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February 26, 2025 36 mins

Dive deep into the inspiring story of Jason Steiner, a former Marine and the visionary behind Herostock, an innovative nonprofit that brings together the music community and veterans. Struggling with the transition out of military life himself, Jason recognized the significant gap in support for veterans returning to civilian life. His vision to create a gathering space for veterans evolved into Hero Stock, a festival that not only celebrates music but also highlights the resources available to heroes and their families.

In this engaging episode, we explore the challenges and triumphs Jason faced as he transformed his passion for music into a powerful platform for change. Learn about the emotional connections forged between artists and veterans, the importance of community, and the extraordinary talents of veteran musicians showcased at Hero Stock events. With plans to expand further, you'll discover how this initiative cultivates healing and camaraderie while raising awareness for veteran support services.

Join us for an uplifting conversation that illustrates the profound impact of music on community building and the importance of honoring those who serve. Don’t miss your chance to get involved! Visit HeroStock's website for how you can support this noble cause, participate in future events, and listen to the newly launched Hero Stock Nation podcast that brings more awareness to this vital movement.

Have ideas or would you like to be a guest? Send us a text!

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey everybody, thank you for joining us on this
episode of Stay Modern withMurray Today.
I'm your host pinch hitting forMatt Murray, matthew Taylor.
Today we are joined in theMurray studio speaking with the
founder and president of HeroStock, mr Jason Steiner.
Everybody give it up for Jason.
What's up my man, my man's?
Uh.
Hero Stock is a uniqueorganization that honors

(00:20):
veterans, active military firstresponders and gold star
families.
So we're going to dive rightinto this, jason.
For our audience that don'tknow who you are, man, tell us a
little bit about your backstorypersonally, where you're from
and what branch of the serviceyou served in.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
Yeah.
So I grew up in NorthwestKansas.
I was born and raised hereuntil fifth grade and around the
Lincoln area and raised hereuntil fifth grade and around the
Lincoln area.
I joined the Marine Corps in1996 and actually they sent me
to the to bootcamp on Mother'sDay of 1996.

(01:00):
They came down to pick me up.
So yeah, my mom was real happy,I bet.
So yeah, we I jumped into theMarine Corps.
I served my four years.
The first two years I was aamph about it, I bet.
So yeah, I jumped into theMarine Corps.
I served my four years.
The first two years I was anamphibious assault vehicle
driver, so we basically wentfrom ship to shore.
We could go on land and sea.
We were troop carriers, didthat for the first two years and
then I got moved up to thebattalion PMI.
So I was a primary marksmanshipinstructor for our battalion

(01:23):
and we trained 1100 Marines andNavy corpsmen on rifle and
pistol.

Speaker 1 (01:28):
So insane that's.
You know anymore.
You start thinking about whatit can build you into the man
that you are today, Right Likegoing back, looking at some of
those, some of those memoriesand things that you had to go
through.
I don't think you're probablysitting here, at least in this
office, doing what you're doingtoday without that background,
you know.

Speaker 2 (01:48):
Oh, a hundred percent .
A hundred percent, I mean it,it, it, uh, you know the with
the Marine Corps and military ingeneral.
It it teaches you to.
You know, find your passion, dowhat you want to do and and
create that drive and you.

Speaker 1 (02:02):
You just go and travels, right Like you, to see
different parts of the country.
That I mean yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
Well, and, and I was with only doing the four years,
and and then being themarksmanship instructor, I only
got to do one deployment.
So I got to see Okinawa, japan,uh, for four and a half months,
and then we went up to mainlandJapan for a month and a half
and drained up there.
You know, I'd have never beento Japan without the Marine
Corps, right.

Speaker 1 (02:23):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (02:24):
How do you know Matt Murray?
So we actually met through mybusiness.
When I got out of the MarineCorps I transitioned into
flooring and I do wood floors,tile, that kind of stuff.
Matt had fired up his businessof building houses and we ran
across each other.
I don't remember how we foundeach other I think it was at a

(02:46):
trade show, honestly, and we gotto talking and so I did his
floors for I don't know two orthree years, something like that
, worked for the company forabout six months, wow, as one of
the supervisors job sitesupervisors and then I went back
to doing my own thing and youknow everybody's, you're always

(03:07):
looking for the next thing andthat kind of stuff.
And so we kind of parted waysand but I've stayed in contact
with Matt.
You know, even after we'vewe've went our separate ways and
stuff.

Speaker 1 (03:13):
So, yeah, he kind of briefed me this morning when he
had asked me to pinch it.
He's like, dude, this is likeone of those podcasts that I
want to do.
He's like so you make sure youdo this shit, right?
I was like, all right, man, Igot you bro, I got you, cause
usually you know like thingswill come up and whatever you're
, you're the face of the company.
You have to be in these certaindifferent places.
This is when he was beentalking to me and Shannon about
it all week.
He's like I'm looking forwardto seeing Jason again and so,

(03:35):
yeah, man, I'm sorry he can't behere.
I back to the flooring aspectof it.
I'm sure back in the day,matt's told us stories and I've
told Shannon I was like, dude,he could write a book with like
how he got from A to B, kind ofbreak down, like what kind of
condition Murray Enterprises wasat that time.

(03:56):
Was he running out of anapartment?
Did you guys have an office?
I mean?

Speaker 2 (04:00):
you know, when I was working for him he was, um, he
was working out of an office inhis house.
When we first started out, um,and then they built the house
out on 112th and had the shopthat was separated, that he had
the upstairs of the shop.
Yeah, buddy, they were workingout.
I've heard good stories aboutthat place Right right, um, you
know, and and uh, he was reallyjust kind of starting to build

(04:24):
it.
You know he already had theroofing side going, but he was
trying to build houses and thatkind of thing and and he was
green into that side of it.
And uh, it was fun watching himjust in the time that I worked
for him, how much he had grownand that kind of stuff.
So, um, and then now to comeinto this and see your guys'
shop now and you know where youguys are sitting now, is pretty

(04:44):
awesome.

Speaker 1 (04:45):
Just in the two years I've been here, man, I mean,
the podcast alone has grownbecause of Shannon and Matt and
what they do and you know beingwilling to kind of put yourself
out there a little bit too.
People want to know that stuff,man.
They want to hear the backstory of how you got from A to B
, right right.
I'm pretty proud of it, dude.
So you moved to Nebraska or youmoved away from Nebraska after

(05:07):
the Marine Corps?
Yeah, Is that what you weresaying?

Speaker 2 (05:09):
No, Well, we moved back here after the Marine Corps
.
I got married in 97, actually98.
So right after yeah, I wasstill in, got it.
So I was two years in met agirl out in California, got
married.
We've been married now for 27years.

(05:41):
Congrats, got it we.
We got back here and found outthat Claire was pregnant at the
time, you know, as we weredriving back and and, uh, I was
going to go to college, use myGI bill, I wanted to be an auto
body tech.
And uh, when we found out shewas pregnant, I was like, man, I
can't, like, I've got to work,I've got to pay bills, you know,
we've got to buy a crib, we'vegot to buy diapers, that kind of

(06:02):
stuff.
So that kind of got pushed tothe wayside.
And and, uh, I, I officiallystarted my own company January
1st of 2001.
So I've been running for 24years now.
That's amazing and uh, lots ofups and downs, lots of goods and
bads.
But uh, um, you know we're,we're kind of starting to

(06:23):
transition out of the flooringside of it and doing this more
full time.
Right now my whole board,including myself, is a volunteer
.
Yeah, so I run my business at40 or 50 hours a week and then
turn around and do 40 or 50hours a week on Hero Stock.

Speaker 1 (06:40):
Hero Stock dude.
I'm fired up to hear more aboutthat.
So we did not Woodstock,obviously, but I went out and it
was in Iowa, something in Iowathat resembles Woodstock, but
they had like BoneThugs-N-Harmony, they had 98
Degrees, they had Mark McGrathfrom the Smash Mouth I think

(07:03):
it's Smash Mouth or whatever butit was complete 90s era type of
festival and I'm sitting therebackstage because I was doing a
podcast at the time.
So, like Bone Thugs was why Iwas there.
I was like I got to meet thesedudes.
Got to meet these dudes.
I'm like if they're not highout of their mind and I can at
least get an acknowledgement,I'll be happy, right, but dude,

(07:26):
it ended up being like I'm a bigfan of different types of
different eras of music anddifferent genres because it
brings so many different peopletogether.

Speaker 2 (07:31):
Right.

Speaker 1 (07:32):
You know, it doesn't matter if you're 70 years old or
if you're seven years old.
My wife, my daughter, myself,we can listen to the same type
of music, as long as it's goodmusic, sure.
So talk more about Hero Stock.
I want to know.
We were talking off air.
But is it just rock?
Is it rock and country?
What are you guys thinking forthat?

Speaker 2 (07:50):
So we started out with just country and I'm going
to be honest, this reallystarted out as a night for just
veterans to hang out.
That's all it was going to be.
It was a one night, one off,never to happen again.
We had a buddy that had a shopSoutheast Lincoln and he's like,
yeah, come on out, use our shop.

(08:10):
We lined up Pete Butler he's asinger out of Western Nebraska,
does old time country and thenwe lined up the Sheila Greenland
band and it was literally justa night to hang out and we
started, as the event kind ofstarted and we're kind of
rolling through it, I found outwe had 12 nonprofits there and

(08:32):
I'd been in the nonprofit worldat this time for three years,
three and a half years, and Ididn't know them.
I knew three of the 12.
And I was like, if I'm thisengrossed in the nonprofit world
for veterans and I only knowthree of these, what does your
regular veteran know?
Right, you know somebody that'sjust transitioned out, somebody
that hasn't been involved withthe Marine Corps League or the

(08:56):
Legion or something like that,and that was kind of really
where this started.
And you know, we ran the firstshow.
Everybody had a great time wehad cornhole tournament going on
.
We had food trucks out there,uh, gave away like 75 prizes and
that kind of just gave stuffaway and uh.
And so after the show my phoneblew up for like five days and I

(09:19):
had people just going man, youhave to do this again.
Like you have to do this again.
And I was like, well, let's see, here I got a senior in high
school, I run my own business.

Speaker 1 (09:29):
Like.

Speaker 2 (09:29):
I've got all the time .

Speaker 1 (09:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (09:31):
I was still a presidential advisor for another
nonprofit at the time and and Iwas like, yeah, because I got
all this time, let's go aheadand start something else.
So we, I grabbed a couple ofthe people that helped me set it
up and I said, hey, let's turnit into a nonprofit.
And so we filed paperwork inMarch.

(09:52):
We got it back in May of 2023.
And we started just poundingstuff out and we got, we went
out to Round the Ben'ssteakhouse Love that place,
great place.
And I don't know if you knowabout the ballroom in the back.
No, so behind the, behind therestaurant, if you go back to
the bathrooms, there's two doorsand you can look through.

(10:14):
There.
There's this huge ballroom.
It's 10,000 square foot.
What, yeah?

Speaker 1 (10:18):
Dude, I thought it was just a testicle festival
place.

Speaker 2 (10:21):
Right, right, right, okay.
No, it's got this huge ballroomin the back, so we rented that,
and then we got the outsidearea too, so we had 20,000
square feet we were working withand that first year of Hero
Stock because originally it wasVet Stock the first year of Hero
Stock we had six differentbands that we put on stage.

(10:43):
Wow, and all but one of themwas veteran.
Good, and it was our headliner,dylan Bloom.
He's not a veteran, hugesupporter, but we started
finding all of these veteran andfirst responder singers and
bands and, dude, there is someamazing talent out there.
Oh yeah, man.
So you know, as we startedworking through that one, I've

(11:03):
already got everybody booked.
Well then, I'm like finding allthese different people and I'm
like, god, we need to have themon, we need to do this, we, um.
But I started doing podcastsand just going on other podcasts
and, uh, the first one I didwas two drunk dudes in a gun
room Name got me, the name gotme.
Yes.
So yeah, we, I sat down withhim and I did the first podcast

(11:26):
and then I was sending outemails and texts and everything
to all these different podcasts.
I'm like, hey, would you beinterested?
And I got a lot of people sendback.
You know, no, we're not reallyinterested in that.
And blah, blah, blah.
And well, after about 45episodes I started getting hit
up by these podcasts that I'dreached out to.
Hey, man, we saw you and we'dreally like to have you on our

(11:47):
podcast and I'm like, hmm, yeah,kind of come back around,
didn't it?

Speaker 1 (11:51):
I'm that guy that's like nah, hell with you.

Speaker 2 (11:55):
So I'm?
I'm sitting probably between, Idon't know, 85, 89, 90.
I don't even know anymore.
Good for you man, you Google meon YouTube and it's like just a
stream of podcasts that I'vedone Good.
But last year, you know, wegrew really fast.
We had a thousand people showup to our first Hero Stock event

(12:16):
.
Man, we had 16 different statesthat came into it.
We had 48 nonprofits out there,you know.
So it was really kind ofamazing how big it was.
We went from 100 people and 12nonprofits to 1,000 people and
you know, 48 nonprofits, jeezman.
So you know, we've been invitednow to 30, 32 different states

(12:43):
to put this on the same show,the same show.
Just wow, they went in theirown states, you know.
So we took a leap of faith lastyear.
We jumped outside the state andwe went down to Rolla, missouri
, put on a show down there.
We had four or five bands thatwe put on stage down there.
We had about 15 nonprofitsbecause nobody knew what we were

(13:04):
Right.

Speaker 1 (13:05):
Right Starting over?
Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 2 (13:07):
Yeah, we were starting over every time and we
went to Lebanon, tennessee, itdid the same thing down there
and same deal.
You know, we had a couplehundred people that showed up to
it, but the people that went,they were like you have to come
back and I'm like it's reallyexpensive, it's out of town,

(13:30):
it's out of state, yeah, yeah.
So we, uh, you know, we had ourfinal show here, um, in
September, and, uh, countrydrive golf course jumped in.
We had another venue set up andit was a guy's farm.
He texts me two months beforethe event and he goes bro, you
can't do it out here, why?
And I'm like what he goes?
Yeah, the insurance guy.
So there's no way.
Like we can't allow thisbecause we're trying to build

(13:53):
this business and blah, blah,blah, blah, blah.
I was sick man, I was like thisis on all of our advertising.
I've talked to them on allthese podcasts.
Like now we're, now we have tochange it on the fly.
Yeah, man and uh.
So we reached out to countrydrive golf course and they do
the country line drive festivalevery year and they're like yeah

(14:13):
, you know, come on out.
We don't really know what youare, but sure, come on out, Love
to have you.

Speaker 1 (14:17):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (14:19):
And you know.
So they, they rented us a spaceout there and we were actually
in the driving range and thenthey've got a really nice
pavilion building there that wewere using.
And the more we talked to themand they got to understand
exactly what Hero Stock was.
They're like we love this.
We want to make this HeroStock's home.
We want this to be your homebase every year, no way.

(14:43):
So they've jumped in, they'vehelped us kind of grow it.
They're going to start, youknow, once we get our, our um
posters done, they're going tostart like pushing out our
information on their pages andthat kind of stuff advertising
for us, um, you know, and andreally trying to grow what we're
doing.
But last year out out there forour final event, we had seven

(15:05):
bands we put on stage forcountry night and we had five
bands we put, or four bands weput, on stage for rock night.

Speaker 1 (15:10):
So two separate nights.
Two separate nights.
No dude, I can't imagine thedifferent personality.
It was crazy.
Yeah, you were talking aboutrock.
I mean, are we talking classicrock?
We talking metal.

Speaker 2 (15:24):
We talking a mesh of everything, or Uh.
So rock night this year waskind of a mesh of everything.
Um, we had anyone else out ofOmaha it's, that's actually my
daughter's band.
Um, they do some.
It's more kind of like aParamore type sound.
I love Paramore, dude and anddude, you know you'd love my
daughter's voice then Anywhereelse.
So she did that.
They opened up for us.

(15:45):
We flew a group in fromPennsylvania called Die Tired
and they're kind of that samegenre of not the real heavy but
not the classic.
Then we had oh geez, who elsedid we have?
And anyone, oh, shannon book.
Uh, shannon book came up fromTexas.

(16:05):
Um, he's a singer, songwriter,17 year uh, navy Corpsman on.
Served most of his time on thegreen side with the Marines.
I love that.
He was in Fallujah, um, one ofthe main battles of Fall Ramadi,
that kind of stuff.
So he saw a lot of stuff, gotmedically retired out and then
started his music and really hasgrown that.

(16:26):
So he came up.
He was actually our openerbecause his band ended up not
being able to come, so he justcame up and did it himself.
And then we had the AmericanHitmen that came in from Utah
and originally the AmericanHitmen were all Marines that
served together in a unit andwas deployed, I think, two or
three times.
And uh, you know, since thenthey've kind of broke up a

(16:50):
little bit and there's oneoriginal singer left and he's
the original guy that startedthe band Good man.
Um, so, yeah, we had that.
And then, uh, you know, countrynight and and um, go go back to
your question.
Here it was, it was kind of athis year, it was kind of the
same type of music until you gotto American Hitman and they

(17:10):
were a little bit harder, yeah,um, but everybody else kind of
just gelled, you know, flowedfrom one to the next.
Um, then we jump into countrynight and I have so many country
singers and I'm a country guypersonally, same, yeah, and I
was like, who do I book?
So I just kept booking people.

Speaker 1 (17:30):
So I had seven bands on country night Going from
where you started to being ableto pick and choose for dude.
I'm proud of you, man, Keepgoing, Sorry.

Speaker 2 (17:38):
So we had Kimberly Meyer come in.
She's actually from Norfolk,nebraska.
She's a base commander stillserving in the Army National
Guard and she serves up in SouthDakota, so she came in tore it
up.
We had Derek Stoner come infrom Nashville.
He's a 20-year Special Forcesoperator and dude is probably

(18:01):
some of the best vocals you'llever hear in your life.
Um, we had derrick thompson,which is there thompson okay,
yeah, yeah, so he's in yeah,he's a local guy here, or
nebraska kid.
Um, super good, dude.
He came in, um.
Then we had geez, who was ourother one.
We had Joel and Christy, theWinchester band on stage.

(18:24):
We had Scotty Hastings was ourheadliner.
He's actually a combat veteran,shot 10 times in Afghanistan.
I didn't know that.
Yeah, he took bullets from hisleft thigh to his right shoulder
, just climbed right up his body.
He's got a hell of a story.
Before he, before he joined themilitary, he was actually going
to he was.
He was playing minor leagueball, he was trying to make the

(18:46):
majors and and baseball and hedecided he wanted to serve his
country and so he signed up,spent a very short stint in the
military because he got sentover to I think it was
Afghanistan.
That's where he was shot Wasclearing an area, coming around
a corner and a guy had a gunpulls it up and just right up

(19:09):
his body Actually got shot 11times.
One went into the weapon that hehad slung across his chest.
Oh my God.
So we always make fun that he'sshot more times than 50 Cent.
Yeah, but super good, dude.
Man, he's now signed artistwith Nashville, with Black River

(19:32):
Entertainment out of Nashville,he's starting his own tour this
year, so he's really reallygrowing quick, super good dude.
But we had so much talent.
It was so cool to see how muchtalent was out there.
And then you know, even afterthat the last year, like we're
still finding these groups thatare coming in and I'm like, why

(19:55):
are these people not known?
You know it's so hard now, likefor musicians to get their
stuff out because, yeah, there'ssocial media, but if you're not
on that algorithm, nobody eversees your stuff.
It's flooded dude.

Speaker 1 (20:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (20:09):
Yeah.
So you know we're, we're, we'rekind of a multifaceted type of
deal.
What we're doing, you knowwe're, we're Give them a chance
to see.
Hey, there's a motorcycle groupIf you like motorcycles.
If you like hunting and fishing, we've got four or five

(20:30):
different groups.
If you need equine therapy, wehave equine therapy with horses.
There's all this different stuffthat's available for you, and
most of it's for free or verylow charge.
And then you get the paid sideof it, the for-profit side of
and and it's counseling services, it's drug and alcohol

(20:50):
addiction stuff.
Um, you know so there's a lotof different avenues that that
is available for our heroes thata lot of people don't know
about.
Yeah, so we've kind of becomethe hub when everybody comes to
where we're at.
Holy crap, Look at all thisstuff that's available.
You know so it's been supercool to be that connection point

(21:13):
for our heroes to know what'savailable.
Yeah, man, you know so.
And then you flip the otherside of that and we bring in all
these amazing bands and singersand we're growing their brand.
We're putting their name infront of people that never would
have known who they were RightUm you know.
So we've had a lot of fun doingthat and going from the going

(21:34):
into the nonprofit side ofthings.

Speaker 1 (21:36):
I mean, what kind of hoops do people not realize you
had to jump through, becausethis was just kind of spun on
you and you were like, all right, well, let's do it then.
You know, I mean, what did youhave to do?
What did you not know wascoming?

Speaker 2 (21:47):
Um, honestly, from the nonprofit side of it there's
really not much.
That I didn't know because I Iwas a founder of another
nonprofit before this.
Um, you know I was one of fourguys that was the founders of
the Nebraska Warriors hockeyprogram, really, yeah.
So it's a disabled hockeyprogram here, uses sports and
adaptive sports for PTSD,anxiety, that kind of stuff.

(22:11):
I was one of the foundingmembers of that.
So I kind of had an idea, goinginto the nonprofit stuff, of
what we're going to look at.
You know what we have to have,how we've got to do stuff.
You know the biggest part, orprobably the biggest struggle
that we have as a nonprofit israising funds.
Yeah, you know, especially withthe climate right now of the

(22:33):
country, people just don't wantto open up their pockets.
And you know, last year we weredown on donations.
We went into our final eventactually negative.
We didn't have enough money tocover it and by the back end of
it we actually covered it.
But it was pretty stressfulgoing in knowing that we were
negative and you know it's.

(22:54):
How are you going to make thismoney to get this done?
Yeah, but we've had some greatsponsors.
You know Barry Law has been anamazing sponsor for us.
We've had First Interstate Bank, we've got Lankfeld Overhead
Doors and Windows.
We've got the Corporal DaganPage Foundation that jumped in.
They're one of our sponsors andif you don't know them so

(23:17):
they're a gold star family.
Corporal Page was one of theones that were killed, one of
the 13 that were killed in thewithdrawal from Afghanistan.
This recent one yeah at AbbeyGate what a mess, you know.
And he played hockey up inOmaha and so I got to know the
Dagan Page family through thehockey side of it and then they

(23:45):
saw what we were doing, withwhat we're doing, and they've
also come over and helped us.

Speaker 1 (23:48):
But just an amazing group that we, that we work with
quite frequently.
What is gold star family?
I mean help me out here.

Speaker 2 (23:54):
So a gold star family , they?
The definition of it issomebody that loses a military
service member in the line ofduty overseas, got it?
They've now changed it a littlebit to if you were serving in
the military and you die, um,you can be a gold star family,
but originally it was somebodythat was killed on the line of

(24:15):
duty.

Speaker 1 (24:16):
Got it and so you're talking about your sponsors and
everybody that's kind of helpedyou get to to where you are now.
I mean, when you go out tothese, to different States now,
because you know hero stock isnow a traveling act essentially.
I mean when you go out to theseto different States now,
because you know hero stock isnow a traveling act essentially,
I mean, are you, are youhitting up local businesses and
local musicians and artists, orare you taking everybody with

(24:36):
you that you brought from here?

Speaker 2 (24:39):
So we found out it's really, really hard to go out of
state.
I can't imagine, jason, you knowcause, you're, we're, you know
Rolla was six hours away, so itwas multiple trips down there,
you know, driving down and back.
So you'd, you know, have anight in a hotel.
That came out of my pocket, thegas money came out of my pocket
, the mileage on the truck cameout of my pocket, you know, and

(25:03):
you're, you're pitching to thesepeople and they're like, why
are we going to give you moneywhen you live in Nebraska?
Yeah, and you're just comingdown here for this show and it's
like, but you don't understandwhat we're doing.
You, like, you've got to go tothe event.
You have to see, you have tounderstand it.
Well, we're not going to giveher money until we see the show,
you know.
So we'd put together Rala andwe were supposed to have boots

(25:26):
on ground down there and havesomebody helping us try to get
funding and that kind of stuffGoing into that event.
We had about a thousand dollarsworth of sponsorships.
That's not much on an $11,000show, you know.
So we, we and, and they keptsaying, oh, you're going to see
three to 5,000 people comethrough.

(25:48):
We've advertised this and theydid.
They did a great jobadvertising it the day we were
there doing it got there thatmorning to the fairgrounds it's
raining, starts raining at likeeight o'clock in the morning.
Our show starts at two.
Rains all the way up to about1230.
And then the sun comes out andif you've ever been in Missouri

(26:11):
and the sun comes out after arain, it's about 100% humidity.
At that point it was 100 and atone point it was 113 degrees
heat index and we ended uphaving about 350 people show up.
So we went in the hole about 10grand and it was like, okay,

(26:32):
well, that was a rough run,we've got Nashville coming up,
it'll be better.
Had two guys on the ground downthere, boots on the ground and
nobody did any advertising forus.
No, so we got down there and Iwent on the news local news for
Nashville the morning of theevent and we had about 350

(26:53):
people show up there on a$22,000 event.
Man, man, jeez, dude.
So you know it was.
We've learned a lot, a lot ofdon'ts, but we've reworked the
going out of town thing.
This year we're kind of pullingback.
We're focused just on Ashlandright now.

(27:15):
Want to grow that get a biggername.
But we've, you know, we've beentalking to the Mohegan Sun
Casinos out of Connecticut.
They want us to come up inNovember.
We just found out that November15th, I believe it is we're

(27:35):
actually supposed to be in NewYork City to receive an award
for the best veteran event ofthe year.
Incredible man.

Speaker 1 (27:43):
Yeah, congrats, dude.

Speaker 2 (27:45):
Yeah.
So there's a lot of really coolstuff, but a lot of it we're
just still like stumblingthrough and trying to grow and
trying to make this the bestevent that we can and impact as
many people as we can.
Yeah, so when is the one uphere in Ashland?
So the one in Ashland is August22nd, 23rd.
Okay, we'll be there.
Man Sweet.

(28:06):
Yeah, we've got eight bands.
We'll have four bands RockNight, four bands Country Night.
We're bringing in some biggernames this year and you know
we've got a shout-out right nowto a band that everybody knows.
I don't care if you're acountry fan or not.
I'm not going to throw the nameout, all right, all right, all
right.
If you're a country fan or not,I'm not going to throw the name
out, all right, all right.
But you know, if they come in,everybody will know this band.

(28:28):
So I'm super excited about that.
Our rock night we've got threebands right now signed that are
amazing.
It's going to be a great night.
We've been working a lot.
I think we've sent out 155emails for nonprofits and
for-profits to come in.
We're waiting on people to signcontracts and get those back to

(28:51):
us.
So we're excited to see howmany nonprofits we get out there
to show what's really availablefor our heroes.

Speaker 1 (28:56):
How can somebody get involved, man?
How can?
I mean, we're not.
I'm going to hold you for a fewmore minutes, so don't get up
and leave after this.
But how can somebody get a holdof you?
How can somebody get involved?
How can?
If somebody wants to reach outand sponsor something for you,
how do they do that?

Speaker 2 (29:09):
Sure, sure, the best way is probably through our
website, wwwherostockorg.
You could reach out to mepersonally, jasonherostock at
gmailcom.
I'll give my phone number.
I really don't care, like I'm,I'm an open book.
People can call me anytime.
You know, my cell is402-304-7059.

(29:36):
That's probably email or textis probably the best way to get
ahold of me personally.
But but yeah, I mean, we're onall social media platforms.
We're, you know, twitter, x,whatever it is now, threads.
You've got Facebook, you've gotInstagram, youtube, and we did

(29:56):
just launch our own podcast,launched January 9th, our first
episode.
So we do have that going on too.
So you're going to see a lot ofdifferent veteran and first
responder singers and bands.
Come on.
You're going to see umnonprofits and for-profits that
work in our our veteranscommunity or heroes community,
um, and then we've actually gotsome special guests.

(30:17):
So we've I've worked with SantaCorky.
He's a Tik TOK sensation 2.3million followers.
He's like, yeah, man, I'll comeon, I'll come hang out on your
podcast.
I'm like cool.
So we got people like that thatwant to jump on with us too.
So we're going to, you know,bring some of those people in
and talk about how their impactin the heroes community as well.

(30:37):
So what's the podcast called?
It's the hero stock nationpodcast.
Love it, man.
I'll start listening.
Yeah, we've, we've just dropped.
Last night we dropped ourfourth episode.
Here we go yeah, it's, it's a.
It's been a lot of fun man andit's for me.
I know all these people, but alot of people don't know who
they are.
You know our, our episode thatjust dropped last night.

(30:58):
His name's Matthew Jones.
He's veteran out of BeatriceNebraska and he's played music
for years but never really didit on stage, and so we brought
him up to one of our smoke offslast year, cause we do other
events outside of our main event.
Um, and he was on the stage forus.

(31:20):
He was like I loved it.
Now I want to do it all thetime.
Got the bug?
Yeah, you got the bug.
So you know, and that's anotherway that we raise funds we do
events outside of our main event.
So last year we put on a smokeoff, we brought in professional
and backyard smokers to smokemeat and we paired up with

(31:45):
Concator Brewing last yeardowntown, downtown Lincoln, and
blocked an area off and put astage in.
We had three bands that came inor three singers that came in
and we we had them smoke, thismeetup, and then we sold the
plates of food for a free willdonation towards Kuro stock.
I think we raised 2,800 bucks.

(32:07):
Wow, man, something like that.
Yeah, and it was a good time.
It was more fun than anything.
We put on a golf tournament lastyear out at Country Drive Golf
Course and then we did asmoke-off up in Omaha with
Nebraska Brewing Company, aveteran-owned brewery up there,
and I think that one.
We cleared about 4,500 bucks.
So it grew, you know.

(32:28):
And so this year we're we'recoming back May.
May 3rd, we have a smoke offwith corn coast brewing, veteran
owned brewery here in Lincoln,down off like 14th and Yankee
Hill, and we're hoping to seebetween 700 to 1,000 people show

(32:48):
up to that.
We're going to have a coupledifferent bands, we might have a
car show going on, a cornholetournament, and we're hoping to
have between 20 and 25 smokers.
Oh good, yeah, so it's going tobe huge.
And then we have May 31st.
We have a golf tournament atCountry Drive Golf Course and
we've decided this year we'regoing to make it a fun

(33:09):
tournament.
It's not going to be a serioustournament, not competitive, no,
and you're still going to havethe competitive, because
military is always competitivewith everything.
But you're going to be teeingoff from a shitter Dude.
That'll be awesome Becausewe've got a sponsor, john

(33:36):
Henry's.
That's a plumber A plumbing Ido.
That'll be awesome.
And then July 19th we've gotanother golf tournament in
Kearney.
So we're kind of pushing west alittle bit, trying to grow this
out to the state.
I've got a buddy that owns acourse out there, buffalo Ridge
Golf Course.
So we're going to host ourtournament out there on July
19th.

(33:57):
And then August 9th we'll doour last smoke off at Nebraska
Brewing.

Speaker 1 (34:02):
And you've got a heavy summer coming.
Oh dude.

Speaker 2 (34:07):
And that's just the tip of the iceberg.
You go onto our website and youlook and see what our schedule
is right now and it's just, itjust keeps filling.
You know we keep getting people.
Hey, we want you to come dothis craft show.
We want you to.
You know, whitetails Unlimitedwants to start working with us
and doing some stuff with us.
And um Monday night I got backfrom NAMM, the North American

(34:28):
Music Merchant Show, and I flewout to California for five days.
I was out there for to try topromote Hero Stock and we talked
to Monster Cables and we talkedto, you know, gibson Guitars
and we talked to, like, allthese huge manufacturers trying
to get sponsorship with themusic side of it, and we
actually, I think, landed acouple of them, good man.

(34:49):
So, yeah, yeah, I'm superexcited.

Speaker 1 (34:51):
Good, before I get you out of here, man, they can
go to your website.
They can see what's coming,they can check out the podcast.
They can hit you up on a textor email Knowing everything that
you know.
Now a piece of advice that youwould give young Jason, just
kind of getting into this, Imean even before going into the

(35:16):
court.

Speaker 2 (35:16):
You know, knowing what you know now, what's a
piece of advice you'd give youryounger self?
Dude, you know, I woulddefinitely not talk myself out
of going to the core.
Yeah, that was the greatestexperience of my life.
Probably the thing that I wouldreally strive to tell myself
would be find a purpose.
I struggled really hard withthe transition out because my
purpose was my family and my joband that was all I focused on.

(35:40):
I had nothing outside of that.
Finding a purpose, finding ameaning, how to give back to
help people, has really changedmy outlook on a lot of things.

Speaker 1 (35:54):
Yeah, Dude, I can't thank you enough for coming in
and I know you've got a lot ofthings going right now and a
piece of advice I got isremember this who am I?
I'm just a nobody, but take itin, you know what I'm saying.
Like you're, you're going andyou're doing a shit ton, dude,
and it's going to go by so fast.

(36:14):
Next thing you know you'regoing to be sitting here being
like all right, well, now it'stime to podcast and recap my
entire life.
Like, take it in, dude, you'redoing such good things in the
community, and not just for theveterans, man.
You're giving people somethingto strive for.
You know, these golftournaments are bigger than just
going out and messing aroundwith a bunch of veterans, it's.
It's giving these vetssomething to look forward to as
well, man.
So hats off to you, jason.

(36:35):
Oh, thanks, brother, you got itAll right.
Everybody.
Check out the new podcast man.
Go out and get yourself somesmoke meat and go hit the golf
courses with Jason Steiner.
Jason, thank you for joining uson this episode of Stay Modern
with Murray.
Please follow us on yourfavorite podcast platforms.
For now, stay modern withMurray, and we'll see you next
time.
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