Share The Struggle
Share The Struggle
The Bus, The Brotherhood, and The Big Son of a Bitch 244
After completing Loud Proud American's greatest challenge and biggest risk—attending Daytona Bike Week as a vendor—I reflect on this transformative adventure and the incredible relationships formed along the way.
• Giving heartfelt thanks to Brian and Zach Pomerleau who put their lives on hold to help make this dream possible
• Driving 26 hours straight in our converted school bus "Large Marge" from Maine to Florida
• Navigating the challenges of our vendor location and campground situation at Cackleberry Campground
• Operating on 3-4 hours of sleep each night while maintaining an intense schedule from 11am to past 3am
• Meeting Lisa who became our unofficial tour guide and introduced us to key industry connections
• Forming a brotherhood with country singer Daniel Johnson, leading to Loud Proud American's first musician sponsorship
• Having a memorable encounter with WWE star Braun Strowman who accepted a shirt from our brand
• Learning that relationships and connections are the true rewards of stepping outside your comfort zone
• Recognizing that people are placed in our paths for specific purposes if we're open to those encounters
Stay tuned for next week's episode where I'll break down the financial aspects and whether the rewards were worth the risks.
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Loud Proud. American's greatest challenge and biggest risk has been completed, and today we recap the adventure and discuss the details. How did it go, and was the rewards worth the risk? 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. Do 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.
Speaker 2:We can fight the world the whole day gone by. Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh. What it do, what it hot, it's did-a-dee-do.
Speaker 1:Good Lord, almighty, am I so excited to be back with you. Oh, it's true, it is damn true. I miss you. I miss all you beautiful, voluptuous, sexual, now proud Americans out there, and I mean that in the most politest and politically correct kind of ways possible. I love y'all. How can I not love you? We are.
Speaker 1:This is episode 244? Question mark. I believe Y'all believe that we're approaching 250 freaking weeks of the podcast and this week I am coming to you absolutely freaking tired. Wow, am I blistered right now? I am beat. I'm certain I sound like shit. I can barely breathe through my face, I've lost my voice and I feel like my lungs are filled with Florida dust. I don't really know.
Speaker 1:I don't know what's happening, but it is my commitment to you, my dedication to y'all, that has me standing here today, proudly back with you, recording another episode of that podcast, beautifully, perfectly precisely named Share the Struggle, because everybody struggles, and this week we are going to recap the greatest, most recent struggle for myself, my family and my brand, loud Proud American.
Speaker 1:If you have been listening leading up to today's show, you know all the risk versus reward, all the analysis that went into us deciding and committing to and working our way towards Daytona Bike Week. If you've been listening along over the past few weeks, you've heard me announce that we got accepted and we were going to Bike Week. You heard me come back here, tuck my tail between my legs and tell you Lord, almighty, I can't afford it. And I had to get creative and push things and pull things and close more business than I possibly thought I could to make up the financial means to get there. I had to formulate a tag team partner scenario, build a team that was willing to put their lives on hold to help me and my brand and my family to achieve a bucket list dream. So before I go any further, I really need to wholeheartedly give the biggest, greatest, most amazing winning.
Speaker 1:Wednesday weekly shout out To my brother from another mother, brian Pomelo and his amazing son, zach. Brian and Zach Pomelo they put their lives on hold to help Loud, proud American achieve new heights. I can't thank you enough. Brian's been telling me since I started the brand. Me and BP used to work together at the Harley-Davidson dealership and we've just stayed in contact and touch in our relationship, I would argue, has gotten even better since our years of working together. It's amazing to think how strong it is now and how important that we are to each other. So when I launched this brand and I launched this podcast, brian's been extremely supportive. He's been a champion for the brand and I launched this podcast. Brian's been extremely supportive. He's been a champion for the brand. He was the first ever person that I asked outside of my family to help the brand to run the tent to sell merchandise. Him and his wife, christy, were the first people I ever asked to help. And Brian said to me this entire time the moment you decide to travel with this brand, you let me know. I want to help. And I reached out for Daytona and I fully expected I would take this journey on my own, because it's a lot to ask man. It is a lot to ask. We had to leave here on a Monday, drive through the night, get to Florida on a Tuesday and we'll recap this in a little bit have Tuesday to get settled in and Wednesday and Thursday to set up. Then you run bike week Friday, saturday, sunday, monday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday, friday, saturday, sunday and head out. That's a huge commitment. You're away from your family for a long time. You're away from your income for a long time. You're not just taking an enjoyable vacation, you're also doing this to bust your ass and to help me try to make something of this brand and this event. Brian and Zach put their lives on hold and I can't I can't thank them enough and, to be honest spoiler alert here. We're going to get into some of the risk and some of the rewards at the end of this episode, and one of the greatest rewards for me personally was getting to spend as much time as I did with Brian and Zach and to put this in perspective for you guys. If you know me and you've been listening on, if this is your first episode, then some of this is going to be new to you, but if you've been listening and getting to know me and my story and my family and our struggles, then you know that it's been just over a year since I lost my dad.
Speaker 1:To be on a road trip a father and son road trip. To be part of that road trip was incredibly powerful and inspiring. I will be transparent as all hell and I'll tell you there was times when, when they were sleeping and I was driving, we all would kind of take shifts and I'm thinking about them and I'm thinking about my father and that I lost my father and that what I would give for this type of experience and journey with my dad, so to be a part of their experience, to make the memories, to build stories that are going to last a freaking lifetime. We lived basically like we're supposed to live right, like just flying off the seat of your pants, taking things day by day, enjoying every opportunity, balancing good and bad and just being thankful for all the memories that we had. That was us, man. We lived like kings with little resources. I don't know if that makes sense to you guys. We're building fires to make food. We don't have serving spoons. We're creating spoons out of bush light cans. We're doing man shit. You understand, we were just living L-I-V-I-N and I loved every freaking minute of it. I'm so incredibly thankful for the relationship I was able to form with young Zach because I hadn't seen him since I worked with Brian, which was shoot well over 10 years ago. So it was incredible. It was incredible to have that experience, that connection.
Speaker 1:So, brian and Zach, this week's Winnie Wednesday weekly shout out something I have not done in a very long time goes to you too rightfully so. I love you boys. I can't thank you enough. Y'all are family. I hope you understand that and I'd feel bad asking you to go somewhere else again because of all we went through, but I kind of want to do it because we had an amazing time and I love you guys and I can't truly thank you enough. I don't know how I'm going to find the words or the ways to repay you, but I will do the best I possibly can, and it starts today by saying thank you, thank you, thank you so damn much. You helped me and my family put my brand on the map in a way we never thought possible, and that's because you put your lives on hold to help carry me. And there's really no words to express how grateful I am and I just wanted to put it out there to the universe. So if any of you listening you know Brian and Zach or you happen to meet them at an event, make sure you thank them for me and helping to build this brand. So thank you, boys. I really truly, truly appreciate that.
Speaker 1:And to get things kind of rocking and rolling, as you can tell by my voice and where I'm at, I'm really in recovery mode. I am absolutely smoked. I am so ever loving, tired. Our schedule there has been insane. Like the way things went was absolutely insane. To kind of, you know, sprinkle a little, I guess I should say, paint the picture here now that we sprinkle some time and distance on it. It's crazy.
Speaker 1:We left on a Monday I want to say 9, 9.30 in the morning, we hit the road and we got to Florida the next day at 10.30, 11 o'clock, right. So we drove straight through the freaking night. I have so many stories that we can get to at another time, but I really just kind of want to give you a screenshot, snapshot of how this went. So I'm going to kind of run fast, I'm going to run through a timeline to kind of give you guys a little insight as to what happened. But we drove straight through.
Speaker 1:We were in, I want to say, virginia and I started looking up hotels and I said, fellas, I got a room right here for about 60 bucks 70 bucks. We can crash a few hours and get back on the road. And Brian said, dude, we shouldn't waste money and we should get there as soon as we can, because who knows what's going to happen? And if you started doing the timeline on things, if we stayed in the hotel for too long and then left by the time we got to the place we were going, there'd be nobody to check us in, so we couldn't unpack the bus, we couldn't make camp, we couldn't find a place to sleep, so it would really create us having to really buy two hotels. So we said you know what? We're going to run it. We're going to drive straight through the night and BP is a road warrior. That dude can drive like a champ. He just loves a road trip and loves powering through.
Speaker 1:The experience is made in a freaking school bus, a 2011 school bus driving I don't even remember the mileage right. A couple thousand miles, right? Amazing. There was some nervousness because the bus has never run for more than two and a half hours straight. It decided to do 26 hours. Out the gate. She ran like an ever-loving champion. The new Loud, proud American Battle Axe business wagon professional freaking awesomeness is fantastic. Things went so well. I'm looking forward to making improvements to it, but I could not be happier with the way things went. Brian nicknamed the bus Large Marge as we were navigating traffic out there, and Old Marge took great care of us. Man, we had an absolute blast and it ran so well, so pretty excited about that.
Speaker 1:So, about 26 hours in we get to Florida and, um, actually, let me back up a little bit and tell you that I left Maine and obviously you're going to go Maine, new Hampshire, massachusetts, connecticut. We got into Connecticut and got pulled over by a state trooper when he came up to the door. I opened the door and, uh, cause you open the side door to kind of let him in, cause it's just around the side of the interstate. And he says you know why I'm pulling you over. And I said no, I was right down. And he says you have an iceberg on the top of your bus that will literally kill somebody we thought we had. You know, I'm going to tell you this.
Speaker 1:We had about 15 inches of snow and ice on the roof and I shoveled all that I could off on a ladder. Some of it was frozen in the middle and we tried to get it off, leaving here. Apparently said, iceberg made its way to Connecticut. Yes, that's a commitment, folks, that's a real commitment. After talking with the officer, he said if you can get it off the roof, I won't give you a ticket, I'll just give you a warning. And Brian said hell yeah, be right out there. And we grabbed Zach, threw him on the roof, he shoveled it off and came flying back down the other side, which in retrospective, I think the officer did not expect us to put a human on the roof of a bus on the side of 95.
Speaker 1:I wanted to get a photo or video at this moment, but I realized he might not think this is funny and, uh, he probably doesn't want that traveling around him losing his job, so we just moved about our business, all right, so we get to florida, we get to uh cackleberry campground.
Speaker 1:Cackleberry yeah, that's, we gather the locals kind of call it, I think, but they were drunk when we were talking to him, so that might not be really how to pronounce it, but it is cackleberry campground. Okay. Now, the way Daytona is set up and we learned more about it after being there is there's little segments of Bike Week that kind of happen in different locations, like main attractions, like Main Street, the local racetrack, like the Speedway for the 500. There's some Harley dealership that has a big area, there's some big bars that have areas for vendors and stuff, and then we're at this campground across the street from the Cabbage Patch, which is world famous for coleslaw wrestling, and there's a lot of vendors there. There's entertainment there. So when we got there, they set us up, showed us where we were going to be under a tree in the field, you could see the main stage. We had a bar right in front of us. There was a big wheel of death behind us, or wall of death, and we thought this is a great location.
Speaker 1:As we were to learn, I should have thought more about this, because one thing I've learned being on the road and being a vendor is that when people are shopping and they're at a fair or a festival. As crazy as this might sound, they're lazy. People are lazy, they like to follow patterns. People will get out and they will walk the perimeter. They will look at the middle and then make their decision from the perimeter as to whether they're going to go to the middle. So, connected to us, we had a guy that was selling some knives and then there was some religious groups that were, you know, blessing motorcycles, handing out Bibles, things like that, and people were just not coming over to us at the rate in which they would have had we been on a perimeter. So that was strike one for us when it comes to business. But in the beginning we really hadn't really thought that right. But that ended up having a major effect on us. But for our first time we felt that we stood out and it was a good spot for us.
Speaker 1:Our camping scenario we were able to put large marge and a pretty awesome camping spot. We had some shade, some flat area, some trees. The boys set up some tents. We had a pretty nice little ponderosa set up. Initial thought on that was hey, this is a fantastic camping site.
Speaker 1:Upon further review, the problem with said camping site is. It is right next to the road and every freaking person at Bike Week wants to do a burnout or to hammer on their motorcycle, which just happens to be flying by your head while you're sleeping, if you're sleeping. And the other thing that has happened is there's some locals that do not appreciate Bike Week apparently happening in their town. So they decide to take some vigilante justice into their own hands and they want to protest bike week. So one Karen or as we politely now begin to label Karens in our state, janets one particular Janet decides every morning at six in the morning to roll by the campground laying on the horn, literally just hammering on the horn, to wake everybody in the campground up, to then get their coffee, turn around and come back and do it again. So every morning at like six, six oh five, janet rolls by on the horn to wake you up, get her coffee, you hopefully start to fall back asleep. And here she comes, right back again to wake your ass up again. If y'all want a full frontal confessional right now, I'll put my hand on Cabello's catalog. Be the little eyes of the sky that choose from this guy.
Speaker 1:We made a plan by the end of the week. When we're leaving on the last day, we know what time old Janet's coming by. I'm going to pop out of the damn bushes and I don't care if it's a. If it's a potato, an egg or a turd, it's coming at your van. Okay, probably your minivan. That was the plan. What I didn't count on is that the last day we'd be there as a Sunday and Janet decides that she makes coffee at home on Sunday. So you avoided us this time, janet.
Speaker 1:Anyways, that is our thought process versus reality. We thought we had a great location for the business and a great location for camp. Reality is, yeah, they both had their challenges. Okay, so we end up arriving at our location a few days early, which is like we planned it. We didn't know if we're going to run into the kind of hiccups, what the situation might be, and for us to make camp we had to really empty the bus. So we set up the shell for the vendor display right for the Loud Proud American booth, put a bunch of things on the wall. Then we go back, set up camp and on our first night we go out and meet some locals. We go across the street to the Cabbage Patch and just kind of celebrate the fact that we've made it have a few drinks and then come back and shut it down. But that gave us Tuesday right. That's Tuesday night.
Speaker 1:Bike week doesn't start until Friday. We have Wednesday and Thursday and what was pretty awesome is that Lisa from Bentley Saloon Bentley's girlfriend Lisa. She had called and checked in to see how we were doing and she said you know what? I know? You guys are kind of confined to where you are. I'm going to be your tour guide, I'm going to take care of you. Lisa picked us up and on night one she brought us downtown, showed us Main Street. We checked out every single bar. We went to all these different places. She introduced us into so many people, to so many people. We took photos with so many folks. She made a connection between me and Doug, who owns Sick Boy, which is a very successful motorcycle rock and roll apparel brand. He has a storefront in Deadwood, dakota, and he also has a temporary storefront that opens up right on Main Street during bike week. So pretty awesome to meet an inspiration, somebody that started much like we have, that has built a massive empire for himself. So that was rather inspiring.
Speaker 1:I really learned a masterclass in promotion and spending two days with Lisa. The way she goes about her business. She's always looking for a way to market herself and her business. She's always pushing Bentley Saloon. Everybody ran into you. She was so polite to introduce us and mention the brand and try to drive traffic our way, which absolutely helped. I learned so much. It was incredible. So for two days Lisa was our tour guide and she showed us around and it was tremendous. We get to see parts of Florida that we never thought we'd be able to because we knew we would be stuck at the campground and just trying to work and get our things done. So it was incredible. I'm forever grateful to Lisa for showing us around and doing those things and the people we got to meet. It was pretty damn awesome.
Speaker 1:I was able to spend a bunch of time with another brother from another mother, dirk, who I met through Bentley himself, and usually Dirk and I we spend time more at the saloon. Occasionally we pull off a fun road trip and connect in Nashville. But this was another time where I was able to hang out with Dirk, spend a week together, introduce him to Brian and Zach party with him. His girl, lori, showed up, you know, and we were able just to kind of have this nighttime relaxation mode right. We unplug from work and just kind of hang out and crush beers and share stories and just make up ridiculous things. And that was that was a great time, you know. And and having your jerk support everywhere. As he went, he was putting my stickers out there every day. He's pushing a new person to my tent to buy something. I met Dirk at breakfast and I need to be in here to buy this shirt.
Speaker 1:That's a support, that's the friendship, and you're going to really hear an emphasis with me on people because spoiler alert that's what this is all about, that's what life's about, that's what the brand is about, it's about people, and this trip really drove that home even more and more from us, because it really comes down to the relationships we've already made and the relationships that we will continue to make. And to kind of just spell this out for you, I'm going to get into a couple of fantastic encounters that I feel like are just motivational and monumental for us, but I also want to really sprinkle some emphasis on the relationships that we already have, and without those these things wouldn't be possible. And when I say that I mean. First off, you think about the relationship between Brian and Zach to help me get there and to make this possible, the relationship with Lisa to show us all around. And then the surprising visits that I had while in Florida from customers that either have been buying from us for years, see us at the saloon or follow us on social media, coming in and saying, hi, hey, man, I follow you. You, I bought a shirt from you at bentley saloon. I saw you were down here.
Speaker 1:So many conversations like this happened during the week. It was mind-blowing. Uh, former employees of mine coming in to see me and be like man, I'm so happy that you're here. Family members stopping in to surprise me and literally like our extended family out in New York Little Paisley Reigns, godparents, lance and Jen, kip and Shelly. They surprised us. They literally rolled into the tent with a bag full of gifts for Little Paisley and said, hey, I'd rather save on shipping. Here's this for the little one. And then they proceed to also spend money while they're there, lance and Jen. I think was one of our largest customer purchases of the entire freaking bike week and they can see me, find me and support me any damn time they want.
Speaker 1:So it's incredible. It's incredible to have these relationships in our life, because without them, none of this is possible. And the best part about this whole trip was that we built some more relationships. Now they're not all gonna turn into the tremendous relationships that I referenced, but that's what life's about folks. It's about meeting people. It's about making memories, it's about leaving impressions. That's what life's about. There needs to be something that just makes you feel fulfilled. There needs to be something that makes you feel important. There needs to be something that makes you want to get up every day, and for me, one of those things is meeting people, impacting people and forming those relationships. And this whole trip showed me how amazing those things are. And all the people that checked in throughout the week trying to see how we were doing which I got, to be honest, those of you that reached out and I couldn't get back to you, I am sorry.
Speaker 1:The schedule that we kept down there was absolutely insane and it was incredibly difficult to stay on top of things. And just to kind of give you like a little scenario on the life and times as to how things rolled out there, we would try to be down there around 11 am ish. At noontime there's the national anthem and then things get going and then there would be, you know, three bands a day at our location. Entertainment in between all the bands from anything from a wet t-shirt contest to midget wrestling, to fire dancing, whatever there's always something going on. Our location stayed open till at least 1 am. The bar across the street stayed open until 3 am. So if you would work all day at our location, you would then go across the street because you need to unwind and you can't sleep anyways because it's too damn loud, and you'd have a few beers and you'd come back by the time you get back to camp.
Speaker 1:Sometimes you're walking around the camp just trying to expel energy and burn yourself out to go to sleep. So on an average night we could be going to bed 3.30, 4 in the morning and, as you just heard a few minutes ago, janet's going to roll by at 6 am and wake your ass up. People are going to get up on their motorcycles and go blistering by. Some folks are going to leave their radios on all night, are going to leave their radios on all night. I'm telling you it is almost impossible to sleep. We probably averaged, I would say three to four hours sleep a night.
Speaker 1:We got into the routine that we realize we're going to get up in the mornings Everybody's going to wake us up and maybe take a shower or have something for breakfast and then try to catch a nap before we had to open if you at all could to really just try to get through the day. The schedule was insane, folks. It was absolutely insane. I've taken showers in the morning, in the middle of the day, when the boys are watching the tent. I took a shower at 1.30 in the morning. It was, and the showers themselves were absolutely sketchy. So our schedule we ran for basically two weeks on three to four hours sleep a night, don't forget. We had two instances of driving straight through the night 26, 27 hour trips, sleeping for a half an hour here and there on the floor of the bus. We are beat. Today I am smoked. If I didn't get a chance to talk to you, to answer your call, to shoot back a message, I apologize. I'm going to do the best I can to get back. But this trip, man, it took every ounce of energy and effort you had to make it through and that's the truth, y'all. That is the absolute truth, but that's our, that's our schedule and that's how how things went, man.
Speaker 1:Getting back to our discussion on relationships and the fact that I truly feel life is about relationships, it's about the connections you make and the memories that you can, that you can build and a lot of times those things are fate I feel like we are put in a certain place with a certain face for a very certain reason. If you have been listening all these years on the podcast, you know that I met Lance and Jen while giving away a motorcycle, working in a previous career, and now, from that one encounter, they've become brothers and sisters to us. They've become Paisley Rains, godparents. People are put in our way, they're put in our paths for a reason, for a purpose.
Speaker 1:But if we don't open ourselves up, if we don't engage in conversation, if we don't allow ourselves to be vulnerable, then you're going to walk through life often missing your purpose. You're going to walk through life often missing your purpose. You're going to walk through life often missing your person, and I mean that on all aspects of life, on all layers of family and relationship, because I'm a firm believer that you don't just, you're not just given the family that you're born into. You have the ability to build and form and develop your own family with friends that might not be blood, but they're going to be closer than blood. You understand, but you need to allow yourself to be open to those things.
Speaker 1:And if you walk through life just shut down, sheltered, self-centered, protected, you will prevent yourself from meeting your person, from finding your purpose. That could be a life lesson to those of you that are listening, that are single and you haven't met your person yet. You need to be open, you need to be transparent. You don't want to be taken advantage of, but you need to allow yourself experiences. Put yourself in situations where you might feel vulnerable, you might feel uncomfortable, but you'll be surprised who you meet and what relationships you make. That could be a significant other. That could be a future best friend. That could be a significant other that could be a future best friend. That could be somebody you consider a brother, a sister, it doesn't matter. You need to open yourself up.
Speaker 1:But I truly feel like people are placed in our paths for a very particular reason, but we far too often miss those people because we're shutting down, because we're unwilling to be vulnerable or we're unwilling to explore, to take a chance, start a conversation. I'm saying all this because I truly feel like I found another person that's going to be in my life for a long time. I truly feel like I made another connection with somebody that not only is going to help me personally as an individual, but is going to help me personally as an individual, but is going to help me personally as a business owner, as a brand. Somebody that I'm going to be able to help personally in a friendship, supportive, brother role. Someone that is driven much like I am, that I can use my resources to help him achieve his goals. That's what life's about, folks when you can meet somebody, that you can motivate each other, you can support each other and you can push each other. We go through life not realizing how much we can help somebody else by just tapping into our own resources and connections, and I met somebody that I'm so excited about. Number one the fact that I was able to meet them. It happened organically, naturally. We have an amazing connection and we just jived, we just hit it off and we're both motivated to achieve our goals. Even though vastly different, we know we can support each other.
Speaker 1:So that's a quick story that I want to highlight on today's recap special of the Loud, proud American Daytona Bike Week, and we're going to do that next. Good chance. Loud, proud american is a lifestyle brand dedicated and determined to represent the american spirit, with an unrelenting commitment to provide made in the usa products. If you would like to join the two percent of americans that buy american support American, head on over to wwwlalproudamericanshop. Together we can bring back American manufacturing. All right, all right, all right, before that little Lal Proud American B-roll spectacular, rick, that I should have hopefully encouraged some of you to buy American. You heard me talk about the importance of relationships, the fact that people are put in our paths for a particular reason, and I do truly believe in a lot of things come right down to fate, and fate just so had it that I needed to be on a bar stool next to my next brother from another mother.
Speaker 1:So on the arrival of Dirk when Dirk showed up, it was actually on day two of Lisa's tour of Florida, so me and the boys have been getting into the sauce a little bit. We met Dirk at the gate, we got him set up at camp, brian hit the hay, me and Zach went across the street to participate in some hydration festivities. So, while getting ourselves acclimated to the locals, put down a few bevvies. We worked into a corner of the bar. We met our new friend, abby, an awesome bartender that we had a great connection with. She took care of us all week, told us where to be, when to be there, all these great things. And Abby's become a good friend and I know that we're going to keep a connection going with her as well. She's down there rocking Loud Pod American gear, sharing our stuff, spreading the good gospel and the good word and, uh, we'll touch on this stuff later, but I think Abby's going to be able to help us switch sides of the road.
Speaker 1:If we go back down, maybe better our location, but, um, abby was a great person and a lot of times when you're at bike week or you're at these big events and you meet bartenders, they don't always take the time to have conversations with you. It's really transactional based and, if you know me, everything's about relationships. I think our whole brand is built on relationships. If you haven't already heard that, I don't believe in just selling you a t-shirt, taking your 27 bucks and never talking to you again. I want to sell you your t-shirt and hope that you always come back for sure. I want to get to know you and your family and I want to know why you consider yourself a Loud, proud American. Where you live, what's your story? And in doing so, you want to learn about me and my story and my brand and my family. We become invested in each other and that has you being a loyal supporter of the brand, somebody that's not just buying a t-shirt, that is buying multiple things over the course of the years, and maybe it's just one thing, but you're encouraging other people to come buy things, and I think that Abby is going to be a great friend of ours and a great supporter of the brand.
Speaker 1:And she's just a people person that opened herself up and had conversations with us and was invested in our success. Every day when we showed up at the bar, it was how did it go today? How's things going over there? That type of deal giving us insight on how things went on their side to really offer a great perspective on business and on traffic. That was so, so invaluable.
Speaker 1:I can't even tell you how much that that meant. So that was so, so invaluable. I can't even tell you how much that that meant and, ironically, abby had a friend at the bar that was sitting one bar stool away from me. There was a stool in between us and this heavily intoxicated young lady sat between us and she was just sloppy, hammered right. She's bouncing off of Daniel and off of me and we're both trying to ignore her and occasionally we would lock eyes with each other like what is this broad doing? She gets so loaded and she just keeps tapping my shoulder and trying to interject in our conversations, with a conversation that went a lot like this Are you ready?
Speaker 2:Ah, yeah, ah, you, you, you, ah, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you guys. Oh my God, you, you, you, you, you, you guys, you, you guys, you, you, you, you guys, you guys, you guys are great, you guys are great, you guys.
Speaker 1:You guys are great. That's the conversation. That's the conversation. And I'd look around and go, thank you very much. She dropped something like a napkin or a credit card, I don't know, went between my legs and she went down to get it and put her hand on my leg and I looked over at Daniel and I was like oh my God, and she popped up and then she was back to rubbing on Daniel and it was this really awkward interaction. And then she says to me you, you married. And I said yes, I am happily with a kid at home.
Speaker 2:I knew it I knew it.
Speaker 1:Anyways, she leaves Me and Daniel start having an interaction and it's basically off of Blisterface over here, who was just absolutely blistered. No offense against her face or anything, but she was beyond white, gold-wasted. I took Dirk's phone. He had Jukebox app on his phone. I was hitting the old Jukebox, daniel was hitting the Jukebox. Before you know it, we're all singing West Virginia songs and Country Road and John Denver and Fishing in the Dark and Cody Jinks and Hank Williams and whatever. We're just having a good old fashioned hootenanny and we hit it off. We absolutely hit it off.
Speaker 1:In that time we had a conversation who are you? What do you do? What brings you to Bike Week? Daniel is born and raised in Iowa, like a citizen himself, uh, made in Texas, so, born in Iowa, made in Texas, and he's a country singer. And instantly I, you know, told him what we do, what we believe in, what we stand for, and we started swapping um social media handles, following each other, and, uh, you know, I made the commitment to come see him play this week and he would come over and see the tent and check things out and we just kind of had a great time and Abby told all of us.
Speaker 1:You need to be back here tomorrow because there's a band in here that you're going to love these young kids named Mantra. They're phenomenal. And she wasn't kidding. This was some of the best live music I've ever seen. The boys were so incredibly tight and polished. They were playing Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd and all these classic bands and you can tell these young kids were heavily influenced by Zeppelin. They were incredible. Every single finish to a song was a concert album quality finish. It was incredible. They are literally ready. They're recording live. Their live music is like a professional recording. It's incredible. They're moving to Nashville. Mark my words on this date as I'm recording this, when this episode drops on a winning Wednesday the band Mantra. They're headed to Nashville. They will be somebody someday. Mark my words, they're incredible.
Speaker 1:Addie told us to come back and watch them. She wasn't wrong. She didn't mislead us. We're there watching him and just jamming out and we were so blown away.
Speaker 1:And Daniel walks in the bar, spots us, comes over and hangs out and we just start crushing beers like a couple of bros. You wouldn't think we'd just met one night before. Next thing you know he's across the road with us checking out bands over there walking the campground area, like hanging out. We're back and forth across the street just busting jokes and carrying on like old friends, like like we were college buddies that haven't seen each other since we went to college, which is something that I've never done, but you know what I'm saying. We already felt like there was a connection there. Man, it was weird. It was like two people that have been friends for a long time, like old middle school buddies, reconnected and just picking up where they left off. It was incredible and we were just connected. We shared a lot of same interests and had great conversation and we just partied down like a couple of fucking brojos. Okay. So we were having a blast and we continue just to kind of support each other.
Speaker 1:This entire conversation, this entire relationship, all this thing's kind of bubbling up. Naturally, this is something that is completely organic. There's not nobody involved in this scenario is trying to um chase somebody for a reason you know what I'm saying. Like it's not a dude at the bar hitting on a chick cause he wants to get laid. It's not um somebody going after somebody cause he wants to get paid. It's not Daniel coming to me looking for free merchandise. It's not me coming to him because he's some country singer right. We met organically A few days after hanging out and partying, getting to know each other, we got the opportunity to see Daniel perform live and I'm going to take out my Cabela's catalog right now. Let me get it. Hang on, you, hang on, you're better with me All right, here you go, hang on, Hang out my Cabela's catalog right now.
Speaker 1:Let me get it hang on, you hang on, you keep hanging, you keep hanging. I got it right here now. I got it right now. I got it right here now. You ready? Hear this Bell's catalog on the table. Sir, please place your left hand on the catalog and place your. Be the last to the sky. Raise your right hand and confess the truth from this guy.
Speaker 1:Daniel Johnson is one of the best fucking country singers I've ever seen. That boy has a voice, a presence, a personality and an ability. I'm telling you right now, if you know me and you've been listening, you know how much I love music, how impactful music is to me. I have multiple different lyrics tattooed all over me from the musicians. I have a Johnny Cash portrait on me. I'm inspired by music. I'm moved by music. I feel like it tells a story and it can really play a major factor in our lives.
Speaker 1:If you've heard episodes of this podcast, all the way back we talk about meeting Jamie Johnson and the importance that he has in my life. Man, daniel reminds me, his voice reminds me of a Jamie Johnson, whitey, morgan, cody Jinx type of vibe. It's unbelievable man. His voice, his new age, outlaw country old school soul. It's absolutely incredible. He shredded it and I was literally like I can't believe how good this dude is. Like I was so happy, I was so proud for him. I almost started crying because it was like, dude, I didn't know you had this ability. Like I didn't know, like I had all the confidence in him and he was good because, like he's just a good dude and he's he's chasing his dreams. He covered 26 states last year chasing his dreams and I'm so incredibly inspired by his story. But I was moved emotionally when I saw him and I heard him sing, like it meant something and I was so proud for him because I was like man, I know we're just getting to know each other but holy shit, dude, I didn't know this was the ability you possessed and it was incredible.
Speaker 1:I proceeded from that moment to tell every single person that had an opportunity arise to speak of music Oftentimes I created the opportunity. I told everybody that I ran into. You go see this motherfucker. You go see him. Here's his schedule. You find him. You support him. You look him up online. Here's his links. Here's who he is. You find him. You're not going to be disappointed. You're going to love him.
Speaker 1:I made multiple friends over the course of a week just suggesting Daniel to them because they would come see me the next morning and say, dude, that was unbelievable, let me buy a t-shirt. And I was so moved by his ability I really was. His storytelling ability, the emotions in which he puts into songs, it was incredible. When you know the person behind the ability, it's a whole different level of awesome. I was so thankful that I met him before I heard him so I could appreciate him and our relationship could be appreciated for being organic.
Speaker 1:It's not one that was like this dude heard me sing, he's going to try to ride my coattails. No man, we were bros before that and now that I know you and I hear you, I literally just one morning I'm like laying in the bus just trying to wake up and I'm like dude, I got to help. This morning I'm like laying in the bus just trying to wake up and I'm like dude, I gotta help this dude. I gotta help this dude. There's something I can do. I can find a way to help this dude. He's rocking the south. I'm in the north, I can beat on the drum. That is daniel johnson. I can bring him to our people. I can welcome him to our, our circle and expose him to us. Right, I can do something to help and in turn, I feel like Daniel's the type of guy that's going to do something to help us. We're both in separate territories, but we're both motivated to attain our goals. As much as they're vastly different, they're very similar and I'm so happy to announce that over some beers, we've decided that Daniel Johnson is going to be the first ever musician sponsored by Loud Proud American. Hell or high water. We will find a way to brand together and support Daniel Johnson. So please, please, please, look forward to hearing more about Daniel Johnson. He will be on a future podcast episode and we can lock down our schedules Until then. You can find him at Daniel Johnson Music Check all platforms. He has one of his own songs right now that is actually in the top 50 on country radio in Texas I believe it's at number 44, one of his own songs, a song written by him and his friends. That's absolutely incredible.
Speaker 1:One of the things that really drove this home for me that it was fate was the next morning I'm listening to Daniel Johnson at the campground, we're crushing his songs by the bus and I found a video of his from TikTok and I sent it to my wife and I was like this is my buddy, you got to listen to this. She wrote back to me and said oh my God, I know that song. I already follow that dude on TikTok. He popped up on my For you page. That's crazy to me. This is a dude on the come up. He's not nationally known. He's out there bootstrapping his things. He's trying to figure this out. He's on the road in a cloud of dust trying to make things happen. Ellie found him on TikTok. He popped up on her For you page. She already follows him. She already loves the song and listens to him. I was able to show him those messages and it blew his mind.
Speaker 1:All those things line up to show this was fate. All those things line up to say that we're supposed to be together. We're in each other's paths for a purpose. There's a reason. We will help each other.
Speaker 1:One of the most amazing highlights and blessings of this entire journey was meeting Daniel and the fact that I know our paths will continue to be wound together, bound forever. Daniel Johnson music please, please, please, look that dude up. We will share more and more and more in the days to come. But, spoiler alert, that is the biggest highlight of the entire trip. You can make and replace dollars and cents, but you can't control fate. That was supposed to happen. That is the best thing that happened. Before I move on to the final results the meat and bananas of the road trip before I move on to those things, I want to highlight another amazing encounter that I had, one that blew my mind and left me kind of fangirling a little bit. Okay, it was embarrassing a little. Okay, it was a little embarrassing, but I don't have a lack of sleep and a lot of alcohol, okay.
Speaker 2:Oh, my God.
Speaker 1:Okay, y'all know I'm a huge wrestling fan, right, we talk about all the time. You hear a bunch of my impersonations on here. It's a guilty pleasure of mine. I love wrestling and, uh, I was at. I was at my tent, I was at the vendor booth hanging out and I saw this big son of a bitch which that's his. That's part of the it's on his t-shirt.
Speaker 1:Braun Strowman real name, adam Shear, who competed in World's Strongest man competitions, is an absolute beast, one of my favorite people to watch on WWE. And he was there walking around with his girlfriend and a buddy of his and I was like you gotta be fucking kidding me, man. That's Braun Strowman right there. No joke, he's a like-minded individual. He's always riding motorcycles and just doing cool shit. I always kind of thought Braun Strowman's a dude that could rock Loud, proud, american. That's a dude I should send a care pack to. I see him and I'm kind of pacing back and forth. Finally I'm like all right and I had to go over and interject into like his, his conversation and his like line of direction. I guess he's walking. I had to go intercept him. This dude, braun stroman, I think, is like I don't know six, eight, six, ninesomething-plus pounds. He's a monster, okay, jacked up to the high heavens. I got to slide over there and interject to him and I say hey man, dude, can I just jump in here for a second man? I hate to interrupt you, brother. I actually wanted to yell from across the parking lot that's one big son of a bitch. But I didn't do that because I didn't want to embarrass you. And I didn't do that because I didn't want to embarrass you and I didn't want you to get pissed off. And he started laughing and I said dude, this is my brand behind me here, can I give you a fucking t-shirt, man, can I just give you a t-shirt? And he's like you want to give me a shirt? I'm like, yes, please come in. And he came in my tent and we started talking wrestling fan brother, I'm a massive fan of yours and I literally was going to give you my best Pat McAfee, across the field out here, but I didn't want to draw attention to you and have a bunch of people kind of harassing you. So I apologize, but like, I just wanted to meet you, dude, and he was so genuine and down to earth and awesome and receptive to me, approaching him.
Speaker 1:We had conversations like he asked me about the brand, basically how I started it, what I'm doing. It was really cool. He showed any interest in me. We had a great conversation. We took a photo together. I was like, hey, man, I hate to. I don't mean to go all fangirl on you, but if I don't get a picture together then my wife's going to call bullshit on this whole thing. I'm like I'm not gay or anything. And he's like, oh no, I mean it's cool if you are.
Speaker 1:He made this big joke and his girlfriend said well, you know, anything under 30% would be fine, over 30% gay in a photo. I'm not going to let it happen. And I said, great, I'm only at 28.5%. It was funny. I thought it was funny. Take a photo together. We hang out and shoot the shit and he picks only American fans tank top and he says hey man, give me your business card, dude. And he said when I wear this, I'll tag all your social medias, I'll give you a shout out, and I never asked for that. I couldn't believe that. I thought that was absolutely amazing. He has not done that yet, but I have the confidence that he will. But it was so cool to meet somebody that you consider like an icon, somebody that provides you relief and entertainment I don't know how else to put it.
Speaker 1:Going through COVID and all those things when the world was stopping and everything was going to shit, wrestling was a constant. When sports were ending and couldn't be played, wrestling was a constant. They they had a facility with just wrestlers and they just performed, entertain people week after week, and it was released. For me, that got me away from all the nonsense. You know all the bullshit going on in the world, all the hate and discontent and and the diseases and all that stuff. And I think about me as a kid. I was a major wrestling fan. Growing up, my first friends and role models and inspirations were wrestlers. Right when you're getting out there, before you actually start building your own friends and stuff. Like I looked up to those people. I've always been inspired by wrestling.
Speaker 1:So to meet somebody that you're like this is one of my favorite dudes on the tube right now. To meet him and have him be so legit, so accommodating to the conversation, so inviting, and then to literally be like brother, I'll shout you out that for me was a milestone. It was so damn cool. I will post the photo in one of these days, soon. I didn't want to post it right away and have him think I was just like you know, reaching for fame or something. I genuinely just wanted to give somebody that I think is an absolute stud something like a thank you, thank you for all the years of entertainment, thank you for being a freaking, genuine dude. I just want to give this to you the fact that I have somebody that literally I could, could aspire to be like.
Speaker 1:I always want to be a wrestler as a kid. To have somebody out there doing, living, experiencing something I always wanted to, and to have him rocking like my brand, my goal, my mission, my cause. That was incredible, dude, like so incredible. I can't wait to see or hear that he finally rocked his shirt and represented loud, proud american. That's an absolute freaking honor for me. I'm so stoked about it.
Speaker 1:I just keep waiting for it to happen for one of my buddies about dude, I just saw braun strowman on tv wearing one of your shirts, so he just tagged you to wait for my phone to go off an instagram tag that braun strowman's rocking my shit Absolutely mind-blowing. Those are encounters that you don't really have happen here in Maine. You're only getting those things outside of your comfort zone, and that was a reward for stepping outside of our comfort zone. I couldn't believe it. I was on cloud nine. I was literally fangirling around the tent telling Brian like dude, I can't believe this shit man. I was so stoked about it.
Speaker 1:We made jokes on the way down to Florida Like, hey, who are we going to meet this week? Who do you want to meet? You want to give something to, to see them rocking your stuff? I never expected it to be broad freaking Stroman, it's pretty awesome. I was, I was stoked, absolutely stoked, and, um, I'm so stoked and excited and fired up with this conversation and this journey and this trip that we went on, that we're pushing an hour and I haven't even gone over all the details, all the stories. There's too much. We lived on the road for two weeks. There's too much stuff to pack into um, one entire episode. I just can't do it. I just can't do it. I honestly I'm finding myself talking too fast right now, Like I'm literally, um, I'm overtired, I'm overworked and um, I'm I'm overly excited about what we just accomplished and um, I, literally I want to, I want to just spill all the beans right now, but I can't. I'm not giving this trip, this journey, the justice that it deserves.
Speaker 1:To me, the most important thing about this trip was relationships. It's always people over product. It's always people over transactions right Relationships over transactions, relationships over numbers over finances. That's what I really. I'm going to let this episode live on relationships. The most important thing, the most critical thing, is people. It's absolutely people. I'm going to hang my hat on the connections that we made, the memories that we built and the relationships that we formed. That will carry on forever. I'm stoked about that. That we formed. That will carry on forever. I'm stoked about that.
Speaker 1:The finances, the end results some more milestone moments and achievements. I'm going to save those. I hate to do it, but we're going to bring that up on next week's show. We're pushing an hour. I think it's a good time to go.
Speaker 1:I apologize for not rounding everything off into one episode on today's podcast. We're going to get into some stuff that deserves some more time. The financial part of this, when you get into the risk and reward on the chances we made, the investments that we had made, the commitments that we made, the chances that we took. Those things need to breathe. They need an hour to be discussed. There's some challenges that happened along the way heart-to-heart conversations, difficult decisions those things need time to be discussed, need to be recapped properly, but I'm so freaking excited about the relationships we made, the connections that were formed, the memories and the stories that will live on forever. I'm excited to have been able to share some of those with you today, based off the time.
Speaker 1:I don't want to drag our episode out. I don't want to dilute it. I don't want to overshadow something. We're going to hang it right here. We're going to hang our hat on the fact that I am so blessed and thankful for each and every one of you that supported me, each and every one of you that reached out, that checked in, each and every one of you that showed up and showed out in Florida, and each and every one of you that are first-time listeners that we met on the road, that we had the conversations, the opportunities to share each other's stories. You're listening for the first time. You are listening to share this record podcast for the very first time.
Speaker 1:If you are a day one, or this is your day one, I truly thank you, each and every one of you.
Speaker 1:None of this is possible without you. The absolute biggest chance for our brand, the milestone moment, the bucket list checkoff. None of this is possible without you. I wake up each and every day absolutely blessed because of each and every one of you, old and new, the ones that I've known forever and the ones that I just met over the past couple of weeks is because of you that I wake up blessed and I feel blessed, and I know that whatever I put my mind and my heart to shall come true. I appreciate you Until next time, folks tune in. Next week We'll get more into the meat and potatoes, the black and white on the numbers and whether this was financially made sense, whether the reward's far greater than the risk, or did I, you know, screw it up or did I not really pan out? We'll talk about that next time. Okay, sorry to do this to you folks, but that right there is what the folks in the industry call a cliffhanger.
Speaker 2:Yeah, cliffhanger.
Speaker 1:Not to be confused with a hanging Chad, which is an election thing. But I'm rambling because I haven't slept in forever and I really want to tell you how everything went, but I know I shouldn't. I can't do it, I can't do it. I can't do it. We need proper time to recap proper things. Okay, and today was the most important thing. Next week we're going to talk dollars and cents. Did you make more dollars than cents? Did it even make sense? All that on tap on next week's episode of Share, the Shrugger Podcast. But until then, boys, girls and squirrels, thank you for supporting my American dream.
Speaker 1:Now go wash your fucking hands, you filthy savage. That's it and that's all Biggie Smalls. 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 by tickety talking on the tick tock, you can find me on both of those at loud, underscore, proud, underscore American. Find me on both of those at loud, underscore, proud, underscore american. A big old thank you to the boys from the gut truckers for the background beats and the theme song to this year's 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. Feel the pain, make it bleed.
Speaker 2:I hate to say.
Speaker 1:I told you, so I truly thank you for supporting my American dream. Now go wash your fucking hands, you filthy savage.