknow she's like she's super
active and and we you know, wehave tons of conversations she's
, she's awesome.

Speaker 1 (58:47):
Yeah, she's in it to win it, man.
She gets them walled up too, sothat's a good, good pick.
I love to hear that.
I love to hear that.

Speaker 2 (58:57):
I didn't even know that you interviewed her.
How many?
How many people are?

Speaker 1 (59:00):
on the podcast team, I guess.

Speaker 2 (59:03):
So I got to go through that list, cause when I
asked you which one Elaine wason, you're like 150, number one
57.
I'm like dude, how many, howmany episodes are?

Speaker 1 (59:13):
there on here.

Speaker 2 (59:24):
Yes, you got to be at like 250 or something, man,
this will be.

Speaker 1 (59:26):
I'm sitting on one.
I'll be sitting on this one.
Sunday will be 50 250.
That's awesome.
Congratulations, I love.
Thanks, I love it.
Thanks, man.
Um, speaking of entourage, youneed to get the boys from
Colville, you need to get theboys from Northeastern
Washington.

Speaker 2 (59:40):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (59:41):
And look in and I tell you I've had a few of these
kids on, boys.
That is from Southeast Georgia,bama, florida.

Speaker 2 (59:53):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (59:54):
Hey, those boys ran deep, and if you get one, you're
going to get many men.

Speaker 2 (01:00:00):
So shoot me some, shoot me some names or just you
know one message back and forth,but yeah, no.

Speaker 1 (01:00:05):
I'm into it.
Yeah, I got you.
I got you, man, I love it.
All right, so in goal, end goal, man, what's your end goal?

Speaker 2 (01:00:16):
uh, end goal is to.
Well, I want to be the uh, wantto be the senior event producer
for the nfr.
That'd be cool, you know.
Wow, a little high stress, alittle high stress, lofty goal
there, um, but no, with with thecompany, I think, end goal.
So there's two passes thiscould take, take right, and one

(01:00:40):
is, I guess, the standardAmerican dream path, which would
be to grow this thing bigenough to where we're approached
by an area or a wrangler orsomebody who wants to purchase
it and back it, and leave us inplace to do what we do and still
spread the message that wespread.
And leave us in place to dowhat we do and still spread the
message that we spread.
Probably unlikely, just becauseyou know that heavy faith stuff

(01:01:00):
doesn't work in every marketand a lot of these really big
brands are too scared to, youknow, really go that heavy on
the faith side Again, hold fast.
So the other direction that thatwould take is to independently
become as big.
As you know, we watched justthe other day we saw the

(01:01:21):
interview with the Kimes familyright and saw him and his wife
talk about how they weretraveling with their young kids
in a trailer rodeo to rodeo andwere just super stoked.
Every single pair of pants thatthey sold and it was just this
small club of people like they'dwalk by and I go oh, they have

(01:01:41):
a pair of our jeans or oh, youknow, and it was just a few
people.
That was five years ago, dude.
Yeah, that was five years ago.
Look at kimes right now.
And they did it on their own,independently, and so that would
be the.
The big goal is to, you know,grow to a kime size company,
stay independent, keep at leastcontrolling interest of the

(01:02:02):
company so that we have enough.
Say that we can turn this intoa platform to minister, to the
world man, I mean at least tothe Western people out there,
and that's really the main goal.
I don't care as much about themoney, obviously, anymore I
would have taken that corporatejob.
But money is good in a waybecause it enables us to have

(01:02:26):
that platform.
And so if we're, going to reachall the people we gotta.
We gotta pay for it somehow, soyeah, Okay, besides hoodies,
what, what's?

Speaker 1 (01:02:37):
what are you aiming for, man?
Are you going to be gettinginto jeans?
Are you going to be gettinginto boots?

Speaker 2 (01:02:43):
Yeah, Interesting that you asked.
So I've got a little petproject right now that Peyton
and I are working on, Got acouple of the other bull guys
that are going to be doing sometesting for me on and we'll
debut this to the public withyou here.
Uh, it's called eight secondsticky and it's going to be a
bull rope rosin uh my ownformula here, kind of a backyard

(01:03:07):
formula that, uh, we'll be ableto replicate.
I can't tell you what's in it,it might smell might smell good
you know it might might smellgood, you know it might might
have its own vibe, um, but yeah,so we're.
We're working on our own bullrope, rosin.
It's things like that that areindustry specific and sports
specific that we don't see awhole lot of people doing.

(01:03:27):
I mean, we'd love to do our ownvests at some point, our own
protective gear, our own glovesand just rodeo specific gear,
like you know, solid, but jeanswould be, you know, could be
part of that too.
I want to do it all.
You know, um, too many peopledoing hats.

(01:03:47):
There are a lot of people doingjeans, but I think, like the
protective gear, maybe boots, umstuff like that.
You know just kind of theselittle untapped markets where we
can kind of get our foot in thedoor and play with that stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:04:02):
What's your biggest seller?

Speaker 2 (01:04:04):
right now.
Uh, it is the hold fast hoodiewith the cross on it.
Yep, Okay, yeah, People lovethat that.
And we've got stainless steel.
They look like solo cups but,they're stainless steel and
they're Sarah, coated in red,just like a solo cup, okay.
And then they're laser etchedwith uh.
Probably our second bestselleris one of those cups that says

(01:04:28):
try that in a small town, likethey had them.
Uh and then these hats that saytry that.
In a small town People lovethose hats, man Okay.

Speaker 1 (01:04:35):
Yeah, it's all the denim with the leather work.
Who does the leather work, manyou?

Speaker 2 (01:04:39):
Yeah, that's Josh's company.
So Wild Kiger, that's ourbrother company.
He's really trying to move tocater more toward the Queens,
like the Rodeo Queens andranching families, and so that's
just another underserved partof rodeo.
I feel like that is kind ofuntapped.

(01:05:01):
And so you know the Queens,they love their flashy jackets
and you know the fancy boots andthe cool hat lots of turquoise.
Uh, if you ever meet me at ashow, you'll see all eight of my
main fingers have got rings onthem.
I'm a big ring guy.

Speaker 1 (01:05:16):
Really I wouldn't okay.

Speaker 2 (01:05:16):
Yeah, I wouldn't have thought I wouldn't have ringed
out man totally ringed out yeah,um, and so, yeah, he's doing
those jackets.
They're, they're a hot ticket.
When we were down at the redbluff bowl and gelding sale he
had two prototypes hanging inhis booth.
And the second night I thinkthat we were down there someone
snuck in in the middle of thenight and just robbed his booth

(01:05:37):
blind man.
They took his two prototypejackets before he could show
them off and get good picturesof them.
They took a ton of his productout of there and just robbed him
, man, like full NorCal stylerobbery.
It was a tough gig.
The night after that we had ahuge windstorm that just
decimated his whole tent, brokeall of his displays, shattered,

(01:06:00):
everything.
I mean like it was a rough showfor Josh.
But he's back now.
He's got a few of those jacketsmade up that we were able to
take to Yakima as Josh came andset his booth up the Yakima too
and, um, he's got some reallycool shirt designs.
He flasks and then anotherthing that he's doing is the
wild rags that he customdesigned, real silk wild rags,

(01:06:22):
and they're a hot seller.
They're super nice.
So, but yeah, you can get a.
You can get a custom denimjacket or you can get, like he
does, the office style blazersfor the queens too.
Okay, the lapel has leatherthat's etched with whatever you
want on it and stuff.
So we're getting pretty gooduse out of the the laser he's
got at home.

Speaker 1 (01:06:41):
So yeah, that comes in handy, man I've been thinking
about getting that, gettingsomething like that, that's fun.

Speaker 2 (01:06:48):
It's stinky, though, so make sure it's a well
ventilated area yeah, yeah,probably the garage or something
.

Speaker 1 (01:06:56):
Yeah, okay.
Is there anything you wouldlike to add?
Did I miss?

Speaker 2 (01:07:04):
anything?
I don't think so.
I mean I got some notes here.
I think we pretty much wentover everything else.
I mean we do have just one moreiron in the fire, which is well
lots of irons in the fire, itseems like it's just going, man,
it's like the wheel is spinningas we're talking.
I'm sorry if I'm just going off, but no, it's great man, it's
great a billion things in myhead every day at any given

(01:07:27):
moment.
So I mean just keeping up withthe instagram alone throughout
the day.
It's like a full-time job, man,it's.
That is true.
It's crazy, um, it's true, butwe are, uh, we got with, uh, one
of our writers you guys willfind out which one here pretty
soon um, but we are going tostart a new campaign for a

(01:07:47):
design on some shirts andhoodies.
Uh, that is called a o, onewhich stands for audience of one
.
I'll have a cool scripturebehind it, but basically, you
know, the premise of that is doit like God is watching.
You know, instead of doing itfor your friends, your family or
mankind at all, you know, do it, do it like you're doing it for

(01:08:09):
him.
And that's how we'reapproaching this company.
Not only we feel like we'rejust stewards of his company,
but everything that we're doingwe're trying to do to impress
and to please him and not people.
So, ao1, watch for thatAudience of one.
I think it's going to be huge.
I think it's going to take off.
People are going to love that,other than that, no, I mean just

(01:08:31):
grinding man, the daily grind.
Yeah, you are grinding man, thedaily grind.
Yeah, you are gosh, I figureout how to pay for all this and
keep it all rolling and keep upwith the website and the
instagram and the applying forshows.

Speaker 1 (01:08:45):
Yeah, yeah with with the time that you've uh, you
know, been in business andeverything else till now, man,
it's all been positive.
I know, you probably know, haveups and downs, just like every
other place, you know, andperson that's trying to, you
know, start something, but itseems like it's working out, man
, to your advantage.
I mean just starting and youhave 43, maybe 45 after this

(01:09:11):
conversation.

Speaker 2 (01:09:13):
Yeah, probably keep going, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:09:16):
I got a few patches left.

Speaker 2 (01:09:18):
So you know, whoever wants to rock one, I've got to
get one.
Oh, I think I got one sent outto elaine.
Elaine wants a patch too, soelaine wants one?
Okay, lane's officially on theteam.
Man.
We've got two officialphotographers riding with us too
, now so, and that just happenedon your show yeah, and then uh,
you know like bella bella wason your show um oh yeah, dig

(01:09:40):
through.

Speaker 1 (01:09:40):
I want to see how many people we have if, if, a,
if you need any scouts, I'm I'mhere for you.
I a I work for free.
It's, it's cool I, I, I'm gonnatell you a couple names that
will, I believe will um lead byexample.

Speaker 2 (01:09:57):
So yeah, that's later .
Yeah, that's a big thing.

Speaker 1 (01:10:00):
Well, I mean, if you want to become the official
eight second strong talent scoutman, let's, uh, let's circle
back on that after this, heythat I dropped my wife nuts,
because every time I went to abaseball game, every time I go
to a football game, every time Igo to a sporting event or
concert, I don't leave, I don'tleave my seat, I stand, you know

(01:10:20):
, I that's as much as moving.
I will do and I drive her.
Nuts man, I can sit through awhole rodeo and not use the
bathroom that's dedication, myfriend.
I love that and then she's likewhat are you doing?
Oh, I know this person, I knowthis person, I'm here to see
them, you know.
So, if you need that, I got youfor free, man.

Speaker 2 (01:10:40):
No, no I've heard you talk about that.
I've heard you talk abouttaking more time to, like you
know, actually follow specificpeople and watch the scores and
watch oh, yeah, like I followthe people on my team, but
that's about it.
So I don't start doing thatanymore.
But I never.
Certain rodeos we get to set upto where I get to watch the
whole rodeo from my booth, uh,you know previously, so that was

(01:11:03):
another thing.
In the corporate world.
Um, I got to pick all of theshows that we set up our booth
at and so like, say, thecolumbia river circuit finals.
They don't really do likecorporate booths, they've done
two ever, both years they weremine.
So because I begged and pleadedto get into that road, you know,

(01:11:24):
and the higher-ups are likewhat are we doing at a rodeo
again?
Nick like no, you know, rodeopeople got money.
Man like I'm picking up excusesto be at the rodeo.
So I know it's like to be setup at the rodeos.
Uh, because I inserted myselfin whatever way I could.
Yeah, I love the rodeo man, butwe usually don't get to watch

(01:11:44):
like yakima.
I was way behind the bleachers,I didn't get to see anything,
dude.

Speaker 1 (01:11:47):
So I think I don't get to follow these guys check
out, uh, john day man, check outjohn day's npr or ica they
that's a joint ICA and NPRA oh,that's cool yeah, it's pretty
cool, man, the John Day.
It's small town but man it is,it is good, it is fun and I
think you can.
You will be able to watch itfrom the side.

Speaker 2 (01:12:08):
Yeah, that's why I like Redmond.
I love that fairgrounds firstof all, one of my favorite
fairgrounds but yeah, to set upall the vendors along the top
edge there in Redmond.
I'm sure you've been to Redmondthe fairgrounds.
But yeah, to set up all thevendors along the top edge there
in redmond.
I'm sure you've been to redmondthe fairgrounds oh yeah,
awesome oh yeah, that's a funone for us well, we can talk all
night.

Speaker 1 (01:12:25):
I would love to talk all night, you know, and I know
you would.
You would too.

Speaker 2 (01:12:29):
You probably have dinner, you probably don't know
so okay, getting the stink guyyet, but I better go say hi,
yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:12:36):
So but no, let's uh carry this conversation.
You know, later on instagramand whatnot.
I got a couple names for youand uh, yeah, man, anything you
need from me, dude, I'd do itfree of charge.
I, I have fun doing this.
My wife knows my kids know my,yeah, so yeah, yeah and dude,

(01:12:57):
till next time.
Please stay in touch.

Speaker 2 (01:12:59):
A hundred percent.
Yeah, Anything you need for meto you know, holler at me and
I'll send you the schedule too.
If you're going to be at any ofthese things, I'd love to have
you come by the booth and hangout.

Speaker 1 (01:13:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:13:09):
We'll do something live.
Maybe that'd be fun.
Let's do it.
Let's do it All right, nick,I'm game.
All right, nick, I appreciateit.
Thanks for having me on, man.

Speaker 1 (01:13:33):
Give me up, we'll see you next time.