April 4, 2025 • 34 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
It's that time time, time, time, luck and load. So
Michael Arry Show is on the air. Hello, babe, we
got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
It's dark and we're wearing sunglasses.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Hit it.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Well, that's where we go, riding in the tent, whopping
and a wolf.
Speaker 4 (00:33):
Ever living thing, it moves within an inch of its land.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Sorry, folks, parks closed.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
The moves out front should hold You do for Jesus,
make mounta Berry shoes. For some reason or another, you
(01:02):
signed a little tolla on radio. I got an email
from a woman named Tracy Vanderford and she said that
Pat Green had shown up on Wednesday at the at
(01:29):
Roundtop and he did an impromptu concert. Isn't that amazing?
And I said, yes, he does that every year. His
wife has a booth and right outside his wife's booth,
he'll do a couple of sets. Doesn't charge. And if
you know he's going to do it, the ladies who
are there every year know he's going to do it.
(01:49):
My wife and her friend go and the two of
them have a Thelma and Louise day. I support it
because she enjoys it good. She needs to get away
and have a good day. Anyway, so he saw her
last year and brought her up, sat her down next
to where he was playing, and how's Michael, let's take
(02:10):
a picture and all that. But the ladies absolutely love
it when he does that, absolutely love it. So anyway,
as I wont to do, I noticed that the woman's
name was Tracy Vanderford and that it was round Top
Flower Mound. And I thought, oh, okay, all right, well
(02:31):
I'm going to Austin this weekend to see Michael t
It's it's a father son weekend in his fraternity. And
so I said, what what's blooming right now? Because she
she has see what's like like kind of a free
range flower farm. I guess you go out there and
(02:55):
pick them, or maybe she'll do it. I guess as
you pick them yourself. She doesn't have a website. She
has a Facebook page, which makes me crazy. But anyway,
round Top Flower Mountain. So I said to her, what's blooming?
I'm coming back from Austin on Sunday. I like to
pick up an arrangement for my wife. She loves, loves,
(03:15):
loves fresh flowers. Do you think all women love fresh
flowers or do you think some of them just say
they do you think it's one hundred percent of them
one hundred percent. I wonder about that, you know, because
I don't think every guy loves fishing like Jim Mud
loves fishing, right, he'd give up a finger to go fishing.
(03:39):
I kind of like fishing. But you know what fishing
is for me. Fishing for me is a memory of
getting out there and about the time we get still,
I don't care for catch anything. Hopefully we don't catch anything.
I just have to clean it. I don't want to
do that. So hopefully we don't catch anything for a
little while. And you're with your Paul Paul, and after
a little while you're like, we eat, it's nine thirds.
(04:00):
I know, I'm hungry, bopa. And then you get your
brown bag out. You're making all the noise. You're gonna
run the fish. We were not even fishing. We just
out here having a picknick. I know, I'm hungry. And
you get your sandwich out, you got your bread and
your baloney and your cheese, and you get your chips out,
and oh my goodness, you will run all the fish off.
And truth told, I don't care about the fish. And
(04:22):
then you got your drink and then you go to
get your snickers bar. You're gonna eat your dessert. Now
you're not gonna have anything left. Well, pop off, I
don't eat it. Now it'll melt, and I don't like
them melt a snicker bar. All right. Anyway, I got
some ding dongs in there. Anyway, I'm gonna eat those two.
Remember ding dongs. Think about it, how much there was
more effort put into wrapping that ding dong and unwrapping
(04:44):
that ding dong then there was actually making the ding dong.
And the problem with that, the thing that I still
still kind of bothers me because I hadn't had one
in twenty years, is there was There are very few
joys in life, very few joys, and I mean lights
on or lights off, very few joys in life that
rival when you bite into a properly temperatured ding dong
(05:08):
and you bite in and you go from the crunch
of the crust to the cream inside, and you pull
away and you look at it and you just hold it.
You go, oh, man, you could eat ten of them.
You just Oh. I can't believe she only packed me one. Uh. Anyway,
So I don't know that all women like flowers, but
(05:30):
my wife loves flowers, so I asked her if if
she could, if she if I could buy an arrangement
from her, and she said, let's see if I can
find this email. But she said they're not all. Just
play me some music or something. I'm trying to find
it won't it won't let me come down to the
email as to wear Anyway, she had something called pennias.
(05:55):
Have you ever heard of pennias? She told me what
she has blooming, and one of them was penias. David
Mitchell writes Czar, I'm just sending some information about the
Diking Plant and waller. My niece works there. The building
is four point two million square feet, largest tilt wall
building in the United States. I was the building inspector
(06:18):
for the steel and decking. Lots of walking. I did
three days a week for different inspections for just a
little over a year. I enjoy the show. I've listened
since the beginning. I've been here since two thousand and three.
Motor On brother, that's a nice message. People do the
(06:38):
most interesting things. You know. That guy at lunch is
at some burger joint and the bartenders like, get your beard. No,
I'm stilling the clock. Oh, you got one of them
kind of jobs. Yep. You've seen that diking plant up there?
Oh god, yes, that thing is huge, biggest tilt wall
building in the US four point two millions square feet. Really, yeah,
(07:03):
how did you read that? I'm the building inspector. Well,
for the steel in decking. I don't do the roofing
or mechanical systems, but for the steel in decking, that's
my building pretty much. Yeah. I walk it three days
a week, been walking it for ten months. When's that
gonna be finished? Two more months? I'll probably have to
walk it a few more times. Like that guy goes
(07:24):
home having seen some interesting stuff every day? Are we
going to get a drink between shows? Why do you
ask that? Oh? Beern Berger sounds very good, very very
very good. I don't think I should drink today because
I have to drive to Austin tonight to be with
(07:44):
my baby boy. So probably not Chris in Beaumont, it
says Chris Beaumont flowers. That could be my brother Chris.
Like that. My brother's name is Chris. He lived in Beaumont,
and he well, then he moved back towards and he
loved flowers.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Yes, sir, but you got well.
Speaker 5 (08:05):
I'm Chris, and I'm Chris En Beaumont and and I'm
a fourth generation florist over here. And I heard you,
heard you talking about needing to know about some flowers
for your wife. But the name you said isn't the
name of a flower I'm selling.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
I'm trying to find this damn email. I can find
the chain, but I can't hold on. Just as my
Hawaiian Chad Nakanishi Aloha bro ha the Michael Barry Show.
Speaker 6 (08:37):
What's wrong with the baby? I don't understand?
Speaker 3 (08:45):
Is it just me? Or do you want another name?
My hand? Save to say those seven words, I love him,
(09:07):
my hand.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
It's been long enough since I've told this story. I
can tell it again now. Travis Thibodeau wrote the song
when he was twelve years old. He was fronting a
band with his dad in Santamar, Prowley or somewhere in Louisiana.
He wrote this song, this beautiful love song, at twelve
(09:34):
years old. I've got a version of him singing it.
His stuff hadn't even dropped yet. It sounds like a
high pitched girl. You remember when you were twelve years
old and you picked the phone off the ringer. You
call in?
Speaker 3 (09:52):
What time do y'all close today?
Speaker 1 (09:54):
Oh, ma'am, we'll be here till nine o'clock.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
It's not ma'am.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
I'm a man. I'm a man. Oh I'm sorry. Yeah,
my parents is gonna bring me down there for dinner.
Oh okay, well, okay, all right, come on down. Yeah,
he's got that voice. So I connect with him. So Toops,
(10:17):
of course, made the song famous regionally famous. Paul Ambert
from Santa Mal, Louisiana tells me the story about Travis Tibbodeaux,
so I track him down. Travis Travis Thibodeau was playing
a one man show for tips at a bar in
the Quarter in New Orleans every night every night to
(10:41):
pay his bills. But and he would play guitar, and
he would sing his songs. But apparently, as the story
will reveal, he's a world class keyboard player. He gets
a call. I can't think of the guy's name. He
was the band leader still is a bandleader of Journey,
and he was the keyboard player, and he asked him
(11:03):
to come to Nashville. And Travis Thibodeau had tried multiple
times to make it in Nashville. Never made it well.
Journey owns the tribute band that that covers all Journey songs.
So he asked him to come to Nashville because he's
got a gig for him. And he said, I don't
want to leave. You know, I've done this thing. I've
(11:24):
got to build an audience here and you know it
might be nothing, but I got to I gotta stay
here where I live. And he said, just come to Nashville.
I want to talk to you. So he goes there.
They sit down and they start talking and he says,
you fool. The reason I brought you here isn't wanna
make you an offer. I want you to join the band.
And he said, whatever the guy's name. Some people that
(11:45):
know the band are going to know it because he's famous.
Bob Bob, I really appreciate It's very kind of you,
but I just I can't. I can't join a tribute
band at this age and Trap. I woudn't want to
be a no no the band. I want you in
Journey to play the keyboard. Are you serious? Yeah? I'm in.
(12:06):
This is on a Tuesday Saturday. He sends me a text.
It's a picture of the stage that they're going to
be playing on that night in Japan. And I can't
remember if it was twenty thousand or eighty thousand, It
could have been twenty million, whatever it was. It was
(12:26):
an insane number of people. It was like a festival
sized crowd. And this guy five days ago wasn't in
the band. Okay, so they're sixteen hours ahead whatever it is. Aschat,
he knows everything about your band. And the next day,
which would have been Monday his day, or maybe it
was still Saturday because of the timeframe, he says, you're
(12:49):
not gonna believe what happened at sound check. Arnelle Pinto
walks over, what's the one? Just a small town? But
give me that It starts that one up. He says.
They're at soundcheck and he said, let's hear let's heart
(13:10):
don't stop believing. Yeah, so yeah, got that big keyboard opening,
bring that up? Yeah all right. He's like, look at
this man, i'mna be playing for all these people tonight,
all these Japanese twenty twenty thousand or eighty thousand, as
I said, I can't remember the number. He's banging away.
Arnel Pineda walks over, puts the mic in his face.
(13:33):
So he starts singing at soundcheck, sings for about ten
seconds and he goes. Arnel Pineta takes it back. He says,
that'll do What do you mean you're singing it tonight?
So he thought, ah, you know that. This is yeah,
they're playing a game on me. This is okay, initiate
the new guy. I scare him to death. The song starts,
(13:59):
Arnel Pineda does not come on stage. They start with
it's opening a song of the set. So he starts
and they're all looking at him like, you can start
singing now. So he said that. He said to him,
but what's the crowd going to say? And Darnell Pineta said,
(14:20):
they're Japanese, they won't know the difference. That's a god's
honest truth. I swear to you on my first born,
I swear to you that is the story. And I
went through that whole story with him. It's still my favorite,
Travis Thibodeau's story, and there's a lot of them. Chris
in Beaumont, the Florist. Are you gay, Chris?
Speaker 2 (14:45):
No, not by far.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
What you don't have to do all that, Chris, it's
not an insult. I'm just there's a lot of florists
are gay. What percentage of florists male florest would you
say are gay?
Speaker 2 (14:59):
Probably seventy.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Okay, Well, then don't be on the on the on.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
The design side. But I'm in the wholesale business and
it's a lot it's a lot less.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
And what is the name of your.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Business, Johnson's Wholesale Florist.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
You should be straight Johnson's Wholesale florest And then people
that are that hate homos, we be like, I like flowers,
my wife likes flowers. I don't want to go deal
with a bunch of gay people. Oh you can go
over to straight Johnson's. You think I'm kidding. That's a niche,
that's marketing. Is kind of my deal.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Straight, Chris, Well, I don't know that we really are
targeting towards any sexual preference. Really, we just want to
go after people who want to I know.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
But you're trying to sell flowers, and I'm trying to
separate you from the crowd.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Well, I like to think that we're but we already
separate ourselves from the crowd.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
What's the number one selling flower for you?
Speaker 2 (16:01):
Well, it's funny you asked that it's not even a flower.
The number one selling item in our fresh flower department
is called leather leaf, and we sell more leather leaf
by far than we do any other what. It's a
fern that's grown right here in America, right here from Pearson, Florida,
(16:22):
and it's used in most arrangements that the designers make.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
This guy's got an interesting job, but the artist changed
the name to straight Johnson's Hold on to Michael.
Speaker 4 (16:31):
Barry continues, boom, boom boom.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
Did you just pull the Cadillacs out with some speedo?
But what's your real name? This is probably my favorite
song is twelve.
Speaker 3 (17:02):
More Battle Fellas, and I'm thinking other boats.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
This girl.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
Banadi, y'all procomas feedo call, I don't waste and times.
You know what he did with them pretty women? Man
caused him to change their mind to tell.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
You clime long for pretty women. And I thought that
would change than.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
My I thought he was one of the three stooges.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
But the child's nothing. To call me Joe, something me
call me Mo.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
That's man moustito. He don't never take it slow.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
Well, not y'all, but my real naughty y'all, coll but
my Young Davis.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
Amy Jacobella's writes, I don't like fresh flowers. I'd rather
have the cash they die, I waste, they die, wasted money.
My daughter in law sent me a bouquet. It had
a dried lotus blossom in it. My husband felt oddly
uncomfortable and disturbed every time he walked past the bouquet.
I realized that it was because he has tripophobia, fear
of holes, especially groups of small holes or booms. It's
(18:20):
called tripophobia. Bailey writes, you're absolutely right about the wrapping
of the ding dong, but you can't talk about the
ding dong without talking about Missus Baird's French pastry. Scraping
that chocolate off that piece of white thick paper with
your teeth was part of the joy of eating them.
The round chocolate covered, cream filled pastry with some kind
(18:40):
of crushed nuts on top. Oh my goodness. Don't you
know if you had all don't know if y'all had
those in Houston, but we had them up here in Dallas.
You know what doesn't get it to do You remember
the white powdered doughnuts were six in the thing? Okay, yeah, no, no,
but that's it's the predicate. It's not the subject. Those
(19:03):
white powdered doughnuts and chocolate milk was my lunch many days.
But it wasn't until much later that I learned to
appreciate what's actually better, which is the it's kind of
a brown It's the same donuts made by the same people,
but it has like little clumps of it. It's more
(19:26):
of a kind of a cinnamony. Somebody's gonna know what
I'm talking about. You know what I'm talking about, and
it would, it would. I can't describe it, but it
had more of a more than the cinnamon flavor of
When as I got older, I started liking that more.
It was peonees if they were talking about sal Campesi
(19:47):
says one hundred percent agree on the ding dong thing.
Camping at Garner State Park with my grandparents, are treat
was a Shasta grape orange root beer or cream soda.
But they'd only allow us one a day. Well, wasn't
that the worst? I can't I have another one? And
you look back. Now we're all gonna die, We're gonna
be dead, and you're gonna be laying there dead, going
(20:07):
You know what I could have had all the red shastas.
I wanted all the red shastas, and it wouldn't have
made a damn bit of difference. I'd be right here,
maybe a day earlier, but I'd be right here. But
think of all the time you weren't drinking a red shasta,
and you wanted to drink a red shasta, and they
could have given you that red shasta. But nope, we
can't have too much fun. Too much fun would be
(20:30):
just terrible straight Chris and Beaumont. You know, I read
I read years ago that most of our flowers come
from Ethiopia, Thailand. They all go through Amsterdam or Rotterdam,
but they if they come from Ethiopia, Thailand, and where
(20:51):
was the other country? Maybe Vietnam? Is that right?
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Not anymore? Not anymore. That may have been right back
in the fifties and sixties, maybe, But now these days
all our flowers come from South America. Seventy five percent
come from Colombia and Ecuador. Why is that, Well, you know,
the low cost of labor. And then we've had former
(21:19):
presidents who've made deals where there were no tariffs on
products out of Columbia, much like the NAFTA agreement. But
with Colombia, and at one time the Congress would give
you know, exemptions on the tariffs from Ecuador, and so
you know that it blows down a lot of American
flower growers and they moved to in operations of moved
(21:41):
to South America cheap labor, and it's on the equator,
so the climate stays the same all year. That's where Ethiopia,
that's why they can grow flowers in Ethiopia and in Kenya.
Both of those are really emerging markets, more so in
Kenya than Ethiopia. It's funny. The people don't want to
work in Ethiopia. It's just part of the culture. They
(22:01):
don't They don't care to have a job.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
Chris, have you ever been to.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
I have not. I have not. I have talked to
peoples and have but I can imagine.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
I have been many times. And I will tell you
that in all my travels, when you leave Addis Ababah,
the big capital city, and you get and you you
drive hours and hours and hours, and you get off
the main road and you go up into the mountains,
there are areas where there is no road. You got
(22:32):
to be those old English uh once they always drive
them in its range rovers. The old range rovers is
what they use out there. And you get out there
far enough and there is no industry. There is nothing.
It's just people living off the land. That's why the
famine hurt them so badly. It is because they they
(22:53):
just farm for themselves. But it is so bucolic, so
green and lush, and all I could think was, boy,
if I could put a landing strip and build a hotel,
it would be because you're out in the middle of nowhere.
It's so pretty. You're up high in those mountains, and
(23:14):
it's just so lush. The green verdant is the adjective
meaning rich green. It is the greenest green. It's like
the blue on a peacock's bill or belly. It's a
color that you can't imagine. It's so pretty, so pretty.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
And why hasn't anyone done that yet?
Speaker 1 (23:35):
What's that?
Speaker 2 (23:36):
Why hasn't anyone built that yet?
Speaker 1 (23:39):
I think it's a complicated question. They just had a
civil war. For the last five years, they've had such instability.
They had a seventeen year it was called the Dirts,
had a seventeen year communists take over. Everybody was kicked
out of their property. It's very unstable foreign.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
Investment, and that's what they've said about flowers. They've had
that problem with flowers. I know several people who've invested
in farms out there only to have them burned down
by the Yeah, I guess the same.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
And so the problem is that Kenya.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
Yeah good, I was gonna say, Kenya is more stable,
and so there's more flower production, but all that feeds
up into Europe. And really that's what makes South America
so convenient for the United States as far as flowers go.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
Where's your shop.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
We're located on Lindbergh Drive in Beaumont, so we're We're
about a mile from the Interstate College of Washington. Anybody
can come in and purchase. We sell to anybody. We
only sell things the way to floorists buy them. I
tell people were like the home Depot of flowers. We
have everything you need to build arrangements. Like home Depot
has everything you need to build a house. But they
(24:46):
don't build houses, and we don't build arrangements. Oh I see,
but we sell to the We sell to professionals that do.
But we have stop shop. Oh yes, we have a
full cut flower department. You know, we've got flower from
like I said, from South America, from California. We do
get flowers from Holland and the Dutch markets in Costa
(25:07):
Rica and Thailand and and from all over the world.
And and we have probably one of the largest selections.
I would, I would. I've had vendors who said, I,
you know, they don't even have anyone in Houston that
compares to the size of our place. You own where
I'm the I'm the fourth generation, but but technically my
dad and his siblings own it.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
So have you ever been to the flower market in
the Dutch flower market?
Speaker 2 (25:34):
I have not.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
It's almost a life changing experience. We go every time.
My wife loves it. We go and she'll just been
hours and hours. Well, oh, it's incredible when you need
to escape from the every day escaped of the Michael
Arry Show.
Speaker 3 (25:48):
So come tiptoe to the living.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
Me you like.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
My wife U and Ramone. Ramon's is a new thing.
But my wife loves plants, especially plants more well, I
guess she loves flowers too. So we all bundled up
in the middle of the day the other day and
drove out to look at plants and flowers. And I thought,
(26:49):
you know, what a good guy I am. I'm putting
these two together and they can geek out over there
plants and it'll be great patting myself on the back
because that give a damn about it, and look at me,
Look at me. And then we get there and you
go in there and it's hot and it's steamy, and
there's all these you can tell they're white liberal women,
(27:11):
and they're all real intense, and they got their hair
pulled back and they all got there. They're all wearing this.
They all have their duty and burke or their Louis
Vuitton bag, and they're very they're very focused and intense,
and I can tell I don't like them. I can
just tell I don't like them. And it's hot and
it's dirty, and all I'm thinking was this was the
(27:32):
dumbest thing ever and I would like to eat a hamburger.
But that was my story. Texas State Rentals is one
of our show sponsors. And when I started, everything was
it was just car dealers and electronics. And I said, listen,
we got people that listen to the show that build
stuff and do stuff. And what you need to do
(27:53):
is go out, get past the car dealerships. I mean,
we saw a lot of Chevyes for long Star Chevy.
But you got to get beyond the basic retail that
you used to on radio and start talking to the
people who sell stuff to the people that listen to
my show. Sales reps didn't understand it, but over a
period of time they did, and Robert Reese is very
(28:14):
good at it. So I have a show sponsor called
Texas State Rentals. Angus Davis owns it, and oddly enough,
they're headquartered in Tomball, but they're also in San Anton
and Orange. What are the chances they're in Orange? Right?
So he's a big fan of the show. But he
asked me what to do. He has two of his
employees and he wanted to do something nice for them
(28:34):
that had been with him for thirty years. Wendel Buddha Budasilovich,
Buddhas Solovich, Buddhas Solovich b u Da. So you got
your Buddha s l I Solivich, Budasilovich, Buddhists Solovich Buddha.
I think it's Buddhas Solovich. How would you say, Wendel,
(28:55):
he's been there with thirty years. He's director of service.
And then Eric Lindsay's had a simple name, Eric Lindsay,
thirty years, VP of Sales. I can't imagine staying somewhere
for thirty years. You've almost been thirty years. Ramone's butt
hurt because at twenty years, Eddie always buys the employee
a really nice watch, and Ramone didn't get a really
(29:17):
nice watch because his former best friend didn't put him
down on the list as being twenty years with the company,
so Eddie didn't know. So a year later, as kind
of a further dig at him, they because I said something,
they said, they brought him forward and said Ramone is
celebrating his twenty years with the company, but it was
(29:37):
really twenty one. Well, he didn't get the watch, and
now they got the number of years wrong, so now
every year, so then they didn't do twenty two, and
then it went to twenty three. It's not Eddie's fault.
Eddie's only you know. It's like Trump, You're only as
good as the information you get. So now it's been
twenty six years and I'm going to end up having
to buy him a Rolex because he's so butt hurt
about it. And it's a running joke in the office
(29:59):
and we all all make fun of him. And when
I say make fun of him, I don't want you
to think that he's laughing along with it, because he
doesn't think it's funny at all. He's actually genuinely probably
in therapy. O your blood and send you into the station.
You gave all you had, little buddy, you gave all
you had. How about this though? So I did my
(30:21):
happy birthdays for my Texas State Reynolds guys Wendell, Buddha Solovich,
and Eric Lindsay. That's a hell of a name right there.
You should hyphenate that Buddha Solovich. And then people would
you know, like the black football players, they all have
hyphenated last names. That just happened out of nowhere. Tony
Dorset was just Tony dor sat Drew Pearson, Drew Pearson,
Earl Campbell. Then all of a sudden they got hyphenated
(30:42):
last names. But listen to this one moment. I'm excited
about this one too. So Grasshopper brought this one in.
It's called Enterprise Casting Corporation high quality. Let's see it,
high quality. I lost the thing pushing them of sand casting.
Enterprise Casting Corporation ductile and gray iron. Oh, we're gonna
(31:06):
have some fun with this. We're gonna have some but
we're gonna go tour this thing. Our manufacturing capabilities. They
got fire, they got stuff being cast. It's like when
you go to the glass blowing in Venice and you
go out on that little thing and they're still they're
still blowing the glass and you pay way too much
for it and it breaks on the way back, or worse,
it doesn't and you come back. That's one of those things.
(31:29):
You come back from vacation and people come in your
house and they go, oh, you went to Venice and
you go, yeah, yeah, we did it too. Everybody does it.
Why did you buy that stupid glass? But boy, you
had to have it at the time. What you sad
And it doesn't matter what they say, You're gonna figure
out a way to buy it. Well, this one over
here is two thousand. Man, I wanted some glass, but
(31:51):
not that bad. Well, let me take you to the
showroom and then you go from the little setup they've
done for the little play where they where they do
the fire like they really do something, and then you
go into the you go into a separate room and
it's all made up. Now you're at the department store
and they got all the glass, and you buy that
stupid glass that you wouldn't buy here at Roundtop for
twenty dollars, wouldn't you wouldn't pay. Some of our customers
(32:14):
include manufacturers of industrial pumps. Anyway, y'all can welcome them
to the show if you would like. It would be
a nice favor. Well, this is their operation in Maine.
I got to find out what the phone number is
for here. It's Enterprise Casting Corporation, high Quality iron casting.
Grasshopper didn't send me the phone number for this guy,
(32:37):
so I don't know. Oh, Jason Schmirtman s C H
M E R T M A N. But this number
might be his cell phone number, and I don't think
I should give out his Do you think I should
give out a selhal number? Why not? Well, I don't
know how many people are gonna need high quality foundry casting. See,
this is kind of stuff we should be doing. These
(32:57):
are the kind of people that should be calling in
the way this works. Jason schmirt Smirtsman calls in emails me, Hey,
interested in your show? Everybody I know listens to your show.
We would like to support your show sponsor your show. Okay, well,
let me send either Robert Raise or Grasshopper, whoever we
(33:19):
send out, talk to you and let's find out what
you do. Let's make sure it's not a conflict with
one of my show sponsors. Already, you need to understand
their certain rules. You don't just buy advertising. There's certain
rules as to how this whole thing works, and then
if the whole thing works out great, then they become
a show sponsor. That is so different from advertising, and
it has worked. It's taken us twenty years to build
(33:40):
this and it's the model for the industry now. And
by the way, you don't have to have a bunch
of money to align with somebody who can help you sell.
If you've got a customer who comes into your show
who's a real estate broken, buy her lunch and say, hey,
would you next time you have a unch and learn
or open house, would you think about us for your catering?
(34:04):
Would you just send an email? People like insurance agents
and real estate brokers and those people are great connectors.
They're influencers. Use that. You cannot just be good at
what you do and build your business. You've got to
connect with people with audiences. You've got to you've got
to use influencers. You may not even have to spend
a dime anyway. That's that part was free.
It's that time time, time, time, luck and load. So
Michael Arry Show is on the air. Hello, babe, we
got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
It's dark and we're wearing sunglasses.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Hit it.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Well, that's where we go, riding in the tent, whopping
and a wolf.
Speaker 4 (00:33):
Ever living thing, it moves within an inch of its land.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Sorry, folks, parks closed.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
The moves out front should hold You do for Jesus,
make mounta Berry shoes. For some reason or another, you
(01:02):
signed a little tolla on radio. I got an email
from a woman named Tracy Vanderford and she said that
Pat Green had shown up on Wednesday at the at
(01:29):
Roundtop and he did an impromptu concert. Isn't that amazing?
And I said, yes, he does that every year. His
wife has a booth and right outside his wife's booth,
he'll do a couple of sets. Doesn't charge. And if
you know he's going to do it, the ladies who
are there every year know he's going to do it.
(01:49):
My wife and her friend go and the two of
them have a Thelma and Louise day. I support it
because she enjoys it good. She needs to get away
and have a good day. Anyway, so he saw her
last year and brought her up, sat her down next
to where he was playing, and how's Michael, let's take
(02:10):
a picture and all that. But the ladies absolutely love
it when he does that, absolutely love it. So anyway,
as I wont to do, I noticed that the woman's
name was Tracy Vanderford and that it was round Top
Flower Mound. And I thought, oh, okay, all right, well
(02:31):
I'm going to Austin this weekend to see Michael t
It's it's a father son weekend in his fraternity. And
so I said, what what's blooming right now? Because she
she has see what's like like kind of a free
range flower farm. I guess you go out there and
(02:55):
pick them, or maybe she'll do it. I guess as
you pick them yourself. She doesn't have a website. She
has a Facebook page, which makes me crazy. But anyway,
round Top Flower Mountain. So I said to her, what's blooming?
I'm coming back from Austin on Sunday. I like to
pick up an arrangement for my wife. She loves, loves,
(03:15):
loves fresh flowers. Do you think all women love fresh
flowers or do you think some of them just say
they do you think it's one hundred percent of them
one hundred percent. I wonder about that, you know, because
I don't think every guy loves fishing like Jim Mud
loves fishing, right, he'd give up a finger to go fishing.
(03:39):
I kind of like fishing. But you know what fishing
is for me. Fishing for me is a memory of
getting out there and about the time we get still,
I don't care for catch anything. Hopefully we don't catch anything.
I just have to clean it. I don't want to
do that. So hopefully we don't catch anything for a
little while. And you're with your Paul Paul, and after
a little while you're like, we eat, it's nine thirds.
(04:00):
I know, I'm hungry, bopa. And then you get your
brown bag out. You're making all the noise. You're gonna
run the fish. We were not even fishing. We just
out here having a picknick. I know, I'm hungry. And
you get your sandwich out, you got your bread and
your baloney and your cheese, and you get your chips out,
and oh my goodness, you will run all the fish off.
And truth told, I don't care about the fish. And
(04:22):
then you got your drink and then you go to
get your snickers bar. You're gonna eat your dessert. Now
you're not gonna have anything left. Well, pop off, I
don't eat it. Now it'll melt, and I don't like
them melt a snicker bar. All right. Anyway, I got
some ding dongs in there. Anyway, I'm gonna eat those two.
Remember ding dongs. Think about it, how much there was
more effort put into wrapping that ding dong and unwrapping
(04:44):
that ding dong then there was actually making the ding dong.
And the problem with that, the thing that I still
still kind of bothers me because I hadn't had one
in twenty years, is there was There are very few
joys in life, very few joys, and I mean lights
on or lights off, very few joys in life that
rival when you bite into a properly temperatured ding dong
(05:08):
and you bite in and you go from the crunch
of the crust to the cream inside, and you pull
away and you look at it and you just hold it.
You go, oh, man, you could eat ten of them.
You just Oh. I can't believe she only packed me one. Uh. Anyway,
So I don't know that all women like flowers, but
(05:30):
my wife loves flowers, so I asked her if if
she could, if she if I could buy an arrangement
from her, and she said, let's see if I can
find this email. But she said they're not all. Just
play me some music or something. I'm trying to find
it won't it won't let me come down to the
email as to wear Anyway, she had something called pennias.
(05:55):
Have you ever heard of pennias? She told me what
she has blooming, and one of them was penias. David
Mitchell writes Czar, I'm just sending some information about the
Diking Plant and waller. My niece works there. The building
is four point two million square feet, largest tilt wall
building in the United States. I was the building inspector
(06:18):
for the steel and decking. Lots of walking. I did
three days a week for different inspections for just a
little over a year. I enjoy the show. I've listened
since the beginning. I've been here since two thousand and three.
Motor On brother, that's a nice message. People do the
(06:38):
most interesting things. You know. That guy at lunch is
at some burger joint and the bartenders like, get your beard. No,
I'm stilling the clock. Oh, you got one of them
kind of jobs. Yep. You've seen that diking plant up there?
Oh god, yes, that thing is huge, biggest tilt wall
building in the US four point two millions square feet. Really, yeah,
(07:03):
how did you read that? I'm the building inspector. Well,
for the steel in decking. I don't do the roofing
or mechanical systems, but for the steel in decking, that's
my building pretty much. Yeah. I walk it three days
a week, been walking it for ten months. When's that
gonna be finished? Two more months? I'll probably have to
walk it a few more times. Like that guy goes
(07:24):
home having seen some interesting stuff every day? Are we
going to get a drink between shows? Why do you
ask that? Oh? Beern Berger sounds very good, very very
very good. I don't think I should drink today because
I have to drive to Austin tonight to be with
(07:44):
my baby boy. So probably not Chris in Beaumont, it
says Chris Beaumont flowers. That could be my brother Chris.
Like that. My brother's name is Chris. He lived in Beaumont,
and he well, then he moved back towards and he
loved flowers.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Yes, sir, but you got well.
Speaker 5 (08:05):
I'm Chris, and I'm Chris En Beaumont and and I'm
a fourth generation florist over here. And I heard you,
heard you talking about needing to know about some flowers
for your wife. But the name you said isn't the
name of a flower I'm selling.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
I'm trying to find this damn email. I can find
the chain, but I can't hold on. Just as my
Hawaiian Chad Nakanishi Aloha bro ha the Michael Barry Show.
Speaker 6 (08:37):
What's wrong with the baby? I don't understand?
Speaker 3 (08:45):
Is it just me? Or do you want another name?
My hand? Save to say those seven words, I love him,
(09:07):
my hand.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
It's been long enough since I've told this story. I
can tell it again now. Travis Thibodeau wrote the song
when he was twelve years old. He was fronting a
band with his dad in Santamar, Prowley or somewhere in Louisiana.
He wrote this song, this beautiful love song, at twelve
(09:34):
years old. I've got a version of him singing it.
His stuff hadn't even dropped yet. It sounds like a
high pitched girl. You remember when you were twelve years
old and you picked the phone off the ringer. You
call in?
Speaker 3 (09:52):
What time do y'all close today?
Speaker 1 (09:54):
Oh, ma'am, we'll be here till nine o'clock.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
It's not ma'am.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
I'm a man. I'm a man. Oh I'm sorry. Yeah,
my parents is gonna bring me down there for dinner.
Oh okay, well, okay, all right, come on down. Yeah,
he's got that voice. So I connect with him. So Toops,
(10:17):
of course, made the song famous regionally famous. Paul Ambert
from Santa Mal, Louisiana tells me the story about Travis Tibbodeaux,
so I track him down. Travis Travis Thibodeau was playing
a one man show for tips at a bar in
the Quarter in New Orleans every night every night to
(10:41):
pay his bills. But and he would play guitar, and
he would sing his songs. But apparently, as the story
will reveal, he's a world class keyboard player. He gets
a call. I can't think of the guy's name. He
was the band leader still is a bandleader of Journey,
and he was the keyboard player, and he asked him
(11:03):
to come to Nashville. And Travis Thibodeau had tried multiple
times to make it in Nashville. Never made it well.
Journey owns the tribute band that that covers all Journey songs.
So he asked him to come to Nashville because he's
got a gig for him. And he said, I don't
want to leave. You know, I've done this thing. I've
(11:24):
got to build an audience here and you know it
might be nothing, but I got to I gotta stay
here where I live. And he said, just come to Nashville.
I want to talk to you. So he goes there.
They sit down and they start talking and he says,
you fool. The reason I brought you here isn't wanna
make you an offer. I want you to join the band.
And he said, whatever the guy's name. Some people that
(11:45):
know the band are going to know it because he's famous.
Bob Bob, I really appreciate It's very kind of you,
but I just I can't. I can't join a tribute
band at this age and Trap. I woudn't want to
be a no no the band. I want you in
Journey to play the keyboard. Are you serious? Yeah? I'm in.
(12:06):
This is on a Tuesday Saturday. He sends me a text.
It's a picture of the stage that they're going to
be playing on that night in Japan. And I can't
remember if it was twenty thousand or eighty thousand, It
could have been twenty million, whatever it was. It was
(12:26):
an insane number of people. It was like a festival
sized crowd. And this guy five days ago wasn't in
the band. Okay, so they're sixteen hours ahead whatever it is. Aschat,
he knows everything about your band. And the next day,
which would have been Monday his day, or maybe it
was still Saturday because of the timeframe, he says, you're
(12:49):
not gonna believe what happened at sound check. Arnelle Pinto
walks over, what's the one? Just a small town? But
give me that It starts that one up. He says.
They're at soundcheck and he said, let's hear let's heart
(13:10):
don't stop believing. Yeah, so yeah, got that big keyboard opening,
bring that up? Yeah all right. He's like, look at
this man, i'mna be playing for all these people tonight,
all these Japanese twenty twenty thousand or eighty thousand, as
I said, I can't remember the number. He's banging away.
Arnel Pineda walks over, puts the mic in his face.
(13:33):
So he starts singing at soundcheck, sings for about ten
seconds and he goes. Arnel Pineta takes it back. He says,
that'll do What do you mean you're singing it tonight?
So he thought, ah, you know that. This is yeah,
they're playing a game on me. This is okay, initiate
the new guy. I scare him to death. The song starts,
(13:59):
Arnel Pineda does not come on stage. They start with
it's opening a song of the set. So he starts
and they're all looking at him like, you can start
singing now. So he said that. He said to him,
but what's the crowd going to say? And Darnell Pineta said,
(14:20):
they're Japanese, they won't know the difference. That's a god's
honest truth. I swear to you on my first born,
I swear to you that is the story. And I
went through that whole story with him. It's still my favorite,
Travis Thibodeau's story, and there's a lot of them. Chris
in Beaumont, the Florist. Are you gay, Chris?
Speaker 2 (14:45):
No, not by far.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
What you don't have to do all that, Chris, it's
not an insult. I'm just there's a lot of florists
are gay. What percentage of florists male florest would you
say are gay?
Speaker 2 (14:59):
Probably seventy.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Okay, Well, then don't be on the on the on.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
The design side. But I'm in the wholesale business and
it's a lot it's a lot less.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
And what is the name of your.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Business, Johnson's Wholesale Florist.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
You should be straight Johnson's Wholesale florest And then people
that are that hate homos, we be like, I like flowers,
my wife likes flowers. I don't want to go deal
with a bunch of gay people. Oh you can go
over to straight Johnson's. You think I'm kidding. That's a niche,
that's marketing. Is kind of my deal.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Straight, Chris, Well, I don't know that we really are
targeting towards any sexual preference. Really, we just want to
go after people who want to I know.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
But you're trying to sell flowers, and I'm trying to
separate you from the crowd.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Well, I like to think that we're but we already
separate ourselves from the crowd.
Speaker 1 (15:56):
What's the number one selling flower for you?
Speaker 2 (16:01):
Well, it's funny you asked that it's not even a flower.
The number one selling item in our fresh flower department
is called leather leaf, and we sell more leather leaf
by far than we do any other what. It's a
fern that's grown right here in America, right here from Pearson, Florida,
(16:22):
and it's used in most arrangements that the designers make.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
This guy's got an interesting job, but the artist changed
the name to straight Johnson's Hold on to Michael.
Speaker 4 (16:31):
Barry continues, boom, boom boom.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
Did you just pull the Cadillacs out with some speedo?
But what's your real name? This is probably my favorite
song is twelve.
Speaker 3 (17:02):
More Battle Fellas, and I'm thinking other boats.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
This girl.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
Banadi, y'all procomas feedo call, I don't waste and times.
You know what he did with them pretty women? Man
caused him to change their mind to tell.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
You clime long for pretty women. And I thought that
would change than.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
My I thought he was one of the three stooges.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
But the child's nothing. To call me Joe, something me
call me Mo.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
That's man moustito. He don't never take it slow.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
Well, not y'all, but my real naughty y'all, coll but
my Young Davis.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
Amy Jacobella's writes, I don't like fresh flowers. I'd rather
have the cash they die, I waste, they die, wasted money.
My daughter in law sent me a bouquet. It had
a dried lotus blossom in it. My husband felt oddly
uncomfortable and disturbed every time he walked past the bouquet.
I realized that it was because he has tripophobia, fear
of holes, especially groups of small holes or booms. It's
(18:20):
called tripophobia. Bailey writes, you're absolutely right about the wrapping
of the ding dong, but you can't talk about the
ding dong without talking about Missus Baird's French pastry. Scraping
that chocolate off that piece of white thick paper with
your teeth was part of the joy of eating them.
The round chocolate covered, cream filled pastry with some kind
(18:40):
of crushed nuts on top. Oh my goodness. Don't you
know if you had all don't know if y'all had
those in Houston, but we had them up here in Dallas.
You know what doesn't get it to do You remember
the white powdered doughnuts were six in the thing? Okay, yeah, no, no,
but that's it's the predicate. It's not the subject. Those
(19:03):
white powdered doughnuts and chocolate milk was my lunch many days.
But it wasn't until much later that I learned to
appreciate what's actually better, which is the it's kind of
a brown It's the same donuts made by the same people,
but it has like little clumps of it. It's more
(19:26):
of a kind of a cinnamony. Somebody's gonna know what
I'm talking about. You know what I'm talking about, and
it would, it would. I can't describe it, but it
had more of a more than the cinnamon flavor of
When as I got older, I started liking that more.
It was peonees if they were talking about sal Campesi
(19:47):
says one hundred percent agree on the ding dong thing.
Camping at Garner State Park with my grandparents, are treat
was a Shasta grape orange root beer or cream soda.
But they'd only allow us one a day. Well, wasn't
that the worst? I can't I have another one? And
you look back. Now we're all gonna die, We're gonna
be dead, and you're gonna be laying there dead, going
(20:07):
You know what I could have had all the red shastas.
I wanted all the red shastas, and it wouldn't have
made a damn bit of difference. I'd be right here,
maybe a day earlier, but I'd be right here. But
think of all the time you weren't drinking a red shasta,
and you wanted to drink a red shasta, and they
could have given you that red shasta. But nope, we
can't have too much fun. Too much fun would be
(20:30):
just terrible straight Chris and Beaumont. You know, I read
I read years ago that most of our flowers come
from Ethiopia, Thailand. They all go through Amsterdam or Rotterdam,
but they if they come from Ethiopia, Thailand, and where
(20:51):
was the other country? Maybe Vietnam? Is that right?
Speaker 2 (20:55):
Not anymore? Not anymore. That may have been right back
in the fifties and sixties, maybe, But now these days
all our flowers come from South America. Seventy five percent
come from Colombia and Ecuador. Why is that, Well, you know,
the low cost of labor. And then we've had former
(21:19):
presidents who've made deals where there were no tariffs on
products out of Columbia, much like the NAFTA agreement. But
with Colombia, and at one time the Congress would give
you know, exemptions on the tariffs from Ecuador, and so
you know that it blows down a lot of American
flower growers and they moved to in operations of moved
(21:41):
to South America cheap labor, and it's on the equator,
so the climate stays the same all year. That's where Ethiopia,
that's why they can grow flowers in Ethiopia and in Kenya.
Both of those are really emerging markets, more so in
Kenya than Ethiopia. It's funny. The people don't want to
work in Ethiopia. It's just part of the culture. They
(22:01):
don't They don't care to have a job.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
Chris, have you ever been to.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
I have not. I have not. I have talked to
peoples and have but I can imagine.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
I have been many times. And I will tell you
that in all my travels, when you leave Addis Ababah,
the big capital city, and you get and you you
drive hours and hours and hours, and you get off
the main road and you go up into the mountains,
there are areas where there is no road. You got
(22:32):
to be those old English uh once they always drive
them in its range rovers. The old range rovers is
what they use out there. And you get out there
far enough and there is no industry. There is nothing.
It's just people living off the land. That's why the
famine hurt them so badly. It is because they they
(22:53):
just farm for themselves. But it is so bucolic, so
green and lush, and all I could think was, boy,
if I could put a landing strip and build a hotel,
it would be because you're out in the middle of nowhere.
It's so pretty. You're up high in those mountains, and
(23:14):
it's just so lush. The green verdant is the adjective
meaning rich green. It is the greenest green. It's like
the blue on a peacock's bill or belly. It's a
color that you can't imagine. It's so pretty, so pretty.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
And why hasn't anyone done that yet?
Speaker 1 (23:35):
What's that?
Speaker 2 (23:36):
Why hasn't anyone built that yet?
Speaker 1 (23:39):
I think it's a complicated question. They just had a
civil war. For the last five years, they've had such instability.
They had a seventeen year it was called the Dirts,
had a seventeen year communists take over. Everybody was kicked
out of their property. It's very unstable foreign.
Speaker 2 (23:52):
Investment, and that's what they've said about flowers. They've had
that problem with flowers. I know several people who've invested
in farms out there only to have them burned down
by the Yeah, I guess the same.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
And so the problem is that Kenya.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
Yeah good, I was gonna say, Kenya is more stable,
and so there's more flower production, but all that feeds
up into Europe. And really that's what makes South America
so convenient for the United States as far as flowers go.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
Where's your shop.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
We're located on Lindbergh Drive in Beaumont, so we're We're
about a mile from the Interstate College of Washington. Anybody
can come in and purchase. We sell to anybody. We
only sell things the way to floorists buy them. I
tell people were like the home Depot of flowers. We
have everything you need to build arrangements. Like home Depot
has everything you need to build a house. But they
(24:46):
don't build houses, and we don't build arrangements. Oh I see,
but we sell to the We sell to professionals that do.
But we have stop shop. Oh yes, we have a
full cut flower department. You know, we've got flower from
like I said, from South America, from California. We do
get flowers from Holland and the Dutch markets in Costa
(25:07):
Rica and Thailand and and from all over the world.
And and we have probably one of the largest selections.
I would, I would. I've had vendors who said, I,
you know, they don't even have anyone in Houston that
compares to the size of our place. You own where
I'm the I'm the fourth generation, but but technically my
dad and his siblings own it.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
So have you ever been to the flower market in
the Dutch flower market?
Speaker 2 (25:34):
I have not.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
It's almost a life changing experience. We go every time.
My wife loves it. We go and she'll just been
hours and hours. Well, oh, it's incredible when you need
to escape from the every day escaped of the Michael
Arry Show.
Speaker 3 (25:48):
So come tiptoe to the living.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
Me you like.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
My wife U and Ramone. Ramon's is a new thing.
But my wife loves plants, especially plants more well, I
guess she loves flowers too. So we all bundled up
in the middle of the day the other day and
drove out to look at plants and flowers. And I thought,
(26:49):
you know, what a good guy I am. I'm putting
these two together and they can geek out over there
plants and it'll be great patting myself on the back
because that give a damn about it, and look at me,
Look at me. And then we get there and you
go in there and it's hot and it's steamy, and
there's all these you can tell they're white liberal women,
(27:11):
and they're all real intense, and they got their hair
pulled back and they all got there. They're all wearing this.
They all have their duty and burke or their Louis
Vuitton bag, and they're very they're very focused and intense,
and I can tell I don't like them. I can
just tell I don't like them. And it's hot and
it's dirty, and all I'm thinking was this was the
(27:32):
dumbest thing ever and I would like to eat a hamburger.
But that was my story. Texas State Rentals is one
of our show sponsors. And when I started, everything was
it was just car dealers and electronics. And I said, listen,
we got people that listen to the show that build
stuff and do stuff. And what you need to do
(27:53):
is go out, get past the car dealerships. I mean,
we saw a lot of Chevyes for long Star Chevy.
But you got to get beyond the basic retail that
you used to on radio and start talking to the
people who sell stuff to the people that listen to
my show. Sales reps didn't understand it, but over a
period of time they did, and Robert Reese is very
(28:14):
good at it. So I have a show sponsor called
Texas State Rentals. Angus Davis owns it, and oddly enough,
they're headquartered in Tomball, but they're also in San Anton
and Orange. What are the chances they're in Orange? Right?
So he's a big fan of the show. But he
asked me what to do. He has two of his
employees and he wanted to do something nice for them
(28:34):
that had been with him for thirty years. Wendel Buddha Budasilovich,
Buddhas Solovich, Buddhas Solovich b u Da. So you got
your Buddha s l I Solivich, Budasilovich, Buddhists Solovich Buddha.
I think it's Buddhas Solovich. How would you say, Wendel,
(28:55):
he's been there with thirty years. He's director of service.
And then Eric Lindsay's had a simple name, Eric Lindsay,
thirty years, VP of Sales. I can't imagine staying somewhere
for thirty years. You've almost been thirty years. Ramone's butt
hurt because at twenty years, Eddie always buys the employee
a really nice watch, and Ramone didn't get a really
(29:17):
nice watch because his former best friend didn't put him
down on the list as being twenty years with the company,
so Eddie didn't know. So a year later, as kind
of a further dig at him, they because I said something,
they said, they brought him forward and said Ramone is
celebrating his twenty years with the company, but it was
(29:37):
really twenty one. Well, he didn't get the watch, and
now they got the number of years wrong, so now
every year, so then they didn't do twenty two, and
then it went to twenty three. It's not Eddie's fault.
Eddie's only you know. It's like Trump, You're only as
good as the information you get. So now it's been
twenty six years and I'm going to end up having
to buy him a Rolex because he's so butt hurt
about it. And it's a running joke in the office
(29:59):
and we all all make fun of him. And when
I say make fun of him, I don't want you
to think that he's laughing along with it, because he
doesn't think it's funny at all. He's actually genuinely probably
in therapy. O your blood and send you into the station.
You gave all you had, little buddy, you gave all
you had. How about this though? So I did my
(30:21):
happy birthdays for my Texas State Reynolds guys Wendell, Buddha Solovich,
and Eric Lindsay. That's a hell of a name right there.
You should hyphenate that Buddha Solovich. And then people would
you know, like the black football players, they all have
hyphenated last names. That just happened out of nowhere. Tony
Dorset was just Tony dor sat Drew Pearson, Drew Pearson,
Earl Campbell. Then all of a sudden they got hyphenated
(30:42):
last names. But listen to this one moment. I'm excited
about this one too. So Grasshopper brought this one in.
It's called Enterprise Casting Corporation high quality. Let's see it,
high quality. I lost the thing pushing them of sand casting.
Enterprise Casting Corporation ductile and gray iron. Oh, we're gonna
(31:06):
have some fun with this. We're gonna have some but
we're gonna go tour this thing. Our manufacturing capabilities. They
got fire, they got stuff being cast. It's like when
you go to the glass blowing in Venice and you
go out on that little thing and they're still they're
still blowing the glass and you pay way too much
for it and it breaks on the way back, or worse,
it doesn't and you come back. That's one of those things.
(31:29):
You come back from vacation and people come in your
house and they go, oh, you went to Venice and
you go, yeah, yeah, we did it too. Everybody does it.
Why did you buy that stupid glass? But boy, you
had to have it at the time. What you sad
And it doesn't matter what they say, You're gonna figure
out a way to buy it. Well, this one over
here is two thousand. Man, I wanted some glass, but
(31:51):
not that bad. Well, let me take you to the
showroom and then you go from the little setup they've
done for the little play where they where they do
the fire like they really do something, and then you
go into the you go into a separate room and
it's all made up. Now you're at the department store
and they got all the glass, and you buy that
stupid glass that you wouldn't buy here at Roundtop for
twenty dollars, wouldn't you wouldn't pay. Some of our customers
(32:14):
include manufacturers of industrial pumps. Anyway, y'all can welcome them
to the show if you would like. It would be
a nice favor. Well, this is their operation in Maine.
I got to find out what the phone number is
for here. It's Enterprise Casting Corporation, high Quality iron casting.
Grasshopper didn't send me the phone number for this guy,
(32:37):
so I don't know. Oh, Jason Schmirtman s C H
M E R T M A N. But this number
might be his cell phone number, and I don't think
I should give out his Do you think I should
give out a selhal number? Why not? Well, I don't
know how many people are gonna need high quality foundry casting. See,
this is kind of stuff we should be doing. These
(32:57):
are the kind of people that should be calling in
the way this works. Jason schmirt Smirtsman calls in emails me, Hey,
interested in your show? Everybody I know listens to your show.
We would like to support your show sponsor your show. Okay, well,
let me send either Robert Raise or Grasshopper, whoever we
(33:19):
send out, talk to you and let's find out what
you do. Let's make sure it's not a conflict with
one of my show sponsors. Already, you need to understand
their certain rules. You don't just buy advertising. There's certain
rules as to how this whole thing works, and then
if the whole thing works out great, then they become
a show sponsor. That is so different from advertising, and
it has worked. It's taken us twenty years to build
(33:40):
this and it's the model for the industry now. And
by the way, you don't have to have a bunch
of money to align with somebody who can help you sell.
If you've got a customer who comes into your show
who's a real estate broken, buy her lunch and say, hey,
would you next time you have a unch and learn
or open house, would you think about us for your catering?
(34:04):
Would you just send an email? People like insurance agents
and real estate brokers and those people are great connectors.
They're influencers. Use that. You cannot just be good at
what you do and build your business. You've got to
connect with people with audiences. You've got to you've got
to use influencers. You may not even have to spend
a dime anyway. That's that part was free.
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