Behind the Stalls: A Fair Vendor’s Tale: The importance of curb appeal 169

This week is Little Sleep, lots of caffeine and big hopes and dreams. Oh, it must be Fry Berg Fair Week for me. She had a struggle podcast, episode 169, and we're feeling oh so fine. Let me tell you something Everybody struggles. The difference is some people choose to go through it and some choose to grow through it. The choice is completely yours. Which one you choose will have a very profound effect on the way you live your life. If you find strength in the struggle, then this podcast is for you. You have a relationship that is comfortable with uncomfortable conversations. Uncomfortable conversations challenge you, humble you and they build you. When you sprinkle a little time and distance on it, it all makes sense. Most disagreements, they stem from our own insecurities. You are right where you need to be. Let go of time. Really come back, won't you take it? We all take on what we're hiding. What a deal, what a deal. Hot diggity day. Am I so damn happy, excited, blessed and thankful to be back yet again with all y'all? Episode 169, and you know we'd be feeling fine this 169 consecutive weeks of this beautifulness, this awesomeness, this holiness that happens to be. She had a struggle podcast, don't forget. You can find all things podcast related for all your podcast peeps out there, whether you're a day one or you just put gun, you can find all things podcast related at wwwsharethestrugglepodcastcom, don't forget you can even get some podcast merch over there. Y'all, it's true. It's damn true, man, I might sound a little different to y'all, I feel a little different y'all, because my voice is already going like a little something in my chest here and I think it's a combination of really little sleep, lots of excitement. You know it all adds up. This is the week for us. This is, as I say to you guys. I commonly say this is the granddaddy of them all for us Mainers, that's right. The Fryberg Fair. Fryberg Fair has been so amazingly good to us, to the brand Laupraud American. It's just something we look forward to every year at the beginning of the year. It feels so far away and then, now that it's here, I know it's going to be gone in a blink of an eye. So I'm just trying to enjoy it. But it's crazy, man. It is crazy just how fast this week flies by. I'm recording this on Monday, which is Woodsman's Day. For all y'all Mainers, it's a log and holiday, that's right. That's what Big Trek told me when I saw him today he said it's a Main Lager's holiday, so I'm recording this on October 2nd. We've only been open as vendors, as the fair, for a day and a half, but it already feels like you've been here for a week because you just don't freaking stop. You don't stop y'all. It is a crazy whirlwind of action out there and, man, am I fucking excited, sorry. I swore oh, my heavens, gabe, put a dollar in the jar. Timmy, did you college Fun? How did you get the money for school? Well, my daddy, every time he swore he put money in a jar, I don't know. See, I'm really tired, y'all. I'm really freaking tired. Just to kind of give you a little sneak preview of Peek Beneath the Sheets as to how tired I am and where this is all coming from. On the last episode of the podcast that we dropped, the wife and I we recorded an episode together in old Matilda that's the name of our new camper and I think it was like Tuesday night, because we came up, set the camper up and we recorded an episode, and then that was leading into Wednesday morning when we were going to set up our vendor display, right? So good news, to kind of follow up on that. We got up, went over, we're able to get our location, which we didn't really move all that much, but we did expand. And that's the key to the story, man, we did expand. We went from 10 feet of frontage, from curb appeal, to 20 feet and all that means is the opening of our tent went from 10 feet to 20 feet and I cannot tell you what a difference that means for us and how much of an impact that has on us. 20 feet, man, that's that curb appeal baby, that's that sex appeal, that's that twisted steel sex appeal. We are definitely getting that with 20 feet of frontage, we use just making ourselves so much more visible to to traffic, right, people just going by. It's just so much more inviting, it's a lighter, it's more welcoming and it just makes a big difference. Right, our previous tents they were all just 10 footers. So if you guys have been listening for a while, you've heard me explain this before, but I'm just gonna make it as quick as possible if you're, if you're, new to this so I can get you up to speed. But when we started this made in USA, loud, proud American brand, when we're hitting the road selling all made in America merchandise. We started off with one ten foot by ten foot tent and that tent was all black, black roof, black walls, with some marketing on it Look badass. Okay, I'm just gonna say that. But our roots started at ten feet, so we did ten feet for a while and then we kicked it out to ten feet by 20 feet. Before we came to Fryberg fair Our first year, we wanted to make that expansion, we wanted to go a little bit deeper. So we had ten feet of frontage, 20 feet of depth, so we were able to grow a little bit. And last year we had the same scenario 10 feet, 10 feet, so 10 feet of front, with another 10 foot tent behind it. So we start off with that one 10 foot tent and then by the end of that year we bought, like this cheap All black tent to try to match it, to stick behind it, and then after that we upgraded to another tent, another professional tent. We work with extreme canopy. So each time we order a 10 it's like 2,500 bucks to three grand, depending on what we get. So it's an investment. But that's, that's our storefront man, that's, that's our marquee, that's, that's, that's our business. You know, it's not like just to pop up a tent. It's it is our storefront, that's how we treat it, that's how we want to merchandise it in the. You know the impression that we want to leave right, that just welcoming feeling, and that professional upkeep and value. There's a value associated with your presentation. So we go all out on our tents. I know that sounds kind of crazy, but it is what it is. It's the absolute truth that makes a difference. So once we were able to afford a second 10-foot tent, we now had that 10-foot of frontage but 20 feet of depth. And for the past two years of the Freiburg Fair I've continued to say that with more frontage we would have more business. And I have this crazy amount in my mind as to what it'll actually increase our business and I'm not going to share that with you all. But I really feel like it's going to make a real big difference and I would share that number with you. But what's holding me back in doing that is that this year has sucked man. This economy, this Biden economics is broken economics, if you ask me. And we've had down fares at every single fair. We've gone to Any fair that we could compare numbers to that. We've been there previously. We're tracking at 50% All the events we've done this year. We're basically tracking at 50%. So this economy is tough, right. We're all conserving money, we're all trying to get by. I understand why you can't dig into your pocket to spend some money on some American made apparel. I wish you would. I wish you would and I hope that you do if you could. But what I'm getting at here is I have this lofty idea in my mind about what we can increase by increasing our frontage, so what our frontage can equal in finances. I have this crazy, crazy number in mind and I've been betting on that number, gambling on that number, because to get to it you must invest right. So I had to order another tent, this one 10 feet by 20 feet, and there's another like $3,000 tent, but it turns into 20 feet of frontage and 20 feet of depth. And what happens is and talking with other vendors on the circuit, and I've gotten so much amazing positive advice from Matt and Sarah at Ledgeway Farms, and if you guys are listening to this, if you're listening on the regular rotation, if you hear this on a Wednesday, I encourage you to come out and kind of support some of our family on here, some of our road family, some of the other small businesses that are trying to make it. So if you come out to Fryburg Fair, I beg of you, I encourage you, to go over and see Ledgeway Farms. Get yourself some American Maid, some all-natural goat soap made right here in the state of Maine. Get over and see Ledgeway, see Matt and Sarah. Tell them that I'm not proud of American Sanctuary, that the podcast sent you. Make sure you get over and find Walson Woodcraft out on the craft bar. Make sure you find those guys for some handmade American Maid wood crafts, some Whirligigs. Make sure you get in there. C Pam and Paul, scott, pete, lindsay, the whole family, right, make sure you get in there. Tell them that we sent you. Make sure you get over to Underdog Metals. See Kyle, see Julia. Make sure you get over there and see those guys support them. We are dropping another collaboration this week, a collaboration with Underdog Metal, where we are going to be bringing to you, offering to you, some metal signs. They're going to be loud, proud American logos. If you're at the fair, you've got a limited amount of those that will be available. After that, after the fair, we'll get some things online and stuff. This is a great family, a great network of family and friends. You come out here and get maybe some pickles, maybe some kettle corn. Get over and see mom Paul Kettle, see our man, bestie and Davey over there. We have this circle man. We have this network, this family. You can get over and see Nye and Eric and get some great deals on some flannels, on some jeans. The point is is that when you're on the road and you're doing these things, you start making friends, you start making relationships, you start forming a family bond. It's also truly amazing to have these connections. I know I'm bouncing around here, but it's all going to come together because, number one, I'm firing on very few brain cells because I'm so damn tired. That's how this started. The point I was making here is, along the way, some of the advice, like Matt had told me, you only have a very quick second to catch somebody's attention as they're walking by. If they're walking by and you only have 10 feet of frontage, you basically have two steps. You have two steps for them to notice you, for them to pick up on your display. If you double that and you double their steps, you double your opportunity. That's one of the reasons what we wanted to go with this frontage. I'm not going to get too far ahead of myself, but I do want to say that I'm happy to say at this moment today that frontage is working. Bay Bay, oh man. Yesterday, opening day, one of the best days we've ever had at the Freiburg Fair. We beat last year's opening number by a significant amount. If I take the three years experience at this fair, I think it comes down as our third highest grossing day of all time. Pretty damn excited, man, I'm pretty encouraged. Yeah, we crushed opening day and I really think that a lot of it is to do with our square footage, it's our frontage, it's that curb appeal, baby. It's making a real, big, big difference for us. Also, I'm going to throw some kudos out to the wife, because when I was designing this new tent, I went back and forth in so many different layouts and the wife was like, just make the top of it an American flag. Like, don't deal, just make it an American flag. Just do that. And, baby, I don't say this all the time, but you were right. You were so right because it's made a freaking, just enormous difference. Right, because now, when the sun goes down on my side of town, when it's dark outside, you just see that beacon of light, you just see this just bright, lit up American flag in the sky, you know. And if you're walking around the fairgrounds you see white tent, white tent. Oh my beautiful. What do my eyes surprise? What do I see over here? How beautiful could it be? The American flag? So great job on that decision to the wife, you there to go with the American flag. Just Keep it simple, baby, keep it simple stupid. And yeah, man, it's made a big difference, right? So I just think it seems more warm, seems more inviting, and we've increased their opportunity for attention just by having the tent wide open the way it is. And I just want to say that the first day was already paying dividends because I've come accustomed to being at fairs where in the morning I just don't have any traffic, I don't sell anything till 12, 1 o'clock, and then I don't really get busy till, you know, after 5 o'clock and people get out of work. But which is so much more noticeable on marketing just looks so much better this year that we're busy from the go, like we're selling stuff as soon as the door opens. Yesterday I did not sit my ass down until after 5 o'clock. I'm not kidding, I did not sit down in a chair till after 5 o'clock yesterday, from opening bell to 5 o'clock, and then, you know, we stayed steady. It got slow at night, but we crushed opening day. I'm hidden back here recording in the camper right now in Matilda, and the wifey and my mom are running the tent. It's, you know, afternoon time here and we're literally probably three or four hundred dollars away from matching last year's second day. So I feel real strong that today we're just going to crush last year's Monday and we're just going to be off and rolling y'all. I really do feel that. And, man, I know so many of you have been listening along the way. You've heard us put this emphasis on number one, this event. Number two all that we put into this event, just the effort right, and then the dollars and cents that we put into this by expanding our tents, by getting more grid wall, by bringing in more inventory. So far so good. It's all starting to pay off. But there's so much more than just curb appeal. There's so much more than the product that you're offering. It comes down to that fan base, that loyalty, that family that we're building. So I really was encouraged to come on here and say thank you, to say thank you to each and every one of you, because so many of you that are listening right now, you're pulling for us, you're praying for us and you're pushing for us, and so many of you have just you believe in us, right? You always have, and you've been making purchases all along the way. You're sharing our story and our message and it's making a difference, man, and I was so excited to come on here and report to you that so far, it is working. Man, it is working. We're seeing a big difference in our results this week and I just want to say thank you, thank you for the push, thank you for always praying for us, pushing for us. I appreciate you and I'm encouraged to come in here and tell you that things are going great, man, because so many times we get on here and say, hey, there's another event that is down, here's another episode from a rain out, and can we find positives in negative situations? Can we find some positives in a down event? Are there positives in a negative experience? And that's really what we've been searching for all year. All year, we've been trying to find the positive in the pile and negative, and I was so encouraged to come on here and push record and say we're going to find a hell of a lot more positives in a pile of positives, and that's what it feels like so far. So I just want to say thank you I don't want to say thank you to all of you out there that are supporting us and to, you know, our fellow vendors on the road and fellow businesses on the road. Thank you so much. We've become a community, we've become a positive society that we're here as sounding boards for each other, resources for each other. I can't tell you what a difference three years makes man. My first year here and I'm not going to, you know, pound this into the ground because we've said it so many times but I slept in an ambulance, right On top of my totes, and here we are now in, you know, in an upgraded camper. But it's beyond that, because you think about where you started and the fact that not only did I start in just sleeping in that ambulance, but I didn't have the support system, I didn't have the network that I have on the road now, and that just makes such a big difference, the fact that we have relationships, the fact that we have connections or that we have friendships, and it goes beyond friendships. It feels like family when you spend as much time together as we do. Man, is that an absolute blessing? Scott and Lindsay Camprague, next to us, matt and Sarah are right across the road from us and we're all here pulling for each other. Man, if we need something, we call each other, we get things for each other. And I just think about, like this year, starting the fair off, I've got all these boxes set aside that are custom orders for friends, for fellow businesses. Man, I've got custom orders set aside for Ledgeway. I've got custom orders set aside for Underdog Metal. I've got custom orders set aside for Shutterbug Snapshots and custom orders set aside for Missouri Family Steers and Oxen, and I'm talking about renewing some custom orders for Freedom Designs and for Pete's local school. And, man, it's just crazy to show up to check in and know I have all these sales lined up. And not only are they sales, they're opportunities, and those opportunities are relationships and those relationships mean so much to me. It's crazy to think about how far we've come, how much we've grown to come from staying in that ambulance, sleeping on totes and not really having a relationship, to having the luxury that we now have and being rich in relationships. It just means so much to us, man, and then having that support is a real key ingredient in the recipe of our success and I really feel like we are making a very successful cake this week. If you understand where I'm at, maybe I'm hungry. It is lunchtime and it's hard not to make really poor decisions when you're at the fair and today we actually had a cheat meal on the diet. But you know, that happens, that happens. But my whole story, y'all I appreciate y'all. I can't thank you enough for all your support and I was really eager to report to you that we're having a successful week. And to those of you listening that are my fellow vendors out there, that I just want you to know how much I appreciate you. I want you to know how much you mean to me and, man, I'm pulling for you, I'm praying for you and I'm so grateful for you. So I want you guys to all know that. And for anybody that comes into the fair this week and you want to come over and have a conversation, I'm going to recommend you to each and every one of these businesses, because they're just the best people in this place to deal with. So I will continue to do so. But I think I started this whole conversation telling y'all man, I'm fucking tired and I sound like shit and I'm running on very little sleep and lots of caffeine. But I keep holding it together because of the hopes and dreams. And when we had our episode last week, I was telling you that we were a little nervous. We didn't know about our site and our parking place. We figured out parking and we figured out our location and on that Wednesday we set things up right, we set the tent frame up and then we went home to get back to work as we were waiting on some things to come in the mail. And that Wednesday, when we went home, that winning Wednesday last week, I worked in the office. The wife worked on a bunch of things too. She was doing vinyl work for me and all kinds of things and painting things and staining things and organizing things. And I worked till almost one in the morning on Wednesday. I guess it had to be Thursday morning, correct, yeah? So Tuesday we came up here, set the camper up, ordered the podcast, spent the night Wednesday, got up, set up the frame for the tent, drove home about an hour and a half home, drove home, worked until one in the morning. Thursday morning, back at it, bright and early, back in the office working. I worked all the way till about midnight. I just couldn't stand anymore. I couldn't function anymore. I had plans of coming back to the fair on Thursday, but it just didn't happen. I just had way too much work going on. I mean, the wife was working right side by side me putting things in the computer and we were doing the best we can, but you're pressing every single item one by one. So it was a long fought battle, man, thursday night until probably 11 or 12 o'clock and I finally had to tap out. Went to sleep Friday morning, right back at it. I had a bunch of kid stuff to finish off and another pile of product. We really wanted to be back at the fair on Thursday, but we did not leave for the fair until Friday at 5 pm. So I worked straight through Wednesday, thursday, friday, minus shredding my eyes and then putting my beautiful thighs in my driver's seat and driving to the fair at 5 o'clock on Friday. It was nothing but manufacturing product. And what's crazy is you plan the best you can, you do the best you can to restock and to reload and do all those things, but you get to a point where you're like, okay, I'm going to leave these things behind, I can't get to them, I just physically can't get to them. The bummer is those are the first things you sell out of. You know, but it is what it is. You can only prepare so much, you can only do so much, and I feel that we put ourselves in one of the best positions possible. I know we're going to. You know I'm always going to second guess the products that are left at home on the drawing table that I didn't get a chance to produce. But at some point you've got to cut the lights out, man, you've got to figure it out. That point for us was Friday at five o'clock. We had a plan to come here to the fair, grab some dinner with Matt and Sarah and then go back and start setting up our grid wall. Well, that plan turned into a live band, some Dr McGillicuddy's, maybe some vodka, some Jameson and Pickleback, some highlights, but a heck of a lot of memories, with Matt and Sarah, with Nye and my wife enjoying ourselves spending time on the dance floor, unwinding, connecting, making relationships and man. We ended up coming back from the bar. When the band was done we hung out in Nye's tent and the wife was picking out outfits. I came out of there with a pair of shorts. She had an MTV t-shirt and a Shackette. We almost had Matt into a Tupac shirt, but it was just a great time, man, and we stumbled back here and everything about that felt great, until I had to wake up in the morning. Oh my, this new diet is limiting my superhuman powers when it comes to alcoholic consumption and recovery. So Saturday was a real struggle. I planned on being over there working at 7. That didn't happen. I don't think we left the camp until 10-ish I don't even know. And then when we got back over to the tent, it took me like two hours to put out the lights. It was absolutely miserable y'all. Saturday we set up as much as we could. I want to say, like I don't know, 8.39 o'clock at night. We headed to Walmart to shop for groceries for the week and then went back to the fair to work some more on the display. I think we came back to camp around midnight. We were doing computer, work, paperwork and the camper until about one in the morning. And then Sunday opening day of the fair. We were up at 7 to get back down to the fair and try to give ourselves a couple hours to finish our setup before we had to open the doors. And, man, we had so much stuff out behind the back of our tent where the public couldn't see it. Where the door was open it looked like a yard sale back there, just a maiden USA yard sale while we were trying to get things ready. Man, I am not doing it again like this. I am not doing it like this. We've been planning all year on how we were gonna get to the fair early and we were going to relax and ease into it and really just celebrate the moment. And we know how quickly this week goes by. So we just wanted to cut the stress, to cut the fuss. That did not happen. We ramped up the intensity, we ramped up the pressure, we turned down the sleep and, man, I don't think I wanna do it this way next year. But I'm fully committed, y'all. It is full blast, full tilt. Wfo is what we call this. Wfo which pattern? My French means wide, fucking open. That's what we're doing here, y'all WFO. But man, what an amazing time this week's been. You guys are gonna see some cool things coming out on our social media channels if you're following us. Number one, let's just gonna put the disclaimer out there. I apologize to each and every one of you that have been trying to reach me over the past few weeks. This is the biggest thing to happen to our business, to our brand, and it's the number one thing that keeps us in business and puts food on our table. So I've been steadfast and hell bent to make this event the best I possibly can. So my response time has been shitty. You're not seeing me much on social media. I'm gonna try to make up for that this week. I've never been out of fare two days in and not made a post about being here. It just shows you how absolutely busy I've been and how crazy this whole experience has been. It's been an absolute whirlwind, man, and I don't want that to stop. But I'm also hoping that I can find the time to share some cool things with you guys. We've got new designs, we've got new announcements, we've got cool things to share and we just have not been able to do that. So I'm hoping I'm able to show you guys some of those things in the coming days here. But, like I already mentioned, some new collaborations and some new products that we're excited about. Also, we're having some cool contests. We're gonna be doing an email contest. Enter your email into our system an answer to win contest. You're gonna see us posting about that. If you're at the fair, come on by and scan our QR code. I think Scott from Freedom Designs is printing up a QR code for us right now and we're just going about things in a little different way. We have some creative things behind the scenes We'll be sharing with you guys in the future. Also, we wanted to create a selfie moment here at the fair, so keep your eyes peeled for the little selfie edition that we've made to our tent. That has been quite a big attraction. So far today I've seen a lot of photo taken, so hopefully we start seeing that on social media tagging hashtag LaupraudAmerican. So a lot of cool things happening here at the fair, a lot of awesome experiences. None of them are possible without the love, support and just friendship and dedication from each and every one of you. So if you're at day one or this journey has just begun. I wanna say thank you. I appreciate you If you've been pitching in, if you've been listening, if you've been helping the brand. I appreciate you so damn much. My family thanks you. It's because of you that I get to chase this dream, that we get to fulfill this mission of growing American manufacturing. Man, I could talk for days, I could ramble four days, about how excited I am, about how thankful I am. But if I did that, my wife would kick my ass because I gotta get back to the tent, because she's gonna be heading out of here, she's gonna be heading home, she has to get back to work. Y'all. My mom's gonna be staying with me for the rest of the week, so I gotta go relieve the ladies so they can stretch your legs a little bit and my wife can hit the road. But, truth be told, I'm so damn excited to get on here and push record and tell you guys, we are having an awesome event. I hope and pray it continues that by the end of this week we can pick out our favorite positives from a pile of positives. We don't have to sort through the negatives to identify the positive. I'm looking forward to finishing this year, this event this season on an absolute high note. So my love, proud Americans out there, I love you and I thank you for supporting our American dream. Now go wash your fucking hands. You're a filthy, savage Love. Ya, that's it and that's all BiggieSmiles. If you found value in today's show, please return the favor and leave a positive review. Share it with someone that is important to you. Hit, subscribe and help us Grow Our Tribe. Are you interested in sponsoring the show? Maybe you're looking to be a guest on the show? Find all that you need to know about the show at sharethestruckupodcastcom. Subscribe to Grow Our Tribe on Apple Podcasts, spotify, google Podcasts, amazon Music, iheart Radio and all other major platforms, and don't forget to like and share our official Facebook page at Share the Struggle Podcast. If you're a loud, proud American and you find yourself just wanting more, you can find me on YouTube, on Facebook or the face page, as my mama calls it, just search Loud Proud American. If you're a fan of the Graham Cracker, the Instagram or the Tickety Talk with the kids to be a tickety talking the TikTok you can search Loud Underscore, proud Underscore American. If you want to join the 2% of Americans that support American manufacturing, head on over to wwwloudproudamericanshop and get your hands on some of that made in USA. Apparel and join the mission, mission 2%. Together we can bring back American manufacturing. A big old thank you to the boys from the Gut Truckers for the background beats and the theme song to Share the Struggle Podcast. You can find the Gut Truckers on Facebook. Just search Gut Truckers and show your support to those Mother Truckers. I truly thank you for supporting my American dream. Now go wash your fucking hands, you filthy savage.