Full Circle Confidence

Full Circle Feel Good Setup

SPEAKER_01 0:00

This week's episode of Share the Struggle Podcast is a full circle feel-good episode. An unexpected request provides the boost of confidence I never knew I needed, and it provokes some reflection and new direction. 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. Ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh. What it do? What it do? What it how did it do? Good loud almighty. Am I so excited to be back with you? Oh, it is true. It is damn true. Why? Because I love you. How do you do? Boys and girls, chipmunks and squirrels, children of all ages, I welcome you to that podcast. Perfectly, precisely, beautifully named Share the Struggle. Why? Because everybody struggles. But the truth is, boys, girls, chipmunks and squirrels, if you are bold enough, courageous enough, and willing to share your story, your struggles, your journey, then I will tell the truth to you. Courage and strength comes from sharing that story. Number one for you, that's the underlying benefit that we really haven't talked about. I do this intro all the time, and I don't think I highlight enough of the benefit, the personal benefit I get from sharing some of the things that I go through and that I grow through. And I know the same thing to be true for my wife. Over the past few months, she has been a real trooper and she's been carrying the show, coming on here, sharing a lot of our stories, and she has more to come. I'm excited for some upcoming episodes for her. And um, it's true, folks, when you share those things, and I'm I'm gonna say this the more difficult it is to share, the more um embarrassing the uh more frightening something might be to get off your chest, doing so creates a great relief. So I hope there's a couple things that come from this. Number one, I hope it encourages you that whatever it is you're going through, share what it is. Get it off your chest. Because there's so many things that we just we just bottle up and we swallow down and we put it into storage, okay? We just put too much crap in our attics, and before you know it, there ain't nobody going to your yard sale, okay? You're just dwelling and swelling on all that crap in your cellar. And I'm in my garage and it's kind of cluttered right now. My wife's been doing a great job cleaning it up. Um, my business and stuff has taken over uh space in our life, and you guys have heard that story for quite some time, but maybe that's what provoked this storage philosophy here. But but it's true, the things that you think about so often in life that are weighing you down, that are holding you down, you don't often share them with people. And I think that um I want to encourage you, every one of you, to do that, and I also want to tell you that it's very uplifting and fulfilling to share the stuff you've gone through, whatever that is you might be going through. So, over the past few weeks, my wife sharing that story, I know there's been a great sense of relief just talking about it, just being heard, and then getting those follow-up messages from so many of you. So I appreciate all of you that have reached out to her and encouraged her. That means a lot to me. And I want to tell any of you that are listening that if someday, somehow, some way you would like to share what it is you're going through, then I offer this platform to you. I welcome you to join me, and I am willing to tell you and guarantee you there's a tremendous benefit that goes to you by sharing just what it is you're going through. Now, that's one benefit that's the selfish benefit. That's uh that's the most rewarding benefit as far as instant reward, instant gratification. The greater benefit is one that we don't often always hear about sometimes we get to know about but there's no doubt, sharing what it is you're going through, it inspires and it gives courage and strength to others. There's safety in numbers, folks. When you are willing to share the stuff you're going through, then people realize they are not alone. And the truth is, after 305 consecutive weeks of Share the Struggle podcast, we have built ourselves a very positive, very beautiful little tribe right here. Okay? The old positive vibe tribe. With that being said, thank you to each and every one of you that have been here since day one, July 2020. You believe it? We're coming up on six years, man. It's out of control. Thank you. Put your ones up. I acknowledge you, I appreciate you, I recognize you, and I humbly thank you. If this is episode one for you, then I welcome you. And I too appreciate you. And I'm gonna let you know you can find all things podcast related at www.share the strugglepodcast.com. We do have some social media avenues as well. I'm not very great at posting on those. That's a confession for you. That's a full frontal crotch for us confession right there. Not that great at that. Just gonna put that out there. I gotta get better at it. It's hard to um juggle and manage everything, okay? Small business being the one behind the small business trying to navigate everything, just home life, new data life, you know what I'm saying? I mean, and I got a nearly two-year-old little one, the commitment to the consecutive 305 weeks of the show. It adds up, okay? I'm not making excuses over here. I'm just they ain't excuses, they truthers, okay? No excuses, just truth is. Too much baby talk. Well, I find myself rambling. I apologize. But what I'm not gonna apologize for is telling you if you want to see me, I would love to meet you. I would love to greet you, and I would love to um sell you some great, beautiful, proudly made in America merchandise. Where, when, and how you might ask? We are going this weekend to see the extended family over to Ledgeway Farm for their annual open house. Join us on Saturday, 140 Stage Road, Pittston, Maine. 10 a.m. to three PM. I believe that's accurate. 10 to 3. Come on over and see me and the extended fam over to Ledgeway Farm, plus plenty of other vendors, lots of other vendors. Um, you can buy stuff, you can eat stuff, okay? You got uh artisans and you got food vendors, you got live entertainment, you got baby goats, you got stuff to keep the kiddos busy, free admission. Come on out, support the fam. I'll see you Saturday at a Ledgeway Farm, and you can catch me Sunday at the Bonnie Eagle Car Show. I believe this is the 46th annual Bonnie Eagle Car Show. It'll be our third year in a row at the car show, and uh, we're looking forward to being back there. So uh we'll be neighbors with our friends from Flippin' Customized, as we have been for the past few years. We like getting together, spending some time together right there. So come on out and find us on Saturday, Ledgeway Farm, Sunday at the Bonnie Eagle Car Show. And I gotta let you know, we are looking for an event for Memorial Weekend. We um had some applications fall through that didn't didn't come about, and we explored the avenue of um rekindling a relationship on going back on uh some previous decisions and um swallowing some pride in doing some um self-reflection. And uh yeah, let's just say that I took those steps, I worked through that process, and um I decided not to do it. So um with that being said, we are open for Memorial Weekend, and I have not had a memorial weekend off for this business for the five years we were on we've been on the road. So uh the only time we weren't on the road for Memorial Day was was COVID. So hoping we can fix that, that we can remedy that. I did find a couple of potential events in my area that I've reached out, but I have not heard back yet. As soon as I do, I will share that with you. But hopefully we are going someplace brand new. I um asked for some help and uh some people reached out, and we are trying to get ourselves a new event. So I'll keep you posted on that. But for this weekend, you know where we're gonna be Ledgeway Farm, Bonnie Eagle Car Show, and then uh next week's show, I should let you know what I come up with for Memorial Day weekend. So that's that, folks. That is where we're at, and that gives you an opportunity to come out and support the brand and and the mission, and we would greatly appreciate that if you were able to do so. With all that said, it kind of goes hand in hand in today's conversation or today's subject because I mentioned in the beginning of the show, the B roll or whatever you want to call it, the intro, that this is gonna be a full circle feel-good episode. An unexpected request that provided a boost of confidence that I never knew I needed. It provoked some reflection in a new direction and I'm pretty damn excited about it. Last week, I think it was, when uh my wife was on, I think it was her episode last week, I mentioned that I had um a really awesome opportunity, a full circle moment come up that I was really excited to share with everybody. But I wanted to take a back seat that week and give my wife the opportunity to uh share some pretty exciting stuff. And um, I wanted to do that and just let my wife have um the time and the opportunity to um just to share and be transparent, and it was great that it was um a Mother's Day episode. So it was just important for me to take the back seat, let the wife talk about her uh women's conference, and really try to empower and implore some some of y'all beautiful Loud Proud American ladies out there. So I took a back seat last week. I didn't take the opportunity to share this full circle moment, but I'm back this week, and I'm ready to share this week. Gotcha. LooProud 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.loudproudamerican.shop. Together, we can bring back American manufacturing. Alright, alright, alright. It's been a little bit since we had ourselves a little gut-checking inlude, little musical interlude. Might as well drop in a nice little advertisement for Loud Proud American. Seeing so this podcast is properly precisely sponsored by Loud Proud American. And uh this is a Loud, Proud American, heavily centric, focused type of episode. So why not drop it in there, right? I think I'm right. You know I'm right. We're all right. We're all alright. You bloody well right, you know. Anyways, it's some really bad a cappella karaoke right there, which I'm embarrassed both of us. You had to listen to it, I had to do it. It's not cool. But there's nothing left to it but to do it. Here's the thing, folks. This whole full circle moment for me came from a message on Instagram, and I received a message from a mentor in the apparel business, and uh somebody that I really contribute a lot of my success to and the fact I'm still actually in business. Because when I started this brand, if y'all go back and listen, if you've been around since day one, my loyal ones, I appreciate you, recognize you, acknowledge you. You already know this to be true. Those of you that are just jumping on board here, you'd have to go back and um listen to some of the older episodes. When I started this brand six years ago, I left a career to chase a dream. I spent 10 years working for Harley Davidson. I ended up becoming an owner of a dealership, majority partner didn't want to work anymore, decided he wanted to sell it. I wanted to do something and build something for myself, and for some crazy reason, I thought it would be a tremendous idea to start an apparel brand. Being a guy with no clue how to design apparel, no clue how to design anything, um, it was pretty risky. But I wanted to build something that was American made. My passion has always been to be an American brand. And knowing how very few apparel brands in this country are made in this country, that was the passion, that was the calling, that was the connection to the brand. So I decided to start this brand. Now, one of the things to do would have been to buy screen print equipment and start to figure those things out on my own. And um not having a design background, not knowing how far this was going to go and how this was gonna work, not having the space to really dedicate to dark rooms and and and having um like all the the press, like the the the ink storage, everything, the heaters, the dryers, all of it. I was looking for more of a all-in-one type of solution in social media, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, sold me on what is called a white toner printer. And I invested about$20,000 right out the gate on equipment and product. And I started on this journey to launch my brand, and I failed miserably, and I failed repeatedly, and COVID happened, and this country shut down. And as hard as that was and as difficult as that was, it was an absolute blessing for me and my brand because I was failing again and again, over and over. I was throwing more screwed up, burnt up, beat up t-shirts in the trash than I was putting on the shelf. I quickly began to realize that the equipment I invested in was not to the quality level that my brand required. It couldn't keep up with the production and it didn't provide the durability. I was down on my luck, I was thinking I was about to be out of business before I ever really hit my feet on the street and started to make a living. I was throwing out hats, t-shirts, sweatshirts, I was screwing up faster than you can imagine. And it was depressing and it was frustrating, and it was one of the most difficult times of my life to come from a business where I thought I was one of the best in the world at doing what I do. I'd go up against anyone, anywhere, doing what I do. To walking into a room being the novice, to going into night school as you know, a 30-something-year-old man, I don't even know how old I was at the time, and there with kids and um that knew way more than me, could do much more than me. And I'm just trying to learn my way through it, just trying to fail my way through it. All those mess ups, all those mistakes, man, it was weighing on me. And I was on YouTube and I started seeing these videos from a couple of influencers, and one of them was Stan Banks, and uh he had a few different brands and businesses. One of them was T-shirt side hustle, where he was showing people how to make extra income, especially during the pandemic, um, just making some t-shirts and just getting extra side cash if you wanted, but he could also help you to go as far as you wanted to go. And I listened to Stan every single day. He made content multiple times a day, every day of the week, and I listened all the time. And I would chime in and write things from time to time, and um occasionally he would comment back, and I thought that I was interacting with a celebrity. It was incredible, you know, that just jolt of um boost of dopamine, being like, hey man, this guy recognized me. He had a conversation with me. I started jumping in, uh, watching all of his lives, and he would see me come in and he would shout out, Hey Loud Proud Americans in the room, and he would say, Hey, and and how are you doing? He recognized me and he made me feel special, he made me feel important. And um he turned me on to a brand that I should be working with that um would provide me with the durability that I require. It would provide me with uh speed for my production, and it would later change my entire brand. I watched Stan and I listened to him, and he preached for this brand he was uh working with, and um I reached out and I got a sample pack, and um I took their transfers and I put it on I put every one I had on one t-shirt and every load of laundry I did, I threw it in there, and I just kept washing it and washing it and washing it to see the durability to figure out you know if this was gonna hold up, this is gonna be what I needed it to be, and it passed all the tests. So the first thing I did was try to save my brand and invest about two thousand dollars in the transfers and to make my designs and to hit the road and start running, and it saved my brand. It absolutely saved my brand. And I was at my very first, I was wrapping up my very first year on being on the road, and all my success was really based off of the fact that I watched and listened and followed Stan and his inspiration and his education on um that that brand that I needed, and it really changed my business, and it gave me the opportunity um to stay in business and to provide the quality and to increase my production time or or to speed it up. So I say all this to to really put out there that it really made Loud Proud American. I wouldn't be in business today. Maybe I would have found this company on my on my own, but um Stan really helped me through it. And um then he actually ended up um securing me an influencer opportunity with this brand. So um pretty damn pretty damn awesome. But I'm I'm saying all this to say that at the very end of my first year on the road selling these um these designs and doing my thing. He reached out to me when I was leaving the Freiburg Fair, and um he sent me this you know message and he saw these hats I was making. I was like, man, those are really sick. Like, how are you how are you doing that? I know the product I turned you on to is not doing that for you. And uh we started going back and forth, and I told him how I was doing it, and I was using my white toner printer, and I said, Hey man, you want to hear a success story? I took that brand that you recommended to me, and in eight days I made twenty-three thousand dollars, and from that moment he started really pushing for me, and that's how I got the influencer opportunity, that's how I got uh deeper discounts, it's how I've been able to be competitive against screen printers, was because uh Stan went the bat for me, he really did. So I went from finding this man on social media, soaking up and listening to every ounce of advice he gave multiple times a day, interacting with him online to being recognized during his live videos, to him reaching out to give me credit over um something he Saw me do, me sharing with him my story, which really opened up the connection. A few months after that, or maybe a year later, I can't even remember, I ended up going to a uh print convention in Atlantic City, and I knew Stan was going to be there, and I wanted to go see him, I wanted to hear him speak, and I wanted to um get the opportunity to meet him. And I was sitting in the crowd and he snuck up behind me, and uh when I stood up, he was like, Man, you're a lot bigger in person than I thought you were on freaking on Instagram. But um we spent a bunch of time together that weekend, me and the wife and Stan and his friends. We uh we broke bread together, we spent time together, we roamed the casinos together, and um we just formed a relationship and we had some great in-depth business conversations, sharing some of my goals, dreams, hopes, aspirations with him. This year, if you guys remember the episode I recorded where I said, Hey man, I hit that milestone number. I finally hit that number that I was shooting for from the first year in business, the first goal I set for myself. I finally hit it. And the first person I wanted to contact until I hit it was Stan. It was Stan Banks. So, with all this, you know, we stay in touch. He ends up doing different things, and I end up getting really busy, and we're not um seeing what everybody's doing each day, right? I'm not in all of his lives. I'd be lucky if I catch one every couple of months. And uh Stan says, you know, I really help people where they're at. And at some point I might not hear from them again because I help them get to that next level, you know? But I always consider him a friend, and I will always consider him a mentor in this business. And I got a random message from Stan a couple weeks ago and said, Hey man, what are you doing this weekend? I'd like you to speak to my class. That gave me goosebumps to read that message. I remember the goosebumps I got when he liked to comment, when he responded, when he introed me in a room. For him to ask me to guest speak in one of his classes, I couldn't believe it. I absolutely couldn't believe it. I was giddy, like a schoolgirl, I was nervous, I was excited, I was anticipating it. Stan hosts a bunch of different uh different things, and he has these um these classes that people can pay to be in, where it's like a mentorship program where he helps you to scale your business and to go to the next level. And he asks me to speak to one of his classes about building a brand and about vending for that brand, about going to fairs and festivals, how you set up a display, how you market yourself, how you get into these events, how you grow your brand, how you push your brand, how you have to adapt and roll with the times. And he asked me to speak to his class. So we went to church that morning, came home, I had everything set up, I jumped on Zoom on my laptop, and I joined the room, and Stan gave me an amazing intro, and I had goosebumps about that moment, about what was actually happening. It was surreal for me to be like, this is my mentor, and he's introing me to his class as a very special guest speaker. I couldn't believe it. So he's giving me the intro, and we're talking, and I give him his flowers, and I share some of the things that I just shared with you about him and how I contribute uh him to helping me to still be in business today. And I say all these things to him, and he says, All right, brother, here's the deal. I actually have to go vend at another event. So I'm gonna give you the keys to the classroom, and you're gonna be the instructor for the day. I'm gonna have you take over this Zoom. You can do with it however you want to do. If you want to talk, you want to open it up to questions, whatever you want to do. I want to be listening in the background. When I get the opportunity, I'll chime in. But this is your class for the rest of this session. I said, uh, well, the only time I've ever been on Zoom was to testify during COVID. So uh this ought to be fun. Anyways, I took over the controls and I said, Well, to get this going, let me just kind of share with you who I am, where I'm from, and a little bit about myself and my brand. I went into the reason why I started this brand. I went into me leaving a 10-year career to chase a dream. I went into taking my life savings and betting it on a business. I discussed buying, investing 20 grand into product and equipment and failing, and failing miserably every day for a year. I talked about finding Stan Banks and then the opportunities that he helped bestow upon me and betting on myself and continuing to invest everything I made into this brand. I told him about how I bought a 1994 ambulance and I lived in that ambulance on the road chasing my dreams for this brand. I told them the times I did my first fair and it got rained out for a day, and I fell asleep in a lawn chair and the pouring rain because it was more important for me to keep my mother in the truck and my product dry. I remembered those sacrifices. I remember what it was like for those whole that whole year on the road, and then how we bought our first camper, and now we're on our third camper, and we bought a school bus, and we started traveling around with the school bus, and we took the school bus from Maine to Florida, and we did Daytona Bike Week. I showed them the pictures of me starting in a 10x10 tent. And then I showed them the photos of me in a 30 by 20 tent at the Fryberg Fair. I shared with them numbers on my most successful events. I've shared with them the times I've stayed in a parking lot for 12 hours to make 50 bucks. I shared everything. I talked about how I made that bus into something that I was so proud of, and it helped me get to so many events until it didn't, and it broke down, and I spent every night crying, trying to figure out how I was going to fight a way to make it through to the next day. And I took everything I had and ended up renting a box truck, rolling into a fair, overdrafting my account time and time and time again. At the end of that week, coming out with$28,000 and trying to remake my life, I shared everything with them. And I couldn't tell by their little faces and little boxes on the screen whether I was resonating with them. I couldn't tell if anything was landing with them. I couldn't tell if I was inspiring them, if I was boring them, if I was frightening them. And then when I was done, I said, Well, we're only going to get out of this class what you want to put into this class, so I'm going to open this class up to each and every one of you, and I want to hear from you. I want you to tell me who you are, where you're from, and what your dreams are, what it is that you're trying to aspire to, which you're trying to grow to. And one by one they told me who they were. The first person put their hand up. This lady put her hand up for Virginia Beach. And she started wiping her face, and she said, I gotta let you know. Based off of what you said, I know it's okay for me to say it. She says, because I heard you say there's been times when you're chasing this dream that you just had to cry it out. So I want to tell you, I've been sitting here crying the entire time you've been speaking. This is the most motivating and inspirational class I've ever been a part of. You inspire me to do better. You just made me want to go try. I used to do trade shows and events, and I stopped for a long time. And since COVID, I hadn't done one. So I just went back and did my first one, and I failed, and I didn't want to go do another one again. But after listening to you today, I'm going to apply to do another one. And I went down the line listening to everybody and hearing their stories and offering them advice, helping to focus on their niche market, giving them tips and tricks based off of whatever it was they were struggling with. And then a fellow from Connecticut started talking. Connecticut or Massachusetts, I can't remember. And uh he came on and he was wiping his eyes and he said, I'm a grown man, and I can't tell you the last time I cried, and I cried here on this Zoom call today because I'm inspired by you. I'm moved by your struggle and the fact you were willing to come in here and share it with all of us. And we talked and I helped him and we talked through things and he had some uh emotional moments on screen, and I showed everybody the goosebumps on my arm as I was so uplifted and thankful and grateful for their reactions and their appreciations because I didn't know what to expect. When that recording was over, the gentleman from uh Connecticut or Massachusetts, whichever one it was there, he ended up messaging me on Instagram and then did an Instagram call, and I talked to him for 40 minutes on the phone, offering advice and bouncing ideas, going back and forth. At the end of the recording, Stan said, Hey man, I recorded all of this and I've got some really great stuff out of here that I'm gonna clip and crop and use. And um I'm really thankful that you came on here today, and I'm I'm I'm excited. And uh I got off of that class, I got off of that that that training, and I was just floating. I was floating, I don't think my feet had touched the ground. I literally just took over a class as a guest, teacher, instructor, speaker, whatever, for one of my biggest mentors in this business. And I made students in his class cry and they were inspired by my story and by my journey. I got off of that training and realized how far in this life I have come. I realized how far this brand has come, and for one moment in time, one glimpse at one single just freeze-frame moment, I realized what is happening and what I've always wanted to happen actually happening. At a young age, I realized I wanted to be a public speaker. At a young age, I realized that I have a gift and I have an ability to speak and to convey a message and to evoke emotion. When I was in middle school, the first speech I ever gave was at the DARE program, the Dare to Keep Kids Off Drugs program. I spoke in front of the entire school. And I was moved by it, I was motivated by it. Growing up, I've given multiple eulogies, I've written poems and spoken in church at funerals. I hosted my brother's funeral, my father's funeral, my grandfather's funeral, my grandmother's funeral. I just like to share stories. I like to share emotion. When I started working for Harley Davidson, when I put myself on the opportunity to be the general manager and a managing partner, I used to love giving training sessions. I used to love closing the dealership and speaking to the entire dealership, to all the employees and trying to motivate and educate. I love that side of it. I used to love being able to sit down with people face to face, hear their stories, help them through their struggles, and have them positively just give them a positive impact. When I started this podcast, it was because the world shut down. I no longer had the opportunity to talk to people. I no longer had the opportunity to positively impact people. So I turned on a microphone to share my story and open up to the world and to somehow, some way give me the opportunity to have those conversations again. When I launched this brand, I started thinking as I was recording this podcast that if I was bold enough and courageous enough to share those dark days, to come on here and tell you how many times I overdrafted my account, to tell you how many times I couldn't make a mortgage payment, to tell you how many times I had to sell things that I really appreciated because I believed so much in my dream that I could make it and I could remake it, that I could I could reacquire whatever it is I had to give up along the way. If I was willing to share those things, and that Bound determined somehow, some way, someday, I would make it. And we could go back and listen to these stories, and these stories could be turned into a book. Maybe they could be turned into a movie, and that these little success stories leave clues. These are clues to success that get dropped all along the way. That this could be the inside to the brand, that someday, somehow, some ways this big, beautiful brand, and people could go back and hear the grassroots campaign, they can hear the struggle, they could hear the failure, the heartbreak in my voice, and knowing how many times I just rebat on myself and I continue to invest in myself and to make more and to take more chances. But I keep feeling like I'm failing. I keep feeling like this brand is never gonna be what I want it to be. I'm never gonna get to the spot where I need to be. So many times I've told myself, you need to pack it in, you need to go back to work in a real job and provide for your family, give the security back to your family, and give that security to your daughter. You need to do this. Those dreams aren't gonna happen for you. There's been so many times when I've had those conversations and I tell myself, it's time to get back to reality, punch a clock, work yourself out of debt, and give your family the security they deserve. But when I turned that Zoom over to questions, with tears in their eyes, I heard people tell me that I inspired them. Goosebumps. I never for a minute stopped to think that where I am today is an inspiration for some people today. I've thought and believed that my story only had power when I made it. I began to believe that I can't give the speeches, I can't write the books until the brand becomes a success. But for that moment in time, there was a glimpse of what can be and what will be someday. It showed me that what I'm doing is in fact working. It showed me that this story has emotion. This story can provoke emotion that this story leaves clues to success. For that one day, for that one moment, I felt like I made it. I felt like I was living and fulfilling my dream and my purpose. I was motivating and uplifting, and I was sharing where I am and how far I've come. As I let the time pass and I came down, I let my feet rest back firmly on the floor, and I sat down and just took a minute, I began to realize you have come a little bit further than you give yourself credit for. You're doing better than you think. And I started to realize for every person that I strive to be, there's a person striving to be me. Does that make sense? For so many of you out there listening right now, those people that you look towards, that you aspire to be like, that you work towards achieving the things they achieve. For every one of those people in your life that you that you model yourself after, that you chase towards, there's somebody out there looking at you with the same goals, aspirations, hopes, and dreams in their eyes, and they look at you. We don't give ourselves the credit we should give ourselves. I was listening to Pastor Steven Furtick a few weeks ago, and he said, after the sifting comes the lifting. And I thought about all that I've been through, and that glimpse, that uplifting, motivating glimpse that I had, that experience that I had, that was the lifting. And even though it was just a small group of people, knowing that I touched someone in some way, it motivated me. And it changed me and it made me realize I'm not where I want to be. I'm not even where I need to be. I'm still in the fight. I'm still struggling to make it out. I'm still struggling to make ends meet. I've never been tighter than before. This is it for me. This is I'm I'm on the mat right now. I'm against the ropes. But I'm still inspiring, and I'm still aspiring. And that moment in time showed me why I'm doing what I'm doing and why I must keep doing what I'm doing. Because of where I'm at now, if what I'm doing now can inspire somebody today, then I can only imagine in what way I will inspire someone when I finally make it. Another line I heard from Steven Furtick during that sermon he gave was maybe you didn't fail. You just didn't finish. And that stuck with me. Because of the dark days, because of the nights that I've spent awake staring at my ceiling, the mornings I've woken up before anybody else, couldn't sleep, tiptoed down the stairs to work, stared at your computer with your hands in your hair, just wondering how will I make it? All those times that I thought I'd failed, all those times I've considered giving up, all the times I've considered not showing up, all the times I decided maybe it's time to look for security for this family. And I heard Steven say, Maybe you didn't fail. You just didn't finish. That's when I realized I haven't failed. I just haven't finished. And that glimpse of hopium That shot, that overwhelming dose of motivation that I got from that opportunity, that full circle, feel-good moment. It allowed me to experience all I've ever hoped for from this brand. It allowed me to feel what it is I've always wanted to feel from this brand. And it allowed me to understand I'm a hell of a lot further in this life than I give myself credit for. Six years in business when I didn't think I'd make it in one. Man. What a full circle moment. I still uh I still get goosebumps thinking about it. I led a class for my mentor. I motivated some people, and in hindsight, it motivated me more than them. After the sifting comes to lifting, everybody. You are doing better than you think. The next time you're doubting yourself, you're feeling sorry for yourself, you're thinking about giving up, you're counting those failures as they stack up. I want you to tell yourself maybe I didn't fail. I just didn't finish. And dust yourself back off and get your ass back up and go finish the fight. Get off the mat, get off the ropes, keep swinging. Nobody told you life was gonna be easy, but it's certainly. I thank each and every one of you for continuing to support my American dream. Whether it's going over to Loudrod American Dot Shop and making a purchase, it's finding me at Ledgeway Farm or the Bonnie Eagle Tar show. Whether it's listening to this podcast week after week, leaving reviews, sharing it with friends, hitting subscribe and follow, whatever it is, I appreciate all that you do for me. Thank you for supporting my American dream. Now go wash your friggin' hands, you filthy savage.

SPEAKER_00 44:35

That's it, and that's all, Biggie Smalls.

SPEAKER_01 45:04

If you're a fan of the Graham Cracker, you want to find me on Instagram or all the kids by tickety talkin' on the TikTok, you can find me on both of those at Loud underscore Proud underscore American. A big old thank you to the boys from the Gut Truckers for the background beats and the theme song to this year podcast. If you are enjoying what you're hearing, track down the gut truckers on Facebook. Just turn Gut Truckers. Give them motherfuckers a like too. I truly thank you for supporting my American dream. Now go wash your fucking hands, you filthy savage.