Share The Struggle
Share The Struggle
The Downfall to Getting Shit Done 239
This episode dives into the personal struggle of balancing the pressures of getting shit done while grappling with financial, physical, and emotional challenges. The host discusses the impact of the "get shit done" mentality and how it can lead to burnout, financial hardship, and self-criticism, coupled with lessons learned from "Buy Back Your Time" Dan Martell's book about valuing time over tasks.
• Exploring the essence of GSD (Getting Shit Done)
• The weight of struggles and the potential for growth
• Emphasizing vulnerability and sharing personal challenges
• The relationship between entrepreneurship and burnout
• Financial implications faced by small business owners
• Learning to hire for time efficiency, not just growth
• Finding hope and community in shared struggles
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If you are like me, then every day you wake up and think what do I have to get done today? And when you lay your head down at night, you think about what you got done today. And if you're like me, if at the end of the day you're feeling you didn't get enough shit done, you don't sleep very well and before you know it you're done counting sheep and you're waking up short on sleep and you're asking yourself all over again what do I have to get done today? Well, today, on Share the Struggle Podcast, we are going to tackle g, s, d getting shit done.
Speaker 1: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.
Speaker 1:You have a relationship that is comfortable with uncomfortable conversations. Uncomfortable conversations challenge you, humble you and they build you. When you sprinkle a little time and distance on it, it all makes sense. Most disagreements, they stem from our own insecurities. You are right where you need to be back on time. We can fight the world. We can fight the beat. What it do, what it hot diggity do. Good Lord, am I so excited to be back with you. Oh, it's true, it's damn true. I missed you, boo. Yeah, I missed you, boo.
Speaker 1:Thank you to each and every one of you, you boo-boos out there that have been continuing to tune in, to dial in, to listen in to the Share the Struggle podcast proudly brought to you by the fine folks over at Aloud Proud American, aka myself, my wife, my mother, my baby, yeah, that's pretty much all the company officials, although there is many part-time employees out there. Okay, shout out to all the part-time Aloud Proud American employees out there Appreciate you, appreciate you, love you. Thank you so much. We are reciprocating appreciation this morning. That's what we're doing. I'm appreciating you and you're appreciating me by tuning back in. You've been tuning in so long. Matter of fact, we have arrived at episode 239, and today I'm going to go another full frontal confessional. I'm going to lay it all on the line in 239.
Speaker 1:The name of this podcast is Share the Struggle, because everybody struggles, and today I'm going to share with you my current struggle, one that absolutely certainly has me backed in a corner, up against the ropes that most men would probably give in call it quits, pack up their bags and begin something else. But maybe I'm just dumb enough to get a shovel and to keep on digging. That's part of the problem here, folks. A little thing that I deal with called GSD getting shit done. I tend to just work and work for something and I often don't see the freight train on the other side of the tunnel with its lights shining oh so bright, laying on that horn, looking to come at me. Tonight I often shun those things and say let me tackle what's right here in front of me. But we're going to get there today, folks. That's where we're headed. That's the meat and barreras portion of the show today gsd getting shit done.
Speaker 1:But before we get into the main subject, I must let y'all know I personally feel like crap. Oh my gosh. Yeah, I feel like an old dog, an old sick dog out on the porch just soaking up sun, too sick to have a biscuit. You know what I mean, god. I feel like crap. My nose is all stuffy, my head is congested, my throat's all scratchy. I feel sore, beat down, run down, tired, pushed around. A lot of things adding up, I think the stress of the business and the subject that we're going to get into today, that's a big portion of it.
Speaker 1:Also where I'm from here in the great state of Maine. I'm a maniac up here and I'm living on the Northeast. We have dodged winter for quite some time. Well, it's arrived. It's arrived so much so that it seems to be every other day or so. I'm out on the tractor starting my day plowing snow, and we have a pretty good sized driveway, parking lot, road to the horse field, all these things, and I got a tractor with a four-foot bucket and I do it all one bucket at a time. But I will tell you this Not too long ago, just a short couple of years ago, I used to shovel my entire house by hand.
Speaker 1:That's right, if you're a day one and you've been listening for the whole time, you know I'm a little funky, I'm a little silly and to get by we had blown up a couple of plow trucks, blew up a tractor. Didn't have any options, except this guy right here, his old back. Ok, are we seeing a trend here? Gsd get shit done. I used to wake up and go shit. We got a lot of snow.
Speaker 1:Well, let me. Grab a snow scoop which, for those of you that don't live in the East, it's almost like a toboggan type sled scenario, with a big handle on it and you just scoop up snow. You can walk behind it and push snow, but when you have the wet heavy stuff it just fills up. So you go two feet, pick it up, dump it. Two feet, pick it up, dump it. Two feet, pick it up, dump it. My driveway is over 300 feet, so you do the math on that. Okay, when you get the light, fluffy stuff, you can just get behind it and just push your sweet little ass on the way through it, and it's not too bad. Then you got to shovel out the you know random areas, but when you get the wet stuff, that used to be a real pain in the ass.
Speaker 1:So for two winters I shoveled by hand. I cleaned our driveway, our walkways, all our land by hand, and then, thankfully, a couple of years ago, I just buckled up and took the plunge into buying a tractor, and maybe I couldn't afford it. Maybe that's on tap today, but it needed to be done. So to get back to my sickness over the past I don't know man week, two weeks, I don't know what it is. It's all a blur right now. Blame it on the tussing, okay, blame it on the cold meds we be on, but every it feels like other day or so.
Speaker 1:I am outside, starting my day off with three or four hours on the tractor moving snow. It's roughly two and a half to four hours, depending on the storm that I'm out there cleaning snow Usually in the snow, the cold, the wind, the rain, the wet, the whatever. Okay, y'all experienced weather before and if you haven't, you probably own a TV. You know what I'm talking about. So I've gone out there and got all wet and soggy, all wet and soggy and cold and hanging out in the wind. And then you go out in the community and you just mingle with other sick folks and this is where you end up at. Boys and girls. This is what happens.
Speaker 1:You get sick and for the past few days I feel like snot. Actually, one of my days of being sick I was outside on the tractor for three hours and spoiler alert, spoiler I didn't have to be on the tractor today and, by all accounts, I won't have to be on the tractor tomorrow, but the very next day I shall be on the tractor. According to the forecast here, I'm recording on a tuesday you're gonna hear me on a wednesday but on thursday we got a storm coming, and then on saturday into sunday we get another storm coming. So, as I've been telling you every other day or so, you'll find my jolly ass on the seat of a tractor out there moving snow, which is a hell of a lot better than doing it by hand. But what I'm here to tell you is, I think the results of this little forecast situation here has provided me with the sickness I am feeling. Blessed that it's not COVID or anything like that.
Speaker 1:It's a cold, it's a common cold scenario, but it's adding up. I pulled my back the beginning of the week doing barn chores. Then you spend all the time on the tractor and then you sprinkle in being sick and you factor in taking care of your five-month-olds and trying to run your business and to take time to be with you. Beautiful people here today recording a podcast. All that adds up and it all adds up to me to say, lord, I've been tired. Okay, I've been tired, actually so tired.
Speaker 1:I was up at 4 am this morning because we're going to get into it. Sometimes you don't get enough stuff off that to-do list. And doesn't it feel like when you're sick or when other things come up, like, hey, here's what I've got to do today, right, I have to get all this stuff done off my list. And you open the little curtains and you peek your little eyes outside and say, shit, I gotta go up there and plow the driveway so the wife can go to work. And then all those things on your list get pushed back and that's where we're headed today.
Speaker 1:But I wanted to read this cautionary tale to you before we start the episode to say to you I do not know at what point in time in today's show that cold medicine is going to become unbearable and it's going to put this old grizzly down. If I start slurring, if I start snoring, I'm going to pull the plug, all right. So I can't promise you a big long episode today. What I can guarantee you is I'm ready to bring to you another beautiful, bring to you another beautiful, fabulous, fantastic, just superb, beautiful, special, beautiful little thing here, okay, of a podcast. Our consecutive streak will continue 239 beautiful weeks on tap for you. Today we just might be sponsored by some old cold meds that I found in the medicine cabinet, you know, when they're old enough to not find an expiration date, when you got nasal spray from 2021, that'll get it done.
Speaker 1:But, truth be told, I can't promise you a long show today. But it don't matter, because we're going to cover what's important today. Get set Back on time. We can fly, we can fly, we can fly, we can fly, we can fly, we can fly, we can fly, we can fly, we can fly, we can fly, we can fly, we can fly, we can fly, we can fly, we can fly, we can fly, we can fly, we can fly, we. And we're back. That's my radio voice right there, if I was on the radio. But I'm not on the radio, but technically I am because I'm on your radio, right? So I mean, that makes sense.
Speaker 1:Fun fact for you I applied to be on the radio and I didn't even get an interview. No, seriously, I actually had a connection to a local country station. I put together a beautiful sales pitch I might say so myself outlining the things that I could bring to the station, forwarded that stuff over when they were looking to hire for a morning host and nothing, dude. I didn't even get a call back or an interview. I actually knew two people. The one person that I sent the application to, I mean they responded but I had met them, we'd done mutual business together, and then another person who was actually one of the fellow morning hosts business together, and then another person who was actually one of the fellow morning hosts. I had like a pseudo like business relationship where we've crossed paths and help you know things out, whatever. I don't remember the whole scenario, but when I was with the dealership we had crossed paths and stuff like that and I was looking to maybe give up selling motorcycles and to take a job on the radio.
Speaker 1:I thought it was a good fit for me and I guess, judging by the podcast, I feel like it's probably been a pretty good fit. And if you've been listening on as long as you have, then I guess maybe you'd vouch for me. But if you think about it, in my side gig over here, I'm a DJ and I've been podcasting for 239 consecutive weeks. I'm a DJ and I've been podcasting for 239 consecutive weeks and I don't think they pay a lot to be a local radio DJ around here morning show, whatever you know, and we have miserable, awful morning shows around here. They're crap. I actually, if I want to listen to a morning show, I actually use the Odyssey app and I listen to a Texas radio station every single day, so I don't know where the hell that came from. Oh, I use my radio voice to start the show. That's where that came from.
Speaker 1:I apologize for that little mission. We just went off on there, but I do find life funny when you put those things on the table and you think about it. I was a sales consultant. I was willing to give up my job at the Harley-Davidson dealership to start a career in the radio business when they didn't give me the opportunity of an interview. And then, when you fast forward a little bit down the road, I ended up becoming a sales manager, a general manager, marketing manager, events manager, general manager, partner. So had I gotten the opportunity to be a disc jockey, radio host, whatever you call them, I would have missed out on all those things, and if I would have taken that opportunity, I might not have ever met my wife, because I met my wife at the dealership.
Speaker 1:So it's crazy how life works out right, and I think that's one of the things that we have to keep in mind, even when we get into our subject today that, no matter what the difficulty level is that we face each day, we've got to remind ourselves that there is a plan. Okay, there is a plan and the path that you're on you're on for a reason and that this too shall pass and this will always work out right. When you sprinkle time and distance on it, it all makes sense. And I also am willing to admit, when the difficulty level ramps up, I often feel on the other side of that difficulty is a breakthrough. On the other side of that great struggle is amazing triumph. So I use that philosophy in pushing through whatever it is that I have to get done today. Right, that's the way I look at things.
Speaker 1:Now, if I connect the opening of today's show, the little story we went on about me being on a tractor and getting sick and where we're heading right now, I'm going to put a nice little bow, a fancy little bow on them and I'm going to connect all those right now Because, while being outside preparing to be sick, moving snow around in the tractor, I take advantage of those times by putting good stuff in my ears. Now the tractor speakers used to play music. Like I have speakers on the tractor, tractor and they work. It's great. Maybe it's cause it's been so cold up, but they, they sound like shit right now.
Speaker 1:So I keep headphones in and I try to dial into, uh, something motivational, something productive. If I'm on the tractor and I have a whole list of things that I should be doing that I can't do, I'm doing, you know, what I have to do. I try to at least feel a little more productive by putting something positive in in my dome. I try to um, set the day right, motivate myself, because one thing that happens is we all have a tendency to procrastinate and we all have a tendency to just give in to our devices right and our vices. And it's real easy to like be on the tractor and then come inside all cold and wet and then change into something warm, maybe get a coffee, sit on the couch and the next thing you know you're drifting off into some show or you're doing whatever, anything beyond working right. It's easy to do that. So to combat that, I try to put something positive in my ear pods, something like this show okay, I've been known to listen to our shows. I've been known to dial them back. I've done some plowing in the past couple of weeks and listened to our shows.
Speaker 1:I want to make sure that the message rings through that we're getting things out there that I want to put out there. I take pride in what we're doing. Y'all I check up on my work, so I encourage you guys to do the same thing. If you're out there moving snow, put those positive things in, because you're a hell of a lot less likely to take a break from what your day has to do. What you have to get done today when you get off that tractor or you get done with that mundane task you had to do when you've been filling your mind with positivity and knowledge during that time, you're so much more likely to continue that positive production without the rest of your day. Right, you just carry it throughout the day and you get things done.
Speaker 1:I find if I'm putting the wrong things in, if I'm just zoned out, listening to like sports talk or whatever, I'm more likely to get off the tractor, procrastinate and not do what I need to do. So to combat those things, I put that positive mojo in All right. So in doing so, with all the recent snow storms you've had, I've been crushing a new book and really enjoying the book. But it's nice to know if I'm going to spend, you know, two to four hours on the tractor moving snow. I can crush a good amount of this book and it's making me think. Right, I'm doing the routine things but I'm really spiking up conversation and because of that habit, because of that book, we have fueled an entire episode today.
Speaker 1:Two things, number one, I will say the tough thing about being on a tractor or a treadmill or whatever it might be that you're doing and you're listening to a book, is it can become tough to take notes when I'm listening to audible books. I like to take notes, go back and re-listen Some of these audible books that you listen to. They have little packets you can work through. This one, I don't think, had one of those packets. So I was like you know what, I'm going to tackle this and if there's something, I'll kind of go back to it. I've been known to look at the clock on the book itself and screenshot it. So if I need to go back to find that, if I'm at the gym, I keep my note section open and, like in between sets, I would put the information into my notepad, which who am I kidding, I haven't been to the gym since his baby showed up, even before that, so but I'm just giving pro tips to everybody. Okay, pro tips Number two I'm sure people are wondering well, what's the damn book you're listening to?
Speaker 1:And it's actually named Buy Back your Time by a fellow named Dan Martell. So far, it's really good. It's actually above my pay grade in life as far as like where I am right now, and it's about entrepreneurs and different levels of entrepreneurship and how you can become overcome by your business and how to buy back your time. And I certainly feel right now that I'm struggling with time. I don't have enough time. If you guys have been listening, you know the schedule. There's twice a week where it's just me and baby and that's great and I love that time and I love that opportunity. I love that opportunity and I wouldn't trade that. But I need to account for that in my schedule and how I get things done.
Speaker 1:And I'm struggling with that because at the end of the day, when, um, I have beautiful little Paisley rain, I'm kind of worn out by the end of it. So, like I'm recording on a on a Tuesday, today I actually got up at 4 am and then I brought my mom, I went to the office, did some work. I brought my mom to work. I came home, did a little more work, then I spent time with Paisley, go get my mom from work, come home and now I'm recording a podcast. I should be going to my office when this is done tonight and working on some stuff, but I'm usually pretty damn drained by the time I turn the microphone off and I go outside and do barn chores. So it tends to wear me out and I don't feel as productive when that's the end result.
Speaker 1:So, based off of that struggle and a lot of other struggles that are going on business-wise that we're going to get into, I start looking for things like little glimmers of hope, little fun-filled packs of motivation. So when I'm struggling with something or I'm eager to learn something or to better myself in a certain area, I seek out books on those topics, I seek out speeches on those areas and I listen to them and I try to absorb myself in those and I look for little nuggets to help me overcome just what it is I'm going through, aka growing through. So I didn't realize I was doing this, I didn't realize I was operating under this GSD philosophy get shit done and in this book, buy Back your Time Dan brings up. Entrepreneurs tend to be wired to just get shit done.
Speaker 1:One of the great concepts in his book is as your business grows. His whole mantra is you don't need to hire somebody to help grow your business. You need to hire somebody to help buy back your time, and I love that concept. And the root behind that concept is that there's so many things that you do with your business that you're great at and there's so many tasks in your business that are overtaking your time that you might not be great at or you might not like doing at all, and they're actually counterproductive because really you could be paying somebody to do those things and you're wasting more time and money by doing them yourself. If somebody would do those things for $15 an hour and your time is worth $50 an hour and you're spending your $50 an hour working on $15 an hour tasks, then it's counterproductive. So don't hire somebody to grow your business. Hire somebody to help buy back your time, because when you hire somebody, that creates the time for you, that creates opportunity for you opportunity for you to be with your family, but also opportunity for you to focus on the things in your business that you're great at and then you can excel in and then, in result, your business grows and grows and grows. So the whole philosophy of looking at hiring not to grow your business but to buy back your time results in growing your business and rewarding you with more time. I love the concept.
Speaker 1:Here's the thing I can't hire nobody, okay, I can't pay myself and in fact, where we're headed today is the business hasn't been paying me in quite some time and that's a problem that has revealed itself over the past couple of months. We've had a snag in business towards the end of the year, y'all know we had to take and lighten our schedule up as Paisley rain was arriving. And then you know, just holidays, what happens in our business is, after the holidays, people have spent their budget, people have spent their money on gifts, on dinners, on family times, experiences and the whole scenario right. And then, if you're in the Northeast, you're spending money on heating oil and all those things. So people are tapped out. Their money, their disposable income, has been used up. They're not necessarily thinking of hey, that's a beautiful, lovely, soft, fantastic feeling, proudly made in USA t-shirt that I need to have. People don't have the disposable income right now in my area to just say, hey, I'm going to buy myself, I'm going to treat myself today on some beautiful made in America merchandise. I mean, I wish they would all say that. But I understand, you're dealing with the holidays, you're dealing with heating oil, you're dealing with the cost of the grocery store, inflation, all those things. So it results in me being a little slow.
Speaker 1:The way to counteract this is I have made the decision to head south. I have put it on the line that I'm going to go to Florida and we're going to double down and triple down on the business. Remember our guiding words this year we're going to be courageous. We're going to double down and triple down on the business. Remember our guiding words this year we're going to be courageous, we're going to act with courage and we're going to need to sacrifice. I need to sacrifice time away from my family and my baby. And I got to go south and make this happen, because down south they're not looking at things the same way we are right now. They're not dealing with some of the same struggles. So everybody's struggling when it comes to inflation. Don't get me wrong, but you understand what I'm saying. I'm going to bike week. These people are on vacation. They're spending money. Vacation money don't count. Okay, that's how this works.
Speaker 1:Now, in heading towards this goal, I have realized it is a major struggle because things aren't coming in at the rate in which they were coming in. So we've had a stall, we've had a stop, we've run against a wall here where there's not enough money coming in to. Number one sustain the business. Number two pay the bills that needs to be paid for the business and for my personal life. And number three provide the additional income for me to head south my personal life. And number three provide the additional income for me to head south. We have run into a brick wall. I didn't think about said brick wall and the way that I'm thinking about it today if it wasn't for me being saddled up in a tractor for the past few days pushing snow, listening to Buy Back your Time In Buy Back your Time.
Speaker 1:As I explained to you, it talks about entrepreneurs leveling up. I'm not in a spot where I can level up when it comes to hiring employees and doing things. My business, full Frontal, confessional, hand on the Cabela's Catalog, eye to the Sky. Absolute, heartfelt truth from this guy is broke, hard gulp. My business is broke. We are tapped out. We have hit a wall of I don't even know how you want to call it wall of discomfort, wall of pain, a wall that just almost seems impossible to climb over and it leaves you feeling pretty tapped out.
Speaker 1:We started Loud Proud, american in November of 2019. Since the day of creation, the day of formation for our business, we have never been more financially tight or up against it than we are right now. Now I know on the other side of this difficulty, I know on the other side of this great wall is great triumph and great success. I know, to achieve what I want to achieve, I'm going to face moments like this. We're going to get hit between the blinkers with times like this. These are times when you need to self-evaluate and ask yourself do you have what it takes? Are you in it for the right reason? Are you really committed to your cause? And if you are and you can find a way to push on, to carry on, to move on, that on the other side of this difficulty is great success. I know that and I truly feel that in my heart.
Speaker 1:I was unaware as to why and how I arrived at said situation, other than the facts of hey, slow times, slow seasons. Our business really kind of eats it right now and, to be honest, we haven't had the online success we've hoped for. We didn't have the event success that we've hoped for for November, december and in January it's a dead zone. So this happens to us every year. But this year I tried to take the steps to grow the business. We invested in the building. You know, we've been making investments in the bus and all these things. So we're trying to scale the business and we were doing just fine until we hit a wall where we just aren't making what we expected. A lot of different accounts that we're looking to purchase, these quotes that were put out, they just didn't get cashed in and people are putting things off. And I know people are putting things off because they're facing some of the same challenges that I am. But I didn't expect all these dominoes to fall. That's what I can see and understand. That is the problem. But what I didn't realize that is a problem that has blended into every facet of my life is GSD get shit done.
Speaker 1:When I was listening to Dan Martell Buy Back your Time he talks about entrepreneurs and how entrepreneurs have this mindset of like just get up, get after it, get shit done. Whatever the situation is, right, I can work my way out of this. I can work my way into a brighter, more beautiful tomorrow. I can get through this. When bills need to be paid and deadlines need to be met, just get shit done. Now here's the deal. When I first heard Dan talk about entrepreneurs and that go get it, drive, that can do attitude, and I heard him say GSD. That's what makes entrepreneurs GSD, get shit done I was like hell yeah, mother trucker, that's the mantra, that's the mantra of me I get shit done.
Speaker 1:If you are a day one, if you've been listening to the Stereo Circle Podcast since day one, number one, I acknowledge you. Put your ones up, get your ones up wherever you are a day one. If you've been listening to the other circle podcast since day one, number one, I acknowledge you. Put your ones up, get your ones up wherever you are. Get your ones up. I acknowledge you. I appreciate you. You know how true this is.
Speaker 1:How many times have you heard me come on here and say well, here's the deadline, folks. Uh, podcast now needs to be done and edited and recorded and fine-tuned and beautified and typed up and printed up and pushed out in the next 35 minutes and it's 1230 at night but I get it done. You've heard me talk about, well, I've got this massive order to do and I've been waiting for shipping and receiving and this nonsense and that nonsense. And now I've got to finish this podcast and I've got to go out there and I've got 200 things to print up because I've got a deadline to get it to them in a day. Right, what happens? I get it done. How many times do I tell you, man, I've got 35 cases of apparel that I've get done because I got the fryberg fair in a week and I'm gonna get done recording here today and I'm gonna work till two, three o'clock in the morning every freaking night until it's done. But guess what? I get it done. That's me. So you can imagine how excited I was out there on my tractor pushing back snow going. Yeah, buddy, get it done, get shit done. That's what I do, gsd. Maybe I need a tattoo that says gsd, get shit done. That's me, that's what I do.
Speaker 1:And I realized he was kind of saying it's not the best way to be, because the truth is the problem with get shit done is you end up with a lot of shit. And that's the truth. And I listened to him explain these things and it sat with me and it resonated with me and I put a lot of thought into it and apparently my subconscious mind was putting thought into it that I didn't realize. So when I mix in my subconscious mind and what's going on and this education from buybacker time Sprinkle in some cold medicine and my Tuesday routine of normally getting up at 5 in the morning for my mom at work, I actually woke up at 4. I was up at 4 in the morning this morning and I got up and I was feeling like crap. I could barely breathe and I stumbled out to the couch and I just kept thinking G, gsd, get shit done. And I kept thinking, when they say, the problem with get shit done is you just end up with a lot of shit, I started to realize that's me. Every day, a lot of shit, every day the same shit. That's part of the reason why I moved on from my previous career, because I didn't want to be controlled by no pun intended, all this everyday shit. I wanted something different. I dreamed of something better. I started thinking about me and the habits that make me.
Speaker 1:I try to get up every day, break out my list, right. I have this to-do list that just travels with me. I have this notebook and I write things down. And I tend to judge my day's success based off of how many things get highlighted on my list. And I'm so critical of myself that, even on the days when I am fortunate enough to highlight a bunch of shit, if I sit on the couch at the end of the night, and I'm so critical of myself that even on the days when I am fortunate enough to highlight a bunch of shit, if I sit on the couch at the end of the night and I look at that list and I say, well, you get a lot of things highlighted. And then I dig into those areas that have been highlighted and I say, well, that one doesn't really count. That was pretty easy. That one only took 10 minutes. You can't count that. And I start to beat myself up and say, well, look at that one at the top. You should have got that one done. That's a big one. How come you didn't get that one done?
Speaker 1:And sometimes I beat myself up and I have these conversations and I start the next day with priorities. Let's prioritize that list. Let's take something big on that list. Let's hit that first. And that's how I would try to get through this. Get shit done. Find that priority, make it happen. When I'm up against a deadline, when I need to make something happen, I look at my to-do list. Here's how everything is. These are the two million things I need to get done. I'm going to prioritize it. I better get these two done today, because we always talk about that pareto principle the 80. 20% of what I do is going to yield 80% results. I'm going to take the two most important things on my list of that 10, and I'm going to get those done right now.
Speaker 1:Now, leading into my current situation, I've realized that those big priorities on my list, the big needle movers on my list that pay my bills, that keep my business running, that keep my house warm, that can put food on the table, that can keep us safe, those things, those big priorities on the top of my list, they're there day after day, week after week. Part of it is out of my control. There's those big custom orders that are sitting on the top of your list, that you've been counting on, that you've been banking on that. This person's going to say yes to that. They're going to get back to you. That that's the money I need. That's my mortgage payment right there. That's the new barn payment right there. That's the insurance for the business payment right there. That's the money I need to go to Florida right here.
Speaker 1:And you put in the time and you put in the work and you send the invoice, or you send the quote, or you send the email, and it sits and it sits and it sits and you get that FOMO, that fear of missing out, and you check your phone every 10 minutes, waiting for somebody to pay an invoice, waiting for somebody to say you got the job, waiting for somebody to say I need this, I need that triple it. We're going to make this happen. So you get hyper-focused on checking your email, checking your phone. That leads into distractions, that leads into beating yourself up, that leads into a complete dip in morale. And the next thing you know, you're feeling depressed and you're beating yourself up and you're spending time with your baby and you're trying to be present and you're trying to enjoy every single minute of it and you're spending time with your baby and you're trying to be present and you're trying to enjoy every single minute of it. And you're thinking, man, how am I going to leave the house in a few weeks and head south to make money, how am I going to leave this little princess behind? And the next thing you know, you look at your account and you say, buddy, you ain't going nowhere, you can't afford nothing.
Speaker 1:And all these things begin to manifest themselves into utter chaos in your life and you realize your whole philosophy of GSD get shit done is punching you right in the face, because even if you're trying to get things done, you're not getting them done. And if you're hung up on those priorities at the top of your list, if you're hung up on those items that you need to cash in for you to stay in business, you become paralyzed by those priorities not moving. You become paralyzed at those big items at the top of your list nobody else gives a shit about. You care about them, your family cares about them, your business depends on them, your mortgage depends on them. But guess what? The person on the other end doesn't give a shit, because you know what. Their mortgage and their family and their lives depend on something totally different than your quote, than your idea, than your invoice. So it sits and it waits. That shit has begun to paralyze me.
Speaker 1:I woke up this morning and realized that's what's happening At 4.30 in the morning. I have my credit card statements open, my bank accounts open and I am doing math to the high heavens and I write down a list, because I started off with that list. We all have the. This is what I need to make each month. This is what I need to do. This is where I need to be. This is how I pay the bills, balance the account. This is where I need to be. But I haven't reassessed that number because you know what's happened. Gsd has taken over my life for me, because what I've become accustomed to do is to look at something and say, well, how do I get this done? And I find a way to get it done. You always find a way when you are motivated by GSD, get shit done. You always find a way to get it done. Sometimes, getting it done when the most important thing to get done is to pay your mortgage.
Speaker 1:You rob Peter to pay Paul, to pay a mortgage, to pay that $500 business insurance. You're back to robbing Peter to pay Paul, you're moving this, you're hiding that, you're shuffling this. When all of a sudden you realize that for the past couple of months your business hasn't been bringing in the income that it's accustomed to, when you begin to realize that the accounts that you have that you use to manipulate and move funds around have now become maxed out, when you look at it and say, wow, every single line of credit that I have I have maxed out. Every savings account, every checking account maxed out, equity accounts maxed out. It's a tough spot.
Speaker 1:When you sit there and you write your list and you realize the money that it takes for you to remain in business, the money that it takes for you to provide for your family, has almost doubled in the past few months. You face fear right between the blinkers. Because here's the thing about Rob and Peter to pay Paul. Those things all come with interest. And the bigger the account, the higher the interest. And the next thing you know, when you've got six, seven accounts with no more room, with no more ceiling, you start to realize that every payment that you can afford to put in falls below the interest charge. You realize you now have doubled the cost that is required to remain in business and to remain as what you would consider a self-worthy man that can provide for his family. When those numbers have doubled and you don't know what to do. When you write those numbers down and you look at them and say to yourself, my business has never, in five years of business, been able to sustain a level of income to survive that level of expenses. You ask yourself what to do when you look at those numbers and realize you have previous life and that career that you left, that you thought was so fantastic, that six-figure income that you thought was so amazing. That income would not sustain the debt you've created for yourself. Not sustain the debt you've created for yourself.
Speaker 1:Today I did some 4.30 am math that I wish I never had. Now I will say I'm glad I did it right Because I'm doing the math when I have an opportunity to overcome the math right. If I didn't listen to this book, then I don't know when I take the time to do this self-assessment. If I'm not on the tractor out in the snow, then I'm not listening to the book. If I'm not fueled up on cold meds and forcing myself to slow down, then maybe I don't do the math. You understand what I'm saying, guys. There was layers to this. There are things that had to happen for me to understand this.
Speaker 1:I was so focused on getting shit done that every day I look at it and say what am I going to pay today? What am I going to get pay today? What have I got to get done today? What can I accomplish today? And I just attack the day and I make it happen, and I've been making it happen. We've made it every single day, every single month. But if you don't have one of those things happen if I'm not on a tractor because it's been snowing so much, I'm probably not listening to the book. If I'm not hopped up on cold medicine, I'm probably not slowing myself down enough. I'm just so focused on getting things done. But when you're feeling so sick and you're feeling so shitty, or you're trying to watch your baby and you can't go anywhere else, all that can happen is your mind can take over. That can run you down some rabbit holes of self-doubt, despair, depression, or it can force you into some self-evaluation. Thankfully, all these little things added up to me sitting down and doing some of the shittiest math I've ever friggin' done To have the self-assessment that you as a man, as an entrepreneur, as a business owner, as a husband, as a son, as a father, has fucked up.
Speaker 1:You worked so hard and fast for all the right reasons, the best of intentions, heart in the right place, but you didn't take on the big picture. You didn't slow down to see everything that was going on. You got so self-involved in the swirl and making things happen that you lost sight of everything. You didn't see what was happening around you. I failed. I failed because I just felt, and I've always felt, that I can just get shit done, I can prioritize it, I can list it, I can knock it out. This too shall pass, I shall find a way. Tomorrow's another day. I just make things happen, but eventually you run into a wall where you can't continue to just make shit happen.
Speaker 1:Now I wish I was on here with some beautiful, rosy, optimistic scenario and an action plan as to how I'm going to overcome this. Now, I'm not saying that I haven't been putting a lot of thought into that and I'm trying to establish the best way to do this, but I don't have the best answers right now. Folks, I'm working through this. Here's the scenario. Here is the kick in the pants. Here's the old-fashioned dick kick. I'm working through this with you right now, real time. Here I am counseling session. This is happening.
Speaker 1:Share the struggle podcast. We turn the microphone on. We're bold enough to counseling session. This is happening. Share the struggle podcast. We turn the microphone on. We're bold enough to share our struggle. This is my ultimate struggle. This is a struggle that I've created for myself and for my business. I'm not on here saying woe is me. I'm not shedding tears Now. I might be acknowledging some fears because this is some scary shit, but here's the truth. It's reality and I don't run from reality. And I also know there's a great deal of growth that comes from being vulnerable enough to share my reality, because I know there's so many of you listening right now that are living paycheck to paycheck. I know so many of you that are dealing with the same struggles that I'm dealing with. I know so many of you listening right now that are small business owners that have been robbing Peter to pay Paul for years. I know so many of you that aren't business owners but you've just been scraping by to pay the mortgage, to put fuel in the tanks to put food in the fridge. Right, I understand we're all struggling.
Speaker 1:I am coming on here and being bold enough to say I screwed up. I screwed up for the right reasons, but I screwed up. And I'm being bold enough to say these things because I want to put out the cautionary tale to each and every one of you. Maybe you operate the way I do too. Maybe you just try to get shit done every single day. You just what do I got to do today to make it through today, to create a tomorrow? If you're like me and you've been doing those things, here's me saying whoa buddy. Maybe you want to slow down, pump the brakes a little bit, reassess what we're doing here and maybe find a pivot plan to make things happen. I also am willing to be vulnerable and transparent enough to say these things because I am confident that I will find a way out of this situation. I created this mess and I'll clean this mess. And I also know on the other side of this struggle, on the other side of this massive obstacle, is a beautiful horizon of opportunity and accomplishments. I know that I'll get there. I am confident enough to turn on this microphone and tell you that today as of this podcast that drops on February 5th, episode 239 of Share, the Struggle podcast. I am dead broke, but I could be on here next week on episode 240 telling you have no fear, your boy is here. This too shall pass. These things can change quickly, but we need to acknowledge them, we need to be aware of them and we need to make a plan to accomplish them. And I know I can do that and I know it'll happen.
Speaker 1:Some of the difficulties for me is getting to Florida. Right as I'm laying out these obstacles that are before me, I've been given the opportunity to attend bike week. I have help going with me to attend bike week. I have help going with me to attend bike week to make things happen, but, based off of my finances, I don't have enough cash to really double down on inventory, to bring enough inventory down there to really crush it. I don't have enough capital to reinvest in the business when it comes to just having enough new, fresh products to make the current customer base excited to buy something new. So going to Florida can be tough because you're trying to scrape by just to have enough items on the shelf to make things happen. That becomes a challenge. The cost of being a vendor, the cost of travel to get there, all those things right now I can't afford. I'm not telling you that I won't find a way to afford those things, because I'm hell-bent to find a way, but I am man enough to put my hand on the Cabela's catalog and to give a full frontal, confessional truth from this guy.
Speaker 1:This is where I'm at, this is what I'm up against, and I'm willing to say this because in a few weeks time I want to be able to come on here and express to you how I overcame it, how I beat it and how I plan to defeat it, because the debt I've created, the obstacles that are in front of me, even if I can get around these short term, I need to analyze and find a bigger plan to make it long term to overcome these things, to live long and prosper. You understand, but until then, I do know if I can find my way to Florida, that just might be the break that I need to make things happen. But if that one doesn't work out, I'll find something else that does, because I'm convinced that we have a brand that this country needs, that the people want. We have a mission and a reason. We are here to bring back American manufacturing. We have a mission to support Americans and American jobs, to represent an American spirit with an American brand. I'm hell uh motivated and I believe we will make it Now.
Speaker 1:I wish I was standing here with a bunch of actionable steps. You know, a nice game plan would be nice, a nice to-do list, a nice pivot list would be fantastic. I wish I was more prepared that I could come to you today and say, hey, this is the facts, but this is where we're headed. But I don't have that yet. America. Okay, I did the math at four in the morning.
Speaker 1:I'm hepped up on cold pills. I've been throwing spitballs at a wall all damn day trying to figure this out. I don't have an answer yet, okay, but that's okay. It's okay to not have an answer, all right, it's okay to not have an answer. It's not okay to give up on yourself. It's not okay to to just talk down to yourself, to beat yourself, to abuse yourself. You know what I'm saying? It's not okay to give up. It's not okay to pack it up and to just say you know what? Not me. I'm not wired that way, as much as it would be easier to just pack it up and move on to something else.
Speaker 1:It's just not into me to quit and I truly feel that by being courageous enough, get it Courageous. My word, my guiding word, son of a bitch that kicked me right between the blinkers. That's a dick kick right there. Okay, I should have picked a different word. Y'all, if you listen back to Finding your Guiding Words, which I think was one of my favorite episodes of the year so far me and the wife started the year off identifying our guiding words, and I picked courageous courage, and I also picked sacrifice.
Speaker 1:I am being courageous enough to stand here right now and to give this confessional, to give this truthful now, and to give this confessional, to give this truthful, heartfelt, just shit sandwich that I just gave. I know if I'm courageous enough to say this is my struggles, to express my struggles, I'm confident enough to know I will find an answer. This, too shall pass, and someday, some way, we can look back on this episode and say I told you and if you are struggling and if you are down, the proof is in the pudding that success leaves clues and that this is possible for you too. So, until the next time when I get to turn this microphone on and express great success and triumph. Until then, thank you for supporting my american dream. Now go wash. That's it and that's all. Biggie smiles.
Speaker 1:If you're a loud, proud American and you find yourself just wanting more, find me on YouTube and Facebook at Loud, proud American, or the Face page, as my mama calls it. If you're a fan of the Graham Cracker, you want to find me on Instagram, or all the kids are tickety-talking on the TikTok. You can find me on both of those at loud, underscore, proud, underscore American. I'm not talking about myself. A big ol' thank you to the boys from the Gut Truckers for the background beats and the theme song for this here podcast. If you are enjoying what you're hearing, you can track down the Gut Truckers on Facebook. Just search Gut Truckers. Give them, motherfuckers, a like too. Make it bleed, I like to. I truly thank you for supporting my American dream. Now go wash your fucking hands, you filthy savage.