Share The Struggle
Share The Struggle
Finding Structure When Everything Changes
Life gets hectic at the Liberty household as we prepare for Fryeburg Fair, work weddings, and navigate a major career change that could transform our family's work-life balance.
• Fryeburg Fair approaches with significant business preparation, requiring us to bring in about 2,000 items in the coming weeks
• We successfully DJed Jake and Sage's wedding despite last-minute challenges and an unexpectedly quick ceremony
• Sometimes taking a break from overwhelming tasks—like mowing a section of lawn—can help reset your mind when you're feeling stuck
• Major workplace change announced as my wife's employer offers permanent work-from-home opportunity after she voiced her unhappiness
• Transitioning from patient care to work-from-home creates culture shock but offers benefits for family time and business flexibility
• Creating structure and routine is essential when adapting to major life changes
• Tony Robbins wisdom reminds us we overestimate what we can accomplish in a year but underestimate what we can achieve in decades
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it's busy city. At the liberty ponderosa, wedding gigs, game plans, timelines and a big, big change to one family member's work schedule all that and so much more on today's episode of share the struggle podcast. Let me tell you something everybody struggles. The difference is some people choose to go through it and some choose to grow through it. The choice is completely yours. Which one you choose will have a very profound effect on the way you live your life. If you find strength in the struggle, then this podcast is for you. Do you have a relationship that is comfortable with uncomfortable conversations? Uncomfortable conversations challenge you, humble you and they build you. When you sprinkle a little time and distance on it, it all makes sense. Most disagreements, they stem from our own insecurities. You are right where you need to be. Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh. What it do, what it ha-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-. I'm talking to you over there on the couch texting away. Oh me.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you tell the people that you love them, yeah, well you're in the room, you know what I mean. I love you too.
Speaker 1:Thanks to you. Welcome to that podcast properly named, precisely named, perfectly beautifully named Share the Struggle, because everybody struggles and the truth is, boys and girls, children and squirrels, and chipmunks and girls the truth is, if you're willing to share your struggle, then there is strength in your story. No matter how big or how small that story can be, you can make a difference on anybody, just like me. Hmm, hmm, I don't know where that little rhyme came from. I got to be honest. When I opened the show and the little B-roll thing I said it's Busy City. I wanted to be honest. When I opened the show and the little B-roll thing I said it's Busy City. I wanted to say tough titty, said the kitty. I don't know why. I saw like this Jerry Jones parody where he said tough titty, said the kitty, and then something about some spilt milk. I don't remember, but for some reason that was in my head. Welcome to the show. The idea Thanks.
Speaker 1:Thanks for having me. How's it going over there?
Speaker 3:Oh it's going?
Speaker 1:Is your microphone even on? Yeah, it's on. I can barely hear you.
Speaker 3:Hello, can you hear me now? Is this thing on?
Speaker 1:That's aggressively loud and people are going to hate that. Cut it out. That's going to require a lot more work and it's late, so thank you for that. Let's just go ahead and try to be normal for the people. Okay, you know what? Why? Why do you have to just bust my ball seriously, why? Why? What is what do you get from just trying to piss me off?
Speaker 3:I like to watch you squirm.
Speaker 1:This is what uh 12 years of our relationship looks like the amount of effort that you put into trying to get under my skin is probably going to raise some alarms. As we get further into today's episode and we share some you know family news in the episode, it might toss up some red flags for the loyal listeners. Just putting it out there.
Speaker 3:What's that song? Doot doot, it's the sound of the alarm or the sound of the police. The police, yeah, doot doot, it's the sound of the police.
Speaker 1:That's what I thought of when you just said that. Okay, well, that makes sense. Well, tough titty, said the kitty. It is busy city.
Speaker 1:Over here at the Loud Proud American Liberty Residence, ponderosa, we've been going crazy. This is that time of year where it's crunch season because our biggest event of the year is quickly approaching. It's almost here, so it's mad season game planning to try to, you know, really put ourselves in the best possible position that we can possibly afford to prime ourselves for success. So that's what we're up to right now. Right now is crazy. I've spent, I mean, almost a week making a game plan, trying to maneuver, inventory, massage this level that add this scratch. That. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:There is a lot of moving parts, but I have this feeling, I have this notion, I have this emotion that this year shall be the greatest year for Loud Proud American at the Freiburg Fair. So I'm trying to do all that I possibly can to position ourselves to have the best possible year that we could imagine. Every year we have seen a nice little increase, a nice boost in business. Knock on wood. I don't want to get all the dogs freaking out here, but it's the one event of the year. That is the great equalizer of the year. It don't matter what's going on in the world. It does not matter what's going on around us. Freiburg Fair is its own thing and Freiburg Fair has saved my ass every single year since we've been in business. And this year, butter my biscuits, it's gonna massage my ass speaking of massage your ass.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's a nice little segue. I don't even did you know that was planned.
Speaker 3:You think that feeling that you're having is just dinner moving.
Speaker 1:You know what, dude, I'm not allowed to be positive around you. I'm positive that you're pissing me off.
Speaker 3:What else is new?
Speaker 1:Well, I'll let the people be the judge. Do I have a reason to be annoyed?
Speaker 3:No.
Speaker 1:I'm not asking you, I'm asking them and I'm pretty confident they're going to say yeah.
Speaker 3:They're going to say welcome to the Liberty relationship. This is a normal encounter.
Speaker 1:Which is why I'm going to start taking blood pressure meds when my 43rd birthday rolls around.
Speaker 3:Keep talking to me like that. You mean I'll make it to your 43rd, that's what I figured.
Speaker 1:Watch your mouth. Wow, we're off to a roaring start here. The point I'm trying to make to the people, as I'm being positive, is Freiburg Fair is coming. We're going to crush the fair.
Speaker 1:That's what we do. But we are taking more risk and more chances than we ever have going into the Freiburg Fair. So we are massaging every possible ounce of our plan, trying to figure things out, getting every single ounce of finances drained on out and reallocated and dedicated to the business and the brand to make this the best possible result we could ever possibly hope for. So we're making the game plan, the master plan, we are ordering things, we are trying to restock things, trying to make things. There is so many moving parts. I could bore the pants off here talking about all the things that we are trying to figure out going into Freiburg Fair and I have a countdown each and every day that pretty soon it's going to be you need to accomplish this many items for this day as the calendar counts down, to make sure that you are in the best possible position for this to all. Come true, come true. We literally are going to be bringing in, I'd say, close to 2000 items over the next couple of freaking weeks here to try to make this happen. It's mayhem, it's madness.
Speaker 1:Along with trying to make this work, we're also trying to squeeze in some custom accounts, getting some custom work done. A lot of people. We are closely connected to the ag business. We are really connected to agriculture. So there's a lot of agricultural businesses and friends and families that we have that tend to want a lot of their stuff delivered for the Freiburg Fair. So we're trying to squeeze some of those things in so that we can take that additional income and throw it right back into the business. Uh, to get ready to prime ourselves up as much as possible. So we are trying to not only stock ourselves but we're trying to come through for the people that we care about with custom orders for them. So there's a lot of those moving parts going on. In the midst of all of that, uh, we've also booked two weddings. We just had the first of two weddings over the weekend and that was an amazing time.
Speaker 1:Jake and Sage that was awesome, right? Mary and Brian Anderson are good friends of ours and we've obviously known Jake and Sage for a while and they wanted us to be the entertainment for their wedding and that was amazing. I had a great time. It was stressful going into it. I think we did a good job, not wanting to choke each other out with the high amount of stress we had going into that, wouldn't you say?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think we did a great job. It wasn't us that I was worried about choking out.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean, I'm just saying like we have a tendency, if the time clock is ticking and we're short like timed, I might get heated. You might tell me to F myself. You know what I mean. Those things could happen. That's pretty common. We were rolling to the wedding and we were under the impression that we were just doing the reception portion of the evening.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I had even checked my emails on my way up to make sure that that was the case, because we were getting pretty close to the ceremony.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so the ceremony was starting at 5. And we're dealing with a Nor'easter. Yeah, we were attending. On arriving at 4.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we were going to try to arrive at 4. Ceremony's at 5., but reception part of it we would be post cocktail hour. So we're like six, 37 o'clock, but we want to be there early enough so we're not trying to set up in front of people that are, you know, trying to view a wedding. So, um, anyways, that's our plan. We're heading up there and, like you said, there's a severe thunderstorm warning. We were hydroplaning on the way there.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was bad.
Speaker 1:Um, it warning we were hydroplaning on the way there. Yeah, it was bad. Um, it was pretty crazy. We ended up being a half hour after our attended arrival time. The wedding planner was messaging us like are you, have you left that? You're on your way, which we thought that was kind of strange.
Speaker 1:When we roll into the building, what we had found out earlier in the day, based off the weather, they're not going to get married outside. Everything was being moved inside. That's part of the reason why we wanted to be there early enough, so that we weren't trying to drag gear into the middle of a ceremony. So we get there with what we thought would be plenty of time, because my assumption was I'm going to load all of our stuff in, we can watch the ceremony while the acoustic guy is doing cocktail hour, we can build all of our stuff and we'll be good to go for the reception.
Speaker 1:Well, we get there only to find out that we can't really unload where we need to set up. We're, you know, I don't know 75, 100 feet away, nothing crazy. But then there's this little trap door, a crawl space, attic scenario that you have to get to up a flight of stairs to a little landing to a mezzanine that overlooks the whole venue and that's where we're going, because they're tight on space. The view was nice. The view was nice for you, for where I was behind the computer trying to DJ.
Speaker 1:I couldn't see shit, I didn't even know if there was people on the dance floor, I'd have to ask you how it was going.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was good in some ways, but not good in other ways.
Speaker 1:I mean, it was cool to be out of the way, like I feel like I'm in the way a lot. When you're doing a wedding, you know you don't want to be the center of attention, obviously. So we have enough gear to set a full rock band and we're carrying it all upstairs and then trying to basically set everything up in like a six foot space, while there's an acoustic guitar player with his family hanging out yeah, and I wouldn't even.
Speaker 1:Uh, I feel like we're being very generous by calling him an acoustic guy, because he played the same song for the entire 20 minutes that we were setting up what I thought was strange is he was like, oh wow, I wow, I'm glad you're here and I'm like, oh well, that's pretty excited to hear about the other DJ, apparently.
Speaker 3:And then he says he said he started to get anxious.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he says, well, I'm about done. I'm like, what do you mean? You're doing cocktail hour, right? No, I'm playing them down the aisle and I'm done. That's how we found out that we he'll already do so. When we arrive at 4 30, by the time we get all the gear up the stairs and we start unpacking it, it's damn near five o'clock, it's, you know, 10 of five, quarter of five, and the ceremony starting at five. The ceremony was what? Eight minutes, ten minutes oh my god, quick.
Speaker 3:It was the most I. I don't even under, I don't even know how to explain it. Like I have seen, weddings at the courthouse last longer.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like he was. Like you take her. Yeah, great, and I think it was Sage's grandfather.
Speaker 3:right, I'm not entirely sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think it was her grandfather, I think it was yeah, but it was like you take her.
Speaker 3:she takes you. Yeah, you can tell I do he. I think it was yeah, but it was like you take her she takes you.
Speaker 1:You can tell I do. He prayed for a little bit and then he blessed them, sent them, packed them, called them, announced them.
Speaker 3:Yeah, he like said a prayer Bada bing bada boom married couple in the room. Yeah, it was a beautiful ceremony. Yeah, beautiful location.
Speaker 1:Everything about it was great, everything they just didn Any time to set up None and then None, or even mic check for that matter. Old Bobby Sixstrings next to me is like two minutes into the exit song, looking at me going, you ready.
Speaker 2:You all set, I'm done here and I'm going.
Speaker 1:Man, this is unbelievable. We had no time to set up None and then we found out that we basically added two hours of work to our playlist. Thankfully, we have done enough of these now and I also have a background in like all these events and doing rallies and festivals and stuff where you just kind of roll with it and go with the crowd and the timeline and figure things out. So I think all those years of bar craziness prepares me for just kind of navigating that. And then you handle all the other nonsense keeping people away from me, getting things taken care of, quality assurance. All in all, I think it went tremendous.
Speaker 3:I think it went really good all in all, I think it went tremendous.
Speaker 1:I think it went really good. I think I was really thankful because I was worried for them with the weather, that a lot of people would want to leave because it was severe thunderstorms and they're worried about losing power in the area and all that. So I was worried they weren't going to have enough people at the end of the night, but that dance floor was packed the whole time, all night long.
Speaker 3:It was good. Dance floor was packed the whole time all night long. It was good. They definitely brought the dancing crowd, which was awesome because it was such a small, intimate venue that even with, um, like a ton of people like filing out, like after the ceremony and after eating and stuff, like it didn't feel empty no, I felt loaded the entire time.
Speaker 1:It was one of the most jam action packed dance floors we've had for a wedding.
Speaker 3:Because I watched the grandparents and a few of the aunts and uncles kind of trickle out, but they didn't. They did it so discreetly because the exit was at the back of the barn and the dance floor was at the very front, so they just kind of said their goodbyes and like walked on and it didn't make like a like an abrupt yeah.
Speaker 1:I thought it went tremendous. It was a great ceremony, it was a great time, um, you know, just a very successful, fun wedding, and we were approached by several people looking to possibly book us for other events. We had tremendous feedback and that entire interaction all of those things really go right hand in hand with the message that we delivered about a month ago when I said I'm done doing bars, I'm over it, I don't need to play in a bar anymore. I don't need to play in a bar anymore. The difference between playing parties where people want you to be there, whether it's a nine-year-old's birthday party or it's somebody's wedding day, they want you to be there, they appreciate you and it's just I don't know. It's just such a. It's so much more rewarding and fulfilling and it also pays a heck of a lot better than being in the bar yeah for sure.
Speaker 1:But we have another wedding coming up, not this weekend but next weekend, and before you know it we'll be at the Freiburg Fair. We're still trying to massage the schedule on when we're going. You're going, my mom's going the whole scenario. There's so many things going on. This is just a little screenshot as to what's going on in our world, and you know we're so much. There's so much cram jamming going on over there that it's, you know, pushing 11 o'clock on a Tuesday night. We're recording the podcast and it's going to drop on Wednesday morning. So this is just kind of our life right now.
Speaker 3:It's crazy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we just roll with the punches, just make it happen, captain. Mistakes will be made along the way, but you do the best you can to navigate it either way, and that's just. That's true. That's just kind of how I feel about it. We just put the best of intentions, try your ass off and hope for the best.
Speaker 3:Throw a Hail Mary, that's it. It's football season, that's it, isn't that, when people throw Hail Marys?
Speaker 1:Well, that's actually the Hail Mary comes from a Cowboys game. Well, Drew Pearson just saying.
Speaker 3:I knew that. That's why I dropped that for you, Hut hut.
Speaker 1:That's what Drew Pearson says. Anyways, I got to this point today where I've been pounding my face against a brick wall trying to plan the fundage and get things ordered at the right time and tracking things. I got to this point where I've been staring at the same spreadsheet, dealing with the same problems, the same drama, the same trauma. I ain't got time for nobody's mama. I said I got to do something different today. I need to cleanse the palate a little bit, even if it's going to push things off. I literally turned my computer off, walked out the Ever11 door, grabbed my toolbox and headed for the lawnmower. I took the deck off, dropped the new mower belt on, slapped that bad boy back together and topped her off with some gas and said I'm gonna make a dent in that lawn at the same time I said coffee's ready oh, that was time perfectly it may have been 6 pm yeah, I may have only
Speaker 1:been able to mow for a couple hours, and half of it with a cyclops headlight on.
Speaker 3:Oh no I meant 6 pm and we're drinking coffee, because that's uh, if that doesn't explain what our life is like lately.
Speaker 1:We knew we were going to work second and third shift tonight. It is what it is always I'm curious to see when the sun comes up tomorrow how many patches I left out there from trying to mow um, and I only have one fourth of the lawn, like our lawn scenario is like a 10 hour a day mowing, but uh I'm just trying to, you know, pick sections of it off and, um, it just makes me feel better to do something different and just to walk away.
Speaker 1:here's the thing when I had this whole list of shit and all these things, that is, there's just a pile of stuff that's never going to get finished. At the end of the day I know it's not going to get finished Do you know how satisfying it is to mow a section of lawn, get off the lawnmower, walk away, turn around, look back at it and go that there's done, I will say.
Speaker 3:coming down the driveway with the car lights on in the dark it looked great.
Speaker 1:Good good. There's something weird about when I leave the house and the lawn looks like shit and I'm stressed out trying to get my list of stuff done and I come back home and it looks like shit. It just bothers me and it's one more thing that weighs on the list. Is there anything going on in the garage right now?
Speaker 3:I was literally just going to say that I could literally clean this entire house top to bottom. It looks spotless. And then, the moment that I like walk down the stairs and I look at the garage, I'm like, well, what was the point of cleaning upstairs?
Speaker 1:there's a lot of that that's going to change in the next couple of months and we're going to be getting into that in a in a quick little segmo.
Speaker 1:But I just wanted to say that, like for me being able to cross something off the list, even though the whole lawn thing's not off the list, it's going to bother me till it is Knowing I've made a dent on something. I feel a little bit better because for the past like five or six days nothing's been completed. Everything's like you're waiting on some freaking. You know Donnie Bag of Dicks to come through on something. You know Joey Bag of Donuts. You know what I'm saying. Like this, tommy Tough Guy. You know Johnny Stringbean. You're waiting on all these people to pick up their end of the situation.
Speaker 1:Yep Sit around and wait, nothing's getting accomplished. I had to get out there and just do something, and that might be the lesson for people today. If you're struggling with, you know all the shit you got to get done, find something that makes you feel good when it gets done and just get it done. Clear your mind, reset the palette, swipe off the plate and just hit the olfactory reset, and I feel like I needed to do a little bit of that. I'm gonna keep, uh, you know, trying to break a section off here and there, because it just kind of helps clear my mind and, um, get me moving. You know, I think if I spent the whole day mowing, I'd feel guilty. I'm not getting anything done.
Speaker 1:So I have to like reward myself a little sections of it, but anyways but you always like to get out there and you got to get handsy. Yeah, I was just gonna say you like to do that a lot. I'd like to get handsy.
Speaker 3:I like to figure things out you like to get handsy in more ways than one amen sister, play your cards, right you gotta be careful out there mowing though with all them baby deer.
Speaker 1:You're going to mow one over. I think it was going to jump out and hit me.
Speaker 3:Either one.
Speaker 1:One of them popped out maybe 50 feet in front of me while I was mowing and just watched me. They don't care.
Speaker 3:They're so cute out there they do not care. We got all sorts of them back there. I don't want to tell the people, because they're going to show up and try to shoot them.
Speaker 1:Well, they're getting too comfortable and when season starts they're going to be in trouble, I think.
Speaker 3:I don't know, because this happens every year and some of them stay right here on our 10-acre lot because they know they can eat here. They can eat the apples and nobody's going to bother them. I don't know. I like to open up the back door in the middle of the day, at lunchtime, and see them.
Speaker 1:It's so weird. They're just hanging out Most people see deer like first thing in the morning or like at dusk. They're here all day. They're like sunbathing at noon. They don't give a shit.
Speaker 3:You see the little baby like bucking around, you're like all right, we've got a young buck out there now and he'll be picking apples at two o'clock in the afternoon oh yeah off the tree, not giving two toots about he is living his best life, they do not care and then the little babies out there with their little spots are corn oh yeah, they're, they're cute, they're cute well, a few minutes ago you said that um, you know the garage is a.
Speaker 1:You know it's a hot button, right it's a trigger for me frustration. It's a trigger. There's uh definitely areas for us that are triggers, like areolas. A couple of trigger areolas I have the office shed that I've been unable to do anything to, because we've just been on the road and it was more important to stock the shelf than it was to uh build a shelf, apparently.
Speaker 1:So that makes sense um, hopefully after Freiburg we have some, some fundage and I can get in there and start getting that thing rocking and rolling for the holidays. But doing that is going to allow us to move some stuff around, and there's um, there's maneuvering of things like um in my mom's basement, and all these things are going to help, um, you know, just free up some space. There's all these different things that we're working on that's going to help us free up some space and, um, we currently have a uh, bigger pressing need to free up some space because of, um, some workplace changes.
Speaker 3:Yeah, some workplace changes. Yeah, some workplace changes, that's one way to put it. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So let me see if I can set the scene a little bit, and I'm going to let you kind of say your spiel, and we're not going to get too personal on this. But I first and foremost just want to sprinkle a little praise on the scenario. Okay, All right.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 1:So you started a new job. Mm-hmm, there's a lot you like about it. There's a lot that you don't love about it. Is that fair?
Speaker 3:That I hate about it Okay.
Speaker 1:So there's a lot of things that you hate about it. Mm-hmm and I think that a lot of it has been a complete culture shock for you because you went from the hustle, bustle, fast pace in your face patient care scenario where you have patients yelling and screaming at you.
Speaker 1:You have co-workers all this nonsense. To now, you're basically just dealing with insurance companies and you don't really have the social interaction with patients or coworkers, right? So there's a lot of that that have been a big change for you, and you got to a point of being like I don't know if I'm happy with this. Maybe I should be looking at other things, and you've been really. What I want to say is you spent a lot of time and thought over this and you didn't just dwell and swell over it. You did something about it and your ability to have uncomfortable conversations calling a meeting with management, having the conversation.
Speaker 1:You were rewarded with what I think is a tremendous opportunity, and one that might scare the pants off of you because it's not something you ever imagined doing, but I think it's great. I'm not saying you have to do it. I'm not saying that it's the end, all be all, but I'm just saying that I'm proud of you for really spending the time to think of what the situation was and being comfortable enough to call it on the carpet have the conversation you know most people don't have it and, um, I just wanted to say that I'm proud of you for doing that and I think it's a good deal, but, uh, that's for you to decide and for you to share.
Speaker 1:Show and tell your portion of the show. This is the montel williams portion of the show.
Speaker 3:Show and tell that the people know yeah, I mean, I uh don't really know what the right answer is. I don't know, um, if this culture shock, um, job situation will change, uh or not. I'm not really sure we're going to ride it out and I'm going to give it a good effort, but, um, I've been in this new position for four months now and it's exactly what you said. I went from patient care to behind the scenes dealing with authorizations and insurance companies and that sort of thing, and, as much as I don't mind that stuff, it is a culture shock because I don't have the day-to-day interactions with patients so much so that I actually joke about it in my cubicle, which also not made out for cubicle life, If you know. You know.
Speaker 1:I've done cube life.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's not for many people, to be honest. I mean, I'll say that it's more for the type of people that are in my office the introverts, yes, the nerds, the ones that just want to go to work and not be bothered.
Speaker 1:Um, and what I've gathered is that's just not me well, the thing is here, too, is if you rewind the clock and listen to the show when you were making the switch, these are all things you thought you wanted right because you didn't want to deal with the patient nonsense anymore. You didn't want to be, you know, frontline reception stuff, having to deal with the chaos so you made this switch, thinking this was going to be the best thing for you, and now you're like I don't know if this is what I really want to do basically.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean I've had the opportunity to kind of evaluate the situation, that I know that I don't want to be frontline driver seat of patient care, that I don't want. But I also don't want to be in the third row seat of the suburban where I can't be involved with anything. So I'm taking this time to kind of evaluate the situation. Over the last couple of months and I, you know, I called a meeting with my manager and I just said, listen, like I don't really know if this type of work is for me, I don't know if cube life is for me, I don't know if, you know, being all the way behind the scenes is for me. I said, and also, it's really hard for me to adjust, working on a team that nobody really cares to talk to one another. I jokingly say every day, if not every other day, that I work in the morgue. Like that's what it feels like when I go to my cubicle, like I'll say hi to people but nobody wants to say hi back. I'll try to interact with people that are on my team less than two feet away from me, and like it's like I'm talking to a dead body, like there's no response. So it's, it's hard because I am have always been on the front line, um, working with patients, so going in and then there's no interaction, it's, it's different. Uh, not saying that I can't adjust to it, cause it's only been a short amount of time and I do have to give it some more time, but, having this uncomfortable conversation with my manager, she said well, let's just try allowing you to work from home, and currently my schedule is Monday, wednesday, friday, I'm in the cubicle and then Tuesday, thursday, I'm working from home. And that schedule is because of the fair season. Like, I had the ability to work from the camper, which is amazing, an absolute awesome opportunity. That that's even a thing, because that's not been a thing in any of my other jobs. So super grateful, super thankful for that. I had the ability to be more interactive with my daughter. I don't necessarily. I have the ability to not feel like a part-time mom, because I'm leaving for eight hours a day. So there are some perks to being able to work from home. And so when I was having this conversation, she said you know, let's see if we can make an exception and allow you to work from home. And I approached it with well, yeah, I'm working from home Tuesday, thursday and she's like no, I mean like indefinitely. Like let's see. Like I'm happy to make an exception and meet you where you're at. You know we don't want to lose you. We think you're a great asset to the team. She's like but I understand if you don't want to be here anymore and this isn't the type of work for you. So it was a very hard conversation to have with my manager. She actually praised me for having the conversation. She said to me like it's not easy, the conversation that you just had is not easy for me. She's like but to be honest with you, I'm not surprised by it because I've done this before and with patient care employees and sometimes it's not a very good adjustment, but we're willing to meet you where you're at. So that's where we're at right now. Is that? You know, I just had this conversation the other day with my manager and we're going to ride it out and we're going to see what happens.
Speaker 3:There are so many benefits to me being able to work from home. Besides, like you know the obvious, like you get to work from home, but you know, I get to see my daughter more, less, less travel. Um, you don't have to deal with, like the hustle and bustle of getting to work in the morning, like so many perks, um. But there's also some downfalls. Like you know, you're always in your house and you know you're constantly looking around at like all the like you said, all of like the trigger spots that you're like. All right, well, I got to clean out this area and make room for me here. So that's basically what we're going to be working on now is just finding office space for me here and now it's going to be you and I adjusting to being around each other 24 seven.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but we still hit the road, we still do those things. Like you already have an office space in my office, but then, if you think about it and for people that are listening, like we will have multiple office locations.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So I think that that helps. Right, You're not working from the couch.
Speaker 3:No.
Speaker 1:So, like there's a, we'll have two offices next door in my office, basically, right, we could put a satellite scenario in the basement if we wanted, where the TV is down there in the garage we could do when we finish the new work office. That's another office location, and you've built an office location upstairs, right? So there's basically four locations you can work from, so a couple of them have to be finished, so you have a couple right now.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 1:So you have those work locations. As somebody that's made the adjustment to working from home, it's not easy, right, because it's always the fallback of like, oh, you're home, you can do this. But it gets easier for both of us when we can't pass the buck because we're both home. You understand what I'm saying. Like, when we can't pass the buck because we're both home, you understand what I'm saying? Like you're not going to get all these things dropped on your plate like, hey, do these because you're home. Right, because I'm home to do them too. Where, right now, it's one of those scenarios where, if you and my mom are gone and I have the baby and it's like can this be done, can that be done?
Speaker 3:Can this be?
Speaker 1:done. Well, then, all have daycare at the same time and we're both working and we're both getting to see our daughter throughout the day right all the times where you feel like I'm missing out on this I've missed that I'm worried about missing this.
Speaker 3:You're not going to right because all of that's here you know, and then if we decide to go on the road and do some southern shows or whatnot, like you know, all three of us can go because we have, like I can work from anywhere so that's the thing.
Speaker 1:And then it doesn't have to be like, hey, can I have this off, can I do this, can I do that? No, I'll just take my shit with me, right, and I'll just make it happen, because you can literally work from anywhere yeah, like I just worked from windsor fair, yeah, um, which is a huge benefit take a half a day it was raining.
Speaker 1:You said, screw it, I'm gonna work the whole day. He's gonna run the tent. So the ability for the business this is tremendous. The ability for you as a mom this is amazing.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You think about all the things like there's a trickle-down effect that you don't even think about. Right, like hitting the turnpike once or twice a day, five days a week. Take those tolls away, right, you're saving $4 or $5 a day, right there. Right, you think about the fuel that's being saved, the wear and tear that's being saved. Think about a nor'easter coming in and just knowing I don't have to go to work in the morning. I'm not going to miss any work, I'm going to make the money I need to make and I can plow the driveway at noontime if I want, because it doesn't matter, you know like it's tuesday, thursday right, but just all those different things that it comes into.
Speaker 1:And for me I would say, 10 years ago, being told I was going to work from home, or given the option to work from home, I would have been like no way in hell. I'm not doing that, I am a people, person when I am now. If you told me that was an option, I would say this is the greatest thing on the face of the earth.
Speaker 3:I think that's where I'm at right now is that I'm stuck in, that I'm a people person kind of mentality, that like anytime I heard someone was going to be working from home, or like the option, like it was an ick for me, like I was like yeah, like I enjoy getting out of my house, like yeah, but you can still find ways to get out of your house and, and you enjoy those other things that much more when you do them.
Speaker 1:You don't take things for granted right that you're. I'm just gonna do this you know what I mean right. Sometimes, like for me, it's the routine. I gotta get up in the morning, I gotta drive down and get a coffee, come back and then go to work. I feel like I'm clocking in, I feel like I'm going somewhere.
Speaker 1:There's all these different things that you have to do. But, honestly, if I had your background and the hospital said to me, hey, I'm going to let you work from home this, this, and that I'd probably do that and run my business because you could do it you know what I'm saying I think it's amazing. I think it's an amazing opportunity for you. If it's not for you, then I fully understand. But, like me, after all the years of you know face-to-face sales and indoor work, stuff, like dealing with all those things, it's refreshing to not have to. And when you miss that social aspect, you start a damn podcast and you get the aspect back. Because that's why I started the podcast in the pandemic, right, because we weren't talking to people and having those conversations.
Speaker 1:I know that we both look at things differently, but I think that this is massive for you, because the sticking points for you, the difficult points for you, over the course of the years have been like since COVID, everybody's an asshole, right, People aren't polite anymore. People threw their manners in the clapper. Since COVID, right, customer service isn't a thing anymore. So everybody's demanding nonsense. And I feel like I have to imagine patients are bigger assholes now than they ever have been, because your average customer is if I'm behind three people in a coffee shop, two of them are going to be complete dicks to the person taking their order.
Speaker 1:That's everywhere you go right now to eliminate having to deal with just pecker heads, because I feel like so many people are entitled. Since COVID, everybody thinks, hey, I'm more important than you, and for me that's. Everybody thinks, hey, I'm more important than you, and for me that's one of the reasons why I'm so thankful I'm not selling motorcycles anymore, because I couldn't deal with it and I also couldn't deal with the inner work just cattiness that happens. That's part of the reason why I'll never work for anybody else again. Um, but for you you have all the big business benefits of working for a big company without the big business drawbacks. I think that's. I think it's awesome. But again, that's totally up to you.
Speaker 1:There's challenges on the relationship at the same time, like you said, because we are going to be around each other, uh, more, but there. At the same time, like you said, because we are going to be around each other more. But there's still times where I'm gone for a week or two. You're not going to want to go every time and my mom's going to do different things or whatever. So there's all these different things. We're not always going to be just attached by the hip. So I don't know. I think it's really good. Either way, I'm proud of you for number one, having the courage to state it and start the conversation, and number two, you've clearly been doing a good job for them to not want to lose you and instantly offer you that opportunity.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah for sure, and I'm sure I'll get there. It's just going to take some time.
Speaker 1:I think you have to feel appreciated that they're actually willing to listen and do that. Yeah, of course.
Speaker 3:Of course, Because I mean, the conversation was going in a completely different way when I started the conversation. The conversation started off with I'm not happy here and I'm going to look for another job. Yeah, that's what I walked in and I called the meeting for. That's what I walked in and I called the meeting for Um, and so for them to be like well, let's meet you where you're at. You're a good asset to the team. You know we don't want to lose you. Um, how about this instead? Yeah, Um, to be honest, I, I, I think it's nice. It does show that they do care and they want me there. It's just a big change. So I just got to get comfortable with that, so we'll get there.
Speaker 1:I fully understand what you're saying For me. I guess I don't grasp why it seems like such a Debbie Downer moment for you, because it shouldn't be.
Speaker 3:It's hard. It's going to be a hard adjustment and I'm just trying to get there.
Speaker 1:I understand what you're saying, but I don't think it's as hard of an adjustment as you think it is, because all the things that you've ever complained about at a job has been taken off your plate. Right, this is everything literally all the frustrations that you've ever said, like bad management, shitty coworkers, inner working, nonsense, angry customers, patients, drama, trauma, drug addicts, whatever. All the different careers and I'm bundling all the jobs you've had when I say these things. You've worked at clinics for drug rehabilitation, you've worked customer service, you've worked, obviously, medical. You've been everywhere. It all comes down to the same things, right Bad management, angry customers, slash patients, lazy coworkers and just not getting along with co-workers.
Speaker 1:Right, all that's off the plate, I would be baking cakes and blowing up balloons and celebrating with straight enthusiasm.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm not saying that I won't get there, but I'm just getting there. This is brand new. It's only been. I mean, I haven't even started that opportunity yet. You know what I mean. Like I, so I don't really I'm adjusting, I'm I'm trying I you know what I mean. Like I don't know how it's going to go, I'm still dealing with with bad management, so I'm trying to navigate that as well. So I mean I'm not saying like there are way more pros than there are cons, but it's a lot of adjusting and it's all going to be good in the end. I'm just a creature of habit.
Speaker 1:Everybody is and that makes total sense. I think that there's a big lesson there that, when we all look at, is just like you said we're all creatures of habit. Sometimes the things we complain about most in life when they're taken from us, we complain about them being taken from us. Sure, so to yourself, stop and think about that. A creature of habit, I get it, but some of those habits are the biggest things that have caused me the biggest frustration in my life. But the moment they're taken away from me there's cause for concern because they're taken away from me.
Speaker 1:Sometimes in life, people, the things that we complain about, we might complain about them, but we don't really necessarily want to complain about them enough to not have to deal with them. You know what I'm saying. I think that's why some people are like I'm going to quit smoking next week, but I'd rather just keep smoking and complaining and talking about quitting smoke. You know what I mean. Sometimes it's our habits. We just get locked into them. Like I go to Dunkin' Donuts every day for a coffee and I complain about how bad the coffee is every single day. I complain about how much I need to save money, but I go back for a coffee every single day. We're creatures of habit.
Speaker 1:That certainly is a big part of it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I've been doing the same type of work since I left high school, which was back in 2010. So just going getting out of that routine, just like when you weren't going to the dealership anymore, you had to like form a new routine. That's where I'm at right now. So it's not that I'm a Debbie Downer, it's just I'm trying to navigate all the opportunities that are put on my plate right now, which are all good and I'm not saying that, like you know, like I said, there are more good than bad. It's just trying to form a game plan and trying to navigate all the changes all at once, Like there's a lot going on all at once between fair season, this new work schedule situation. Still, I'm learning the new job, like that at the same time.
Speaker 3:So you know, and being able to navigate, like the milestones of my one-year-old daughter and like so much is happening all at once, um that I'm just trying to to navigate everything there's a lot.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of changes. Yeah, I think the only way to handle those and to give any of them a fair shot and shake at succeeding is to create some structure.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 1:So I think that's a big part of it. You have to create some structure and establish a routine. That's one of the biggest things you can do for yourself, right biggest things you can do for yourself, right. So, figuring out whatever it is on, you know if it's a permanent office scenario, like you know what time you do this when you do that.
Speaker 1:all those things, the more of those things that you can carve out for yourself and create structure, the better off you're going to be, because everything you're saying about, like the newness and the culture, change, and I went through that and I struggled with that when I started trying to work from home because it's very easy to dismiss what you're supposed to be doing for all the distractions that are around you.
Speaker 1:To start cleaning this to go check the mail to start building that, like all those things happen to doom, scrolling to whatever, there's nobody watching over you. There's a lot that goes into it and you have to form some kind of structure or it could become a train wreck and I yeah, I spent. Oh, you know. The other thing is, when I tried doing it, covet happened, so it was even more stupid because I couldn't do anything anyways but, like.
Speaker 1:I totally understand what you're saying on the trying to figure out life all at the same time, but my only advice to you would be find a routine, create some structure and make something like consistent. This is consistently where I'm going to start my day. That's consistently where I'm going to work, like doing those things. It's nice to be able to pop on the couch and take a few calls, but having the structure like this is where I'm clocking in, I'm at work right now you know, yeah.
Speaker 1:Because if all your time is spent in the same 20 feet between day and night and morning and night, I mean then it's chaos, you know.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, it's just a lot all at once.
Speaker 1:Either way, I am proud of you for putting it out there and I'm happy to hear that they gave you the opportunity, whether it ends up sticking long term for you or not Like the fact that you created this opportunity by doing your best to be your best, then that's something to be commended.
Speaker 1:So I thought that it would be a good opportunity for you to share that, because I think it's exciting. It's a new challenge in so many ways for you, for the baby, for myself, for everybody right. There's a lot that goes into it, but it's, uh, just one more thing.
Speaker 3:In the wild, crazy times of our lives and what we do, it's true, it's true, all while trying to keep our uh mentals and dentals in line hey, there you go using one of my lines.
Speaker 1:I actually stole that line from a cowboy's podcast, but well, I'm borrowing it for you because I mean, during fair season and everything else that's going on, it's not easy no, I actually heard something um tonight shortly before the podcast as a uh tony Robbins motivational training he was doing and I I saved it cause I think it's pretty awesome. The first part of this is kind of not relevant, but I'm just trying to get to it while we fill time. So if you want to go ahead and just use some jazz hands and distract the people, that would be. That would be great.
Speaker 1:I'm going to my activity Likes. There you go, maybe try snaps and claps. There you go Coffee session, all right. Here we go, folks, I'm going to play this video real quick, possibly. I lost it again. Wow, what a distraction I am. Your activity, turn the volume up. You're doing a great job on snaps and claps. Here's the video.
Speaker 2:No no, no, are you sure? Because they're fucking red. Don't you be smiling like that? You'll fuck everything up. If you smile like that too much, you'll want to stick around. You've been so hard on yourself. I love that you have such high standards, but those aren't high standards. That's called perfection, and most people overestimate what they can do in a year and they underestimate what they can do in two or three decades, and you haven't been around long enough to have those extra two or three decades. So don't fuck it up. There's time.
Speaker 1:I think that speaks volume to us and the way that we look at things. When we think about where we want our lives to be, we think about where we want our business to be, where we want our careers to be. It's great that we have such high standards for ourselves, but those high standards that we have, they're not high standards, they're actually perfection, and perfection's not good. We're never going to reach and attain perfection. The line that Tony delivers most overestimate what they can do in a year, but underestimate what they can do in a couple decades.
Speaker 1:That, to me, stopped me in my tracks because this whole entire year I've been working towards I'm finally going to hit that number I've always wanted to hit for our business. Like I'm hell bent on this one number for our business and I'm going to get there at all costs. No regards, it's going to happen. I'm hell-bent on this one number for our business and I'm going to get there at all costs. No regards, it's going to happen. I'm hell-bent on this number and I'm so hyper-focused on what I can do in one year that you don't give yourself credit for what you can do in a couple decades. And for me, I'm just using the business example of if I stop and look at what I've accomplished in five years, I should give myself some more credit for what I don't accomplish in one year. But when you stop and think about 10 years like think about all that you and I wanted to accomplish the first year.
Speaker 3:We started dating yeah.
Speaker 1:We didn't get anywhere near what we wanted to in our first year. Like, think about it, you lost your apartment, me and you were living with my parents. You think about all the things that we tried to accomplish in a year. We had this perfection on ourselves that we wanted to accomplish in a year. Perfection isn't fair, but if you give yourself the opportunity to look at what you could do in a couple of decades, you then think about what you and me have done in a decade of being together. Think about the places we've been, the things we've overcome. Think about our lives now, where we live, how we live and who we live with.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 1:We have such high standards for ourselves that it just isn't fair. And when you live your life with standards that are too high, you begin to hate yourself, resent yourself, doubt yourself and smother yourself, because those standards aren't standards, they're perfection and we're never going to live up to perfection. We're never going to live up to the Instagram filter. We're never going to live up to those fantasies. We can all have hopes, goals, dreams and aspirations, but we need to give ourselves credit for the year we've had and look at the decade we will have.
Speaker 1:You understand, I don't know. I just feel like I've been running in the rat race and I know that our life seems to be going crazy and we're doing all this wild stuff and there's so many changes happening to us and we just have this ultimate goal and feeling of like this is what I want. So what I want for my family, this is where I want to be for our family, and trying to live up to those expectations can crush you and can cause you to almost be paralyzed and not chase and work for your dreams. But if you just give yourself some credit and think about knowing what we've accomplished in our first 10 years, can you imagine what we're going to accomplish in the next 10?. Well, it's 11-11 on my watch. I don't know what that microwave behind me says. Behind me, my watch says 11-11.
Speaker 3:We'll make a damn wish.
Speaker 1:We're going to bake it. Take it and send this episode off to production.
Speaker 3:We're supposed to make a wish in quiet Moment of silence.
Speaker 1:Thank you for supporting our American dream. I just pissed off my wife.
Speaker 3:Thank you for supporting my wish, okay.
Speaker 1:At 1111. My wish for you is to stop talking. And go wash your fucking hands, filthy, savage.
Speaker 3:Go wash your hands. Talk to you next time, just go wash them, germaphobe 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 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 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. I truly thank you for supporting my American dream. Now go wash your fucking hands, you filthy savage.