What Happened To The Unity We Once Had

Choosing To Grow Through Struggle

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Twenty-five years in the rear view. This week we look back at 9 11 and ask ourselves what a difference 25 years means to me and you. A heartfelt look back and wake up conversation. Followed by an optimistic outlook, and all I've got left to cook. Let me tell you something. Everybody's struggled. 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. What it do? Would it do? What it ha da Did it did do. Good Lord Almighty. Am I so excited to be back with you? Oh, it is true. It is damn true. Why? Cause I love you, boo. Episode 323. Y'all know we back to it being you and me. Week after week we gather here together. It is a beautiful thing, if I do say so myself. You can find all things podcast related over to www.share the struggle podcast.com. With this little ditty's been rollin' on, rollin', rolling, rollin', rollin' for three hundred and twenty-three consecutive weeks. Man, what is that? We talk about this, but I'm running on low asleep. So uh what is that? Six years? Six freaking years. Started in July 2020, my friends. Here we are together again. Reunited and it feels so good. Mmm. Hitting you with all this all the musical interludes this morning. Or evening. It's evening. I'm recording at 7.30. It's evening. It's not morning. But I have a good explanation for my confusion because um I haven't slept. Well, I caught a couple hour nap. Here's the scenario, y'all. What's the I was gonna do this a little bit different. I like to end um optimistic. I'd like to um if we're gonna be doing some heavy lifting, if we're gonna have a difficult conversation, then uh I like to try to wrap up on something heartfelt, positive, uplifting, or uh just kind of change a pace. You know what I mean? But uh seeing

Freiburg Fair Pressure And Big Goals

SPEAKER_01 3:15

how we're already starting off, I'm gonna do this backwards. So I'm gonna start with uh a little um sneak peek pretty beneath beneath the sheets, a little uh a little cookbook of what I've got left to cook. You know what I'm saying? We are getting ready for the Freiburg Fair, which is in the words as I always say, the granddaddy of them all when it comes to Lyle Proud American. This is our big one, okay? It's always been our big one. We pray each and every year it continues to be our big one. We search for six years to try to find another big one to add to the collection. We have traveled all across this great country of ours trying to find some events that match up to the Freiburg Fair for us. None have done it as of yet, but we are looking forward to this year, hopefully, potentially, praying that it will be our greatest event yet. We're talking history making, record breaking. That's what I'm preparing for, that's what I'm gearing up for, that's what I'm shooting for, that is the excitement in my voice. That is the emotion in Meloins. Okay. I might have gone a little far with that one, and I do apologize. I I greatly do apologize for going a little a little too far with that right there. I But I just wanted to convey the emotion, my conviction, you know what I'm saying? As I get ready for the granddaddy of them all. All kidding and excitement aside, the Fryberg Fair has kept Lau Proud American in business ever since our first year on the road, and we are anticipating another great year, and this is the challenge that comes every year. When you get to this point in the season, it becomes a balancing act of mortgaging everything you can possibly get your hands on to get enough inventory to make your event as great as it possibly can be. And over the past few days, there's been a lot of uh juggling, a lot of manipulating, a lot of moving and massaging, okay? Uh just trying to get things balanced out to make a game plan to get things going. And it's a it's a tough uh catch 22. And you guys have heard me say this many times before, but when it comes down to this time of the year, when we get into the Freiburg Fair, um, we've been on the road all year, right? And and you're running low of a on a lot of things. A lot of apparels sold out. A lot of your designs, your images that you use has been sold out. So I just re-upped on um just graphics alone was over $3,000. We're looking at about $3,500 in just graphics, and that does not touch what I have to uh put on the line for apparel to stock up to get ready to rock and roll. And uh, I'm considering a lot of little things, trying to make some little tweaks this year. I want to change some marketing things, I want to do some things to uh possibly bring greater exposure to us later in the year. So I've got a lot of different things going on, and we're uh navigating a lot of uh a lot of stuff, right? Just trying to maximize every ounce of energy and effort and production and results that we can get out of this fair to set us up to um really propel us into the winter to hopefully uh finish this year as our greatest year in business. So it's been a challenging year, right? And uh we've been on the road quite a bit. When you come from you know being uh in Buffalo for a couple of weeks to roll it into Windsor, one of our favorite events of the year, to coming home. And I would have liked to have gone to a couple of different events in between, but we broke a tent, we ran out of some merchandise, and I needed some time to get things ready, and I also needed some time to uh recalibrate myself a little bit, and I didn't realize that until I got home and just was just absolutely smoked, just completely beat. I was like like I ran, man. I was bomb and depleted, okay? And um yeah, it took a toll on me, and I took a couple of days with the family and just tried to unwind, unplug, spend time with the kiddo and the wife, and uh I felt guilty about it. I felt guilty, you know, trying to unplug from what's been going on, but it's been a it's been a crazy year, you know. And uh now I'm at that point where it is full steam ahead, and we are tying up loose ends, and then it becomes crazy production time. And I've been working on some uh some tasks that are just time consuming, but they're little things that I want to tie up and figure out for this um for Freiburg. And um a lot of it, like I said, is is the budgeting, where to put the most dollars, how to find the most dollars, how to balance the

Inventory Math And Growing Pains

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dollars and cents, and to put them in all the products that make the most sense. And then this is the time of year where you want to bring something new to the people that um you know they they see you once a year, or they've been buying from you for multiple years. There's a lot that goes into this, and it's a lot of really just massaging what you have, and it's literally counting every single design you have in stock, making a game plan, looking at over the past few years how many of that specific item have you sold, how many larges do you need, how many extra larges do you need, counting every single design you have, and then making a game plan that fulfills each size the best you possibly can while being able to afford all that you possibly can. Now I've realized this year and previous years being on the road, it was a lot easier to overstock all my sizes when I was carrying like 10 different designs. Now I have multiple designs, I have all kinds of different stuff. We are growing, and that's a fantastic thing. But as you're growing, you get a little stretch marks, okay? Growing doesn't come without pain, growing comes with growing pains, and we have certainly been in the growing season, so it's a blessing, it's something I'm thankful for, but it's also something that has overwhelmed me as I try to um wrap my arms around really just doing the best I can, staying as on top of it as I possibly can, and and and trying to not just mold and and blend all of my finances together, and that's been kind of a kind of a challenge, but um as overwhelming as this year's been, I do feel like I've got a little better handle on some things, and I am going to take some time this winter to really make some major changes at home to uh get ourselves better positioned moving forward. The wife is taking on uh some things to to help on on um you know, like my paperwork side of life, my organizational side of life, making some changes at home. All those things I think are really going to help. But I also in years past I came out of Freiburg and I took a couple of months off, and that's not the case for me this year. I'm still looking for more things to do, I still have more things to come, and we're gonna continue to cultivate and and grow business. So the season isn't over. Usually, when you get to Freiburg, it's kind of the big uh you know breathing point, but that's not the case this year. And I really want to maximize November and December this year because when you get to January, that's when things dry up when you're in my business. You know, people just aren't spending money on on apparel and such when it comes to January. You've you've had Christmas, you've had Thanksgiving, you have maxed out your credit cards, you're filling oil barrels, you're buying propane, all those things. So um, you know, people the old drawstings get tight, so to speak. So I want to maximize all that I have, and um I think I've already, you know, mentally made the decision to not go to Daytona Bike Week this year. Financially, I don't think it's worth the sacrifice from home. But um the emotional side of me is gonna miss it because we've made friends there. I get to spend all that time with uh uh my my brother on the road, Mr. Daniel Johnson, Daniel Johnson Music. And um, you know, I've made all those conscious decisions, but I'm trying to replace those things. So I'm rambling right

Fatherhood Time In A Busy Season

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now, but this is all that's just in the back of my mind because the season's been crazy, it's been a whirlwind, and we're gearing up for the biggest event that we have. And a lot of this time-consuming tedious work has been holding me back, and um I also gotta say, this is one of the most amazing times to spend time with my daughter, and you know, every year and every moment and every minute's gonna be different for me because I am a first-time father. But me and the wife were talking about this, and I said, you know what? I think the Lord has a way of pairing the most difficult times of childhood, of being a young parent, with also the best times. Because as you deal with the terrible twos and the traumatic threes, or whatever you want to call it between you and me, that's up to you. Those those crazy wild times are also paired with some of the most amazing. My little girl is so innocent, she's so free, she is so hilarious, she is such the best part of me. And every little minute you get with her, as draining as some of them can be, some of them are just absolutely incredible, and it puts life into perspective for you. So some of the most challenging and best of times are right now. So navigating those waters and um delegating the

The All-Nighter That Proved Commitment

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time and the task has been a bit challenging. But uh yesterday I I kind of had uh I don't even know what day it is, man. I'm gonna be honest. So I'm recording on a Tuesday. This is Monday. Um man, I had like a late start to getting some things done on Monday. I forgot the reasoning and what was going on, but um, you get in the office, get into a routine, you're working, you're doing things, and then um, you know, farm stuff, duty calls, getting things done, getting things organized, all that type of stuff. Wife cooks dinner, I go in for dinner, and I said, you know what, I'm going back to the office. I have a project on my table, I'm gonna get it done. And I got into that project, and I'm trying to cross my T's and dot my I's and I just keep getting lost and things aren't going correctly, and I just keep working through it, fighting through it, and I look at the clock and I go, Oh man, it's like one 1.30 in the morning. And I don't know where the time went, and I was due to be home, and uh the wife messaged me, and I can't remember what time it was. She texted me, but I think she might have dozed off, and she texted me and said, You okay? Everything all right? And uh then at that point, my mom actually comes downstairs saying, What are you still doing working? And I made the decision at that moment. I said, You know what? I'm not gonna go to bed. I've committed to myself to finish this task. I have made the commitment to get this done. I shall see this through, even if that comes with the rising sun. And this being a Tuesday is one of the days that I would bring my mother to work. So I would get up at uh, you know, 5 15 in the morning anyways to bring her to work. So I said, hey, we're pushing two in the morning here. What is the point of me trying to sleep for two or three hours? Because I'm gonna roll upstairs, I'm not gonna fall asleep, I'm gonna be thinking about all the things I didn't get done. Another day not completed, so I'm just gonna push through. Two hours of sleep is only gonna make me angry. So I made the uh the decision, the genius plan at hand was we're gonna work all the way through, and I did, and I felt amazing, dude. Five in the morning, I am still going strong. My mom comes downstairs and says, Uh, yeah, time to go to work. I brought her to work, I got gas, not me personally, but I put it in the vehicle. I stopped and got breakfast for myself and the family. I came home, did all the barn chores, and I rolled upstairs, and it was uh, you know, before 6 a.m. And I heard my little girl still awake in bed, and uh I felt so bad for Allie because little Paisley finally went to sleep before midnight, and then she woke up, and um man, I think it was around four in the morning she woke up and she stayed up, and I went and did all that stuff and came home and she was still awake. So I climbed in bed with the family around six and said, if I can just get a few hours of sleep with the kiddo, and then the wife can go to work, this is all gonna work out. And uh that little party animal, man, she was not ready to shut it down. She was just living life, enjoying herself for another hour, hour and a half before any of us get any shut eye. So it's been a roller coaster, but I got some stuff done, and um yeah, we're we're we're feeling like there's been some production, you know. I can't say that uh I'm not gonna crash here shortly, but sometimes just doing those things it does a few things. Number one, it proves to you it can be done, it proves to you if you are committed to something, if you are dedicated and determined for your cause, for your goal, for your belief, you will find a way and you will get it done today. Sometimes you just gotta make that day a little bit longer, but it really proves to you your commitment and your sacrifice, and it reminds you how important things are, and it puts things into a different perspective, and then it makes you feel a little more um invincible, it builds a little character, the old character calluses I call them, the old callus character layers of confidence that you're building when you realize you can do difficult things, and um just makes you feel good and you feel like you're you're making a bit of a difference. So pretty excited that I pulled that off and I got some stuff done. I still have a long road ahead of me, but it's gonna open the door to some wild late nights and early mornings of production and getting things done as I gear up and prepare for what I hope to be the greatest successful event in the history of Loud Proud American. That's where I am, that's what I'm doing. Man, Gotcha!

Buying American And Supporting The Mission

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Loud Proud American is a lifestyle brand dedicated and determined to represent the American spirit with an unrelenting commitment to provide made and the USA products. If you would like to join the 2% of Americans that buy American and support American, head on over to www.looproudamerican.shop. Together, we can bring back American manufacturing.

Remembering 9/11 And Personal Flashbacks

SPEAKER_01 18:30

September 11th, 2001. It is wild to me to see what America has become. I know we all spent a lot of time and reflection last week, or I hope that you did. I know that I did. I found myself spending time listening to the names, I found myself watching all the different attributes. I couldn't bring myself to watch too much of the old footage. It bothered me to see all the conspiracy theories and nonsense and and laughs and jokes on social media. Because all I think about is the heartache and the heartbreak for all the families that lost. I can go back to that day vividly. I was only a little over a week away from turning 19. Fresh out of high school. Graduated high school in 2000. And I was one of the only kids, and if you've heard this and you've heard my stories and you know this, but I was the only person in my circle of friends that didn't go to college. Probably one of the only kids in the entire graduating class that didn't go to college. I couldn't afford it, and I knew I was too much of a of a mess up at that point in my life to actually handle it. I don't remember what I was doing the night before. But I do remember waking up on my parents' couch in the living room while my mother was watching the today's show, waking up just in time to see the plane, the first plane, hit the tower to see that live looking and then to sit there in horror and fear. I remember the phone calls to friends and family checking in. I remember my ex-girlfriend at the time getting dismissed from high school, all of us gathering together, me getting together with my friends. I remember all the things that transpired. The the the the fear, the the the just hopelessness, the all the questions, all the anxiety. I remember everybody I was next to. I remember all my friends. I remember spending time at the main mall with with Ryan Clary as well, and and and and Dave, and being there for um a candlelight visual. Like I don't remember if it was the day later or a couple days later. I remember leaving the main mall and standing outside for a moment of silence, and then an entire group of strangers just broke out into song. I remember us singing Amazing Grace as complete strangers holding each other's hands. I remember driving home and pulling over to the side of the interstate and having a candlelight visual. I remember seeing all the candles line up on the interstate. I remember all these random moments. I remember the fear, I remember the tears. Remember the heartache and the heartbreak. To sit back twenty-five years later and to see the nonsense unfold on your social media timeline. Even if you

From Flags Sold Out To A Divided Culture

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feel a certain way, people died that day. It was crazy. Crazy to see. And one thing I never thought I would see is the new mayor of New York City. And the fact that the very city that was at the epicenter of this heartache and heartbreak managed to elect this absolute lunatic who won't even condemn violence, who refuses to support law enforcement, who stands behind freeing Palestine, and who stands at a memorial, a 9-11 memorial, and is caught laughing with AOC. A complete lack of professionalism. A complete sorry excuse of leadership. This is in New York City. I was watching the Mets versus the Yankees that night. And some nut job jumped onto the field with a free Palestine flag and tried to uh run onto the field and was tackled and tossed out. None of this stuff would have been accepted 25 years ago. Because what I remember about 9-11 is all the heartache, all the heartbreak. But I also remember on September 12th, 2001, there was not a single American flag for sale in the store because they were sold out. Every little thing that paid tribute to the good old red, white, and blue was gone. Because each and every one of us was as patriotic as could be. Each and every one of us stood in the face of evil and said, We will not be afraid. We are Americans. We are loud, we are proud Americans. We are not going anywhere. We were united. We were connected. We were undivided. As patriotic as can be. That'll always be with me. And I'm always gonna think about September 12th and how unified we were and how we loved our neighbors regardless of differences. It didn't matter who you voted for, it didn't matter the color of your skin, it didn't matter your religion, you were here, we loved you. The crazy thing is, there are some people, unfortunately, if you think about some of the um ethnic groups that were afraid for their own lives because they looked like terrorists, because they were from the same country. Those people that were receiving backlash, they were getting um you know pushed out of areas. Those people right now are running protests and rallies in the streets. Many are getting elected to high-ranking positions, they're getting voted in. It's a crazy whirlwind circle that we're living through right now. And it's I just look back and think about how we were acting then and how we're acting now. How connected we were and how divided we are. It sickens me to see the difference that this country has, the differences that are in front of you and me. I don't know if we've ever been more divided. It's crazy to look back on one of the most tragic times in the history of this great country and find an underlying unified positive sentiment that you can't even find

COVID Lessons We Dropped Too Fast

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today. You know, when I think about COVID a few years ago, I thought that was that was the next opportunity. That was the next opportunity to wipe away differences, to look away from party lines, to care about thy neighbor again, checking in on neighbors, making sure they had what they needed, that elderly had what they needed, that people were being safe. We all did those things. And then we rallied amongst each other because we wanted to get back to living life the way we used to. That was a moment. That was a moment for us to realize we need to be self-sustainable, we need to take care of ourselves. That was a time for us to realize we should get back to taking care of our own, to growing our own, to building our own, to supplying our own, to buying American, to being proud to be American, to not depending on other countries, to taking care of our neighbors, our family members, to realizing to having that factory reset. We had an opportunity for factory reset. The world told you to stop. The world told you not to go to work. The last time the world told America not to go to work, to stop, that you didn't have to come in, that she didn't have to worry about things, that she didn't have to pay all your bills. September 11th. All the way to COVID. The world went on hold. It was a time to realize what was important. God, family, and country. I never imagined we would come out of that. So confused. So many denying God. So many wiping away family, writing them off, cutting them off, and so many hating our great country. That's crazy. I never thought we'd be here. I never expected this to be the case. And I thought that COVID could have been that opportunity, that reset to get us back to realizing priorities. But pretty soon we went right back to the rat race. Like most good habits, they die fast. They end too quickly. When we make that decision to to eat good, to cut the sweets, if we quit the coffee, we quit the sugar, we start to feel really good. But how quickly do I find myself back in line at Dunkin' Donuts foregoing my bank account and my blood sugar? I lose all the weight. I think about a couple years ago, I lost 50 pounds. I think I've gained 65. I'm not free from these mistakes. It's human nature. We think of these things. A lot of these good positive habits that we get into and we start really feeling and experiencing and observing and being a part of the benefits. Going to church, embracing your faith, going every week, finding yourself in your Bible. How quickly do we find ourselves back on the rat race, making excuses for the fact that we don't have time to sit down at the table and to read the Bible? We're too tired on Sunday to go to church. You think about these things. That habit you have of going to the gym, how great you feel when you're going, and all of a sudden you just ain't going. You look at all those things and you think about the values and the lessons we learned during COVID and how quickly we dismiss them for all the things that took us from them. You no longer have time for your kids on the weekend, you're working late, you're doing all those things to climb the corporate ladder to get the promotion. Think about it. Just like twenty-five years, somewhere in that twenty-five years, so many Americans gave up their patriotism. So many Americans stopped loving this great country. So many Americans took the freedoms for granted. So many Americans forgot the heartache and the heartbreak. So many Americans forgot what it meant to be united. So many forgot the feeling of being attacked, of being violated, of being vulnerable. So many take too much for granted. And so many are here today that never experienced it. They don't know what it was like in this country. Think about it. How unified we were, how strong we were. And yeah, it trickled down year after year. But it's crazy to me to think. I was on the verge of turning nineteen. It's been twenty-five years since. More time has passed since 9-11 than since my arrival on this great earth and getting to 9-11. There's a massive amount of the population that didn't experience it. And thinking, wow, all this stuff happened. These major events happened, and here we are now just existing. Everything's just hunky-dory. We're not uh we're not being threatened. You know what I mean? Times just seemed easy. We've lived through history. We are

Homeschooling And Pushing Back On Agendas

SPEAKER_01 34:10

chapters and books in history. The scary thing is so many schools don't want to teach that history. Or they want to sugarcoat the history. We experience the event. Why are schools denying the lesson? Because it doesn't fit their agenda. I was just talking with with Allie about this the other day. Our timeline on social media has become more and more filled with people over the past few weeks taking their kids out of school and deciding to homeschool their children. Think about it, guys. Schools just started. Kids have only been in school for a couple of weeks at most. And parents are already finding themselves having to take their children out of school because they don't like the narratives. They don't like the agendas. They don't like the lack of what is right and what should be taught. And they don't like the narratives that are being pushed. A good childhood friend and classmate that graduated a bit of high school with me in 2000 recently made the local famous tab on social media when her child was in class in an art class with a pride flag on the wall, and uh this is young uh young kids' class, and she sent a letter to the superintendent, and um that letter and here's response went um went famous. And it's just little things like that. And I don't want to change the subject off of where we're at, and we can maybe talk about that at another date. Maybe Kelly will come on here and talk about it because she actually has a podcast of her own and asked me to join that one sometimes. Maybe we'll do a little exchange of pods. But all these choices that we didn't expect to make. And it's crazy as we're kind of rambling on and having this conversation about COVID. There was one thing that COVID did that we haven't discussed, and that is that COVID taught a lot of us that you can homeschool your kids. There's an underlying lesson that was learned, and it gave parents the courage to take their kids out of environments that they don't feel comfortable in. It gave parents the confidence to take their child out of these agenda left wing policies, ideologies, and crazy theories. COVID proved you can do it. Man, that's powerful. As as we're having this conversation, I think about that underlying lesson that was there. My timeline's full of all these people that have taken their kids out of school. They got the courage, the confidence. They've executed the lessons. COVID gave them the test pilot on homeschooling. You know, I'm the type of person that likes to sit back and look at a lot of these things and and try to uncover and discover if it's all part of God's plan. And if maybe this country needs a lot of this. And if you think about, you know, we came in with this factory reset and an opportunity for us to get back to what's important to prioritize God, family, and country. And people went back to the rat race, but maybe there was a lesson learned during that time, and it gave parents the confidence to say, no, this isn't okay. I'm not sending my kids here for this. I'm gonna stand up for what's right, I'm gonna stand up for what I believe, I'm gonna stand up for my core values, and I'm gonna take care of my kids. I will educate my kids. It's crazy. I didn't even think about that. That's the benefit of history. That's the benefit of experiences. You don't know what you know until you know. You don't know until you've done it, till you've been through it, till you've been challenged by it and you came through it. We didn't know how strong we were as a country. We didn't know how patriotic we were as a nation until September 11th.

God Family Country And Standing Strong

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I lived through it. Many of you listening live through it.

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That should give both of us the confidence to know we can live through all that we're going through right now. I just hope we get back to some core lessons and beliefs and philosophies that we held to, that we that we were clinging to. And that is God, family, and country. Put God first. Remember your values, your core beliefs. Prioritize your family, protect your kids, provide for your family, and be ever loving, loud, proud Americans. Stand up to the tyranny, stand up to the nonsense. Remind everybody you know all the great qualities of this beautiful, amazing country. Stand strong and let liberty ring free. We've been through it. This too shall pass. We must hang on to the history, the lessons learned, and the confidence calluses that we have developed. We have built character, we are tried and true, and I am proud of each and every one of you. I love you, I appreciate you, and I wholeheartedly thank you for supporting my American dream. Nog wash your friends. That's it, and that's all Biggie Smalls.