April 2, 2025 • 55 mins
I explore whether social media can actually increase productivity, sharing surprising results from a challenge my wife gave me to do TikTok Lives while working. This counterintuitive approach completely transformed my perspective on how social platforms can benefit my business.
• My struggle with social media as both necessary for business and a massive distraction
• How dopamine addiction creates a cycle of unproductivity and guilt
• My wife's challenge to use TikTok Lives while working on hats
• The unexpected result: seven straight hours of productive work while building relationships
• Discovering that relationship-building online mirrors in-person sales success
• The difference between quick dopamine hits versus sustained satisfaction from meaningful connections
• How this approach could potentially solve my work-life balance challenges
• Building a loyal, positive community across the country through authentic interaction
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Today on Share the Struggle Podcast, we answer one
crazy question Can social mediaactually increase productivity?
A social media challenge throwndown by my loving, beautiful
wife provides some surprisingresults.
(00:21):
That is what's on tap today onepisode 247 of Share the
Struggle podcast.
Let me tell you somethingEverybody struggles.
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 havea very profound effect on the
(00:45):
way you live your life.
If you find strength in thestruggle, then this podcast is
for you.
You have a relationship that iscomfortable with uncomfortable
conversations.
Uncomfortable conversationschallenge you, humble you and
(01:06):
they build you.
When you sprinkle a little timeand distance on it, it all
makes sense.
Most disagreements, they stemfrom our own insecurities.
You are right where you need tobe Back on time.
We need to back off.
(01:27):
The whole day gone.
What in my heart?
Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh.
What it is, what it hot,dee-dee-dee, dee-dee-dee-dee.
Good Lord, almighty, am I soexcited to be back with you?
Oh, it's true, it's damn true.
(01:48):
Did I use enough voiceinflections to open today's show
?
Good Lord, man, blame it on thecaffeine y'all.
Today I'm enjoying a large, bigold, big gulp ice coffee from
the Dunkin' Donuts.
This is what I'm going to tellyou folks.
I have scaled back my Dunkin'Donuts consumption.
(02:13):
I know y'all have been worriedabout me.
I traditionally have been a twoice coffee a day kind of lady
over here and I've been scalingthat back for a couple of
reasons.
First one financial and thensecond one fat Fat reasons.
Right, I'm feeling rather fat.
(02:34):
So there's that.
Anyways, what was I talkingabout?
Caffeine.
So I have scaled back myDunkin' habit.
I've even scaled back my Duncanhabit.
I've even I can boldly say Ihave even gone a couple of days
without going to Duncan, whichis wild.
Okay, honestly, this kind ofpiggybacks.
(02:55):
My trip to Florida, because whenwe were confined to the
campground and we were slingingmerchandise all day and night we
weren't able to get out, right,we were, the bus was our home,
ponderosa, so that was set up.
I was only able to get awayfrom camp and the vendor space
like a few days to actuallyenjoy a coffee.
(03:16):
So that kind of sped up myprocess of scaling back caffeine
.
My mother and I have gottogether on making coffees
during the week, so if we drinktwo cups a day, we are only
purchasing one cup a day, butI'm going days in between
without buying coffee as well.
This is random, I know.
Okay, but what I'm here to saytoday is I'm enjoying this large
(03:41):
Dunkin' Donuts iced coffee, notbecause it's made perfectly.
Enjoying this large Dunkin'Donuts iced coffee not because
it's made perfectly, but becauseit was free.
My wife texted me a littlewhile ago Today's April Fool's
Day, the day that I'm recordingthis and she asked me about my
free coffee, which I assumed wasan April Fool's joke.
But there was a code that youneeded to put into your Dunkin'
app today that says this is nota joke and you get yourself a
(04:04):
free coffee.
So maybe, if I get done in time, I will do a video and post it
so that your loyal listenersthat follow along on our social
media channels will get theability to take advantage of a
free coffee, just like I did.
If a coffee is not made correct, but you didn't pay a damn
thing for it, it's not that bad.
(04:25):
You'll enjoy it.
I've had some questionablecoffees taste a hell of a lot
better than the ones that I paidfor, when the ones that I paid
for were made even a little bitbetter.
Isn't that the truth, folks?
Perception is reality, right,we say it all the time.
And here's another lesson onperception is reality, because
(04:45):
when I perceive this coffee tobe free, good Lord, almighty,
does it taste delicious to me?
Mm, mm, mm, mm, mm.
Jiggling, ching, ching, ching.
That's a cup of ice right there, folks, mm, oh yeah, mm, mm, mm
.
Oh, it's almost gone.
(05:06):
It's almost gone.
The downfall to recording apodcast and drinking a nice
coffee is that it kind of givesyou like a cotton mouth effect.
So I'm going to turn my micdown, back up and try to do my
best to not sound like acomplete asshole.
So that is what it is.
Now.
Here's the subject for today,folks Can social media actually
(05:31):
be a productive avenue?
Can social media be a way toramp up production?
Okay, that is a crazy thought.
And we're connecting dotsbecause I just told y'all, if
you follow me on social media,I'm going to try to alert you to
a free coffee.
And we're connecting dotsbecause I just told y'all, if
you follow me on social media,I'm going to try to alert you to
a free coffee.
And here we are talking aboutthe benefits of social media.
Can it increase productivity?
(05:52):
When, to be honest, I haveassumed social media to be a bit
of the antichrist.
Okay, let's be honest, it is atime-sucking warp zone.
That is also a mind-corruptingcesspool, right, we can say all
those things.
I have been on record sayingthat if it wasn't for Loud Proud
(06:15):
American, our business, if itwasn't for Share the Struggle
podcast, this beautiful, lovely,voluptuous podcast podcast,
this beautiful, lovely,voluptuous podcast, I would give
the old Daz boot to my socialmedia because, number one, it's
a drama filled fart fest.
(06:36):
Okay, I would.
I wanted to swear right there,I really did.
I wanted to drop an F bomb sohard right there because it
would have just had such more ofan impact.
But I'm a leaf to um, scalingback my profanity as a girl dad.
But not, I'm not writingpromises right now.
Okay, I'm not issuingpermission slips and hall passes
and I'm not signing guarantees,but I'm just saying I'm a
(06:58):
little more conscious of myvocab.
So I just turned an F-bomb intoa fart, which I guess isn't all
that polite for a little ladyeither.
But you see, I'm makingprogress.
Life's about progress.
It's about taking steps, makingprogress.
Here I am All right, I'm makingprogress.
Social media can be just thisdrama-filled fart fest that can
(07:25):
just rob you of your positiveway of thinking.
How many of you have been onsocial media?
And as you're just scrollingalong, it goes from woe is me,
debbie Downer?
To the next person is I hateyou because you voted for this?
Who voted for this?
Who voted for that?
(07:45):
Who are you?
Why are you here?
Get the hell out of here.
Right, all these things, thisnonsense, time-sucking, just
negative hailstorm ofridiculousness.
That's what our social mediatimelines have become right.
Media timelines have becomeright and I've kind of tried to
(08:11):
organize my social media avenuesoff of like, let's call them
buckets, okay.
So I have a few differentlayers of social media and this
is going to kind of open up thecan of worms.
Here we're going to start topeel back the onion.
I have Facebook, right, and Ihave Facebook, three accounts of
Facebook.
I have Facebook for this herepodcast, which I do not post
enough, and we're going to getinto some of the reasons why
(08:31):
here shortly.
I have a social media Facebookpage for this podcast.
It automatically now drops newepisodes, which is the biggest
reason why we have it, and I'mtrying to find other avenues to
grow this positive tribe.
I also have Facebook, mypersonal account on Facebook,
which, in that section, I amfollowing friends, family, stuff
(08:55):
like that, right, more sofriends than family, and friends
that become family because myreal family not quite as much.
Let's be honest, if I go back afew pesos here, my podcast page
really follows inspirationalstuff and other podcasts.
Now the third page for Facebookis the Loud Proud American page
(09:19):
, which that one gets the mostactivity.
Even with that said, itprobably doesn't get enough
activity.
Right, I should be posting onsocial media as a business owner
way more than I do.
I have such a backlog of poststhat I should have put out that
I'm just not doing.
I need to get my Cabela'scatalog right now, put my left
(09:40):
hand on it, place my beadylittle eyes to the sky and put
on a full frontal confessionalthat says I need to get better
at being more active on socialmedia, and I'm going to do my
best at that.
But when I say getting betterat being active, I'm not talking
about endless scrolling onsocial media, which is something
(10:00):
that I tend to fall victim to.
So those are my three accountson Facebook.
The podcast website, or podcastFacebook page, gets used the
least, followed by my personalpage, which I would put the
podcast one above it because ithas automatic posting.
My personal one, you'll noticeI don't post very often
(10:24):
whatsoever.
And then the business one isobviously the most active.
We do live sales and we try toannounce a lot of things that
we're doing, and then that onefollows other businesses and
inspirational stuff right Now ifwe flip on over to Instagram my
Instagram for Loud ProudAmerican kind of doubles, as my
personal as well.
Instagram for Loud ProudAmerican kind of doubles, as my
personal as well.
So it's a business Instagrampage.
(10:46):
It reflects all of our business.
You know what to do and who todo and all the things that we're
doing.
It posts rather similar to whatour Facebook one actually posts
, but occasionally I'll havesome personal things I get
dropped in there.
Then I also have a share thestruggle podcast Instagram page,
(11:06):
which at one point I was reallydedicated to putting you know
30 second clips on there, andthat has fallen right off the
map.
So you're seeing a trend here.
Folks, I'm not utilizing socialmedia like I should.
I have a Snapchat.
I don't know the last time Iturned my Snapchat on.
I used to only use Snapchat forthe funny filters and make
(11:26):
stupid clips of myself.
That was it.
I don't really use it.
I should probably get rid of it.
Tiktok I have a TikTok pagethat I have utilized more so for
making funny videos.
We had one video on there thatyou would say almost went viral.
It nearly touched a millionviews, which I don't know what
(11:48):
the landmark is for a viralvideo, but we're pretty damn
close to a million views onthere.
So I would consider that theclosest thing that we had to
viral.
But nothing of that was makingme famous.
Nothing of that was generatinga profit or putting awareness on
our business, even though ithas our business name.
I would try to wear our appareland then make dumb videos at
(12:11):
the same time and kind of hopethey worked together and I also
at one point had a TikTok shopon there, but that and my
website stopped communicating.
So, with all that said, I wouldgo on there and try to make
little videos to sell productsaround the holidays, and they
would always flop Me making aridiculous comment or doing
(12:32):
something totally silly tomyself, but get all these views,
but the moment I tried topeddle anything it didn't go
anywhere.
So I've really stopped using it.
I've placed maybe one video ortwo videos in all of 2024 on my
TikTok and I don't think I hadplaced a new video on there at
all in 2025.
(12:53):
My last avenue for social mediais my Twitter page, my X page,
which this might surprise someof you I'm the most active on
there.
I'm not really posting on there, but this is where I find
myself doing more endlessscrolling, because there's a lot
of reading and I follow a lotof different things on there my
ex page, my Twitter page.
(13:15):
I don't think I really followanybody that I know personally.
I follow news outlets.
I follow sports teams, sportsreporters, athletes,
inspirational stuff andpolitical stuff, and that's
where I get a lot of my news.
I get a ton of my news off of X, thanks to Elon Musk for
(13:36):
filtering through the nonsenseand providing some genuine,
legit insight and news.
Filtering through the nonsenseand providing some genuine,
legit insight and news, so I usethat to stay informed on sports
, on politics, on things likethat.
Now, if I'm going on there, I'mreading, looking at things, I'm
watching videos, whatever.
That will destroy a bunch of myproductivity.
(13:59):
If I go on Instagram to make apost for the business, I might
waste an hour just watchingInstagram reels and kind of just
endlessly scrolling aroundlooking at funny videos or
watching sports things.
Now on Facebook I've kind ofgotten to the point where I
don't really scroll on Facebookthat much anymore.
I might do a quick peruse tosee locally what's happening,
(14:23):
keep up to date on any of youlisteners out there that we're
friends and family and and I seeyou kind of pop up on my
timeline.
That's kind of how I'mutilizing social media.
But this is what's happened.
I have reached a time in mylife where I'm having a hard
time being productive andknocking things out of the park
and you guys have heard me havethese conversations before.
(14:46):
But you know my schedule and Idon't want to dig into the whole
scenario and hoopla on myschedule all over again, because
if you've been listening, youknow how it works.
But Tuesdays and Thursdays isme and baby day.
I get up at five in the morning, bring my mom to work, wifey
goes to work, it's me and baby.
Till about one o'clock go pickup Mima and then baby goes with
(15:08):
Mima from like three o'clock tofour, 35 o'clock when the wifey
gets home.
I'm trying to work during thosethose few hours Monday,
wednesday, friday, you know, getup, do chores, get the baby
ready, get her settled in atMima's house.
I'm allowed to go to workaround 10 or 11 and work till
the wife gets home.
Weekends is kind of when I'mreally, you know, putting things
(15:29):
in as far as, as far as youknow, trying to work but you're
also trying to divide up timewith the family.
So my schedule is a real, justconundrum.
It's a real man.
I'm trying to say a bunch ofbad words but I really want to
say twat waffle.
Can I say that my schedule is areal twat waffle?
Okay, minus the syrup.
I mean, put the syrup on.
(15:50):
I'm a little overweight.
Syrup has a lot to do with mebeing overweight.
The point I'm making here,folks, is I've realized that
I've fallen victim to needingdopamine hits.
I've fallen victim to being adopamine addict, and that's not
a dope addict.
We're talking about dopamine,that artificial shot of energy,
(16:13):
that instant gratification, thatinstant satisfaction, and I
find myself just scrolling andwasting time.
I find myself having a realFOMO over sports.
I will endlessly go back andforth to look for information
like, wow, it's been 20 minutes.
What do I need to know about mysports team with free agency.
(16:35):
What the draft?
What's going on with thepresident?
What's going on with Musk?
I've developed a FOMO over thisfear of missing out, where I'm
always checking in on things,and if you're checking in on
those things on social media,then that's an avenue to just
scroll and lose a bunch moretime.
So when you don't have a lot oftime to be productive, and then
(16:58):
you have this FOMO and you'recraving dopamine, have this FOMO
and you're craving dopamine.
It's a bad recipe for sendingyourselves down a rabbit hole of
depression and unproductivity.
Right?
Is that even a word?
I don't think that is a word.
You're an idiot.
Lay off the coffee.
What I'm saying here, folks, isit's a game of catch-22.
(17:24):
It's chasing your tail.
You try to talk yourself intobeing so productive, but you're
so easily distracted that youbasically just end up screwing
yourself.
If you wake up with a list ofthings that you need to get done
and today is your daddy daycareday you will, in the back of
your mind, feel guilty about thethings you're not getting done,
(17:45):
but you're trying to erase thatso that you can be present and
enjoy the time with your baby.
So then, when mom gets home,when the wifey gets home and
when me ma's around, and thenyou drift off to work.
Now your FOMO kicks in on awhole different level because
now you feel like I'm missingout on you, feel like I'm
missing out on family time, I'mmissing out on quality time.
(18:08):
So you have that vicious cycle.
But then if you find yourselfwith a free couple of hours, you
can get too easily distractedand find yourself on social
media.
Now, I'm not saying this is myworld every single day, but I'm
trying to pave the road, topaint the picture, to set the
scene so y'all can understandthat we have all these
(18:30):
distractions in our lives.
My world is currently filledwith a bunch of distractions and
I have found myself beingextremely dopamine dependent.
I need that instantgratification, that instant
satisfaction.
The reason why I get two largeiced coffees a day.
Part of it is the caffeine kick, part of it is the task of
(18:51):
going to get a coffee, tobreaking up the routine, to
doing something new.
So for me, curbing some of thathabit is regaining some of my
confidence, and I know thatsounds strange, but it's you
building willpower to say no, Idon't need that cup of coffee.
No, I don't need that Red Bull?
No, I don't need a cold beer,whatever that is right.
(19:14):
These vices all come to us indifferent ways shapes, forms and
devices, right, whether it'syour cell phone, whether it's a
coffee, whether it's booze,whatever the hell it is, there's
these different vices anddevices that come to us and they
rob of us our attention, theytake away our productivity and
(19:35):
they rob away our naturalability to handle, process and
function with dopamine.
So I've become this dopamineaddict that always needs
satisfaction, always needsgratification, right?
So I've identified myself beingin this struggle and I know
some of the ways out of it.
Right, start to gain somewillpower.
(19:57):
Remove some things from yourlife.
Start making better choices.
Start eating better.
Get back to the gym makingbetter choices.
Start eating better.
Get back to the gym.
All these things Now.
For me, some of them don't feelall that possible.
I'm short on time and low onpatience, so going to the gym
seems rather impossible rightnow for me to do.
But I need to find a way tostart regaining willpower.
(20:22):
I need to find a way to startremoving distractions and get
back to being the wholesome,present person that I need to be
.
My trip to Florida was a greatstep in doing that.
It helped me to eliminatedistractions, focus on the task
at hand and try to seek anddestroy as much money as I could
(20:44):
because I was away from myfamily.
I needed to make the best of it.
It was a great factory resetand I've come home and tried to
stay on that production train toget things done.
But you also run into thevicious cycle of if you're
listening along and you know thewhole business model here we're
in a tight spot financiallywhen it comes to cash flow for
(21:04):
the business.
We're in between events.
We're low on opportunities whenit comes to either events or
custom stuff.
So I'm out there trying tocultivate what I can and you're
robbing Peter to pay Paul tonavigate things.
So all of that just that ballof stress in in itself that
weighs on you as well and canprevent you from being
(21:28):
productive.
So here I am fighting the goodfight of production, fighting
the good fight to try to remainproductive, to be positive, to
get things done, while fightingthe fact that you don't have the
money to buy the product to beproductive.
You don't have the money toapply and get into and accepted
(21:48):
to the events that you want tobe involved in.
So you're trying to be creativeto find the funds to do those
things.
So that takes a lot of time,energy and willpower and just
real, clear, positive thinkingto overcome those things.
But when you sprinkle in thiswhole dopamine, you know
(22:09):
ridiculousness.
That I've been on it makes itreally difficult.
Have I done an adequate job ofpainting for you this ass
douching scenario?
Have I done it at all?
Have we described anything thathits home for you?
Anybody listening right now?
(22:29):
Are you victim to any of thethings that?
I am right.
Do you find yourself endlesslyscrolling on social media?
Are you watching TikToks?
Are you watching reels?
Do you have the coffee habit?
Do you have a shopping habit?
Do you have a drinking habit?
Whatever it is?
Do you have these things thatare taking you away from what's
(22:52):
important?
Do you have any vices anddevices that are robbing your
time and attention from yourfamily, from your career, from
your happiness?
Do you have any of those things?
Have I hit on anything with myendless rambling today?
Has any of this stuff touchedyou?
Okay, not there.
(23:13):
I'm not trying to touch youbelow the Mason Dixon.
I want to keep this all on theup and up.
Okay, I'm going between theblinkers here.
I want to go between the earsand the eyes, between the
blinkers.
I'm trying to shoot straightand narrow.
I don't have a doll.
I'm not asking.
People aren't here asking you.
There's no therapist asking you, where did the podcast touch
you?
Huh, where did the podcast hosttouch you?
(23:35):
Can you show me on the doll?
That's not it I'm talking about.
Did it touch you between theblinkers?
Did anything here resonate withyou, hit home with you and say
to you well, son of a bitch, Igot some distractions in my life
and I've been talking those upas positives because they remove
me from reality, they take meaway from you know, whatever
(23:56):
shit fest it is I'm sufferingfrom today.
Sometimes we go to those vicesand devices to remove ourselves
from the situation that weplaced ourselves in.
Is this all hitting at home atall?
Is it Any of it Setting in withanyone?
I hope so.
You know what you think aboutit.
(24:18):
You think about it for a second.
Okay, I'm going to give you atopic Rhode Island.
Neither a road nor an island.
Discuss, talk about it amongstyourselves.
Here's another one Fish sticks.
Neither a fish nor a stick.
Think about it.
I'm going to have some icedcoffee, all right, all right,
(24:53):
all right.
Now, folks, with everything wejust said to start the show, do
you think in any way, shape orform, it is possible for an
increase in social media toresult in an increase in
productivity?
Because I, for one, thought nochance in hell.
(25:18):
Okay, thinking about the oldtheme song, for was that Vince
McMahon's old thing song, nochance in hell?
Anyways, don't get rambling.
Already I, as I mentionedbefore during my confessional
hour that we've already had theold full frontal confessional, I
said I need to be posting moreon social media for the business
(25:43):
, for the awareness, forbuilding the brand, for
increasing sales.
But part of the reason why thathasn't happened is because,
number one, I guess I'm lazy.
Number two, if I go on socialmedia to push, promote and post
for the business, the abilityfor me to for the lack of a
(26:07):
better term dick off goes way up.
The ability for me to get soeasily distracted squirrel goes
way up.
I get lost in the sauce whenI'm trying to work on stuff for
the business.
So I can have a list of socialmedia things that I have to do
for the business and I go onthere and I might get one or two
(26:28):
of them done, but they couldalso result in one or two hours
of me losing productivity.
So I tell myself, nope, you'renot gonna do that stuff right
now.
You need to be more productive.
Take advantage of your time.
If you wanna post those socialmedia things, then do them at
night, and then at night whenI'm on the couch.
(26:48):
If I start getting ready to dothose far too often I'm just
like you know what I'm done withtoday and then it just doesn't
get done.
So I've been fighting thisvicious battle in my mind of you
need to be more productive onsocial media for your business,
but by doing so you become lessproductive in your life because
your distractions are rightbetween the blinkers.
(27:09):
With that said, my wife hasthrown down a social media
challenge and said social mediachallenge actually revolves
around the one app that wouldcause the most distractions in
my life.
She threw down a TikTokchallenge to me.
(27:33):
Tiktok, the place where we allgo to watch funny videos, to
laugh our ass off, scrollendlessly and have new
productivity.
At least that's the way I lookat it.
My wife says to me and she'sbeen saying this to me for quite
some time and I guess I haven'ttaken it serious.
(27:54):
Wifey, I apologize, don't worry, you're going to hear me
apologize quite a bit in therest of this segment.
Here she tells me you need todo TikTok lives and you need to
do them all the time and I'msaying this makes no sense.
This actually spits in the faceof my theories.
(28:18):
All right, this goes in theopposite direction of what I'm
trying to accomplish.
This runs headfirst into thewall of distraction.
I can't do this Now.
In my defense I want to say ayear or so ago I took the shot
at it and I started doing someTikTok lives and I had one or
(28:40):
two people show up and nothingreally happened and I've not
really had any sales success oranything off of TikTok, like I
mentioned to you before.
But Ali said to me listen,people will watch you do
anything Like just work, justwork and turn on your phone.
(29:01):
This is mind numbing to me.
I didn't think there was anyopportunity here for me.
Why would somebody want towatch me work when I barely want
to watch myself work?
But she tells me people do itand it's a distraction and for
her, get this, it increasesproductivity.
You ask yourself how well mywife has to do a lot of work
(29:24):
that while she's at work thatshe would consider busy work or
might consider like mind numbing, like I just have all this
stuff to do, like this dataentry stuff, going, going
through the process.
I have a process to get throughand sometimes I just need the
mental distraction that inreturn actually refocuses me on
(29:47):
what I need to get done.
Here's my wife.
She will put on like SteveWilkos or Jerry Springer in the
background and just work Muchlike you would at home.
My wife will have Steve Wilkoson and she'll be cleaning the
entire house right.
So at work she might have thosethings on in the background.
(30:07):
Or she will go to somebody'slive, somebody's TikTok live,
where they're doing whatever andthe sound of them doing that
live.
Whether you're doing whateverand the sound of them doing that
, offers a pleasant distractionthat helps her through her day,
that helps her through her dataentry and whatever it is that
she has to do.
So a couple things getaccomplished she's more
(30:27):
productive, she's lessdistracted, she's getting her
work done and she's also forminga connection with the person
that's providing the distraction.
Does that make sense toeverybody?
I know this was a challenge forme to understand, but I said
over the weekend let's do it.
I was sitting on a perfectopportunity.
(30:49):
I have just received about 800or 1,000 hats and I needed to do
300 hats for Bentley Saloonwith leather patches on them,
100 leather hat patches for myfriend Ed's Barbershop, and then
I have a few more things on theway this week for transfers to
finish the rest of those hats.
(31:09):
So on Friday I turned on a live.
On Saturday I turned on a live.
On Sunday I turned on a live.
On Monday I turned on a live.
On Saturday I turned on a live.
On Sunday, I turned on a live.
On Monday I turned on a live.
Okay, this is how things went.
I set up a camera, I turned ona heat press and I just went to
work.
So on Friday I ended upcrushing through a great pile of
(31:31):
hats right, getting a bunch ofwork done, meeting people along
the way.
I'm going to get some daysconfused here, but I want to
start digging into a few things.
One of the first days that Iwas doing this I think it was
actually my very first day onFriday a fellow popped into the
chat, started talking with meand I quickly realized he's a
(31:55):
loyal supporter and follower, myman Morton, out in Connecticut.
His mother actually came to seeme in the Freiburg Fair and
I've told this story before onthe podcast, where I said one of
the coolest and most favoritethings that have happened to me
since starting this business andhaving this brand and doing all
(32:16):
this social media stuff waswhen a lady was in my tent
shopping for her son and she hadhim on FaceTime and he was
looking for certain items and Ijumped on the call with him and
we just had an absolute blast.
That was one of the coolestthings that I've ever done.
Like it just gave me like a Idon't even know how to explain
(32:38):
it.
Folks, you want to talk about ahit of dopamine for a second?
You want to feel like somebody,you want to feel important,
feel special, feel like acelebrity.
Have that happen right.
Like, oh, my son follows you,he loves you, he wants this item
.
I'm trying to figure it out andit results in let's get him on
the phone and let's have aconversation.
It was one of the coolestthings I've ever done.
(32:59):
Now, every year at the fair, Ieither see him or his mom and
that conversation can come backup.
So here I am doing a live andhe jumps on and we start
chatting and then I say, oh myGod, you're from Connecticut,
right.
And then we start making thisconnection.
That turns in to him giving mea bunch of likes, sending gifts,
(33:21):
having positive conversations,sharing the show.
My wife's jumping in, she'ssharing it because she's excited
to see me on here doing thesethings.
And then some friends of oursare coming in and so overall,
you know, we have a good time.
We don't have a lot of peopleshow up, but we have a good time
.
Saturday that increases alittle bit.
(33:42):
And again, I don't want to getall the days blurry, but I'm
just going to hit on a couple ofhigh notes here.
On Sunday I went on and saidyou know, let's just try to
crush through some hats here,and it turned into me making
hats for seven hours straight.
Now I really have to try toexplain this to you guys.
(34:04):
My phone is set up on a tripod.
It's focused on my work surface.
I can kind of pop in and out ofthe screen.
But while I'm making hats, I'mreading comments, I'm seeing
people come in to the room, I'macknowledging them, I'm thanking
them for likes, I'm encouragingthem to share the show, I'm
asking them where they're from.
(34:25):
I'm genuinely learning aboutpeople and I'm introducing
myself.
I'm talking about my brandrepeatedly, I'm talking about
what it is I'm doing repeatedlyand I'm inquisitive to the
people that come in the room.
So I'm constantly asking andthen I'm learning things about
people where they're from Idaho,michigan, texas, california,
(34:48):
north Carolina, virginia whatthey do for work.
I'm a truck driver that ownsnine trucks.
I'm in Michigan right nowwaiting on a load.
I was just in Maine picking uppotatoes not that long ago.
All these conversations right,my man from Connecticut that
we've never talked this longsince we've known each other,
learning about this lifetime ofsimilarities that we have, right
(35:12):
?
All these cool, crazy thingsTrue, texan out in Texas talking
to me about different fairs andevents.
I should do out there, thesegreat conversations are
happening.
This, ladies and gentlemen,mimics what happens for Loud,
proud American when we're on theroad at an event.
If I am on the road, set up asa vendor, when you come in my
(35:37):
tent, I'm asking about you, whoyou are, where you're from, what
brings you in, and I amlearning about you.
I have said till I'm blue inthe face.
The best thing about sales isnot transaction sales, it is
relationship sales.
It's about getting to knowpeople, making a connection,
(35:57):
building a foundation, buildinga relationship.
In the world of sales somethingI've been doing my entire life
I've come to learn a few things.
Number one sales is a transferof enthusiasm.
If you are not excited aboutyour product, you will not sell
your product.
If you want to be a successfulsalesperson, find a product that
(36:18):
gets you excited.
When you're excited about yourproduct, you are going to convey
emotion.
You are going to discuss,describe, display, show and give
the entire show about yourproduct with true, genuine
emotion.
That emotion gets peopleexcited.
If you do it correctly, you aretransferring your enthusiasm,
(36:41):
your excitement about yourproduct to somebody else.
You are building a loyal brandambassador.
At that point, and the more youget to know somebody and you
start to begin relationshipswith those people, they will
always buy from you.
Another fun, interesting factabout sales is all things
(37:02):
considered, people would ratherbuy from somebody they like.
This is a foundation that Iused to great deals of success
when owning, running, operatinga Harley-Davidson dealership.
All things considered, somebodywould rather buy from somebody
they like.
What that tells me is, if youcome in looking for a motorcycle
(37:23):
and you can get that exact sameblack street glide at any other
dealership around, but you justhappen to like me more than the
other guy.
We just happen to connect alittle bit more.
We're a little more personable,we have a connection.
We made a relationship.
You, my friend, would muchrather buy from me, even if the
prices aren't the same.
(37:44):
So the key that I've alwaysoperated on with Loud, proud,
american is relationship retailfirst, guerrilla marketing.
I need to be out on the streets, meeting the people, shaking
the hands, introducing myself,having the conversation.
When I'm online and I'm selling, whether I have a quick
(38:05):
60-second reel, whether it's anemail marketing flyer, whether
it's me showing off my productfor 30 seconds or in a post,
we're not building arelationship.
You might be interested in mypersonality or my presentation,
but there's no interaction.
While having this live event onTikTok, I am forming
(38:30):
relationships, we are buildingrelationships and currently over
the weekend I'm not necessarilyselling anything.
You're watching me work andwe're just having conversations
and you appreciate that what I'mworking on just happens to be
American made.
I'm leading up to the time andopportunity to sell on TikTok,
(38:50):
but right now I'm trying tobuild a foundation.
If I were to go on there onFriday and just try to sell, I
would have had two peoplewatching me.
That would have very quicklyleft and I wouldn't have sold
anything and I would have comeout of that experience rather
discouraged, much like the firsttime I started doing these
lives.
It is extremely difficult anddemoralizing to do a half-hour
(39:13):
live, sell nothing and interactwith one or two people.
That's tough.
But when my wife said peoplewill watch you work, just get on
there and work, I didn't wantto believe it.
I couldn't believe it.
But I'm here to tell you it istrue.
And when I said to you is it atall possible for social media
(39:36):
to increase productivity?
I'm here to tell you that onSunday on Sunday when I should
be spending more time with myfamily and get this we started
the day off with me makingbreakfast for the entire family,
us hanging out, me stillgetting quality time, and then
going to the office and sayingI'm going to make some hats time
(39:56):
and then going to the officeand saying I'm going to make
some hats, I'm going to do alive for an hour or so and let's
just be productive.
That live pushed me into makinghats for seven hours.
I made hats for seven hoursbecause I was being social, I
was building relationships, Iwas interacting and we built a
(40:16):
very loyal tribe with anextremely positive vibe.
We were all in there shootingthe shit.
The people that were in theroom were connecting and
reacting with other peoplethroughout the country that were
in the room.
At one point there was onlythree people in the room.
One of them was my wife.
(40:37):
The other one was my man,morton, out in Connecticut, and
the other one was Chris, childof God from man.
Was it California?
I want to say I can't remember.
I'm sorry, chris, but he lookslike Kid Rock Profile.
Looks like Kid Rock.
Everybody asks him if he's KidRock.
(40:59):
We're in the room because Imade a few comments that
suppressed the chat.
I made a few references tocrackheads.
I was sharing some storiesabout our road trips and my
brother Brian's superhuman powerto attract crackheads and while
having this conversation thatled into I don't believe boys
(41:21):
should be in little girls'bathrooms or playing in their
sports my live was suppressedand I got these warning labels
that came up on my live that Ihad to click on that.
I was violating communityrights.
And at this point we have arecord number of likes for my
(41:43):
live sale or my live workprocess.
I should say we are at like20,000 likes and I'm telling
everybody I can't leave the roomwhen we have this many likes,
like we're pushing 30,000 likesand it's they're telling me I
can't leave the room when wehave this many likes, we're
pushing 30,000 likes.
They're telling me you mighthave to end this live and start
(42:03):
a new one, because no one'sgoing to see this one, because
you're kind of getting almostbanned right now.
Well, the positive troop thatwe assembled went on a mission.
They were hitting the likebutton, so much I'm certain
(42:25):
everybody had a carpal tunnelappointment on Monday.
They also were sharing the show, letting everybody know the
show was happening and guesswhat folks.
The gates opened and peoplestarted coming in.
Even my niece was in there, andme and my niece haven't
interacted and had conversationslike this in person in a long
time, like we were saying things, joking back and forth.
(42:48):
I don't remember the last timewe were this social together.
So think about this we arebuilding relationships,
friendships and connectionsthroughout the country.
My own family's chiming in andwe're crossing barriers that we
haven't in quite some time.
And all in the meantime, ourlikes we were over 40,000 likes.
(43:09):
Y'all hearing this.
Over 40,000 likes on our live Icouldn't believe it.
A few things happen after that.
When you shut it off and you goeat, have dinner with the
(43:32):
family, like I'm kind of ridinga high I if we're talking about
me being on a dopamine quest,I've just filled myself up on
that satisfaction.
That quick hitting dopamineshot this one wasn't quick
hitting, it was self-sustaining,it lasted all day.
Because we're accomplishingthings.
(43:52):
I'm meeting people.
I'm really pinning off thethings that I'm good at.
I'm tapping into the stuff thatwe wait all winter for.
Being out on the road, meetingpeople, introducing ourselves,
being enthusiastic, sharing ourstories.
These things are all happeningfrom my office while I'm working
and being productive.
The things I've always done inthe dark, the things I do every
(44:15):
day in silence, are actuallyrewarding me in satisfaction.
It was crazy to me At dinner.
I'm so excited about what weaccomplished.
I'm rambling and, truth be told, I'm looking forward to the
next opportunity to beproductive, like the next day.
I'm doing the random things Igot to do in the morning and I
(44:38):
said you know what that's it.
We're going to go live andwe're going to be productive.
I've got a stack of hats hereto finish.
I got like 40 more hats, 34 tobe exact let's get them done.
I turn it on and before youknow it I got 160 people in the
room watching.
Remember folks on Sunday?
There was a time when I hadthree Now we're up over 100, and
(45:00):
that would come and go and theywould leave the room.
But we spent quite a bit oftime with 20, 30 people hanging
out on a Monday.
It got to the point where I ranout of things to work on and I
just stood back and just startedfiring off questions.
It became a Q&A.
We were giving relationshipadvice, life advice, marital
(45:21):
advice.
My wife came home with lunch.
We introduced her to the crowd,like the whole shebang.
I never in a million yearsthought the devices and
distractions that have robbed meof my production, when I use
them in a different way, rewardme with increased production.
(45:42):
They fill me up with somesatisfaction, some long-lasting
satisfaction.
It's not that quick-hitting,shiny, blinking-like dopamine
hit that we get.
It was more of a fulfilled one,of knowing that I made
connections today.
We started relationships today.
Another thing that gets kind ofcrossed off the list here that
(46:06):
is a major side benefit is we'realso talking about the podcast
at the same time, where you guysheard me kind of throw down the
gauntlet at the end of lastyear, the beginning of this year
, where I said we've kind of hita plateau where we need to
(46:27):
overcome this, you know, and I'mtrying to grow the show, and if
we don't, then I got to reallyconsider different things to do
and maybe scale back the show.
When, in the past few days, wehave gained listeners, and we
have gained loyal listenersbased off the relationships that
(46:48):
we are building, because mywife challenged me to turn on my
phone and just go to work.
This has resulted in some truebenefits, some true
opportunities, and I truly thinkthat, with a lot of hard work,
this will be a major part of theanswer to the problems that we
(47:13):
have in trying to build a brand,to launch a business, to
sustain a business and toprovide for a family.
Because after this one weekendexperience, my mind is always
already turning as to how I needto design our new office so it
can be more user-friendly andbeneficial to doing lives.
(47:35):
Because if I set things up towork and do production and do
those things live a lot moreoften, then I'm going to build
an audience that, when I go toour new office and things are
set up to do lives at the dropof a hat, without all this
endless preparation.
A week or so ago we did ourlive sale on Facebook and that
(47:58):
was a tremendous success, but ittook me two days to get ready
for that live.
With our new office and thingsbeing set up, we can do lives
with a drop of a hat.
I could be doing a work session, have a full crew of people
watching and then say you guyswant to look into buying some
stuff and walk next door, flipon the lights and go right into
selling.
I need to turn my social mediainto an avenue that creates a
(48:24):
financial benefit for my family.
That happens when I'm not onthe road.
This could be the greatestanswer in resolving some of the
challenges that we have.
If I can turn social media andmy daily production into an
avenue, a revenue avenue for meand my family.
(48:44):
This could be the answer thatI've been looking for, when I'm
allowed to work from home andstill do the things that I do
and make the money that we needfor the family.
While working from home, I canpick and choose the events I
want to do, just the way I'vealways set out to make that the
grand master plan.
(49:05):
I've been trying to find majorevents that I could do that
would allow me to eliminatesmall events.
What if the major events aren'tthings I have to find anymore?
Maybe I can replace that questwith online success and then I
can do the events that I want todo.
(49:27):
This could truly provide me awork-life balance that allows me
to raise my little girl fromhome and do the things that we
want to do and provide for thefamily, just like the way I've
always wanted to do.
I can't say this plan isfoolproof.
(49:47):
I can't say it's going to workovernight.
It hasn't resulted in a bunchof sales, but it has certainly
lit a fire under my ass.
It has reignited productivity.
It is resolving some of thethings in my life that I've been
dealing with.
It's building some morewillpower, some more confidence,
and I am here to say that mybeautiful bride was right yet
(50:15):
again.
Babe, god, this hurts.
You were right.
You were so right All the timeI bitched and complained about
the TikTok.
You were right, I should havebeen doing it sooner.
(50:35):
I was talking to Brian aboutthis on the phone yesterday and
I said, dude, we should havelive streamed our whole trip to
Florida.
We would have killed it.
But he made a wise drop ofknowledge when he said to me
brother, we're just gettingstarted, so things could just
keep on changing, and I like thefact that we're going to be
(50:58):
able to provide different formsof media with different forms of
content, because what I'm doingon TikTok is not something that
would work on Facebook.
It's not something that wouldwork on Instagram.
I don't think the audience onthose platforms would tune in to
watch what I did over theweekend, but I'm so refreshed
(51:20):
knowing there's something newand different I can do for one
platform exclusively.
It really changes the impact ofall of our social media when
you begin to do different thingsfor each form of media.
This little challenge for mywife has resulted in a new
(51:41):
mindset, a positive way ofthinking and a new increase in
production.
I will put out the spoileralert it is a lot harder to get
a hold of me when I'm doinglives, because I can't answer
the phone.
If you're looking for me andtrying to get a hold of me, you
might have to go to TikTok andwatch me work, to pop in and ask
(52:01):
questions, which I was sosurprised by some of the people
that came in, all the folks thatI've never known, that I got to
meet for the first time, peoplethat followed me, that I didn't
know followed me, and justfriends and family I haven't
talked to.
Completely surprised by some ofthe people that stopped in and
(52:23):
hung out and you didn't realizethat not everybody uses the
obvious platforms, right.
Sometimes you, just as abusiness owner, you start to
think well, if I'm puttingeverything out on Facebook, then
everybody sees it anyways.
But in reality, a lot of peopledon't even use Facebook,
they're just on TikTok.
(52:43):
So it's a whole new way ofthinking for me that I've had a
hard time buying into until Ifinally did it and finally saw
some results.
So I'm here to say some of thedevices and distractions that
have removed my productivitywhen I change my perspective and
I put them to work for meinstead of against me.
(53:04):
They've resulted in greatrewards for me and I'm
encouraged, I'm excited and I'mhere to admit my wife was right.
Man, wow, what an episode.
Am I right, man Well folks.
(53:28):
Huh, wow, what an episode, am Iright, man well folks.
We're pushing an hour here.
I gotta finish some stuff upand get ready for another live.
Well, I should, but I can't.
I'm out of product.
We worked so damn much doinglives.
I don't have anything-houseright now that I could actually
go produce, but I do have abunch of design time to get to.
I want to get that done andspend a little time with my
family because I have beenproductive.
(53:52):
Boys and girls and gentlemenand squirrels, I appreciate you.
I thank each and every one ofyou for supporting my American
dream.
Now go watch the bucket headsat the old age.
That's it and that's all BiggieSmalls.
If you're a loud, proudAmerican and you find yourself
(54:30):
just wanting more, find me onYouTube and Facebook at Loud,
proud American, or the Face page, as my mama calls it.
If you're a fan of the GrahamCracker, you want to find me on
Instagram, or all the kids bytickety-talking on the TikTok.
You can find me on both ofthose at loud, underscore, proud
(54:51):
, underscore American.
A big old.
Thank you to the boys from theGut Truckers for the background
beats and the theme song forthis here podcast.
If you are enjoying what you'rehearing, you can track down the
(55:12):
Gut Truckers on Facebook.
Just search Gut Truckers.
Give them motherfuckers a liketoo.
Make it bleed.
(55:33):
I hate to say themmotherfuckers, I like too.
I truly thank you forsupporting my American dream.
Now go wash your fucking hands,you filthy savage.
Today on Share the Struggle Podcast, we answer one
crazy question Can social mediaactually increase productivity?
A social media challenge throwndown by my loving, beautiful
wife provides some surprisingresults.
(00:21):
That is what's on tap today onepisode 247 of Share the
Struggle podcast.
Let me tell you somethingEverybody struggles.
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 havea very profound effect on the
(00:45):
way you live your life.
If you find strength in thestruggle, then this podcast is
for you.
You have a relationship that iscomfortable with uncomfortable
conversations.
Uncomfortable conversationschallenge you, humble you and
(01:06):
they build you.
When you sprinkle a little timeand distance on it, it all
makes sense.
Most disagreements, they stemfrom our own insecurities.
You are right where you need tobe Back on time.
We need to back off.
(01:27):
The whole day gone.
What in my heart?
Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh.
What it is, what it hot,dee-dee-dee, dee-dee-dee-dee.
Good Lord, almighty, am I soexcited to be back with you?
Oh, it's true, it's damn true.
(01:48):
Did I use enough voiceinflections to open today's show
?
Good Lord, man, blame it on thecaffeine y'all.
Today I'm enjoying a large, bigold, big gulp ice coffee from
the Dunkin' Donuts.
This is what I'm going to tellyou folks.
I have scaled back my Dunkin'Donuts consumption.
(02:13):
I know y'all have been worriedabout me.
I traditionally have been a twoice coffee a day kind of lady
over here and I've been scalingthat back for a couple of
reasons.
First one financial and thensecond one fat Fat reasons.
Right, I'm feeling rather fat.
(02:34):
So there's that.
Anyways, what was I talkingabout?
Caffeine.
So I have scaled back myDunkin' habit.
I've even scaled back my Duncanhabit.
I've even I can boldly say Ihave even gone a couple of days
without going to Duncan, whichis wild.
Okay, honestly, this kind ofpiggybacks.
(02:55):
My trip to Florida, because whenwe were confined to the
campground and we were slingingmerchandise all day and night we
weren't able to get out, right,we were, the bus was our home,
ponderosa, so that was set up.
I was only able to get awayfrom camp and the vendor space
like a few days to actuallyenjoy a coffee.
(03:16):
So that kind of sped up myprocess of scaling back caffeine
.
My mother and I have gottogether on making coffees
during the week, so if we drinktwo cups a day, we are only
purchasing one cup a day, butI'm going days in between
without buying coffee as well.
This is random, I know.
Okay, but what I'm here to saytoday is I'm enjoying this large
(03:41):
Dunkin' Donuts iced coffee, notbecause it's made perfectly.
Enjoying this large Dunkin'Donuts iced coffee not because
it's made perfectly, but becauseit was free.
My wife texted me a littlewhile ago Today's April Fool's
Day, the day that I'm recordingthis and she asked me about my
free coffee, which I assumed wasan April Fool's joke.
But there was a code that youneeded to put into your Dunkin'
app today that says this is nota joke and you get yourself a
(04:04):
free coffee.
So maybe, if I get done in time, I will do a video and post it
so that your loyal listenersthat follow along on our social
media channels will get theability to take advantage of a
free coffee, just like I did.
If a coffee is not made correct, but you didn't pay a damn
thing for it, it's not that bad.
(04:25):
You'll enjoy it.
I've had some questionablecoffees taste a hell of a lot
better than the ones that I paidfor, when the ones that I paid
for were made even a little bitbetter.
Isn't that the truth, folks?
Perception is reality, right,we say it all the time.
And here's another lesson onperception is reality, because
(04:45):
when I perceive this coffee tobe free, good Lord, almighty,
does it taste delicious to me?
Mm, mm, mm, mm, mm.
Jiggling, ching, ching, ching.
That's a cup of ice right there, folks, mm, oh yeah, mm, mm, mm
.
Oh, it's almost gone.
(05:06):
It's almost gone.
The downfall to recording apodcast and drinking a nice
coffee is that it kind of givesyou like a cotton mouth effect.
So I'm going to turn my micdown, back up and try to do my
best to not sound like acomplete asshole.
So that is what it is.
Now.
Here's the subject for today,folks Can social media actually
(05:31):
be a productive avenue?
Can social media be a way toramp up production?
Okay, that is a crazy thought.
And we're connecting dotsbecause I just told y'all, if
you follow me on social media,I'm going to try to alert you to
a free coffee.
And we're connecting dotsbecause I just told y'all, if
you follow me on social media,I'm going to try to alert you to
a free coffee.
And here we are talking aboutthe benefits of social media.
Can it increase productivity?
(05:52):
When, to be honest, I haveassumed social media to be a bit
of the antichrist.
Okay, let's be honest, it is atime-sucking warp zone.
That is also a mind-corruptingcesspool, right, we can say all
those things.
I have been on record sayingthat if it wasn't for Loud Proud
(06:15):
American, our business, if itwasn't for Share the Struggle
podcast, this beautiful, lovely,voluptuous podcast podcast,
this beautiful, lovely,voluptuous podcast, I would give
the old Daz boot to my socialmedia because, number one, it's
a drama filled fart fest.
(06:36):
Okay, I would.
I wanted to swear right there,I really did.
I wanted to drop an F bomb sohard right there because it
would have just had such more ofan impact.
But I'm a leaf to um, scalingback my profanity as a girl dad.
But not, I'm not writingpromises right now.
Okay, I'm not issuingpermission slips and hall passes
and I'm not signing guarantees,but I'm just saying I'm a
(06:58):
little more conscious of myvocab.
So I just turned an F-bomb intoa fart, which I guess isn't all
that polite for a little ladyeither.
But you see, I'm makingprogress.
Life's about progress.
It's about taking steps, makingprogress.
Here I am All right, I'm makingprogress.
Social media can be just thisdrama-filled fart fest that can
(07:25):
just rob you of your positiveway of thinking.
How many of you have been onsocial media?
And as you're just scrollingalong, it goes from woe is me,
debbie Downer?
To the next person is I hateyou because you voted for this?
Who voted for this?
Who voted for that?
(07:45):
Who are you?
Why are you here?
Get the hell out of here.
Right, all these things, thisnonsense, time-sucking, just
negative hailstorm ofridiculousness.
That's what our social mediatimelines have become right.
Media timelines have becomeright and I've kind of tried to
(08:11):
organize my social media avenuesoff of like, let's call them
buckets, okay.
So I have a few differentlayers of social media and this
is going to kind of open up thecan of worms.
Here we're going to start topeel back the onion.
I have Facebook, right, and Ihave Facebook, three accounts of
Facebook.
I have Facebook for this herepodcast, which I do not post
enough, and we're going to getinto some of the reasons why
(08:31):
here shortly.
I have a social media Facebookpage for this podcast.
It automatically now drops newepisodes, which is the biggest
reason why we have it, and I'mtrying to find other avenues to
grow this positive tribe.
I also have Facebook, mypersonal account on Facebook,
which, in that section, I amfollowing friends, family, stuff
(08:55):
like that, right, more sofriends than family, and friends
that become family because myreal family not quite as much.
Let's be honest, if I go back afew pesos here, my podcast page
really follows inspirationalstuff and other podcasts.
Now the third page for Facebookis the Loud Proud American page
(09:19):
, which that one gets the mostactivity.
Even with that said, itprobably doesn't get enough
activity.
Right, I should be posting onsocial media as a business owner
way more than I do.
I have such a backlog of poststhat I should have put out that
I'm just not doing.
I need to get my Cabela'scatalog right now, put my left
(09:40):
hand on it, place my beadylittle eyes to the sky and put
on a full frontal confessionalthat says I need to get better
at being more active on socialmedia, and I'm going to do my
best at that.
But when I say getting betterat being active, I'm not talking
about endless scrolling onsocial media, which is something
(10:00):
that I tend to fall victim to.
So those are my three accountson Facebook.
The podcast website, or podcastFacebook page, gets used the
least, followed by my personalpage, which I would put the
podcast one above it because ithas automatic posting.
My personal one, you'll noticeI don't post very often
(10:24):
whatsoever.
And then the business one isobviously the most active.
We do live sales and we try toannounce a lot of things that
we're doing, and then that onefollows other businesses and
inspirational stuff right Now ifwe flip on over to Instagram my
Instagram for Loud ProudAmerican kind of doubles, as my
personal as well.
Instagram for Loud ProudAmerican kind of doubles, as my
personal as well.
So it's a business Instagrampage.
(10:46):
It reflects all of our business.
You know what to do and who todo and all the things that we're
doing.
It posts rather similar to whatour Facebook one actually posts
, but occasionally I'll havesome personal things I get
dropped in there.
Then I also have a share thestruggle podcast Instagram page,
(11:06):
which at one point I was reallydedicated to putting you know
30 second clips on there, andthat has fallen right off the
map.
So you're seeing a trend here.
Folks, I'm not utilizing socialmedia like I should.
I have a Snapchat.
I don't know the last time Iturned my Snapchat on.
I used to only use Snapchat forthe funny filters and make
(11:26):
stupid clips of myself.
That was it.
I don't really use it.
I should probably get rid of it.
Tiktok I have a TikTok pagethat I have utilized more so for
making funny videos.
We had one video on there thatyou would say almost went viral.
It nearly touched a millionviews, which I don't know what
(11:48):
the landmark is for a viralvideo, but we're pretty damn
close to a million views onthere.
So I would consider that theclosest thing that we had to
viral.
But nothing of that was makingme famous.
Nothing of that was generatinga profit or putting awareness on
our business, even though ithas our business name.
I would try to wear our appareland then make dumb videos at
(12:11):
the same time and kind of hopethey worked together and I also
at one point had a TikTok shopon there, but that and my
website stopped communicating.
So, with all that said, I wouldgo on there and try to make
little videos to sell productsaround the holidays, and they
would always flop Me making aridiculous comment or doing
(12:32):
something totally silly tomyself, but get all these views,
but the moment I tried topeddle anything it didn't go
anywhere.
So I've really stopped using it.
I've placed maybe one video ortwo videos in all of 2024 on my
TikTok and I don't think I hadplaced a new video on there at
all in 2025.
(12:53):
My last avenue for social mediais my Twitter page, my X page,
which this might surprise someof you I'm the most active on
there.
I'm not really posting on there, but this is where I find
myself doing more endlessscrolling, because there's a lot
of reading and I follow a lotof different things on there my
ex page, my Twitter page.
(13:15):
I don't think I really followanybody that I know personally.
I follow news outlets.
I follow sports teams, sportsreporters, athletes,
inspirational stuff andpolitical stuff, and that's
where I get a lot of my news.
I get a ton of my news off of X, thanks to Elon Musk for
(13:36):
filtering through the nonsenseand providing some genuine,
legit insight and news.
Filtering through the nonsenseand providing some genuine,
legit insight and news, so I usethat to stay informed on sports
, on politics, on things likethat.
Now, if I'm going on there, I'mreading, looking at things, I'm
watching videos, whatever.
That will destroy a bunch of myproductivity.
(13:59):
If I go on Instagram to make apost for the business, I might
waste an hour just watchingInstagram reels and kind of just
endlessly scrolling aroundlooking at funny videos or
watching sports things.
Now on Facebook I've kind ofgotten to the point where I
don't really scroll on Facebookthat much anymore.
I might do a quick peruse tosee locally what's happening,
(14:23):
keep up to date on any of youlisteners out there that we're
friends and family and and I seeyou kind of pop up on my
timeline.
That's kind of how I'mutilizing social media.
But this is what's happened.
I have reached a time in mylife where I'm having a hard
time being productive andknocking things out of the park
and you guys have heard me havethese conversations before.
(14:46):
But you know my schedule and Idon't want to dig into the whole
scenario and hoopla on myschedule all over again, because
if you've been listening, youknow how it works.
But Tuesdays and Thursdays isme and baby day.
I get up at five in the morning, bring my mom to work, wifey
goes to work, it's me and baby.
Till about one o'clock go pickup Mima and then baby goes with
(15:08):
Mima from like three o'clock tofour, 35 o'clock when the wifey
gets home.
I'm trying to work during thosethose few hours Monday,
wednesday, friday, you know, getup, do chores, get the baby
ready, get her settled in atMima's house.
I'm allowed to go to workaround 10 or 11 and work till
the wife gets home.
Weekends is kind of when I'mreally, you know, putting things
(15:29):
in as far as, as far as youknow, trying to work but you're
also trying to divide up timewith the family.
So my schedule is a real, justconundrum.
It's a real man.
I'm trying to say a bunch ofbad words but I really want to
say twat waffle.
Can I say that my schedule is areal twat waffle?
Okay, minus the syrup.
I mean, put the syrup on.
(15:50):
I'm a little overweight.
Syrup has a lot to do with mebeing overweight.
The point I'm making here,folks, is I've realized that
I've fallen victim to needingdopamine hits.
I've fallen victim to being adopamine addict, and that's not
a dope addict.
We're talking about dopamine,that artificial shot of energy,
(16:13):
that instant gratification, thatinstant satisfaction, and I
find myself just scrolling andwasting time.
I find myself having a realFOMO over sports.
I will endlessly go back andforth to look for information
like, wow, it's been 20 minutes.
What do I need to know about mysports team with free agency.
(16:35):
What the draft?
What's going on with thepresident?
What's going on with Musk?
I've developed a FOMO over thisfear of missing out, where I'm
always checking in on things,and if you're checking in on
those things on social media,then that's an avenue to just
scroll and lose a bunch moretime.
So when you don't have a lot oftime to be productive, and then
(16:58):
you have this FOMO and you'recraving dopamine, have this FOMO
and you're craving dopamine.
It's a bad recipe for sendingyourselves down a rabbit hole of
depression and unproductivity.
Right?
Is that even a word?
I don't think that is a word.
You're an idiot.
Lay off the coffee.
What I'm saying here, folks, isit's a game of catch-22.
(17:24):
It's chasing your tail.
You try to talk yourself intobeing so productive, but you're
so easily distracted that youbasically just end up screwing
yourself.
If you wake up with a list ofthings that you need to get done
and today is your daddy daycareday you will, in the back of
your mind, feel guilty about thethings you're not getting done,
(17:45):
but you're trying to erase thatso that you can be present and
enjoy the time with your baby.
So then, when mom gets home,when the wifey gets home and
when me ma's around, and thenyou drift off to work.
Now your FOMO kicks in on awhole different level because
now you feel like I'm missingout on you, feel like I'm
missing out on family time, I'mmissing out on quality time.
(18:08):
So you have that vicious cycle.
But then if you find yourselfwith a free couple of hours, you
can get too easily distractedand find yourself on social
media.
Now, I'm not saying this is myworld every single day, but I'm
trying to pave the road, topaint the picture, to set the
scene so y'all can understandthat we have all these
(18:30):
distractions in our lives.
My world is currently filledwith a bunch of distractions and
I have found myself beingextremely dopamine dependent.
I need that instantgratification, that instant
satisfaction.
The reason why I get two largeiced coffees a day.
Part of it is the caffeine kick, part of it is the task of
(18:51):
going to get a coffee, tobreaking up the routine, to
doing something new.
So for me, curbing some of thathabit is regaining some of my
confidence, and I know thatsounds strange, but it's you
building willpower to say no, Idon't need that cup of coffee.
No, I don't need that Red Bull?
No, I don't need a cold beer,whatever that is right.
(19:14):
These vices all come to us indifferent ways shapes, forms and
devices, right, whether it'syour cell phone, whether it's a
coffee, whether it's booze,whatever the hell it is, there's
these different vices anddevices that come to us and they
rob of us our attention, theytake away our productivity and
(19:35):
they rob away our naturalability to handle, process and
function with dopamine.
So I've become this dopamineaddict that always needs
satisfaction, always needsgratification, right?
So I've identified myself beingin this struggle and I know
some of the ways out of it.
Right, start to gain somewillpower.
(19:57):
Remove some things from yourlife.
Start making better choices.
Start eating better.
Get back to the gym makingbetter choices.
Start eating better.
Get back to the gym.
All these things Now.
For me, some of them don't feelall that possible.
I'm short on time and low onpatience, so going to the gym
seems rather impossible rightnow for me to do.
But I need to find a way tostart regaining willpower.
(20:22):
I need to find a way to startremoving distractions and get
back to being the wholesome,present person that I need to be
.
My trip to Florida was a greatstep in doing that.
It helped me to eliminatedistractions, focus on the task
at hand and try to seek anddestroy as much money as I could
(20:44):
because I was away from myfamily.
I needed to make the best of it.
It was a great factory resetand I've come home and tried to
stay on that production train toget things done.
But you also run into thevicious cycle of if you're
listening along and you know thewhole business model here we're
in a tight spot financiallywhen it comes to cash flow for
(21:04):
the business.
We're in between events.
We're low on opportunities whenit comes to either events or
custom stuff.
So I'm out there trying tocultivate what I can and you're
robbing Peter to pay Paul tonavigate things.
So all of that just that ballof stress in in itself that
weighs on you as well and canprevent you from being
(21:28):
productive.
So here I am fighting the goodfight of production, fighting
the good fight to try to remainproductive, to be positive, to
get things done, while fightingthe fact that you don't have the
money to buy the product to beproductive.
You don't have the money toapply and get into and accepted
(21:48):
to the events that you want tobe involved in.
So you're trying to be creativeto find the funds to do those
things.
So that takes a lot of time,energy and willpower and just
real, clear, positive thinkingto overcome those things.
But when you sprinkle in thiswhole dopamine, you know
(22:09):
ridiculousness.
That I've been on it makes itreally difficult.
Have I done an adequate job ofpainting for you this ass
douching scenario?
Have I done it at all?
Have we described anything thathits home for you?
Anybody listening right now?
(22:29):
Are you victim to any of thethings that?
I am right.
Do you find yourself endlesslyscrolling on social media?
Are you watching TikToks?
Are you watching reels?
Do you have the coffee habit?
Do you have a shopping habit?
Do you have a drinking habit?
Whatever it is?
Do you have these things thatare taking you away from what's
(22:52):
important?
Do you have any vices anddevices that are robbing your
time and attention from yourfamily, from your career, from
your happiness?
Do you have any of those things?
Have I hit on anything with myendless rambling today?
Has any of this stuff touchedyou?
Okay, not there.
(23:13):
I'm not trying to touch youbelow the Mason Dixon.
I want to keep this all on theup and up.
Okay, I'm going between theblinkers here.
I want to go between the earsand the eyes, between the
blinkers.
I'm trying to shoot straightand narrow.
I don't have a doll.
I'm not asking.
People aren't here asking you.
There's no therapist asking you, where did the podcast touch
you?
Huh, where did the podcast hosttouch you?
(23:35):
Can you show me on the doll?
That's not it I'm talking about.
Did it touch you between theblinkers?
Did anything here resonate withyou, hit home with you and say
to you well, son of a bitch, Igot some distractions in my life
and I've been talking those upas positives because they remove
me from reality, they take meaway from you know, whatever
(23:56):
shit fest it is I'm sufferingfrom today.
Sometimes we go to those vicesand devices to remove ourselves
from the situation that weplaced ourselves in.
Is this all hitting at home atall?
Is it Any of it Setting in withanyone?
I hope so.
You know what you think aboutit.
(24:18):
You think about it for a second.
Okay, I'm going to give you atopic Rhode Island.
Neither a road nor an island.
Discuss, talk about it amongstyourselves.
Here's another one Fish sticks.
Neither a fish nor a stick.
Think about it.
I'm going to have some icedcoffee, all right, all right,
(24:53):
all right.
Now, folks, with everything wejust said to start the show, do
you think in any way, shape orform, it is possible for an
increase in social media toresult in an increase in
productivity?
Because I, for one, thought nochance in hell.
(25:18):
Okay, thinking about the oldtheme song, for was that Vince
McMahon's old thing song, nochance in hell?
Anyways, don't get rambling.
Already I, as I mentionedbefore during my confessional
hour that we've already had theold full frontal confessional, I
said I need to be posting moreon social media for the business
(25:43):
, for the awareness, forbuilding the brand, for
increasing sales.
But part of the reason why thathasn't happened is because,
number one, I guess I'm lazy.
Number two, if I go on socialmedia to push, promote and post
for the business, the abilityfor me to for the lack of a
(26:07):
better term dick off goes way up.
The ability for me to get soeasily distracted squirrel goes
way up.
I get lost in the sauce whenI'm trying to work on stuff for
the business.
So I can have a list of socialmedia things that I have to do
for the business and I go onthere and I might get one or two
(26:28):
of them done, but they couldalso result in one or two hours
of me losing productivity.
So I tell myself, nope, you'renot gonna do that stuff right
now.
You need to be more productive.
Take advantage of your time.
If you wanna post those socialmedia things, then do them at
night, and then at night whenI'm on the couch.
(26:48):
If I start getting ready to dothose far too often I'm just
like you know what I'm done withtoday and then it just doesn't
get done.
So I've been fighting thisvicious battle in my mind of you
need to be more productive onsocial media for your business,
but by doing so you become lessproductive in your life because
your distractions are rightbetween the blinkers.
(27:09):
With that said, my wife hasthrown down a social media
challenge and said social mediachallenge actually revolves
around the one app that wouldcause the most distractions in
my life.
She threw down a TikTokchallenge to me.
(27:33):
Tiktok, the place where we allgo to watch funny videos, to
laugh our ass off, scrollendlessly and have new
productivity.
At least that's the way I lookat it.
My wife says to me and she'sbeen saying this to me for quite
some time and I guess I haven'ttaken it serious.
(27:54):
Wifey, I apologize, don't worry, you're going to hear me
apologize quite a bit in therest of this segment.
Here she tells me you need todo TikTok lives and you need to
do them all the time and I'msaying this makes no sense.
This actually spits in the faceof my theories.
(28:18):
All right, this goes in theopposite direction of what I'm
trying to accomplish.
This runs headfirst into thewall of distraction.
I can't do this Now.
In my defense I want to say ayear or so ago I took the shot
at it and I started doing someTikTok lives and I had one or
(28:40):
two people show up and nothingreally happened and I've not
really had any sales success oranything off of TikTok, like I
mentioned to you before.
But Ali said to me listen,people will watch you do
anything Like just work, justwork and turn on your phone.
(29:01):
This is mind numbing to me.
I didn't think there was anyopportunity here for me.
Why would somebody want towatch me work when I barely want
to watch myself work?
But she tells me people do itand it's a distraction and for
her, get this, it increasesproductivity.
You ask yourself how well mywife has to do a lot of work
(29:24):
that while she's at work thatshe would consider busy work or
might consider like mind numbing, like I just have all this
stuff to do, like this dataentry stuff, going, going
through the process.
I have a process to get throughand sometimes I just need the
mental distraction that inreturn actually refocuses me on
(29:47):
what I need to get done.
Here's my wife.
She will put on like SteveWilkos or Jerry Springer in the
background and just work Muchlike you would at home.
My wife will have Steve Wilkoson and she'll be cleaning the
entire house right.
So at work she might have thosethings on in the background.
(30:07):
Or she will go to somebody'slive, somebody's TikTok live,
where they're doing whatever andthe sound of them doing that
live.
Whether you're doing whateverand the sound of them doing that
, offers a pleasant distractionthat helps her through her day,
that helps her through her dataentry and whatever it is that
she has to do.
So a couple things getaccomplished she's more
(30:27):
productive, she's lessdistracted, she's getting her
work done and she's also forminga connection with the person
that's providing the distraction.
Does that make sense toeverybody?
I know this was a challenge forme to understand, but I said
over the weekend let's do it.
I was sitting on a perfectopportunity.
(30:49):
I have just received about 800or 1,000 hats and I needed to do
300 hats for Bentley Saloonwith leather patches on them,
100 leather hat patches for myfriend Ed's Barbershop, and then
I have a few more things on theway this week for transfers to
finish the rest of those hats.
(31:09):
So on Friday I turned on a live.
On Saturday I turned on a live.
On Sunday I turned on a live.
On Monday I turned on a live.
On Saturday I turned on a live.
On Sunday, I turned on a live.
On Monday I turned on a live.
Okay, this is how things went.
I set up a camera, I turned ona heat press and I just went to
work.
So on Friday I ended upcrushing through a great pile of
(31:31):
hats right, getting a bunch ofwork done, meeting people along
the way.
I'm going to get some daysconfused here, but I want to
start digging into a few things.
One of the first days that Iwas doing this I think it was
actually my very first day onFriday a fellow popped into the
chat, started talking with meand I quickly realized he's a
(31:55):
loyal supporter and follower, myman Morton, out in Connecticut.
His mother actually came to seeme in the Freiburg Fair and
I've told this story before onthe podcast, where I said one of
the coolest and most favoritethings that have happened to me
since starting this business andhaving this brand and doing all
(32:16):
this social media stuff waswhen a lady was in my tent
shopping for her son and she hadhim on FaceTime and he was
looking for certain items and Ijumped on the call with him and
we just had an absolute blast.
That was one of the coolestthings that I've ever done.
Like it just gave me like a Idon't even know how to explain
(32:38):
it.
Folks, you want to talk about ahit of dopamine for a second?
You want to feel like somebody,you want to feel important,
feel special, feel like acelebrity.
Have that happen right.
Like, oh, my son follows you,he loves you, he wants this item
.
I'm trying to figure it out andit results in let's get him on
the phone and let's have aconversation.
It was one of the coolestthings I've ever done.
(32:59):
Now, every year at the fair, Ieither see him or his mom and
that conversation can come backup.
So here I am doing a live andhe jumps on and we start
chatting and then I say, oh myGod, you're from Connecticut,
right.
And then we start making thisconnection.
That turns in to him giving mea bunch of likes, sending gifts,
(33:21):
having positive conversations,sharing the show.
My wife's jumping in, she'ssharing it because she's excited
to see me on here doing thesethings.
And then some friends of oursare coming in and so overall,
you know, we have a good time.
We don't have a lot of peopleshow up, but we have a good time
.
Saturday that increases alittle bit.
(33:42):
And again, I don't want to getall the days blurry, but I'm
just going to hit on a couple ofhigh notes here.
On Sunday I went on and saidyou know, let's just try to
crush through some hats here,and it turned into me making
hats for seven hours straight.
Now I really have to try toexplain this to you guys.
(34:04):
My phone is set up on a tripod.
It's focused on my work surface.
I can kind of pop in and out ofthe screen.
But while I'm making hats, I'mreading comments, I'm seeing
people come in to the room, I'macknowledging them, I'm thanking
them for likes, I'm encouragingthem to share the show, I'm
asking them where they're from.
(34:25):
I'm genuinely learning aboutpeople and I'm introducing
myself.
I'm talking about my brandrepeatedly, I'm talking about
what it is I'm doing repeatedlyand I'm inquisitive to the
people that come in the room.
So I'm constantly asking andthen I'm learning things about
people where they're from Idaho,michigan, texas, california,
(34:48):
north Carolina, virginia whatthey do for work.
I'm a truck driver that ownsnine trucks.
I'm in Michigan right nowwaiting on a load.
I was just in Maine picking uppotatoes not that long ago.
All these conversations right,my man from Connecticut that
we've never talked this longsince we've known each other,
learning about this lifetime ofsimilarities that we have, right
(35:12):
?
All these cool, crazy thingsTrue, texan out in Texas talking
to me about different fairs andevents.
I should do out there, thesegreat conversations are
happening.
This, ladies and gentlemen,mimics what happens for Loud,
proud American when we're on theroad at an event.
If I am on the road, set up asa vendor, when you come in my
(35:37):
tent, I'm asking about you, whoyou are, where you're from, what
brings you in, and I amlearning about you.
I have said till I'm blue inthe face.
The best thing about sales isnot transaction sales, it is
relationship sales.
It's about getting to knowpeople, making a connection,
(35:57):
building a foundation, buildinga relationship.
In the world of sales somethingI've been doing my entire life
I've come to learn a few things.
Number one sales is a transferof enthusiasm.
If you are not excited aboutyour product, you will not sell
your product.
If you want to be a successfulsalesperson, find a product that
(36:18):
gets you excited.
When you're excited about yourproduct, you are going to convey
emotion.
You are going to discuss,describe, display, show and give
the entire show about yourproduct with true, genuine
emotion.
That emotion gets peopleexcited.
If you do it correctly, you aretransferring your enthusiasm,
(36:41):
your excitement about yourproduct to somebody else.
You are building a loyal brandambassador.
At that point, and the more youget to know somebody and you
start to begin relationshipswith those people, they will
always buy from you.
Another fun, interesting factabout sales is all things
(37:02):
considered, people would ratherbuy from somebody they like.
This is a foundation that Iused to great deals of success
when owning, running, operatinga Harley-Davidson dealership.
All things considered, somebodywould rather buy from somebody
they like.
What that tells me is, if youcome in looking for a motorcycle
(37:23):
and you can get that exact sameblack street glide at any other
dealership around, but you justhappen to like me more than the
other guy.
We just happen to connect alittle bit more.
We're a little more personable,we have a connection.
We made a relationship.
You, my friend, would muchrather buy from me, even if the
prices aren't the same.
(37:44):
So the key that I've alwaysoperated on with Loud, proud,
american is relationship retailfirst, guerrilla marketing.
I need to be out on the streets, meeting the people, shaking
the hands, introducing myself,having the conversation.
When I'm online and I'm selling, whether I have a quick
(38:05):
60-second reel, whether it's anemail marketing flyer, whether
it's me showing off my productfor 30 seconds or in a post,
we're not building arelationship.
You might be interested in mypersonality or my presentation,
but there's no interaction.
While having this live event onTikTok, I am forming
(38:30):
relationships, we are buildingrelationships and currently over
the weekend I'm not necessarilyselling anything.
You're watching me work andwe're just having conversations
and you appreciate that what I'mworking on just happens to be
American made.
I'm leading up to the time andopportunity to sell on TikTok,
(38:50):
but right now I'm trying tobuild a foundation.
If I were to go on there onFriday and just try to sell, I
would have had two peoplewatching me.
That would have very quicklyleft and I wouldn't have sold
anything and I would have comeout of that experience rather
discouraged, much like the firsttime I started doing these
lives.
It is extremely difficult anddemoralizing to do a half-hour
(39:13):
live, sell nothing and interactwith one or two people.
That's tough.
But when my wife said peoplewill watch you work, just get on
there and work, I didn't wantto believe it.
I couldn't believe it.
But I'm here to tell you it istrue.
And when I said to you is it atall possible for social media
(39:36):
to increase productivity?
I'm here to tell you that onSunday on Sunday when I should
be spending more time with myfamily and get this we started
the day off with me makingbreakfast for the entire family,
us hanging out, me stillgetting quality time, and then
going to the office and sayingI'm going to make some hats time
(39:56):
and then going to the officeand saying I'm going to make
some hats, I'm going to do alive for an hour or so and let's
just be productive.
That live pushed me into makinghats for seven hours.
I made hats for seven hoursbecause I was being social, I
was building relationships, Iwas interacting and we built a
(40:16):
very loyal tribe with anextremely positive vibe.
We were all in there shootingthe shit.
The people that were in theroom were connecting and
reacting with other peoplethroughout the country that were
in the room.
At one point there was onlythree people in the room.
One of them was my wife.
(40:37):
The other one was my man,morton, out in Connecticut, and
the other one was Chris, childof God from man.
Was it California?
I want to say I can't remember.
I'm sorry, chris, but he lookslike Kid Rock Profile.
Looks like Kid Rock.
Everybody asks him if he's KidRock.
(40:59):
We're in the room because Imade a few comments that
suppressed the chat.
I made a few references tocrackheads.
I was sharing some storiesabout our road trips and my
brother Brian's superhuman powerto attract crackheads and while
having this conversation thatled into I don't believe boys
(41:21):
should be in little girls'bathrooms or playing in their
sports my live was suppressedand I got these warning labels
that came up on my live that Ihad to click on that.
I was violating communityrights.
And at this point we have arecord number of likes for my
(41:43):
live sale or my live workprocess.
I should say we are at like20,000 likes and I'm telling
everybody I can't leave the roomwhen we have this many likes,
like we're pushing 30,000 likesand it's they're telling me I
can't leave the room when wehave this many likes, we're
pushing 30,000 likes.
They're telling me you mighthave to end this live and start
(42:03):
a new one, because no one'sgoing to see this one, because
you're kind of getting almostbanned right now.
Well, the positive troop thatwe assembled went on a mission.
They were hitting the likebutton, so much I'm certain
(42:25):
everybody had a carpal tunnelappointment on Monday.
They also were sharing the show, letting everybody know the
show was happening and guesswhat folks.
The gates opened and peoplestarted coming in.
Even my niece was in there, andme and my niece haven't
interacted and had conversationslike this in person in a long
time, like we were saying things, joking back and forth.
(42:48):
I don't remember the last timewe were this social together.
So think about this we arebuilding relationships,
friendships and connectionsthroughout the country.
My own family's chiming in andwe're crossing barriers that we
haven't in quite some time.
And all in the meantime, ourlikes we were over 40,000 likes.
(43:09):
Y'all hearing this.
Over 40,000 likes on our live Icouldn't believe it.
A few things happen after that.
When you shut it off and you goeat, have dinner with the
(43:32):
family, like I'm kind of ridinga high I if we're talking about
me being on a dopamine quest,I've just filled myself up on
that satisfaction.
That quick hitting dopamineshot this one wasn't quick
hitting, it was self-sustaining,it lasted all day.
Because we're accomplishingthings.
(43:52):
I'm meeting people.
I'm really pinning off thethings that I'm good at.
I'm tapping into the stuff thatwe wait all winter for.
Being out on the road, meetingpeople, introducing ourselves,
being enthusiastic, sharing ourstories.
These things are all happeningfrom my office while I'm working
and being productive.
The things I've always done inthe dark, the things I do every
(44:15):
day in silence, are actuallyrewarding me in satisfaction.
It was crazy to me At dinner.
I'm so excited about what weaccomplished.
I'm rambling and, truth be told, I'm looking forward to the
next opportunity to beproductive, like the next day.
I'm doing the random things Igot to do in the morning and I
(44:38):
said you know what that's it.
We're going to go live andwe're going to be productive.
I've got a stack of hats hereto finish.
I got like 40 more hats, 34 tobe exact let's get them done.
I turn it on and before youknow it I got 160 people in the
room watching.
Remember folks on Sunday?
There was a time when I hadthree Now we're up over 100, and
(45:00):
that would come and go and theywould leave the room.
But we spent quite a bit oftime with 20, 30 people hanging
out on a Monday.
It got to the point where I ranout of things to work on and I
just stood back and just startedfiring off questions.
It became a Q&A.
We were giving relationshipadvice, life advice, marital
(45:21):
advice.
My wife came home with lunch.
We introduced her to the crowd,like the whole shebang.
I never in a million yearsthought the devices and
distractions that have robbed meof my production, when I use
them in a different way, rewardme with increased production.
(45:42):
They fill me up with somesatisfaction, some long-lasting
satisfaction.
It's not that quick-hitting,shiny, blinking-like dopamine
hit that we get.
It was more of a fulfilled one,of knowing that I made
connections today.
We started relationships today.
Another thing that gets kind ofcrossed off the list here that
(46:06):
is a major side benefit is we'realso talking about the podcast
at the same time, where you guysheard me kind of throw down the
gauntlet at the end of lastyear, the beginning of this year
, where I said we've kind of hita plateau where we need to
(46:27):
overcome this, you know, and I'mtrying to grow the show, and if
we don't, then I got to reallyconsider different things to do
and maybe scale back the show.
When, in the past few days, wehave gained listeners, and we
have gained loyal listenersbased off the relationships that
(46:48):
we are building, because mywife challenged me to turn on my
phone and just go to work.
This has resulted in some truebenefits, some true
opportunities, and I truly thinkthat, with a lot of hard work,
this will be a major part of theanswer to the problems that we
(47:13):
have in trying to build a brand,to launch a business, to
sustain a business and toprovide for a family.
Because after this one weekendexperience, my mind is always
already turning as to how I needto design our new office so it
can be more user-friendly andbeneficial to doing lives.
(47:35):
Because if I set things up towork and do production and do
those things live a lot moreoften, then I'm going to build
an audience that, when I go toour new office and things are
set up to do lives at the dropof a hat, without all this
endless preparation.
A week or so ago we did ourlive sale on Facebook and that
(47:58):
was a tremendous success, but ittook me two days to get ready
for that live.
With our new office and thingsbeing set up, we can do lives
with a drop of a hat.
I could be doing a work session, have a full crew of people
watching and then say you guyswant to look into buying some
stuff and walk next door, flipon the lights and go right into
selling.
I need to turn my social mediainto an avenue that creates a
(48:24):
financial benefit for my family.
That happens when I'm not onthe road.
This could be the greatestanswer in resolving some of the
challenges that we have.
If I can turn social media andmy daily production into an
avenue, a revenue avenue for meand my family.
(48:44):
This could be the answer thatI've been looking for, when I'm
allowed to work from home andstill do the things that I do
and make the money that we needfor the family.
While working from home, I canpick and choose the events I
want to do, just the way I'vealways set out to make that the
grand master plan.
(49:05):
I've been trying to find majorevents that I could do that
would allow me to eliminatesmall events.
What if the major events aren'tthings I have to find anymore?
Maybe I can replace that questwith online success and then I
can do the events that I want todo.
(49:27):
This could truly provide me awork-life balance that allows me
to raise my little girl fromhome and do the things that we
want to do and provide for thefamily, just like the way I've
always wanted to do.
I can't say this plan isfoolproof.
(49:47):
I can't say it's going to workovernight.
It hasn't resulted in a bunchof sales, but it has certainly
lit a fire under my ass.
It has reignited productivity.
It is resolving some of thethings in my life that I've been
dealing with.
It's building some morewillpower, some more confidence,
and I am here to say that mybeautiful bride was right yet
(50:15):
again.
Babe, god, this hurts.
You were right.
You were so right All the timeI bitched and complained about
the TikTok.
You were right, I should havebeen doing it sooner.
(50:35):
I was talking to Brian aboutthis on the phone yesterday and
I said, dude, we should havelive streamed our whole trip to
Florida.
We would have killed it.
But he made a wise drop ofknowledge when he said to me
brother, we're just gettingstarted, so things could just
keep on changing, and I like thefact that we're going to be
(50:58):
able to provide different formsof media with different forms of
content, because what I'm doingon TikTok is not something that
would work on Facebook.
It's not something that wouldwork on Instagram.
I don't think the audience onthose platforms would tune in to
watch what I did over theweekend, but I'm so refreshed
(51:20):
knowing there's something newand different I can do for one
platform exclusively.
It really changes the impact ofall of our social media when
you begin to do different thingsfor each form of media.
This little challenge for mywife has resulted in a new
(51:41):
mindset, a positive way ofthinking and a new increase in
production.
I will put out the spoileralert it is a lot harder to get
a hold of me when I'm doinglives, because I can't answer
the phone.
If you're looking for me andtrying to get a hold of me, you
might have to go to TikTok andwatch me work, to pop in and ask
(52:01):
questions, which I was sosurprised by some of the people
that came in, all the folks thatI've never known, that I got to
meet for the first time, peoplethat followed me, that I didn't
know followed me, and justfriends and family I haven't
talked to.
Completely surprised by some ofthe people that stopped in and
(52:23):
hung out and you didn't realizethat not everybody uses the
obvious platforms, right.
Sometimes you, just as abusiness owner, you start to
think well, if I'm puttingeverything out on Facebook, then
everybody sees it anyways.
But in reality, a lot of peopledon't even use Facebook,
they're just on TikTok.
(52:43):
So it's a whole new way ofthinking for me that I've had a
hard time buying into until Ifinally did it and finally saw
some results.
So I'm here to say some of thedevices and distractions that
have removed my productivitywhen I change my perspective and
I put them to work for meinstead of against me.
(53:04):
They've resulted in greatrewards for me and I'm
encouraged, I'm excited and I'mhere to admit my wife was right.
Man, wow, what an episode.
Am I right, man Well folks.
(53:28):
Huh, wow, what an episode, am Iright, man well folks.
We're pushing an hour here.
I gotta finish some stuff upand get ready for another live.
Well, I should, but I can't.
I'm out of product.
We worked so damn much doinglives.
I don't have anything-houseright now that I could actually
go produce, but I do have abunch of design time to get to.
I want to get that done andspend a little time with my
family because I have beenproductive.
(53:52):
Boys and girls and gentlemenand squirrels, I appreciate you.
I thank each and every one ofyou for supporting my American
dream.
Now go watch the bucket headsat the old age.
That's it and that's all BiggieSmalls.
If you're a loud, proudAmerican and you find yourself
(54:30):
just wanting more, find me onYouTube and Facebook at Loud,
proud American, or the Face page, as my mama calls it.
If you're a fan of the GrahamCracker, you want to find me on
Instagram, or all the kids bytickety-talking on the TikTok.
You can find me on both ofthose at loud, underscore, proud
(54:51):
, underscore American.
A big old.
Thank you to the boys from theGut Truckers for the background
beats and the theme song forthis here podcast.
If you are enjoying what you'rehearing, you can track down the
(55:12):
Gut Truckers on Facebook.
Just search Gut Truckers.
Give them motherfuckers a liketoo.
Make it bleed.
(55:33):
I hate to say themmotherfuckers, I like too.
I truly thank you forsupporting my American dream.
Now go wash your fucking hands,you filthy savage.
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