The Significant Role of Timing in Our Lives 158

Have you ever been in the right place at the wrong time? Have you ever overcooked a steak, burnt a cake or missed an opportunity because you thought it was fake? Maybe you told a joke you wish you could take back? There's one common ingredient in all these mistakes Timing, because timing is everything. 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. 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. What it do, what it do hot diggity, damn. I'm so happy, I'm so excited, I'm so blessed to be back with you. How do you do y'all, how do you do? Welcome back to the Loud, proud American Podcast, properly, precisely, beautifully, perfectly named Share the Struggle Podcast, episode 158. And oh, I just can't wait Because our timing is great, yeah, yeah, because this show is going to be about timing and I thought that it all rhymed, okay, I mean, in my head, in my head it all rhymed All right. I was like, oh man, I can't wait because it's going to be great, and 58. I don't know, I guess y'all had to be there. You had to be there, I mean, but if you were there, you'd be here, you'd be me, you'd be in my head. Okay, I'm an idiot, I don't know if that's making sense, but nonetheless I'm happy we're back together y'all. I appreciate you tuning in each and every freaking week. Thank you so much. Oh, fun fact for you y'all. Fun fact for you. I have this program that I don't really prescribe to it all that much, or I haven't really done anything to promote it, but occasionally I'll get an email and it'll tell me if I'm charting in any area, in any category when I say I'm talking about the podcast, right? So if this show is on any up and coming charts like Apple charts, stuff like that, and fun fact for you y'all, last week we made it. Last week, share, the Struggle podcast made it to number 69. Hello Wink, yeah, that's right, number 69 and the self-help category in Russia. Yeah, yeah, it's not America. Trust me, you would have heard about it the hell of a lot sooner. Okay, if we were number 69 on the charts for anything in America, you can bet your ass I would have a whole line of merchandise made right there. Okay, we would have t-shirts, beanies, book bags. I don't know, I don't even know where the book bag thing came from, but yeah, I do, because I would have to have a book bag that said number 69 on the charts to carry my balls around because they'd be so massive and swollen with excitement. This is fucked up. Okay, I'm way off track, but if you put me on any chart followed by number 69, pretty excited about it. I know I'm small minded and very immature, but that's, I think, while you guys keep coming back each week because I'm kind of fucked up. I'm sorry to interrupt you because you're back here, but I apologize because we really just get off on a really bad foot. Maybe I should back this all up and delete all this, because this is getting awkward and weird, but so am I, and you know this is part of my struggle. This is my struggle. I'm awkward, I'm weird and I'm a little messed up, very immature and you know so seems how it's the name of the podcast. I'm hands of shirt with all y'all, but I do apologize for those of you that come here looking for a positive, hopeful, brilliant message. We're headed there. I might have just distracted us with some child humor, but I was actually super excited. Man Number 69 on the charts in Russia, russia, yeah, russia. I think it was a self help category. I believe I already said that, pretty stoked about it. And then I got an email this week that said hey, buddy, you're off the charts. Not in a good way, not like, yeah, man, that shit was off the charts. It was like no, you fell off the chart. You have one good week, but if I only had one week, I'd want that one week to be number 69. Hello, got checked, say you're. He'll obey, make it bleed. I can't just stay. I told you so. Alright, alright, alright, welcome back y'all. Thank you to Jeff Forne and the Gut Truckers for that little musical interlude that got me out of that uncountable conversation we were creating for ourselves. Before we get rockin' rollin', I wanna say big ol' thank you to the sponsors of the show. B&d Flag Polls, home of that proudly made in USA Titan Telescoping Flag Poll. Don't spend the rest of your summer with Poll Envy. Y'all get yourself a proudly made in USA Flag Poll to proudly represent the US of A the only way you really can. With a friggin' flag poll. Y'all, titan Telescoping Flag Poll. You can send that sucker up and down. You can move it all across town. Get it at B&D Flag PollsSalescom. You can find all super cool things like links to our sponsors or an opportunity to review the show, maybe a link to go buy some stuff for the show. All that greatness happens at wwwsharethetrugglepodcastcom. Yeah, with that out the way, I'm ready to say yesterday in this household, for this family, was a great day. That's what I'm here to say y'all. I know this is weird because I'm just coming on here just gloatin' and boatin' all about just having a great day. But we don't often get together and celebrate great days. We often just take them for granted or we just assume, hey, I deserve this, maybe I got lucky with this, I was fortunate with this. All those things and ways that we describe good things happening to us. Instead of just celebrating what actually happens to us, we chalk it up as right place, right time. I got fortunate, I got lucky, I'm blessed, and maybe sometimes you might say, hey, man, I worked for that, I earned that. But we don't stop and celebrate that, we don't stop and smell the roses. We planted the roses, we got the fertilizer, we dug the hole, we got the seeds, we watered it, we nourished it, we washed it, we plucked it, we did all those things and then we cut that sucker off and we put it in the vase and a couple days later it's dead and we forget about it and we start that journey all over again next year. We don't often smell the roses or remember the roses after they're gone. I know this sounds a little strange y'all, but what I'm here to say is celebrate your victories. Celebrate those small victories, those minor achievements. Celebrate all achievements, because this life is a hell of a lot more enjoyable when you enjoy the accomplishments along the way, when you celebrate the milestones that you meet each and every day. So for me today, I'm going to start off by saying yesterday was an absolute great freaking day and we're going to dig into a couple of reasons and a couple of layers why. I'm not going to get all the way into it, but it's going to spiral into a conversation. Okay, it's going to spiral into some motivation, all right. Yes, it's going to spiral into a fantastic lesson today on timing. Trust me, my timing on this episode shall be impeccable. If not, send me an email, tell me I suck. Either way, I'm cool with it, I'm used to it. So let's examine some of the ways. Okay, if you guys have been listening along with the past few weeks, you've heard some of the trials and tribulations of loud, proud American, of the brand, of the wife and I being on the road trying to make things happen. You've heard us, you know, tell stories about our camper and some of the mishaps that have happened with our camper the fact that we developed a leak over the winter, the first hauling of the season, where I opened the yeah, poop pipe up little too early when I had, you know, poo and pee and, oh god, I want to talk about it. Oh, the smell. There was a lot of substance. Okay, on the south side of the north end drain Okay, you heard a story about me getting splashed with pee, pee and wee, wee, all over me, me. Okay, those things. Right, we talked about that. And we talked about having some down events and we talked about going through a couple of events that have been 50% off and we start talking about those struggles. You've heard me say over the past few weeks that hey, man, I've got some checks and some deposits out to some fairs that they don't seem to care to get back to me. They're not responding to me. I've got a couple cash, some checks, but they ain't said shit to me. I've got some that's, you know, as cast a check, told me I'm in, but they don't want to talk to me about Camping. And when your fair is two hours away it makes it a little difficult. And Another challenge I've had, another worrisome thought that I've had, is that one of Maine's biggest fairs I would say the second largest fair to the granddaddy of them all the Freiburg Fair, which is True blessing for us. If it wasn't for the Freiburg Fair, laprod American would not be in business. Now a Maine's second largest fair is known as the Windsor Fair. It's a super awesome fair. It's actually one of my favorite fairs to go to, just as a patron, to go in and check out. But the past couple years my schedule has not aligned up with me being able to do that fair. But the more that I know about my business motto and plan and how things work. I understand that that fair is of a very dire importance to me and the organizers about fair actually had asked me a couple times to join their fair but I just didn't. Didn't work out. So this year I actually cleared my schedule to make sure that it would work out, except for one little issue. I submit them my stuff it's made of my paperwork and they won't let me in the fair. They see there's no room I can't get in. So I cleared my schedule, I said no to another fair and another event and I freed up all this time to be at the Windsor Fair grounds because I Know how important that fair is to the bottom line for my business and it's one of the things I targeted as a way to Grow my business and to finally attain some of the numbers that I've set forward for my business. I've fallen short on my gross number forecast every year that I've been in business. So this is part of my big plans, part of the big Forecasting plan that I made for this year. And now here I am not being able to get into the fair when I thought it was a Shoe-in for me to get in, so that makes it a little difficult. Now, one of the true blessings for me is a relationship and friendship I have with ledgeway farms, matt and Sarah, and they have both been pushing for me. Matt's been very persistent on trying to get me into the fair. Now. To kind of wrap all this stuff up, to put it together, yesterday, on this glorious day that I speak of, I got a phone call from one of the organizers at the fair and he said to me hey, that location, the area where we wanted you to apply for we wanted you to be, that's full. I can't squeeze you in, but I got an area next to me that I can get you in. I can get you into the fair. And we had a great conversation and he said listen, this area isn't going to be the busiest spot, it's not going to be the best of locations where you want it to go, where we suggested you to go, what have been a better fit for you? But this is an option for you. And my response was a foot in the door is all I need. If I get a foot in the door, I can prove myself, I can show myself and that will be all I need. For me, it'll all work out right. We know what it's like to go to a fair for the first time, to, you know, not have the greatest of locations and then try to work your way up the ladder, but this is a big get for me. This is a big thing for me. So I know without the persistence of Matt, this never would have happened. Without that friendship, that relationship, that connection, his devotion and commitment to trying to help me get in. Without that, this isn't possible, because they would have just dismissed this thing altogether. Because here we are now, getting creative and finding solutions and finding options, and that means so much to me and it's one of those things that I instantly celebrated, that I was so thankful for, and it made me just think about all the potential opportunities that are there. I want you to bookmark this because we're gonna come back to it now. The next thing that that happened on this Glorious day when it comes to me and events, I Started to get responses all on the same day about other fairs. I locked down my next fair. I've been awaiting confirmation on camping. I got a emailed confirmation hey, I do have spots available. What do you need? Let's work through it. So here's my next fair. I am due to be there this coming weekend. I should be hauling camp. I should be hauling our camper to camp this weekend and I had no notification. I'm whether I could actually camp, otherwise I'd be setting up and driving home two hours each way or sleeping by myself in the ambulance on top of a bunch of totes. So To get this message, even though it's so close, I'm so damn thankful it's starting to come together. So the two fairs I've been awaiting responses to I've been locked and loaded. I'm confirmed. Okay, one of the fairs that I've been looking for camping confirmed. I still have one of those kind of out, you know, floating around. But then the biggest fair of them all that I was hoping to add like the biggest Opportunity, growth opportunity for me this year, called me and said I'm gonna put a contract in the mail To you. Those are massive things for me. Now, a designer I was working with but I've been chasing around for freaking weeks that I put me far behind a deadline. I decided to branch out and do some different things and to work with different designers to help me on certain designs and logos that I'm just not able to do yet, and when I get those, I can learn from those, I can manipulate those to kind of make them into my own. But in doing so, it widens my portfolio, it diversifies what I can offer Everybody, and I've wanted to do this because I don't want to pigeonhole myself into one lane, I don't want to limit myself to only what I can do, only to what I can create, and it took me some time to get to this way of thinking. It took me some time for me to be okay with Opening myself up to other designers. So not having my hands and my you know, my fingertips on every single aspect of the business has taken me time to get here. Because when you build a business, when you start early, you want to do every single thing about it right. You want to craft the plan, craft the idea. You want to type the message, do the marketing, take the pictures, post the pictures, put them out. You want to build the product. I want to order the t-shirts. I want to make the designs. I want to. I want to put the designs. I want to do all those things right. I want to be involved in every single aspect of the business. I'm at that point now where you realize if you're going to grow the business, you got to look outside for some things with the business. I've gotten a little bit of business With the business. I've gotten a little bit more comfortable and at ease with asking for help and being okay in receiving help and and and doing those things. It's been difficult for me but we're getting there. So this designer I've been chasing around. When I ordered this design nearly a month ago and We've gone back and forth to them, not coming through on their end and just dealing with all those struggles to finally getting the files I need, know the designs not exactly where I wanted, but I finally received access to those files on. This glory is a day which allows me to manipulate things and to put my spin on things and to make this design. It is something that I truly want. So all these great occurrences, all these things are happening all on one day. I want you to bookmark these things right. I got into the biggest piece, the biggest addition I could put in my portfolio for my state. I got in right Contracts in the mail. I secured camping for an event this weekend. I finalized commitments on two fairs coming up Right. These things are all coming together. I finally got my hands on some graphics. I've been waiting on for Neil, your month. Now. If we think about all the things that have gone on over the past few weeks, when I start tying in the connection between the fairs and us being on the road and that little mishap story on the poo, poo, poop pipe, and I start talking to you about hauling our camper for the first time and the fact that we got a leak this year and we're dealing with some difficulties this year and we're setting things up. Our camp has been great to us but it's not the best fit for us. We didn't know what we didn't know because we didn't know. So what I did there? Pretty creative, right. The first time you get a Camper, the first time you start doing those things, you don't know what you need and what you don't need, until you're on the road and you're figuring those things out and we realize we are out of room and we need to do a few more things. We need to have Just some more ability for us, right, some more space and ability to house things, to handle things, to be comfortable with all things. So my wife's been on the hunt and if you heard the episode with with Ali on here talking about hauling the camper for the first time or coming back from Our first event with the camper, you know that she's been thinking about another camper, right well, we locked down the details on a new camper on Tuesday. Not only did we lock down those details, we went and saw the camper about a week ago. We checked it out. We fell in love. It's everything that we're looking for, and Ally got commitment from the bank that she can purchase this camper while also having a loan on the other camper, so we can. Basically, our whole fear has been hey, we know we can sell our camper If we sell that one and we can't get into another one in time. Now I'm on the road without a place to stay, so you're kind of having that balance, and we got the bank convinced to let us have two campers for a short amount of time while we move another one out. That's a major milestone moment for us, right? So all these things start happening, all these things happen in one day and you start feeling so freaking grateful for all those things, and then it's just little things, right, like oh shit, you checked the hay bar and we're out of hay, text a friend hey man, you still got some hay. Yeah, come on over and get it. Things just lining up right, things just working out. But if you don't stop and celebrate those things, you don't stop and enjoy those things, you dismiss those things. And as I sit here today, a day after my glorious day, and I'm just reflecting on all the awesomeness that happens, I find myself in my office working on those designs I mentioned and I'm doing some things, trying to get things done, and I'm often listening to motivation and you guys know that about me. One of the people that I love to listen to is TD Jakes and he had this powerful, powerful message. He had a whole sermon that was man, maybe close to two hours, and it was on timing as everything. And as I was listening to the message and I was working in the office, I started to realize some things about timing and I started to have a whole new perspective. On my previous day, I started to have a whole different outlook on what happened yesterday, because it all comes down to timing, because the timing was perfect, right. You have that recipe, that perfect recipe for a beautiful result, and yesterday that recipe and that result came together and because they all came together on the same day, around the same time, that timing was perfect and I had enough positive things happen to me on this super awesome positive day that opened my mind up to looking at things in a different way. So if I start to think about timing and how important timing is, I'm gonna recap what happened yesterday and then we're gonna have a little bit more discussion on timing. But as we start to connect the dots on the timing working out for yesterday, let's go into this big event that I finally got accepted to. I literally had a conversation with Ali on Sunday that said this week, if I do not hear back from the Windsor Fairgrounds, I have to dismiss that plan. I have to go in a different direction. I had this conversation with my wife and with my mother. I was going through all my fair stuff and I pulled out the envelope. I pulled out the contract for my backup fair, a fair that I did yet last year. That didn't give me the results that I'd helped for, but it was a result. Right, it's an option and I've been putting that option off and when I saw the organizer from that fair, he came to meet me. At the last fair I was at and we had a conversation. He said I'm looking forward to seeing you. I had to let him down and say hey, I'm sorry, I'm not gonna make it to this one, I'm gonna be at Windsor. And he was disappointed and he walked off. Now I'm literally looking at this envelope that I hadn't even opened yet. I know it's in it saying if I don't get confirmation this week, I gotta open this envelope, I gotta tuck my tail between my legs, I gotta call that organizer and I gotta ask to come back, right. And then I'm also thinking there's another event that I can pick up that I don't really wanna pick up because I'm happy I moved on. I don't wanna put it back on my list. I need to separate myself from some of these commitments. Well, I guess if I don't hear back this week, I'm gonna have to move on from that dream, from that forecast, and go back to what I've been doing. What I've been doing that has given me the same results for the past two years, which the end result doesn't give me the goal, doesn't help me achieve that goal or dream I set for myself. So I tell myself, I say to myself self and I say it out loud too, I say it to the wife and my mom separate conversations because it's been on my mind when I said if I don't get an answer this week, I'm done. I can't keep putting all my focus on this. Matt's pushed as much as he can. I've done as much as I can. If it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out. I gotta find another way to make it work next year. Well, the timing was perfect because as I'm about to give up, I get a phone call that opens the door. Timing was perfect. Now, if I examine the timing and the end result, let's think about this had I not struggled so much to get into that fair, had I not had other relationships and connections worked so hard to get me into that fair, I might have had a much different outlook on that fair. When they called me and said I don't know how busy your location's gonna be, I might not have been happy about that. I might have been extremely disappointed in hearing that. I could have very easily puffed up my chest and said hey, for the fucking past two years you come to me. You asked me to be a part of this fair. Now you're gonna call me and tell me I don't have a good location. That's not good, but listen, timing is perfect. Had I had that conversation six months ago, maybe I reacted in an immature way, maybe I react in a different way, but because I've been through the struggle, because I've been through the heartache, because I've had my heart broken, thinking I'm not gonna get into this fair, because I've had multiple conversations, you ain't getting in there. I had all these things go the way I didn't want them to go. Because of all of that, because I had a conversation on Sunday looking at a contract that I said no to. Thinking about a conversation with an organizer, I said no to Because I had all of that. When I received that phone call that said, hey, I might not have the best location, you know what I said I just wanna be there, I just want my foot in the door. Just getting me there is all I need. Timing is perfect, think about it. And timing is everything. Had I got that call six months ago, how do I react? Do I say yes? Do I say no? Do I act like a little bitch? The fact that I went through the struggle, the fact that I went through the heartache, the fact that I had to deal with the fact that I'm probably not gonna be somewhere I really wanna be. When the opportunity came to me, I was beyond excited for it, because timing is absolutely everything. Those other fairs I have to be at one this weekend. I'm going back and forth with one of the organizers saying hey man, I haven't heard back from your camping guy. Yada, yada, yada, I got multiple messages out and last night, on my glorious day, at about 11 o'clock, I checked my spam box and there's an email with the guy from the camping section saying I have plenty of room. Let's figure it out. Timing's everything, cause I am just moments away from freaking out. I'm a couple days away from causing a big stink and not knowing where the hell I'm gonna go. I'm a couple days away from not being able to bring my camper. But it came to me at the right time and here we are. It's all gonna work out right. So you start thinking about these things and you start putting together the fact that they came to me when it was meant to be. It happened for me when it was right for me. Had these things happen sooner, I might not have appreciated them right, and I think that's something that we can really extend all the way through life, because there's so many things that if they were just given to you, if you didn't earn those things, you might not appreciate those things. And if some things came to you easier than necessary, if it was just given up to you, if it just showed up for you, you might not treat it the same, you certainly won't appreciate it the same. So when you struggle through those things, when you go through those things, when you grow through those things, it puts a whole new perspective on things. I can spend days and hours talking about how to appreciate what it is that we have to celebrate what it is that we have achieved, to recognize the hard work we've put in and to truly appreciate and enjoy the reward. If I start to dig into the camper scenario with you guys, you've heard the conversations with my wife. If you've been listening, you know how important it is to her to get a new camper. So during this journey and things that we've been looking at, my wife has looked at and contacted several different people, several different sale ads, all these different things, trying to find what she felt was the absolute right camper. Well, she surprised me a week ago when she got super excited about a camper and said you're not gonna believe it about this one because the people that own this, their daughter, lives right next door. Their daughter that lives right next door is actually when I say daughter, let me try to frame this okay, the parents that own the camper are maybe in their 70s, early 80s I think the gentleman said he just turned 80. And their daughter, who lives next door, her daughter. So the owners of the camper's granddaughter actually went to school with Allie. Okay, so Allie knows the granddaughters. This is really confusing. I'm doing a horrible job at this. Right, allie went to school with a girl her mom lives next door. Okay, that girl, she went to school with her grandparents own a camper at a campground. Does that make sense? That better off. Now, the people that were referencing here, the lady that posted the ad is the mother of Allie's friend, our neighbor, okay. And a couple of years ago our neighbor had a horse just like ours, a white horse. It was, ironically, two white horses on our little dead end street. They owned one, we owned the other. Her horse passed away and they asked us to come over to take hay, to take grain, to take all these things, and we've just had a conversation and a connection. But Allie grew up knowing the family. So here this lady is posting this camper for sale. I was like I can't believe that our neighbor has this. So she reaches out, comes to find out it's her parents' camper and she's posting it for them. But this goes through all these different conversations and things and she shows me pictures of it and I'm like I don't know. I don't know if this is right for us. I'm not really sure. I don't wanna create an image to you guys of something super extravagant and out of control, because we're balling on a budget here and it's all about necessity for us. And we've also had this thing in our mind, saying maybe we need a toy hauler, because if I can get a toy hauler I can haul some of our gear in there, some of our display stuff, the merchandise, the and the other. So we've gone back and forth about multiple things. I see pictures of the ad and I'm like, no, I don't know, maybe I'm not that crazy about it. Now Ali keeps talking about this camper. And then we had the discussion that hey, if you reach out to the actual bank. Maybe they'll allow you to have two loans for a short amount of time. So we're having all these conversations because I can tell how committed she is and how excited she is about this camper. So she wants to set up a time to view the camper. She's coming home so we can go view it. She gets a phone call or she actually she calls to them about looking at the camper and he said someone was just here looking at it. They're talking about buying it. He's supposed to let me know in a little bit and you know. So basically, don't come up yet, I'll call you and tell you if it's sold. So we drive off and go, you know, run errands or whatever. And then we're having this conversation and we actually went and got an ice cream or a sitting by the water just having a conversation. And she's like you know, I'm disappointed. I really wanted that camper. I just felt like it was the perfect time. I felt like it was the right fit, the right people, the right situation. It'll help us to work with the bank. It's not like I'm just going to Joe Schmo on the side of the street. That's not going to be patient with us. She had all these positive feelings and all this, you know, just sure fire, just commitment to the fact that this is the right one, this is the right time, this makes sense, and I said, well, unfortunately, if it doesn't work, it doesn't work. And then, if it, then it just wasn't meant to be right. It wasn't meant to be for you and me. If it doesn't work out Well, on our way home, damn, if she doesn't get a phone call from the gentleman saying you know what, if you want to come take a look at it, come on up, you kidding me. We jump on the truck, we head out to camp and we go over to look at it and as soon as we get inside, we fall in love. It's everything that that Ally has hoped for. It's so much more space for all of us. It just ends up being a really great scenario for us, right? And we're having all these conversations and I don't want to bore you with all the details, but it turns into over the weekend Ally is awaiting a response from her bank, not hearing anything back. You know her contacts out of the office are too busy, not returning phone calls. That goes on for three days and finally it comes down to Ally betting on herself enough to say, hey, we'll give you a deposit, here's some cash, you hold it, I'll figure it out next week. That's betting on yourself. That's throwing cash on the line that you might possibly lose. You haven't heard from your bank. You don't know the scenario, but you, listening, already know the scenario because I'm telling you about my glorious day. She received word from the bank that you're all set. She went and signed the paperwork. We bought another camper. We got a camper that is so much more suited for what we need and it'll be so much more comfortable for us on the road Because the timing was perfect. Think about it, y'all Timing is everything. When I was experiencing, thinking about all the awesomeness that happened from yesterday and that powerful message hit me from TDJX about timing is everything. He gave this amazing sermon and he gave so many awesome, just descriptive details on timing being perfect, on some of those on being crops right when you're trying to plant wheat and you're waiting for wheat to grow. I highly recommend this sermon. I'll see if I can drop it in the show notes because I just I don't want to steal the thunder from the conversation at all, but he had so many great examples about timing being perfect. And if you've ever had a recipe, if you've baked a cake, if you've ever been cooking and the timing's not right, then you don't get the result that you're supposed to get. So when I opened the show, my analogy on this, my thought process on this, is have you ever burnt a steak? And I have, unfortunately, and we know the price of steak and I love steak I've burnt the steak before. I've been so mad at myself eating that charboiled steak because the griddle was too high or the burner was off or you got busy, took a phone call, you overcooked something, you dried it out right. I've ruined a good steak. I've also burnt a good cake, because timing is everything. If you don't pay attention, if you don't pull out the exact, precise time, you're not going to get the results that you actually want. This spreads into everything in life, as TDJX is talking about growing crops and raising children. Timing is everything. You're not just going to get the perfect child, it's not just going to happen right. You don't just come out of the womb ready to rock and roll. You don't just come out potty, trained and educated and ready to go. No, it takes time. Everything takes time and it takes copious, countless amounts of effort and energy and struggle and strength, and all those things take time. He had a great analogy in there that he said you can get married in 30 seconds, but a marriage takes time. That's so damn true. You can get in and out of a relationship in 30 seconds. You can say I do. You can say I love you. You can get married in 30 seconds, but that marriage takes time. Everything in life takes time. We often set hopes, dreams, goals and aspirations for ourselves, but we don't achieve them as quickly as we would like to achieve. The problem then becomes do you continue on that road? Do you continue to struggle? Do you continue to strive and drive, or do you pivot and go in a different direction? Do you give up on your hopes and dreams or do you stay the course? Because anything worth owning, anything worth achieving, anything worth fighting for takes a great deal of effort and strength and struggle and time. Everything takes time. It takes copious amounts of time and often that time is difficult. Often we deal with struggle. Often we deal with reject. Often we give up on those things that we want so bad in our life because we don't give them enough time. There's so many layers of time here, people, because you can be right, you can be so right, but the time could be wrong. Think about, as we start thinking about marriage, we start talking about the fact you can get married in 30 seconds, but it takes time to have a marriage. You want to end a marriage real quick. Be right and say it at the wrong time. You understand me, know you're right, know there was a mistake, know there was a fuck up. Know there was a disagreement, know there was something that she doesn't agree to, that he doesn't agree to. But you know you're right, but you deliver that right message at the wrong time, you're going to get the wrong result. Do you understand what I'm saying? If you don't use the filter, if you just call somebody out in the middle of a fight, in the middle of an argument, you just throw some shit out there. Even if you are right, it's the wrong time. It ain't going to be right, it's not going to be all right. You understand, so many times in life we are right, but it's the wrong time. If you're at work and someone says something, does something or doesn't do something, you might be right and you know you're right in bringing that up and overcompensating, over-acknowledging whatever. But it's the wrong time to do it. And if you overreact and point out that that person is not upholding their end of the bargain, they're not upholding their commitment, they're not doing things for the right of the team and you know those things and what you know is right and what you say is right, but you say it at the wrong time. It looks poorly on you, right? You ever been in a situation where doing the right thing looks wrong? I just talked to you guys about the fact that I was at a fair a week ago and some dude called me fat. The thing that I felt was right was to whoop his ass. But it certainly would have been a wrong time because had I done that at that time, I can guarantee you I'm not getting into the fairs, I just got into. I can guarantee you that my direction and my plan for my business changes exponentially because I might have done what I thought was right, but I would have done it at the wrong time. I'm not condoning, you know, whooping some farmers ass. I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that that was the right thing to do, but what I felt it was right, but oftentimes there's things that we know are right, but it's the wrong time. Maybe you have some pertinent information about somebody you care about, but it's not the right time to deliver it, whether it's a significant other, a best friend, an acquaintance, a colleague, a boss. There are certain things that we know that we are right and we feel like we're doing the right thing by putting them out there. Or we put them out there at the wrong time in the wrong setting and it gets interpreted the wrong way and, before you know it, you're getting looked at as an asshole for doing the right thing. Why is this all important? How does this all make sense? Because timing is everything. You could deliver those same results. You could deliver that same information in the exact same way, but when you do it at the right time versus the wrong time, you get a very different result. Telling somebody something very hurtful at the wrong time versus the right time is a very big difference, and you might be saying to yourself how do you tell somebody something hurtful at the right time? Well, what I'm telling you is there's some things that you might know about somebody. There's some things that you might need to have a conversation with somebody. Maybe it's an uncomfortable conversation that might feel hurtful, that their initial reaction might be like wow, this hurts me, this is coming out of nowhere. If you do that at the right time with the right intent, you get the right result. If you do that at the wrong time, you are just a bitch. Timing is everything. It literally goes from the most important, most fundamental things in life to the most simple things Baking a cake, frying some eggs, delivering a joke. If you ever heard a joke that maybe it was a funny joke, but the timing was off the punchline, didn't come in at the right time, it wasn't delivered in the right way or how many times did somebody at a party like, oh, I got a joke for you and they stumble over it six times? Maybe you know the fucking joke. You just want to chime in and be like dude, that's not how it goes right. How many times have you been in a situation where you know that joke is funny but you just can't get it out right because that dude's timing is all wrong. So there ain't nothing funny about that joke. Seeing how we're talking about jokes and funny and timing being wrong and maybe not having the right place or being at the right place at the wrong time. How about I share an embarrassing story with you about myself telling a joke, and maybe it'll kind of set the timing aspect a little further home. So I'm going to rewind things all the way back to me being a sophomore in high school. Okay, yes, I'm a sophomore in high school. I'm on the football team and where I come from in my you know little small town circle, here you have the freshman team. So when you come in, all freshmen play in the freshman's team and then you get into the varsity team which is sophomores, juniors, seniors. So when you graduate from freshman to sophomore and then you make that team, there's an initiation process. There's a things like not like, not technically hazing although some people probably got hazed back in my day I've actually drowned a little. I mean, never mind, statue of limitations expired. The point is there's things you had to do as a sophomore, as a rookie right Between you know carrying, you know seniors equipment between you know cleaning up the lockers, doing whatever right, bringing their helmet back and forth. Another thing that we did is we actually had a sophomore skit where all the sophomores on the team had to entertain the entire team. You had to entertain the football team, all the upperclassmen, all the coaching staff, all the athletic trainers, all that right. You had to entertain them with an entire skit. I've considered myself a pretty funny guy that likes to entertain. I've been known to do a lot of Chris Farley in my comedy routine. But we wanted to have something that was a little more particular, that it was just so particular that it was specific about other people on our team. So we were doing skits where you wanted to kind of tease the upperclassmen, to kind of take an opportunity to. You know, let's entertain them, but we're going to entertain them by making fun of them at the same time. So one of the dudes on the team that I actually looked up to was a big beast. His name was Andy Petron and he was a stud on the team. He was a big, imposing figure and he had this lax personality about him. He was a super fun, just absolutely comedic dude, but he had these just certain character traits about him and things that he would do and he did not give a shit. But anybody said or thought about him right, and he had this very particular set of sweatpants used to wear. He cut the elastics off the sweatpants at the bottom, trimmed him up the side a little bit, kind of most. He maybe was the head of the curve here, maybe he was a. He was a fashion but it, you know. But at least that over it's either, because he, I say Varista, that was wrong of me. He actually was a fashionista that he made Flare bottom sweatpants at a very early age. He was cutting edge, right, but he had these gray sweatpants that had, you know, our football logo on him and his football number on them and he flared the bottoms and you'd wear those all the time and he was really prone to exposing his butt cheeks. Yeah, he would moon anybody at any time, at all times, at the drop of a hat. So he was also very accustomed to taking craps and telling me about it, maybe having a door open, all these things. So you can imagine the direction we're going. So I picked the role of mr Petrin in this Skit for the entire football team. Right, pizzas are delivery to everybody's hanging out. I'll have a good time in this auditorium scenario here in. Here we are doing our skit. I am making several poop jokes and maybe some wiener jokes and whatever else, delivering what I felt was a very, very precise, perfected and fabulous impersonation, and I thought the kumagra, the end all be all. The grand finale Would be to turn around and to moon the entire team. That's hilarious. That, to me, is absolutely hilarious. We know, andy, he's gonna moon you during the course of the day. He will show you his ass. If I'm going to properly play this character, I need to show you my ass. So I take the proper time to end all to kind of wrap up the skit and I decide to expose bear ass. I Pull down my flared sweatpants With my football number and team logo on there and I expires my bear ass to the entire room to the resounding laughter Of no one. Yes, I'm standing in the auditorium in front of the whole team, all the trainers, all the coaches, pants around my ankles bent over, cracking a smile. Yeah, nobody laughs. I can hear a fucking pen drop. I heard more gasping than laughing. Yes, now gather yourself and your pants at the same time. Think about that. Reach down there now when no one's laughing. It's kind of hard to hide Anything, if you know what I'm saying. Just just for a minute, just for a minute, imagine your pants around your ankles being sweatpants. Now imagine yourself being Nearly 300 pounds, 63, bending over to get those pants. Okay, visual created and seen, I'm going down my pants, which is widening the view, sort of speak, and you know. So, get my pants on, get out of there, tuck my tail between my legs. And then my head coach came in, shook his head, looked at me and said Keith, what the fuck were you thinking? And as I looked at I'm wondering why he Didn't understand the joke. And he looked at me and said my niece was in the room. I realized that could be a problem. And then he said my niece is one of the athletic trainers there's, there's young girls on the training staff. Why, why would you? Why would you do that? What were you thinking, coach? I guess my timing was just a little off. Timing is everything. Had I delivered that joke, had I pulled my pants off for nobody else in the room, like no Females in the room or maybe a selected group in the room, that that fucking joke would have hit fabulously. That would have been a home run joke, because I still think it's fantastically awesome, but my timing was way off. So in turn, I'm on the wrong end of a story because my timing was all the fuck off. Outside of embarrassing myself and making fun of myself In highlighting a super awesome day for myself and my family, I wanted to deliver a message to everyone about timing Because I know how hard it is, how difficult it is to have dreams and to work for your dreams, and I know each and every one of you listening. There's things in your life that you want, there's things you want to do, there's things you want to attain, there's things you want to experience, there's dreams, aspirations, all these things for you, and I know how difficult it is to stay the course. I know how easy it is to give up on those hopes and on those dreams. I am telling you the closer you are to giving up, the closer you are to leveling up, because on the other end of heartache and heartbreak, there's triumph and achievement. The closer you are to giving up, the closer you are to leveling up. Things often get the most difficult before we achieve what we want to achieve. Often, our obstacles seem far greater than ever before, just before we achieve what we set out to do. You understand what I'm saying. The closer you are to giving up, the closer you are to leveling up. That's why, every single time I think about this business, every single time I think about my brand and the task at hand, every time I start to think about giving up, every time I start to think how are you going to pay your bills? How are you going to make this work? You're not getting into these events or not? You know you're running at 50%. You're not achieving the numbers that you want to achieve. Every single time that I start to feel like giving up, I tell myself you are about to level up, because on the other end of this heartache, on the other end of this struggle, is success. You are closer to success right now. I tell myself every damn time that I'm close to giving up. Man, there must be something glorious on the other side. Don't give up now, and trust me when I tell you I have contemplated giving up on my hopes and my dreams many times. But every time they get close to doing so, when things feel so damn difficult, I try to tell myself if this is the amount of effort it takes, if this is the amount of struggle that I must survive, I can only imagine what glorious results are on the other end of this struggle. Ladies and gentlemen, timing is everything. Things don't always happen to you because you want them to. Things don't always happen to you when you want them to. Things happen for you when they're right for you. Opportunities come to you when they're right for you. You tend to have those experiences. Get those awards, those achievements, those accomplishments, those experiences, when they're right for you. When I think about the relationship I have with my wife, our paths crossed so many times in life but we weren't ready to meet in life Because I wasn't ready and she wasn't ready. And had we met, then Our story would not read the way it reads. We would not be who we are, we would not be where we are, because Timing is everything. There was multiple times and occasions We've had so many conversations about Parties that we were either at at the same time or she left and I showed up different events where I left and she showed up different Family connections, friendships, connections all these different times and events when our paths should have crossed but they didn't, because timing Is everything. Our paths crossed when I was coming out of a shitty relationship and she was stolen one and I was hosting a wet t-shirt contest. Because timing is everything. Please understand this message, guys, if you are In any way, shape or form, close to giving up, I want you to understand. You are so close to leveling up. This goes for all things in life if it's your relationship, if it's your health, if it's your career, your hopes, your dreams, your life. Please, please, please understand. If your struggle is this great, I can only imagine what your success is going to be. I want to pound that message home. I want anybody listening today, because there's been too many times in life where you've got a phone call that someone you know, someone you care about, was struggling and they took their own life. Far too many times Do we all have those moments in time where you get the call, you read the message, you see the post and you find out that, whether it's a a close friend, an acquaintance, a loved one, a ride or die, someone that you just love so damn much, they didn't share something with you, they didn't tell you, they didn't let you know that they're struggling and they took their own life. The amount of suicides in this country is absolutely staggering. So I don't know who's listening. I don't know who needs to hear this, so I'm gonna say it as loud and as proud as I possibly can. The closer you are to giving up, the closer you are to leveling up. Don't give up. The more struggle you feel today, the more difficulties you feel today, I can only imagine how much glorious victories are on the other side of this struggle. Don't give up. Don't give in. The closer you are to giving up, the closer you are to leveling up. I love each and every one of you. Thank you so damn much for continuing to support this show, continuing to support me and my dream. I love you. Don't forget to find all things podcast wwwShareTheShogglePodcastcom. Please share this show with somebody that you know, someone that you care about. I think it's a real positive message here today. As much as we made fun of ourselves and celebrated some things in life, there's an epic message for life in today's show. So I just want to say thank you for supporting my American dream. Now go wash your fucking hands without these avocations. 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 ShareTheShogglePodcastcom. 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 ShareTheShogglePodcast. If you're a loud, proud American and you find yourself just wanting more, you can find me on YouTube, on Facebook or the face page, as my mama calls it, just search Loud, proud American. If you're a fan of the Graham Cracker, the Instagram or the Tickety Talk with the kids to be a tickety talking, the TikTok, you can search Loud Underscore, proud, underscore American. If you want to join the 2% of Americans that support American manufacturing, head on over to wwwloudproudamericanshop and get your hands on some of that made in USA. Apparel and join the mission Mission 2%. Together, we can bring back American manufacturing. A big old thank you to the boys from the Gut Truckers for the background beats and the theme song to share the struggle podcast. You can find the Gut Truckers on Facebook. Just search Gut Truckers and show your support to those Mother Truckers. I truly thank you for supporting my American dream. Now go wash your fucking hands, you filthy savage.