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Remember that time when you set up your own brand, brimming with optimism, only for the heavens to open up and wash away your dreams, almost literally? Well, we've been there, done that and got drenched in the process! We share our riveting journey of launching a brand, battling unpredictable weather, managing expectations around inventory, and dealing with unforeseen hiccups like plumbing issues in our camper.
Picture this - you're all set for your first successful haul of the year, but then you're hit with unexpected challenges, including a nerve-wracking journey on a sketchy road. We take you through our own experiences, the relief and anxiety that come with a successful haul. But, we also share the joy of finally opening our camper, despite the challenges thrown at us by Mother Nature and plumbing nightmares.
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Holidays, sweaty days, rainy days, being gone for days It's all part of the struggle to launch a brand. Today we dig into the task at hand as the Labrador American brand kicks off fair season. 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.
Speaker 2:Bad calm, timely confidant, sweet, calm, sweet we hope they gone falling behind Too fast.
Speaker 1:I see a wave. What it do, what it do, hot damn. I'm so excited to be back with you. Isn't it just beautiful? I think it is. Hello, hey, episode 156 and we're getting ready to give y'all your fix. I said we getting ready to give y'all your fix. There you go, turn the microphone on.
Speaker 2:Sorry, my mic is off. Hey y'all.
Speaker 1:Good lord, it's going to be one of them nights.
Speaker 2:Listen, it's been a long ass rainy day here in Maine.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it has been a little bit aggressive. We are coming to you from the living room. That sounds official, doesn't it? It is about 946 and the PM on your fourth of.
Speaker 2:July, America. Y'all are probably watching fireworks and we're just cooped up in this goddamn house.
Speaker 1:We ain't been in this house for long though.
Speaker 2:We should be celebrating America Day with the last name, but we got a lot of shit to do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we had plenty of other shit to do, but happy. Independence Day America. All you loud proud Americans out there. So yeah, there's cargo podcast peeps cruising around in the old Jeeps with the top down Probably got the top off. You probably ain't rolling topless. It's been raining like a motherfucker for forever. I talked to a dude, oh man, maybe a week or so ago, and he said hey, it's only rained twice this year. The first time was for 28 days, the second time was for 17 days.
Speaker 2:I was like, oh, that makes sense, That makes sense, You can count on both hands. How many days in the last I don't know couple months, how many days it has not rained?
Speaker 1:You ain't kidding. It's been brutal, and rain is a big part of the subject today because, as we are preparing for fair season, we're going to recap our last event, which got rained out. I mean, we were there for a couple of days but we left early because this weather y'all I don't know where you'd be listening from. I know if you're. if you're in New England, you've probably been dealing with it. If you're definitely a maniac like us, if you're living in the great state of Maine, you definitely been dealing with it. I feel like the whole country is dealing with rain right now, but it's, it's been kind of crippling for folks like us, gypsies like us, vendors like us that travel around the country trying to make things work. It's not easy. We've got friends that have been rained out constantly. You just talked to Bestie. How many events has he lost?
Speaker 2:I think he's had three.
Speaker 1:That's. It's brutal for people like us because I mean, you know this brand, really 90% of our business is, you know, face to face sales as event sales, as being on the road, and you know, just mingling with the people right Running for office, shaking babies, kissing hands, that type of thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and here's the difference. Like we sell clothing and they sell food and they were rained out, so like it's, it doesn't matter what you're selling or what your product is Like, the rain is just putting a damper on everyone.
Speaker 1:It's tough when you're selling food and then you have to worry about expiration dates and things like that too. I mean, at least with clothes they're not going to, you know, expire on us, thankfully but, yeah, it feels like it. I mean it's tough. So I know, for for them, i mean you go through three events. They've traveled all over the place, they so, they're, they're based in Maine, they're out in Connecticut for these events that are getting rained out. So you, you're taking on all those charges, man, all that debt right, all those expenses traveling down there, doing all those things getting set for an event. And you go through the process of setting up for the event, because it's not like you're getting canceled ahead of time. You're, you know you're, you're getting set up, you're getting everything built up and then, and then you're finding out the day of, like, this isn't going to happen. That's, that's, that's absolutely brutal. So for us, we were thankfully close to home, fourth of July, we are at Bentley Saloon and man, we set up it was a, it was a pretty quiet weekend. Friday was was a pretty quiet, saturday, the same. But I will say on those two days we were up a Scotia Prince. On Friday We were up just a little bit, just a little bit, a little bit, just a little bit, a little bit, Yeah. And then Saturday we were actually up a little bit, just a little bit. So I think we were poised to have ourselves a pretty decent fourth of July weekend. But with the rain coming in on Sunday, we just we had to call it. So all the vendors packed up on Sunday morning pretty early and I got down there You actually were working at the hospital on Sunday So my mama, my mama, came with me, me mama, and we packed that whole thing up. It was the fastest pack up time in the history of loud, proud America And I think it was like two hours. We were. We were packed up and helping our neighbors pack, but y'all nailed it, we definitely did. The only unfortunate thing is is them other truckers that run the forecast? they was wrong by a little bit. They be lying, so I mean they were off an hour. So I got down there and we were just about packing up, like we. We had an hour to all. Our apps and local news channels informed us it was going to rain. We started getting that rain an hour ahead of time. So it started to pour with about 20 minutes left of packing, which for us, you know, the tents are outside and those are getting soaked. And then the thing with that is you can't just throw them in a bag and go to your next event, because that's going to get all moldy, mildewy, stanky. And those girls, they ain't cheat man. Each one of those tents we use is about 2,500 bucks at three grand per tent. So we don't want to ruin those bad boys. So, as crappy as it was, we loaded the tents in the back of me pickup truck, drove home, took them out, put them in the garage and set them up in the garage to dry off. And you know, just trying to make things work, man. But now we have the ambulance half full. For those of you that don't know, the ambulance is a 1994, aka loud, proud American Express Mobile unit. It's a real sweet treat. And we fixed up with a few cans of tractor paint and a roller. Yeah, yeah, she's wicked fine y'all She purred.
Speaker 2:She a looker.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, She a penny dropping.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, she is.
Speaker 1:Yeah, she's cute. Mm-hmm For big girls, she cute. Oh Lord, i'm a little sleep deprived. So here we are on July 4th, pushing 10 pm And my first fair starts this week Tomorrow, tomorrow. So first fair is tomorrow, And well, tomorrow is the set up day for it, and so That still counts. It does count, it counts to me y'all, it definitely counts. So some of the hardest work starts tomorrow, because that's your.
Speaker 2:The beginning and the end.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's brutal, right, measurable. So just to let you in on how this kind of rolls the scheduling wise, and then we're going to kind of dig into some of the some of the struggles that be. Today our plan is to get the camper to the fairground, which we just did. We just got home from dropping our camper off and setting that up for the first time this year, which we're going to dig into that in a little bit. And then tomorrow we'll get up early, you're going to be heading off to work and me and my ma Dukes will finish packing the ambulance, grabbing up the last minute things. I'll get us some things done that I still need to wrap up And then I'll be heading back to the fairgrounds with the ambulance to go ahead and start the actual process of building our vendor display right, setting up the tents, doing all those things and then filling it with product. So tomorrow will be a full ass day of putting things out and getting ready And I think tomorrow last time I looked it's going to be like in the 80s And it seems like this weekend is either a chance of thunderstorms and a high of like 86 to 88 or some shit. So Cleveland steamer, it's going to be steamy out there When you're in a fucking couple of black tents with a few random fans and a lot of manhood at the fairgrounds.
Speaker 2:Live stock fair food, it gets hot.
Speaker 1:It gets hot And if you are out there running around hot at a buck O five, imagine being tree 55. It ain't easy. It's going to be. I mean, here's a handle on the Cabello's catalog out of the sky. Truth from this guy might be a two, three, two, three draw a day. You know what I mean. That's what you change your skiffs two, three times a day because you want to feel fresher. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:You change your t-shirt like four times today.
Speaker 1:Yeah, today I had. yeah, It was a fair mixture of sweat rain and poop.
Speaker 2:And poop, oh, my God Oh that's a story for a little bit later. But yes, my husband was covered in poop.
Speaker 1:I took a poop pipe right to the blinkers. Oh, glory to God, i tell you what?
Speaker 2:let's just start. That started off.
Speaker 1:All right, screw it. What's why even stay on schedule?
Speaker 2:Let's just let's just talk about you being covered in poo because let's get the people laughing.
Speaker 1:All right, this episode's going to be a little shorter, So I'm going to throw it out there right now to all the folks doing cardio Okay, all y'all peeps at the gym today. I'm going to try to keep it under 45 today, all right, kevin this one's for you.
Speaker 2:This one's for you, kev, pick up the speed and change the incline, because this is going to be a 45 minute little zipper.
Speaker 1:Yeah, get that, get that incline ramping. Get your hot right up, we're going to get after it.
Speaker 2:Knees to chest. Kevin Knees to chest.
Speaker 1:Pick them up and put them down. Whatever you don't get done for cardio today, take it on, amy, when you get home. You know what I'm saying. You're welcome. God bless you. Today we hauled the camper up for the first time this year, which I'm going to turn that over to you in a second, but seems how you want to talk about me and some poo. Oh, God. So we're setting up and we thankfully timed it out to be setting up when it's not raining. So, post rain on a hot day, you just get that, that hummage, that hummage to swampiness, right, you get that hummage-ness and a-a-a-a Hummage and a-a-a-a-a And it gets swampy down there and be thick and a-a-a hot, hot, hot, hot. Get hot to breathe down there. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Yeah, moving on, that's how I feel So the people want to hear about you being covered in poo. Well, I'm just kind of setting the scene.
Speaker 1:Well, you're stalling, so you're inside and No, the urine's in the toilet. Yeah, actually it's all over my fucking face and arm. You're setting things up, which the first setup of the year is never smooth, right? I mean shit. We had the slide fall out of the fucking camper. Basically I'm holding that sum-ditch up with all I got, yelling to you to come out to try to put the freaking piece back in. So nice easy setup, which I don't understand. We went over to C-lead to actually reconnect the plumbing. That slide came out like bada, smooth like bada. But when we had to set up for good, i fucking fell out of the truck, which was phenomenal. So I'm pissed off about that. Running around trying to set things up. You're inside throwing things around like a mad woman.
Speaker 2:I'm not throwing things around. I'm putting things away. The people know you, they know you.
Speaker 1:So I'm outside trying to connect the poop pipe, which, first off, the slinky they give you for poop pipes is a fucking joke. Okay, That thing's obnoxious. I got 17 bricks underneath that thing. I got two by fours, two by sixes, eight by 12s. I got a block of wood. I got all things good trying to hold that fucking slinky up So that poop pipe doesn't look like a big old saggy wiener with a turd in it. Okay, Like a loaded diaper. I'm trying to stretch that thing out. You got no room, unless I want to run that thing two miles away. If I took our poop tank, I sent it to the neighbor's house and I ran my slinky across their kitchen table, then that fucking thing would work. But it doesn't. It don't work that way, okay. So I'm just frustrated about that. And then the old timer that we bought the camper from. He broke the handle off. The fucking shitshoot the plug that stops the drain from coming out. So we've learned the hard way many times. This isn't good. So normally what you do is you would, if you already set up somewhere, you try to get everything out of the tank right, You angle that slinky as much as you can get everything out of the tank before you pull the plug off, so you don't get blasted with anything, which we've learned already, right? So the problem is you do that, you're okay. But the first time you throw the pipe on, that's the problem. And if you've been driving around, all of a sudden things start sloshing around and getting loose. You might have thought you had that tank cleaned, but you actually did not. Okay, Cinderella, there is still things in there, man. So I'm telling you here's the scenario We went over our good friend Lee GM from Bentley Saloon. he helped us connect our water. So when he was running that, and all the Annie freeze, the pink Annie freeze, and all that stuff is going into the tank. I know that it's backing that up anyways, But I assume that maybe we did a decent enough job last year getting the poo, poo, pee, pee, wee, wee out of the tank. You know tissue paper and whatever the hell else, right? So here I am. It's humid outside. I'm laying down on the wet grass, I put a set of pliers on the broken handle that this gentleman has And I pushed that sucker all the way in. So I thought I could feel the shoot actually closing. The problem is there is already about seven gallons of fluid on the south side of that shoot that I just closed. It don't matter if there's 18 gallons on the north side. On the south side, which is available and readily available to splash me in the face, that is already backed up. Okay. So I thought I got it, but I wasn't thinking about what might have been trapped on the south side. So I twist that fucking cap off, man And boy. I don't know the proper way to explain this, but imagine taking you guys, remember the ice bucket challenge? Remember the ice bucket challenge?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I remember.
Speaker 1:Imagine taking like a five gallon bucket ice water and dumping it over your head for the ice bucket challenge. But imagine that to be maybe 87 degree piss water. Okay, imagine that being 87 degree yellow and brown piss water, with pieces of tissue paper and other unmentionables and then a mixture of pink and antifreeze. That concoction comes blasting out of the tank at me. I duck, i give it the rope a dope, i Juke and jive. You know, i give it my best, muhammad Ali, and I get the hell out of the way, but My chest and arm took it Okay.
Speaker 2:I will say I Will give you credit. I didn't know what any of this was going on from the inside of the camper, i just heard some you probably could smell me coming around the corner. I heard some commotion going on so I stuck my head out. They camber it only to my surprise. Just see Some magma. Your face Shirts. All I said was what the fuck happened to you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, i feel like a scene from Christmas vacation.
Speaker 2:Oh, it was. Shitter is full.
Speaker 1:Oh, not anymore. So my shirt was fucking soaked. It was stuck to me, it was running down my arm Smelled God awful, i'm not gonna throw it. Throw it, no opponent. And I'm not gonna throw a shit fit at this moment, because there's kids all around And the last thing I want to do is draw attention to the fact that I got poo all over me in the ground, right, so I don't need their reputation floating around camp for the rest of the fucking weekend. So I came around and just started Getting naked in the fucking middle of the middle of the field and washing myself down. You washed up with some dawn dish soap, yeah, but hey man, I've seen them use dawn dish soap to save birds and oil spills.
Speaker 2:You know me?
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, i've seen a baby duck on TV get rescued from an oil spill using some dawn dish soap. So I I got pissing shit off of me. today It's true on the humidity. Oh man, that's just one one of the downfalls of Trying to do what the fuck we do. Just one of one of the downfalls. So last week we left through the little cliffhanger when we said, hey man, yeah, we rented some stuff and we're just kind of getting ready for fair season. That stuff that we ran into was just about dropping the transmission out of old red, our farm truck that we used to tow the camper, because we picked up what we call a little bit of a leak, and To the point where a paint chip was holding the rest of my transmission fluid in, because the the pan underneath the transmission was so rusted out. It was just pouring transmission fluid out and All red would not shift, no more. You could put her in whatever you know, reverse, drive, whatever you want, she ain't going nowhere. But I filled her up with some transmission fluid, drove her to the local garage. The boys from rental motors Set me back up again and when we recorded last week We did not know if we had a vehicle to tow our camper to the fair. And if you guys listened last week, You know we don't want to sleep in the fucking ambulance again, especially for this amount of time.
Speaker 2:So no, that's not happening.
Speaker 1:I had the ambulance at this exact fair the first. This was the first fair We ever did. We're going back to the Osby Valley Fair. It's the first fair we ever did for loud, proud American and It rained so damn much that year that we literally had had a fucking moat Go right through the center of town. Man, it was right through our tent. I had to pick up all the clothes We had I'm not kidding you, man, eight, nine inches of standing water in the middle of the tent. Some local farmers come over with a tractor and we tried putting a dam in with some sawdust and some shit. That didn't work. It held back. It held back But that dam broke loose, the levee broke, flooded the tent out and at that time there was nothing else to do. I mean, the fair basically closed down. But if you remember, we're now living in an ambulance at this fair. All my inventory is outside covered in tarps and and Canopies, and then there's no room in the ambulance. I sat outside in the lawn chair and the porn ran and took a fucking nap.
Speaker 2:That's, that's right. I was like trying to like pinpoint you were home.
Speaker 1:My mom was with me.
Speaker 2:No, we were on the hill. Yeah and that was that time that we borrowed the canopy from E and she was like oh yeah, it's like a standard Canopy, it was like a four-foot canopy, It was the tiniest thing.
Speaker 1:It was like a little kid's Beach canopy. He was obnoxious, so I'm trying to keep all my apparel dry. I got no room in the ambulance because he's trying to live in it, my mom's in there. I literally took a fucking nap for an hour in the porn rain in a lawn chair. It was miserable. So I I thank the good lord above for where we're at and you know and the progress that we're making. Like I said before, i don't think our brain is growing as fast as I had hoped for, but it's growing Just as fast as it's supposed to grow and we can see the improvements. We can. We can physically see them, feel them, experience them. We know that we're growing and then we know that we're bedding our bettering ourselves because here we are staying, staying in this camper, right. So that in itself is a win. But last week, when we recorded the podcast, we even have a fucking pickup truck to know if we were going to be able to tow. So the boys were able to Get the transmission back together. I picked her up Friday and I took her out The other day and it was spitting and sputtering and coughing and I don't know if a coil pack was gone Or I'm down a couple cylinders or what I put some uh Durilube fuel injection cleaner in her, took the air filter apart, clean that all up the old K&N, cleaned her up, took her on a few hell rides and, uh, i mean, she didn't like it at first, but I think it was also a combination of the fact that it sat here with the transmission issues, kicked in, with very little gas in it ethanol, water and starts to separate from the fuel. I think that bad gas was going through and she was running like shit. So, um, we got that thing taken care of, uh, to the best of our ability. She's not, she's not perfect, okay, but um, you hauled with her today, you hauled the camper today. How did it? how did it feel, first haul of the year for you?
Speaker 2:Um, it was actually not as bad as I anticipated. I left my anxiety at home, which was super helpful. She seemed to haul okay. Um, there was a few uh Moments where she wanted to buck a little bit, but yeah, definitely had some bucking.
Speaker 1:Didn't want to shift a few times but uh Uh, she came out of it. We made it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, i think, uh, she needed to do some work. She don't like slow work, like we don't like slow work, and neither does our horse. So you know backing up and you know aligning the camper shoes a little bit Iffy about it but other than that shoes. She was pretty good, hauled right, the camper hauled right behind, and you know, i think every time I haul I'm getting better and better each time. Um, i can not necessarily always focus, obviously, i'm focusing on the road, but it's not like white knuckled, like Hardcore.
Speaker 1:Rip on every single thing. You definitely seem a lot more relaxed.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean you are reminding me how close we are to death at all times, but that's my anxiety, just re-pin up. Yeah, overall you didn't eat a good.
Speaker 2:But that's me, that's like, that's the ADHD anxiety in me, like I have to just like talk about it, or my anxiety takes over, like it's like. Let me just be a chatty, kathy, right quick and explain to you Yeah, i mean, what's running through my chatty.
Speaker 1:Kathy's chatty, kathy's fun. When you pour anxiety down the throat of the guy next year about how you know miserable life is, eventually that guy next to you starts drinking that same glass of misery. So do you mean, you know, just maybe Sprinkle in some lemonade. You know what I?
Speaker 2:mean? You mean, like you don't want me to explain to you when I'm pulling up to the lookout and cornish that I want to like, like I don't want to like.
Speaker 1:Eat it out there, yeah your, your theories go far from like losing a tire and breaking down on the side of the road, it's into like I might die in a fiery crash going downhill into these pine trees. It's a whole different. Like we're never gonna have children because I'm gonna burn in the bushes. Like that's. Too anxiety. It's a bit different.
Speaker 2:It's a bit more extreme and it just like creeps up, like bites you in the ass And then like takes off. It's like that, like Sour patch kid, sour sweet gone.
Speaker 1:Well, homeboy over here be sitting in the passenger seat thinking like hope we don't blow a tire out. Man, i hope that scene doesn't come unhooked. I hope we don't do this. I hope we don't do that. I hope my truck don't blow up. Hope you don't overheat. I hope the exhaust don't fall off and you're like I hope we don't die in a fiery crash.
Speaker 2:It's like this is different. It's different. That's my life, it is what it is. My in the words of you don't go from zero to psycho really quick. That's what my anxiety does, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, i mean, we made it so.
Speaker 2:Now she was good. She was there is that little bit of break in between, like hitting. If y'all are from The area southern main area you know that Sococcus trail, if not, it's so coccus trail is like a trucking road, like big roads go through there. Yeah, um brings you up through waterboro like limerick corners that area nice mountainous terrain Yeah but once you get to the The bridge in limerick Yeah all the way through the lookout in Cornish that little like spurt of road, sketchy as fuck. There's like super big drop-offs and like I'm like white knuckled through that point.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a uphill, downhill, twist around, turn around. But the biggest thing about that is that I mean the road seems to look, feels a little narrow, but the drop off between the edge of the pavement and the ground like the dirt. Sketchy It's a big drop if you come off of that.
Speaker 2:You're fucked, it's you know, Fiery death.
Speaker 1:That could be a possibility at that point.
Speaker 2:Rolling that bad bitch.
Speaker 1:So not a lot of fun there, but we did good. I think that here's some of the struggles for us when we started talking about rain is we haven't even been able to open our camper up. I mean, it's rain fucking for like two months.
Speaker 2:We opened her two day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, i feel like we went from snow to rain, like that's just kind of how our season's gone.
Speaker 2:So between Summer who Yeah?
Speaker 1:between being on the road trying to figure things out. We've been planning on hey, this weekend we're gonna open our camper up This, you know, this day we're gonna open it up and it just hasn't happened because, you know, when we're home it seems like it's been raining. It just hasn't been an option. Or you have a decent day and it's like, okay, now it's gonna rain for six days after that and it's like I'm not gonna take the tarp off, get everything opened up, just to have it get all wet and possibly leak because we've got to reseal our roof. So we've been waiting this whole time to get things going. So today, like in true loud, proud American fashion as latest can be, we took the tarp off today, got soaked, had to change three fucking times.
Speaker 2:We celebrated America by opening our camper.
Speaker 1:Excuse me, Oh my god, our kids have zero respect.
Speaker 2:The bulldog is here.
Speaker 1:Oh, you're an asshole.
Speaker 2:He's holding my hand.
Speaker 1:I see that and the other one's eating it.
Speaker 2:So the support I have from my children, that's impeccable.
Speaker 1:We opened the camper up today. Everything looked good until we went back 20 minutes later in the fucking roof slaking. So we picked up a leak on the front end of the camper and talking to Lee he said that possibly some water might have got into our actual cover this winter with no place to go. It kind of works its way around, finds a seam and tries to you know, enter the premises. Yeah, so we acquired some water damage. Now which? is a lot of fun for new campers.
Speaker 2:Thankfully it's not a new camper, it's new to us. It gave us one good, solid season so far. Like you know, we've been talking about getting out of this camper in general, because we've outgrew it already, like we just need a little bit more space. So the plan was definitely to upgrade anyway. It just thinks that you know we have some work to do before we can sell it. Yeah and kind of fix it up a little bit, but it is what it is, yeah yeah, so one of just one of the struggles, right?
Speaker 1:So today we opened the camper up. We ended up getting some water damage and we're trying to deal with a leak. We had a battery on charge and stored in the garage all winter. That seemed to fail us today. So no power on that. Propane tanks, semt running around trying to get those straightened out at the same time. So just general things that we're trying to figure out all in the mix of getting ready for the fair.
Speaker 2:So first of all, let's just take a pause real quick and recognize the amount of money it cost to swap a propane tank out or buy a brand new one. We've seen $19 for a swap out, $27 for a swap out, $24 for a swap out. This is like if you're bringing in an empty. This isn't like buying them brand new.
Speaker 1:New ones. We saw them from $60 to $90 for a new tank. Those are only 15 gallon tanks. They're smaller than what we have. I'm not looking for literally we're at the point for this weekend where I'm probably going to throw two barbecue 15 gallon propane tanks on just to get through this weekend, and then I'll upgrade our actual tanks for the camper, because last year the tanks that we have, that they're they're pretty nice tanks with gauges on them and everything, but I think ours are like 20 gallons. They're still a little small, but no one will fill them anymore. They say they're past their date when it comes to fills. So we gotta get new.
Speaker 2:What does it say? like 2017?, yeah, which I mean makes a lot of sense, like if you have to make an investment and they do last a long time and you just refill them, that's great news. However, we almost didn't have our propane tank refilled tanked Geez, where'd.
Speaker 1:I go there glitch.
Speaker 2:They almost didn't refill it because it was expired.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we almost went, the rest of our fair last year.
Speaker 2:Yeah, without it, by the grace of God. Yeah, cooking ability. Send in a Hail Mary.
Speaker 1:they freaking filled it And then Scott picked it up and they didn't want to give it to him. They had to call me for clearance to make sure that Scott could actually take the post.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're not stealing a propane tank for the liberty And how he would know that ours.
Speaker 1:I mean bizarre, but anyways.
Speaker 2:Anyway.
Speaker 1:If we look at our last weekend here, we did July 4th Bentley Saloon. We had to pack up in the rain on Sunday, get out of town, so it cost ourselves a couple days of an event schedule. And then yesterday was a lot of running around trying to figure things out And then last minute trying to restock as much inventory as possible. I think I was in the office last night printing till about 10 o'clock.
Speaker 2:I wanna say I don't know probably.
Speaker 1:You were watching some Tratchy TV in Relaxin' and I was finishing off some random sizes.
Speaker 2:I was not relaxing, you weren't? I was eating these dogs around. Yeah, well, true, i was eating potato chips.
Speaker 1:One of the struggles we're having right now is just getting some things in in time. It's kind of ironic. I have one company I can trust that I can get things in, But I have another company out in California that's decided to take two weeks to ship me some sweatshirts which they'll show up tomorrow when I'm already at the fair. So I won't be able to restock. One of our most popular items Kuzies are still stuck in Texas. I don't know when those are gonna show up.
Speaker 2:Never.
Speaker 1:So I mean kind of dealing with some of those frustrations there on just getting things in. We're still dealing with the frustration of I have two fares that have cashed my deposit but they haven't emailed me anything to tell me that I'm actually into the fair or when I can show up. I have a fair that cashed my check that I'm supposed to be at in a couple of weeks. It's a couple hours away from here. I don't have a place to stay. I don't have a campsite confirmed. I don't even have a fucking official letter from anybody a contractor, an email saying, hey, man, you're in, but guess what, We cashed your check. So that's a lot of fun. So we're kind of dealing with those struggles, trying to figure things out. Today, Being the 4th of July, we ran up, set the camp up, got that all squared away, just got home, As we said. Now it's about quarter past 10 on 4th of July and we're trying to put the podcast together so that you guys can keep that consecutive streak together 156 weeks of share of the struggle. We're trying to keep that rockin' and rollin'. And then in the morning tomorrow, man, I gotta load the truck up, but I might. I should be printin' more hats tomorrow, because I'm just about out of our actual Lile Pride American foam trucker hats. I don't know if I'll be able to get that in there tomorrow because it takes fucking forever, So I'm probably gonna be running in there short. So this is just part of that struggle, part of that balance of launching a brand. Number one what can you afford? What can you afford to restock? And then, even when you feel like you can afford it and you finally pull the trigger on it and you buy those supplies, then they don't show up on time. Well, you miss a deadline. I have a graphic designer right now working on two different logos for me that I should have had them a week ago and then I could have ordered my graphics and had those two new designs for this upcoming fair. But here I am still goin' back and forth with this designer. They ignored me for the longest time. Then they sent me artwork for somebody else's podcast. Ironic enough, when I didn't ask them for a podcast at all, I asked them to help me with the rodeo logo. So I mean that just kinda puts in perspective how that whole transaction's been going for me. So you deal with all these struggles, man, and trying to balance it all out, And one thing that I've gotten a little bit better at is as much as it disappoints me to not meet my deadline that I put for myself. Like a lot of times, I set this goal like, all right, I'm gonna have this new design done for this event, I'm gonna have this new product, I'm gonna have this on sale, I'm gonna have all these things. I get this whole theory in my mind and for the first couple years, every time I would reach an event and I didn't do those things and I couldn't get those things done. Well, you know, even if it was out of my control, even if it was the person that was shipping it to me didn't send it, or they sent the wrong product or the wrong size, it would beat me up And then I would go into that event with a negative mindset because I'm thinking how much better could this have been if I had these products? Could I have done this better? I'm getting to that point now where we're three years on the road where I just realized this is as good as it's gonna get right. I prepare myself the best I possibly can. I put ourselves and our brain in that position that we possibly can. But if it doesn't all come together, like if you don't have all the things you hope for, you just kind of make the best for what you actually have. You know, And ultimately nobody else really knows that you don't have something other than you yourself, you know. So that's kind of one of the things for me, but I feel like I'm getting a little better at that. How do you feel about that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, I think you're getting better each time, for sure.
Speaker 1:I used to just get so pissed off about it and would be two days into an event and I'd be like fuck, i wish I had those koozies. You know, i wish I had those sweatshirts. How much more money could I have made if? I had those sweatshirts And then-.
Speaker 2:I mean I think you still dwell on some of that stuff, but not nearly as bad as you used to.
Speaker 1:Yeah, i think for me what a lot of it goes to is now that I've been on the road enough, i can look back where in my mind I make this grand illusion that if I had these sweatshirts I'd sell 30 of them right.
Speaker 2:Well, that's always. like the first couple of fairs you were like, oh my God, i need 20 of each and we need to bring them all. So like packing and unpacking and restocking and like trying to restock inventory in the tent like just became such a chore because you couldn't find what you were looking for, because we had so many Like items that I mean having a lot of items is great, but the amount of each item that we carried was like 20 smalls, 20 mediums, like of every single shirt and you're just like holy Hannah, because we didn't know, We didn't know, we just did not know.
Speaker 1:And you get to the point where you're like if I don't have it, I can't sell it right, So I gotta bring it, because you don't wanna think about the sales that you did lose. So you try to bring the most that you possibly can. So there's that kind of struggle that happens there. And then now that you're on the road for a few years and you look back at those numbers and say I've never sold more than six of any of those sizes.
Speaker 2:Right, which is super helpful.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like I mean there's a couple items where maybe I've sold eight of a large or an extra large right. We offer quite a different selection. I feel like we have quite a few selections right. So you know, even if you sell six of this large six of that once, in the end it all adds up. But the thing is, instead of bringing 12, 15, and 20 of certain sizes, really you should cap it at six to eight, right? So like that should kind of be the end all be all where we've been going through trying to have all that extra inventory And we're right now at that awkward stage where I wanna kind of phase some things out and bring some things new in. But when we're funding this out of our own back pocket it's kind of tough to balance all those things pay a mortgage and then decide how much new product you can run. In the beginning I always thought about man, if I had that, i'd sell 30 more of these. And then when you get home and you look at the math or you do a couple more events and you look at it and say, man, i was waiting and I was having my hopes up so high to get that item in. And then the next event that I went to with that item, i sold two of them. I have my expectations on selling 30 and I sold two. So when you look at it it's like, why did they get so worked up? I mean for fucking 50 bucks. Like why did you beat yourself up? It may be ruined a day over, potentially 50 bucks. Like in your mind you think maybe you lost $500 or a grand, but ultimately maybe it was 50 bucks. Maybe you talked them into buying something else. So I don't know, man, i'm trying to get better at it. Where I set my expectation, i write the list of all the new things I wanna bring, all the things I wanna tackle, and when it comes down to the day before, i just have to get realistic. I look at it and go, that's not gonna make the deadline. You know what. This one's not gonna work. But I brought this new item and you kind of set the good with the bad, you cost, average it, figure it out and hope for the fucking best. That's really all we can do And that's kind of where we're at this weekend. Man, there's a lot of things that I wish I had for our first fair. I don't have them, but it is what it is, man. We're gonna try to. Maybe just everything's up from here. You know what I mean. That's the plan right.
Speaker 2:That's the plan.
Speaker 1:So I can't believe it's fair season already.
Speaker 2:I know it's insane. I've already got poop all over my face, but I mean, you don't have poop on your face anymore.
Speaker 1:Thankfully.
Speaker 2:Let's clarify that real quick, oh man.
Speaker 1:So first fair of the year, first fair Loud Prayer American has ever done, is this fair, offsie Valley Fair. It's a small little fair but it's got a special meaning to me. I spent a lot of time there as a child, as a kid. My dad used to race there, so I grew up there. My uncles used to race there, so it's got a close spot to me. It's got a close spot in my heart And it's the fair that I just hand chose to be the first fair that we did for Loud Prayer American And this will be our third time. Going back Now we're, you know, we're regulars there right Now. They know us and accept us and welcome us, look forward to us being there. I feel like we have a little bit of poll there now. We welcome two new vendors in over there.
Speaker 2:It's super sweet, old timer. Oh yeah, we see you in.
Speaker 1:Heartland to check us in Phenomenal.
Speaker 2:Super sweet, she's the boss.
Speaker 1:She's definitely the boss. We went over to check in to camp today to drop our camper off And a couple old timers are sitting outside drinking pops hanging out And I came over and said I think I'm site 155. And he said she'll be right out and tell you where to go. And I said I'm pretty sure she's been sitting around here telling you, two boys, where to go all day.
Speaker 2:She's the boss.
Speaker 1:But it's just a, it's a good feeling, fair man, i enjoy the people, i enjoy the atmosphere.
Speaker 2:Yeah everyone's genuine there.
Speaker 1:Everything about it is great. I just I really look forward to this fair. Every year Some fairs give me anxiety because I don't know what to get into. This fair doesn't This fair? I just know it like the back of my hand. I'm comfortable with it. There's no anxiety there, it's just all anticipation there And it's to a lot of people. They might show up and be like this is a small fair man, like what you know what and but I don't care, it just feels right. It's just a good fair for me. For two years in a row we've had good years. Last year we grew, i want to say, two grand over the year before, over our first year. So hopefully that trend continues And we have ourselves a good year this year and get things rocking around.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we have a new layout this year, So that's for now. Hopefully, Right we just.
Speaker 1:We just tried a new layout at Bentley Saloon And I asked the fair people at OSPI if I could change my layout. So we'll see if I can squeeze that in, But we're getting creative. Well, we're trying a few new things And hopefully that kind of turns out some new results for us. So I'm excited. There's a lot of things up in the air. We have a lot of fairs that we haven't heard back from, But getting dipping our toes into the first one is pretty damn exciting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1:The stress. For what it is, it's still exciting.
Speaker 2:I'm actually honestly surprised that. Excuse me, i'm tired.
Speaker 1:You can't yawn on the microphone.
Speaker 2:Sorry guys.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna kick your ass. People are trying to go to work right now and you're sleeping.
Speaker 2:It's almost 11 here when we're recording. Anyway, i'm actually surprised that I did pretty well today without my anxiety. That's usually the hardest part going into fair season is knowing I have to haul and setting up and making sure everything is you have everything, is the camper all set up, that sort of thing.
Speaker 1:So Yeah, there's a lot of moving parts there. And then when it's the first one, it's difficult because you don't know what's broken, you don't know what works, you don't know what doesn't work, You don't know where things are because we stored them in a hurry at the end of the year, stuff like that.
Speaker 2:And I mean this is our first year or I should say second year, but our first year opening a camper. When we bought our camper last year, it was like season had already started.
Speaker 1:Hook up and go.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly. So we had to close up the camper, now reopen the camper and we're like, oh God, okay, how does this work? Did we do the right things as camper owners? Who really knows?
Speaker 1:Yeah, we don't know.
Speaker 2:We don't know.
Speaker 1:But here we are, y'all It is happening, sweetheart. Yeah, from here on out, until sometime in early October, two fairs a month, i think is my schedule, at least two fairs a month, you know.
Speaker 2:And then between I'll be home 10 toes up on the couch.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah right.
Speaker 1:So, if you look at it, i've got two fairs a month, one DJ night a month on those off weeks at the saloon. They got a handful of weddings sprinkled in there, campground dates, things like that. So it's full steam ahead. Man, it is a big time business. We now cross our fingers and pray that things go our way and we make this year as strong as we possibly can. I've got high hopes, dreams and aspirations for this year. There's a lot of things weighing on the results for this year, for the family and for the brand. So, fingers crossed, man, that this thing gets rolling and we put this rain behind us and we get on to making things happen. And I feel like this whole country's been waiting for, you know, for the summer to get here. The whole country's waiting for good times to get here, to get out there and enjoy friends and family and make memories and do all those things. So we've all been waiting for a long time, y'all, and I think it's about to happen. I think it's about to happen for all of us And I look forward to it And I hope to see some of y'all down the road. Fair season.
Speaker 2:Fair season full effect.
Speaker 1:Full effect. That's gonna put us at just about 45 minutes. We promised Kevin he could get off the cardio deck around 45 minutes And for those of you listening that don't know, kevin, well maybe you should all right.
Speaker 2:I just wanna end with this. I just saw a camper posted on Marketplace And the cover for the spare tire. It's a camper and it says I hate pulling out, i need that.
Speaker 1:That's pretty good. I need that. That's pretty good.
Speaker 2:Like that's classic. I don't know, we don't have a spare tire, but maybe the next camper will have a spare tire. We have a spare tire.
Speaker 1:We have a spare tire, but it's in the back of the truck, right. It doesn't have like it's not mounted.
Speaker 2:We ain't fancy y'all No but I don't care, i'm about to buy that, if not you have a fucking vinyl cutter, we can put the sticker across the bumper. I should, yeah, i should.
Speaker 1:I should have done that before you sold this one.
Speaker 2:I hate pulling out.
Speaker 1:Good Lord.
Speaker 2:With a camper. That's classic.
Speaker 1:It is classic. It is classic. Well, happy Independence Day, america. Thank y'all for tuning in for listening. I know this was a different episode for everybody. I hopefully you made your laugh, even though it might involve me getting pissed on.
Speaker 2:We can smell you from here Some more Kelly action over here.
Speaker 1:Let me see your face. I'm gonna piss on it.
Speaker 2:Golden shower.
Speaker 1:Don't bring the pee pee, y'all bring the wee wee, y'all bring the poo poo. You know that song.
Speaker 2:No, you just totally made that up.
Speaker 1:No, it was actually Dave Chappelle making fun of our Kelly back in the day, but I digress, i'm ranch bach, dave Chappelle, anybody, i actually brought you to see Dave Chappelle stand up. I know, i know, i know that he smoked like a whole pack of butts in front of us in sweatpants. I know I got Secondhand cancer, secondhand smoke. Yeah, you remember It was aggressive.
Speaker 2:But We were at the college, weren't we?
Speaker 1:No, it was like a people don't wanna. people don't care that you and me are reminiscing about what we did years ago, but I think it was that like oh man, like a state theater or something like that. It was a Merrill Auditorium. It was a very fancy place. Just kidding And the people were offended that he was smoking butts and flicking them on stage.
Speaker 2:Remember that, mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:It was a very, very fancy place And Chappelle didn't give a fuck.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:About how fancy it was.
Speaker 2:Oh, I was thinking of that other guy, the chubby guy that we saw. Hey, I take offense to that At the college Watch your mouth At the college. Kevin James, I think you lost a bunch of weight.
Speaker 1:I don't think he's fat anymore. Well, you know, Some people look better fat. Maybe I'm one of them. Maybe I should stop trying. You know what I mean. Just fucking embrace it. I'll see my toes come fucking fall When.
Speaker 2:I fall over. If you fall, fall over.
Speaker 1:If I fall over, maybe I'll see my toes then. Until then, I appreciate each and every one of you. Hope you enjoyed today's podcast. It was a little bit different. I feel like there was a lesson I'd be learning in there. Hopefully And either way, hopefully we made you laugh.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I have to have your poop pipe and don't stand in the way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, lord, don't look down the eye of the barrel. Say that right now.
Speaker 2:Yep buckshot.
Speaker 1:I gotta take a shower. Thank you for supporting our American dream. Now go wash your fucking hands Because you smell like poop. Yeah, i still do Savage. That's it and that's all. Biggie 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 sharethestrucklepodcastcom. Subscribe to Grow Our Tribe on Apple Podcasts, spotify, google Podcasts, amazon Music, iheart Radio and all other major platforms, and don't forget to like and share our official Facebook page at Share the Struggle Podcast. If you're a loud, proud American and you find yourself just wanting more, you can find me on YouTube, on Facebook or the face page, as my mama calls it, just search Loud Proud American. If you're a fan of the Graham Cracker, the Instagram or the Tickety Tuck with the kids, be a Tickety Tuckin' the Tick Tuck. You can search Loud, underscore, proud, underscore American. If you want to join the 2% of Americans that support American manufacturing, head on over to wwwloudproudamericanshop and get your hands on some of that made in USA. Apparel and join the mission, mission 2%. Together, we can bring back American manufacturing. A big old thank you to the boys from the Gut Truckers for the background beats and the theme song that's shared 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.
