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The 2023 event season for Loud Proud American continues to dish out challenges. After a rain shortened event Keith changes his perspective and asks himself if a down event can in fact still be considered a success. New obstacles, new audience, new friendships, all provide a new outlook as we navigate through the exhilarating yet challenging highs and lows of the fair season, the financial impacts, and the unexpected hurdles we faced - like a tornado warning and heat depression.
We'll relive experiences that range from the humorously bizarre encounters in a dollar store to the serious discussions about the vanishing customer service in America. A mix bag of laughs and inspiration on todays Share The Struggle Podcast!
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The 2023 event season for Loud Proud American continues to dish out challenges. A new way of thinking has me wondering if a down event can still be considered a successful event. Allie joins us today to share one of the craziest dollar store experiences you will ever hear, and together we ask is customer service in America officially gone forever? 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 Back on time. Really come back one day. So don't let me hold. Take on one of my high Too fast. Can't wait to Ooh, ooh, ooh. What it do, what it do, so damn fortunate to be back with you. Episode 160. Whenever I say 160, in the back of my mind I'm thinking about Biggie S Cargo, my Cargo 160, swiftly, something like that. Was that hypnotized?
Alli Liberty :Maybe I thought you were going to say 165.
Keith Liberty :Like our address. Yeah, maybe Episode 160,. We're coming at you from the living room, you and me recording, together with our annoying four-legged children running around here Like savages. I'm excited for you to join me today, dia.
Alli Liberty :Thanks.
Keith Liberty :Last week was a bit of a deep episode, a heavy episode. We went straight out the gate with Patriotic and then we had to encounter some real-life nonsense, dealing with some ridiculous neighbors and really going from that pissed-off angry feeling to a frightened moment and, all in all, in the end, kind of you know, you leave yourself wondering what could have been, and being blessed and thankful for what didn't happen and what all the things that you actually have Like last week. That episode was so heavy and it really was something that I had thought about the whole time I was gone as I left for our last event and I had to do this fair. So the first time I really did the fair on my own. You showed up on Friday evening, so I couldn't help but think the whole week while I was gone, like what the hell is going on here? What are these fucking idiots doing next door? You know, like what are some of the things that my family's dealing with.
Alli Liberty :Really nothing. Actually, it was oddly quiet. It was really eerie.
Keith Liberty :Yeah, they must have been quiet because they were concerned about some fines or something. It would probably be my assumption.
Alli Liberty :Yeah, because there was like nobody around. Like I kept checking the cameras and stuff while I was at work and there was just nobody around. From when I got here, when I left, to when I got here at night time, there was nobody it was strange.
Keith Liberty :They're back to work now, but I mean, who the hell knows what's going on?
Alli Liberty :They've recruited the neighbor.
Keith Liberty :Yeah, which is?
Alli Liberty :The nosy neighbor.
Keith Liberty :Which is great. I'm just going to put a law out there that I'm going to be having a meeting with the fire department and my local town officials, because this is a baby back bullshit, if I was going to use some of your phrasing. So, leaving last week, that was really all that was on my mind and I got to be honest as soon as I got home. The closer we got to being home, like, anxiety comes back, anger and frustration comes back, Because you know, as soon as you turn in the corner and you see these freaking morons right and everything they're doing, you're just like man. The fact that everything we own and built and worked for and established could be jeopardized by these absolute morons. And I mean literally like my anxiety just goes through the roof when I see them. So I just try to block it all out, because it's the first thing I thought about when I was starting to come home. You know, like, where you, you want to be home, you want to see the family and see the animals and everything, but you're just so frustrated by the bullshit that's happening in front of you. So that's been tough, but Literally in front of us. Exactly so. Last week was the first time that I've really tackled a fare on my own. So last week when we had our episode, we talked about, you know, the Jason Aldean situation and standing with Aldean and being a proud Patriot. We talked about the fire that happened right basically on our property line. But I don't know if I made reference to the fact that I was getting ready to go to an event. I think I mentioned that. You know I was stressed out about that portion of it. But just to kind of highlight those things, you and me headed out and dropped off the camper together and then we built the shell for our vendor display together and then we came home and then I think it was maybe a day later I headed back. Actually I was supposed to leave on that Monday, but that's when the fire happened. So on Tuesday I headed out. This fare is just shy of two hours away from home base for us, so I knew it was manageable enough for me to handle the first part of it. My mom's still recovering from her surgery. Obviously you have to work and pay the bills and provide the insurance. So I started this event on my own. So I went in and, you know, finished the setup and do all those things and then Thursday actually the fare started on. Was it Wednesday, wednesday?
Alli Liberty :yeah, yeah, so I did Wednesday. You were trying it there for Monday because you were doing it by yourself, that's right.
Keith Liberty :So then, tuesday I set up by myself because I wanted two days, that we made it into one and then Wednesday was the first day of the fare, which was smoldering hot Again this season. This weather's obnoxious this year.
Alli Liberty :See, they're super hot or raining. That's it. That's all it is. There's no happy medium.
Keith Liberty :I'm really hoping and you guys are going to kind of find the theme here We've already started the show off mentioning that. You know, yeah, we had a down event. Here we are again at another down event, but here we are again have another event that's impacted by heat, rain or both. So I'm really hoping that at the end of the season we kind of make up for this right, because that just really seems to be like how nature works. Man, it's just kind of the law of averages. You don't always just hit it lucky the entire season, and if you do, you have yourself a great season. But I think we're just kind of getting our bad luck out of the way early.
Alli Liberty :Personally, Speaking of lucky Jason Aldean, number one on the charts, Way to go.
Keith Liberty :He's pounding away on that, that's absolutely for sure. Yep, I don't think there's any luck and flaw with that one. That's just true patriotism there.
Alli Liberty :I think that's lucky.
Keith Liberty :Okay, right.
Alli Liberty :They've had the chance to take. I mean, he's had the chance, without all of this happening, to be number on the top, number one.
Keith Liberty :Yeah, he's had a ton of number one charts.
Alli Liberty :I'm talking about this song in particular. Oh, I get you Like. It's been out for a while and then yeah, and now it's soaring up. Yeah, good for him, I stand for that.
Keith Liberty :All right, proud of you for that. So this event, much like the other ones, were battling the weather. Wednesday was so brutally hot that it was depressing. It was, it was, it was heat, depression. Okay, it was so damn slow man. I don't remember what I did for the day. I'd have to look it up, but I think for an entire day. Now I'm just going to put some perspective for everybody. This fair is open until 10pm every night. You have to be open by 10 and you're supposed to be open by 10am to 10pm. What did that do day one? I think it was like a hundred bucks.
Alli Liberty :A hundred bucks, yeah, it was. Thank you, tomay.
Keith Liberty :It was miserable when you're sitting in a tent that feels like 200 degrees for 12 hours and you make a hundred bucks and then you realize that actually that's not what you made because you have cost and profit. And so let's just say, hypothetically, you sat around for 12 hours and you paid yourself 45 bucks or something. Oh boy, that was a good feeling, what you got an idea over there. I see you've got your antennas up. What's going on?
Alli Liberty :I'll tell the listeners when you're done All right.
Keith Liberty :So day one, I think I'm going to blame it on the heat and say that's the reason why we didn't do so solid on day one. Day two started to get a little bit better and then the weather changed and started raining and we actually closed the entire fair down early. So I lost the nighttime portion of the fair, which is when we make our money. We just kind of sit around a lot of times during the daytime, unless it's the weekend, or rather big fair like Fryburg or something.
Alli Liberty :But I mean in the defense of the fair. There was a tornado warning.
Keith Liberty :For God's sakes, yeah, it did get pretty brutal. So but if I'm looking at the result for the fair, when you lose an evening, no matter when that evening is, it hurts us because that's when we actually make our money. We've lost days before, but if you open at night we still do all right. We get, you know, hoodies, sales and stuff like that. So we lost a Thursday night and then Friday was not that great man, I thought Friday was going to be gangbusters. It improved a little bit. You showed up Friday evening and Saturday we really set our sales high, man. We thought Saturday we were going to crush it and we had a little bit of rush. You know where things started to come through and then, boy do you know, it starts fucking boring again Buckets. So they closed early on Saturday.
Alli Liberty :Yeah.
Keith Liberty :It's one thing to lose a day, it's another thing to lose an evening, and it's a whole different scenario when you lose the evening on a Saturday.
Alli Liberty :But two of them in one fair.
Keith Liberty :I'll take two of them if it's a Wednesday, thursday, before taking one freaking Saturday, because you can make all your money out of fair in one damn day if that one damn day happens to be Saturday. So the fact we lost Saturday evening brutal.
Alli Liberty :Yeah, that's all right.
Keith Liberty :That crushed us. I would say Sunday we did decent. We had a pretty good day Sunday.
Alli Liberty :Yeah, we did all right. We stayed open later just to get the last flow of traffic and it worked because we sold a bunch of sweatshirts.
Keith Liberty :It was true, you know a lot of fairs. Everybody's ready just to get the hell out by the time it's all said and done. This is one of the fairs that had a late closing. Like most fairs will let you start packing up around six o'clock. These guys said no, 10 o'clock, and we were spending the night, so it's like what's the point here.
Alli Liberty :We didn't know where to go. Go back and eat dinner and go to bed. That was it.
Keith Liberty :When they're making the announcement that the fair is closing at 10 and we're in the kind of roadway to a lot of people's vehicles why not stay open yeah? We turned the radio up, kind of caused a scene, because we're the only ones open Everybody else is packing up.
Alli Liberty :Yeah, everyone else is packing up. Yeah.
Keith Liberty :We do it every time.
Alli Liberty :Yeah, it works, so we have to do the madness.
Keith Liberty :I mean, I guess we didn't do it in Ausby. We were ready to go, we were ready to go, but there wasn't like there was a crowd looking to leave.
Alli Liberty :Yeah, the year before we stayed we did yeah Because we had a bunch of the people come from the pulinerinas. Yeah, because you had your radio going and stuff like that.
Keith Liberty :So I think we almost did. I mean, one of our busiest times of the entire weekend was like the last hour of closing and then after closing, you know.
Alli Liberty :Yeah, because we so the fair closed at 10, but we actually didn't like get back to camp till like I think it was almost 11.
Keith Liberty :I think so, yeah, so we put in a good you know Extra hour. Yeah, just about right.
Alli Liberty :So Because they didn't stop the rides. Because I remember looking over and I was like, wow, the ferris wheel is still running, but I thought it closed at 10. And so the lines were always so long for all the rides, like if you did like a lap around, so they must have just been trying to get through.
Keith Liberty :Worked through the line. Yeah, it was one of those ferris where your ticket price includes all the rides. You can handle Like you know piss your pants, throw up type of deal.
Alli Liberty :So that was pretty nice here's a bracelet and a ride to you Unless you don't have kids. And you're not riding, then you're complaining about it. Yeah, then you do complain about it.
Keith Liberty :So just to kind of put a little bow on it Financially not a good fair. No, Not a good fair.
Alli Liberty :But it was a different dynamic for us. Like different people, crowd Definitely was.
Keith Liberty :I've spent a lot of time thinking about it, because we set a like a number, an expected number, on so many fairs. You kind of have to. If you don't forecast what your results gonna be, then you don't prepare yourself and you don't bring enough product for yourself. If you just kind of shoot from the hip, you could get there and you could maybe not have enough product so that you can't be successful, or you could bring too much product, which will actually prevent you from being successful as well, because you can't find the shit that you have. So we always try to put a lot of thought into it and when we are forecasting these numbers I try to figure out an expected foot traffic and then kind of compare it to similar fairs. The organizer for this fair promised me that 15,000 people would walk by the front of our tent and said whatever you do with them is up to you.
Alli Liberty :Fake news.
Keith Liberty :CNN. If we got 5,000 people to attend the entire fair, then maybe 500 of them walked in front of our tent. You know what?
Alli Liberty :I mean.
Keith Liberty :Like it was Brutal. It was brutal, and you think about the fact that, like at one point on Sunday we were talking about it, where I said, hey, how many conversations do you think we had today? It's a lot and we were at, like we said, maybe we had 40 conversations and nine people bought from us, and we're kind of talking about that average and I really started to think that, you know, maybe this is in the right market for us, you know.
Alli Liberty :Also, let me just put into perspective that I'm sure you've been to. Everyone listening has been to a craft fair, a vendor event of some sort, and for us our mentality is like, if you take the time to come into our booth, we want to at least give you the opportunity to say hello, how are you? We're not trying to throw things down your throat. We don't necessarily. I mean, we want you to buy, but it's not like you have to you know what I mean. Like, when you come in, we just want to say hello and see how you're doing. So I mean everyone who walks into our tent. We're like, hey, how are you, how's the fair treating you Like? It's just that person to person conversation, where I mean 90% of the booths you walk by. People have their face in their phone and they don't say acknowledge you at all whatsoever. And then it's those ones that actually do take the time that you're like you know what? Maybe I will take an extra minute to like, or even 30 seconds just to look at what you actually have like all of what you have. Because you took the time to say hello.
Keith Liberty :It's a little thing, it's mind blowing to me. I'm gonna just like displays you can walk into and I'll be greeted whatsoever.
Alli Liberty :Also speaking of that. So a couple of times I would, at this event and others, as soon as, like you make a conversation with someone, like if I have a question about something, and then I will start the conversation like, hey, how are you, how's the fair treating you, and then they'll be like, oh, it's fine. Like you know, they don't know that I'm a vendor. They don't have, like, a vendor badge or anything of that nature. And then, as soon as you mention that you're a vendor, boom, a light switches.
Keith Liberty :It shouldn't be that way. When you're going into somebody else's tent, you're saying yeah, and then they find out that you're a vendor.
Alli Liberty :It should never be that you should treat me and everybody else that walks into your booth the exact same.
Keith Liberty :It shouldn't matter.
Alli Liberty :because when you make that comment, like oh yeah, we're a vendor, like down the white, because I'll do that, Like and I mean like listen, I'm balling on a budget, I'm here bargaining, it is what it is.
Keith Liberty :I give vendors a discount.
Alli Liberty :Right, exactly.
Keith Liberty :If you're out there struggling with us just the same, and also you take care of your neighbors, they'll take care of you. You hope that if you give them a discount, they're gonna watch out for you as well, you know what I mean Number one, that discount can be reciprocated. Right For sure. We had a lot of meals we didn't pay for this week. Oh you know.
Alli Liberty :So good Like this.
Keith Liberty :Shooties, Shooties Seafood, best seafood. I've had, and I don't know since when.
Alli Liberty :Food truck. It's like Shooties.
Keith Liberty :Yeah, seafood they have.
Alli Liberty :Seafood and takeout cart.
Keith Liberty :West Bath. They have one, they have two locations now.
Alli Liberty :Oh my God, goodness gracious.
Keith Liberty :I would say best clam strips of my life.
Alli Liberty :Was that her name? Yeah, fantastic. And their daughter.
Keith Liberty :Fantastic.
Alli Liberty :To die for.
Keith Liberty :But that's the point right. You have those conversations with vendors and then you build these relationships and that's kind of where I'm gonna touch on a lot more of that as we get going here. But we give discounts to vendors, we try to help vendors.
Alli Liberty :Absolutely.
Keith Liberty :I try to go out on my way to help them if they need something. For example, we had two occasions that I just mentioned that got rained out right. So on Thursday night the folks next to me, I grabbed one of their business cards and said hey, man, I'm staying here, I know you're not. When I come down I'll check your tent and if anything's up I'll fix it. But I'll shoot you a message or I'll call you if something's going on. And they appreciate that. And on Saturday I touched base with my other neighbors, so I had two business cards for two different vendors sitting next to us that we actually left the safety and comfort of our little den. Our camper walked down in the rain and checked out number one to make sure our stuff was good.
Alli Liberty :In the rain. Correct, it was raining, it was pouring.
Keith Liberty :Well, we were obligated to go down there and check on our neighbor's stuff to make sure that everything was good, Correct. That's just kind of how you be neighborly that way. And I mean, one neighbor came over to us and one of our t-shirts was flying down the road and they grabbed it right.
Alli Liberty :What's the saying? Love thy neighbor.
Keith Liberty :Sure, I like that. Well, there's a lot of neighbors I end up in love with, but you know what we're saying, seen, so we got something that was trying to burn your damn house down.
Alli Liberty :Those neighbors. I'm just saying I think that's a quote that people use, like love thy neighbor.
Keith Liberty :The point is that we try to develop relationships with the vendors that are around us. Some of them are just dicks to you straight up, and since how we're all like this vendor type of conversation, I was actually really encouraged by the fact that a very similar brand and us hit it off and had a lot of good brainstorming conversations. So Calvin from yeah, man, Calvin from Soldier Solutions. We had a great conversation. They're an American company. They don't do not. Everything that they offer is American made. So some shirts are 100% American made. I was doing some research on them. The ones that aren't, they try to use American like cotton that might be assembled somewhere, but they wanna make sure that everything's like printed at their factory in Connecticut. It's bagged and shipped from Connecticut from a veteran. So their whole premise is to help veterans and that community. So between donating to other veteran organizations, helping to train dogs for veterans to-.
Alli Liberty :Their mission is to get dogs to veterans.
Keith Liberty :Yeah, and to train dogs for them, right, so they have-.
Alli Liberty :Providing service dogs for veterans. He was telling me that when they first started they only had the ability to provide I think it was a year one they only had the ability to provide two dogs per year, and then now they're up to like 35 dogs a year that they provide to veterans, which is phenomenal, Cause, I mean, these veterans need these service dogs for all sorts of different reasons, but they take the time to have them trained and then presented to the veteran of their choice, which is really awesome.
Keith Liberty :Yeah, it's a really cool cause and it's one of those things that I've seen these guys at other events. I've never seen Calvin at other events. They must hire people for certain locations right, yeah, probably. So this is the first time we've really had a good conversation the two of us. But what's cool is and ironic there's a lot of places that I go for the first time. If they are there, I'm always asked like oh well, I mean, we don't know if you're gonna be a good fit, we already have so-and-so I just assumed that we're not gonna get along or we're gonna take each other's business right. This fair. In particular, when I had a conversation with them, they said yeah, we already have soldier solutions here, so we don't think you're gonna be a good fit. And we had to convince them that we're. It's not the same thing right.
Alli Liberty :We're not gonna be the same.
Keith Liberty :They're not a competition for us, no we're not direct competition to each other and we're both focused on American jobs, right? Our line for American manufacturing and American products is a lot greater than theirs is, but then their line for veteran support is a lot greater than ours is right. So it's different.
Alli Liberty :You made a valid point about that where, because him and I were chatting about how that's come up in conversation in multiple times what's? Up that when we go somewhere, someone's like oh, you can't be in that area because of the fact that you guys are competition. So him and I were chatting about that and he was like I find that to be funny because I'll go to a location and I'll specifically ask to be right next to nine line.
Keith Liberty :All right, I'll ask that's their family.
Alli Liberty :Right, yeah, right and he's like they'll have an entire trailer and like Gridwall Florida ceiling full of what they need. And then I have this tiny little pop-up tent. He's like and I will move T-shirts like it's my job over here right and if I don't have it then I'll send him next door. But like we'll be parked right next to one another and we're not competition, we have the same Idea and everything's behind like it's all masked. I think we all have a common goal there.
Keith Liberty :You know and. But we can also be united in the sense that our business is about creating American jobs. There's just doing the same thing. Yeah, you can't show up at a location and be like I don't like that guy. Yeah because that guy is doing exactly what you are doing and exactly what you want other people in this country to do.
Alli Liberty :Exactly which?
Keith Liberty :is to you know, buy American, support American, give back to Americans. So you know you're really tugging on the same rope for the same reason for the same goal and it was nice to have those conversations because Somebody that they might hire to be at a location might look look at us differently. I look at this competition or we might you know what I mean, just you never had that common ground. But it was nice to really Just have those conversations and then for him to be like their brand is much further ahead than ours is right, yeah, they've been in business for seven years, he said and he travels all over, get up. He left the next morning for Wisconsin but he was sharing some locations with me. That would be good for me. And they've done some things that are on our bucket list, like there's a clear objective that I have for the brand that Really trying to tackle in the next couple years. They've already done it, they've been doing it. So there's just, there's a trail of success right when you, when you sniff success, when you smell success, when you discuss the success there's, they leave clues. Man, success leaves clues. So when you talk to somebody on their journey and their trail and nobody's no, two paths are the same, but success leaves clues. If you have been successful, you're gonna drop little little con knowledge canuggets along the way. That that we can learn from, that we can, we can take and borrow and build from. So it was nice to have those conversations, man, it really was, and it was encouraging to also go over and be Transparent and have that car, that that conversation. That's like how's this event for you? Because it fucking blows for me.
Alli Liberty :Yeah right.
Keith Liberty :So it was.
Alli Liberty :I think it was also Informational for us to know that, like we're right on the money when it comes to like our price points too like because we didn't know what their prices. Yeah, we were cheaper than them but also like we didn't know what their prices were like we've never like. I mean, I've looked at their booth but never asked prices because their stuff is not tagged to tell you like price-wise. Um, but I mean, I think that it was really informational and he gave us some information about like Price-wise.
Keith Liberty :Yeah, he was really helpful with us, you know, and he encouraged me don't lower your prices, man Like you're yeah you know, you can't compare yourself to these other, these other people over here with their their pricing and other $10 t-shirts, yeah, I mean there was, there was safety numbers in there and there was a great deal of knowledge in that conversation and support. I hope we can meet up with them in another because it was, it really was, it was comforting, because here's the deal we came from. If we look at our last handful of events right, we did our horse event our horse racing event. We were at about 50% right we go to 4th of July, we get rained out. We're at, I don't know, maybe 30%, who the hell knows we go to our first fair of the year at 50%. We go to this fair and off of my projections I'm not even at 50% of my projection. To put it in perspective for you, the last fair that we went to, where we were off by 50%, it actually beat this fair, and this fair is bigger than the fair that we went to. So I know that might sound confusing for people, but we read a smaller fair where we missed our number by 50% Over what we did last year, and that number was greater than what we just did this weekend. So as much as we complained about that previous fair, it did better than we just did. It was a hell of a lot closer to home, right. So you can beat yourself up about that and then you can really worry about the direction for the year. You know you can try to justify things and say, hey, it's been hot, it's been raining, I've lost this, I've lost that. But when you stack up a list of events that have just been shitty financially, you could beat yourself up, man, you can. You can lose sight of the goal, but for to have him to have the same conversation with me, be sharing numbers that were very similar, and for him to be like this just might not be our market you know, and to have in those conversations and it's tough because you never want to hear something's not your market and I'm not fully committed that it's not like right for us because we had multiple people say like it might not be the best bet for you, but it turned out okay. Yeah, I was okay you know we, we still made money, I mean we made more money than we would have it.
Alli Liberty :He sat on the couch.
Keith Liberty :Oh, that's absolutely, absolutely true. But greater than the money was the exposure for sure and the opportunity, the conversations. We made, new relationships. Yeah number one, the connection we now have with a very similar brand, soldier solutions. That in itself was was worth a lot. The relationships that we made with the new vendor, relationships we've made with people that are that were next to us, you know Mm-hmm, those friendships, those connections. And then you look at the outreach for the business, because I Think that maybe the entire time I was there, maybe four or five people came in that that I already know that are existing customers and friends of our right the rest was all new all new people, so many new conversations. And well, I kept trying to tell myself because I was beating myself up. What I kept trying to think about was every time I would look at the stack of coat hangers, you know from from all the clothes we sold even though it wasn't a lot, and it took us all day and weekend to come close to feeling one rack. When I looked at the pile of hangers that were there, every single one of those to me signified a new person.
Alli Liberty :Yeah, I'm gonna signify the new opportunity, right it was. It was the only yeah, cuz those people that came in that we knew Maybe they bought a new t-shirt right so I mean the majority of those.
Keith Liberty :Yeah there was, there was two families specifically that came out to see us and they each bought a couple things right. And then Lisa and bettley and Zoe came up to see us. But Most people there had no clue who we were right, no, nothing about us. Right, they know about us now. So we have to ask ourselves if we had a down event, is there's still a good event? And I feel like I'm gonna have to chalk this event up as a good event because we had a new audience. We had new obstacles, new friendships in a new outlook. So we got to take it right. We have to take the wins and the losses and stack them up and hopefully at the end of the year they all average out. But we accomplished some things this week. I tackled the fair by myself. You hauled the camper our longest distance fair. I think we've done right. So that's a win. It was a couple hours right, so a lot of time on the interstate as well. So you think about those things. We battled the conditions, lost two days to the rain, dealt with the heat, but we met a lot of new people. We started new friendships, new Relationships and we met a whole new audience. Because I think about that stack of coat hangers and how that Actually is a symbol for all the new people, all the new faces, all those people that are going to be out there Rocking our gear. So yes, the answer America is a down event can still be a good event. You just got to change the way you look at things. You got to change your outlook and find a much more positive outlook. Hopefully, the trend of down events financially changes as we're gearing up for another friggin event, another road show, another solo show for most of it. At the time that we're recording this, we're in the middle of a real busy week, getting ready to rock and roll. Let's see. Saturday we actually are going to be traveling two hours north as I will be DJing a wedding, and then two hours home on Saturday evening as well. So four hours in the car, stair to the, plus a wedding ceremony, and then on Sunday we're gonna hitch up the camper and we're heading back to top some the top, some fare, the scene of the crime. This is actually, you know, the fair where we might have had a little camper incidente, where we tune a can the camper. But we're gonna put that behind us because this time around it's gonna be a much better event.
Alli Liberty :And a new camper.
Keith Liberty :This might be it. This might be the maiden voyage, mm-hmm. I mean, is it a bad omen if we take the new camper to the scene of the crime? For the old camper, though, or are we like Overcoming odds, and you know?
Alli Liberty :is it a bad omen to bring the camper to that we tune a can't?
Keith Liberty :Good question, good question but, again, another busy week. We just got home on Monday and we're trying to get caught up on some things. To get things Rock-and-roll and big wedding on Saturday, hauling the camper on Sunday, setting up for the fair on Monday because it starts on Tuesday and I believe I'll be at the fair by myself Tuesday, wednesday, thursday, all day, friday I think it's the wife, you know, isn't fed up to make sure she'll up Friday evening and then we'll have Saturday, sunday, and come on home Monday and Then I think we're gonna have maybe a week or two weeks and I'll be at Bentley's DJing again and Then, I think, it's on to the Windsor fair, because we are into Windsor, so we're excited about that. So that's how. A little roundup scare them up, stack them up. Recap on the event season it's been an absolute freaking challenge, but I think about all the obstacles we overcame last week. I think about those new faces and new places and Might not have made all I hope to make, but we made a lot of smiles, a lot of relationships and I'm gonna chalk that up as a win. Gotcha Loud, proud American, is a lifestyle brand Dedicated and determined to represent the American spirit, with an unrelenting commitment to provide made in the USA products. If you would like to join the 2% of Americans that buy American and support American, head on over to www loud, proud American dot shop. Together we can bring back American Manufacturing. All right, all right, all right, so do you? When I started the show off, I mentioned that you might just be sitting on the Shall. I say Audis, is that a word Audis? Dollar store story I've ever heard in my life, which I Mean number one. How many dollar store stories does everybody have? Probably not many, but if I were to have a list of stories that took place the dollar store, I'm gonna take this one, but let the top Lord, help me, because we're all gonna need it. I think that's the meaning of this message you're about to give is the Lord might actually be helping you do it.
Alli Liberty :I have no idea. So while you were gone, I Went to not only the dollar store but the dollar 25 tree.
Keith Liberty :Okay, did they name it the dollar 25 tree?
Alli Liberty :No, I just did oh because everything's a dollar 25 now.
Keith Liberty :Inflation is a bitch. Even the dollar store is affected. Man, this is ridiculous.
Alli Liberty :The dollar tree has a three dollar and a five dollar section. Now, Not everything's a dollar 25 anyway. So I go to the dollar store and I am simply just like Stopped in my tracks because I discovered the three dollar in the five dollar section.
Keith Liberty :I'm like you're blown away by inflation. Yeah, I'm like what is this section? Yeah, this is an outrage.
Alli Liberty :What is this? The dollar, gentril.
Keith Liberty :Exactly. No, no, what am I getting? Knock off? Girls go cookies of the dollar gender, which sound delicious, but this guy, it's killing me. Anyways, keep going.
Alli Liberty :So I'm there just going through the aisles and I hear this lady Down the way and she's got like a little like Southern accent to her, like a little bit of a twang. Oh twang little twang to her little mark twang and she's like oh, oh, heavens, what is this? She also finds the three dollar and five dollar section, and so I Like, just give a good chuckle is the can I ask you this, the three dollar and five dollar section.
Keith Liberty :Are they like better products so they bring in better products, or, all of a sudden, some of their dollar products are now $3?
Alli Liberty :No, they did bring in better products. However, what I am going to tell you is this there's a couple of products that I did see in the $3 and $5 section that I was like I'll get that at Walmart cheaper. Ah yeah, good for you. Good for you for bringing in better quality items. However, don't always trust the dollar store.
Keith Liberty :Just because they're in the cheapest store might not be the cheapest price.
Alli Liberty :It's true, it's true.
Keith Liberty :Yep, it's damn true.
Alli Liberty :It's damn true. So, anyway, I go by my business. I am having a moment, ok. I'm literally just having a little retail therapy in the dollar store. Ok, I mean, if I'm going to have some retail therapy, at least it's in the dollar store. All right, ok, because everything that I put in my cart which was a whopping Wall and on a budget. Which was a whopping cart. Ok, I got some good things, but it was only a dollar.
Keith Liberty :You said whopping and I thought of whoppers. And I didn't think about whoppers, as in the burgers, I thought of whoppers, as in the little chocolate candies that you probably would the worst, you could probably get those at the dollar store. The worst candies I'd eat the fuck out of a gallon of those right now, one of those, a carton of those. I got this sweet tooth right now. As you're talking about the dollar store, tell you what.
Alli Liberty :All right, can I get to?
Keith Liberty :my store. Yeah, yeah, yeah, ok.
Alli Liberty :So I have this whopping cart right. I go over to the register and I notice there's a lady behind me and she has only a couple of things. And I was like, oh, you can go ahead of me. The Dollar Tree got the best of me. And she was like, oh, you too dear. And I looked around and I was like that's her, that's the lady I heard down the way, so she goes ahead of me, and when you're in the line you just make small talk.
Keith Liberty :Yeah.
Alli Liberty :So she grabs some grape gum and she makes a comment about whether it's any good. It's like icebreaker's grape and I was like to be honest. I've never tried it. I don't know. Grape isn't my go-to.
Keith Liberty :Not any of it, and so she's For anything. Really, I only eat grape popsicles.
Alli Liberty :No, not interested. And so she asks the cashier like do you know if this is any good? And he was like I'm sure it's fine. And she was like well, I'm six months pregnant and I don't know if he's going to want me to have that. I'm like okay, cool, like great Look good luck I don't know. So during this little interaction about being pregnant, she is telling me in the cashier about how she has a 14-year-old and now she's about to have a newborn and all she wants to do is just love her babies and love Jesus. And so, after saying that, she looks at me and she says do you have any children? And I said no, but I hope to one day, you know, maybe you know. And she looks me dead in my face and says, oh Lord, let's pray for a baby.
Keith Liberty :And I was like Right here in the dollar store.
Alli Liberty :Thank you, yes, thank you so much, like that's very kind of you.
Keith Liberty :Very sweet Mm-hmm.
Alli Liberty :I didn't think that we were going to actually pray in a dollar store Actually go through with it. That happened, yep. So she pays for her groceries, whatever she was buying, and grabs my hand and the cashier's hands. Okay, and we go into prayer.
Keith Liberty :So you guys form in a circle. Right now You're holding a hand of the cashier and a hand for this lady Yep, and she's got your hand and the cashier's hand.
Alli Liberty :Correct yeah, in the middle of the dollar store at the cash wrap.
Keith Liberty :Yep, were there other people in line?
Alli Liberty :Thankfully no, okay, thankfully no. So she goes into the heavenly father. You know what I do, do what you do. Pray for this woman, pray for her unborn fetus.
Keith Liberty :Take care of her, oh fetus.
Alli Liberty :And she just goes into this spiel. It lasts I'm not even kidding you for two minutes. So I'm sitting there, standing there, and I literally like peek an eye open.
Keith Liberty :Okay, Like is this really happening? Sneak a peek from the sheets here.
Alli Liberty :Tell me this is not happening, like I am dreaming. Right now I'm going to wake up in my bed like this is a dream. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, nope. This woman, head bowed, eyes closed. Cashier, he, very important, he is also head bowed, eyes closed.
Keith Liberty :He props to him. Because at this moment in time and in the world we live in, I'm surprised a cashier went along with it, that he wasn't just like get the fuck out of my laying, because people, I mean we could talk about brutal customer service. Disrespectful, absolutely, oh man so the fact that this gentleman actually got in there with you. Oh, he went through with it. Oh yeah.
Alli Liberty :Oh yeah, and so she does her whole thing and we're all you know doing the thing right. So then she just lays out this like amen and hallelujah, and I was like, without even thinking I was like amen, okay, and I take my hands back really quick. I was just like, okay, we're done here, and I continue just putting my stuff like back on the, on the conveyor belt, and so she like grabs her stuff and she's, you know, have a blessed day you too. Yes, ma'am, you know we're.
Keith Liberty :Let's, let's chalk up a few things. Number one the sweetness of this woman. Oh, absolutely, I love it.
Alli Liberty :Absolutely sweet, like not not for nothing, but you know after. So let me just back up a little bit. I had, just before going into the dollar store, had just gone to my MMA's grave and I haven't been there since the funeral. So I'm having a moment. That's why I'm having some retail therapy.
Keith Liberty :That's important ingredients there. So you're leaving. I just left the cemetery visiting MMA. You haven't been back there and you know, like you know what I need a minute. I'm going to go to the dollar store get some therapy on a budget.
Alli Liberty :Exactly, I needed something, but then, like I just kind of oh, you found something. Well, I actually went in there for the like the moisture wickening containers for the camp. So originally, that's, I had a mission, but the dollar store took over my life, and so it was just like I needed. I needed her there.
Keith Liberty :You know what I mean.
Alli Liberty :Like I didn't think I needed her there, but it was very nice because, as if you've listened to the podcast, you know that MMA is very big into spiritual, into her religion and that sort of thing.
Keith Liberty :So for this woman to come out of nowhere, just out of nowhere, I can say that I mean, this story can sound really crazy to a lot of people, but I'm also going to say that that doesn't just happen. She doesn't just find you. There's got to be. You know there's a reason there. You know there's a. There's definitely a meaning there. You know I'm not jinxing us into a baby tomorrow but, I'm just saying, like that message was for you you needed that message right and for the cashier to partake in it, for you be willing to partake in it, then there's a level of just power in that woman's presence. You know what I mean. So that's pretty awesome, hilarious.
Alli Liberty :Hilarious. That's not the end of the story. Okay, we're not done. So she gathers her stuff and she goes to leave. Before she gets to the door she turns around and she says the next time I see you here you'll be waddling.
Keith Liberty :And I said girl, I might just come back from Chipotle. You see me waddling tomorrow, you picking my lunch tomorrow.
Alli Liberty :I said yes, ma'am, have a blessed day. She goes out the door, so me and the cashier are. We're just like quiet for a couple seconds and I literally didn't even know what else to say to him other than thanks for being a part of that moment with me and he was like that was probably the most awkward but entertaining things that I've ever been a part of, without a doubt, and I was like yeah, yeah, he's like that will never happen again and I was like I hope not.
Keith Liberty :I hope not. If it does, then we've had the wool pulled over our eyes. She just walking around, blessing everybody to tell her Literally.
Alli Liberty :So I thanked him for being a part of that and he was like, yeah, that'll never happen again. And so I finished cashing out. And so, without even him skipping a beat, he looks at me and says, well, good luck to you, yeah. And I said practice makes perfect, my friend.
Keith Liberty :Godspeed.
Alli Liberty :And I walk out. So as I'm walking out with my buggy and all I hear some like bumping music and I was like trying to find where that music's coming from. I have no idea, and so I get to my car and I'm putting my bags in there. Yeah, there was multiple. A dollar tree got me. And all of a sudden I hear hey, I'm still putting my stuff in the car. She goes hey you. I turn around and it's the woman.
Keith Liberty :Okay.
Alli Liberty :And she says to me it's a girl, you better start shopping.
Keith Liberty :Yeah, you've been shopping, all right, good lord.
Alli Liberty :And I was like, yes, ma'am, have a good day. And she just zooms off.
Keith Liberty :Geez love wheeze.
Alli Liberty :I have faith that that woman sat in her car and prayed on it.
Keith Liberty :Oh, without a doubt.
Alli Liberty :Like for the fact that we just had that moment inside. Okay, then, for me to come out, probably a few minutes later, for you to then tell me that there's a possibility of a girl.
Keith Liberty :Oh, she didn't say it was a possibility.
Alli Liberty :She told you oh she told me Well, that's what I'm saying, but to me it was like she prayed on it. She got a message and it was brought to me from whoever upstairs God, spiritual side. What have you? That message was intended to me for whatever reason, whenever, but I'll tell you what.
Keith Liberty :You ain't having a baby, naming it Dollar General.
Alli Liberty :Hey, you're right now and when we get pregnant.
Keith Liberty :Dollar Princess and Dollar General.
Alli Liberty :If and when we get pregnant and it finds out to be a girl, y'all will know about it. I'm coming on this podcast and I'm telling you that.
Keith Liberty :Dollar Tree was right, I'm a waddle around Southern Maine to find that woman. So have you been back, or have you, I mean, also dive too deep into your shop and habits, but have you said, I just can't go back there?
Alli Liberty :Oh no, I went back.
Keith Liberty :That's what I figured.
Alli Liberty :And he told and the same cashier was there and he told me that nobody had been blessed in the Dollar Tree. There will not be any praying today.
Keith Liberty :Good Lord. Oh, god, let's tell you right now that's worth more than a buck.
Alli Liberty :That was. The experience alone was worth it.
Keith Liberty :I couldn't believe that. When you told me that story when I got home I was like where the hell have you been this?
Alli Liberty :happened and then days went by before I actually came to see you. I could not tell you over the phone. You needed to be a part of this.
Keith Liberty :I don't think I would have believed it.
Alli Liberty :I went to work the next day and my friend Michelle, who I work with, literally told me you need to go back and get the footage and I was like do you think I could?
Keith Liberty :Yeah, it would be pretty awesome. I could see that going viral for sure.
Alli Liberty :So there was this day.
Keith Liberty :There's your positive experience and a few minutes ago I don't know how long it's been now where you're talking about how you go on to like different vendor booths and stuff and people don't greet you they don't talk to you, you don't get great service. I'm actually I feel bad if someone comes to my booth and I don't notice them because I am on my phone, because then I'm like fuck, I'm one of those guys Because you could be at a fair and not see somebody for an hour and a half, and then you know they come in, they sneak in, and then yeah, and you're like shit, I'm like okay, we give a glimpse, like a gemoke.
Alli Liberty :Yeah.
Keith Liberty :But I always try to overcome it and start conversation. But you're going to a lot of these places, or let's say you're ordering food at a fair. A lot of times the people that are like traveling, that are like on that carnival circuit. They're just dicks to you, right?
Alli Liberty :And they're grubby sometimes.
Keith Liberty :Yeah, so you shouldn't order. There is what I'm saying, but the point is, customer service sucks, right?
Alli Liberty :Most of the time.
Keith Liberty :And we've talked for days on this podcast about experiences of bad customer service, so I don't want to profile your shopping habits or your level of spending.
Alli Liberty :Falling on a budget yeah.
Keith Liberty :Yeah, so maybe you're setting yourself up here because you did have one rock and experience. The Dollar tree budget had an unfortunate one at the Goodwill Not so much Goodwill being involved over there.
Alli Liberty :This is true.
Keith Liberty :Can you share with the people your moment of rage at the Goodwill?
Alli Liberty :Oh sure, I'd love to. So here we are balling on a budget. Okay, my entire wardrobe I will put it out to the universe.
Keith Liberty :Is loud about American.
Alli Liberty :Your wardrobe. Yeah, no, wow.
Keith Liberty :We are definitely fighting.
Alli Liberty :I mean, there's a good percentage of it. But what I was going to say is that I'm balling on a budget.
Keith Liberty :So, with that being said, my entire wardrobe or anything you don't steal from your husband you acquired from the Goodwill or a yard sale.
Alli Liberty :What I was going to say is thrifting.
Keith Liberty :Oh, that makes sense.
Alli Liberty :Which also means that I sell that from my husband.
Keith Liberty :That's considered thrifting because it didn't belong to me, okay, okay.
Alli Liberty :Okay, so thrifting is my go to. The yard sales marketplace, like you said, goodwill specifically.
Keith Liberty :Okay.
Alli Liberty :So I go to the Goodwill and I find some super cute things Like I found a jumpsuit and I found a dress and to my surprise guess what? The freaking dressing room is closed. Okay, fine, the dressing room is closed during COVID COVID's over. Yeah, she got them.
Keith Liberty :Get with the program.
Alli Liberty :Okay, get over it, we're done. So I go home, try these things on. Keep the receipts go back the next day, okay.
Keith Liberty :So, no dressing room. Make a purchase, just assume this is going to fit, because you can't try it on Right you come home. You got some items don't fit. Yeah, no dressing room. Yeah, no dressing room. We tried your home dressing room. I'm going to go back and return these bitches, yeah.
Alli Liberty :I'm going to go Swap them out or something. Right, I'm going to do an exchange. So one jumpsuit and it doesn't fit too big, which, okay, this diet's working. Like it's too big, like I'm pretty excited about it. So I go find some shorts that I'm just going to swap it out for. And, yet again, to my surprise, I go back to the dressing room and there's a sign on the door Sorry for the inconvenience, or changing rooms are closed. Okay, when I walked into the Goodwill, okay, first thing, when you walk into the Goodwill, there's your cash wraps. Right, there's two grown ass women standing at the cash wrap playing fucking Polly Pocket.
Keith Liberty :Unbelievable.
Alli Liberty :Okay, polly Pocket. Polly fucking Pocket I haven't seen a Polly Pocket in 20 years. Okay, no. These broads are sitting there playing Polly Pocket.
Keith Liberty :I mean Polly Pocket pool, but I ain't seen no Polly Pocket, regardless to which zone.
Alli Liberty :So I go to the lady and I was like listen, I completely understand, like I completely understand that the changing rooms are closed. However, I just spoke to you a minute ago. I'm trying to do an exchange. I need to know if these shorts are going to fit, because that's why I'm here. I'm literally here because these didn't fit, because I couldn't try them on, because your changing room is closed.
Keith Liberty :Bingo she says no, we can't do it.
Alli Liberty :There's a sign on the door. We can't do it. And I said can you walk me back? There? There's two of you, you have two cashiers. The place is dead, like there's probably three of us here in the entire store. Can you walk me back open the changing room? I'll try these on and then I'll come back, we'll do the even exchange and I'll be on my way. Nope, can't, it's closed. It's closed. And I said okay, fine, so I have five pairs of shorts in my hand, the likelihood that I'm going to exchange two of them and buy three of them.
Keith Liberty :Right.
Alli Liberty :Any business owner would have been like okay, yeah, absolutely, Let me do that real quick for you. Let me do that for you.
Keith Liberty :Anybody with a common clue or an employee cashing a paycheck should go ahead and do that. Nope, unless you're in a competitive game of polypocket. I mean then, maybe I just couldn't see myself separating myself.
Alli Liberty :So, to my surprise, nope, they would not open the changing room at all whatsoever. Mind you, I have my receipt and I have the item that I'm trying to exchange, which literally says yesterday's date on it. Okay, so I said that's fine, then I'm going to do a return. So the lady playing polypocket has to stop playing polypocket, walk around the cash register, walk around to the other cash register, get on the phone, call the manager over, wait for the manager to walk over and come to the register. Meanwhile you could have just walked me down, so amount of time.
Keith Liberty :This is already handled. And they're keeping their money and making some Correct Correct.
Alli Liberty :Nope, didn't happen. So manager comes up and she sees that there's a stack of clothes on the counter. She says anything wrong with it. And I said, yeah, there's something wrong with it. It doesn't fit me. I said, and I would have known that if your dressing room was open. She said excuse me. She said excuse me. I said, if your dressing room was open and polypocket over here wasn't you know, you have two cashiers and they're playing polypocket. If one of them could have, you know, managed the dressing room, maybe we wouldn't have been in this situation. And she's like okay, so there's nothing wrong with it. And I was like that's correct. I just couldn't try it on. And she said are these what you're exchanging? And I said I would love to, I would love to exchange these for this item. However, guess what? Your changing room is still closed.
Keith Liberty :Hmm.
Alli Liberty :She says to me yeah, we have people leaving for the day, and I said, right, but as I mentioned before, you have two cashiers up here playing polypocket.
Keith Liberty :How do you play polypocket? What is? I don't even know.
Alli Liberty :I have no idea. All I know is that they had these tiny little polypocket figurines and they were like dancing them there on the counter.
Keith Liberty :That's a Grown, ass, grown ass, supposed adults Correct, yeah, yeah.
Alli Liberty :So I said to the manager I go, no, I'm not returning these. You won't let me try them on. Do you want to go and open up the changing room? I said because I have five pairs of shorts here and I don't want to come back to do another exchange. I literally want to wear the items that I'm walking out the door with. I want to know that they fit.
Keith Liberty :I enjoy the goodwill, but I don't want to spend three lunch breaks in a row here.
Alli Liberty :Seriously, I don't have time for that shit. My entire wardrobe, as I've mentioned, is literally 90% goodwill. I go thrifting all the freaking time. I am here religiously. I have a goodwill membership card. For God's sake. I was just here yesterday Check my receipt, yeah, like. And she was like nope, sorry, I can't do it. And I was like, without even thinking, I was like ma'am COVID's over.
Keith Liberty :Yeah.
Alli Liberty :You have plenty of members here. I said you have five back there sorting goods that were just dropped off to you, Two cashiers up here and there's three customers.
Keith Liberty :Seriously, as a fucking manager, the fact you couldn't walk to the door, open it, wait there for two minutes and be like okay, which ones do you want to exchange? Like mind blowing.
Alli Liberty :I literally said to the manager. I said let me just tell you that I have full intentions of exchanging two of these and buying the other three if they fit. I need shorts. And she was like sorry. So I said to her I go, whatever, just do the exchange, then it's fine. Or I said do the return and I pull out my card and I said do you want the card back? She goes no. I said what do you mean? What do you mean? No, she goes oh, I'm going to put it on a gift card. I said the fuck You're doing what? You're putting it on a gift card. So I repeated myself and I said I'm sorry, you're going to put it on a gift card. And she said yeah, we have to. And I said or you could just open up the dressing room.
Keith Liberty :So it'll take you way longer to process that gift card than to just open the fucking dressing room and also you would just there within 24 hours of the fucking receipt and it's going to go on a gift card. Yeah, yep, I don't know.
Alli Liberty :So right now I have the gift card in my wallet and I'm very mad at Goodwill right now, like it just doesn't, it's mind blowing, like it doesn't make any sense. Like I have a bag of stuff, I religiously, religiously, donate stuff to the Goodwill. Like, buy from the Goodwill, donate to the Goodwill, I'm good. I'm good right now. You know what that will sit in there for a week, a week.
Keith Liberty :Yeah yeah, strong, stronger, strong, like an oak.
Alli Liberty :But the point is it's just aggravating.
Keith Liberty :That. Here's the thing. Number one the level of customer service is so disappointing that a grown ass adult would be playing Poly pocket. Poly fucking pocket at a cash register. Not just one adult, two supposed adults, that's bad enough. Then when the manager comes up, you would think that what person would be competent enough to be like, yeah, of course we can do an exchange, of course we can open the dressing room? And then when I got paid to the front as a manager and those things weren't already handled and I saw my employees fucking diddle in pocket pool over there, I would have lost my shit Like never mind defending them, I would have lost my fucking shit.
Alli Liberty :No, they put their poly pockets away when the manager came. Yeah, they were certain to put those in their pocket.
Keith Liberty :Well.
Alli Liberty :So when I mentioned poly pocket, the look on both of their faces looked like they saw a damn ghost. So I will remind you that I did have five pairs of shorts in my hand and I looked at the manager and I looked at all polypockets and I said y'all can put those away.
Keith Liberty :Yeah, you don't want to open the door. It's gonna take you a lot longer to put five fucking pairs of shorts away.
Alli Liberty :Find where they go.
Keith Liberty :Re-stock my exchange process, my gift card, put my polys back in my pocket and quit touching my pool. Cue, yep. Yeah. Well, that's got some service for you people. That's so disgusting. If you're not cashing yourself out, if you're not bagging yourself, you know doing all this shit and then having to produce a receipt to somebody that's half fucking dead at the door on the way out if you're not doing all those things, then you're gonna run into fucking polypocket. The only way you're gonna get good service is by picking your own groceries, bagging them, checking them out and then having the warden inspect your goddamn receipt. So hopefully you treat yourself well as a customer, it's true, but I don't know, man, it's, it's out of control. And then what I don't understand is the person that you might encounter whether it's at your work or us being on the road, as a vendor that comes in and gives you an attitude about like service.
Alli Liberty :You know what I mean.
Keith Liberty :It's like you know what, if you're gonna come into my tent and then give me a hard time about something, there is no way in this ever-loving world that you go anywhere else and get better fucking service. You know what I mean. Like you're getting bottom of the barrel, piss-poor service everywhere as you go. The fact I have a pulse and I don't tell you to suck it. You should probably be excited by the experience. Instead, you want to come in and be a fucking big ol' Karen. It's unbelievable.
Alli Liberty :The problem that I run into and this is like a trauma response, I will put it out on the line is that I match energies Like if you come at me sideways.
Keith Liberty :I am gonna try.
Alli Liberty :I'm gonna put an effort to smooth you over as nicely as I can at first, and then, if you keep going, I'm done, I'm done, I'm gonna say it, I'm gonna say this there's some, there's there be some times where you misread energy and you might come out like mm-hmm, yeah, and I'm like hey, yeah, we could take that down a little, yeah.
Keith Liberty :I'm not talking about like in an exchange situation. I'm talking about like maybe like a meeting somebody situation, like I'm like them well and why it looked at me funny exactly you might come a little hot on the trigger from time to time, but I do know if you were trying to process a return at your favorite store, you probably would have been pretty polite about it, because you're there every six minutes.
Alli Liberty :I was.
Keith Liberty :I started off polite yeah, didn't end that way no. Polly pocket.
Alli Liberty :I called. I called those two broads Polly pocket like six times that calm, that every time you seem. I am.
Keith Liberty :Polly and pocket yeah, where's pocket?
Alli Liberty :yeah, where's Polly, where's pocket? I'm done, it will happen it's on rail.
Keith Liberty :Here's the secret, america, here's the secret, if you want good customer service be a good customer hang on, man. If you want good customer service, you want good quality products, you want to enjoy your time, you want to give your money to a good business that appreciates your money in your business. You can find us at many events all year long. We're gonna give you service, we're gonna give you a smile, we're gonna give you products to last a while. Mm-hmm, that's what we do attitude don't you be coming in here all sideways? put you over my damn knee boy, put you in my own pocket. You know what that ass I do.
Alli Liberty :I do. Before we, you know, get off of here, have to go out with a bang and tell them about my good experience on the marketplace.
Keith Liberty :Okay, all right, I'm gonna let you finish it up. We're we're crossing an hour here, so sorry, kevin. Kevin's feeling on the cardio deck out there today, so I'm gonna let you finish off with the shenanigans. Okay, all right, you take it.
Alli Liberty :You take the wheel, cleat us so, as we were talking about thrift shopping, I like to prove the marketplace, find some free stuff, find some good deals, and I, for one, found a sweet, really nice deal on a what is it? Seven feet cabinet cabinet.
Keith Liberty :You have that suckers least seven feet tall, as tall as I am, and it's gonna be three feet deep yeah, free free dot com.
Alli Liberty :Mm-hmm, nice piece, yeah, nice piece yep, drove all the way to town with the pickup truck. This is if you're on my social media, you may have seen my posts, as I'm not allowed alone with my husband's truck, because this is why anytime you take the truck for something like if your car is in the shop, I get a message like hey, we gotta drive.
Keith Liberty :You know 40 minutes away and pick up two million pallets, we gotta go you appreciate it. Three towns away and get these two round bills of. Hey, we know we gotta go over here pick up a cabinet. I gotta go, yeah, I mean. This is why I'm not trusted with a pickup truck of my own or like you just come home with stuff in it like that wasn't even wasn't even planned, or you'd be driving down the road and see a lamp pull over and throw it in. So you got a free cabinet. I know, something else you got huge free cabinet.
Alli Liberty :It was perfect. However, this thing is probably what like 40 pounds, 50 pounds.
Keith Liberty :I ain't tried to move it, but they saw the size.
Alli Liberty :It's way heavier than that, yeah it's pretty sturdy and yeah, so little old me five to shimmy that seven foot shell out of the back of the truck into into the garage in a rainstorm made it happen, but else did you get for free this week.
Keith Liberty :I got you a sit-stand station that retails for $1200 yeah, for free just gonna buy a new clamp or something right? Yeah, $20 part to our own machine holds dual monitors free dot com free dot com what are those? What did you come home with today for free? What was that?
Alli Liberty :there's a lot of canisters can canisters of sorts? Canisters those are pretty fancy for canning canisters over there they're canisters for, like your, flour, coffee, sugar and there's a salt and pepper shaker nice their thing price perfect. Michelle always asks me how do you always find these?
Keith Liberty :things and I go. So the past week you got a free lamp for the office, you got a free cabinet for the G Raj, you got a free sit-stand station for my office and so free canisters for the kitchen. Is that about it? Did you get anything else for free? Probably when I can't remember yeah, you probably can't bring it up. You're waiting to give it to me for Christmas or some shit oh, I got some free protein actually. I'm about to give you some. Hey, you said, practice makes perfect.
Alli Liberty :I'm about to go practice for a girl no hey, you said it, not me good Lord.
Keith Liberty :Well, if that sums up your freeness, I think maybe we can wrap this show up and say customer service might be dead unless you buy from loud, proud America which you can do all next week at the fair we'll be at top some fair your damn that we will then we're headed to Windsor fair.
Alli Liberty :Windsor, litchfield and then, Jesus tell you what a lot of proud American tour rolls on and if you can't find us on at any of those because you're out of the state, you can find us at loud, proud American dot shop good work and we might even come to your state.
Keith Liberty :You don't know. You don't know. You don't know what's coming. You don't know my schedule. It could be happening. I just got to get some more dependable wheels, but that's all I got. Thank you for supporting. That's it and that's all big smiles. 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 share the struggle podcast dot com. Subscribe to grow our tribe on Apple podcast, spotify, google podcast, 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 a Graham cracker, the Instagram or the tickety-tock but the kids be a tickety talking the tick tock 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 www loud, proud American dot shop 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.
