August 20, 2025 • 43 mins
Ever feel like you're putting everything into your business only to fall short of expectations? That's exactly where I found myself at the Skowhegan Fair this year. After days of watching people walk past my booth, enduring stretches of 5-6 hours without a single sale, I had to make a critical mental shift that entrepreneurs rarely talk about: redefining what success looks like mid-journey.
When my original sales goals became clearly unattainable, I set new targets that would still represent meaningful progress rather than defeat. Fighting for every sale, I managed to hit my adjusted goal by exactly $50 in the final minutes of the fair's last day. This wasn't the triumph I'd initially imagined, but it taught me something profound about entrepreneurial resilience.
The most valuable outcome wasn't financial at all, but the people I met – particularly Isaiah, an 18-year-old with exceptional work ethic who approached business with remarkable discipline. "For every hour I spend having fun," he told me, "I'll do one thing I don't want to do to build my business." His perspective was exactly the inspiration I needed while navigating my own challenges.
As I prepare for the Windsor Fair and eventually Fryeburg (my season's biggest event), I'm facing serious inventory challenges and supplier delays. I've had to make tough decisions, including canceling a planned event to better position myself for success where it matters most. These choices reflect a maturing business perspective – understanding that courage isn't making one dramatic leap but taking consistent small steps forward despite fear and uncertainty.
If you're fighting for your own business dreams right now, remember that perseverance often looks less like heroic victories and more like quiet determination to simply take the next step. Check out our American-made products at loudproudamerican.com and share your own entrepreneurial journey with us on social media!
If you found value in today's show please return the favor and leave a positive review and share it with someone important to you! https://www.sharethestrugglepodcast.com/reviews/new/
Find all you need to know about the show https://www.sharethestrugglepodcast.com/
Official Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100077724159859
Join the 2% of Americans that Buy American and support American Together we can bring back American Manufacturing https://www.loudproudamerican.shop/
Loud Proud American Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Loudproudamerican
Loud Proud American Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/loud_proud_american/
Loud Proud American TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@loud_proud_american
Loud Proud American YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmYQtOt6KVURuySWYQ2GWtw
Thank you for Supporting My American Dream!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I am back home from the Skowhegan Fair, but it won't
be long until I'm out of hereagain.
But before we go, I got to letyou know just how did everything
go, and I want to go ahead andconnect it to some inspirational
advice that I heard from afriend that I'm eager to share
with you.
All.
That and more, on today'sepisode of Share the Struggle
(00:24):
Podcast.
Let me tell you something.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Everybody 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
way you live your life effect onthe way you live your life.
(00:49):
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
they build you.
You humble you and they buildyou.
(01:19):
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.
I'm leaving that world.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
The whole day gone.
I'm running behind, I'mstanding away To the back of the
world.
Good Lord, almighty, am I soexcited to be with you?
Oh, it's true, it is damn true.
How you doing, baby boo, Imissed you.
You, I missed you.
You know I missed you.
(01:47):
Welcome back to this podcast,proudly named, precisely named,
perfectly beautifully named.
Share the struggle, becauseeverybody struggles.
As y'all already know, thispodcast is brought to you by the
fine folks over at Aloud ProudAmerican already know this
podcast is brought to you by thefine folks over the loud proud
american, aka my mama and, uh,my, my baby mama and my baby and
(02:10):
me.
You know what I'm saying?
Those would be the lib burr.
T's the liberty family.
That's right.
We own and operate loud proudamerican, a lifestyle brand that
produces only made in americagoods for all y'all beautiful,
loud, proud Americans out there.
We know the mission at hand isto bring back American
(02:31):
manufacturing.
There is a great emphasis onbringing back American
manufacturing and we are tryingto lead the way.
Think about that.
Y'all Share the struggle.
Everybody struggles.
There's strength and truth ineverybody's struggle, and the
truth here, folks, is if you arewilling to share the stuff that
(02:53):
you go through, if you have thecourage hint, hint, hint to
share the things that you gothrough, that you grow through,
then we all shall grow throughthose things together.
Through that you grow through,then we all shall grow through
those things together.
There is strength and courageand wisdom and motivation in
everybody's journey in life.
Now, last week's show, thingsgot emotional to end the show.
(03:16):
I did not intend for them toget emotional, but they did All
right, that's just the facts.
That's just the way life is.
We encounter things and wedeliver things.
We endure all things raw and inreal time.
Right, that's the truth aboutour show.
It is a raw, real-time responseto life.
(03:37):
Last week I was painting thepicture, a perfect little
picture, of the Skowhegan Fair,loud Proud American on the road
at yet another first-time event,yet another event for Loud
Proud American that we havenever done before Jumping into
the bold waters of first-timeevents, getting off the old
(03:57):
comfort couch and taking theleap of faith.
How did it go?
Well, I gotta to let you know.
It is, you know, depending onfairs and events and things like
(04:30):
that, the wild rollercoasterride that is optimism and
pessimism, pessimism, pessimism,pessimism, pessimism Sounds
really funny.
It's not.
Pessim Sounds really funny andit's not.
It doesn't sound right, butit's really early on a Tuesday
and I haven't slept very much,so we're gonna go with Pessimism
(04:52):
.
Look at you, little Pessimism.
What's wrong with you, boy?
Boy, I'm gonna take y'all backto the woodshed and whoop your
ass into shape and get youstraightened out, because you'll
be losing it.
Okay, what you was trying to say, like a man, fluff up your
chest there, buttercup.
(05:13):
What you were trying to say isI wanted to show you the highs
and lows, how things ebbs andflow, how things come and go.
You get all geared up, you getall fired up about how great
things are going to be, and thenthey don't end up great and
then the next morning you haveto freaking, wash away and wipe
(05:34):
away the tears and fight awaythe anxiety and tell yourself
it's going to be a great day.
And you go out there and youstruggle some more.
That is just the peak beneaththe sheets.
That's just how things work,and they get magnified when you
do things for the first time.
And y'all have heard thisbroken record all damn year.
But the reason why you've heardthis broken record all year is
(05:55):
because we're being courageousenough to jump out of our
comfort zone to try new things,to do new things, to take big,
bold, beautiful chances.
That's what we've been doing.
So last week on the show, Italked to you about how things
didn't really get to going theway they had hoped that we
thought they would go, or theway that we hoped they would go,
(06:16):
the way that we envisioned themto go.
So I took you into the deep,dark hallways of my mind, from
being super excited to being letdown and frustrated, but
building yourself back up tobeing excited again to go out
there and to sell and do thebest you can.
(06:37):
Because, as you already know,if you've been listening to me,
sales is a transfer ofenthusiasm.
If you're not excited aboutwhat you're selling and what
you're doing, then nobody'sgoing to be excited about the
product that you're selling, sothey're probably not going to
buy it from you.
With that being said, this yearhas been a lot more challenging
because you have to get up andsell your things a little bit
(06:57):
differently, and I think Imentioned it last week to you
guys that we had some directcompetition in the same area as
us that has a great sales pitch.
Their sales pitch is a greatone because it benefits the
military and they can sell allthese things to you.
(07:18):
As far as this is where somemoney's going, I don't know a
hard percentage of where thefunds go or where they're going
through some of these causes.
I'm not making any allegationsbut I don't know the numbers so
I can't share them with you.
But they do different bundlesand things and they have their
own sales pitch.
(07:38):
Right, for me it's different.
I'm trying to pitch you onAmerican manufacturing.
I'm trying to pitch you on theobvious benefits of buying
American right, that's my pitch,that's my sales pitch, that's
my spiel.
I'm trying to fine tune somethings to set us apart a little
bit.
But one of the things I talkedto you guys about last week was
a direct competition.
(07:59):
Being right next to us and saiddirect competition, the person
that was representing that brand.
They were kind of, you know, Iwould say, staring us down,
throwing some meat mug looksfrom time to time.
We're kind of competing.
We're both competitive, right,I'm willing to say that he's
working.
We're trying to be competitiveand I get that.
(08:20):
But I still think that we'redifferent and that we can
support each other and there'sno reason for hostility there.
But we didn't really speak verymuch throughout the week and,
ironically, on the last day ofthe fair, the representative had
come in and asked me for somecontact info and saying you know
, I'm not going to stay here theremainder of this fair, I'm
(08:43):
going to get out of here earlyand I just don't know who to
talk to about it.
And I did some research andgave them some information.
And then later in the day, hewas packing up and came over to
me and said, and um.
And then, uh, later in the day,um, he was packing up and came
over to me and said hey man, um,do you have a hammer?
Like, I have these stakes stuckin my, um, my, in my tent, and
I can't get them out.
And I was like, yeah, I can runto my bus and get them.
(09:04):
And, uh, it's over in theinfield here.
So I stopped what I was doing,stopped selling, went out of my
way to go get the hammer, bringit to him, leave it for him.
And then a few minutes later,he comes over and says hey, man,
I don't know what I did, but Ican't get these things out there
, they're stuck.
Any chance you could help me.
I have a bad shoulder and Istopped what I was doing.
(09:24):
I went out of my way to go overand to help him and get his
tent freed up and the stakespulled and everything.
Obviously he thanked me and wassuper polite, but to me it felt
right to stop what I was doingand help my direct competitor,
to help my biggest competition,to help somebody that really
(09:46):
didn't associate with me,acknowledge me or talk to me,
because that's who I am.
I try to lead by example.
I try to be an example for mydaughter, for my family, for my
friends, for my brand, right.
So I didn't mind doing that onebit and I had brought that up
in conversation with somefriends and with my wife there.
(10:07):
And my wife said you know, Ithink her line which I thought
was pretty great was we mendcrowns around here.
We're humble enough to fix upyour crown If someone's going to
walk around and pretend to bebetter than you but they fall
down, we're not afraid to pickthem back up.
I'm not saying this person felldown, I'm not saying this
person did anything wrong.
(10:28):
I'm just saying I thought itwas quite fitting for your
biggest competition to come toyou and ask for help and you
stop everything you're doing tohelp when you.
I think if you ask yourself howmany people in that situation
would have just dismissed theircompetition and said let's watch
them struggle, not us, not theway we do business, not how we
do things.
So I thought that was kind ofinteresting and I only brought
(10:51):
that up because I do believelast week we talked about you
know the struggle of having yourcompetition right there next to
you and I don't want anybodythinking that you know,
listening to last week,listening to this week, that
we're somebody that doesn't wantothers to do well, that we're
somebody that talks negativeabout a patriotic brand trying
to help veterans.
I stopped everything I wasdoing to help the same brand.
(11:14):
So I just kind of wanted to putthat out there.
I don't want anybody thinkinganything negative of us.
But I also wanted it to be alittle highlight for people out
there Don't be afraid to stopwhat you're doing to help others
, even if they're yourcompetition.
Lead by example, be the example, right.
I thought it was kind offitting to share that.
But last week when we weretalking about the event and how
(11:35):
things were going, we reallyweren't getting off to the start
that we had hoped for, that wehad dreamed of.
But we were trying to navigatethose murky waters and I
mentioned to you there were somedays of five, six hours without
sales.
Those days continued Mostlyevery day that we were open.
It was a hurdle a, it was a, itwas a hurdle man.
It was five hours, it was sixhours before selling something.
(11:58):
It was a real struggle but youoftentimes would um make up for
it at night.
You would um, you know just,your numbers would get better at
night.
I think when I recorded it wasa Tuesday, monday we did like a
hundred dollars.
Tuesday we more than doubled it.
So we were going in the rightdirection and sales kind of
trickled upward for usthroughout the week.
(12:20):
I will say that on Friday we didpretty good, but our best day
of the entire fair was the firstFriday of the fair.
Honestly, that's kind ofstrange for a fair.
Traditionally Saturdays wouldbe your best day in general and
you would assume the last coupledays of the fair, especially
(12:43):
when it's a weekend scenario,would be the best parts of the
fair right.
So I was fully expecting Fridayand Saturday to dominate the
previous Friday and Saturday andthey didn't.
They really didn't come out andcrush things.
But I really spent a lot of timeanalyzing everything, kind of
(13:04):
thinking about what are thereasons, what are the cause,
what are the effects?
What can I be doing differently?
What is in my control?
You can only control the thingsthat you can control right,
like you can't worry about thethings that are out of your
control.
I cannot change the forecast.
I could not dial down 90 degreetemperatures to a beautiful 75.
(13:25):
I can't do it.
I can't put more money in otherpeople's pockets.
If I could, I put more money inmy own pocket and we wouldn't
have to be there in the firstplace.
So it is what it is.
You think about location, youthink about temperature, you
think about finances, all thosethings go into it and you stop
and analyze everything and youreally have to pivot right.
(13:47):
I looked at it, got to a pointin the week where I said there
is no ever loving way.
I'm going to do what I camehere to do.
I'm not going to attain thenumbers that I really thought
that I could or that I should.
I'm going to put a goal in mymind that is a salvageable
number, it's an attainablenumber and it's something that
(14:10):
can salvage this week, put arespectable number in place that
can help us to better positionus for the next event and kind
of set us up to be in the rightspot.
So what is a number that youcan be happy with, that's
respectable, that's attainable,that's not mailing it in.
(14:31):
It's still something that'sgoing to take a lot of effort
and hard work to get to, butwhen you get to it you can still
find a way to celebrate.
Does that make sense to youguys?
You go into something like Iwent into this fair thinking I
had this huge number in mindthat this is a home run.
Here's a realistic number.
I kind of have these ranges.
Here's an absolute end, all beall.
(14:52):
I have to do this type ofnumber.
I go into fairs like that.
I had to recalibrate,renegotiate in my mind what was
a feasible number and thenstrive for that number.
I had two numbers in mind goinginto this to make the best of
this fair.
Like I said, I pivoted duringthe week and I said, okay, those
numbers that you were lookingto do, they're not going to come
(15:14):
true.
What are two numbers?
That number one?
You say, hey, I really feellike I pushed it and I got this
done and this thing really brokewell, and then next year this
could be a tremendous fair.
And then what's the next number?
That's like, hey man, this isstill going to be pretty damn
hard to hit and if we hit thisnumber, we should feel good
(15:35):
about what we've done,considering the situation that
we're in.
And that second number it was onthe last night of the fair.
I was $50 away from that number, legitimately, $50 away from
hitting that number,legitimately $50 away, um, from
hitting that number.
And um, I had about 10 minutesor so, like, literally, it's,
(16:01):
it's past 11 o'clock, we closedthe fair at 11 o'clock and um,
or it's almost 11 o'clockanyways, and it's pretty bare.
Most vendors are gone.
There's not many left standingthat have not closed their shop
or not started packingeverything up and leaving.
And I'm telling everybody heyman, I got to get another 50
bucks here.
And, lo and behold, one morecustomer came in and we spent
(16:23):
some time talking and theybought one hooded sweatshirt
that retails for $50.
I did it.
I broke that number $50.
I did it, I broke that number.
I hit the number that I toldmyself you can celebrate, you
can make a difference in yourbusiness with this number.
(16:43):
It's not great, it's nottremendous, but if you're going
to reconfigure and reevaluateyour week, you have a number
that can help you get ready forthe next event.
It's not going to pay off abunch of debt.
It's not going to put you in aperfect position, but it can
help and you can justify thetime that you've invested by the
(17:04):
result that you made, becauseit wasn't a lost cause, right,
you didn't go there and youdidn't lose money.
So I hit that number.
There was some celebrating thathas to come in play in your
mind with that by saying, wow, Ireally, really, really had to
fight for this.
I had to earn every single centof this to get to this number
and that was a good feeling.
(17:26):
It was a good feeling to getthere.
I'm encouraged by that and Ireally truly feel like I'll be
back next year.
I'm going to push for a betterlocation next year and do things
a little bit differently, but Ido feel like it can work for me
and that it could be a good fitfor me.
But man, one hell of achallenge for me this year, and
(17:48):
I actually had a really goodfriend of mine share with me
that there was another vendorthat was at this fair.
I'm not going to get into thedetails, but they sell apparel.
They spent three days at thefair and they sold one t-shirt
and they packed up and headedout of there.
I hear stories like that.
I look at my competition, who Iperceive to be doing better
(18:08):
than me.
For most of the week you startbeating yourself up.
But when you hear the storiesof others that didn't achieve
nearly what you achieved, it hasto be a feather in your cap to
keep going, to keep pressingforward, to continue to have the
courage to do the things thatyou're afraid to do.
And that's a testament to us.
(18:29):
That's a testament to the brandand the motivation that we have
to continue to fight, fight,fight for this brand.
Now, with all that said, Imentioned to you guys last week
that we have made some newconnections, we have met some
new friends, we've added to thefamily, and I talked to you guys
(18:50):
about being super encouraged bysome of the youth that's in
this country.
It's not all a lack of work,ethic and complete
disappointment.
It's not all binkies and litterboxes.
There's still some hardworkingAmericans out there that can
change the future of thiscountry, and I was excited to
spend some time with them.
(19:11):
And I mentioned to you Isaiah,an 18-year-old young man, isaiah
with an amazing work ethic andan amazing personality, and I
spent just about every day ofthe fair with Isaiah and his
friend Caden, who's also a greatkid.
He also is motivated and wantsto work and he started his own
(19:35):
business.
So he's working a few jobs, buthe has his own LLC that he's
doing for landscaping andoverall just home improvement.
And we were in the tent and allof a sudden he just pulls his
phone out.
Somebody on the other endanswers and he says I'm going to
be very direct with you, andthen he just bangs out his sales
(19:56):
pitch Now as somebody.
If you guys have listened to theshow, you already know if
you're a day one, get your onesup.
I acknowledge you.
I love you.
You've been here for over fivefreaking years.
I love you.
I thank you.
Okay, day ones, y'all alreadyknow I'm a sales guy.
I'm a sales trainer at heart,right, and I spent years in a
call center doing sales for aFortune 500 company on a
(20:18):
military base.
I've also been a sales manager.
Multiple locations, multipletrainings, my last, when I say
previous life, running aHarley-Davidson dealership,
working my way up to owning aHarley Davidson dealership,
sales, sales, sales.
I was constantly training,learning and educating people on
sales.
You're piquing my interest here, young man, and for him to
(20:44):
literally open the call with.
You know I'm going to be verydirect here and go into his
clothes.
I was proud of the kid and hegot everything he needed to out
of the conversation, set up hisappointments, and after the
conversation he was talking tome and said listen, I'm doing
fun things today.
So for every hour I spendhaving fun, I'm going to do one
thing I don't want to do.
For every hour that I'm havingfun, I'm going to stop for a
(21:07):
minute, pick up my phone and I'mgoing to code, call somebody
and try to make some money.
I'm going to try to build mybusiness and I thought, man,
look at the perspective on an18-year-old young lad to say,
hey, I'm enjoying myself today.
For every hour of enjoyment I'mgoing to add one moment of
(21:27):
discomfort.
I'm going to do something Idon't want to do.
I'm going to make a phone call.
For every hour that I'menjoying myself, I'm going to do
one thing to better myself.
Think about that, guys.
Can we adopt that?
Can we apply that?
Think about it All the daysthat you're sitting around.
Maybe you're at the lake doingsomething, maybe you're on
vacation doing something, maybeyou're on the couch, doom
(21:48):
scrolling when you look at theclock and realize you've been
doing an hour of nothing.
Can we implement two minutes ofsomething to change our
direction, to cause and affectour day?
To put things in a positive way, I learned a lesson from an
18-year-old young fella over theweek and I'm proud of him.
But to get back to my point,also on Isaiah, I spent some
(22:12):
time with the young fella andhe's just a great kid man.
He's the type of guy thatleaves a good impression on you.
It was very cool to see my wifeand baby arrive and them all
take to each other.
Paisley really loved him, andwhat was kind of cool is when
Allie and Paisley arrived whichwas a surprise to me as to when
(22:33):
they were arriving and I had torun to the gate to let them in
and Isaiah stepped up and tookover the tent and when I came
back he was all pumped up andsaid hey, man, I sold something,
I sold something.
And he, he never asked fortraining.
I never showed him, um, how tocash people out, I never showed
him how the computer works oranything, but he just stepped up
(22:55):
, filled in, took care of it,sold some stuff and then the
rest of the weekend, wheneveropportunity allowed, he wanted
to be behind the computer makingsales and talking to people,
and everything about that justmade me proud.
Everything about that justencouraged me, right.
(23:17):
I was encouraged that, like I'vesaid, last week, there is a
population out there of youngindividuals in this country that
still want to work for things,that still believe in things,
that still, um, are willing todo hard things.
And then also to know that Ibuilt a brand, that this young
man was drawn to enough to workhis full-time job and to come
(23:40):
hang out and spend time with us.
He also took a a liking to Kyleand Julia with Underdog Metal
and was helping them out.
And all of us had talked afterthe fair and said, man, if we
were all in different positions,if we were in better positions,
if we were just a little bitfurther ahead in our businesses,
we would hire Isaiah, we wouldtake him on the road, we would
(24:02):
do everything we could to helppropel him to the next level in
life, and he is just atremendous asset for any
business out there that islooking for someone to grow with
them and their business.
I truly wish I was at adifferent spot in my business
where I could welcome him on anddo some things together, but,
(24:27):
as we all know, it's alreadyextremely difficult just to take
care of myself and my familywith this business.
We've been struggling to getthrough, to pull ourselves
through, but I do know there'slight at the end of the tunnel
and I do know there'sopportunity at the end of the
struggle and I do know thatsticking together, staying
together, keeping thoseconnections together, someday,
somehow, some way, I'll find anopportunity to help him.
(24:50):
I'll find an opportunity toinclude him and do things, even
if it's not full-time, if it'spart-time, if it's an occasional
time, whatever it might be, itshall be.
I know that we were put in eachother's paths for a reason.
We're replacing each other'slives for a reason and I'm
excited about that and I'mthankful for that.
(25:11):
And at the end of the fair Ishook Isaiah's hand and I said
the best thing about this fairwas meeting you, and that'll
always be true, higginfair willalways hold a special place for
me because it put me in theright place to encounter Isaiah
(25:31):
and to form a relationship, andI do know that I'll always be
there for that young man alonghis journey in life.
I'll always be there for himand just something to be
thankful for.
And I feel like in life we oftengo through this journey of life
with blinders on but not alwaysreceptive to all the things
(25:54):
that are brought to you.
We don't always really justtake into consideration.
There's a person standing infront of you with a story and a
journey and, um, we don't alwayslisten to them.
Right, and I understand that wecan't just fully take in every
single person that we meet, but,um, y'all know the difference
(26:17):
right, when you're having aconversation and, um, something
just clicks.
Slow down, take the, take thetime, share the time, share
yourself and open yourself up tonew blessings and to new people
and to new opportunities.
And I really truly feel that'sa big part of what I love about
(26:37):
this brand and what I love aboutthis career path that we're on.
There are so many people in mylife that would not be in my
life if I wasn't on the road asoften as I am, from fair to fair
to festival to festival, torally, to anywhere.
There's a tremendous amount ofamazing people in my life that
(26:58):
wouldn't be here if I wasn'tchasing my dreams, that wouldn't
have been brought to me if Iwasn't jumping out of my comfort
zone and doing challengingthings.
And we always talk about it.
We always talk about gettinguncomfortable, whether that's in
a conversation or whetherthat's in a life setting.
The more you get uncomfortable,the more you try new things,
(27:19):
the more blessings will bebrought to you, the more you
will achieve great things andsometimes like the blessings
that you deserve.
Sometimes the winnings that youdeserve isn't just financial
right.
Like I went into this fair withthis high dollar number in mind
.
That I thought was what wecould achieve and we didn't hit
that number.
(27:39):
But what we left with will havea far greater impact on me than
a financial impact.
Do you understand what I'msaying?
Sometimes the blessings youreceive are far greater than you
imagine, even though the resultpales in comparison to what you
imagine.
Does that make sense to youguys?
Blessings come to you in alldifferent shapes, forms and ways
(28:02):
and we just need to beopen-minded enough to realize
them, to acknowledge them, toaccept them and to be thankful
for them.
And that's me all days, allways, trying to find a way to be
thankful.
Now, at the end of this trip youknow the next day, I shall say
(28:24):
after the event um, the wife andI we packed up and and then we
hooked up to the camper and wehauled the camper to the Windsor
fair and we dropped the camperoff there and then we came home
and, um, I tried to settle rightback into work.
That didn't happen.
I was beat.
And on the first day back toreality, I have a very um, and
(28:45):
on the first day back to realityI have a very brief stay at
home.
I only have a couple days to behome, to make more product and
then to get ready to get back onthe road to get to Windsor Fair
, which is one of my favoriteevents of the entire year.
So I don't have very much time.
But I got to tell you, man, Iwoke up beat, I didn't sleep for
shit.
I've been moping around,struggling around, dragging
(29:06):
myself around and these longevents, man, they really take it
out of me.
And I just kind of realizedlast week's schedule.
The past couple weeks hasreally screwed me up, the fair
being open until around 11,.
I'm not going to sleep till 1or 2.
I'm not getting to work as faras down at the vendor location
(29:27):
until 12, 1, 2, 3 o'clock.
Man, my schedule is all messedup.
I was dead, ass tired all dayyesterday.
I didn't hit a stride to wantto work until 6, 7 o'clock at
night.
Man, I was all kinds of funkyand I understand, based off the
schedule I was keeping.
That's kind of the scenariothat happened.
Now I can't afford to wastedays.
(29:50):
So I'm trying to recover fromsaid scenario and I had a
multitude of challengesyesterday and it's kind of funny
because it's not funny at all.
But let's be honest here.
It's not funny.
I've told you guys all year longI'm not in the best position
financially and by not being inthe best position financially,
my product is not in the bestposition.
(30:11):
So I leave one event and I haveto quickly scramble to get
prepared for the next event.
And I've been able to do that.
I've been navigating thosechoppy waters, even though your
homie can't swim.
I've been navigating thosethings, treading water, trying
to keep my head above water, andit's been okay, it's worked out
so far.
I did notice when I was thererunning some reports.
(30:34):
I need to add massive amountsof product to do what I need to
do to end the season.
My two biggest events left ofthe schedule is this coming week
when I go to the Windsor Fair,and then at the end of next
month when I go to Freiburg Fair, which is the biggest event for
(30:57):
me.
The product challenges that Ihave in front of me are scary.
I need to find and acquire areal good amount of finances, of
capital to bring in enoughproduct to be successful.
When I'm looking at what's inmy possession now, when I'm
(31:19):
running reports that show me, ifI sold every single thing on my
shelf right now, at this moment, I wouldn't hit the number that
I have set for myself to hitfor the Frybird Fair.
That tells me y'all got a lotof work ahead of you.
You got a lot of work ahead ofyou.
You got a lot of selling aheadof you.
You got a lot of purchasingahead of you and a lot of
(31:40):
producing ahead of you,production ahead of you.
So there's a lot of challenges,multiple challenges, and I'm
scared of those challenges.
I'm realistic when it comes tolooking at those challenges and
knowing how difficult they'regoing to be.
But if you all learn somethingabout me, I have a tremendous
(32:02):
belief in me and my business.
This can work and this willwork.
I just need to keep pushingahead and forcing myself to make
this happen.
So I've realized thedifficulties that's in front of
me and throughout the year doingthese things, when I go from
one event to the next.
(32:22):
I have a very limited time andthat's worked somewhat okay.
You guys, if you've beenlistening over the past few
months, you've heard me go tosome events, down a design, down
some product, because a vendordidn't deliver things in time.
Well, wouldn't you know?
I only have a couple of daysbefore I have to leave again and
I literally had it all mappedout in my calendar as to when I
(32:46):
needed to make the money, when Ineeded to have the money
deposited and when I needed toplace the order to have things
fall on schedule.
I placed all my ordersaccording to schedule that when
I arrived home on Sunday, someof my stuff should have been
here and by Monday, when Iwalked into my office to work,
everything should have been herefor a full production for me to
(33:09):
get after it.
For this week I have over 300items that are on their way.
I have new designs on their way.
I budgeted and planned and Ispent hours in the camper trying
to maximize every single dollarand cent that I have to put
myself in the best possibleposition to have the best
(33:30):
possible result at the WindsorFair that I can possibly afford
for myself and all those vendorsthat I've used.
None of them have delivered ontime.
I'm recording this podcast on avery early Tuesday morning and
none of my products have arrived.
I should have been working onthem on Monday.
I should have been working themon Tuesday, on Wednesday and
(33:52):
then heading out on Thursday.
With that said, I'm going tohave to reconfigure and
re-challenge myself and myschedule is going to have to
change.
So whenever these productsarrive, I'm going to have to do
the best I can with what I have.
So I'll have some designsarriving today, but the apparel
won't be here till tomorrow.
(34:13):
So what I do have in stock, I'mgoing to have to work on I'm
going to have to work on.
I'm going to have to go throughmy cabinets and find all things
that I can produce to helpposition myself.
I'm going to have to get thebus ready, do things to get
those things situated and thenwhen my apparel comes in
tomorrow, I'm going to have tostart crushing it and instead of
going to the fair on Thursday,I'm going to have to roll in on
(34:38):
Friday and it's going to give meone single lonely day to put up
one big ass display to getready for opening day on
Saturday.
With all this said, my familyand I have had a lot of
conversations.
I had another event on myschedule that I would come home
from Windsor, I would have a fewdays, maybe a week, and then I
(34:58):
would take off to New York and Iwould do a motorcycle rally in
New York and be another firsttime event.
It'd be an event that I woulddo on my own, an event that I
would sleep on the bus, and I'mexcited about doing this and
adding these new challenges tothe book of business.
But I've done multiplefirst-time events this year and
(35:23):
the family and I decided that afew things come into play.
First and foremost, I hatebeing away from my baby girl
right now because she changes somuch when I'm not home.
It was a challenge for me tosee her and see how much she had
grown.
She's at that stage where shejust is growing every day and
changing every day and I feellike I missed out on a lot over
(35:43):
that.
But with that said, I do knowthat I have to sacrifice and I'd
be willing to sacrifice for thebetter of my family and I was
expecting to go to this eventand maybe make enough money to
invest in the product that Ineed.
I just told you, guys, I haveall this product that I have to
get, so I need those finances.
But the family and I decidedthat it might put me at a bigger
(36:04):
disadvantage Because if I comehome from that event and things
aren't going as planned, ifthings don't arrive on time,
then I could put myself at adisadvantage going into the
biggest and greatest event ofour business.
And if there's one thing Ishould do, I should prepare as
much as I possibly can to havethe best event I possibly can at
(36:28):
the Freiburg Fair.
So I'm going to remove one ofmy forecasted events this season
so I can allow myself theproper time to get ready to
absolutely crush and overachievemy goals.
So I'm going to remove a smallevent that I don't know how it
(36:49):
would turn out for me, so that Ican focus on the two biggest
events for me and then, whenthose things come and go, I will
reassess everything for me.
But that's a difficult decisionthat I had to make for me and I
didn't do it on my own.
I chatted with the family andthis is kind of the way that we
feel it should go.
But it's funny, yesterday I'msitting back for a minute and I
(37:12):
was so distracted yesterday.
I'm waiting on all these calls.
I'm calling customer service.
I have multiple things thathaven't shipped that, these
things that are supposed to beat my doorstep.
They hadn't even left yesterday.
So I'm paying additional feesto process things, to move
things.
It was a fiasco things.
(37:38):
I find myself easily distracted.
Yesterday and I found myselfkind of doom scrolling and my
wife loves to say that and Ihate saying that.
I was just wasting time when Ididn't have the time, but I
guess there was a reason for it.
I stumbled onto a post from afriend of mine, mr Tom Ringwalt,
who, tom, you've heard me talkabout him as Tommy Tattoo he
owns Tommy Supplies and he hoststwo of the largest tattoo
(37:59):
conferences in the world, orconventions, I should say Two of
the largest tattoo conventionsin the world.
I've vented at his conventions,I've hosted events with him and
, by all accounts, he's just atremendously successful
individual and an overall justawesome dude right individual
(38:21):
and an overall just awesome duderight.
But he had a post up and Ithink I found it when I needed
to find it and he made this postthat said true fact.
I took over my father's companyin 2004.
Not many people know this, butby 2007, I was almost ready to
give up because of the amount oftaxes owed and the feeling that
I was spending more money thanI was making.
I didn't yet know how to manageit correctly.
(38:41):
Now it's 2025 and after yearsof growth, I specialize in
managing money and strategicallyplanning lifetime opportunities
.
Thank you to everyone worldwideand to my entire team for
helping make this possibleworldwide and to my entire team
for helping make this possible.
The life you dream isn't builtin a single leap, but in the
(39:02):
courage to take the next smallstep.
Again and again, I read thatpost multiple times and then I
sent Tommy a message and saidman, you have no idea how much
this inspired me and how much Ineeded this today to know that
here's this individual that Iknow personally that is
tremendously, wildly successful.
That is an inspiration, that isa motivation.
(39:22):
His success will um willmotivate you, will inspire you,
will keep you pushing andpulling and fighting for what
you believe in.
And to see and know that hestruggled, that he almost gave
up, to see the success he hasnow and know that he almost gave
up before achieving thatsuccess, it gives me the
motivation to know that thatsuccess for me could be on the
(39:44):
other side of this difficulty.
For me, the line, the life youdream of, isn't built in a
single leap, but in the courageto take the next small step.
Again and again, this year hasbeen a lot of courage in taking
the next step.
When so many stop signs wereplaced in my way, that said, go
(40:06):
another way, I found the courageto make the next step and I
will continue to have thecourage to take the next step.
I went as far as looking upcourage on the dictionary.
It is the ability to dosomething that frightens one
Mental or moral strength toventure, persevere and withstand
(40:28):
danger, fear and difficulty.
This entire year has been fullof danger, fear and difficulty,
but I do possess the mental andmoral strength to persevere.
I have courage.
I have the ability to dosomething that frightens me.
(40:51):
I'm frightened by some of mychoices.
I'm frightened by some of myobstacles, I'm frightened by
what's placed in my way, but Ihave the courage to fight, fight
, fight for the dream that Ihave.
The life you dream of isn'tbuilt in a single leap, but in
(41:12):
the courage to take the nextsmall step, again and again.
I'm going to let y'all go forthis week so I can go take the
next small step, because I amnot giving up on the life that I
dream for me and my family.
(41:33):
Until next time, thank you forsupporting my American dream.
That's it, and that's all.
Biggie Smalls, if you're a Loud, proud American and you find
(42:04):
yourself just wanting more.
Speaker 2 (42:06):
Find me on YouTube and Facebook, at Loud Proud
American or the Face page as mymama calls it.
Speaker 1 (42:12):
If you're a fan of the Graham Cracker, want to find
me on Instagram.
Or all the kids aretickety-talking on the TikTok.
You can find me on both ofthose at loud underscore, proud
underscore, american.
A big old.
(42:37):
Thank you to the boys from theGut Truckers for the background
beats and the theme song forthis year's podcast If you are
enjoying what you're hearing.
You can track down the GutTruckers on Facebook.
Just search Gut Truckers.
Give them, motherfuckers, alike too.
I'm not saying I'm a pain.
I won't make it bleed.
Speaker 2 (43:10):
I hate to say I told you so I truly thank you for
supporting my American dream.
Speaker 1 (43:15):
Now go wash your fucking hands, you filthy savage
.
I am back home from the Skowhegan Fair, but it won't
be long until I'm out of hereagain.
But before we go, I got to letyou know just how did everything
go, and I want to go ahead andconnect it to some inspirational
advice that I heard from afriend that I'm eager to share
with you.
All.
That and more, on today'sepisode of Share the Struggle
(00:24):
Podcast.
Let me tell you something.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Everybody 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
way you live your life effect onthe way you live your life.
(00:49):
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
they build you.
You humble you and they buildyou.
(01:19):
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.
I'm leaving that world.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
The whole day gone.
I'm running behind, I'mstanding away To the back of the
world.
Good Lord, almighty, am I soexcited to be with you?
Oh, it's true, it is damn true.
How you doing, baby boo, Imissed you.
You, I missed you.
You know I missed you.
(01:47):
Welcome back to this podcast,proudly named, precisely named,
perfectly beautifully named.
Share the struggle, becauseeverybody struggles.
As y'all already know, thispodcast is brought to you by the
fine folks over at Aloud ProudAmerican already know this
podcast is brought to you by thefine folks over the loud proud
american, aka my mama and, uh,my, my baby mama and my baby and
(02:10):
me.
You know what I'm saying?
Those would be the lib burr.
T's the liberty family.
That's right.
We own and operate loud proudamerican, a lifestyle brand that
produces only made in americagoods for all y'all beautiful,
loud, proud Americans out there.
We know the mission at hand isto bring back American
(02:31):
manufacturing.
There is a great emphasis onbringing back American
manufacturing and we are tryingto lead the way.
Think about that.
Y'all Share the struggle.
Everybody struggles.
There's strength and truth ineverybody's struggle, and the
truth here, folks, is if you arewilling to share the stuff that
(02:53):
you go through, if you have thecourage hint, hint, hint to
share the things that you gothrough, that you grow through,
then we all shall grow throughthose things together.
Through that you grow through,then we all shall grow through
those things together.
There is strength and courageand wisdom and motivation in
everybody's journey in life.
Now, last week's show, thingsgot emotional to end the show.
(03:16):
I did not intend for them toget emotional, but they did All
right, that's just the facts.
That's just the way life is.
We encounter things and wedeliver things.
We endure all things raw and inreal time.
Right, that's the truth aboutour show.
It is a raw, real-time responseto life.
(03:37):
Last week I was painting thepicture, a perfect little
picture, of the Skowhegan Fair,loud Proud American on the road
at yet another first-time event,yet another event for Loud
Proud American that we havenever done before Jumping into
the bold waters of first-timeevents, getting off the old
(03:57):
comfort couch and taking theleap of faith.
How did it go?
Well, I gotta to let you know.
It is, you know, depending onfairs and events and things like
(04:30):
that, the wild rollercoasterride that is optimism and
pessimism, pessimism, pessimism,pessimism, pessimism Sounds
really funny.
It's not.
Pessim Sounds really funny andit's not.
It doesn't sound right, butit's really early on a Tuesday
and I haven't slept very much,so we're gonna go with Pessimism
(04:52):
.
Look at you, little Pessimism.
What's wrong with you, boy?
Boy, I'm gonna take y'all backto the woodshed and whoop your
ass into shape and get youstraightened out, because you'll
be losing it.
Okay, what you was trying to say, like a man, fluff up your
chest there, buttercup.
(05:13):
What you were trying to say isI wanted to show you the highs
and lows, how things ebbs andflow, how things come and go.
You get all geared up, you getall fired up about how great
things are going to be, and thenthey don't end up great and
then the next morning you haveto freaking, wash away and wipe
(05:34):
away the tears and fight awaythe anxiety and tell yourself
it's going to be a great day.
And you go out there and youstruggle some more.
That is just the peak beneaththe sheets.
That's just how things work,and they get magnified when you
do things for the first time.
And y'all have heard thisbroken record all damn year.
But the reason why you've heardthis broken record all year is
(05:55):
because we're being courageousenough to jump out of our
comfort zone to try new things,to do new things, to take big,
bold, beautiful chances.
That's what we've been doing.
So last week on the show, Italked to you about how things
didn't really get to going theway they had hoped that we
thought they would go, or theway that we hoped they would go,
(06:16):
the way that we envisioned themto go.
So I took you into the deep,dark hallways of my mind, from
being super excited to being letdown and frustrated, but
building yourself back up tobeing excited again to go out
there and to sell and do thebest you can.
(06:37):
Because, as you already know,if you've been listening to me,
sales is a transfer ofenthusiasm.
If you're not excited aboutwhat you're selling and what
you're doing, then nobody'sgoing to be excited about the
product that you're selling, sothey're probably not going to
buy it from you.
With that being said, this yearhas been a lot more challenging
because you have to get up andsell your things a little bit
(06:57):
differently, and I think Imentioned it last week to you
guys that we had some directcompetition in the same area as
us that has a great sales pitch.
Their sales pitch is a greatone because it benefits the
military and they can sell allthese things to you.
(07:18):
As far as this is where somemoney's going, I don't know a
hard percentage of where thefunds go or where they're going
through some of these causes.
I'm not making any allegationsbut I don't know the numbers so
I can't share them with you.
But they do different bundlesand things and they have their
own sales pitch.
(07:38):
Right, for me it's different.
I'm trying to pitch you onAmerican manufacturing.
I'm trying to pitch you on theobvious benefits of buying
American right, that's my pitch,that's my sales pitch, that's
my spiel.
I'm trying to fine tune somethings to set us apart a little
bit.
But one of the things I talkedto you guys about last week was
a direct competition.
(07:59):
Being right next to us and saiddirect competition, the person
that was representing that brand.
They were kind of, you know, Iwould say, staring us down,
throwing some meat mug looksfrom time to time.
We're kind of competing.
We're both competitive, right,I'm willing to say that he's
working.
We're trying to be competitiveand I get that.
(08:20):
But I still think that we'redifferent and that we can
support each other and there'sno reason for hostility there.
But we didn't really speak verymuch throughout the week and,
ironically, on the last day ofthe fair, the representative had
come in and asked me for somecontact info and saying you know
, I'm not going to stay here theremainder of this fair, I'm
(08:43):
going to get out of here earlyand I just don't know who to
talk to about it.
And I did some research andgave them some information.
And then later in the day, hewas packing up and came over to
me and said, and um.
And then, uh, later in the day,um, he was packing up and came
over to me and said hey man, um,do you have a hammer?
Like, I have these stakes stuckin my, um, my, in my tent, and
I can't get them out.
And I was like, yeah, I can runto my bus and get them.
(09:04):
And, uh, it's over in theinfield here.
So I stopped what I was doing,stopped selling, went out of my
way to go get the hammer, bringit to him, leave it for him.
And then a few minutes later,he comes over and says hey, man,
I don't know what I did, but Ican't get these things out there
, they're stuck.
Any chance you could help me.
I have a bad shoulder and Istopped what I was doing.
(09:24):
I went out of my way to go overand to help him and get his
tent freed up and the stakespulled and everything.
Obviously he thanked me and wassuper polite, but to me it felt
right to stop what I was doingand help my direct competitor,
to help my biggest competition,to help somebody that really
(09:46):
didn't associate with me,acknowledge me or talk to me,
because that's who I am.
I try to lead by example.
I try to be an example for mydaughter, for my family, for my
friends, for my brand, right.
So I didn't mind doing that onebit and I had brought that up
in conversation with somefriends and with my wife there.
(10:07):
And my wife said you know, Ithink her line which I thought
was pretty great was we mendcrowns around here.
We're humble enough to fix upyour crown If someone's going to
walk around and pretend to bebetter than you but they fall
down, we're not afraid to pickthem back up.
I'm not saying this person felldown, I'm not saying this
person did anything wrong.
(10:28):
I'm just saying I thought itwas quite fitting for your
biggest competition to come toyou and ask for help and you
stop everything you're doing tohelp when you.
I think if you ask yourself howmany people in that situation
would have just dismissed theircompetition and said let's watch
them struggle, not us, not theway we do business, not how we
do things.
So I thought that was kind ofinteresting and I only brought
(10:51):
that up because I do believelast week we talked about you
know the struggle of having yourcompetition right there next to
you and I don't want anybodythinking that you know,
listening to last week,listening to this week, that
we're somebody that doesn't wantothers to do well, that we're
somebody that talks negativeabout a patriotic brand trying
to help veterans.
I stopped everything I wasdoing to help the same brand.
(11:14):
So I just kind of wanted to putthat out there.
I don't want anybody thinkinganything negative of us.
But I also wanted it to be alittle highlight for people out
there Don't be afraid to stopwhat you're doing to help others
, even if they're yourcompetition.
Lead by example, be the example, right.
I thought it was kind offitting to share that.
But last week when we weretalking about the event and how
(11:35):
things were going, we reallyweren't getting off to the start
that we had hoped for, that wehad dreamed of.
But we were trying to navigatethose murky waters and I
mentioned to you there were somedays of five, six hours without
sales.
Those days continued Mostlyevery day that we were open.
It was a hurdle a, it was a, itwas a hurdle man.
It was five hours, it was sixhours before selling something.
(11:58):
It was a real struggle but youoftentimes would um make up for
it at night.
You would um, you know just,your numbers would get better at
night.
I think when I recorded it wasa Tuesday, monday we did like a
hundred dollars.
Tuesday we more than doubled it.
So we were going in the rightdirection and sales kind of
trickled upward for usthroughout the week.
(12:20):
I will say that on Friday we didpretty good, but our best day
of the entire fair was the firstFriday of the fair.
Honestly, that's kind ofstrange for a fair.
Traditionally Saturdays wouldbe your best day in general and
you would assume the last coupledays of the fair, especially
(12:43):
when it's a weekend scenario,would be the best parts of the
fair right.
So I was fully expecting Fridayand Saturday to dominate the
previous Friday and Saturday andthey didn't.
They really didn't come out andcrush things.
But I really spent a lot of timeanalyzing everything, kind of
(13:04):
thinking about what are thereasons, what are the cause,
what are the effects?
What can I be doing differently?
What is in my control?
You can only control the thingsthat you can control right,
like you can't worry about thethings that are out of your
control.
I cannot change the forecast.
I could not dial down 90 degreetemperatures to a beautiful 75.
(13:25):
I can't do it.
I can't put more money in otherpeople's pockets.
If I could, I put more money inmy own pocket and we wouldn't
have to be there in the firstplace.
So it is what it is.
You think about location, youthink about temperature, you
think about finances, all thosethings go into it and you stop
and analyze everything and youreally have to pivot right.
(13:47):
I looked at it, got to a pointin the week where I said there
is no ever loving way.
I'm going to do what I camehere to do.
I'm not going to attain thenumbers that I really thought
that I could or that I should.
I'm going to put a goal in mymind that is a salvageable
number, it's an attainablenumber and it's something that
(14:10):
can salvage this week, put arespectable number in place that
can help us to better positionus for the next event and kind
of set us up to be in the rightspot.
So what is a number that youcan be happy with, that's
respectable, that's attainable,that's not mailing it in.
(14:31):
It's still something that'sgoing to take a lot of effort
and hard work to get to, butwhen you get to it you can still
find a way to celebrate.
Does that make sense to youguys?
You go into something like Iwent into this fair thinking I
had this huge number in mindthat this is a home run.
Here's a realistic number.
I kind of have these ranges.
Here's an absolute end, all beall.
(14:52):
I have to do this type ofnumber.
I go into fairs like that.
I had to recalibrate,renegotiate in my mind what was
a feasible number and thenstrive for that number.
I had two numbers in mind goinginto this to make the best of
this fair.
Like I said, I pivoted duringthe week and I said, okay, those
numbers that you were lookingto do, they're not going to come
(15:14):
true.
What are two numbers?
That number one?
You say, hey, I really feellike I pushed it and I got this
done and this thing really brokewell, and then next year this
could be a tremendous fair.
And then what's the next number?
That's like, hey man, this isstill going to be pretty damn
hard to hit and if we hit thisnumber, we should feel good
(15:35):
about what we've done,considering the situation that
we're in.
And that second number it was onthe last night of the fair.
I was $50 away from that number, legitimately, $50 away from
hitting that number,legitimately $50 away, um, from
hitting that number.
And um, I had about 10 minutesor so, like, literally, it's,
(16:01):
it's past 11 o'clock, we closedthe fair at 11 o'clock and um,
or it's almost 11 o'clockanyways, and it's pretty bare.
Most vendors are gone.
There's not many left standingthat have not closed their shop
or not started packingeverything up and leaving.
And I'm telling everybody heyman, I got to get another 50
bucks here.
And, lo and behold, one morecustomer came in and we spent
(16:23):
some time talking and theybought one hooded sweatshirt
that retails for $50.
I did it.
I broke that number $50.
I did it, I broke that number.
I hit the number that I toldmyself you can celebrate, you
can make a difference in yourbusiness with this number.
(16:43):
It's not great, it's nottremendous, but if you're going
to reconfigure and reevaluateyour week, you have a number
that can help you get ready forthe next event.
It's not going to pay off abunch of debt.
It's not going to put you in aperfect position, but it can
help and you can justify thetime that you've invested by the
(17:04):
result that you made, becauseit wasn't a lost cause, right,
you didn't go there and youdidn't lose money.
So I hit that number.
There was some celebrating thathas to come in play in your
mind with that by saying, wow, Ireally, really, really had to
fight for this.
I had to earn every single centof this to get to this number
and that was a good feeling.
(17:26):
It was a good feeling to getthere.
I'm encouraged by that and Ireally truly feel like I'll be
back next year.
I'm going to push for a betterlocation next year and do things
a little bit differently, but Ido feel like it can work for me
and that it could be a good fitfor me.
But man, one hell of achallenge for me this year, and
(17:48):
I actually had a really goodfriend of mine share with me
that there was another vendorthat was at this fair.
I'm not going to get into thedetails, but they sell apparel.
They spent three days at thefair and they sold one t-shirt
and they packed up and headedout of there.
I hear stories like that.
I look at my competition, who Iperceive to be doing better
(18:08):
than me.
For most of the week you startbeating yourself up.
But when you hear the storiesof others that didn't achieve
nearly what you achieved, it hasto be a feather in your cap to
keep going, to keep pressingforward, to continue to have the
courage to do the things thatyou're afraid to do.
And that's a testament to us.
(18:29):
That's a testament to the brandand the motivation that we have
to continue to fight, fight,fight for this brand.
Now, with all that said, Imentioned to you guys last week
that we have made some newconnections, we have met some
new friends, we've added to thefamily, and I talked to you guys
(18:50):
about being super encouraged bysome of the youth that's in
this country.
It's not all a lack of work,ethic and complete
disappointment.
It's not all binkies and litterboxes.
There's still some hardworkingAmericans out there that can
change the future of thiscountry, and I was excited to
spend some time with them.
(19:11):
And I mentioned to you Isaiah,an 18-year-old young man, isaiah
with an amazing work ethic andan amazing personality, and I
spent just about every day ofthe fair with Isaiah and his
friend Caden, who's also a greatkid.
He also is motivated and wantsto work and he started his own
(19:35):
business.
So he's working a few jobs, buthe has his own LLC that he's
doing for landscaping andoverall just home improvement.
And we were in the tent and allof a sudden he just pulls his
phone out.
Somebody on the other endanswers and he says I'm going to
be very direct with you, andthen he just bangs out his sales
(19:56):
pitch Now as somebody.
If you guys have listened to theshow, you already know if
you're a day one, get your onesup.
I acknowledge you.
I love you.
You've been here for over fivefreaking years.
I love you.
I thank you.
Okay, day ones, y'all alreadyknow I'm a sales guy.
I'm a sales trainer at heart,right, and I spent years in a
call center doing sales for aFortune 500 company on a
(20:18):
military base.
I've also been a sales manager.
Multiple locations, multipletrainings, my last, when I say
previous life, running aHarley-Davidson dealership,
working my way up to owning aHarley Davidson dealership,
sales, sales, sales.
I was constantly training,learning and educating people on
sales.
You're piquing my interest here, young man, and for him to
(20:44):
literally open the call with.
You know I'm going to be verydirect here and go into his
clothes.
I was proud of the kid and hegot everything he needed to out
of the conversation, set up hisappointments, and after the
conversation he was talking tome and said listen, I'm doing
fun things today.
So for every hour I spendhaving fun, I'm going to do one
thing I don't want to do.
For every hour that I'm havingfun, I'm going to stop for a
(21:07):
minute, pick up my phone and I'mgoing to code, call somebody
and try to make some money.
I'm going to try to build mybusiness and I thought, man,
look at the perspective on an18-year-old young lad to say,
hey, I'm enjoying myself today.
For every hour of enjoyment I'mgoing to add one moment of
(21:27):
discomfort.
I'm going to do something Idon't want to do.
I'm going to make a phone call.
For every hour that I'menjoying myself, I'm going to do
one thing to better myself.
Think about that, guys.
Can we adopt that?
Can we apply that?
Think about it All the daysthat you're sitting around.
Maybe you're at the lake doingsomething, maybe you're on
vacation doing something, maybeyou're on the couch, doom
(21:48):
scrolling when you look at theclock and realize you've been
doing an hour of nothing.
Can we implement two minutes ofsomething to change our
direction, to cause and affectour day?
To put things in a positive way, I learned a lesson from an
18-year-old young fella over theweek and I'm proud of him.
But to get back to my point,also on Isaiah, I spent some
(22:12):
time with the young fella andhe's just a great kid man.
He's the type of guy thatleaves a good impression on you.
It was very cool to see my wifeand baby arrive and them all
take to each other.
Paisley really loved him, andwhat was kind of cool is when
Allie and Paisley arrived whichwas a surprise to me as to when
(22:33):
they were arriving and I had torun to the gate to let them in
and Isaiah stepped up and tookover the tent and when I came
back he was all pumped up andsaid hey, man, I sold something,
I sold something.
And he, he never asked fortraining.
I never showed him, um, how tocash people out, I never showed
him how the computer works oranything, but he just stepped up
(22:55):
, filled in, took care of it,sold some stuff and then the
rest of the weekend, wheneveropportunity allowed, he wanted
to be behind the computer makingsales and talking to people,
and everything about that justmade me proud.
Everything about that justencouraged me, right.
(23:17):
I was encouraged that, like I'vesaid, last week, there is a
population out there of youngindividuals in this country that
still want to work for things,that still believe in things,
that still, um, are willing todo hard things.
And then also to know that Ibuilt a brand, that this young
man was drawn to enough to workhis full-time job and to come
(23:40):
hang out and spend time with us.
He also took a a liking to Kyleand Julia with Underdog Metal
and was helping them out.
And all of us had talked afterthe fair and said, man, if we
were all in different positions,if we were in better positions,
if we were just a little bitfurther ahead in our businesses,
we would hire Isaiah, we wouldtake him on the road, we would
(24:02):
do everything we could to helppropel him to the next level in
life, and he is just atremendous asset for any
business out there that islooking for someone to grow with
them and their business.
I truly wish I was at adifferent spot in my business
where I could welcome him on anddo some things together, but,
(24:27):
as we all know, it's alreadyextremely difficult just to take
care of myself and my familywith this business.
We've been struggling to getthrough, to pull ourselves
through, but I do know there'slight at the end of the tunnel
and I do know there'sopportunity at the end of the
struggle and I do know thatsticking together, staying
together, keeping thoseconnections together, someday,
somehow, some way, I'll find anopportunity to help him.
(24:50):
I'll find an opportunity toinclude him and do things, even
if it's not full-time, if it'spart-time, if it's an occasional
time, whatever it might be, itshall be.
I know that we were put in eachother's paths for a reason.
We're replacing each other'slives for a reason and I'm
excited about that and I'mthankful for that.
(25:11):
And at the end of the fair Ishook Isaiah's hand and I said
the best thing about this fairwas meeting you, and that'll
always be true, higginfair willalways hold a special place for
me because it put me in theright place to encounter Isaiah
(25:31):
and to form a relationship, andI do know that I'll always be
there for that young man alonghis journey in life.
I'll always be there for himand just something to be
thankful for.
And I feel like in life we oftengo through this journey of life
with blinders on but not alwaysreceptive to all the things
(25:54):
that are brought to you.
We don't always really justtake into consideration.
There's a person standing infront of you with a story and a
journey and, um, we don't alwayslisten to them.
Right, and I understand that wecan't just fully take in every
single person that we meet, but,um, y'all know the difference
(26:17):
right, when you're having aconversation and, um, something
just clicks.
Slow down, take the, take thetime, share the time, share
yourself and open yourself up tonew blessings and to new people
and to new opportunities.
And I really truly feel that'sa big part of what I love about
(26:37):
this brand and what I love aboutthis career path that we're on.
There are so many people in mylife that would not be in my
life if I wasn't on the road asoften as I am, from fair to fair
to festival to festival, torally, to anywhere.
There's a tremendous amount ofamazing people in my life that
(26:58):
wouldn't be here if I wasn'tchasing my dreams, that wouldn't
have been brought to me if Iwasn't jumping out of my comfort
zone and doing challengingthings.
And we always talk about it.
We always talk about gettinguncomfortable, whether that's in
a conversation or whetherthat's in a life setting.
The more you get uncomfortable,the more you try new things,
(27:19):
the more blessings will bebrought to you, the more you
will achieve great things andsometimes like the blessings
that you deserve.
Sometimes the winnings that youdeserve isn't just financial
right.
Like I went into this fair withthis high dollar number in mind
.
That I thought was what wecould achieve and we didn't hit
that number.
(27:39):
But what we left with will havea far greater impact on me than
a financial impact.
Do you understand what I'msaying?
Sometimes the blessings youreceive are far greater than you
imagine, even though the resultpales in comparison to what you
imagine.
Does that make sense to youguys?
Blessings come to you in alldifferent shapes, forms and ways
(28:02):
and we just need to beopen-minded enough to realize
them, to acknowledge them, toaccept them and to be thankful
for them.
And that's me all days, allways, trying to find a way to be
thankful.
Now, at the end of this trip youknow the next day, I shall say
(28:24):
after the event um, the wife andI we packed up and and then we
hooked up to the camper and wehauled the camper to the Windsor
fair and we dropped the camperoff there and then we came home
and, um, I tried to settle rightback into work.
That didn't happen.
I was beat.
And on the first day back toreality, I have a very um, and
(28:45):
on the first day back to realityI have a very brief stay at
home.
I only have a couple days to behome, to make more product and
then to get ready to get back onthe road to get to Windsor Fair
, which is one of my favoriteevents of the entire year.
So I don't have very much time.
But I got to tell you, man, Iwoke up beat, I didn't sleep for
shit.
I've been moping around,struggling around, dragging
(29:06):
myself around and these longevents, man, they really take it
out of me.
And I just kind of realizedlast week's schedule.
The past couple weeks hasreally screwed me up, the fair
being open until around 11,.
I'm not going to sleep till 1or 2.
I'm not getting to work as faras down at the vendor location
(29:27):
until 12, 1, 2, 3 o'clock.
Man, my schedule is all messedup.
I was dead, ass tired all dayyesterday.
I didn't hit a stride to wantto work until 6, 7 o'clock at
night.
Man, I was all kinds of funkyand I understand, based off the
schedule I was keeping.
That's kind of the scenariothat happened.
Now I can't afford to wastedays.
(29:50):
So I'm trying to recover fromsaid scenario and I had a
multitude of challengesyesterday and it's kind of funny
because it's not funny at all.
But let's be honest here.
It's not funny.
I've told you guys all year longI'm not in the best position
financially and by not being inthe best position financially,
my product is not in the bestposition.
(30:11):
So I leave one event and I haveto quickly scramble to get
prepared for the next event.
And I've been able to do that.
I've been navigating thosechoppy waters, even though your
homie can't swim.
I've been navigating thosethings, treading water, trying
to keep my head above water, andit's been okay, it's worked out
so far.
I did notice when I was thererunning some reports.
(30:34):
I need to add massive amountsof product to do what I need to
do to end the season.
My two biggest events left ofthe schedule is this coming week
when I go to the Windsor Fair,and then at the end of next
month when I go to Freiburg Fair, which is the biggest event for
(30:57):
me.
The product challenges that Ihave in front of me are scary.
I need to find and acquire areal good amount of finances, of
capital to bring in enoughproduct to be successful.
When I'm looking at what's inmy possession now, when I'm
(31:19):
running reports that show me, ifI sold every single thing on my
shelf right now, at this moment, I wouldn't hit the number that
I have set for myself to hitfor the Frybird Fair.
That tells me y'all got a lotof work ahead of you.
You got a lot of work ahead ofyou.
You got a lot of selling aheadof you.
You got a lot of purchasingahead of you and a lot of
(31:40):
producing ahead of you,production ahead of you.
So there's a lot of challenges,multiple challenges, and I'm
scared of those challenges.
I'm realistic when it comes tolooking at those challenges and
knowing how difficult they'regoing to be.
But if you all learn somethingabout me, I have a tremendous
(32:02):
belief in me and my business.
This can work and this willwork.
I just need to keep pushingahead and forcing myself to make
this happen.
So I've realized thedifficulties that's in front of
me and throughout the year doingthese things, when I go from
one event to the next.
(32:22):
I have a very limited time andthat's worked somewhat okay.
You guys, if you've beenlistening over the past few
months, you've heard me go tosome events, down a design, down
some product, because a vendordidn't deliver things in time.
Well, wouldn't you know?
I only have a couple of daysbefore I have to leave again and
I literally had it all mappedout in my calendar as to when I
(32:46):
needed to make the money, when Ineeded to have the money
deposited and when I needed toplace the order to have things
fall on schedule.
I placed all my ordersaccording to schedule that when
I arrived home on Sunday, someof my stuff should have been
here and by Monday, when Iwalked into my office to work,
everything should have been herefor a full production for me to
(33:09):
get after it.
For this week I have over 300items that are on their way.
I have new designs on their way.
I budgeted and planned and Ispent hours in the camper trying
to maximize every single dollarand cent that I have to put
myself in the best possibleposition to have the best
(33:30):
possible result at the WindsorFair that I can possibly afford
for myself and all those vendorsthat I've used.
None of them have delivered ontime.
I'm recording this podcast on avery early Tuesday morning and
none of my products have arrived.
I should have been working onthem on Monday.
I should have been working themon Tuesday, on Wednesday and
(33:52):
then heading out on Thursday.
With that said, I'm going tohave to reconfigure and
re-challenge myself and myschedule is going to have to
change.
So whenever these productsarrive, I'm going to have to do
the best I can with what I have.
So I'll have some designsarriving today, but the apparel
won't be here till tomorrow.
(34:13):
So what I do have in stock, I'mgoing to have to work on I'm
going to have to work on.
I'm going to have to go throughmy cabinets and find all things
that I can produce to helpposition myself.
I'm going to have to get thebus ready, do things to get
those things situated and thenwhen my apparel comes in
tomorrow, I'm going to have tostart crushing it and instead of
going to the fair on Thursday,I'm going to have to roll in on
(34:38):
Friday and it's going to give meone single lonely day to put up
one big ass display to getready for opening day on
Saturday.
With all this said, my familyand I have had a lot of
conversations.
I had another event on myschedule that I would come home
from Windsor, I would have a fewdays, maybe a week, and then I
(34:58):
would take off to New York and Iwould do a motorcycle rally in
New York and be another firsttime event.
It'd be an event that I woulddo on my own, an event that I
would sleep on the bus, and I'mexcited about doing this and
adding these new challenges tothe book of business.
But I've done multiplefirst-time events this year and
(35:23):
the family and I decided that afew things come into play.
First and foremost, I hatebeing away from my baby girl
right now because she changes somuch when I'm not home.
It was a challenge for me tosee her and see how much she had
grown.
She's at that stage where shejust is growing every day and
changing every day and I feellike I missed out on a lot over
(35:43):
that.
But with that said, I do knowthat I have to sacrifice and I'd
be willing to sacrifice for thebetter of my family and I was
expecting to go to this eventand maybe make enough money to
invest in the product that Ineed.
I just told you, guys, I haveall this product that I have to
get, so I need those finances.
But the family and I decidedthat it might put me at a bigger
(36:04):
disadvantage Because if I comehome from that event and things
aren't going as planned, ifthings don't arrive on time,
then I could put myself at adisadvantage going into the
biggest and greatest event ofour business.
And if there's one thing Ishould do, I should prepare as
much as I possibly can to havethe best event I possibly can at
(36:28):
the Freiburg Fair.
So I'm going to remove one ofmy forecasted events this season
so I can allow myself theproper time to get ready to
absolutely crush and overachievemy goals.
So I'm going to remove a smallevent that I don't know how it
(36:49):
would turn out for me, so that Ican focus on the two biggest
events for me and then, whenthose things come and go, I will
reassess everything for me.
But that's a difficult decisionthat I had to make for me and I
didn't do it on my own.
I chatted with the family andthis is kind of the way that we
feel it should go.
But it's funny, yesterday I'msitting back for a minute and I
(37:12):
was so distracted yesterday.
I'm waiting on all these calls.
I'm calling customer service.
I have multiple things thathaven't shipped that, these
things that are supposed to beat my doorstep.
They hadn't even left yesterday.
So I'm paying additional feesto process things, to move
things.
It was a fiasco things.
(37:38):
I find myself easily distracted.
Yesterday and I found myselfkind of doom scrolling and my
wife loves to say that and Ihate saying that.
I was just wasting time when Ididn't have the time, but I
guess there was a reason for it.
I stumbled onto a post from afriend of mine, mr Tom Ringwalt,
who, tom, you've heard me talkabout him as Tommy Tattoo he
owns Tommy Supplies and he hoststwo of the largest tattoo
(37:59):
conferences in the world, orconventions, I should say Two of
the largest tattoo conventionsin the world.
I've vented at his conventions,I've hosted events with him and
, by all accounts, he's just atremendously successful
individual and an overall justawesome dude right individual
(38:21):
and an overall just awesome duderight.
But he had a post up and Ithink I found it when I needed
to find it and he made this postthat said true fact.
I took over my father's companyin 2004.
Not many people know this, butby 2007, I was almost ready to
give up because of the amount oftaxes owed and the feeling that
I was spending more money thanI was making.
I didn't yet know how to manageit correctly.
(38:41):
Now it's 2025 and after yearsof growth, I specialize in
managing money and strategicallyplanning lifetime opportunities
.
Thank you to everyone worldwideand to my entire team for
helping make this possibleworldwide and to my entire team
for helping make this possible.
The life you dream isn't builtin a single leap, but in the
(39:02):
courage to take the next smallstep.
Again and again, I read thatpost multiple times and then I
sent Tommy a message and saidman, you have no idea how much
this inspired me and how much Ineeded this today to know that
here's this individual that Iknow personally that is
tremendously, wildly successful.
That is an inspiration, that isa motivation.
(39:22):
His success will um willmotivate you, will inspire you,
will keep you pushing andpulling and fighting for what
you believe in.
And to see and know that hestruggled, that he almost gave
up, to see the success he hasnow and know that he almost gave
up before achieving thatsuccess, it gives me the
motivation to know that thatsuccess for me could be on the
(39:44):
other side of this difficulty.
For me, the line, the life youdream of, isn't built in a
single leap, but in the courageto take the next small step.
Again and again, this year hasbeen a lot of courage in taking
the next step.
When so many stop signs wereplaced in my way, that said, go
(40:06):
another way, I found the courageto make the next step and I
will continue to have thecourage to take the next step.
I went as far as looking upcourage on the dictionary.
It is the ability to dosomething that frightens one
Mental or moral strength toventure, persevere and withstand
(40:28):
danger, fear and difficulty.
This entire year has been fullof danger, fear and difficulty,
but I do possess the mental andmoral strength to persevere.
I have courage.
I have the ability to dosomething that frightens me.
(40:51):
I'm frightened by some of mychoices.
I'm frightened by some of myobstacles, I'm frightened by
what's placed in my way, but Ihave the courage to fight, fight
, fight for the dream that Ihave.
The life you dream of isn'tbuilt in a single leap, but in
(41:12):
the courage to take the nextsmall step, again and again.
I'm going to let y'all go forthis week so I can go take the
next small step, because I amnot giving up on the life that I
dream for me and my family.
(41:33):
Until next time, thank you forsupporting my American dream.
That's it, and that's all.
Biggie Smalls, if you're a Loud, proud American and you find
(42:04):
yourself just wanting more.
Speaker 2 (42:06):
Find me on YouTube and Facebook, at Loud Proud
American or the Face page as mymama calls it.
Speaker 1 (42:12):
If you're a fan of the Graham Cracker, want to find
me on Instagram.
Or all the kids aretickety-talking on the TikTok.
You can find me on both ofthose at loud underscore, proud
underscore, american.
A big old.
(42:37):
Thank you to the boys from theGut Truckers for the background
beats and the theme song forthis year's podcast If you are
enjoying what you're hearing.
You can track down the GutTruckers on Facebook.
Just search Gut Truckers.
Give them, motherfuckers, alike too.
I'm not saying I'm a pain.
I won't make it bleed.
Speaker 2 (43:10):
I hate to say I told you so I truly thank you for
supporting my American dream.
Speaker 1 (43:15):
Now go wash your fucking hands, you filthy savage
.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Burden
The Burden is a documentary series that takes listeners into the hidden places where justice is done (and undone). It dives deep into the lives of heroes and villains. And it focuses a spotlight on those who triumph even when the odds are against them. Season 5 - The Burden: Death & Deceit in Alliance On April Fools Day 1999, 26-year-old Yvonne Layne was found murdered in her Alliance, Ohio home. David Thorne, her ex-boyfriend and father of one of her children, was instantly a suspect. Another young man admitted to the murder, and David breathed a sigh of relief, until the confessed murderer fingered David; “He paid me to do it.” David was sentenced to life without parole. Two decades later, Pulitzer winner and podcast host, Maggie Freleng (Bone Valley Season 3: Graves County, Wrongful Conviction, Suave) launched a “live” investigation into David's conviction alongside Jason Baldwin (himself wrongfully convicted as a member of the West Memphis Three). Maggie had come to believe that the entire investigation of David was botched by the tiny local police department, or worse, covered up the real killer. Was Maggie correct? Was David’s claim of innocence credible? In Death and Deceit in Alliance, Maggie recounts the case that launched her career, and ultimately, “broke” her.” The results will shock the listener and reduce Maggie to tears and self-doubt. This is not your typical wrongful conviction story. In fact, it turns the genre on its head. It asks the question: What if our champions are foolish? Season 4 - The Burden: Get the Money and Run “Trying to murder my father, this was the thing that put me on the path.” That’s Joe Loya and that path was bank robbery. Bank, bank, bank, bank, bank. In season 4 of The Burden: Get the Money and Run, we hear from Joe who was once the most prolific bank robber in Southern California, and beyond. He used disguises, body doubles, proxies. He leaped over counters, grabbed the money and ran. Even as the FBI was closing in. It was a showdown between a daring bank robber, and a patient FBI agent. Joe was no ordinary bank robber. He was bright, articulate, charismatic, and driven by a dark rage that he summoned up at will. In seven episodes, Joe tells all: the what, the how… and the why. Including why he tried to murder his father. Season 3 - The Burden: Avenger Miriam Lewin is one of Argentina’s leading journalists today. At 19 years old, she was kidnapped off the streets of Buenos Aires for her political activism and thrown into a concentration camp. Thousands of her fellow inmates were executed, tossed alive from a cargo plane into the ocean. Miriam, along with a handful of others, will survive the camp. Then as a journalist, she will wage a decades long campaign to bring her tormentors to justice. Avenger is about one woman’s triumphant battle against unbelievable odds to survive torture, claim justice for the crimes done against her and others like her, and change the future of her country. Season 2 - The Burden: Empire on Blood Empire on Blood is set in the Bronx, NY, in the early 90s, when two young drug dealers ruled an intersection known as “The Corner on Blood.” The boss, Calvin Buari, lived large. He and a protege swore they would build an empire on blood. Then the relationship frayed and the protege accused Calvin of a double homicide which he claimed he didn’t do. But did he? Award-winning journalist Steve Fishman spent seven years to answer that question. This is the story of one man’s last chance to overturn his life sentence. He may prevail, but someone’s gotta pay. The Burden: Empire on Blood is the director’s cut of the true crime classic which reached #1 on the charts when it was first released half a dozen years ago. Season 1 - The Burden In the 1990s, Detective Louis N. Scarcella was legendary. In a city overrun by violent crime, he cracked the toughest cases and put away the worst criminals. “The Hulk” was his nickname. Then the story changed. Scarcella ran into a group of convicted murderers who all say they are innocent. They turned themselves into jailhouse-lawyers and in prison founded a lway firm. When they realized Scarcella helped put many of them away, they set their sights on taking him down. And with the help of a NY Times reporter they have a chance. For years, Scarcella insisted he did nothing wrong. But that’s all he’d say. Until we tracked Scarcella to a sauna in a Russian bathhouse, where he started to talk..and talk and talk. “The guilty have gone free,” he whispered. And then agreed to take us into the belly of the beast. Welcome to The Burden.