October 1, 2025 • 40 mins
When everything that can break decides to break—bus, budget, and belief—you find out what you’re really building. We pushed into our biggest Fryeburg Fair ever by tripling our booth size, stretching every dollar, and betting on our community. Then the week erupted: the bus died at a gas station, the camper lights quit at dusk, and the last credit card barely covered a rental truck. We turned wrenches in the rain, moved mountains with borrowed tools, and showed up on opening day running on fumes and conviction.
What happened next surprised even us. With friends under the chassis, family on the sales floor, and neighbors sending solutions at midnight, the booth came to life. Saturday became the second-biggest day in our company’s history. Inventory moved faster than announcements. People who watched the struggle online walked into the tent ready to buy, encourage, and celebrate. The power of small business isn’t just product; it’s the story of persistence your customers can see and feel.
We talk about the real cost of scaling a booth—rent, fixtures, tents, and the inventory math no one posts about. We open up about mechanical failures, cash flow choices, and why accountability and prayer became our pivot. Most of all, we share the blueprint that carried us: ask for help early, ship before it’s perfect, protect your energy, and keep your mission public. On the far side of breakdowns are breakthroughs. On the far side of sacrifice is triumph. If you’ve ever stood one setback away from quitting, this one is for you.
If this story fires you up, subscribe, share it with a friend who’s building something hard, and leave a review with the moment you almost quit but didn’t—we want to cheer you on.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:01):
I am certainly beginning to believe that the
closer we get to our goals, aswe close in on achieving our
dreams, we encounter ourgreatest obstacles.
We have to overcome our biggestroadblocks.
The difficulty level seems toramp up higher and higher.
(00:23):
The frustrations, the tensions,the disappointments, they all
mount, they weigh on you.
They deter you, they depleteyou, and they try to defeat you.
Today I am here to say to you donot let the tough times win.
(00:44):
Do not let the dark days win.
Blessed is the man who remainssteadfast under trial.
Let me tell you something.
Everybody's struggled.
The difference is some peoplechoose to go through it and some
choose to grow through it.
The choice is completely yours.
Which one you choose will have avery profound effect on the way
(01:08):
you live your life.
(01:58):
What it did, what it do, what ithot did it do.
Good Lord Almighty.
Am I excited to be back withyou?
Oh it's true, it is the damntrue, Boo.
Mm-hmm.
Episode two hundred andseventy-three, and I hope y'all
are happy to hear from me.
(02:19):
Boys, girls, chipmunks andsquirrels, I got a full frontal
confession for you to start offtoday's show.
Where's the Cabela's catalog?
Let me find this sucker righthere.
Hang on.
Listen to the background noise.
Cabela's catalog.
It's a big one.
Ready?
There it is.
Left hand on the Cabela'scatalog.
(02:39):
D little eyes.
Placed toward it to the sky.
The truth.
From this here to guy.
I almost lost.
I almost lost the fight, y'all.
My frustration, my temptation,my commitment to the cause, my
dedication, all challenged, allunder fire.
(03:02):
I found myself at an absolutebreaking point.
I don't know if uh all of youlistening follow our social
media pages.
If you um know me well enough tobe on my timeline on my friends
list, we have listeners all overthe country and now all over the
world.
So if you don't follow oursocial media channels like our
(03:28):
uh podcasting page on Facebookand on Instagram, you should
also follow our business page,Loud Proud American, on
Instagram and on Facebook.
And on Facebook this week Iposted a video where I was at a
breaking point.
I was literally fresh off of abreakdown, and I said, In this
(03:51):
moment, this is as vulnerable asI can be.
I'm gonna turn this camera on,beaten and and damn near near
defeating, but I'm not gonna be,right?
I am starting the show off,telling you, confessing to you,
admitting to you, my fullfrontal confessional right here,
(04:13):
telling you right now, it was inthe most vulnerable state of
mine, at a point where I didn'tknow how much more I could give
and how much further I could go.
I knew in that time, in thatmoment, in that instant, if I
was vulnerable enough to turnthe f camera around on my face,
beaten face.
You understand?
You can see the tears and thefears in my eyes as I recorded
(04:36):
this message.
I needed to take thisopportunity to say, This shall
not beat me, this shall notdefeat me.
I needed to take the time tothank each and every one of you
that has supported us along theway, each and every one of you
that listens to our show eachand every week, each and every
one of you that buys a piece ofan apparel, that shares a
(05:00):
message that we post, that youknow shares a post, that sends a
friend, that tells a coworker,that preaches and believers in
loud, proud American.
I needed to say to each andevery one of you thank you.
Thank you for pulling methrough.
I needed to say thank you toeach and every person that has
stopped their lives and and puttheir to-do list on hold to help
(05:20):
me to chase my dream.
I needed to say that to each andevery one of you, thank you,
thank you, thank you.
And I needed to take the timeand opportunity at my breaking
point to say, God, thank you.
And to say, God, I don't knowhow much more I can take.
I need you, and I'm gonna haveto give this to you.
(05:40):
I was vulnerable, I was weak,and I needed the help.
I made that post, I made thatvideo, and I was absolutely
blown away by each and every oneof you, by so many of you.
The responses on our Facebookpage went through the roof from
(06:01):
people saying, Hey man, I'mhere, I got you.
I'm praying for you, I got you.
What do you need from me?
The amount of people that sentme pictures of their trucks and
trailers hooked up saying, Iwill come to you right now and I
will handle this.
The amount of people thatoffered their services, the
amount of people that calledwith solutions and opportunities
and creative ways to get us tothe place we're at today was
(06:26):
unbelievable and it washumbling.
The support, the showering oflove, it means more than you
guys can possibly imagine.
I've had so many people comeinto the tent this week at the
fair and say, Hey man, I am sohappy to see you here.
Hey man, I'm proud to see you'rehere.
(06:47):
This all of this, thisexperience, let's be honest.
I wish I didn't have to gothrough the trials and
tribulations.
And I certainly know that I'mhardened by fire.
But it's overwhelmingly amazingto have so many people come in
and say, I'm proud of you, I'mhere for you, I'm gonna support
(07:08):
the cause, I'm buying somethingfrom you.
The support is unbelievable.
I have been challenged, I havebeen pushed to my breaking
point, but all of y'all havepulled me through.
I'm saying all of this to tellyou right now, I'm sitting in my
camper at the Freiburg Fair, aplace that many would have
(07:34):
questioned if we could get backto here.
But we knew hell or high water,we were going to be here at the
Fryberg Fair.
We were not gonna take no for ananswer.
We found a way.
I'm here recording today fromthe camper at the start of one
of the most amazing fair weekswe are ever gonna have, and I
(07:57):
know this to be true because ofeach and every one of you.
That right there, folks, is myway of working this episode
backwards.
Because if you follow the socialmedia, if you've reached out, if
you know, then you know.
But if you don't know, then I amgoing to fill in the blanks to
(08:19):
pave the road, to paint thepicture, to tell you how I got
here today.
That is what is on tap for theLoud Proud American sponsored
podcast.
Precisely, perfectly,beautifully named, share the
struggle.
(09:16):
But I'm gonna start with alittle disclaimer.
I'm gonna talk hard and fast andas quickly as I can possibly go,
because I gotta get back down tothe tent to uh help the wifey
with the LowerProt Americanbooth because she's down there
right now with little PaisleyRain running the whole kit and
caboodle by herself.
My wife and Paisley running thetent.
(09:38):
That is a challenge.
Today is on the day that I'mrecording this Woodsman's Day.
It is one of the busiest days ofthe fair, and my wife is down
there getting it done.
I'm gonna talk hard and fast,and I'm gonna set the scene, and
I am gonna make you scream.
Okay?
That's what we're gonna do,that's what we're gonna say,
that's how it's gonna go today.
(10:00):
If y'all have been listening, ifyou've been tuning in, if you're
a day one, get your ones up, myloyal ones.
If you've been here for 273consecutive weeks, y'all know I
love you.
If this is your first show, thenthank you for coming along this
little rodeo, and I welcome youto this show.
We are properly, precisely,beautifully named share their
struggle because everybodystruggles, and the truth is
(10:22):
there is strength in each andeverybody's struggle, and we
just have to be willing to sharethat struggle.
Over the past few weeks, ourcurrent struggle, outside of all
the wildness, craziness in theworld, has been us preparing for
our biggest and our best and ourlargest event of the year.
Also, us preparing for thegreatest challenge we've ever
(10:45):
taken, the greatest level ofdebt we've ever partaken,
because we have challengedourselves to the biggest
display, the largest space wehave ever done before.
To pull all of these things offhas been a challenge.
When Lau Proud American startedfive years ago, we bet on
ourselves and we got into theFreiburg Fair, we had a 10-foot
(11:08):
space, 10 foot wide, 20 feetdeep.
Ever since then, we worked ourway trying to get bigger and
bigger.
A couple of years ago, wegraduated to a 20-foot wide,
20-foot deep space.
That was fantastic.
From the moment we did that, Ihave been asking about getting
to 30 feet.
We finally got the okay toexpand to 30 feet.
(11:30):
We are 30 feet wide, we are 20feet deep.
To do this, we needed to takeand make a lot more risks and a
lot more product.
Now, by doing this, if you goback to day one, we've tripled
our rent because we've tripledour size.
So I'm adding an additionalamount of um rent this year.
(11:50):
And to buy another tent, Ineeded another 10 by 20 tent.
I needed another canopy top, Ineeded a new canopy top for the
other tent to make things alllook seamless.
That investment right there,$4,500.
Add that to our rent, add thatto the$600 in camping to be
(12:12):
here.
Add that to the fact that wethen need more grid wall, we
need more things, we need morefixtures.
Add that expense to it, and thenrealize you need to fill this
sucker.
And if you've been listeningalong, then you know that it's
been a challenging year for us,and we've been um robbing Peter
to pay Paul, we've been going toevents, floating the next event,
(12:35):
rolling into an event, sellingstuff, coming back, reinvesting
more back into the business.
So, what I've had to do thisyear is take out more equity
lines.
I've had to take out more creditlines, I've had to take more
risks and more personalinvestments.
I've had to sell things andreallocate things to keep this
season rolling.
I've broken more things than youcan imagine this season, but we
(13:00):
just keep picking up the piecesand we just keep moving forward.
Trial by fire.
We just continue to run hard andfast towards our dreams and
towards our goals.
Throughout the year, we havebeen met with more obstacles,
we've had to overcome morechallenges this year.
(13:20):
As I'm leading up to ourgreatest event of the year, we
are not in the correct andproper position for inventory
because we just have not beenable to afford it.
And if you've been listening,you know we've challenged
ourselves to a bunch of brandnew first-time events.
When we go into those events,they're not coming um to
(13:41):
fruition as far as as successfulas we had hoped for.
They haven't panned out to beall that we um banked on or bet
on them to do.
So I'm talking about takingchances and and investing in
product and traveling toDaytona, Florida from Arundel,
Maine to take a chance to barelymake a few bucks, to travel six
(14:03):
hours to New York to barely makea few bucks.
We're trying these things, we'reapplying to new things, we're
taking risks because we knowthat we're not gonna find growth
in our comfort zones, we're notgonna grow this business, we're
not gonna chase our dreams andachieve our goals if we stay
comfortable.
If we continue to work from ourcomfort zones in our little
hometowns, it's not gonna workfor us.
(14:25):
We need to shake things up.
That's what we've done.
And and it's been good and we'retrending in the best direction
because we're trending to havethe best year we've ever had.
But it's also going to be ourmost financially difficult year
we've ever had because we'retaking these chances and we're
rolling the dice.
And in between, you know, cominghome from events, we're working
(14:45):
on restocking everything.
So as I just start to kind ofpaint a little picture for you
guys, our year this year hasbeen also summed up by
mechanical failure.
I want to say that our farmtruck that I've had for a long
time, it was actually the firstand only new vehicle I've ever
purchased in my life.
(15:07):
Um, she could went kaput.
She didn't make it after thewinter.
She's been toast.
We didn't have a way to get thecamper here.
We bought um a truck, a greatdeal from some from some great
friends of ours, and uh that wasgoing great for us, but we ran
into some mechanical issues, andum that vehicle is now the
(15:28):
Liberty New Farm truck, it'sdoing all the chores at home and
plowing the driveway and doingall those great things.
But we needed to get a vehicleuh for the family and for
hauling the camper.
And um a great friend of mine, abrother of mine, Chris Woodcock,
came along and said, Hey man,let me help you figure this out.
And Chris and Noah, they helpedme.
(15:50):
Chris loaned me some money, anduh, we went and bought a a um a
Yukon, a GMC Yukon, and um theysaid, you know, we'll go through
it and get it ready for um youknow hauling the camper
scenario, and and we got that,and the air compressor to lift
the airbags to haul the camperwas blown.
(16:12):
So you put a new one of thosein.
The motor mounts ended up beingblown, you know, some brakes and
rotors, all those things.
So you continue to make thoseinvestments in in those things
along the way.
And you know, we were havingpeople help us to haul things,
to move things.
It's been all these differentchallenges to make things work,
(16:33):
and but we continue to be met byobstacle after obstacle, but we
continue to overcome thoseobstacles and continue to find a
way.
We roll into the Windsor Fair.
I get there and I lose allability to shift the bus.
We lose the gears in the bus.
We lose the brakes in the bus.
Noah talks to me on the phoneabout how to fix the gears so I
can get off the fairgrounds.
(16:54):
I park it in the campground.
Noah drives up, puts a new brakeline on it.
Allie's dad, Dan, comes up andhelps finish off the brakes, and
we get that back on the road andwe nurse that home.
Every time there's a challenge,every time there's an
achievement, it's met with anobstacle.
Every time we find a reward,we're giving that reward to
(17:15):
another avenue because we havesomething broken, we have
something to fix, something toovercome.
So we're working on thesemechanical failures and all
these breakings.
We're trying to get caught up onall the loans and you know and
and and risks we're taking, andyou're trying to stay on top of
the bills that you currentlyhave, so you're having a
(17:35):
difficult time being able toreplenish the inventory that you
need.
So it's this vicious cycle whereyou're just chasing your own
tail around in a circle.
Now, we come back from fromWindsor and we find ourselves
with a grave challenge torestock our shelves.
We're way off on inventory, andwe just don't have the finances
(17:56):
to figure it out.
So we start to get as creativeas possible, and we're moving
things around and investing hereand reinvesting here and moving
this there.
I'm trying to be very vague, butI want you to know what I'm
describing to you is a crazy sonof a biscuit, bound and
determined to live his dreams,committed and dedicated to the
(18:18):
cause, to the business, to theplan, to the reason, to the task
at hand.
So bound and determined, socommitted, so steadfast in his
beliefs that he will riskanything and take all
challenges.
I have maxed every single ounceof my life out to make it to get
(18:38):
here.
You also have encountered afamily that is so dedicated and
committed to this business thatthey too are making those risks
and taking those chances.
My mom doing everything she canto keep us afloat, investing in
you know the product and thebills and to help us continue to
(19:00):
move.
My wife doing the same thing,borrowing money and doing these
things, all of us pitching inand pulling in the right and
same direction.
We're all rowing in the samedirection, we're all taking
those chances.
Together with creativity andintensity, we scraped up the
funds to put ourselves in thebest possible inventory position
(19:23):
we can be in.
And I just worked my ass off ongetting things taken care of.
Now, to add a few more, youknow, difficulty bumps and lumps
to the scenario.
My mom, while we were at thelast fair, she um managed to
have three or four of her ribsbroken.
My cousin gave her a hug and uhthought a bear hug was a good
(19:47):
choice.
So my mom broke some ribs.
She was out of commission, shewasn't able to help us with a
little one for most of the timein between the fairs.
Allie was adjusting to workingfrom home.
So I'm, you know, doing thedaily daddy daycare stuff as
much as I can, working inbetween, early in the morning,
late at night, trying to geteverything done.
(20:10):
On the weekends, I just dedicatemyself from sun up to uh till I
can't stand up to get everythingdone and ready for this week.
Now, over the weekend, I want tosay, leading into the fair, um,
Allie went to move the bus andsaid, Hey, we I can't move the
(20:31):
bus, it's dead, I don't knowwhat's going on.
I go out there and I put atrickle charger on it, and every
time I would go check on it, itwould stop recognizing the
charger.
So I kept moving things aroundand trying to get that to work,
and it was going back and forth.
Long to short of it.
A full day of charging, nothing.
Bus, no luck, no go, no charge.
(20:51):
I um make a few phone calls, andI had um three people to
literally just uh stop what theywere doing and come over and try
to help.
And I say three people becauseeverybody kept taking a chance
on trying to figure it out.
Allie's dad came over and uhhelped me work on it.
My cousin Joey came over andhelped me, and um Noah came over
(21:14):
and helped, and through all ofthese uh steps here, we
warrantied the battery, put anew battery in, which over the
course of this year and lastyear, we've already done a new
alternator and a new battery,and we've done a new starter and
a bunch of other you know thingsto the bus.
So we we we know that a lot ofthese things have already been
(21:36):
taken care of, but uh we'rehaving some kind of situation
where the bus doesn't want tocontinue to run.
So we get things going, and oneday me and Noah get everything
um straightened out so the busis running and we think that
we're good.
On Tuesday before the fair, Iusually Tuesday is the day where
we bring the camper um to thefair, and uh on Wednesday we
(21:59):
build our shell, and then thatgives me a few days to get
ready.
Normally the fair opens on aSunday, and we get here on a
Tuesday.
If you do the math on that.
Now on Tuesday, I felt greatthat by 10 in the morning on
Tuesday I was all done, all myprinting, and I'd had put us in
(22:22):
the best position possible toget to the fair and to crush it
while we're here.
So, doing all those things, Ifeel great.
I come out and I said to thewife, hey, uh, let's go fuel up
both vehicles.
So Allie's gonna haul thecamper, I'm gonna run the bus,
we're gonna go to the gasstation and fuel up.
On the way to the gas station,the bus loses power and uh it's
(22:45):
spitting and sputtering and itdoes not want to go.
I manage to get to the gasstation, I fill her up with
fuel, and then she doesn't wantto start.
I spend three hours at the gasstation trying to get this thing
to start.
No luck, no go.
Um the guy that literally wasworking at the gas station was
(23:06):
super cool, he kept coming outtrying to troubleshoot and to
help us.
But this is where I want tostart counting some blessings
here and acknowledging thepeople in my life that put
things on hold to come over andtry to help.
Allie's dad came over and uh heactually called work and decided
to go in late to try to helpout.
Uh, Chris stopped and tried tohelp.
(23:28):
My cousin was driving by and sawus and pulled in, and he came
over to help.
Noah uh stopped what he wasdoing and came over to help, and
we ran into so many difficultieswith the bus.
We put a toe strap on it andtowed a school bus down the road
back home to my house.
We get there and it's all handson deck, fixing everything we
(23:52):
possibly can.
Uh, dropping a new fuel pumpinto the bus from inside the bus
through the floor while otherpeople are chasing electrical
and resolving those things.
Tuesday turns into uh you know10, 11 o'clock night outside
with the bus still not running,which turns into a Wednesday
(24:14):
with a full day of working onthe bus.
Everybody stopping what they'redoing to try to help with the
bus, which turns into anotherday, Thursday working on the
bus.
Every time a new theory, a newthought, a new opportunity to do
something, to chase something.
(24:35):
More batteries go into the bus.
Starter switch goes into thebus.
A dealership tells us to tearapart the main wiring harness to
the bus to chase that.
It goes on and on and on.
A grounding strap underneath thebus that we believe might be the
final answer and resolution tothe scenario.
(24:56):
We recreate all of that only tobe at a point on Thursday night
at probably nine o'clock atnight, where it's pouring, an
absolute torrential downpour.
Noah's on the ground, under thebus, outside, installing the
(25:16):
strap, only to have nothing.
Nothing work.
During this time, another closefriend of mine, Derek Down,
volunteers to uh come to thehouse and pick our camper up
because we're trying to findways to conserve time at this
point, because what we need isis time.
We are now taking something thattakes us three, four days to
(25:41):
build and giving ourselves oneday to do it.
And while doing that, we don'thave time to wait around to put
our camper in.
If you show up here at the daybefore the fair opens, you can
wait in line for an hour or twojust to get in with your camper.
So we need to uh lighten theload a little bit.
Derek shows up to um come haulthe camper, and um the
(26:04):
electrical on the camper is notworking, the lights to the
camper isn't working, and thesun's going down.
It's it's nighttime, it'sgetting dark out.
He says, you know, I I can't Ican't haul this.
And uh Derek leaves and we workon the wires on the camper and
we get the lighting on that towork, and it's pouring and it's
(26:26):
getting late, and uh my brotherToby Reynolds and his boy Gavin
show up, and me and him load thecamper up, and uh the three of
us head up here and drop thecamper off late night because
now at this point I'm not gonnahave uh the wife and the you
know one-year-old hauling andthey're dead of night, not being
(26:47):
able to see anything when thetruck is still getting adjusted
correctly to running this camperand trying to set up and all
those all that difficulty levelthat goes with that.
So Toby stopped what he wasdoing, him and Gavin.
We brought the camper uptogether.
We got it in, we got it settledin, get home a little past 11
o'clock, and I just sit down andsay, Man, I I don't know how
(27:12):
much more of this I can take.
I don't know how much more ofthis I can handle.
And we're just running out offixes or running out of patches
to stop the leakage, you know?
So it gets to the point whereour only option is to rent a
truck.
And if you just heard my story,you know that we don't have the
(27:34):
funds anymore to to continue toto hemorrhage money to make this
work.
Toby's wife Ashton got us agreat deal on a Penske rental
truck, so we get up first thingin the morning on Friday, and uh
the family loads up and we headoff to get a truck, and the
(27:56):
total to pay for the box truckcame in fifteen dollars under
the absolute max that I had onmy last remaining credit card.
Fifteen dollars to spare.
Get the box truck rented, gethome, and start the process of
(28:20):
taking everything out of the busand throwing it into the truck.
During this time, my uncle MikePackard gives me a shout and he
says, Man, I saw your video atthree o'clock in the morning and
I haven't been able to sleep.
I gotta come over and look atthe bus.
Him and Ryan come over and theywork on the bus all day.
(28:40):
My mom helps me and Allie loadup the box truck, and we take
off while Mike's still workingon the truck.
He worked on that thing till Idon't know, eight, nine o'clock
at night, narrowed a lot ofthings down, made a lot of
progress, but it's still notworking.
And we just didn't have the timeto to stay.
We had to take off and and andget here.
(29:02):
So me and Allie and the babyheaded to the fair.
We get here and um just startplugging away the best we can.
Sarah Perkins comes over andstarts to help with us, and then
Derek and Shannon down come overafter work and they work with us
till nine o'clock at night.
Julia Frost from Underdog Metalcomes over and she helps us.
(29:26):
It's a family, it's a communityall pitching in to help us make
it.
We worked until I want to say11, 11:30 that night.
This is after days of getting upat 5 a.m., 6 a.m.
working outside on the bus till10, 11 o'clock at night.
(29:48):
This cycle trying to makeeverything work.
Here we are Friday night.
I look at the wife and I said, Ican't do anything else.
I I can't physically do anythingelse.
We leave there and decide weneed to get something to eat.
We hit a drive-thru, come home,back to camp, in Little Paisley
Rain, wants to party, and wantsto stay up till after two in the
(30:13):
morning.
We probably fall asleep aroundtwo thirty.
I get back up at six, try tosneak out the camper, head back
down and spend the last fewhours before the fair opens
getting ourselves into apresentable position so we can
try to be as successful aspossible.
Throughout that day on Saturday,opening day, we probably made
(30:38):
seven or eight different tripswith a poll cart from the box
truck to the tent to load thingsup, to restock, to reload, to
try to get things on the shelvesthe way that we needed them.
It was an incredible challenge.
We were both so overwhelminglybeat and spent.
(30:59):
But I what I want to say to eachand every one of you is in the
five years of business for LoudProud American, Saturday was the
second largest day in thehistory of Loud Proud American.
We sacrificed, we took chances,we took risks, and we stayed
(31:22):
committed and dedicated to ourbeliefs, and we were rewarded.
Our second largest day in thehistory of our business on
Saturday.
We were so busy, and we arestill so busy that I haven't
even made a post about beinghere, I don't think.
(31:43):
Hopefully the wife has.
Normally we're doing all thebuild-up and all the drama,
showing off all the things thatwe're doing and releasing new
items and all those things.
Some of the new items that wemade are gonna be sold out
before I can make a video.
That's the next challenge,right?
What do you sell out of uh thatuh could prevent you from
hitting the numbers that youwant to hit?
(32:05):
But we had an incredible firstday.
We had an extremely strongsecond day.
We are about to have atremendous third day.
I am convinced this will be thegreatest event that we have ever
done.
(32:28):
Man, what a challenge, what aride this has been.
Perseverance.
That's all I can say.
Perseverance.
We are taking a master's classin perseverance.
(32:51):
Consider it pure joy, mybrothers and sisters, whenever
you face trials of many kinds,because you know that the
testing of your faith producesperseverance.
Let perseverance finish its workso that you may be mature and
complete, not lacking anything.
This has been a masterclass inperseverance.
(33:13):
I can tell you that for sure.
But we were rewarded, and wewill continue to be rewarded.
The challenge is still steep,the obstacles are massive, but I
feel like we are going to berewarded.
On opening day of the fair, PamPetingill came to me and uh she
(33:37):
gave me a hug and she said, Youknow, when you confess your love
for Jesus Christ, you knowyou're gonna be challenged,
right?
You know your faith is gonna bechallenged.
The devil is on your butt.
Last week I made thatconfessional that I will no
longer apologize for my beliefs,and I will lean into my beliefs.
(34:02):
I was rewarded with a greatchallenge, a great deal of
difficulty.
I was at my breaking point.
I sat at my coffee table with mywife at midnight after dropping
off our camper saying, Baby, Idon't know how much I have left
to give.
(34:22):
On Thursday, when I made thatvideo, that video was seconds
after me praying.
That video was seconds after mesaying, God, I gotta give this
one to you.
God, I don't know how much moreI can do.
I put those words out into theuniverse because I wanted to
(34:45):
confirm my faith.
I wanted to show I am stillcommitted to my faith.
When I am doubting myself most,when I am at my absolute
breaking point, when I'mbeginning to feel like I can't
continue to overcome, I can'tcontinue to beat and defeat
these challenges and theseobstacles.
(35:05):
When I'm at that point, I needto say steadfast in my faith and
in my belief when I am feelingdepleted.
Well, after giving that prayer,after being in my shed on my
knees praying, I was overcomewith the feeling that I needed
(35:26):
to turn the camera on and makemy confessional.
Thank you.
Thank you to each and every oneof you that have helped to keep
me going.
Being a small business ownerisn't easy.
Being a small business ownerwill challenge you.
Being a small business owner canbeat you and it can defeat you,
and it takes everything out ofyou, and it takes everything out
(35:47):
of your family for them to becommitted, for them to be
committed to your cause.
It's trying times, it'sdifficult times on everybody
around you.
It's not all glitters andrainbows, man.
It is a challenging, dark time,oftentimes.
It takes great deals ofsacrifice, but you must remain
(36:08):
committed, and you must continueto have faith that this too
shall pass, that this will allwork out.
That was that was the messagethat I was delivering.
Because I knew in those times,something told me now is the
time for you to turn that cameraon and reconfirm your faith in
God, reconfirm your faith thatthis can work out, reconfirm to
(36:32):
the world.
Here I am at my lowest of lowsas a business owner, and I still
know I'm gonna pull through.
I still know it's all gonna cometrue.
These dreams are gonna cometrue.
Why?
Because I give it all to God,and my heart and my thoughts and
my intentions are all in theright directions, and this will
(36:53):
be glorious.
On the other side of difficultyis reward, on the other side of
sacrifice is triumph.
I took the time when I wasvulnerable to do a few things.
Number one, say thank you toeach and every person that's
helped to pull me through.
Number two, to make sure anybodyelse out there that is
(37:16):
suffering, that is dealing withsomething, that is struggling,
don't let the dark times win.
Don't let the tough times win.
Number three, and mostimportantly, give it to God.
I wanted to make a publicconfession that I'm at my wit's
end, and all I can do, allthat's left for me to do is to
(37:37):
give it to you.
God is great.
I promised you last week inhonor of Charlie Kirk, I would
not run from my fears, I wouldnot hide my emotions, I would
state my convictions.
(37:59):
Be not dismayed, for I am yourGod.
I will strengthen you, I willhelp you, I will uphold you with
my righteous right hand.
We are here, and we shall remainhere.
Loud Proud American isn't goinganywhere.
We are off to the greatest startwe have ever had at any event
(38:23):
we've ever done.
This will be the largest andgreatest success in our story.
I look forward to sharing thosesuccess stories with you next
week.
But until then, I must get downto that tent and begin to crush
(38:44):
it.
From the bottom of my heart,thank you, thank you, thank you
to each and every single one ofyou.
Thank you for supporting ourAmerican dream.
That's it, and that's all,Biggie Smalls.
(39:16):
If you're allowed proudAmerican, and you find yourself
to find me on YouTube andFacebook and Loud Proud American
Facebook, if you're fancy RamCrackett, you wanna find me on
Instagram Tickety Tackin on theTikTok, you can find me on all
(39:38):
of those loud underscore crackunderscore.
(40:00):
You are enjoying what you'rehearing background for the gun
structure.
(40:28):
I truly thank you for supportingmy American dream.
Now go wash your fucking hands,you filthy savage.
I am certainly beginning to believe that the
closer we get to our goals, aswe close in on achieving our
dreams, we encounter ourgreatest obstacles.
We have to overcome our biggestroadblocks.
The difficulty level seems toramp up higher and higher.
(00:23):
The frustrations, the tensions,the disappointments, they all
mount, they weigh on you.
They deter you, they depleteyou, and they try to defeat you.
Today I am here to say to you donot let the tough times win.
(00:44):
Do not let the dark days win.
Blessed is the man who remainssteadfast under trial.
Let me tell you something.
Everybody's struggled.
The difference is some peoplechoose to go through it and some
choose to grow through it.
The choice is completely yours.
Which one you choose will have avery profound effect on the way
(01:08):
you live your life.
(01:58):
What it did, what it do, what ithot did it do.
Good Lord Almighty.
Am I excited to be back withyou?
Oh it's true, it is the damntrue, Boo.
Mm-hmm.
Episode two hundred andseventy-three, and I hope y'all
are happy to hear from me.
(02:19):
Boys, girls, chipmunks andsquirrels, I got a full frontal
confession for you to start offtoday's show.
Where's the Cabela's catalog?
Let me find this sucker righthere.
Hang on.
Listen to the background noise.
Cabela's catalog.
It's a big one.
Ready?
There it is.
Left hand on the Cabela'scatalog.
(02:39):
D little eyes.
Placed toward it to the sky.
The truth.
From this here to guy.
I almost lost.
I almost lost the fight, y'all.
My frustration, my temptation,my commitment to the cause, my
dedication, all challenged, allunder fire.
(03:02):
I found myself at an absolutebreaking point.
I don't know if uh all of youlistening follow our social
media pages.
If you um know me well enough tobe on my timeline on my friends
list, we have listeners all overthe country and now all over the
world.
So if you don't follow oursocial media channels like our
(03:28):
uh podcasting page on Facebookand on Instagram, you should
also follow our business page,Loud Proud American, on
Instagram and on Facebook.
And on Facebook this week Iposted a video where I was at a
breaking point.
I was literally fresh off of abreakdown, and I said, In this
(03:51):
moment, this is as vulnerable asI can be.
I'm gonna turn this camera on,beaten and and damn near near
defeating, but I'm not gonna be,right?
I am starting the show off,telling you, confessing to you,
admitting to you, my fullfrontal confessional right here,
(04:13):
telling you right now, it was inthe most vulnerable state of
mine, at a point where I didn'tknow how much more I could give
and how much further I could go.
I knew in that time, in thatmoment, in that instant, if I
was vulnerable enough to turnthe f camera around on my face,
beaten face.
You understand?
You can see the tears and thefears in my eyes as I recorded
(04:36):
this message.
I needed to take thisopportunity to say, This shall
not beat me, this shall notdefeat me.
I needed to take the time tothank each and every one of you
that has supported us along theway, each and every one of you
that listens to our show eachand every week, each and every
one of you that buys a piece ofan apparel, that shares a
(05:00):
message that we post, that youknow shares a post, that sends a
friend, that tells a coworker,that preaches and believers in
loud, proud American.
I needed to say to each andevery one of you thank you.
Thank you for pulling methrough.
I needed to say thank you toeach and every person that has
stopped their lives and and puttheir to-do list on hold to help
(05:20):
me to chase my dream.
I needed to say that to each andevery one of you, thank you,
thank you, thank you.
And I needed to take the timeand opportunity at my breaking
point to say, God, thank you.
And to say, God, I don't knowhow much more I can take.
I need you, and I'm gonna haveto give this to you.
(05:40):
I was vulnerable, I was weak,and I needed the help.
I made that post, I made thatvideo, and I was absolutely
blown away by each and every oneof you, by so many of you.
The responses on our Facebookpage went through the roof from
(06:01):
people saying, Hey man, I'mhere, I got you.
I'm praying for you, I got you.
What do you need from me?
The amount of people that sentme pictures of their trucks and
trailers hooked up saying, Iwill come to you right now and I
will handle this.
The amount of people thatoffered their services, the
amount of people that calledwith solutions and opportunities
and creative ways to get us tothe place we're at today was
(06:26):
unbelievable and it washumbling.
The support, the showering oflove, it means more than you
guys can possibly imagine.
I've had so many people comeinto the tent this week at the
fair and say, Hey man, I am sohappy to see you here.
Hey man, I'm proud to see you'rehere.
(06:47):
This all of this, thisexperience, let's be honest.
I wish I didn't have to gothrough the trials and
tribulations.
And I certainly know that I'mhardened by fire.
But it's overwhelmingly amazingto have so many people come in
and say, I'm proud of you, I'mhere for you, I'm gonna support
(07:08):
the cause, I'm buying somethingfrom you.
The support is unbelievable.
I have been challenged, I havebeen pushed to my breaking
point, but all of y'all havepulled me through.
I'm saying all of this to tellyou right now, I'm sitting in my
camper at the Freiburg Fair, aplace that many would have
(07:34):
questioned if we could get backto here.
But we knew hell or high water,we were going to be here at the
Fryberg Fair.
We were not gonna take no for ananswer.
We found a way.
I'm here recording today fromthe camper at the start of one
of the most amazing fair weekswe are ever gonna have, and I
(07:57):
know this to be true because ofeach and every one of you.
That right there, folks, is myway of working this episode
backwards.
Because if you follow the socialmedia, if you've reached out, if
you know, then you know.
But if you don't know, then I amgoing to fill in the blanks to
(08:19):
pave the road, to paint thepicture, to tell you how I got
here today.
That is what is on tap for theLoud Proud American sponsored
podcast.
Precisely, perfectly,beautifully named, share the
struggle.
(09:16):
But I'm gonna start with alittle disclaimer.
I'm gonna talk hard and fast andas quickly as I can possibly go,
because I gotta get back down tothe tent to uh help the wifey
with the LowerProt Americanbooth because she's down there
right now with little PaisleyRain running the whole kit and
caboodle by herself.
My wife and Paisley running thetent.
(09:38):
That is a challenge.
Today is on the day that I'mrecording this Woodsman's Day.
It is one of the busiest days ofthe fair, and my wife is down
there getting it done.
I'm gonna talk hard and fast,and I'm gonna set the scene, and
I am gonna make you scream.
Okay?
That's what we're gonna do,that's what we're gonna say,
that's how it's gonna go today.
(10:00):
If y'all have been listening, ifyou've been tuning in, if you're
a day one, get your ones up, myloyal ones.
If you've been here for 273consecutive weeks, y'all know I
love you.
If this is your first show, thenthank you for coming along this
little rodeo, and I welcome youto this show.
We are properly, precisely,beautifully named share their
struggle because everybodystruggles, and the truth is
(10:22):
there is strength in each andeverybody's struggle, and we
just have to be willing to sharethat struggle.
Over the past few weeks, ourcurrent struggle, outside of all
the wildness, craziness in theworld, has been us preparing for
our biggest and our best and ourlargest event of the year.
Also, us preparing for thegreatest challenge we've ever
(10:45):
taken, the greatest level ofdebt we've ever partaken,
because we have challengedourselves to the biggest
display, the largest space wehave ever done before.
To pull all of these things offhas been a challenge.
When Lau Proud American startedfive years ago, we bet on
ourselves and we got into theFreiburg Fair, we had a 10-foot
(11:08):
space, 10 foot wide, 20 feetdeep.
Ever since then, we worked ourway trying to get bigger and
bigger.
A couple of years ago, wegraduated to a 20-foot wide,
20-foot deep space.
That was fantastic.
From the moment we did that, Ihave been asking about getting
to 30 feet.
We finally got the okay toexpand to 30 feet.
(11:30):
We are 30 feet wide, we are 20feet deep.
To do this, we needed to takeand make a lot more risks and a
lot more product.
Now, by doing this, if you goback to day one, we've tripled
our rent because we've tripledour size.
So I'm adding an additionalamount of um rent this year.
(11:50):
And to buy another tent, Ineeded another 10 by 20 tent.
I needed another canopy top, Ineeded a new canopy top for the
other tent to make things alllook seamless.
That investment right there,$4,500.
Add that to our rent, add thatto the$600 in camping to be
(12:12):
here.
Add that to the fact that wethen need more grid wall, we
need more things, we need morefixtures.
Add that expense to it, and thenrealize you need to fill this
sucker.
And if you've been listeningalong, then you know that it's
been a challenging year for us,and we've been um robbing Peter
to pay Paul, we've been going toevents, floating the next event,
(12:35):
rolling into an event, sellingstuff, coming back, reinvesting
more back into the business.
So, what I've had to do thisyear is take out more equity
lines.
I've had to take out more creditlines, I've had to take more
risks and more personalinvestments.
I've had to sell things andreallocate things to keep this
season rolling.
I've broken more things than youcan imagine this season, but we
(13:00):
just keep picking up the piecesand we just keep moving forward.
Trial by fire.
We just continue to run hard andfast towards our dreams and
towards our goals.
Throughout the year, we havebeen met with more obstacles,
we've had to overcome morechallenges this year.
(13:20):
As I'm leading up to ourgreatest event of the year, we
are not in the correct andproper position for inventory
because we just have not beenable to afford it.
And if you've been listening,you know we've challenged
ourselves to a bunch of brandnew first-time events.
When we go into those events,they're not coming um to
(13:41):
fruition as far as as successfulas we had hoped for.
They haven't panned out to beall that we um banked on or bet
on them to do.
So I'm talking about takingchances and and investing in
product and traveling toDaytona, Florida from Arundel,
Maine to take a chance to barelymake a few bucks, to travel six
(14:03):
hours to New York to barely makea few bucks.
We're trying these things, we'reapplying to new things, we're
taking risks because we knowthat we're not gonna find growth
in our comfort zones, we're notgonna grow this business, we're
not gonna chase our dreams andachieve our goals if we stay
comfortable.
If we continue to work from ourcomfort zones in our little
hometowns, it's not gonna workfor us.
(14:25):
We need to shake things up.
That's what we've done.
And and it's been good and we'retrending in the best direction
because we're trending to havethe best year we've ever had.
But it's also going to be ourmost financially difficult year
we've ever had because we'retaking these chances and we're
rolling the dice.
And in between, you know, cominghome from events, we're working
(14:45):
on restocking everything.
So as I just start to kind ofpaint a little picture for you
guys, our year this year hasbeen also summed up by
mechanical failure.
I want to say that our farmtruck that I've had for a long
time, it was actually the firstand only new vehicle I've ever
purchased in my life.
(15:07):
Um, she could went kaput.
She didn't make it after thewinter.
She's been toast.
We didn't have a way to get thecamper here.
We bought um a truck, a greatdeal from some from some great
friends of ours, and uh that wasgoing great for us, but we ran
into some mechanical issues, andum that vehicle is now the
(15:28):
Liberty New Farm truck, it'sdoing all the chores at home and
plowing the driveway and doingall those great things.
But we needed to get a vehicleuh for the family and for
hauling the camper.
And um a great friend of mine, abrother of mine, Chris Woodcock,
came along and said, Hey man,let me help you figure this out.
And Chris and Noah, they helpedme.
(15:50):
Chris loaned me some money, anduh, we went and bought a a um a
Yukon, a GMC Yukon, and um theysaid, you know, we'll go through
it and get it ready for um youknow hauling the camper
scenario, and and we got that,and the air compressor to lift
the airbags to haul the camperwas blown.
(16:12):
So you put a new one of thosein.
The motor mounts ended up beingblown, you know, some brakes and
rotors, all those things.
So you continue to make thoseinvestments in in those things
along the way.
And you know, we were havingpeople help us to haul things,
to move things.
It's been all these differentchallenges to make things work,
(16:33):
and but we continue to be met byobstacle after obstacle, but we
continue to overcome thoseobstacles and continue to find a
way.
We roll into the Windsor Fair.
I get there and I lose allability to shift the bus.
We lose the gears in the bus.
We lose the brakes in the bus.
Noah talks to me on the phoneabout how to fix the gears so I
can get off the fairgrounds.
(16:54):
I park it in the campground.
Noah drives up, puts a new brakeline on it.
Allie's dad, Dan, comes up andhelps finish off the brakes, and
we get that back on the road andwe nurse that home.
Every time there's a challenge,every time there's an
achievement, it's met with anobstacle.
Every time we find a reward,we're giving that reward to
(17:15):
another avenue because we havesomething broken, we have
something to fix, something toovercome.
So we're working on thesemechanical failures and all
these breakings.
We're trying to get caught up onall the loans and you know and
and and risks we're taking, andyou're trying to stay on top of
the bills that you currentlyhave, so you're having a
(17:35):
difficult time being able toreplenish the inventory that you
need.
So it's this vicious cycle whereyou're just chasing your own
tail around in a circle.
Now, we come back from fromWindsor and we find ourselves
with a grave challenge torestock our shelves.
We're way off on inventory, andwe just don't have the finances
(17:56):
to figure it out.
So we start to get as creativeas possible, and we're moving
things around and investing hereand reinvesting here and moving
this there.
I'm trying to be very vague, butI want you to know what I'm
describing to you is a crazy sonof a biscuit, bound and
determined to live his dreams,committed and dedicated to the
(18:18):
cause, to the business, to theplan, to the reason, to the task
at hand.
So bound and determined, socommitted, so steadfast in his
beliefs that he will riskanything and take all
challenges.
I have maxed every single ounceof my life out to make it to get
(18:38):
here.
You also have encountered afamily that is so dedicated and
committed to this business thatthey too are making those risks
and taking those chances.
My mom doing everything she canto keep us afloat, investing in
you know the product and thebills and to help us continue to
(19:00):
move.
My wife doing the same thing,borrowing money and doing these
things, all of us pitching inand pulling in the right and
same direction.
We're all rowing in the samedirection, we're all taking
those chances.
Together with creativity andintensity, we scraped up the
funds to put ourselves in thebest possible inventory position
(19:23):
we can be in.
And I just worked my ass off ongetting things taken care of.
Now, to add a few more, youknow, difficulty bumps and lumps
to the scenario.
My mom, while we were at thelast fair, she um managed to
have three or four of her ribsbroken.
My cousin gave her a hug and uhthought a bear hug was a good
(19:47):
choice.
So my mom broke some ribs.
She was out of commission, shewasn't able to help us with a
little one for most of the timein between the fairs.
Allie was adjusting to workingfrom home.
So I'm, you know, doing thedaily daddy daycare stuff as
much as I can, working inbetween, early in the morning,
late at night, trying to geteverything done.
(20:10):
On the weekends, I just dedicatemyself from sun up to uh till I
can't stand up to get everythingdone and ready for this week.
Now, over the weekend, I want tosay, leading into the fair, um,
Allie went to move the bus andsaid, Hey, we I can't move the
(20:31):
bus, it's dead, I don't knowwhat's going on.
I go out there and I put atrickle charger on it, and every
time I would go check on it, itwould stop recognizing the
charger.
So I kept moving things aroundand trying to get that to work,
and it was going back and forth.
Long to short of it.
A full day of charging, nothing.
Bus, no luck, no go, no charge.
(20:51):
I um make a few phone calls, andI had um three people to
literally just uh stop what theywere doing and come over and try
to help.
And I say three people becauseeverybody kept taking a chance
on trying to figure it out.
Allie's dad came over and uhhelped me work on it.
My cousin Joey came over andhelped me, and um Noah came over
(21:14):
and helped, and through all ofthese uh steps here, we
warrantied the battery, put anew battery in, which over the
course of this year and lastyear, we've already done a new
alternator and a new battery,and we've done a new starter and
a bunch of other you know thingsto the bus.
So we we we know that a lot ofthese things have already been
(21:36):
taken care of, but uh we'rehaving some kind of situation
where the bus doesn't want tocontinue to run.
So we get things going, and oneday me and Noah get everything
um straightened out so the busis running and we think that
we're good.
On Tuesday before the fair, Iusually Tuesday is the day where
we bring the camper um to thefair, and uh on Wednesday we
(21:59):
build our shell, and then thatgives me a few days to get
ready.
Normally the fair opens on aSunday, and we get here on a
Tuesday.
If you do the math on that.
Now on Tuesday, I felt greatthat by 10 in the morning on
Tuesday I was all done, all myprinting, and I'd had put us in
(22:22):
the best position possible toget to the fair and to crush it
while we're here.
So, doing all those things, Ifeel great.
I come out and I said to thewife, hey, uh, let's go fuel up
both vehicles.
So Allie's gonna haul thecamper, I'm gonna run the bus,
we're gonna go to the gasstation and fuel up.
On the way to the gas station,the bus loses power and uh it's
(22:45):
spitting and sputtering and itdoes not want to go.
I manage to get to the gasstation, I fill her up with
fuel, and then she doesn't wantto start.
I spend three hours at the gasstation trying to get this thing
to start.
No luck, no go.
Um the guy that literally wasworking at the gas station was
(23:06):
super cool, he kept coming outtrying to troubleshoot and to
help us.
But this is where I want tostart counting some blessings
here and acknowledging thepeople in my life that put
things on hold to come over andtry to help.
Allie's dad came over and uh heactually called work and decided
to go in late to try to helpout.
Uh, Chris stopped and tried tohelp.
(23:28):
My cousin was driving by and sawus and pulled in, and he came
over to help.
Noah uh stopped what he wasdoing and came over to help, and
we ran into so many difficultieswith the bus.
We put a toe strap on it andtowed a school bus down the road
back home to my house.
We get there and it's all handson deck, fixing everything we
(23:52):
possibly can.
Uh, dropping a new fuel pumpinto the bus from inside the bus
through the floor while otherpeople are chasing electrical
and resolving those things.
Tuesday turns into uh you know10, 11 o'clock night outside
with the bus still not running,which turns into a Wednesday
(24:14):
with a full day of working onthe bus.
Everybody stopping what they'redoing to try to help with the
bus, which turns into anotherday, Thursday working on the
bus.
Every time a new theory, a newthought, a new opportunity to do
something, to chase something.
(24:35):
More batteries go into the bus.
Starter switch goes into thebus.
A dealership tells us to tearapart the main wiring harness to
the bus to chase that.
It goes on and on and on.
A grounding strap underneath thebus that we believe might be the
final answer and resolution tothe scenario.
(24:56):
We recreate all of that only tobe at a point on Thursday night
at probably nine o'clock atnight, where it's pouring, an
absolute torrential downpour.
Noah's on the ground, under thebus, outside, installing the
(25:16):
strap, only to have nothing.
Nothing work.
During this time, another closefriend of mine, Derek Down,
volunteers to uh come to thehouse and pick our camper up
because we're trying to findways to conserve time at this
point, because what we need isis time.
We are now taking something thattakes us three, four days to
(25:41):
build and giving ourselves oneday to do it.
And while doing that, we don'thave time to wait around to put
our camper in.
If you show up here at the daybefore the fair opens, you can
wait in line for an hour or twojust to get in with your camper.
So we need to uh lighten theload a little bit.
Derek shows up to um come haulthe camper, and um the
(26:04):
electrical on the camper is notworking, the lights to the
camper isn't working, and thesun's going down.
It's it's nighttime, it'sgetting dark out.
He says, you know, I I can't Ican't haul this.
And uh Derek leaves and we workon the wires on the camper and
we get the lighting on that towork, and it's pouring and it's
(26:26):
getting late, and uh my brotherToby Reynolds and his boy Gavin
show up, and me and him load thecamper up, and uh the three of
us head up here and drop thecamper off late night because
now at this point I'm not gonnahave uh the wife and the you
know one-year-old hauling andthey're dead of night, not being
(26:47):
able to see anything when thetruck is still getting adjusted
correctly to running this camperand trying to set up and all
those all that difficulty levelthat goes with that.
So Toby stopped what he wasdoing, him and Gavin.
We brought the camper uptogether.
We got it in, we got it settledin, get home a little past 11
o'clock, and I just sit down andsay, Man, I I don't know how
(27:12):
much more of this I can take.
I don't know how much more ofthis I can handle.
And we're just running out offixes or running out of patches
to stop the leakage, you know?
So it gets to the point whereour only option is to rent a
truck.
And if you just heard my story,you know that we don't have the
(27:34):
funds anymore to to continue toto hemorrhage money to make this
work.
Toby's wife Ashton got us agreat deal on a Penske rental
truck, so we get up first thingin the morning on Friday, and uh
the family loads up and we headoff to get a truck, and the
(27:56):
total to pay for the box truckcame in fifteen dollars under
the absolute max that I had onmy last remaining credit card.
Fifteen dollars to spare.
Get the box truck rented, gethome, and start the process of
(28:20):
taking everything out of the busand throwing it into the truck.
During this time, my uncle MikePackard gives me a shout and he
says, Man, I saw your video atthree o'clock in the morning and
I haven't been able to sleep.
I gotta come over and look atthe bus.
Him and Ryan come over and theywork on the bus all day.
(28:40):
My mom helps me and Allie loadup the box truck, and we take
off while Mike's still workingon the truck.
He worked on that thing till Idon't know, eight, nine o'clock
at night, narrowed a lot ofthings down, made a lot of
progress, but it's still notworking.
And we just didn't have the timeto to stay.
We had to take off and and andget here.
(29:02):
So me and Allie and the babyheaded to the fair.
We get here and um just startplugging away the best we can.
Sarah Perkins comes over andstarts to help with us, and then
Derek and Shannon down come overafter work and they work with us
till nine o'clock at night.
Julia Frost from Underdog Metalcomes over and she helps us.
(29:26):
It's a family, it's a communityall pitching in to help us make
it.
We worked until I want to say11, 11:30 that night.
This is after days of getting upat 5 a.m., 6 a.m.
working outside on the bus till10, 11 o'clock at night.
(29:48):
This cycle trying to makeeverything work.
Here we are Friday night.
I look at the wife and I said, Ican't do anything else.
I I can't physically do anythingelse.
We leave there and decide weneed to get something to eat.
We hit a drive-thru, come home,back to camp, in Little Paisley
Rain, wants to party, and wantsto stay up till after two in the
(30:13):
morning.
We probably fall asleep aroundtwo thirty.
I get back up at six, try tosneak out the camper, head back
down and spend the last fewhours before the fair opens
getting ourselves into apresentable position so we can
try to be as successful aspossible.
Throughout that day on Saturday,opening day, we probably made
(30:38):
seven or eight different tripswith a poll cart from the box
truck to the tent to load thingsup, to restock, to reload, to
try to get things on the shelvesthe way that we needed them.
It was an incredible challenge.
We were both so overwhelminglybeat and spent.
(30:59):
But I what I want to say to eachand every one of you is in the
five years of business for LoudProud American, Saturday was the
second largest day in thehistory of Loud Proud American.
We sacrificed, we took chances,we took risks, and we stayed
(31:22):
committed and dedicated to ourbeliefs, and we were rewarded.
Our second largest day in thehistory of our business on
Saturday.
We were so busy, and we arestill so busy that I haven't
even made a post about beinghere, I don't think.
(31:43):
Hopefully the wife has.
Normally we're doing all thebuild-up and all the drama,
showing off all the things thatwe're doing and releasing new
items and all those things.
Some of the new items that wemade are gonna be sold out
before I can make a video.
That's the next challenge,right?
What do you sell out of uh thatuh could prevent you from
hitting the numbers that youwant to hit?
(32:05):
But we had an incredible firstday.
We had an extremely strongsecond day.
We are about to have atremendous third day.
I am convinced this will be thegreatest event that we have ever
done.
(32:28):
Man, what a challenge, what aride this has been.
Perseverance.
That's all I can say.
Perseverance.
We are taking a master's classin perseverance.
(32:51):
Consider it pure joy, mybrothers and sisters, whenever
you face trials of many kinds,because you know that the
testing of your faith producesperseverance.
Let perseverance finish its workso that you may be mature and
complete, not lacking anything.
This has been a masterclass inperseverance.
(33:13):
I can tell you that for sure.
But we were rewarded, and wewill continue to be rewarded.
The challenge is still steep,the obstacles are massive, but I
feel like we are going to berewarded.
On opening day of the fair, PamPetingill came to me and uh she
(33:37):
gave me a hug and she said, Youknow, when you confess your love
for Jesus Christ, you knowyou're gonna be challenged,
right?
You know your faith is gonna bechallenged.
The devil is on your butt.
Last week I made thatconfessional that I will no
longer apologize for my beliefs,and I will lean into my beliefs.
(34:02):
I was rewarded with a greatchallenge, a great deal of
difficulty.
I was at my breaking point.
I sat at my coffee table with mywife at midnight after dropping
off our camper saying, Baby, Idon't know how much I have left
to give.
(34:22):
On Thursday, when I made thatvideo, that video was seconds
after me praying.
That video was seconds after mesaying, God, I gotta give this
one to you.
God, I don't know how much moreI can do.
I put those words out into theuniverse because I wanted to
(34:45):
confirm my faith.
I wanted to show I am stillcommitted to my faith.
When I am doubting myself most,when I am at my absolute
breaking point, when I'mbeginning to feel like I can't
continue to overcome, I can'tcontinue to beat and defeat
these challenges and theseobstacles.
(35:05):
When I'm at that point, I needto say steadfast in my faith and
in my belief when I am feelingdepleted.
Well, after giving that prayer,after being in my shed on my
knees praying, I was overcomewith the feeling that I needed
(35:26):
to turn the camera on and makemy confessional.
Thank you.
Thank you to each and every oneof you that have helped to keep
me going.
Being a small business ownerisn't easy.
Being a small business ownerwill challenge you.
Being a small business owner canbeat you and it can defeat you,
and it takes everything out ofyou, and it takes everything out
(35:47):
of your family for them to becommitted, for them to be
committed to your cause.
It's trying times, it'sdifficult times on everybody
around you.
It's not all glitters andrainbows, man.
It is a challenging, dark time,oftentimes.
It takes great deals ofsacrifice, but you must remain
(36:08):
committed, and you must continueto have faith that this too
shall pass, that this will allwork out.
That was that was the messagethat I was delivering.
Because I knew in those times,something told me now is the
time for you to turn that cameraon and reconfirm your faith in
God, reconfirm your faith thatthis can work out, reconfirm to
(36:32):
the world.
Here I am at my lowest of lowsas a business owner, and I still
know I'm gonna pull through.
I still know it's all gonna cometrue.
These dreams are gonna cometrue.
Why?
Because I give it all to God,and my heart and my thoughts and
my intentions are all in theright directions, and this will
(36:53):
be glorious.
On the other side of difficultyis reward, on the other side of
sacrifice is triumph.
I took the time when I wasvulnerable to do a few things.
Number one, say thank you toeach and every person that's
helped to pull me through.
Number two, to make sure anybodyelse out there that is
(37:16):
suffering, that is dealing withsomething, that is struggling,
don't let the dark times win.
Don't let the tough times win.
Number three, and mostimportantly, give it to God.
I wanted to make a publicconfession that I'm at my wit's
end, and all I can do, allthat's left for me to do is to
(37:37):
give it to you.
God is great.
I promised you last week inhonor of Charlie Kirk, I would
not run from my fears, I wouldnot hide my emotions, I would
state my convictions.
(37:59):
Be not dismayed, for I am yourGod.
I will strengthen you, I willhelp you, I will uphold you with
my righteous right hand.
We are here, and we shall remainhere.
Loud Proud American isn't goinganywhere.
We are off to the greatest startwe have ever had at any event
(38:23):
we've ever done.
This will be the largest andgreatest success in our story.
I look forward to sharing thosesuccess stories with you next
week.
But until then, I must get downto that tent and begin to crush
(38:44):
it.
From the bottom of my heart,thank you, thank you, thank you
to each and every single one ofyou.
Thank you for supporting ourAmerican dream.
That's it, and that's all,Biggie Smalls.
(39:16):
If you're allowed proudAmerican, and you find yourself
to find me on YouTube andFacebook and Loud Proud American
Facebook, if you're fancy RamCrackett, you wanna find me on
Instagram Tickety Tackin on theTikTok, you can find me on all
(39:38):
of those loud underscore crackunderscore.
(40:00):
You are enjoying what you'rehearing background for the gun
structure.
(40:28):
I truly thank you for supportingmy American dream.
Now go wash your fucking hands,you filthy savage.
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