Share The Struggle
Share The Struggle
When Everything Goes Wrong, Keep Moving Forward
The struggle is real, but so is the strength that emerges from it. This raw, unfiltered episode takes you behind the scenes of entrepreneurship when everything that can go wrong, does.
Windsor Fair season brings both celebration and chaos as we mark my daughter Paisley's first birthday while simultaneously dealing with our third consecutive year of vehicle disasters at this event. The bus is leaking brake fluid faster than I thought possible, the shifter linkage disconnected, and we're stranded at the fairgrounds with inventory to move and a business to run.
Production nightmares preceded our arrival when vendors missed deadlines and shipping companies split orders, forcing late nights and impossible schedules. Upon arrival, we discovered our vendor location had been moved, reinforcing that age-old business wisdom that location truly is everything when you're selling at fairs.
What's remarkable isn't just the string of challenges – it's the resilience that develops when facing them repeatedly. The all-female crew of my mother, wife, and baby daughter are currently running our booth while I handle production and repairs, proving that family businesses survive through adaptability and teamwork.
Despite everything, opening day sales nearly doubled compared to last year, reinforcing my belief that sometimes the universe tests us most severely right before breakthrough moments. When you've reached the point where your back is against the wall, sometimes all that's left is faith that this too shall pass.
Whether you're an entrepreneur facing similar challenges or just someone who appreciates authentic stories of perseverance, this episode reminds us all that finding strength in struggle isn't just motivational poster material – it's the daily reality for those building something meaningful against the odds.
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Today on Share the Struggle Podcast. It's a new week, it's a new fair and it's a new round of struggles around here. But have no fear, we are committed to success over here. Let me tell you something Everybody struggles. The difference is some people choose to go through it and some choose to grow through it.
Speaker 2:The choice is completely yours which one you choose will have a very profound effect on the way you live your life.
Speaker 2: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. We can fight for our dreams. We'll take on what we're fighting for. Ooh ooh, ooh, ooh ooh.
Speaker 1:What it do what it do what it hot Did it do. Did it do, almighty, am I so excited to be back with you. Oh, it's true, it is damn true. Episode number 268, and mm. Don't it feel great? Mm-hmm-hmm-hmm-hmm feels great to be back with y'all. I don't specifically individually feel great.
Speaker 1:Right as I started to record, all of a sudden I feel nasally like maybe some drippage, some nasal drippage. That's not what you want to hear. To start a show, is it Right? That might have been. Now that I think about it, that could be one of the grossest things I've said to start the show. So yeah, that's on me. That's a bad one. That's a bad look. I apologize.
Speaker 1:I will refrain from using nasal drippage. I do have a bit of a sore throat as well. And here's the thing, folks, I don't know if I can contribute this to not sleeping and just working my katukish off, which is kind of what I feel like. Either that or maybe allergies. Again, I've seen a lot of bees in yellow jackets out there, so maybe that's telling me something. I don't know, man, I do not know what I can tell you. Is that about 2 in the morning I woke up like a cat in the desert licking my own ass. That was also a very bad description. I do apologize, but that's how I felt. So I pounded some vitamin C and I tried to get some sleep. And now here I am back again, just you and me, and I'm feeling a little short on sleep and a little run down because it's fair season.
Speaker 1:Okay, this is one of our biggest, one of our best and our favorite fair. We are in Windsor this week for the Windsor Fair. I love this fair. It's been great to us. We thoroughly enjoy this fair. It actually now has a whole new special element for us because last year during this fair, this is when little Paisley Rain decided to arrive. Last year, during this fair, on the second to last day of the fair, I got the call from the wife that she was going into labor and I needed to rush home. My brother from another mother, mr Steve Violette, came over, gave him a crash course on the computer. We took off, he ran the tent, he made it happen. My mom and myself made it to the hospital in time for Paisley to arrive and, good Lord, almighty, I can't believe it's been a year already Now, and from this day forward, all years moving forward, my beautiful little baby girl will celebrate her birthday at the Windsor Fair. That's right. We are about to celebrate my little baby girl's first year. Her first birthday is coming up over here. I can't even believe it. It's shocking. It's crazy to think that last year she arrived. This year she is in the tent working making it happen. I got to say it's super awesome.
Speaker 1:The Windsor Fair actually made her her own employee badge. So as vendors you buy these badges, which I would say it's the coolest thing for fairs. Most fairs just give you like a packet of tickets you have to pay attention to and count the days and this and that Not Windsor. They actually make a badge. It's a photo ID badge that you purchase to get you in and out every day, and they made one for Little Paisley. So every single year when we go to the Windsor Fair she's going to get a new photo and a new badge and we can save them each year. So it's crazy that on her birthday we're going to have like a new photo shoot every year that's going to go on this badge, an employee badge for Loud Proud American. I think that in itself is pretty damn cool. So if you actually follow us on socials, you will see Paisley on the Loud, loud, proud American Facebook and Instagram with her Windsor Fair badge. So that's pretty damn cool man. That's exciting stuff. It's crazy to me how much things have changed in the course of a year. I can't believe that we're here Literally. Last year Allie was only at this fair basically to drop the camper off, and that's another little story we're going to get into in a second here.
Speaker 1:Getting back to me not having sleep, me being a little run down and not feeling oh so great, and all the challenges that are there, I just kind of want to outline what my schedule has been as of late. So y'all know we came home from the Skowhegan Fair. I left one fair, we dropped the camper off at this fair, I came home, went into production mode and then, unfortunately, the ball was dropped by two vendors and two shipping companies. So I placed an order on time for all of these products. So while I was in Skowhegan in the camper, every morning I'm up moving money around paying bills. You know, I'm up moving money around paying bills. You know just the old robbing Peter to pay Paul scenario.
Speaker 1:And you're moving and shuffling and hustling, trying to figure things out, and I'm designing and I'm organizing and I have a schedule as to when things need to be ordered and I have to literally make sure I'm up early with plenty of time to work on these things, to make sure they're ordered on time so I can have them for this fair. So I have a schedule that I work by. I get all my design stuff done, submitted on time, good to go. They then, a couple days later, show me some stuff that isn't correct. So I'm trying to correct that with them. Long and short of it, because they made a mistake. They're telling me that it's not going to make my shipping deadline. So I then pay extra for overnight shipping another $100 extra for overnight shipping and it doesn't go when it's supposed to go.
Speaker 1:The packages get split up. I get half of my order on overnight shipping. I get the other half of my order on like three-day shipping. Sense to me, okay, because they didn't ship it on a Friday, so it's sat over the weekend and then was shipped on a Monday. Just nonsense, okay. So I deal with that.
Speaker 1:My vendor for my apparel. I placed an order in the morning on a Friday. It's supposed to ship. If you place the order before two o'clock, it ships that day and I would have had it on Saturday. Coming home on Monday I should have had all my designs, all my apparel. Actually, sunday night I would have had all my apparel to start doing some stuff and Sunday or Monday morning my designs would show up and I could just go into full production mode.
Speaker 1:Well, none of that happened. I didn't get the stuff I needed until during the week things began to trickle in and show up rather late. So at the end of the week I'm working till midnight, one in the morning in the office trying to make everything that I possibly can to make the deadline. And it got to a point on Friday where I said, man, I just have to leave, I can't finish all that I need to do. I was up all night Thursday night trying to just do everything that I possibly can right. So I had to leave. I can't finish all that I need to do. I was up all night Thursday night trying to just do everything that I possibly can right. So I had to leave Friday afternoon. So my mom and I, we loaded up everything that we could and we came up with a game plan. I am going to go set up with my mom get everything ready to rock and roll. Saturday we're going to open, we're going to start selling stuff, and then Allie and Paisley are going to arrive and then I'm going to go home and Paisley and my mom and Allie are going to finish. Saturday I'm going to finish all the production and then I'll head back on Sunday. That's the plan.
Speaker 1:Okay, so we roll up on Friday afternoon. We get to the fair to find out that our space had been moved. Not a great deal, but when you're working on fairs if you've heard me say this many, many times before location, location, location, the location is more important than anything. I would say half the time your location could be more important than the attendance, because if you have a well-attended fair but a very poor location, it ain't going to make a difference. If you have a weekly attended ferry, but one of the best locations, you're still going to get out of there doing okay. So we got moved a little bit still the same spot, but down about 20 feet. It's enough to annoy you. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:I did try to find some positives in that situation and I do believe that I did find some positives, but I rolled in. Here's another little sweet blessing. I always talk about blessings and people going out of their way to help out. Steve Violette, who I mentioned to you, came and saved the day when Paisley was being born. He also reached out and said hey, man, what time are you setting up? Tomorrow I'll come over and help you out, which was huge. Steve came over me, him and my mom put the tents up, put the grid wall in all that stuff.
Speaker 1:But while we were setting up I pulled up, parked the bus and I had to have some people move. So I was backing the bus out of this little basically it's a one-way, at the time little roadway. And as I'm doing that I'm like man, I don't feel a lot of brakes here. And then I pull down this little side, little side road and I go to shift and I can't. My shifter is floating. I have no ability to shift, I am stuck in park. I can't go from neutral, drive nothing, it's just floating around. I have no clue what's going on. I try to start restart. I'm thinking maybe it's a computer scenario.
Speaker 1:I call a brother, noah, noah and Chris over to torque solutions and I and I'm like dude, what is going on here? And he tells me maybe your shifter linkage popped off, and he tells me where it is. So I get on the ground, I try to get underneath the bus. Here's the deal, folks. There's not a lot of room on the bottom of a bus, especially when you're over 300 pounds. Okay, I'm not going to tell you how much. Lay off of me Judy Quit judging Judy quit judging me as I slide underneath there. I said, noah, this thing is pouring brake fluid Like it is dumping brake fluid. I find the shifter linkage slip that back on. I'm able to shift the bus, I get it out of the spot that I'm in, but I have no brakes. I limp the bus to the front of the tent, park it and we set up and then it proceeds to leak more brake fluid than I ever thought you could put in a vehicle. But I guess they're pretty long brake lines when you're driving a school bus. So here it is, folks.
Speaker 1:The saga, the drama, the struggle of vehicles in the Liberty family continues, just when I thought the bus was one thing that comes off the list as resolved. Like I just put more money into the bus, what did we do? We did like a alternator, I think, maybe a water pump a battery, all these different things. We've worked on brakes before. Now here we are growing some kind of brake line master cylinder. I don't really know there's too many shields for me to see where it's coming from, but we are leaking, like you write about. I have barely any brakes at this moment. I was able to limp the bus from my vendor spot to my camping spot and park it, and now I just have to you know work out of it. I have to grab my inventory out of there. But she's toast, she's cooked. She's not moving. That goose is cooked. The shifter linkage scenario it's on there. I can't guarantee how long it's going to stay on there, but I have no brakes.
Speaker 1:Noah from Torque Solutions I'm actually texting back and forth right now as we speak. He has our new family vehicle. He's had it on the lift, he just put motor mounts in that particular vehicle and he's going to take that one, load it up with tools and drive all the way to the fair to check out the bus and see if he can fix it. So he's going to be working bedside. Okay, he's going to drive an hour and a half from his house to the fairgrounds to check out the bus to then see if we can patch it up to get it home, or if we can fix it, or if we have to figure out a game plan to get it home, because I mean it's a school bus. Okay, it's not as easy as just. Yeah, we'll just do it okay with what.
Speaker 1:All right, but Noah, old boy, been working on the family vehicle for a couple of days. He actually had a week ago doing other stuff to it Seems like every week he's doing something for us and today he's going to go out of his way, drive an hour and a half to the fair to work, to drive an hour and a half home. Noah, you are this week's winning. Wednesday. Weekly shoutout Noah and Chris Woodcock, the boys at Torque Solutions, saving my ass every single week. It appears to be that as long as the liberties continue to drive vehicles, those boys will remain busy Because we break everything. I don't feel like I'm hard on equipment, but I'm just telling you I'm over breaking equipment we have. I don't even no, I don't care to list. I don't want to list all the things we've broken. I don't want to list all the vehicles that we've broken. I will tell you. Currently in my driveway or well they're I guess they're not all in my driveway because they're spread all around the state we have two Dodges, two Chevys, two GMCs and a Kia. Yeah, you can't make this stuff up. I would say I don't know how many of them are actually legal and I don't know how many of them are not on the repair list. Unbelievable. This is a fun fact for you. I'm going to call it a not-so-fun fact for the liberties, but here's a quick little scenario for you. If you've been listening through the years, you would know this story. But this is the third year that Loud Proud American has attended the Windsor Fair. Every single year there has been vehicle difficulties. Okay, here's the deal. The first year that we went to Windsor Fair on the opening day of the fair or second day of the fair, I don't remember, I think it was the second day the wife had to go home. I had to pick up my mom, so we were doing like a shift change scenario. Had to go home, I had to pick up my mom, so we were doing like a shift change scenario. And on the way, old red, our farm truck, died in the middle of an intersection and I had to push her out of the road, only to find out that the fuel pump went in the truck and it just died, was dead. We pushed it into a bank parking lot, headed home. Wife went to work. I grabbed my mom, we went back. We dealt with AAA. It was a nonsense, mess with AAA. Finally I convinced them, after hours of waiting around, that I needed to be at the fair.
Speaker 1:I arrive at the fair late. Aaa agrees to go pick my truck up late and then they tell us it's on the way. I communicate with them. They tell me the truck's on its way, only for Ellie to get home from work and the truck to not be found. No truck, no location, no nothing. Tries to get a hold of AAA. They don't know what she's talking about. They lose our truck, can't find it, don't know where it is, can't find it. The next day they find out that one of their drivers Didn't communicate that with anybody. So the next day they return the pickup truck. My dad cuts a hole in the bed of the truck, climbs in there, drops in a new fuel pump. We get the truck running. Everything appears to be okay. Allie begins to drive it around and problems happen again. While she's at work, chris and Noah show up in the parking lot, torque solutions to fix the truck again. We have bad coil packs, we have a leaky fuel rail. He patches all that up and we get the truck running. Allie returns to the fair and we get it out of there. That's season one.
Speaker 1:Okay, next year. Last year, on the way to the fair, we have the camper hooked on. Allie is nine months pregnant, eight and a half months. Her hooked on. Allie is nine months pregnant, eight and a half months. Whatever the hell, the scenario is and we blow a radiator hose off the truck. We're going down the interstate and start smoking. All of a sudden all the gauges pin and she's smoking everywhere. We barrel it to the side of the road. I popped the hood to see the radiator hose blown right to hell off, leaking antifreeze absolutely everywhere. We are on the side of 95 for a couple of hours, my nine month pregnant wife standing there not impressed, with a camper hooked onto the back of the truck. Kyle and julia from underdog metal show up to save the day. Underdog here to save the day. They come in with the new clamps and tools and antifreeze. We patch the truck back up, get it fired up and start hauling back to camp, only to have another fuel issue happen where we roll in, coasting on fumes with the truck bucking and spitting and coughing. It was an absolute show.
Speaker 1:That's year two, year three, this year I roll in with the school bus, we lose the ability to shift gears and drink beers and redrop our brakes and all of our fluid right in the parking lot. I don't know. And when I say parking lot, it's not a parking lot. I never should have said that. It's where I happen to park, which is right on the main drag in the fair. Three years, three years, three vehicle catastrophes. I am over it. You understand what I'm saying. I am over it. I can't take it. I can't take it, america.
Speaker 1:So you get out of the truck, you start to set up. You realize your location has been moved. You realize your bus is broken. You start getting flustered and hot and bothered under the collar, but you can't lose your cool. You got to remain positive. You got to remain focused. This is one of the best events of the year for you, one of the biggest events of the year for you, one of your favorite events of the year for you. You cannot let this bother you. This too shall pass. Put it behind you, dust yourself off, figure it out, pull up your pants. Buttercup, we're about to go hiking. You understand, we're hiking through the shizzle, my nizzle, my neptizzle. It's official, like a ref with a whistle.
Speaker 1:I don't know where that Snoop Dogg scenario hit me in the back of the head. I said Snoop's upside your head. I said Snoop's upside your head. Wow, you young man have lost it. That's what happens when you don't sleep. Wow, you young man, have lost it. That's what happens when you don't sleep. So here's the deal.
Speaker 1:I worked half a day with the fam. I think I left about 3 o'clock-ish or so. 3, 4 o'clock, came home, I had some stuff to do outside to get done and then right into production mode, chores and all those things. Get them out of the way and then I press, press, press, press me ass off. I work a bunch of hours in the office. I think maybe 1130 ish or so. I was done pressing for the night, had some dinner, yes, at about that time I had some Cheerios. Okay, hit the hay.
Speaker 1:Woke up at two feeling like crap. But here I am. How do you do so? Got all of our pressing done, things locked and loaded. It is a Sunday. I'm recording a podcast on a Sunday. That doesn't happen. Okay, we are. Um, our schedule is totally different.
Speaker 1:This is a whole new scenario for me. It's an all girl, loud, proud American tent for the last like 24 hours, because yesterday I leave my mama and my baby. Mama and my baby. Bring in the drama that's my mama, my wifey and my baby. Bring in the drama that's my mama, my wifey and my baby ran the loud pod american tent on opening day and they're there right now, open while I'm recording and talking to you.
Speaker 1:Before I slide on out of here, how do you do load up the vehicle and get on back to the fair? This is weird. Normally I'm on the road, okay, okay, normally I'm working a fair and either Allie and the baby are here or my mom is here. I'm never the one that's here. This is a weird feeling. It's an eerie feeling to be at the Ponderosa solo. It's an odd feeling. Okay, not something that I'm confident I'm comfortable with at the moment, but I got to give all glory to God and grace to my family because they are holding it down and opening day at the fair this year was far better than it was last year. This year's opening day just about doubled last year's opening day, so I am going to say that is a great sign for an amazing fair.
Speaker 1:I need this fair to go tremendously well because I've got vehicle maintenance bills that are going to be coming out me backside and we have a new vehicle that we just got that we need to pay for. We haven't paid the rent fee for our biggest fair of the year. I have copious amounts of product that I have to acquire for our biggest event of the year. I've got a new tent to buy. I've got mortgages to pay and bills to pay and all those things that everybody else has to pay. So, lord, I'm going to need you.
Speaker 1:We have stacked the chips against us. The deck is stacked against us. We have placed our backs firmly on the wall, but it must be some kind of miracle because I don't feel stressed at all. Well, maybe at all is an exaggeration. I definitely feel stressed, but I should be panicking. I should be freaking out. I'm not. I know we got this. This too shall pass. I've given all difficulties and challenges to God. He has paved a way for me and I shall follow it. We will follow it. All good shall happen. I'm telling you right now. I feel this week is going to be one of the best weeks that we've ever had at the Windsor Fair. I truly feel that they are great blessings coming our way.
Speaker 1:You get to a point in life, folks, when you say how many things can go wrong before they gotta go right? I think we're on the cusp of it. I think it's our time Things are going to start to go really, really right for us. I can feel it. I can feel it, y'all can feel it too, because if you didn't feel it, you wouldn't be back week after week, because you would say that son of a bitch, right there, he lives a depressing life. I'm tired of the challenges. I'm tired of all the struggles, the tears and the fears. Uh-uh, I ain't listening to him week after week.
Speaker 2:But y'all come back. You've been coming back all these weeks.
Speaker 1:What did I say? We're consecutive weeks over five years, not missing a week. Y'all been my day ones that are out there, the people that have been listening. It's his day one. Get your ones up.
Speaker 1:I appreciate you, I acknowledge you, I love you. You keep coming back. You got to believe in us. Or you wouldn't keep coming back and I believe in us too, or I wouldn't keep pushing record, but because of you, we keep on forging ahead and I thank each and every single one of you. I love you, I appreciate you and I truly hope to see you at the Windsor Fair.
Speaker 1:I've got more stories to tell, but I don't have time to share them. Hopefully, next week, we're going to give you a lovely, beautiful little recap and we're going to tell you about all the triumph, all the success and all the goodness and all the greatness that's coming to us. But I left the three women in my life alone running my business, our business, the family business, america's business, our proud American. I better get back there before things get crazy. Okay, I got to get back there.
Speaker 1:I know this is going to be a quick episode, but it's a hard hitting episode. I love each and every one of you. I appreciate you. I can't believe my baby's going to be one. Can you believe that? I can't believe that. When's the fair? I'm about to get out of here and get back to the fair. If you listen to this episode on a winning Wednesday, you got plenty of time to come out and find us. The fair goes all the way to Labor Day. Hope to see y'all. I appreciate you. Thank you for supporting our American dream. Now go wash your fucking hands, you filthy savage.
Speaker 2:That's it and that's all. Biggie Smalls, if you're a Loud, proud American and you find yourself just wanting more.
Speaker 1:Find me on YouTube and Facebook at Loud Proud American, or the Face page, as my mama calls it. If you're a fan of the Graham Cracker, you want to find me on Instagram. Or all the kids are tickety-talking on the TikTok. You can find me on both of those at loud underscore, proud underscore. American, a big old. Thank you to the boys from the Gut.
Speaker 2:Truckers for the background beats and the theme song to this here podcast. If you are enjoying what you're hearing, you can track down the Gut Truckers on Facebook. Just search Gut Truckers. Give them, motherfuckers. A like too. I make it bleed. I hate to.
Speaker 1:I truly thank you for supporting my American dream. Now go wash your fucking hands, you filthy savage.