Share The Struggle
Share The Struggle
Counting the Cost: A Bike Week Business Gamble 245
After our Daytona Bike Week adventure, we face the hard truth about whether the financial outcome justified the personal sacrifices made to attend the event. The tension between leaving family behind and achieving business results creates a powerful backdrop for exploring what "success" really means.
• Financial results fell short of expectations despite positive relationship-building
• Leaving a 5-month-old daughter behind created significant emotional struggle
• Being positioned off the main path dramatically reduced foot traffic
• Conversations with veteran vendors revealed this was an unusually slow Bike Week
• Event organizers were also struggling, firing staff and making changes mid-week
• Eagle sightings at key moments provided spiritual reassurance and connection to late father
• Breaking even financially but gaining valuable experience for future events
• Maintaining courage (the year's guiding word) meant pushing through despite challenges
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Last week on Share the Struggle podcast, we recapped Daytona Bike Week for Loud Proud American. We placed a major focus on the most important part for me the people. But the truth is it has to come down to dollars and cents. If you don't make enough, then the sacrifice doesn't make sense. Enough, then the sacrifice doesn't make sense. So today on Share the Struggle podcast, we dig into dollars and cents and we discover if this all makes sense.
Speaker 1:Let me tell you something Everybody struggles. The difference is some people choose to go through 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: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. We can back off the whole day gone, but we're behind. What in the world has been? What in the heart did it do? Good Lord, almighty, am I so excited to be back with you. Oh, it's true. It is damn true. How do you do? I miss you, boo?
Speaker 1:Welcome back to the podcast that is proudly sponsored by, hosted by, represented by loud proud american, that proudly made in usa apparel that I put on day after day, and I beg of you to do it the same way. Sorry, get on my high horse there, but this podcast is brought to you by Loud Proud American, that apparel brand that represents the American spirit, with an unrelenting commitment to providing only made and American products. The name of this here podcast is Share the Struggle, because everybody struggles, and this week we are going to recap the greatest struggle for Loud Proud American the trip to Daytona, daytona Bike Week, the absolute most out of the comfort zone challenge that this brand has ever taken Leaving my wife and my baby and my mama and my family and everybody behind, which I'm going to tell you right now, before we really get into the dollars and cents to see if it all makes sense, because that's what we're here to talk about today. One of the toughest things to do was to leave my child behind, and I had multiple conversations with Brian during the week about leaving my child behind, about leaving my child behind. That's going to be a big focus on today's episode because, as I reflect on the hard facts, as I reflect on the results from the bike week, that you just can't put an emotional underlying reasoning behind. I know this sounds crazy, but allow me to elaborate here a little bit. When I had the recap last week which thank you so much to so many of you that reached out and said congratulations and followed up on the episode and said, hey, man, that cliffhanger has really got me cliffing and hanging over here I need to know. I need to know how things went. How did it all go? I appreciate each and every one of you for those conversations and reaching out and checking in.
Speaker 1:The truth is, when we are talking about dollars and cents, there's no sugarcoating it. I can't sprinkle emotion upon the results. When we look at last week's episode, I can dress it up however I want. My perception is my reality. You've heard me say this many, many times before Perception is reality. However you perceive things to be, it shall be, and for me, one of the emphasis is always on people.
Speaker 1:It's always on relationships. Loud, proud, american. For me is relationship retail. It's not about a transaction. It's not about one t-shirt, it's about all the t-shirts. It's not just about the apparel, it's about the mission, it's about the brand, it's about the task at hand Relationship, relationship, relationship.
Speaker 1:I can justify so many decisions I make based on the quality of relationships that I make. So I can sprinkle a whole lot of positivity on last week's show. I can sprinkle a whole lot of positivity on all the amazing things that happened by going to Daytona, if I just start to peel back the onion a little bit and I think about those things. Number one, being accompanied by a brother of mine, brian Parmelo, and his boy, zach, them doing a father-son trip, the fact that I am just over a year off of losing my dad, and I'm thinking about how much I would have cherished making that memory. I think about the times that I'm driving through the night by myself, when the boys are taking a nap, when it's my turn to roll the wheel, and I'm thinking about my dad and my choices. Those things, those experiences. That's a positive sprinkle. I can sprinkle that positivity all over my little donut here, the relationships that I've made, the connections that I made, daniel Johnson, I can sprinkle a whole ton of sprinkles on my little donut, thinking about the relationships and the opportunities and the possibility of making that friendship, that brotherhood, when I think about all the people that I've met, those connections that we've made. We did a great job in the course of a week of establishing ourselves as regulars, between Brian Zach and Dirk and myself, going out, meeting bartenders, becoming friends with Abby and her, introducing us to other pivotal people that are involved in the local scene in that area. Thinking about those things, those connections, those relationships that could pay major dividends for us if we decide to go back. Those are all positive sprinkles. Major dividends for us if we decide to go back. Those are all positive sprinkles.
Speaker 1:I can sprinkle the shit out of positivity, but the truth is the reality is dollars and cents and if you don't make enough of either, then it just doesn't make sense. You need to make enough dollars, you need to make enough cents. As I referenced, leaving little Paisley Rain behind. That's one of the most challenging things about this entire experience, for more than one reason. Number one leaving my little girl behind, when, if you've been listening in, then you know that I've become like daddy daycare during the week. It's my time to spend with my little girl. During the week it's my time to spend with my little girl. So since leaving Freiburg Fair, I spend every single day with my little girl. To be gone for a couple of weeks isn't easy. To be gone for a couple of weeks and not turning the results that you want. When the results don't outweigh the sacrifice, some major head games begin to happen.
Speaker 1:I myself consider myself a veteran of this game. I consider myself a veteran of the vendor lifestyle. My wife likes to call it a carny lifestyle that we have to live. In. The beginning I would ride these highs and lows like you could only imagine right. Would ride these highs and lows like you could only imagine right. If you would start an event off with two negative days. I could let that tail spin me in so many ways. But I have trained myself, I have learned lessons the hard way and I can now consider and call myself a veteran of this lifestyle. I can figure it out, I can ride the lows and I can just capitalize on the highs. So I've begun to become really equipped at talking myself off a ledge at all times.
Speaker 1:This particular adventure happened to ramp up the amount of difficulty because it's the first time that I've really left home without my family. Now, as hard as it is to leave your wife and go do these things, leaving your wife and your five-month-old, who just happens to turn six months old while you're on the road, it really just ramps up the difficulty of being away from home. So if things aren't going the way you want them to go, it becomes even more of a challenge to keep yourself away from those negative thoughts. But I do truly feel like I was doing the best I can because I knew, no matter how great the success, it needed to be a triumphant result for me to really be okay with leaving my family behind. Let's be honest, I'm not a scumbag, okay, so I'm not trying to leave my family behind and just book a vacation to uh, you know, just dick off. Okay, so I'm not a scumbag. The results have to be tremendous for me to be like oh yeah, no problems here, because there's always going to be a problem, there's always a difficulty in leaving your family behind.
Speaker 1:But doing it for the very first time, sprinkling on the distance being the greatest distance I've ever traveled for the business, all those things layer into a big donut of sensitivity. So I have this sensitivity donut we're talking about. I must be craving donuts. That was wrong of me. I have a sensitivity donut that I'm sprinkling positivity sprinkles all over and that's how I'm going to sum up bike week. Okay, you're going to leave the state of Maine on your big, just old-fashioned sensitive donut and as you start adding and stacking victories and encounters and relationships and all these positives, you're starting to sprinkle your positive sprinkles on your sensitive donut. Okay, that's me in a diabetic nutshell. I don't know why my fat ass is craving a donut. I don't even think this is about donuts, but I'm just using something I can relate to and apparently that is a donut. And here I am finding myself rambling and you might already tell that I might have spilled the beans here a little bit, because why in the ever-loving hell would I start off talking about missing my child and positive sprinkles and a gosh darn donut if I crushed bike week? Well, this is not the cliffhanger that I was trying to set up for today's show, but the truth of the matter is it didn't go the way I hoped it would go. Matter is it didn't go the way I hoped it would go Now, when I set out to do one of these little journeys or any event for that matter, I set a level of goals.
Speaker 1:I have a range of goals that I'll forecast for myself and it basically kind of sets up like an expectation and then like your hopes and your aspirations. So when I'm going out there, for anything I do, I will try to set a break-even number. Hey, we have to achieve this. Once we cross this number, then we're starting to make money. I always set that. I set a realistic goal for myself that, hey, this is what you should expect, this is where you would like to be. I have an increase above that a little bit. That kind of makes me a little bit happier. And then I have the ever-loving home run.
Speaker 1:And when you are robbing Peter to pay Paul and you're maneuvering and doing all these crazy cost-cutting things and pulling all these last-minute deals to fund a trip, when you're doing all these things and banking on the success of a trip, when you put the expectation in your head that this trip could save your business and your brand, that right there builds kind of an unrealistic home run goal. That I'm not going to drag out today's episode and lead y'all on. I am not here to lead y'all on, I'm not trying to get you to buy me dinner, to wine me and dine me. No, no, no, I didn't hit that number y'all. When it comes right down to it, this venture, when it comes down to dollars and cents, unfortunately didn't make enough dollars and cents to consider itself a home run. It didn't save the business. It didn't launch us off for the most amazing, tremendous 2025. It didn't do all the things I needed to just keep the business alive. Those things didn't happen. Those things did not happen. The truth is that we didn't lose money, but we didn't set any tremendous goals.
Speaker 1:As I'm talking about this sensitive donut and I'm factoring in hard-hitting results, I always think about those positive sprinkles, those relationships and those things and those opportunities that happened. But I need to make decisions based off of results, and the results weren't as successful as I had hoped for. And, to be honest, if I were to just make a business decision off of numbers and numbers alone, if I was handed a spreadsheet before this event and I was given the opportunity to read all the numbers and say, hey, you're going to leave your family for over two weeks and you're asking some close friends of yours to leave their family for over a couple of weeks, and this is your cost to play and this is your final end result for doing so. If I looked on those numbers, and those numbers alone, and I made my final decision, I would have stayed home. I would have stayed home.
Speaker 1:It didn't equal out to all that I wanted it to be, but if you've been listening along, really even just so far this year, you've heard me talk about the guiding words. Right, the wife and I had a great episode about picking and discovering, identifying your guiding word, which please go back and listen to that. I think that's a powerful thing, it's a powerful message and it's one that I've truly been using to make decisions and, to you know, honestly guide my life, to guide my decisions. Hence the name of the freaking word, a guiding word For me this year. It's about being courageous. It's about making those sacrifices, and if I was not picking my events, if I was not finalizing my decisions in line with my guiding word, then I would have stayed home.
Speaker 1:But I couldn't start the year off identifying that mission for me, that guiding light for me, that word for me of being courageous, and then, literally two months in back off of the most courageous thing I could possibly do for my business. Then what was the time spent on? What was all the research, the thought and the whole process? It was all for nothing If I spent all that time identifying something to motivate me for the year and then very quickly, two months into the year, I don't utilize that philosophy. I need to stick to my guns. As I said to you by looking at the numbers, if I was just based off of a spreadsheet I wouldn't have went. But the truth is, if I remove the spreadsheet, I'm glad that I went. It's a major accomplishment, it's a milestone moment for us. We learn so damn much and I know I'm kind of just rambling here and going out of tune. I've got a whole list of things here and I'm not even remotely in order of the way I wanted to talk about today. But I guess that's what happens when you turn on a microphone and you just speak your truth. You just give the time to your heart to vent and uncork your emotions.
Speaker 1:The results were not what I hoped them to be. The results were not what I hoped them to be and if you listened last week you heard me talk about the two days that we spent with Lisa from Bentley Saloon and her giving us a masterclass in promotion and the pep talks and everything and the conversations with her and Bentley about how well we were going to do. It was tough for me to admit to Lisa that, hey, this really didn't turn out financially like I hoped it would. And we had a great conversation at the end of bike week and she said I need you to give yourself some credit. You've been in business for five years. In five years in business you just put your brand on the map in Daytona bike week. People now know who you are.
Speaker 1:At bike week we went out for days meeting and greeting, shaking hands or introducing ourselves, putting information out there, and when I think about the hundreds of people that now have loud, proud american merchandise on their backs, in their suitcase, in their closet, that's a difference, that that's what it's all about. So to hear from Lisa and her saying you got to give yourself some grace here, man. You've only been in business for five years and you just tackled Daytona, that's something that when you start this business, when you start building this brand, you kind of write down a list of places you'd like to go, things you'd like to achieve, and that's one of them, that's one of the most difficult ones and we've crossed it off. So I'm going to give myself and my friends and my family an extreme level of grace and recognition for pulling this off. So truly, I'm thankful for that, for pulling this off. So, um, truly, I'm, I'm, I'm thankful for that.
Speaker 1:And you know, to kind of get things back on track, when we rolled in there you've heard me talk about the 26 hours in the bus to get there, to make it happen, and rolling in and seeing our location and being extremely excited about our location and being excited about our vendor spot. As the time would peel off the clock, we would realize that our vendor spot wasn't that great because we were kind of set off on an island and people no offense are lazy and they're just going to walk and shop the perimeter, they're going to follow the line, they're going to walk the road, across the street. So when it comes down to the amount of people that were showing up, we really weren't seeing more than a fraction of those people. So, you know, just kind of thinking about people's shopping tendencies, the laziness of a consumer sitting back and watching it for a week, I realized that our spot was working against us. Now, what I'm about to talk about is not excuses. These are factual things that I need to file away and consider when making my decision as to whether to return next year. So we're just going to be jive talking a conversation here and I'm going to peel back the onion a little bit for you to understand how I think, read and react to what just happened and whether we should do it again. So, being there and having these conversations me and Brian analyzing, you know, the buying tendencies of people we begin to think listen, with a different location, even in the area that we're in, just flipping us over to the other side, you got to think it's a 15 to 20 percent increase right off the bat in business, because you can just see the amount of people that are that are shopping there. But the key is not enough people were leaving those, those vendor locations, with bags. There just wasn't enough people that were leaving with bags in general. So I need to begin to think about that.
Speaker 1:While I'm sitting there, I'm looking around and I'm analyzing everything that's happening. I'm watching all the purchases that take place around me and I'm trying to identify why would somebody buy there and not here? What do they have? What do I have? What do we not have? Are they a similar customer? Is it not my customer base at all? I know the overall attendee at bike week is absolutely my customer base at all. I know the overall attendee at bike week is absolutely my customer base. But I'm analyzing based off the location, the person. You know what they're wearing, what they're into, what they're riding. I'm building a portfolio in my mind all day long about a consumer profile, about a target customer, about what's right for me and my brand. Even when I'm sitting on my ass or I'm in the sunshine drinking a bush light, I am analyzing and I am calculating every single move that happens.
Speaker 1:So, as the week starts, friday and Saturday were actually pretty damn good. They weren't incredible days. But when I talk about my expectation at even a large event for day one, this was really right there, because your first day at a lot of events, um, is is not one of your best events or one of your best results, I should say and um, our first day was pretty damn good. And I told the boys like listen, I know your expectations because for them, they're coming out with this, this crazy theory in their mind because they're excited Right, and I want them to be excited and they're like dude, we're going to sell out by Wednesday. We're going to make, you know, 40, 50 grand in a week. Like I'm trying to be more of a realist on what's happening and what's taking place and trying to kind of guide each other through that to really balance each other out. I love their confidence and I need that to give me the fuel to get out there and push. But at the end of the day on Friday I said, fellas, I know this doesn't seem right to you but based off of what I've always been through, this is kind of in line and I think we're going to be fine. This is going to really work out.
Speaker 1:And then Saturday came and Saturday was another pretty good day. It was not what I hoped for for a Saturday, but I can say that as the weekend wrapped up, I said you know what we're going to be breaking even here pretty damn quickly. And you know, when you're a couple of days in and you're like OK, I've paid for this. I've paid for my event fee, my registration fee, my camping fee, I've paid for my fuel to get here, you start crossing things off the list. I'm working on my fuel to get home, my tolls, any transaction that's made I'm checking and cross -preferencing because I'm away from my family. I want to make sure that this makes sense. So with every transaction, I'm thinking I'm calculating when I'm selling something. I'm thinking I'm calculating when I'm selling something. I'm like, okay, man, that's a tank of fuel right there. This is going to get me one state away right here. All that shit is what happens in my mind. So we started things off pretty decent Not tremendous, but pretty decent and I'm telling myself, if you can get out of the weekend and put yourself in a position where you're just starting to make gravy, then it's all going to be okay.
Speaker 1:Well, unfortunately, that's when the barrel fell out of the basket and we began to get real damn slow. The week was an absolute struggle. I must also say I was surprised by how cold it was in Florida, and I was told they moved bike week up by about a week and in doing so it was just a colder time of the year. There was not as many people riding, that was for certain. I'm thankful they moved it up because ironically, there's a lot of hurricanes or tornadoes that have been happening and they started happening over the weekend and we would have had to have either packed up during those or drove straight through them. So I'm absolutely blessed that we've avoided and missed that whole scenario.
Speaker 1:But I was beginning to feel like this is slow, this has to be slow. Something doesn't feel right. So I started asking around and other vendors started to tell me yeah, man, this doesn't seem right for bike week. This feels pretty damn slow. So we started having those conversations and Bruce, who's a vendor that recommended me to be there he's kind of my voice of reason. We're having these conversations and chatting about things and as I'm talking to him he says listen, don't start to count or criticize or think about anything to do with this location until Wednesday. If you make money Friday, saturday, sunday, monday, tuesday then great, because you're going to have an amazing day on Wednesday.
Speaker 1:When Wednesday hits, that's one of the biggest days of the week. Here. They have events here. They have short people wrestling okay, midget wrestling Across the street. They have a coleslaw wrestling and it just brings all the people out. So Wednesday's the day, and then on Saturday they do those events all over again, and when I was heading out there.
Speaker 1:I thought it would be open on Sunday, that Sunday would be a good business day for us, but the location that we're at, they cancel all their events on Sunday. Everything happens through Saturday, and then Sunday morning they're tearing the bars down. There's no bands, there's no entertainment, there's no reason for somebody to be there. So on Sunday we're just packing and rolling. So instantly I lost a day getting there because I didn't realize that's how they plan things out. So we roll into Wednesday.
Speaker 1:Unfortunately, we did okay on the day, but it was not what we hoped for, because it was tremendously windy. We had some rain. It always looked like it was going to be shit weather. I heard that downtown Daytona was pretty bad, so folks weren't really leaving that area and it just didn't pan out. We weren't pounded by rain, but the threat of it kept people away. We weren't pounded by rain, but the threat of it kept people away, and the temperatures certainly kept people away. So it was an okay day, but nothing that we had set our expectations on.
Speaker 1:Now, as I mentioned, we made these conversations across the street, so we would walk across the street to the Cabbage Patch, which we realized was a much more successful location, and one that we should consider for ourselves next year if we go back. They just have their vendors laid out much better, the traffic flow is extremely better and their entertainment is tremendously better. There's always something going on and, to be honest, our location had some awful music. They did a really shitty job at booking bands. Many of them sounded even remotely decent. They weren't good enough to keep people around. People would hear them and just leave and go across the street. So there was no real reason to stay at our actual location. So we were working against that as well.
Speaker 1:But we went across the street and we were chatting with Abby, our friendly bartender over there, and she's, you know, checking in and giving us advice and saying you know, how did you guys do today? What was it like across the street? And I'm giving her the recap and she's like well, don't beat yourself up because, uh, this was one of the worst cabbage, uh, patch, cold slaw wrestling Wednesdays of all of our bike. Weeks Like this is historically bad. So I filed that away as okay, a little food for thought. Thursday, friday, you know nothing great, friday was a little bit more of an increase, but Thursday was pretty well turd. Saturday the last day of bike week was our best day. It was our most successful day. It was the first time that it really felt like a bike week. There was constant traffic, there was a good flow of people. What I got to say is that I worked tremendously hard on every single sale on Saturday.
Speaker 1:I'm not the type of person that likes to really pressure people into buying things. I try to just interact with you, give you a good experience, try to make a connection. If I'm friendly enough, I always have the philosophy that people want to spend money or give money to people they like. I mean, it's really a concept that you know bartenders have used forever, right? If you find a friendly bartender, one that you like, then you're going to try to go back to them. And when you're out there shopping at these type of events and you find one vendor that gives you a great experience, then you're going to go back to them. If you find a musician that you enjoy, you're going to go back to them and you're going to tell your friends to go back to them. So when I'm in this type of event, that's my philosophy.
Speaker 1:But on Saturday I said shit, man, I have a family to take care of and I'm going to press as much as I can within reason, and I engaged with every single person that came in my tent and I put a sales pitch on every single person, which isn't genuinely my style. But I'm glad that I did it Because, number one, it made me do something that I did not want to do, which stepping out of your comfort zone, I think is always a good thing. But number two, it resulted in my best day of the week and when we started the day, we kind of put a number out there and said, fellas, let's hit this number. This is what we got to do to save some face on this journey, and we did it. We stayed open past 11 pm at night. We were open I want to say 10.30 am, 11 am and we worked till 11.15, 11.30 pm, ways around there, and, uh, we did it. We made the best that we possibly could.
Speaker 1:We put a positive end on the week. I wanted to leave bike week on a positive. You always want to end your journey on some on some hope. You want a little shot of hopium and uh, we got that. We really, um, you know, ended things on a positive note. That made us think about possibilities and the way things could be, and that's the way I wanted it to be. I didn't want to leave on a sad note, on a negative note, something you had to think about the whole way home. You'd much rather drive 26 hours with a full dose of hopium to think about and we worked really hard and pushed really hard to get to that and we did, and I'm proud of that. I'm thankful of that.
Speaker 1:So the final result on the week is not what we hoped it to be, but it wasn't a loss and you know, and we learned a lot and we analyzed a lot of things. And to get back onto some of those things, when we talk about location and I mentioned to you that, hey, if we're on the perimeter here, we might do a little bit better. If we're across the street, our rent's going to go up, but I think we could do a little bit better Would across the street be a 20, 25% bump, 30% bump? I don't know. You know what's the difference going to be when you think about the cost of being at a, you know, a little more expensive location. Does that get you a little more positive results or do they cross each other out. So more things to think about our time across the street watching, noticing that vendors can stay open. Later there was more entertainment over there and it's more of like a horseshoe pattern. So every vendor's getting walk by, walk through traffic. So there's a lot of positives to potentially going back and picking a little bit different location.
Speaker 1:After touring all the places that we went, we realized that a few things. Number one the place that we were at was the cheapest rent of all the places that we could have been, and when you compare it to the more expensive ones, then it was by a long shot it was the least busiest of all the places we probably could have gone. It had some of the worst entertainment of all the places we could have gone. But being there, I think we are allowed to present ourselves as one of the best vendors at our location, and what I mean by that is we stuck out as professional, we stuck out as quality, and when you put us up against some other major national brands, then the perception for the consumer might be that we're a little more backwards, that we're not quite to their level of presentation and professionalism, because they've been in business for a long time and they have $200,000 setups. And when I roll in there with a $10,000 setup and their setups are a couple hundred thousand dollars, I'm not talking about what's inside the tent, I'm talking about like the actual like tent and location. So if I roll into a place and my actual structure costs me about 10 grand and there's people there with a hundred $200,000 displays, you're getting washed out. When I'm in a location where I have a $10,000 structure and most of the other vendors structures are $500, you see the picture I'm painting right. So there's a lot that goes into that.
Speaker 1:When you start to think about what's worth it, where to be, what to do, it all plays into. It's all a part of that fact-finding mission that I'm on. What am I doing right? What am I doing wrong? How can I improve? Is it worth coming back? If I were to come back, what can I do differently? Where should I be? How do I do it? All these things. Every single day I'm thinking about these things. Me and Brian are discussing these things. I'm on the phone with a wife talking about these things. I'm engaging with other vendors just kind of fact finding for all these things. So even when you're not selling, you're thinking and you're analyzing and some more of the things that go into my thought process on this is not only what I've witnessed, but the interactions I have with other vendors and one of them in particular.
Speaker 1:There was another vendor that was, um, like basically right across from me. They were in a good location. They were basically right next to the stage. They um had like a more of a carnival tent style and they probably had 30 feet, 40 feet wide. It was a. It was a big, big display and, uh, they had a bunch of things in there, like, you know, pipes and knives and all this stuff, and they had apparel as well. And, uh, right next to them was a trailer that that made apparel Like they actually made it on the spot. They had hats and t-shirts. They do like a hat bar t-shirt. You know a la carte scenario where you go over and pick what you want and they'll make it for you right there.
Speaker 1:So I sat, you know, in my little vendor location and I could watch these guys all week long, you know, because it's like you're staring at each other in an open field and the a la carte hat and t-shirt people were extremely slow. I remember seeing days where they didn't sell anything. And then when they did, it was a couple of things here and there and I definitely felt for them and the people next to them with a large tent they were doing okay, right, they would have some sales here and there and at night they would sell like their paraphernalia stuff, so they would be one of the last vendors to close up. And the busiest vendor that was there was a big like carnival style tent as well, maybe a 40 or 50 foot tent, and they sold all bike week event t-shirts right, just the shirts to commemorate bike week 2025, and they're all like 15, 20. Uh, honestly, there's just not a lot of money in that when you're selling them at this at that price point and, um, then they have everything that's dated. So as the week gets, um, you know, later and later in the week, those t-shirts are now 15 bucks, 10 bucks, eight bucks, and I don't know how they make money at that. They have racks of stuff that's from previous bike weeks for $5. But they just get pallets and pallets of clothes to sell. But selling things at $8 or $10 a piece has got to be tough. But they were the busiest one of the week but even then I would look at them and say they're not way busier than we are, which they should be like they should be. They're much cheaper and a lot of people want the souvenir of the event they're going to. People travel to bike week. They want to come back and show off to their friends. They went to bike week. So you know they. They want the shirt to commemorate the event.
Speaker 1:I didn't make one of those shirts because you know everybody else does and I was worried that if I was competing with all those, then what the hell do I do with a whole stack of shirts that say daytona, bike week 2025, and I'm back home in maine with a mess of them like I. No one's gonna want that. So I opted to not create one of those and thankfully I did that. Because did that? Because I know I would have sat on a bunch of. I would have lost my ass on this scenario because if I had made a whole bunch of those and they didn't move, based off the amount of business that I saw, I would have washed away any money that we actually made on this event. So I'm thankful I didn't do that, but watching that other person's business, I'm telling myself, man, those guys should really be cranking right now. So as I'm watching all these vendors, I'm really telling myself, man, you're kind of in the mix with all of this, you're not losing your ass to these people.
Speaker 1:There was a guy there selling Trump t-shirts and hats and stuff for five bucks. How do you make a living? Five bucks at a time? What are you buying those things for? Did you steal a truckload? I don't understand how that works. But getting back to my point here, there's one night where I'm just kind of sitting around, I made a few sales and the person directly across from me that has the carnival tent with the paraphernalia and the random tchotchkes and the t-shirts and stuff, he comes over and introduces himself and we just kind of start chatting a little bit and we had a really good conversation. He was friendly and, uh, you know he was like man, what is going on? Like, uh, you know, how are you guys doing over here? And I was telling him, you know, we're just kind of treading water trying to figure it out.
Speaker 1:And you know, both of us started the week off a lot more optimistic, obviously, and he'd been doing this for a long time. He'd been in business for over 10 years, coming to this location for 10 years he has his you know his trailer right behind his tent. So all of his overstock, his camper, everything's right there. And we're kind of chatting about it and he said, man, this is the slowest bike week I've ever seen. Like, don't beat yourself up, this is the slowest bike week I've ever been a part of. And he said, if you watch the people that are walking around here, so many people are looking and they're not leaving with anything. And if you watch the people coming from across the road, for every 10 or 15 people maybe there's one or two bags that people have purchased. You know, he said in years past that's every other person with a bag. He's like this is down, this is way down for me. And that was one conversation.
Speaker 1:And then, you know, we had another conversation where, you know, still being polite, but I almost felt a little bit like he wanted to kind of piss on his territory a little bit, to kind of mark the territory and come over and have a conversation with me and ask if things have picked up and said, you know, I got to be honest, man, there's no money in being an apparel vendor at Daytona Bike Week. There's no money in it. He said I've been doing this for over 10 years and I don't make money selling t-shirts and sweatshirts here. And he said the person next to me actually sells sweatshirts and I feel so bad for them that I haven't put my sweatshirts out. And he began to tell me that the a la carte hat people that were there. He said I don't think they're even going to make their rent by the end of the week. I don't think they're going to have enough money to cover their cost of their rent, nevermind the rest of their expenses. And they're from Minnesota, they drove from Minnesota. So feather in our cap that we're here and we're making money, we're turning a profit and it's our first time. So I'm filing that away as a positive.
Speaker 1:But as I'm talking to this feller, he continues to say there's really no money in apparel. Man, look around, of all the vendors that are here, 90% of them sell t-shirts. Man, like how can t-shirt vendors make money here? And he began to talk about all through Daytona, all these t-shirts, all these options, all these price points. You could buy $5, $10 t-shirts. You know why? Try to do this. And he said I'll be honest, I only do Daytona Bike Week to say that I do it. And he said he follows bike weeks around. He goes to all of these rallies, he chases rallies for business and, uh, he says that Daytona is one of his least profitable rallies, but he does it because he's able to put it on the list, like I do Daytona bike week, which I can understand the value in that.
Speaker 1:He walked away and it was a positive interaction. There was nothing negative about it. But I almost felt like, were you trying to measure my dick right here? Is this a dick measuring contest? Are you here to tell me I've been doing this for this long and you're not going to make money doing this? Because, son, I'll tell you, when somebody tells me that I can't do something, when somebody tells me what I'm doing is not going to work, there's no profit, there's no dollars, it don't make sense. That pisses me off. And when it pisses me off, I'm one motivated son of a bitch and I'll make it work.
Speaker 1:I'll tell you right now, based off of the conversation that we had, I turned to Brian and said dude, that conversation makes me want to come back here, just in spite, just to show him your conversation. Didn't push me away. You can piss all over the lawn. You're not marking the territory, you're not the biggest dog in the yard, I'm not scared of your bark. I'll come back and I'll rub your nose and your own piss marks, you understand? Sorry to get vulgar here, but that's how I feel. Don't call me out, don't threaten me, don't challenge me, don't try to measure me. It pisses me off and it motivates me. That's enough to make me drive 26 hours to whoop your ass. That's the truth.
Speaker 1:But I got to use a little more common sense because now I'm a family man, I got to look at things differently and that was one of the most difficult things for me. Because as we talk and I've already said it here today perception is reality and what you are trying to forecast, the image you're creating for yourself on this event and the potential success of this event. That's their goal, that's your expectation. Whatever falls short of that, whatever your end result is, if it doesn't attain that expectation, then it's felt like a failure. But if you reframe your expectation, if you reframe how you're looking at things, if you change your perception of the event, then you can have a successful event.
Speaker 1:Let me spell this out for you. If let's just say I was a single dude and didn't have a family to worry about and this was my business and I was trying to put it on the map and I wanted to go out there and raise hell and have some fun, this would have been an incredible adventure. The end result, based off of going out all the way to bike week, raising some hell and not losing any money, and putting myself on the map, I would have come home pounded my chest and just freaked out about it. Right, think about that part of it. Perception is reality.
Speaker 1:Reframing how you look at things changes a lot of things. When I think about just me and my wife, when I think about me and my wife and being married and having the obligation to do your absolute best for your significant other to provide for your family and do the best that you can, leaving my wife and taking on this journey with two of my friends and going out and doing this, I could say, man, I really wish my wife was here. I'm sad that I had to leave her for a couple of weeks, but she's doing what she has to do for the family. I'm doing what I have to do for the family. I managed to raise some hell and have some fun with my friends and I made some money. I guess in the end it's all worth it.
Speaker 1:When you leave the house and you leave your wife and you leave your five-month-old child, who has a six month birthday party at the house with your mother and your wife and you know they have balloons and you know frozen yogurt and all this craziness and you're watching it on your phone in a school bus. When you're leaving your child for the first time since her birth, let's say and being away for a couple of weeks, and you're not rolling in the money, the sacrifice is not worth the reward. When you're not stacking money, it weighs on you. It absolutely weighs on you. When me leaving my obligations and my to-do list to others, weighing them down, when my wife has to change everything she does to take care of my list of things that I do, when she's taking on all my chores, when she's taking on my schedule, when we now have to reach out to a friend to cover days watching Paisley because I'm not here to do it. When my mom has to find friends to get her to work because I'm not here to do it. My wife has to leave early to get my mom home from work because I'm not here to do it. All the sacrifices from others weighs on my lack of reward. When I have to face my friends that have left their family and they're paying jobs at home to help me and we're not achieving the results that we want to achieve. It weighs on me.
Speaker 1:One of the best and worst things that I did all week was in the daily messages of pictures and videos of my little girl that my wife and my mother would send me. One of them just stole my heart and I created an amazing screensaver on my phone. It was one of the greatest and worst things I could have done, because every time I checked my phone to see if one of the greatest and worst things I could have done because every time I checked my phone to see if I had a message, every time I flipped my phone over and it lit up. Every time I checked the clock to see what time it was, there was a beautiful, amazing photo of my beautiful little girl looking me right in the face and guilt would set in. Every time I would look at my phone, I would feel the guilt of leaving my child at home without returning with a major payload.
Speaker 1:The moment it became obvious to me that this event was not going to be all I hoped it to be, I began to feel extremely guilty looking at the pictures of my daughter on my phone, those conversations with home all the nights that you know. You're up at three in the morning, you still haven't gone to bed. You can't sleep. You're wide awake in your bus, standing at the ceiling, often staring at your phone, full of regret. It's hard to handle, it's hard to process. As the days were not panning out like I hoped them to do, I began to not want to look at my phone because it tore me up, because I realized you're sacrificing time that you can't get back for results that are not going to pay off. That became extremely, extremely difficult. I don't even know how to explain it. I truly don't know how to put it into words. The feeling that I could get it was at times so motivating to see the picture and say, well, if daddy's away from home, he's going to put in the work and we're going to make some money and I'm going to push for some sales. But then there was times when you worked your ass off and you hadn't sold anything for a couple of hours and you flip your phone over and you see your little girl waiting for you at home and it tears you up inside. That was the battle, that was the challenge of being there that made it tough, of being there. That made it tough Some encouraging things to speak of is, you know, talking to other vendors and hearing their results.
Speaker 1:Actually, there was shoot, I want to say maybe two days or three days left to go in bike week and this fellow was walking by in a straw hat with a security shirt on and me and Brian just started having a conversation with him and I realized it was actually the owner Like he runs the entire show and he, you know, was intrigued that we approached him and was having conversations. So he was asking us how we were doing and he encouraged us and said you know, fellas, don't hold this one against yourselves. This is a different rally. For some reason. You know, this has been a tough week and he was on the verge of a panic attack and honestly, we were kind of talking him off the ledge, which was kind of an interesting turn of events. As he's telling me, he's losing $10,000 to $30,000 a day.
Speaker 1:Here I am thinking about our sacrifices and the fact that we're going to go home with a few bucks, and I got somebody talking about losing $30,000 a day, $10,000 a day. And I got somebody talking about losing $30,000 a day, $10,000 a day. These folks had also invested $250,000 into Biketoberfest, which was rained out, and they were unable to recoup their $250,000. They're now hosting a rally. That's losing $10,000, $20,000 a day Puts things in perspective.
Speaker 1:Right, perception is reality, man, and you should have to look at these things and think about these things. So, as we're having conversations, we have, you know, no real skin in the game, nothing to lose. We're going to be honest about our experiences and our input, and maybe we kind of crossed the boundaries a little bit. But we basically said these bands here suck dude, they're not keeping people here, man, they're scaring people away. And the guy said you're absolutely right. And I'm glad you said that, because we just fired the guy that books all these bands, because we're done with this. And I said well, that's a wise decision because, unfortunately, sometimes people in that business, they get to a point where they're just comfortable and all they decide to do is hire all their friends. Instead of looking for talent, they look for buddies. And he said that's exactly what happened. So we just fired our booking agent and he started listing all the things they're going to do differently, talking about some of the bands they're targeting for the next year and planning all these things out and having encouraging conversations with us.
Speaker 1:And then, maybe an hour later, a golf cart rolls up and it's his right-hand man and the person that I paid my rent to, that gave me my location and he says, oh, I have to start calling you the mayor. And he comes over and starts having a conversation. And I'm thinking, oh, I'll have to start calling you the mayor. And he comes over and starts having a conversation. And I'm thinking, mayor, you must have just had a conversation with your boss, had a conversation with me? That's the only person that we've talked to. So, hmm, interesting.
Speaker 1:But that turned into an event session about how shitty Bike Week was going for them. All the changes they wanted to make, the people they let go, and I'll give them credit. They had staff even running bathrooms and security guards that were there at the beginning of the week. They were let go. By the end of it. They had, you know, like shot girls and bartenders that were replaced by the end of the week. They were making proactive changes. I can't fault them for that and you know they were discussing some of the things they're going to do different and, um, I had mentioned to the guy you know that, um, they have, they have an MC that's did all their events the whole week.
Speaker 1:And, uh, I don't like to give a negative review of somebody, right, like especially somebody that does what I do, because I would not want somebody to walk around and say that I suck at my job. But I'll just say that you know, I've experienced better, you know, and I guess I expected more from this location, because I thought at bike week for me to go there and sit back, I could learn something. I would learn something from DJs, I would learn something from entertainers and I would certainly learn something from a professional MC that I could bring home with me and use and adapt to what it is that I do. And, uh, during the week I had many people come to me because I was so grateful of all the folks that I got to see from home and from all over the place that said dude, you should be emceeing this place, you should be doing things for this place and I appreciated the feather in the cap and all day, every day, brian talked about how much better it would be if I was running things.
Speaker 1:And when we were having that conversation with the gentleman that organizes a bunch of this stuff, I said you know, back home that's what I do. I do this for Bentley Saloon. And his ears perked up and he said oh, bentley Saloon, I love Bentley. And we started chatting and he started getting real curious about my abilities and what I could do and he said funny, you should say this because my MC came to me and said am I on the chopping block too, like could I lose my job? And I told him everybody is on the block after this week and you have not given your best this week. There was a wide open door for me to just put my pinky finger on it and push it over and march right in.
Speaker 1:But I wasn't there to piss on somebody's Cheerios man, and I didn't really want to. You know, step out on a limb and really throw my hat in the ring to take somebody else's job, because I wanted to go home and also really have conversations with my wife about how has it been? What was it like for you, for me, to be gone for so long? Is Brian and Zach interested in coming back? While I have the support, if I'm emceeing, then you know their workload would go up Like all the sacrifice that has to happen. I wasn't going to, you know, without the research, without the questions, without the conversations, just push the door in because it's not my style. I've got to a point in life where I need to think differently. I need to think about my family and, um, you know all the sacrifices that was made. So I didn't. I didn't knock the door down, literally.
Speaker 1:If I was a thousand percent sure I was going back next year, I would have said to him in that opportunity, you give me one of your events. You've got X amount of events left for your week. You pick any single one of those events. You give me the microphone and access to some music and let me work. Give me one 20 minute event. You see all you want to see. If you like me, we'll have a conversation. That's what I would have done. That's what I could have done. I didn't do that because I didn't want to just take a man's job from him. That's not what my goal is. If you see me and you like me and my ability more than what you currently have and you want to upgrade and hire me, then can have a conversation and we can look at things totally differently. Because if I'm going there with a guaranteed amount of money in my pocket, it makes my decision making a heck of a lot easier, and I would love to put the feather in my cap that I am see Daytona Bike Week. So putting that out there. That was an interesting little factoid.
Speaker 1:I overheard some conversations between the two of them while I was waiting in line for food where literally I heard the conversation of basically I think it was about me I'm not going to say it was certainly about me but I heard them say well, it's not like he would travel here with all of his gear with him. You know, it's something along those lines. He probably doesn't have his gear here. So I honestly think that part of them was saying, hey, if this guy had all of his stuff we could give him a shot. Or maybe we let the guy go, that we have set the expectation for the people that are here that we mean business Like I don't know man.
Speaker 1:There was a lot of things floating around that I think, um, what it could have happened if I pushed for it. I think I could have made it happen. But I'm a family man now and I need to think about the weight that gets placed on my family and decide if these decisions are right. And every night me and Brian would have a conversation. Every morning we'd have another one. We'd try to search out the positive sprinkles to sprinkle on that donut to figure it out. And we had multiple conversations with me and him and me saying life seems a whole lot different when I'm making decisions for my daughter than when I was making decisions for just me and my wife. And the accountability gets ramped up and the dependency that is. And the accountability gets ramped up and the dependency that is placed on me gets ramped up. So there's a lot that goes into it. There's a lot more thought that has to go into it. So I can't wholeheartedly answer right now whether I'm going back next year. It's absolutely up for consideration.
Speaker 1:The event as a whole was not a flop. I'm thankful that we did it. I'm grateful that we accomplished it. I'm so blessed by the support that we have and there's so many blessings, so many positives that came from this trip. If I didn't put the weight on me on a financial number that I wanted to attain, then this journey would have felt a hell of a lot more successful. But there was something that happened on Sunday and again on Monday and then was sealed with a kiss on Tuesday that really drove home for me that this was okay and that you know, there's somebody else that's proud of me and I'm absolutely acting in a courageous way.
Speaker 1:And this one gets a little bit tougher to talk about. But if you're a loyal listener, if you've been listening, not even from day one, if you've been listening for, let's say, the past year and a half, then you know the story of me losing my father and you would know the story that on the first day on this earth without my dad, I was out doing chores in the morning, getting ready to go to the funeral home, and my wife spotted a bald eagle circling our farm that flew around and checked out all the things we were doing and went over to my dad's workshop and flew over the horse and the pig and just kind of took everything in and spent enough time for my family to see and acknowledge and to realize that's my father, that's wholeheartedly my father. And if you've listened to those episodes, there's a lot of symbolism that comes up with an eagle, a message that was given to me, my wife finding a dream catcher with an eagle on it in the trash as we're packing up, just days after my father landed in the hospital All these signs, I know that my father comes to me as an eagle. On Sunday morning, brian, zach and myself are packing the bus and we're down to the last two or three items A chair, an extension cord, a fan, the last two or three items A chair, an extension cord, a fan, the last two or three items. I'm pouring sweat, I'm tired, I'm ready to be home and I hear Zach say holy shit, that's absolutely an eagle right there. And I turned around and in the field above our head is a bald eagle Circling the field above our head is a bald eagle Circling the bus, soaring through the skies, flying out of sight.
Speaker 1:I stood there in the field fighting back tears, watching what I presumed to be my father fly out of sight, as he's checking on me and saying, boy, you did it. The results aren't what you hoped them to be. But you did it and I'm proud of you. There's nobody in my life that's ever been more proud of me than my father. My father was my biggest supporter and cheerleader that I will ever have in this life. To know that he was there with me, to see him arrive and say, boy, I've watched you all week and you've done it that truly wholeheartedly, was all I needed to see to really just justify my decisions, to validate why I did what I did. The symbolism of my father being there, knowing that he was by my side all week. He guided me through the ups and downs, the bad conversations, those inner struggles, those moments of regret. He was with me when I had my successes, when I, you know, made new relationships and had special encounters all those, all those things you know he was. He was there and and watching over me and guiding me through my first ever endeavor as a father, leaving my family behind, knowing my father was there, thinking about all the time I spent behind the steering wheel, thinking about my dad and thinking about the fact that my one of my best friends is on this trip with me, with his son, and how grateful I am to have had the opportunity to get to know his son. But to draw the parallels between what I'm going through, having that conversation with myself, that says, man, I wish I was on this trip with my dad that Sunday, knowing I was on that trip with my dad, he was by my side. That, to me, was powerful.
Speaker 1:As I'm telling this story, I remember and I don't recall if it was on the way to Florida, on the way back from Florida or the day before I left for Florida, but in front of me was a car. That license plate abbreviated the words everything's going to be okay. My dad used to always tell me don't worry, everything's going to be okay, I'm okay, I'm always okay, I'm always going to be okay, everything's okay. That message always okay, I'm always going to be okay, everything's okay. That message from that plate was my father. That Sunday morning before hitting the road, was wholeheartedly, absolutely my father, and it lit a fire under me to get home and to try, and it just justified every reason why. And it just justified every reason why. So we made our journey home and we got stuck in traffic and dealt with nonsense and all those things. Thankfully and gratefully, the bus ran fantastic and we made it home and everything went smooth.
Speaker 1:And the very next day my wife took a little time off so that the family could be together. We were out to run errands. On our way out to run errands, allie yelled to me, was telling you about, and I looked up and there was another eagle and she said that eagle has moved into town and I've started to see him all around and she was telling me the areas and, um, there was another eagle as soon as I got home. It's like my dad guided me the whole way, guided me the whole way, and there he was yet again to say you made it bud and I'm proud of you.
Speaker 1:Another crazy connection with my dad and this trip was on monday, as we were approaching our final destination, as me and the boys were within 15, 20 minutes of home, I was starting to hit on the tunes, some songs that were important to me and just kind of wrapping up our little journey. And one song that I find myself playing when I'm on the road, when I'm challenging myself, when I'm away from home, when I'm often alone, is a song that reminds me of my father that I played at his funeral. I put it in his slideshow. It was a band that he opened my eyes up to, that we always had a mutual connection to, and it was Credence Clearwater. And there's a song Long as I Can See the Light that I played. And there's a song Long as I Can See the Light that I played, like I said, at my dad's service in his slideshow, and I put that song on, I put on Long as I Can See the Light and I had my glasses on and I was thinking about my dad and I was tearing up and we were approaching home and I just happened to be gazing out the window just kind of taking in the moment, and as I was doing so, a trailer truck begins to pass the bus and I look at the truck because it's not hard to notify or notice. It's white and purple and it used to be my godfather's truck, my dad's best friend, one of my dad's best friends, the best man at my mother and father's wedding, big Alan Spencer.
Speaker 1:Now again, I hate to keep saying this, but if you've been listening in over the past year or so, you know that after my father passed I had some great conversations with Alan. I get to tell him that I'm about to be a father. He calls me and has an amazing conversation with me that leaves me in tears. As I tell my mother and my wife, I feel like the gal was saying goodbye to me, and only a few short days later he passed away. And just a few months after losing my father, I lost my godfather, and my middle namesake and his boys are incredibly close to me.
Speaker 1:We grew up together and his son, kyle, had called me to tell me you. You know I hate to do this, but I need to tell you that my dad just passed. They also asked me to speak at Alan's funeral and I had the great honor of doing so, of speaking at his funeral and sharing some memories. And as I'm connecting these dots, it's funny because I'm realizing this now, but when I was at bike week a few days into the week, I was surprised by a familiar face. I was surprised by Kyle Spencer, someone I consider a brother. You know, we've often told everybody that we're all cousins. Kyle is Alan's son, his youngest son, and Kyle is the one that called me to tell me that his father had passed. And, you know, kyle conducted the service for his dad, much like I did for my dad and his brother, travis, also was a big part of the service and they asked me to be a part of it and the connections and parallels that we share is uncanny because they also lost their big brother, much like I did. And then, you know, I lose my father and then, shortly after, they lose theirs. But as I'm having this conversation, kyle surprised me in Florida and we took a picture together and I sent it to his mother and to my mother and it was a great, great moment in memory.
Speaker 1:But it goes beyond ironic that with the final few miles of our trip, I'm playing a song that reminds me of my father, that I use for comfort when I'm away from home, and at that exact time I see Kyle and Travis's father's truck, my godfather Alan Spencer's truck, his big rig, his tractor trailer truck that he sold right before passing away passes my bus. Folks, I don't know how you feel about God. I don't know where your fate is, I don't know if to you it's divine intervention, if it's irony, if it's just timing or if it's God's plan, but for me, I and I absolutely believe and I know that God, my Father and my Godfather were truly by my side and there was many opportunities and signs placed in my path to prove to me that everything is going to be okay and I'm doing the right things. I need to stay the course and keep on keeping on, because as long as I can see the light, I'll never give up this fight. With that said, thank you to each and every single one of you for supporting my American dream. Now go. Wash Fucking heads, fucking savage. That's it and that's all. Biggie smalls.
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, 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. A big old thank you to the boys from the Gut Truckers for the background beats and the theme song for 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, I hate to say. I told you so. I truly thank you for supporting my American dream. Now go wash your fucking hands, you filthy savage.