October 8, 2025 • 49 mins
The season finale came with bigger stakes and sharper edges: we expanded our Fryeburg Fair booth by 10 feet, doubled down on Made in USA quality, and walked straight into the kind of attention that tests your backbone. We break down the real numbers—rent jumps, tent upgrades, inventory bets—and how an opening surge leveled into a week that finished a hair shy of our all-time record. Second best ever under tougher conditions isn’t a loss; it’s a louder floor and a clearer plan.
We dig into what the extra space actually unlocked: new eyes who’d never noticed us before, smarter product placement that turned slow movers into steady sellers, and a modular setup that will cut hours off future events. The flip side of visibility showed up too—hecklers at the doorway, a fake-email drive-by about flag code, and the constant test to keep your cool when you’re serving customers. We explain why criticism is a compass, how to convert noise into signal, and where brand integrity matters more than a photo op—like when the governor’s team asked for a picture and we stayed locked on the folks in front of us.
Behind the scenes, the bus failed us at the worst time—an ABS cascade that now means thousands in repairs and a hard pivot on road shows. We talk cash flow realities, rebuild timelines, and the digital moves we’re making to keep momentum between events, including our new QR-powered wall that turns fair traffic into year-round visits. And we share the moments that carried us through: loyal regulars who say we’re part of their fair tradition and two bald eagle sightings that felt like a message from my father—keep going, you’re on the right path.
If you care about small business resilience, American-made products, and the gritty middle between dream and result, this one’s for you. Subscribe, share with a friend who needs a push, and drop a review with your biggest takeaway—we read every word and it fuels the next leap.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_01 (00:00):
Just like that, the fair season is over, there's no
looking back.
Our biggest event of the year isin the rear view mirror.
Just how did it go?
And a very disappointing trendabout today's youth that you
need to know.
Let me tell you something.
Everybody's struggled.
(00:22):
The difference is some peoplechoose to go through it and some
choose to grow through it.
The choice is completely yours.
Which one you choose will have avery profound effect on the way
you live your life.
(01:26):
What it do, what it hot, did it,did it do.
Loud almighty, am I so excitedto be back with you?
Oh, it's true.
It is damn true.
I miss you, Boo, and I hope youmiss me too.
Episode 274, and I hope y'allare ready for even more.
(01:47):
Because I don't see an end insight.
No, I do not forecast an end insight.
This is 274 consecutive weeks ofthat podcast.
Precisely, perfectly,beautifully named Share the
Struggle.
Because everybody struggles.
But the truth is, boys andgirls, chipmunks and squirrels,
(02:08):
that that strength comes fromthe courage to share your
struggle.
This podcast, as always, isproudly brought to you by the
fine folks over to Loud ProudAmerican, aka myself and my wife
and my mama and my baby, youknow.
So Yeah, that's what this isabout.
(02:29):
Loud Proud American Podcast.
We are wrapping up our biggestevent of the year.
Or shall I say, we have wrappedup our biggest event of the
year.
We just returned home from theFreiburg Fair.
That signals the end of our fairseason.
It does not signal the end ofour season.
(02:50):
It just checks off a box ofdifficulty for our season.
And I'm gonna dig into all thaton today's show.
And I'm also gonna highlight avery disappointing trend that I
noticed from today's youth thatuh well it's disappointing.
And makes you wanna makes youwanna slap somebody, okay?
(03:12):
Just makes you wanna you knowput the put the fear of
accountability into some folksthat deserve it.
Because I mean clearly theirparents aren't doing it for
them.
But I don't want to get too faroff track here.
Over the past couple weeks,you've been listening to the
show.
You know everything that's beengoing on, you know, leading into
(03:33):
this, that we were on our way toour biggest event of the year,
our greatest event, our biggestchallenge.
Setting ourselves up for thelargest display we have ever
done.
All the you know, hoops, loops,and fruit loops you gotta jump
through to make that possible.
So, first and foremost, as we'vebeen talking over the few weeks,
(03:56):
just to kind of give a littlerecap of the scenario, we
finally gained the ability toadd 10 feet to our display.
Okay, we've been pushing forthis for a while.
I've always felt this was goingto be the end all be all to
making the magical difference,to giving us the greatest
(04:16):
results we've ever uh attained.
So we've been pushing for that.
We were granted that.
With that comes um, you know, athird price increase in your
rent because you're growing yourdisplay by a third.
Go figure.
Makes sense, right?
And then you got to figure aboutall the other things that go
into it.
I needed to buy a tent for it.
(04:37):
So a new tent frame, new tentshell, one new door.
You start piecing those thingstogether.
I also decided that I wanted anew canopy on one of our
existing tents to freshen it upto make things um look more
professional and look morecohesive.
So I went ahead and did that.
That bill was$4,500 just for thetent and the upgrades.
(04:59):
Add the thousand dollar rentincrease.
You're talking nearly$6,000 injust um the increase for our
space, right?
Then you factor in getting moregrid wall, getting more product,
doing more things, all thosechallenges.
It adds up pretty quickly.
If you listened to last week'sepisode, the bus won't start,
(05:22):
but the dream won't stop.
Y'all know we ran into someserious difficulties with the
bus.
We managed to overcome thosedifficulties with a lot of
friendship, love, and supportfrom all y'all listeners out
there and uh all friends andfamily that pitched in, that uh
really just jumped in and triedto make sure that this dream
(05:44):
didn't quit, that we continue topress on and to force on and to
make things happen.
So, with all that, we were ableto arrive at the fair.
Y'all already know that.
We were able to do that with thelove and support and help of
friends and family, and alsoadding some more finances to our
bottom line.
We rented a box truck, you know,we had a few different
(06:04):
challenges along the way, allthose things.
We do them, we get there, badabing, bada boom, coolest guy in
the room, and all I'm saying, wehe are ready to rock and roll.
That's kind of where we left offlast week.
I mentioned to you that westarted the fair off with the
second largest day in ourfive-year history.
(06:27):
That in itself was tremendous,and it left me feeling like we
are about to absolutely crushthis fair.
Sunday we were down, but Mondayat the time of the podcast, we
were trending in the rightdirection to offset our Sunday,
kind of flip-flop those days,and then get ourselves rock and
rollin' the rest of the ways.
(06:49):
You understand what I'm saying?
We were dialed in, we were tunedin, we were set right,
destination ahead.
We thought we were going to seekand destroy.
Okay.
Well, unfortunately, I can saythat didn't really happen.
Okay?
Now I don't want to wah Debbiedown on this whole scenario.
(07:11):
We're just gonna start with thefactoids, the results, okay?
We're just gonna put it outthere playing this day today.
I only had one day during thefair that we were up over the
previous year.
Now, Saturday was an extra bonusday that we never had before,
but I only had one day duringthe week where we exceeded the
(07:33):
sales of our previous year, andthat was only by a few hundred
dollars.
So you figure at the time that Irecorded, I already had a
wrecking setting Saturday.
My Sunday was down, and myMonday was trending in the right
direction.
Between Sunday, Monday, Tuesday,Wednesday, Thursday, Friday,
Saturday, Sunday, eight greatdays.
(07:54):
I only had one day where weexceeded the year 2024.
Now, our Saturday was sotremendous, that bonus day, that
it helped to equal out, toaverage out, to uh kind of reset
the field for us.
Now, my theory going into thiswas I'm adding all this extra
(08:14):
expense.
I'm going to gain the extraexpense with this tremendous
Saturday, and then if I can justmatch or beat by a little bit
last year's event, and then powpow, sprinkle and drop and plop
that bonus day on there, thatwould give us the greatest event
in the history of our business.
(08:36):
Well, as you can tell, when youdon't exceed your previous year,
other than one day out of eight,it's not gonna line up that way
for you, right?
But here's the thing it wasn'tuntil nearly the weekend when I
lost the cushion that I hadgained for my Saturday.
So, all things considered, whatI'm gonna tell you is this we
(08:57):
did not set the record, we didnot have our greatest, most
successful, highest net saleevent of our history, but we had
the second largest, greatest,most beautiful event in our
history.
The second greatest event we'veever done.
(09:19):
We did not miss last year'srecord setting event by very
much.
We only missed out by about athousand dollars between tying
last year and this year.
Now, some might look at it andsay, Well, you had that extra
day, that bonus day, so youreally can't, you know, factor
it out that way and look at it.
(09:40):
Without that day, you'd be downa tremendous amount.
But that's not the way the worldworks for me.
I set up for an event from startto close.
That's how I'm looking at mynumbers.
And the truth of the matter isthat I absolutely wanted a heck
of a lot more.
I added all the expenses.
(10:00):
Y'all know all the crazinessthat we ran into along the way.
I needed a lot more, but I'mhappy, I'm proud of where we
ended up.
And some other things go intothat because as I'm there at the
fair and I'm, you know, havingconversations with other vendors
that I know and trust and othersthat I meet along the way,
(10:20):
nobody was exceeding last year.
I don't know of one singlebusiness that beat 2024 if they
were there in 2024.
So, with that said, to only bedown by the amount that we were
down, and also having the secondlargest event in our history, I
(10:41):
feel damn good about it.
I also am an optimistic SOB, andI can tell you that the numbers
that I put on paper this year,day by day, are numbers that I
know I can beat next year.
I also know that with the addedspace, I now have a year of
experience with that additionalspace.
(11:02):
I know different things anddifferent ways to change things
up.
We are motivated by the resultswe we achieved, but the lessons
we learned.
I'm going to pivot some of ourdesigns in another way.
I'm going to use thisopportunity to freshen some
things up.
There's a lot of positives thatcame out of this event.
(11:23):
Number one, the accomplishmentof having the largest display
we've ever had.
There was a multitude of timesat the Freiburg Fair where I
stood in my original, myoriginal size booth, my original
setup, 10 feet wide, 20 feetlong, and I just stood there and
I envisioned not having thatadditional space and just
(11:46):
remembered my roots.
I remembered where I came from.
And then I would move over and Iremembered last year in the year
before.
And then I would take it all inand I would look at myself and
our display and how far we havecome today.
That in itself was a tremendousvictory and one that has me
feeling oh so proud.
(12:06):
Some of the benefits of thatadditional footage is going to
benefit me for years becausefirst and foremost, curb appeal,
twisted teal, sex appeal.
You understand what I'm saying?
When you are in real estate andyou want to sell a house, you
better have some curb appeal.
When you're in the business thatI'm in, when you're at fairs and
(12:26):
festivals, you better have somecurb appeal.
It gets people's attention.
What you're not going to believeabout this is the fact that I
had a multitude of people comeinto my tent and say, first year
here?
You know what that means?
They didn't see me before, theywalked past me before.
I experienced this bump when wewent from 10 feet to 20 feet.
(12:47):
People saying, Wow, you're a newvendor here.
I didn't think going from 20 to30 would happen even more, but
it did.
I still had a bunch of peoplecome in and tell me, Man, new
vendor?
I wow, huh?
This is pretty cool.
That in itself, I mean, I guessit shows consumers can be
oblivious, but pretty damn cool,right?
We're opening ourselves up to anew crowd, um, to a whole new
(13:09):
audience, people that didn'teven think we were there before.
That's very cool.
Okay.
So there's a lot of things to beencouraged by.
Just the locations of things inmy tent.
I could put certain items incertain locations and they would
virtually sell out.
I go into these things ratherprepared.
I have my spreadsheet that I doout by myself, like all hand
(13:31):
drawn out about how many items Ihave in stock, how many I had in
stock last year, what sizes anddesigns sold last year, the hard
number of those that did sell,then my game plan for this year,
what I actually was able to puton the shelf to kind of go play
by play.
And then by midweek, you'relooking at things and saying,
(13:52):
what were my hot sellers lastyear that aren't moving this
year?
Then I can take those things andmove them to higher traffic
areas.
So doing a lot of these things,we really learned a lot this
week.
There was a lot gained by umwhat we what we did.
So the experience in itself withthe new footage, tremendous.
(14:12):
We learned a lot.
It's definitely gonna help usmoving forward.
I don't think we're gonna havethis 30 by 20 display at very
many events, but that's okay.
I now have two tents that are 10by 20.
That's going to cut down mysetup time at other events.
I can now set up two tents asopposed to three tents.
So there's a lot of differentbenefits that are gonna come
(14:34):
from this, but we learned a lot.
We really did.
We learned an amazing amount byuh growing and doing this.
There were so many times that Istepped back, went outside,
looked at our tent, and justthought about how far we have
come and how thankful I am forum this journey that we're on.
Now, the unfortunate thing isafter the fair, uh getting home,
(14:58):
learning kind of the diagnosison the bus.
I think when we recorded lastweek, the bus wasn't running at
all.
We've now identified apossibility as to what the
situation is.
As random as this is, our ABSsystem is actually what's been
causing all these electricalissues.
Apparently, with GM, your ABSand uh your ECM and your
(15:22):
transmission, all these thingskind of go hand in hand.
And our ABS had become so badand affected, basically causing
an electrical fire that thevehicle wouldn't run.
When unplugging the ABS, it nowruns.
Okay.
So we still have a few things towork through.
But in doing this, the ABSmodule pump scenario, that's
(15:45):
gonna be pricey.
It kind of sounds like at thispoint, after meeting with my
mechanic today, that a new one'sgonna run us um$1,000 or so.
Uh hopefully maybe we can finduh a used one somewhere that's
in good shape.
I'm going to need all new brakelines, I need new fuel lines, I
am gonna need new uh calipers.
(16:06):
The estimation, the earlyestimation on fixing the bus is
four to five thousand dollars.
That's on top of the thousandsof dollars that we've spent on
maintenance this year alone forour new family vehicle, the
Denali, for all the thousands ofdollars I've already put into
the bus this year throughout theyear.
And that's not counting the billfrom last week and all the
(16:28):
troubleshooting and crazinessthat ensued.
Uh, fuel pump, ignitionswitches, uh, grounding cables,
all those things.
So a lot has happened, and thoseexpenses they feel rather
crippling on myself and thebusiness.
But I'm an optimistic dude.
I'm gonna find a way.
There is a way.
(16:48):
This too shall pass.
I know I'm under stress.
I know I'm under the gun.
I do know that on the other endof this is great victory.
We achieved great victory evenover the course of last week.
We grew to the greatest lengthswe ever have as a business.
We came damn near close tosetting the record as the
greatest event we've ever had asa business.
(17:11):
Is a lot of that money gonna getflushed away into uh
maintenance, restocking product,repaying loans and equity lines?
Yes, it is.
I'm probably not gonna haveanything, but it is what it is.
We accomplished it.
We did it.
Now the next thing is moving inthe next direction.
For me in Loud Proud American,traditionally, when I come out
(17:32):
of the Freiburg Fair, I havetime to recalibrate and take a
break.
I can do the farm chores, I cando the house chores, I can do
those things, I can be morepresent as uh a husband, as a
son, as now a father and afriend.
I can be a little more groundedand do those things.
Unfortunately, the way thisseason went, the way things are
(17:52):
going, I can't stop.
I must keep rolling.
I need to find new things andnew ways to grow the business
and to make money.
Greater challenges now exist.
If I want to do some road shows,I'm without the bus at this
moment until I start making somemoney to uh get the bus back on
the road.
So that's a whole new challenge.
So we're pivoting, we're doing alot of different things.
(18:15):
There's a lot of brainstormingin the background to find a way
around this, but this too shallpass.
This is yet another obstacle, itis yet another opportunity to
overcome the obstacle.
It is another opportunity toprove to myself and everybody
else that I am bound determinedthat this will succeed.
(18:39):
This cannot defeat me.
On the other end of this trying,difficult, suffering time is
great success and reward.
I feel it.
I am encouraged by what weaccomplished, and it has
equipped me to overcome thesechallenges.
Now I just gotta rewrite thegame plan and start executing
(19:02):
the plays.
And before you know it, I'll getthis behind me.
I have a world of awesome thingscoming that I can't wait to
share and to tackle, but I needto get through this heartache
and despair that's right here.
I just have to overcome it.
And I will, I will find a way.
I have not lost my hope, I havenot lost my enthusiasm in any
(19:25):
single way.
You feel me?
You got me?
Good.
I hope you do.
Now, I have a few more things Iwant to share with y'all.
I want to do the traditionalthing, which the traditional
thing for me is to end onpositivity.
Y'all already know me.
So we're gonna uh cross over thebridge here of some
(19:47):
disappointing trends that I'venoticed among today's youths,
and it's gonna go hand in handwith our new display.
Okay?
You ready for this?
As I already mentioned, havingthe additional 30 or additional
10 feet to gain us 30 feet ofcurb appeal and sex appeal is um
you're creating a greateropportunity for people to notice
(20:09):
you as they walk by.
So when you have 10 feet, youonly have so many steps where
you have to gain somebody'sattention.
When you triple the amount ofsteps, you triple the likelihood
of gaining people's attention,right?
It's just easier for them to uhto see you because when you have
a small display, they could belooking the wrong direction and
(20:30):
just walk by before they turntheir head in your direction.
30 feet, you're really raisingthe likelihood of being noticed.
I realized we were definitelybeing more noticed by the amount
of shit I heard people talkingabout our business on the way
by.
Now, a lot of people see thebusiness, they love it, they
(20:52):
come in, they celebrate it, theybuy stuff, they talk stuff, all
good stuff, right?
Y'all won't believe the amountof ignorant bastards that walk
by and talk shit about ourbusiness.
Who's proud to be American?
Look at these freaking people.
(21:13):
Proud Americans?
Who's that?
That's that's the light stuff,right?
Then it turns into nonsensestuff.
Oh, look at this F and CharlieKirk tent.
How's that gonna work for you?
Who let these assholes here?
Okay?
Well, just some of the topics.
How about all the kids that goby and yell Kamala Harris?
(21:36):
Whatever, okay?
This week I've noticed the levelof shit talking towards our
business through the roof.
I had these two young, um, howdo I describe them?
Young adolescent gay individualsholding hands, going by, they
(21:57):
saw my tent, and then began tostart yelling about uh Kamala
Harris and some Trump slang, andthey walk by.
Now I have a tent full ofpeople.
While I have a tent full ofpeople, they come back, they get
in the doorway of my tent, andthey start yelling in unison,
free Palestine.
While I'm trying to cash peopleout and answer questions.
(22:21):
They leave, they come backlater, holding hands, walking
into my tent, asking me if Ihave any Pete Butiteg
merchandise.
You're just provoking me to tosnap, right?
But you're being an absolutedouche.
This is not the only experienceI had throughout the week.
(22:42):
My wife was out in front of thetent, and a whole group of kids
came by.
We're talking late teen to early20s, saying, Oh, look, the
Charlie Kirk tent, let's makesome TikToks in front of the
Charlie Kirk tent.
Allie's getting heated, like,you're not gonna be doing this
in front of our tent.
And then I walk out and they sitdown and they just talk shit
from a distance.
So many people wanted to singleus out and criticize us and say
(23:09):
absolute nonsense about usduring the week.
I also can't tell you how manypeople came in my tent, actually
came in the tent and then pickedup my products, laughed at them,
and looked me in my face andlaughed at them and said, Who
would buy this?
And they throw it back on therack.
How many people walked in andsaid, This is a joke?
(23:32):
How many people walked in mytent, picked up a flag t-shirt,
showed it to their friendsoutside the tent, made some
smart ass comment, they allstart laughing and they put it
on the shelf and walk back.
Or the amount of people thatcame in my tent and ripped my
tags out that said made in USAand threw them on the floor.
The amount of people that camein and picked things up and
(23:55):
literally laughed at them.
Who would wear this?
This is stupid, this is dumb.
Why would you make this?
It was endless.
And I realized a few things.
First and foremost, we're doomedif this is the generation we're
depending on.
Okay?
Secondly, these little shitbagshave gone through their
(24:19):
adolescent lives without anysense of accountability, without
any ounce of respect.
Because if I ever acted likethis at somebody else's business
at a fair, my mother or fatherwould have put a boot up my ass.
You understand what I'm saying?
My dad would have made me buysomething with my own
(24:42):
ever-loving money and wear itaround the fair and advertise
for it.
Where are the parents to holdthese little shit suckers
accountable?
This is ridiculous.
It is a complete lack ofrespect.
I don't care if you think myproduct is absolute dog shit.
The fact that you have the nutsto come into my tent and talk
(25:02):
shit to my face because you knowyou can get away with it,
because you know you can filmsomething, you can complain
about something, you know youcan accuse me of something, you
know you can start something.
Boy, I can't tell you how manytimes I wanted to open face slap
some of these punks.
(25:23):
You understand what I'm saying?
I just wanted to grab them andsmack the accountability in it,
a little son of a bitch.
Damn, does it piss me off?
But I kept myself calm and cool.
I didn't tell anybody off, Ididn't chase anybody off, and I
didn't smack a bitch, but I'mtelling you, there's a chance I
might in the future.
Because this generation is ajoke.
(25:43):
This population of people ispart of or one of the biggest
part of the problem.
They don't have respect.
They don't know how to treatother people with respect.
Because here's the thing theyfeel it's okay to come into my
house and talk shit about myliving and my life and my
beliefs and my dreams.
(26:04):
But they also feel it's not okayfor me to step foot in their
house and tell them how I feel.
You understand what I'm saying?
This is a one-way road, and thattoad needs to get splattered.
I am over it.
This is part of the reason whyan assassin took out Charlie
Kirk.
You want to know why?
Because he opened it up fordebate, because he opened it up
(26:25):
for dialogue, because he openedit up for conflicting opinions
and voices of reason.
These people ain't equipped tovoice opinions and hear your
opinions.
No, they want to project theirbullshit on you and then quit.
You don't have the opportunityto stake the truth, to speak
your mind, because they don'twant to hear it.
(26:47):
That's what's wrong with this.
Because these little shitbagshave been raised by deadbeat
laxadaisical parents that toldthem you can have whatever the
hell you want and you ain'tgonna work for it.
Just go on out there and takeit.
If you feel a certain way, tellsomebody how you feel.
You know what, bitch?
If I took it upon myself tosmack accountability in every
one of these little suckbagsthat's out there that teach them
(27:08):
a lesson, I might give throughto a few of them before they put
me in jail.
Damn.
The thought process has crossedmy mind.
These kids are running aroundwith unchecked accountability.
They are not being heldaccountable for nothing because
their parents never held themaccountable for nothing.
They caused a shit fit and theywere handed a tablet.
They caused a shit fit and theywere given a PlayStation.
(27:32):
I am over these little bitches.
If I wasn't so dependent onthese events to support my
family and to support my dreams,I would tell these little shits
where to go and I would put themin their place.
The amount of restraint that Ihave to use is incredible.
(27:53):
This week was trying times.
Picture yourselves as me, okay?
Put yourselves in my big asssize 16s for a minute, if you
would, and think about all thedifficulties and all the
challenges that I am facing.
Think about all the mechanicalbreakdowns, all the failures and
f ups in between.
(28:14):
Think about me riskingeverything I have, betting on my
dream to support my family,having every single thing I own
on the line to be at this fair,to hopefully come out and put
myself and my family in a safeposition.
Now envision all these littlehooligans coming in, yelling
(28:35):
free Palestine and telling me myproduct is shit, making fun of
Charlie Kirk and the situationat hand, and ask yourself, could
you hold back?
And I will tell you, it was noteasy.
But it was eye-opening to me torealize we have lost a major
(28:57):
generation of people.
And it also really sprinkled onthe emphasis of importance that
Charlie Kirk placed on thatgeneration because he knew that
these folks were the ones wewere losing.
He knew that these young menneeded leadership, he knew this
generation neededaccountability, so he went out
(29:18):
headfirst and went afterbuilding leaders, challenging
voices, and creating a new lane.
And I certainly understand whyhe did that.
I clearly see all the reasonsfor that because this week was
eye-opening and disappointing.
(29:39):
I've dealt with my fair share ofpeople coming in and criticizing
my product, but this week wasoverwhelming.
And the amount of people thatwere provoking me to snap, I
couldn't even tell you how many.
I couldn't even put a number onit.
I know these people who arecoming in my Provoking me to
(30:01):
snap so they can do somethingthat cost me an opportunity.
So they could do something totake away my dream.
And I smiled and I let 'em belittle idiots.
But it doesn't mean I didn'twant to smack a hoe.
You understand?
What a challenging time.
But I did realize that extra 10feet really made those little
(30:25):
shitbags notice me.
The other thing that was uh wasfun is um the wife and I made a
new design for a wall.
You might have seen it if youfollow our social medias.
When we're closed, I have a wallthat has our American flag logo
and it has a part of our missionstatement on it, and in the
(30:46):
where the stars would be in theflag is a QR code, and you scan
it, and it pulls you right toyour way to our website, which I
thought was a great idea.
It was the wife's idea on thedesign.
I think it looks fantastic.
I'm pumped about it, and um, Ijust feel like it you know
elevates us another level.
And if we're not there and we'reclose, you can scan it, you can
(31:08):
find us, you know, great things.
Well, one morning, apparently,somebody went by and scanned it
and found it, and I happened tobe in the box truck grabbing
inventory when this little dittyof an email came over to me.
Now, the person in the email'sname is Pat Heddeck, which if
(31:29):
you just put the two together,they're trying to spell
pathetic.
Okay?
They're creating a name,pathetic, and their email is
actualamerican at freedom.com,which I later found out isn't
even a real email.
The email that I received wasl-ol at the backwards flag, and
in you know, quotes here,tribute to honor.
(31:52):
Read the flag code if youactually respect it.
It should never be on clothing,never discolored, never
tattered, never written on.
You do all of these yet act likeyou respect it.
The hypocrisy is hilarious.
Are you listening to yourself,you effing moron?
The American flag should neverbe put on clothing.
(32:16):
Wow.
That's wow.
I'm if you're such a patriot,you had nothing in your closet
has an American flag on him.
And when you want to talk to meabout distressed or altered
flags, but you're probably thesame Jamoke that has a weed flag
in your closet.
Because I see all these Americanflags with freaking weed leaves
(32:39):
and pot leaves and all thisnonsense, all this
ridiculousness.
Don't tell me you don't ownsomething altered.
I don't want to hear it.
You're a freaking moron.
SPEAKER_00 (32:51):
Oh my god.
SPEAKER_01 (32:53):
I've heard from other people, read the flag
code.
Listen, I am embracingpatriotism, I am showcasing
patriotism, and I'm doing it inways to encourage other people
to do so.
And it is 1000% a tribute to ourmilitary, you suckbag.
But I decided to send thispolite little thank you email.
(33:14):
Thank you for your kind wordsand support.
I'm sure you spend a lot of timeemailing all companies that put
the American flag on clothing.
Maybe reach out to all the majorbrands that do the same thing
instead of wasting the time of asmall business trying to support
his family using all Americanmade products.
Thanks again for the advice.
Have a blessed day.
(33:36):
What a douche.
And here's the thing to go onand prove my point from earlier.
Return descender.
SPEAKER_00 (33:44):
And the words of Elvis Presley, a return
descender, a return descender,and a sound known.
SPEAKER_01 (33:52):
Think about it.
You want to stir up some shit,you want to use my QR code, you
want to send me an email to talkyour shit, and you don't want
the accountability of reading aresponse email.
You don't want the dialogue orconversation of my opinion.
You didn't want to come back inmy tent and have an adult
civilized conversation with me.
(34:14):
You wanted to scan my QR codeand hide like a little bitch and
send me an email about mycompany.
You want to come in when I havea tent full of people and act
like some kind of Tony toughguy.
These little shit bags needaccountability.
If I was somewhere off thepremise and some dude said this
to me about my business, I'dsmack the shit out of somebody.
(34:36):
These people.
(35:05):
That just means you're growing.
That means you're gettingbigger.
That means you're making adifference.
Because if you're agitating thesituation and you're starting to
build haters, then you're alsobuilding followers.
You're also building supporters.
You're also building afoundation of loyal, loving,
(35:27):
amazing, loud, proud Americans.
You are doing what you're doingfor a reason.
And the greater the reason, thegreater the results, the greater
the obstacles, the greater thelunatics that are going to talk,
clap.
I think when you set your mindand your heart towards doing
(35:48):
something, if you don't findresistance, if you don't find
people that disagree with you,then you're not doing the right
things.
And then it's not big enough ofa goal.
If you're not meetingresistance, then what's the
point of shooting for it?
Does that make sense to youguys?
Like if you're not being um shotdown, if you're not being
(36:09):
criticized, then you're notdisturbing the environment
enough.
You're not ruffling the feathersenough because you're just like
everybody else living statusquo.
And we are not status quo.
We are bucking the system.
We might be agitating thehornet's nest, but that just
means if you want to give usthat level of hate, that means
(36:32):
we've been doing that level ofgreat.
And that's what I'm gonna keeptelling myself, and that's why
I'm gonna continue to bethankful for all the attention,
good, bad, or otherwise.
It is all part of the cause andthe cost.
As many people come in and hate,there's a lot more that are
(36:52):
coming in to love.
And over the past week, Iexperienced an overwhelming
amount of love, both fromexisting friends and family and
relationships to new faces andplaces and relationships.
So many of you, loyal listenersof the podcast, stopping in,
(37:12):
lending your support, peoplefollowing the social media page,
people that have been coming inbuying from us for years, coming
in.
Hey man, I'm so proud of you forbeing here.
Hey man, I'm here to supportyou.
I had so many success storiesover the week, so many people
coming in to show their support.
There's been some some coolthings that have happened that
(37:33):
I've really realized this yearin particular.
I can't tell you how many peoplecame into my tent and told me,
you are a part of my FreiburgFair tradition.
I need to come in and buysomething from you every single
year.
You guys understand this?
Fryberg Fair is the largest fairin our state.
(37:57):
It is a main tradition forlocals to go to this fair.
It is also a tradition forpeople that aren't even local
from all around New England andoutside of New England to come
to this fair.
It is tradition every year to goto this fair.
Lau Proud American has now beenaround long enough to become
part of people's tradition.
(38:19):
I literally heard that wordmultiple times this week.
Hey, it's tradition.
I gotta come in and buy fromyou.
Hey, you're part of the Frybergtradition.
You, my friend, are part of ourfair tradition.
I had a couple groups come inand say, There's a few things I
do at the Fryberg Fair.
I come in here and I buy theChristmas ornament for the tree,
the new family Christmasornament, and I come over here
(38:42):
and I buy from you.
Those are my traditions.
And just like buying a sausagesandwich at the fair, getting,
you know, the sunflower pizza atthe fair, just because your
family tradition is the go-toWoodsman's Day.
It is now your family traditionto come see Loud, Proud
American.
(39:02):
We are becoming a tradition thatgives me goosebumps.
That overcomes the nonsense thatI dealt with from all the
lunatics that want to come inand run their mouths.
For all the losers that want tohide behind an email.
It all gets washed away from allthe love and support from all
(39:24):
the loud, proud Americanssaying, You, my friend, are part
of our tradition.
I will take that any damn day.
That's my rant.
Now, with that aside, let's endon some funny and some
heartwarming.
First, the funny.
(39:45):
I'm in the tent.
Gotta setting some things out,cashing some people out.
And uh a good friend of mine,Alan, is actually at the back of
the tent talking with my wifeand playing with Paisley, and I
have my back turned toward thecash register, and Allie says,
Here comes the governor.
Oh god, here comes the governor.
(40:05):
And I turn around, and Maine'sgovernor, Janet Mills, who
you've heard me talk about manytimes on the podcast, is walking
towards our tent, and I look upand there's an entourage with
her, there's a camera crew withher, and she's looking at my
tent, and they're snappingphotos, and she's reading my
faith, family, freedom t-shirt,and she turns around and poses
(40:30):
for a photo with my product.
At this point, one of her PRpeople comes into my tent and
says, The governor saw your tentand your Made in America
mission, and she wants to take aphoto with you.
The governor is requesting aphoto with you.
(40:52):
Y'all getting this?
You hearing this?
You understanding this?
What do you do?
You have the opportunity to takea photo with the governor, which
is gonna get plastered all overher, you know, social media
outlets, gaining you exposure,right?
You're doing the polite thing.
(41:12):
Or do you stick to your guns?
Do you stick to your traditionsand your beliefs?
Do you stand up and say, hell'sto the no?
Y'all can get to the packing andthen receive a tax audit on
Monday.
What do you do?
What do you do?
Do you decline the photo and umrisk, you know, audits,
(41:38):
investigations, negativereviews, whatever.
Or do you pose for the photo andthen answer to your loyal base
that knows how you feel whenthey all call you out for doing
it?
Tough spot, Bucky.
You know what I did?
I say to the guy, oh yeah, yeah,yeah, I'll be right there.
And then I proceeded to be asbusy as a worker be.
(42:00):
I was stalking things, I wasmoving things, I was talking to
all things.
Any customer that came in, I wasright there attached to their
hip, and I was trying to getmyself into the longest
conversation possible.
Meanwhile, I can feel somethingpeering down my back, staring
through my spine.
I turn around, s n not not fullturnaround, just a side
peripheral and see the governorleaning on one of my racks,
(42:23):
looking at my stuff, but staringa hole through me, waiting for
that little photo opportunity.
I wasn't about to cave.
I stayed so connected to thecustomers because the customer
looking at the sweatshirt is farmore important to me than the
governor of Maine.
(42:43):
Taking the hint, they moved on.
Taking the polite, subtle hint,they moved on.
Whew, sigh of relief.
I didn't have to say anythingnegative, I didn't have to say
anything rude.
I just got busy and let them goalong and upon their own way.
(43:06):
Man, that was a difficultsituation to be in.
Oh my god.
Y'all know me.
You can imagine all the things Iwanted to say, all the things I
wanted to do, but I couldn't dothem.
This would be real bad forbusiness.
It was bad for business eitherway.
(43:26):
It was a tough spot to be in.
I was in a glass case ofemotion.
You understand?
That was the funny story.
Here's the heartwarming story.
If you've been listening to thepodcast, if you are a day one,
get your ones up.
I acknowledge you.
I appreciate you.
I thank you for being herelistening every damn week.
(43:48):
If you are a new one, I welcomeyou.
If you've been around longenough to know the story of me
and my dad and my father'spassing, and the fact that we
are firm, confirmed believersthat my father comes back and
checks on us as a bald eagle,then this story is for you.
Because on Friday, as I'm racingto the fair to set up, I'm
(44:13):
driving along, and I happen tolook out my right side window,
and there I see off in a swampis a beautiful, large American
eagle just staring down,watching traffic, almost
watching me approach.
It's as if this eagle waswatching my wife and my child
(44:35):
drive by and then waiting for meto be right behind him, and then
watching me and guiding me andlooking over me.
This eagle watched me drive offto chase my dreams.
I messaged the wife because wehave radios and I'm like, Did
you see that?
Did you see that eagle?
(44:56):
And she says, There you go, bud.
That was your dad.
He's with you, he's watchingover you.
So my wife goes up to the fairand she works with me Friday,
Saturday, Sunday, Monday whenI'm recording the podcast.
You understand that she's byherself and my my mother's
coming up, and then we're gonnado shift change.
Allie's gonna go home, and mymom's gonna stay there with me.
(45:18):
So my mom stays there with me,and um she begins to tell me.
You know, the other day after Igot off the phone with you, when
I was home doing the chores,right after that, this big,
beautiful, amazing bald eaglecame over the house, and he
circled over me, and he got solow to make sure that I could
(45:41):
see him, and he just soared allaround the farm.
He soared around the horse andaround the house, and I just
stood there and I watched him,and he came close to me, close
enough for me to see all thedetails and to get all the
goosebumps.
I really felt that when I washere by myself taking care of
everything, that your fathercame to check in on me.
(46:06):
Coincidence or fate?
I can tell you which one Ibelieve.
My father told the entire familyeverything is gonna be alright.
That is why that is how I knoweverything is gonna be alright.
(46:28):
That's why I know I didn't makeall the money I wanted to make,
but I made enough.
That's why I know that I haveall these bills stacked up,
these maintenance situations,these broken vehicles, these
obstacles, these delays.
But I know I will find a way.
(46:49):
It's all going to be okay.
My father is there to show meit's all gonna be okay.
I'm gonna continue to take thesestruggles, and I'm gonna
continue to give them to God,and I'm gonna continue to work
as hard and fast as I can tochase my dreams and to encourage
(47:10):
each and every person I meetalong the way.
Thank you for supporting myAmerican dream.
Now go wash, you filthy savage.
That's it, and that's all,Biggie Smalls.
(47:42):
If you're out of there, I meanyou two read me on Facebook.
(48:06):
Underscore, underscore, singlethings structure background.
You are enjoying what you'redoing.
(48:57):
Now go wash your fucking hands,you filthy savage.
Just like that, the fair season is over, there's no
looking back.
Our biggest event of the year isin the rear view mirror.
Just how did it go?
And a very disappointing trendabout today's youth that you
need to know.
Let me tell you something.
Everybody's struggled.
(00:22):
The difference is some peoplechoose to go through it and some
choose to grow through it.
The choice is completely yours.
Which one you choose will have avery profound effect on the way
you live your life.
(01:26):
What it do, what it hot, did it,did it do.
Loud almighty, am I so excitedto be back with you?
Oh, it's true.
It is damn true.
I miss you, Boo, and I hope youmiss me too.
Episode 274, and I hope y'allare ready for even more.
(01:47):
Because I don't see an end insight.
No, I do not forecast an end insight.
This is 274 consecutive weeks ofthat podcast.
Precisely, perfectly,beautifully named Share the
Struggle.
Because everybody struggles.
But the truth is, boys andgirls, chipmunks and squirrels,
(02:08):
that that strength comes fromthe courage to share your
struggle.
This podcast, as always, isproudly brought to you by the
fine folks over to Loud ProudAmerican, aka myself and my wife
and my mama and my baby, youknow.
So Yeah, that's what this isabout.
(02:29):
Loud Proud American Podcast.
We are wrapping up our biggestevent of the year.
Or shall I say, we have wrappedup our biggest event of the
year.
We just returned home from theFreiburg Fair.
That signals the end of our fairseason.
It does not signal the end ofour season.
(02:50):
It just checks off a box ofdifficulty for our season.
And I'm gonna dig into all thaton today's show.
And I'm also gonna highlight avery disappointing trend that I
noticed from today's youth thatuh well it's disappointing.
And makes you wanna makes youwanna slap somebody, okay?
(03:12):
Just makes you wanna you knowput the put the fear of
accountability into some folksthat deserve it.
Because I mean clearly theirparents aren't doing it for
them.
But I don't want to get too faroff track here.
Over the past couple weeks,you've been listening to the
show.
You know everything that's beengoing on, you know, leading into
(03:33):
this, that we were on our way toour biggest event of the year,
our greatest event, our biggestchallenge.
Setting ourselves up for thelargest display we have ever
done.
All the you know, hoops, loops,and fruit loops you gotta jump
through to make that possible.
So, first and foremost, as we'vebeen talking over the few weeks,
(03:56):
just to kind of give a littlerecap of the scenario, we
finally gained the ability toadd 10 feet to our display.
Okay, we've been pushing forthis for a while.
I've always felt this was goingto be the end all be all to
making the magical difference,to giving us the greatest
(04:16):
results we've ever uh attained.
So we've been pushing for that.
We were granted that.
With that comes um, you know, athird price increase in your
rent because you're growing yourdisplay by a third.
Go figure.
Makes sense, right?
And then you got to figure aboutall the other things that go
into it.
I needed to buy a tent for it.
(04:37):
So a new tent frame, new tentshell, one new door.
You start piecing those thingstogether.
I also decided that I wanted anew canopy on one of our
existing tents to freshen it upto make things um look more
professional and look morecohesive.
So I went ahead and did that.
That bill was$4,500 just for thetent and the upgrades.
(04:59):
Add the thousand dollar rentincrease.
You're talking nearly$6,000 injust um the increase for our
space, right?
Then you factor in getting moregrid wall, getting more product,
doing more things, all thosechallenges.
It adds up pretty quickly.
If you listened to last week'sepisode, the bus won't start,
(05:22):
but the dream won't stop.
Y'all know we ran into someserious difficulties with the
bus.
We managed to overcome thosedifficulties with a lot of
friendship, love, and supportfrom all y'all listeners out
there and uh all friends andfamily that pitched in, that uh
really just jumped in and triedto make sure that this dream
(05:44):
didn't quit, that we continue topress on and to force on and to
make things happen.
So, with all that, we were ableto arrive at the fair.
Y'all already know that.
We were able to do that with thelove and support and help of
friends and family, and alsoadding some more finances to our
bottom line.
We rented a box truck, you know,we had a few different
(06:04):
challenges along the way, allthose things.
We do them, we get there, badabing, bada boom, coolest guy in
the room, and all I'm saying, wehe are ready to rock and roll.
That's kind of where we left offlast week.
I mentioned to you that westarted the fair off with the
second largest day in ourfive-year history.
(06:27):
That in itself was tremendous,and it left me feeling like we
are about to absolutely crushthis fair.
Sunday we were down, but Mondayat the time of the podcast, we
were trending in the rightdirection to offset our Sunday,
kind of flip-flop those days,and then get ourselves rock and
rollin' the rest of the ways.
(06:49):
You understand what I'm saying?
We were dialed in, we were tunedin, we were set right,
destination ahead.
We thought we were going to seekand destroy.
Okay.
Well, unfortunately, I can saythat didn't really happen.
Okay?
Now I don't want to wah Debbiedown on this whole scenario.
(07:11):
We're just gonna start with thefactoids, the results, okay?
We're just gonna put it outthere playing this day today.
I only had one day during thefair that we were up over the
previous year.
Now, Saturday was an extra bonusday that we never had before,
but I only had one day duringthe week where we exceeded the
(07:33):
sales of our previous year, andthat was only by a few hundred
dollars.
So you figure at the time that Irecorded, I already had a
wrecking setting Saturday.
My Sunday was down, and myMonday was trending in the right
direction.
Between Sunday, Monday, Tuesday,Wednesday, Thursday, Friday,
Saturday, Sunday, eight greatdays.
(07:54):
I only had one day where weexceeded the year 2024.
Now, our Saturday was sotremendous, that bonus day, that
it helped to equal out, toaverage out, to uh kind of reset
the field for us.
Now, my theory going into thiswas I'm adding all this extra
(08:14):
expense.
I'm going to gain the extraexpense with this tremendous
Saturday, and then if I can justmatch or beat by a little bit
last year's event, and then powpow, sprinkle and drop and plop
that bonus day on there, thatwould give us the greatest event
in the history of our business.
(08:36):
Well, as you can tell, when youdon't exceed your previous year,
other than one day out of eight,it's not gonna line up that way
for you, right?
But here's the thing it wasn'tuntil nearly the weekend when I
lost the cushion that I hadgained for my Saturday.
So, all things considered, whatI'm gonna tell you is this we
(08:57):
did not set the record, we didnot have our greatest, most
successful, highest net saleevent of our history, but we had
the second largest, greatest,most beautiful event in our
history.
The second greatest event we'veever done.
(09:19):
We did not miss last year'srecord setting event by very
much.
We only missed out by about athousand dollars between tying
last year and this year.
Now, some might look at it andsay, Well, you had that extra
day, that bonus day, so youreally can't, you know, factor
it out that way and look at it.
(09:40):
Without that day, you'd be downa tremendous amount.
But that's not the way the worldworks for me.
I set up for an event from startto close.
That's how I'm looking at mynumbers.
And the truth of the matter isthat I absolutely wanted a heck
of a lot more.
I added all the expenses.
(10:00):
Y'all know all the crazinessthat we ran into along the way.
I needed a lot more, but I'mhappy, I'm proud of where we
ended up.
And some other things go intothat because as I'm there at the
fair and I'm, you know, havingconversations with other vendors
that I know and trust and othersthat I meet along the way,
(10:20):
nobody was exceeding last year.
I don't know of one singlebusiness that beat 2024 if they
were there in 2024.
So, with that said, to only bedown by the amount that we were
down, and also having the secondlargest event in our history, I
(10:41):
feel damn good about it.
I also am an optimistic SOB, andI can tell you that the numbers
that I put on paper this year,day by day, are numbers that I
know I can beat next year.
I also know that with the addedspace, I now have a year of
experience with that additionalspace.
(11:02):
I know different things anddifferent ways to change things
up.
We are motivated by the resultswe we achieved, but the lessons
we learned.
I'm going to pivot some of ourdesigns in another way.
I'm going to use thisopportunity to freshen some
things up.
There's a lot of positives thatcame out of this event.
(11:23):
Number one, the accomplishmentof having the largest display
we've ever had.
There was a multitude of timesat the Freiburg Fair where I
stood in my original, myoriginal size booth, my original
setup, 10 feet wide, 20 feetlong, and I just stood there and
I envisioned not having thatadditional space and just
(11:46):
remembered my roots.
I remembered where I came from.
And then I would move over and Iremembered last year in the year
before.
And then I would take it all inand I would look at myself and
our display and how far we havecome today.
That in itself was a tremendousvictory and one that has me
feeling oh so proud.
(12:06):
Some of the benefits of thatadditional footage is going to
benefit me for years becausefirst and foremost, curb appeal,
twisted teal, sex appeal.
You understand what I'm saying?
When you are in real estate andyou want to sell a house, you
better have some curb appeal.
When you're in the business thatI'm in, when you're at fairs and
(12:26):
festivals, you better have somecurb appeal.
It gets people's attention.
What you're not going to believeabout this is the fact that I
had a multitude of people comeinto my tent and say, first year
here?
You know what that means?
They didn't see me before, theywalked past me before.
I experienced this bump when wewent from 10 feet to 20 feet.
(12:47):
People saying, Wow, you're a newvendor here.
I didn't think going from 20 to30 would happen even more, but
it did.
I still had a bunch of peoplecome in and tell me, Man, new
vendor?
I wow, huh?
This is pretty cool.
That in itself, I mean, I guessit shows consumers can be
oblivious, but pretty damn cool,right?
We're opening ourselves up to anew crowd, um, to a whole new
(13:09):
audience, people that didn'teven think we were there before.
That's very cool.
Okay.
So there's a lot of things to beencouraged by.
Just the locations of things inmy tent.
I could put certain items incertain locations and they would
virtually sell out.
I go into these things ratherprepared.
I have my spreadsheet that I doout by myself, like all hand
(13:31):
drawn out about how many items Ihave in stock, how many I had in
stock last year, what sizes anddesigns sold last year, the hard
number of those that did sell,then my game plan for this year,
what I actually was able to puton the shelf to kind of go play
by play.
And then by midweek, you'relooking at things and saying,
(13:52):
what were my hot sellers lastyear that aren't moving this
year?
Then I can take those things andmove them to higher traffic
areas.
So doing a lot of these things,we really learned a lot this
week.
There was a lot gained by umwhat we what we did.
So the experience in itself withthe new footage, tremendous.
(14:12):
We learned a lot.
It's definitely gonna help usmoving forward.
I don't think we're gonna havethis 30 by 20 display at very
many events, but that's okay.
I now have two tents that are 10by 20.
That's going to cut down mysetup time at other events.
I can now set up two tents asopposed to three tents.
So there's a lot of differentbenefits that are gonna come
(14:34):
from this, but we learned a lot.
We really did.
We learned an amazing amount byuh growing and doing this.
There were so many times that Istepped back, went outside,
looked at our tent, and justthought about how far we have
come and how thankful I am forum this journey that we're on.
Now, the unfortunate thing isafter the fair, uh getting home,
(14:58):
learning kind of the diagnosison the bus.
I think when we recorded lastweek, the bus wasn't running at
all.
We've now identified apossibility as to what the
situation is.
As random as this is, our ABSsystem is actually what's been
causing all these electricalissues.
Apparently, with GM, your ABSand uh your ECM and your
(15:22):
transmission, all these thingskind of go hand in hand.
And our ABS had become so badand affected, basically causing
an electrical fire that thevehicle wouldn't run.
When unplugging the ABS, it nowruns.
Okay.
So we still have a few things towork through.
But in doing this, the ABSmodule pump scenario, that's
(15:45):
gonna be pricey.
It kind of sounds like at thispoint, after meeting with my
mechanic today, that a new one'sgonna run us um$1,000 or so.
Uh hopefully maybe we can finduh a used one somewhere that's
in good shape.
I'm going to need all new brakelines, I need new fuel lines, I
am gonna need new uh calipers.
(16:06):
The estimation, the earlyestimation on fixing the bus is
four to five thousand dollars.
That's on top of the thousandsof dollars that we've spent on
maintenance this year alone forour new family vehicle, the
Denali, for all the thousands ofdollars I've already put into
the bus this year throughout theyear.
And that's not counting the billfrom last week and all the
(16:28):
troubleshooting and crazinessthat ensued.
Uh, fuel pump, ignitionswitches, uh, grounding cables,
all those things.
So a lot has happened, and thoseexpenses they feel rather
crippling on myself and thebusiness.
But I'm an optimistic dude.
I'm gonna find a way.
There is a way.
(16:48):
This too shall pass.
I know I'm under stress.
I know I'm under the gun.
I do know that on the other endof this is great victory.
We achieved great victory evenover the course of last week.
We grew to the greatest lengthswe ever have as a business.
We came damn near close tosetting the record as the
greatest event we've ever had asa business.
(17:11):
Is a lot of that money gonna getflushed away into uh
maintenance, restocking product,repaying loans and equity lines?
Yes, it is.
I'm probably not gonna haveanything, but it is what it is.
We accomplished it.
We did it.
Now the next thing is moving inthe next direction.
For me in Loud Proud American,traditionally, when I come out
(17:32):
of the Freiburg Fair, I havetime to recalibrate and take a
break.
I can do the farm chores, I cando the house chores, I can do
those things, I can be morepresent as uh a husband, as a
son, as now a father and afriend.
I can be a little more groundedand do those things.
Unfortunately, the way thisseason went, the way things are
(17:52):
going, I can't stop.
I must keep rolling.
I need to find new things andnew ways to grow the business
and to make money.
Greater challenges now exist.
If I want to do some road shows,I'm without the bus at this
moment until I start making somemoney to uh get the bus back on
the road.
So that's a whole new challenge.
So we're pivoting, we're doing alot of different things.
(18:15):
There's a lot of brainstormingin the background to find a way
around this, but this too shallpass.
This is yet another obstacle, itis yet another opportunity to
overcome the obstacle.
It is another opportunity toprove to myself and everybody
else that I am bound determinedthat this will succeed.
(18:39):
This cannot defeat me.
On the other end of this trying,difficult, suffering time is
great success and reward.
I feel it.
I am encouraged by what weaccomplished, and it has
equipped me to overcome thesechallenges.
Now I just gotta rewrite thegame plan and start executing
(19:02):
the plays.
And before you know it, I'll getthis behind me.
I have a world of awesome thingscoming that I can't wait to
share and to tackle, but I needto get through this heartache
and despair that's right here.
I just have to overcome it.
And I will, I will find a way.
I have not lost my hope, I havenot lost my enthusiasm in any
(19:25):
single way.
You feel me?
You got me?
Good.
I hope you do.
Now, I have a few more things Iwant to share with y'all.
I want to do the traditionalthing, which the traditional
thing for me is to end onpositivity.
Y'all already know me.
So we're gonna uh cross over thebridge here of some
(19:47):
disappointing trends that I'venoticed among today's youths,
and it's gonna go hand in handwith our new display.
Okay?
You ready for this?
As I already mentioned, havingthe additional 30 or additional
10 feet to gain us 30 feet ofcurb appeal and sex appeal is um
you're creating a greateropportunity for people to notice
(20:09):
you as they walk by.
So when you have 10 feet, youonly have so many steps where
you have to gain somebody'sattention.
When you triple the amount ofsteps, you triple the likelihood
of gaining people's attention,right?
It's just easier for them to uhto see you because when you have
a small display, they could belooking the wrong direction and
(20:30):
just walk by before they turntheir head in your direction.
30 feet, you're really raisingthe likelihood of being noticed.
I realized we were definitelybeing more noticed by the amount
of shit I heard people talkingabout our business on the way
by.
Now, a lot of people see thebusiness, they love it, they
(20:52):
come in, they celebrate it, theybuy stuff, they talk stuff, all
good stuff, right?
Y'all won't believe the amountof ignorant bastards that walk
by and talk shit about ourbusiness.
Who's proud to be American?
Look at these freaking people.
(21:13):
Proud Americans?
Who's that?
That's that's the light stuff,right?
Then it turns into nonsensestuff.
Oh, look at this F and CharlieKirk tent.
How's that gonna work for you?
Who let these assholes here?
Okay?
Well, just some of the topics.
How about all the kids that goby and yell Kamala Harris?
(21:36):
Whatever, okay?
This week I've noticed the levelof shit talking towards our
business through the roof.
I had these two young, um, howdo I describe them?
Young adolescent gay individualsholding hands, going by, they
(21:57):
saw my tent, and then began tostart yelling about uh Kamala
Harris and some Trump slang, andthey walk by.
Now I have a tent full ofpeople.
While I have a tent full ofpeople, they come back, they get
in the doorway of my tent, andthey start yelling in unison,
free Palestine.
While I'm trying to cash peopleout and answer questions.
(22:21):
They leave, they come backlater, holding hands, walking
into my tent, asking me if Ihave any Pete Butiteg
merchandise.
You're just provoking me to tosnap, right?
But you're being an absolutedouche.
This is not the only experienceI had throughout the week.
(22:42):
My wife was out in front of thetent, and a whole group of kids
came by.
We're talking late teen to early20s, saying, Oh, look, the
Charlie Kirk tent, let's makesome TikToks in front of the
Charlie Kirk tent.
Allie's getting heated, like,you're not gonna be doing this
in front of our tent.
And then I walk out and they sitdown and they just talk shit
from a distance.
So many people wanted to singleus out and criticize us and say
(23:09):
absolute nonsense about usduring the week.
I also can't tell you how manypeople came in my tent, actually
came in the tent and then pickedup my products, laughed at them,
and looked me in my face andlaughed at them and said, Who
would buy this?
And they throw it back on therack.
How many people walked in andsaid, This is a joke?
(23:32):
How many people walked in mytent, picked up a flag t-shirt,
showed it to their friendsoutside the tent, made some
smart ass comment, they allstart laughing and they put it
on the shelf and walk back.
Or the amount of people thatcame in my tent and ripped my
tags out that said made in USAand threw them on the floor.
The amount of people that camein and picked things up and
(23:55):
literally laughed at them.
Who would wear this?
This is stupid, this is dumb.
Why would you make this?
It was endless.
And I realized a few things.
First and foremost, we're doomedif this is the generation we're
depending on.
Okay?
Secondly, these little shitbagshave gone through their
(24:19):
adolescent lives without anysense of accountability, without
any ounce of respect.
Because if I ever acted likethis at somebody else's business
at a fair, my mother or fatherwould have put a boot up my ass.
You understand what I'm saying?
My dad would have made me buysomething with my own
(24:42):
ever-loving money and wear itaround the fair and advertise
for it.
Where are the parents to holdthese little shit suckers
accountable?
This is ridiculous.
It is a complete lack ofrespect.
I don't care if you think myproduct is absolute dog shit.
The fact that you have the nutsto come into my tent and talk
(25:02):
shit to my face because you knowyou can get away with it,
because you know you can filmsomething, you can complain
about something, you know youcan accuse me of something, you
know you can start something.
Boy, I can't tell you how manytimes I wanted to open face slap
some of these punks.
(25:23):
You understand what I'm saying?
I just wanted to grab them andsmack the accountability in it,
a little son of a bitch.
Damn, does it piss me off?
But I kept myself calm and cool.
I didn't tell anybody off, Ididn't chase anybody off, and I
didn't smack a bitch, but I'mtelling you, there's a chance I
might in the future.
Because this generation is ajoke.
(25:43):
This population of people ispart of or one of the biggest
part of the problem.
They don't have respect.
They don't know how to treatother people with respect.
Because here's the thing theyfeel it's okay to come into my
house and talk shit about myliving and my life and my
beliefs and my dreams.
(26:04):
But they also feel it's not okayfor me to step foot in their
house and tell them how I feel.
You understand what I'm saying?
This is a one-way road, and thattoad needs to get splattered.
I am over it.
This is part of the reason whyan assassin took out Charlie
Kirk.
You want to know why?
Because he opened it up fordebate, because he opened it up
(26:25):
for dialogue, because he openedit up for conflicting opinions
and voices of reason.
These people ain't equipped tovoice opinions and hear your
opinions.
No, they want to project theirbullshit on you and then quit.
You don't have the opportunityto stake the truth, to speak
your mind, because they don'twant to hear it.
(26:47):
That's what's wrong with this.
Because these little shitbagshave been raised by deadbeat
laxadaisical parents that toldthem you can have whatever the
hell you want and you ain'tgonna work for it.
Just go on out there and takeit.
If you feel a certain way, tellsomebody how you feel.
You know what, bitch?
If I took it upon myself tosmack accountability in every
one of these little suckbagsthat's out there that teach them
(27:08):
a lesson, I might give throughto a few of them before they put
me in jail.
Damn.
The thought process has crossedmy mind.
These kids are running aroundwith unchecked accountability.
They are not being heldaccountable for nothing because
their parents never held themaccountable for nothing.
They caused a shit fit and theywere handed a tablet.
They caused a shit fit and theywere given a PlayStation.
(27:32):
I am over these little bitches.
If I wasn't so dependent onthese events to support my
family and to support my dreams,I would tell these little shits
where to go and I would put themin their place.
The amount of restraint that Ihave to use is incredible.
(27:53):
This week was trying times.
Picture yourselves as me, okay?
Put yourselves in my big asssize 16s for a minute, if you
would, and think about all thedifficulties and all the
challenges that I am facing.
Think about all the mechanicalbreakdowns, all the failures and
f ups in between.
(28:14):
Think about me riskingeverything I have, betting on my
dream to support my family,having every single thing I own
on the line to be at this fair,to hopefully come out and put
myself and my family in a safeposition.
Now envision all these littlehooligans coming in, yelling
(28:35):
free Palestine and telling me myproduct is shit, making fun of
Charlie Kirk and the situationat hand, and ask yourself, could
you hold back?
And I will tell you, it was noteasy.
But it was eye-opening to me torealize we have lost a major
(28:57):
generation of people.
And it also really sprinkled onthe emphasis of importance that
Charlie Kirk placed on thatgeneration because he knew that
these folks were the ones wewere losing.
He knew that these young menneeded leadership, he knew this
generation neededaccountability, so he went out
(29:18):
headfirst and went afterbuilding leaders, challenging
voices, and creating a new lane.
And I certainly understand whyhe did that.
I clearly see all the reasonsfor that because this week was
eye-opening and disappointing.
(29:39):
I've dealt with my fair share ofpeople coming in and criticizing
my product, but this week wasoverwhelming.
And the amount of people thatwere provoking me to snap, I
couldn't even tell you how many.
I couldn't even put a number onit.
I know these people who arecoming in my Provoking me to
(30:01):
snap so they can do somethingthat cost me an opportunity.
So they could do something totake away my dream.
And I smiled and I let 'em belittle idiots.
But it doesn't mean I didn'twant to smack a hoe.
You understand?
What a challenging time.
But I did realize that extra 10feet really made those little
(30:25):
shitbags notice me.
The other thing that was uh wasfun is um the wife and I made a
new design for a wall.
You might have seen it if youfollow our social medias.
When we're closed, I have a wallthat has our American flag logo
and it has a part of our missionstatement on it, and in the
(30:46):
where the stars would be in theflag is a QR code, and you scan
it, and it pulls you right toyour way to our website, which I
thought was a great idea.
It was the wife's idea on thedesign.
I think it looks fantastic.
I'm pumped about it, and um, Ijust feel like it you know
elevates us another level.
And if we're not there and we'reclose, you can scan it, you can
(31:08):
find us, you know, great things.
Well, one morning, apparently,somebody went by and scanned it
and found it, and I happened tobe in the box truck grabbing
inventory when this little dittyof an email came over to me.
Now, the person in the email'sname is Pat Heddeck, which if
(31:29):
you just put the two together,they're trying to spell
pathetic.
Okay?
They're creating a name,pathetic, and their email is
actualamerican at freedom.com,which I later found out isn't
even a real email.
The email that I received wasl-ol at the backwards flag, and
in you know, quotes here,tribute to honor.
(31:52):
Read the flag code if youactually respect it.
It should never be on clothing,never discolored, never
tattered, never written on.
You do all of these yet act likeyou respect it.
The hypocrisy is hilarious.
Are you listening to yourself,you effing moron?
The American flag should neverbe put on clothing.
(32:16):
Wow.
That's wow.
I'm if you're such a patriot,you had nothing in your closet
has an American flag on him.
And when you want to talk to meabout distressed or altered
flags, but you're probably thesame Jamoke that has a weed flag
in your closet.
Because I see all these Americanflags with freaking weed leaves
(32:39):
and pot leaves and all thisnonsense, all this
ridiculousness.
Don't tell me you don't ownsomething altered.
I don't want to hear it.
You're a freaking moron.
SPEAKER_00 (32:51):
Oh my god.
SPEAKER_01 (32:53):
I've heard from other people, read the flag
code.
Listen, I am embracingpatriotism, I am showcasing
patriotism, and I'm doing it inways to encourage other people
to do so.
And it is 1000% a tribute to ourmilitary, you suckbag.
But I decided to send thispolite little thank you email.
(33:14):
Thank you for your kind wordsand support.
I'm sure you spend a lot of timeemailing all companies that put
the American flag on clothing.
Maybe reach out to all the majorbrands that do the same thing
instead of wasting the time of asmall business trying to support
his family using all Americanmade products.
Thanks again for the advice.
Have a blessed day.
(33:36):
What a douche.
And here's the thing to go onand prove my point from earlier.
Return descender.
SPEAKER_00 (33:44):
And the words of Elvis Presley, a return
descender, a return descender,and a sound known.
SPEAKER_01 (33:52):
Think about it.
You want to stir up some shit,you want to use my QR code, you
want to send me an email to talkyour shit, and you don't want
the accountability of reading aresponse email.
You don't want the dialogue orconversation of my opinion.
You didn't want to come back inmy tent and have an adult
civilized conversation with me.
(34:14):
You wanted to scan my QR codeand hide like a little bitch and
send me an email about mycompany.
You want to come in when I havea tent full of people and act
like some kind of Tony toughguy.
These little shit bags needaccountability.
If I was somewhere off thepremise and some dude said this
to me about my business, I'dsmack the shit out of somebody.
(34:36):
These people.
(35:05):
That just means you're growing.
That means you're gettingbigger.
That means you're making adifference.
Because if you're agitating thesituation and you're starting to
build haters, then you're alsobuilding followers.
You're also building supporters.
You're also building afoundation of loyal, loving,
(35:27):
amazing, loud, proud Americans.
You are doing what you're doingfor a reason.
And the greater the reason, thegreater the results, the greater
the obstacles, the greater thelunatics that are going to talk,
clap.
I think when you set your mindand your heart towards doing
(35:48):
something, if you don't findresistance, if you don't find
people that disagree with you,then you're not doing the right
things.
And then it's not big enough ofa goal.
If you're not meetingresistance, then what's the
point of shooting for it?
Does that make sense to youguys?
Like if you're not being um shotdown, if you're not being
(36:09):
criticized, then you're notdisturbing the environment
enough.
You're not ruffling the feathersenough because you're just like
everybody else living statusquo.
And we are not status quo.
We are bucking the system.
We might be agitating thehornet's nest, but that just
means if you want to give usthat level of hate, that means
(36:32):
we've been doing that level ofgreat.
And that's what I'm gonna keeptelling myself, and that's why
I'm gonna continue to bethankful for all the attention,
good, bad, or otherwise.
It is all part of the cause andthe cost.
As many people come in and hate,there's a lot more that are
(36:52):
coming in to love.
And over the past week, Iexperienced an overwhelming
amount of love, both fromexisting friends and family and
relationships to new faces andplaces and relationships.
So many of you, loyal listenersof the podcast, stopping in,
(37:12):
lending your support, peoplefollowing the social media page,
people that have been coming inbuying from us for years, coming
in.
Hey man, I'm so proud of you forbeing here.
Hey man, I'm here to supportyou.
I had so many success storiesover the week, so many people
coming in to show their support.
There's been some some coolthings that have happened that
(37:33):
I've really realized this yearin particular.
I can't tell you how many peoplecame into my tent and told me,
you are a part of my FreiburgFair tradition.
I need to come in and buysomething from you every single
year.
You guys understand this?
Fryberg Fair is the largest fairin our state.
(37:57):
It is a main tradition forlocals to go to this fair.
It is also a tradition forpeople that aren't even local
from all around New England andoutside of New England to come
to this fair.
It is tradition every year to goto this fair.
Lau Proud American has now beenaround long enough to become
part of people's tradition.
(38:19):
I literally heard that wordmultiple times this week.
Hey, it's tradition.
I gotta come in and buy fromyou.
Hey, you're part of the Frybergtradition.
You, my friend, are part of ourfair tradition.
I had a couple groups come inand say, There's a few things I
do at the Fryberg Fair.
I come in here and I buy theChristmas ornament for the tree,
the new family Christmasornament, and I come over here
(38:42):
and I buy from you.
Those are my traditions.
And just like buying a sausagesandwich at the fair, getting,
you know, the sunflower pizza atthe fair, just because your
family tradition is the go-toWoodsman's Day.
It is now your family traditionto come see Loud, Proud
American.
(39:02):
We are becoming a tradition thatgives me goosebumps.
That overcomes the nonsense thatI dealt with from all the
lunatics that want to come inand run their mouths.
For all the losers that want tohide behind an email.
It all gets washed away from allthe love and support from all
(39:24):
the loud, proud Americanssaying, You, my friend, are part
of our tradition.
I will take that any damn day.
That's my rant.
Now, with that aside, let's endon some funny and some
heartwarming.
First, the funny.
(39:45):
I'm in the tent.
Gotta setting some things out,cashing some people out.
And uh a good friend of mine,Alan, is actually at the back of
the tent talking with my wifeand playing with Paisley, and I
have my back turned toward thecash register, and Allie says,
Here comes the governor.
Oh god, here comes the governor.
(40:05):
And I turn around, and Maine'sgovernor, Janet Mills, who
you've heard me talk about manytimes on the podcast, is walking
towards our tent, and I look upand there's an entourage with
her, there's a camera crew withher, and she's looking at my
tent, and they're snappingphotos, and she's reading my
faith, family, freedom t-shirt,and she turns around and poses
(40:30):
for a photo with my product.
At this point, one of her PRpeople comes into my tent and
says, The governor saw your tentand your Made in America
mission, and she wants to take aphoto with you.
The governor is requesting aphoto with you.
(40:52):
Y'all getting this?
You hearing this?
You understanding this?
What do you do?
You have the opportunity to takea photo with the governor, which
is gonna get plastered all overher, you know, social media
outlets, gaining you exposure,right?
You're doing the polite thing.
(41:12):
Or do you stick to your guns?
Do you stick to your traditionsand your beliefs?
Do you stand up and say, hell'sto the no?
Y'all can get to the packing andthen receive a tax audit on
Monday.
What do you do?
What do you do?
Do you decline the photo and umrisk, you know, audits,
(41:38):
investigations, negativereviews, whatever.
Or do you pose for the photo andthen answer to your loyal base
that knows how you feel whenthey all call you out for doing
it?
Tough spot, Bucky.
You know what I did?
I say to the guy, oh yeah, yeah,yeah, I'll be right there.
And then I proceeded to be asbusy as a worker be.
(42:00):
I was stalking things, I wasmoving things, I was talking to
all things.
Any customer that came in, I wasright there attached to their
hip, and I was trying to getmyself into the longest
conversation possible.
Meanwhile, I can feel somethingpeering down my back, staring
through my spine.
I turn around, s n not not fullturnaround, just a side
peripheral and see the governorleaning on one of my racks,
(42:23):
looking at my stuff, but staringa hole through me, waiting for
that little photo opportunity.
I wasn't about to cave.
I stayed so connected to thecustomers because the customer
looking at the sweatshirt is farmore important to me than the
governor of Maine.
(42:43):
Taking the hint, they moved on.
Taking the polite, subtle hint,they moved on.
Whew, sigh of relief.
I didn't have to say anythingnegative, I didn't have to say
anything rude.
I just got busy and let them goalong and upon their own way.
(43:06):
Man, that was a difficultsituation to be in.
Oh my god.
Y'all know me.
You can imagine all the things Iwanted to say, all the things I
wanted to do, but I couldn't dothem.
This would be real bad forbusiness.
It was bad for business eitherway.
(43:26):
It was a tough spot to be in.
I was in a glass case ofemotion.
You understand?
That was the funny story.
Here's the heartwarming story.
If you've been listening to thepodcast, if you are a day one,
get your ones up.
I acknowledge you.
I appreciate you.
I thank you for being herelistening every damn week.
(43:48):
If you are a new one, I welcomeyou.
If you've been around longenough to know the story of me
and my dad and my father'spassing, and the fact that we
are firm, confirmed believersthat my father comes back and
checks on us as a bald eagle,then this story is for you.
Because on Friday, as I'm racingto the fair to set up, I'm
(44:13):
driving along, and I happen tolook out my right side window,
and there I see off in a swampis a beautiful, large American
eagle just staring down,watching traffic, almost
watching me approach.
It's as if this eagle waswatching my wife and my child
(44:35):
drive by and then waiting for meto be right behind him, and then
watching me and guiding me andlooking over me.
This eagle watched me drive offto chase my dreams.
I messaged the wife because wehave radios and I'm like, Did
you see that?
Did you see that eagle?
(44:56):
And she says, There you go, bud.
That was your dad.
He's with you, he's watchingover you.
So my wife goes up to the fairand she works with me Friday,
Saturday, Sunday, Monday whenI'm recording the podcast.
You understand that she's byherself and my my mother's
coming up, and then we're gonnado shift change.
Allie's gonna go home, and mymom's gonna stay there with me.
(45:18):
So my mom stays there with me,and um she begins to tell me.
You know, the other day after Igot off the phone with you, when
I was home doing the chores,right after that, this big,
beautiful, amazing bald eaglecame over the house, and he
circled over me, and he got solow to make sure that I could
(45:41):
see him, and he just soared allaround the farm.
He soared around the horse andaround the house, and I just
stood there and I watched him,and he came close to me, close
enough for me to see all thedetails and to get all the
goosebumps.
I really felt that when I washere by myself taking care of
everything, that your fathercame to check in on me.
(46:06):
Coincidence or fate?
I can tell you which one Ibelieve.
My father told the entire familyeverything is gonna be alright.
That is why that is how I knoweverything is gonna be alright.
(46:28):
That's why I know I didn't makeall the money I wanted to make,
but I made enough.
That's why I know that I haveall these bills stacked up,
these maintenance situations,these broken vehicles, these
obstacles, these delays.
But I know I will find a way.
(46:49):
It's all going to be okay.
My father is there to show meit's all gonna be okay.
I'm gonna continue to take thesestruggles, and I'm gonna
continue to give them to God,and I'm gonna continue to work
as hard and fast as I can tochase my dreams and to encourage
(47:10):
each and every person I meetalong the way.
Thank you for supporting myAmerican dream.
Now go wash, you filthy savage.
That's it, and that's all,Biggie Smalls.
(47:42):
If you're out of there, I meanyou two read me on Facebook.
(48:06):
Underscore, underscore, singlethings structure background.
You are enjoying what you'redoing.
(48:57):
Now go wash your fucking hands,you filthy savage.
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