202 | Sam Pate | Bear Butt Wipes | Happy New Year the Pod is Back!

We're back for 2026!

In this episode, the hosts discuss various personal experiences, including love stories, running in Tennessee, and setting New Year goals. They introduce their guest, Sam Pate (14:28), the creator of Bear Butt Wipes, who shares his journey of entrepreneurship, the challenges he faced, and the importance of branding. The conversation touches on balancing family life with personal ambitions and the significance of networking in business. Sam shares his journey of expanding his brand into the outdoor market, focusing on sustainability and community engagement. He discusses the challenges of product development, the importance of branding, and the strategies he employs to grow his business organically. The conversation also touches on personal experiences, sponsorships, and the significance of customer feedback in shaping the future of his product.

During the Tros, Eric and Erika celebrate the new year with excitement and reflections on their holiday adventures. They discuss listener engagement, personal goals for the year, and introduce their guest, Sam. The conversation also touches on the evolution of MTV, family traditions during Christmas, and the joys of gaming with the Nintendo Switch. They wrap up with thoughts on fundraising and community support, emphasizing the importance of listener feedback and personal growth.

Chapters

00:00 Welcome Back and New Year Excitement
06:27 Listener Engagement and Feedback Survey
09:20 Setting New Year Goals and Personal Growth
14:28 Introducing the Guest: Sam Pate of Bare Butt Wipes
20:01 Sam's Journey into Running
26:04 The Birth of Bare Butt Wipes
32:02 The Development of the Product
35:13 Brand Identity and Marketing Strategies
51:44 Logo Design and Brand Identity
56:46 The Journey of a 100-Mile Race
60:30 Sponsorships and Community Engagement
62:14 Manufacturing and Product Development Challenges
01:17:28 Reflections on the First Year of Business
01:21:22 Organic Growth and Patience in Business
01:29:40 Creative Marketing Ideas and Brand Identity
01:31:00 Family Feud Experience and Personal Stories
01:40:23 Discussion on Small Business and Product Quality
01:42:13 Nostalgia for MTV and Cultural Reflections
01:49:35 Holiday Reflections and Family Traditions
01:52:49 Gaming Adventures: The Nintendo Switch Experience
01:54:43 Car Troubles and Life Lessons
01:59:18 Racing Perspectives: Value in Running Events
02:01:53 Fundraising Fatigue: A Hot Take on Community Support

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Don't Fear The Code Brown and Don't Forget To Stretch!

Transcript

Eric (00:02)
You know what? That deserves one of these. ⁓

Erika (00:00)
And we're back!

Eric (00:10)
you

Episode 202. ⁓

What's up, everybody? Welcome to episode 202 of the On the Runs podcast. It's a new year and it's time to put the Christmas decorations away, but keep the fireplace going and the hot cocoa on the stove because baby, it's cold outside, but it is going to warm up this weekend for some sunny runs outside before the temps drop again. We've missed you and we have so much to catch up on and we're wicked excited for 2026.

But before anything else, I must say hello to my kick-ass Rockstar ever co-host, six-star Erika. Happy New Year!

Erika (01:44)
Happy New Year! Oh, it feels good to be back. I missed you. It has been way too long since we've done some of this recording.

Eric (01:52)
You missed me. That's a good thing because that means I succeeded at leaving you alone for a solid like five weeks with the exception of one day when we all got together and did the Christmas episode.

Erika (02:01)
It was weird. Yeah. I usually talk

to you like every day and then just like radio sounds for little while.

Eric (02:09)
I hold on one second. Popping that.

Celsius, not a beer. It's gonna be a late night, because we actually have a recording with someone pretty cool coming up soon. It's 8.15, we're starting here on Monday night, and we're recording with someone in an hour.

Erika (02:17)
Mm-hmm, worth it.

My fault. It's my fault I

messed up our usual Sunday night tros because I just got to go to the Patriots game and they actually won. Dude. All right. Two, two good things. The Patriots won. That's of course one of the best, but number two, I did not freeze. I layered up appropriately and I did not feel freezing cold. I mean, some beer helped, but I was comfortable during this game. It was wonderful.

Eric (02:28)
Well, that's true.

How was that?

in.

Beer always helps. I used to go to so many Patriots games with Jay. He hasn't invited me in a while because he has a really cute girlfriend. fiance, actually, no. ⁓ did you, he used to take me all the time in like, has season tickets, same seats, and the guy who would sit next to him would be like, you single again every time I'd show up? Cause he would always take me when he had no girlfriend to take. but I, kind of always thought the same thing. It was never that cold in the stadium. Yes, it's an outdoor stadium, but

Erika (02:52)
Mm-hmm.

I saw them. Yes, I saw them. I did. made sure.

Mm-hmm.

Eric (03:20)
just all the body heat and everything and the beers flowing and yeah, it never felt cold. It would be cold outside tailgating, but never felt cold in there. And one time I dressed up in a gorilla suit. Yes, I was Bigfoot. And that's also a clue for a future guest, by the way, but that's the only clue I'm ever going to give you guys for this guest. Yeah, one day I dressed up as Bigfoot at a Patriots game with Jay. It was...

Erika (03:22)
Yeah, yeah, it works.

yeah, yeah.

Did you really? Well, I know somebody else has done that before.

Eric (03:50)
Was it to flake gate? I don't think it was to flake gate. I was there for that with Jay. Yeah. I let the air out of the footballs. I'm Tom Brady's guy. I was, I was the deflator as they call them. Yeah. Yep. Tom Brady was on my favorite podcast and I think it dropped today, Monday. I haven't listened to it yet, but he was on spitting chiclets, the hockey podcast. I know that's like, that's like the pinnacle. got Greksky and Brady.

Erika (03:52)
Were you there for that? Oh shit. Love that. That's all your fault. Yeah. Way to go, dude.

Really?

Really? Interesting.

Eric (04:19)
Which is cool because they do get guests and that brings me to something coming up, but they do get guests who aren't always about hockey. They've had golfers and stuff and they've had some pretty interesting people. had Tom Brady. Yeah. So they've had Grekski, the great one. They've had Tom Brady the goat. They still need to get Bobby Orr. You know who Bobby Orr is, right? Okay. That means Don did a good job raising you. Good job, Donald. Good job.

Erika (04:28)
that's fun. Nice. Branching out.

Mm-hmm. of course I know who Bobby Orr is. He did. Yup, yup. He's a legend.

Eric (04:46)
That actually brings me to something I want to bring this up really quick and then we'll get to like some new year goals that we have. But, ⁓ people like non-running people on the podcast. What do you guys think? I am going to send out on Thursday, a questionnaire. It's going to be like a survey monkey type of thing. And I've been building this and I want you to see it and you to fine tune it. But I'm asking a lot of questions like that. Like our episodes too long. Do you think the trolls are too long or too

Erika (04:50)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Eric (05:11)
Because some people told us recently that they actually really enjoyed this part of the podcast and they wish we talked more in the beginning. Should we separate? Like we're not going to make any changes, but we want to kind of understand the way everybody feels. So we're going to put something out on Thursday with like 20 questions plus like

Erika (05:30)
Nice. Nice.

Eric (05:30)
one box where you can leave any kind of comments and say, guys suck. You guys suck. Yeah. I mean, it would be good. It would be good to know if we suck.

Erika (05:34)
Nice. That'll be valuable information. Help us grow in the new year.

I mean, don't show me those. Just nice comments only you get. No, I'm just kidding.

Eric (05:42)
Just be honest. I would

love for you guys to do this in the fact it's going to be, um, like a survey questionnaire, a monkey survey monkey or whatever. We won't know who you are, so you can leave truthful comments, right?

Erika (05:51)
Nice. Uh-huh.

Let's go with the compliment sandwiches, you guys. Give us something good, then something we can fix, and then another good thing. I like the compliment sandwiches. Mm-hmm.

Eric (06:03)
I love criticism as I said before, so I love it. And

only two people are sick and tired of 6-7, so they didn't get 6-7 votes to totally nix the 6-7.

Erika (06:14)
Just you wait, buddy. I am in cahoots with somebody and you're going to pay for that. Winkity wink wink.

Eric (06:20)
It wasn't even my fault. It was the girl's

fault. I didn't even try for it. In fact, if you notice, I didn't even call you 6-7 star.

Erika (06:27)
I

I didn't say anything about it because I'm not gonna be the one to bring it up. So we're gonna leave it at that

Eric (06:32)
You better be in cahoots with

somebody about the other two. Because it's them. It's all them.

Erika (06:40)
I'm not just blaming you. I'm not just blaming you.

Eric (06:42)
I do

love, I do love the 6-7, because it makes people happy, just like the music talk. I'm like, if you like Nickelback, that's awesome for you. Which, when I was editing a bunch of episodes for those best of, do you remember, I asked you this question back in like May or June. We did an AMA, and one of the questions was, is Nickelback good or bad? Do you remember that? Do you remember what you answered?

Erika (06:46)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

No. What did I say?

Eric (07:10)
You first said no comment. And then you change, then you change no comment to, no, they're not bad, they're good.

Erika (07:14)
I mean, I can kind of stick by that.

mean, they've got some songs like you can't help but like, I mean, I'm not one to just go shitting on things, so.

Eric (07:24)
Yeah!

You go with

the flow. Come on. Let's be honest. You go with the flow.

Erika (07:32)
Let's just say if Nickelback came on the radio, I wouldn't jump to change the station. I can handle it. Yeah.

Eric (07:37)
That's a good answer. It's

good So happy new year. What are some of your goals for the new year here? Let's not talk, there's no new year resolutes. Like we're just working on ourselves here. What are some, so we talked about this. like, what are some goals that you want to like try to do? And you could try this on the 1st of February. You don't need to start on the 1st of the year. But what are some of your new goals for the new year? What do you got going on this year?

Erika (07:41)
Yeah, dude!

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Well, honestly, I'm just going to spend the year trying to step outside of my comfort zone a little bit. for right now, it means doing more running outside. With Tara and Lindsay and a few other people, we created an on the runs team for Winter Warriors. So I'm trying, I'm being a little more mindful about like, oh, I've got run to do. I'll go outside instead of just hopping on the treadmill.

I am trying to force myself to do things that are uncomfortable. I mean, later on, this is going to mean running more trails, trying to run faster, just being a little more uncomfortable.

Eric (08:42)
Maybe a triathlon?

Erika (08:44)
No. ⁓

that was funny. Nice job. No, no. I mean...

Eric (08:49)
Try to get outside your comfort zone. Get in a pool. Just get in a

pool. It's the same thing as like riding the Peloton. Get in a pool.

Erika (08:56)
But Swimmy's aren't allowed, you guys. I haven't even

been on the bike in a long time. You know what? Honestly, that's probably pretty uncomfortable for me at this point, too, is riding the bike. I haven't been on it just covered. It's basically like a clothing rack in my basement.

Eric (09:02)
I have.

what's going on down there.

you mean down there

like the basement where the bike is. okay. Okay. I thought I thought you were saying down there is a little uncomfortable right now.

Erika (09:20)
⁓ no. The bike. Not me. I'm fine.

God. No. no, no, no. I'm fine. But I just haven't ridden the bike in a long time. I mean, honestly, that seat doesn't do me any favors, but. Yeah, I think I did. I still don't like it. No. No, no, no, no. That was Taryn Lindsay. I.

Eric (09:32)
You can get a new seat.

Well, you just started, did you start a Parazon pack? I think you did, right? Others did. Yeah.

Erika (09:45)
I haven't, it just doesn't align well with what KJ gives me cause I'm still working with KJ this year. We're gonna, we're gonna push some limits there and I, yeah, I just like to stick to my runs and I am going to keep doing the strength training. Yeah.

Eric (09:52)
Right.

I need, good, good, nice, me too.

My goal for this year, and it's funny, Mo and I mentioned it yesterday, Maurice, the panda, is to ⁓ lift more than runners and run faster than lifters.

Erika (10:03)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

There you go. Okay. I like that.

Eric (10:12)
That's one of our goals for

the new year. More strength training, really. And then my other one, my real one that I wrote down for this, is I want to eat healthier snacks. station snacks. Like I'm notorious for going to the gas station and getting a bag of chips. And not a little bag. I get the big bag because it's more for your value.

Erika (10:20)
Mm-hmm.

Chips. Mm-hmm.

Eric (10:37)
But I'm going to make more trips like the grocery store and get like

Erika (10:38)
I feel that.

Eric (10:42)
sugar snap peas or something healthier snacks, green green snacks for school, for school, not school work and snack on healthier snacks. That's my goal. I want to snack on it because I want to eat. I'm not going to be fasting and the fasting is just, it actually really works, but I never like.

Erika (10:43)
Yeah.

It's hard to fast, especially

if you're, if you're trying to exercise. Like I know there are people who, work out fasted, but it's not the, it's not the best thing for you. I mean, I'm not a nutritionist. don't know, but yeah, you got to feel your body.

Eric (11:03)
Right, I'm trying to strength train and all that.

Well, it's not bad either, but I want to strength train and I want to run more, which I haven't done.

I haven't been running. Guess the last time I ran. It was with you. Yeah. Thanksgiving. Guess how my feet feel. Yeah. They feel amazing. So the gout, the gout was one thing. Yeah, the gout was one thing, but

Erika (11:19)
⁓ when did you run? Really? So what, that was Thanksgiving? Shit, dude. So I know you've... How they feel? Better, I hope. Okay, so it didn't mess with your skiing.

Eric (11:37)
I needed the time off all that marathon training time off my feet because I would have like waking the more wake up in the morning and plantar fasciitis and stuff. It just was getting bad. I would have to like wake up my feet, the blood flowing and stuff. Now my feet feel amazing every morning when I wake up. So was a good break. Maybe can we talk to a foot expert? Can we get a foot expert? That will be another question. Like, do you like when we have an expert in an area like a nutritionist, like an Alex Larson on the podcast or if the physical therapist.

Erika (11:45)
Mm.

Mm-hmm.

Good.

Yeah.

Eric (12:06)
⁓ or it's just like strictly runners only guys. You let us know. But yeah, my feet feel amazing. I haven't run, but I've been active. I've been working out with Justin at his house, kicking my ass. I've been working out in the gym at work and I know I posted about it today. Today wasn't the only day I worked out at the gym just to make a post. I've been working out there. I've skied 10 times. 10. 10.

Erika (12:16)
Nice.

Nice. Nice, nice.

10? Holy crap. I saw

you brought your boys, you brought Adeline, like you're getting out there. So I'm glad you're at least still doing something even though it may not be running then that's okay.

Eric (12:39)
Yeah, but my foot isn't

doing that motion of running where it, when you get up on your toes and it flexes, like, so that's why my foot really has had that recovery time. I feel, I think, I'm no expert, but I diagnosed myself with gout and maybe it was gout, maybe it was a stress fracture. Don't know, but Google tell me one thing.

Erika (12:46)
Mmm.

Gotcha. Well, see, hopefully

it won't keep doing pain. That was not a sentence. What? Sure.

Eric (13:04)
Yeah. Well, let's get a foot expert on. Anyone know a foot expert,

like a shoe expert who can tell me like, maybe I'm running in the wrong shoe. Why I keep getting that planner is when I'm in a serious training cycle. It's never affected my run. It only affects me in the morning where I'm like, don't want to get out of bed because it's going to be hurtful to walk. And once I make it to the bathroom and downstairs, I'm good to go. But it's like that whole

Erika (13:16)
Mmm.

⁓ maybe you just need to roll.

Eric (13:30)
getting to that bathroom. Man, if I have to go pee and I know the foot, it's like a hobble. Trying to get there.

Erika (13:37)
maybe you really do need to just do extra stretches and maybe get like a tennis ball or something and just like work the arch of your foot and kind of warm it up a little bit before you start your day. There we go.

Eric (13:44)
Right. Maybe. Let's get a foot expert on and they'll tell us.

Those are some of my new year goals. You got yours outside your comfort zone, but you're not, you're not, you know, really toughening up yet without doing a triathlon. So.

Erika (13:52)
It's respectable, yeah.

Winter running, trust me, that's enough for me. I'm always frozen solid.

Eric (14:04)
All right. All right. Hey, I know I said earlier we weren't going to have a guest today, but I changed my mind. I'm indecisive. Lots of things going on. I think if we recorded last night, what you went to the Patre's game, I think we would have talked like 90 minutes and caught up and we have a lot to catch up on. And maybe we do jump on the pod again and drop something on Friday. Maybe not, but we do have an awesome guest today.

Erika (14:06)
Yeah.

Probably.

Sure.

Eric (14:28)
an ultrarunner who runs a ton of miles and he carries these special wipes with him when he runs. Erika, tell us who we have on the pod today.

Erika (14:37)
We have Sam Pate. He is the creator of Bare Butt Wipes, and it's a personal favorite of ours because it's come in handy quite a few times. So yeah, we got to hear all about his running journey and his journey creating Bare Butt Wipes.

Eric (14:53)
Yeah, it was a lot of fun. guys enjoy this and please, if you enjoy this episode and you like it, everything follows on Instagram, subscribe to the YouTube channel, check it out. Sam was amazing. Follow Bare Butt Wipes. Buy some Bare Butt Wipes. You're going to love this because not only, yes, support small businesses because not only are these going to keep your bare butt clean and they're biodegradable and all the cool things, but

Erika (15:09)
Support small businesses, yes.

Eric (15:19)
The story of how he manifested this and how it came to be is awesome. So enjoy guys. This is a great time of Sam from Bare Butt Wipes, and we'll see you on the other side.

Eric (15:32)
Our next guest on the pod is a trail runner who has a passion project that he's been growing to help save you and your butts from a code Brown. He's a dad of three in Tennessee born and bred, but he married a girlfriend in New Hampshire who supported him bringing bare butt wipes to life. If he's not out there running on the trail, you might find him at a race near the Porta Potty's handing out free samples for your cheeks. Needless to say, we think this is a match made in heaven and we are wicked excited to have Sam, the creator and founder of Bare Butt Wipes on the On the Runs podcast. What's up, Sam?

Sam (16:02)
What's up guys, how y'all doing?

Erika (16:05)
doing awesome. what an intro, Eric. He always nails those. And man, it's so cool to find out that you have some roots up in New Hampshire. I mean, honestly, this is kind of a match made in heaven, if you think about it, because all we do, we talk about poop. And you are there to save the day.

Sam (16:08)
yeah.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, my father-in-law actually went to Pinkerton Academy.

Eric (16:30)
just down the road from us, man. How did you meet your wife then? If she's in New Hampshire, how did, and you're in Tennessee, how did the two of you connect?

Sam (16:32)
Yeah.

So her mom is from Clarksville, which is another suburb of Nashville. ⁓ And her dad was in the military. And so there is a base there in Clarksville. And they met, started dating, got married. And then ⁓ when they were up in New Hampshire, her mom was wanting to come back home, came back home, and just happened to land a little bit even further north in Hendersonville.

landed in Portland, Tennessee, and then our mom became a teacher, brought her to Hendersonville, the same school I went to, and the rest is history. We started dating freshman year of high school and ⁓ kind of dated on and off. And then after senior year in the college, we ended up hitting it off again and got married at senior year of college.

Erika (17:30)
That's awesome. Eric loves a good love story. He's always prying into the love life.

Sam (17:33)
Yeah.

Eric (17:33)
Yeah, we got some good ones on the pod.

Sam (17:36)
Yeah, well I love our roots up in New Hampshire. We visit ⁓ New Hampshire at least once a year. So I go ice fishing on Lake Winnipeg every year.

Erika (17:46)
Well, it's that time of year.

Eric (17:46)
Alright, so you'd like to come in the wintertime?

Sam (17:49)
Yeah, exactly.

Eric (17:50)
Is that a little bit of a change for you? Because down south, I lived in Charlotte, North Carolina. I spent some time in Tennessee. My first ever football game was a Tennessee Volunteers game, actually. But ⁓ up here, it's drastically different in the winter than what it is down there. I would wear shorts in the middle of January down south. And up here, it's like, even right now, it's freaking cold. Lakes are frozen over.

Sam (17:55)
⁓

Yes.

Erika (18:12)
Mm-hmm.

Sam (18:13)
Yeah,

yeah, it is a huge change. Like last week, I mean, Tennessee, you get all four seasons. it was, it's always a hit or miss. It could be 50 degrees, 30 degrees, or 70 degrees. And last week it was 70 degrees. Today it was 30. ⁓ So it's just like a huge swing in temperatures. So you never, your body is always like, what is going on?

Erika (18:25)
you

Sam (18:36)
Like what do I need to be prepared for?

Erika (18:38)
I'd

be like, please just stay 70. I just want the 70s. Damn it.

Sam (18:42)
Yeah, exactly.

Eric (18:44)
70 and a bluebird day would be nice. that, you're Tennessee born and bred just outside Nashville. What's the running scene down there like? We do know some people there that used to have a podcast called the Trail Trash Podcast. I think you're really big into trail running. What's the running scene down there?

Erika (18:47)
Mm-hmm.

Sam (18:47)
Yeah.

Yeah.

⁓ Well, the running scene is pretty slim pickings. ⁓ It's not as vibrant as probably like the Knoxville area has a lot more trail scene and I did go to UT Knoxville for college, but at the time I was not in the trail running scene at all. ⁓ Since then I've gone back and I've seen what all I missed out on. ⁓ But here in like middle Tennessee, there's just not enough mountainous area.

like there is in the Smoky Mountains. ⁓ So the trail running scene is kind of hit or miss. ⁓ There's a few trails you can get on, but if you really want to get some good training in or good racing, you have to go more east Tennessee.

Erika (19:48)
Gotcha. So what got you into running to begin with before you started picking up the trail running thing?

Sam (19:54)
Yeah, well, you know, when I was in high school, I played football and so it really started off even when I was younger and I did not like baseball very much. my parents were like, you got to play. We think you need to play a sport. Yeah, pick a sport. And funny enough, like in Tennessee, it wasn't big at the time. It's grown a lot more, but I picked up hockey. And so I played inline and ice hockey all growing up.

Erika (19:58)
Okay.

Mm.

Pick a sport, something, do something.

Eric (20:20)
Yeah.

Sam (20:24)
And then that just kind of got real out of hand because being in the suburb of Nashville, they did not invest into our small community for an ice rink. ⁓ So we would always have to drive all the way down to Nashville. And over the years, as Nashville has grown, it's just gotten, it became to get more expensive. So we just ventured down the road of like, well, we like team sports. ⁓ So what can we do? And it just inevitably was.

Erika (20:33)
⁓

Sam (20:54)
football and so picked up football and played that all through middle school and high school. ⁓ And really come my senior year, I was just, know, senior year ended and I was starting to gain weight just because I was used to like working out every single day, eating a lot of food, not really like having to worry about it. ⁓ Man, like if I don't change something now,

Erika (20:54)
There you go.

Sam (21:24)
I'm just going to be that

Erika (21:25)
I feel that.

Sam (21:27)
guy that is like, remember the good old days back in high school. I started picking up running because it was just a very attainable thing to do. I didn't have to go get a gym membership or anything. I could just go and run a few miles and call it a day. That's really how I got into it.

Erika (21:40)
Mm-hmm.

Sam (21:52)
that interest, it kind of built upon itself and started learning more about the Boston Marathon. Which is like at the time, with my lack of knowledge, it was like that was the only marathon I knew. I didn't even know there were like six major marathons, I guess now seven, ⁓ to go and try to accomplish running them all. Nor did I know how, I thought it was like any marathon. Like you just paid and you got to run it, you know? And so... ⁓

Erika (22:07)
Mmm.

Hehehehe.

Sam (22:20)
That was not the case, especially being the young age that I was. ⁓ Being below that 35 year old cutoff, the pace you have to hit is pretty ridiculously hard. ⁓ it is, it's so unfair. ⁓ so anyways, I was just trying to run, they had a rock and roll marathon here in Nashville and I I'll try to do that. And that one, for the...

Erika (22:30)
⁓ unfair. It's very unfair.

Sam (22:48)
from everyone I've spoken with and I've run it several times. I'm like, the half marathon is great. Like it's so much fun, you you're running through music city, you got bands all over the place. But then the back marathon, the back half of the whole race is like in this park that nobody goes and cheers you on. There's very few bands and it's just, it's the hilliest part of the whole race. And it's just, it's miserable. And, ⁓

Erika (23:02)
Uh-huh.

it figures.

Sam (23:17)
And I was able to get good times there, but nothing like not a BQ. And so ⁓ with that being kind of my overarching goal to attain, ⁓ I started looking at like, okay, where are some flat races that I can try to try to get my speed. Yeah, toned in for stuff. Yeah, you need to downhill races. Those are the best.

Erika (23:21)
Mm-hmm.

Flats where it's at. Eric begs to differ, but hey.

Mm-hmm.

Sam (23:46)
⁓ But anyways, I was like, dude, just doing some research and there was there's a race up in Illinois called the last chance. And ⁓ I'm sure that there are several named the same thing, but that was the one that I found. And so we that was kind of the first race that I ever kind of traveled to go do. But so we went went up to Illinois and ran the race and I hit under three hours and

Erika (23:54)
Mmm.

Eric (24:14)
Yeah!

Sam (24:15)
This was like right at COVID time. like races were kind of up in the air. Like, are they going to do it? Are they not? This race, they did it. You kind of had a staggered start as probably a lot of runners can't remember. And then getting that BQ, was, they had canceled the Boston Marathon that year. Or I forget if they canceled it or if they had just had it. okay.

Eric (24:40)
They canceled it twice actually.

Erika (24:42)
Well, they moved it. They moved it one year. Yeah.

Eric (24:42)
So they canceled it, well, they canceled it when COVID happened the first time. And then they canceled it the second year in a row, then they ran that one in October.

Sam (24:47)
Yeah.

Okay, yes. then that, I guess, the year that it started back, like on the normal time in April, that was the one I applied for and they accepted me in. And it just so happened that it was the day of my birthday. So it was on Monday, April the 18th, I think it was 2021. Yeah. So it was a...

Erika (25:03)
Mm-hmm.

What a day.

Sam (25:24)
such a fun race. I'm used to running with my Aftershocks headphones on. And I was so surprised that even when I was playing music or a podcast, it was so loud from the start of the race to the end of the race. You couldn't even hear your music. And I was like, this is the most live event I've ever run. It was insane. It was so much fun.

Erika (25:30)
Mm-hmm.

Eric (25:30)
Mm-hmm.

Erika (25:42)
you

Eric (25:51)
Is that your only major? Because I just ran New York City. I had the same experience. It was a non-stop party, with the exception of the bridges, which was still a cool experience, but it was non-stop. And my thought was, I love the Boss Marathon. I never run it. I go and watch it with Erika. We do it at mile 19.2. But I'm like, how can any other race beat New York after I experienced that? And it sounds like you had the same experience.

Erika (25:51)
Boston Delivers.

Sam (26:00)
Yeah.

Yeah.

my goodness. mean, yeah, the Boston Marathon was by far, so to answer your question, I've done Boston in that same year I did Chicago later in the year. So I've done those two and now I guess all I'm lacking is New York to get all three of the US-based ones. ⁓ But like my...

Erika (26:26)
Excellent.

Eric (26:37)
Now have to ask

because I Erika wants to know, how do you rank Boston and Chicago? That's an ongoing thing here. Erika really wants to know. ⁓ You know what that gets Erika?

Sam (26:42)
⁓ no brainer, Boston beats Chicago.

That's right. That's right.

Erika (26:51)
keep telling him though, I need

a redo at Boston because I ran it the year of the terrible, terrible weather in 2018. So I didn't get the crowds like everybody else did. So I need a redo and then I can reevaluate.

Sam (27:00)
Boom.

Yeah. Is that the year... Yeah,

I think that is that the year Dez won? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, that was a bad year. Mine was pretty good. It was beautiful.

Erika (27:08)
It is. 2018, the monsoon year.

Eric (27:08)
Yes. Yeah.

We had a while ago, a couple years ago, we had Catherine Switzer on the podcast for our 100th episode. if you don't know who she is, she's the first woman to ever run the Boss Marathon. And she was chased by this guy, right? It was in 1967. And she goes, was the worst running weather ever. The only marathon that's ever had worse weather was 2018. And Erika goes, that was my year. And she's like, Erika, you're unbelievable. You did that day.

Sam (27:26)
Yeah.

No way. That's crazy.

Yeah, that's crazy.

Erika (27:43)
So many people who were in, was

nuts. But hey, we did it. It still counts. I need a shot with the crowds. It might change my mind, but Chicago is firmly planted number one for me.

Sam (27:49)
Yeah.

For sure. yeah. Well, Chicago is like, everyone says it's like super flat, which obviously it is very flat, but I just think Boston, the setup of it, the history of it, I just think is a lot cooler. Chicago is just, Chicago felt more of like the rock, or just like probably your average marathon feel. It didn't feel like as cool as a major as Boston does.

Erika (28:18)
Mm.

People turn out though. I had the experience you did with the like, didn't even need the headphones because people were just so loud. There's so much going on. You're like, where do I look? There's like, I don't know. There's too much stimulation and it just made it go by really fast. So I can't complain there.

Sam (28:25)
⁓ yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah,

yeah. Well, the year that we did the Boston or when I ran Boston, there's a section on it ⁓ that's like right beside of a fire, fire hall. And like right when we were passing that, that was like right where my family had set up and like there was an emergency of some sort and they were, they like pulled the fire truck out, like they're in the middle of the race. And I'm like, that's crazy that.

Erika (28:54)
Mm-hmm.

Wow.

Sam (29:09)
I mean, I guess you have to do that, but I still thought, yeah, I was like, this is wild. Yeah. So.

Erika (29:10)
It makes sense, but I've never heard of that happening before. It makes a lot of sense. Well, congratulations on your Boston. I mean, that's incredible. You actually got to run it. Do you have any plans to do any more besides New York trying to get the American majors out of the way? Do you have any plans of doing the rest?

Eric (29:17)
How did

you-

Sam (29:30)
Yes, I do. It's just going to be something that I'm like always trying to achieve right now with like running bare butt wipes and in the other work that I do. It's just like I have so much on my plate right now and all my boys, I have three boys, they're all under the age of five. So it's just like, yeah, yeah, Yeah, just getting out the train is like is good enough right now.

Erika (29:38)
Yeah.

understandable.

Eric (29:51)
Your hands are full. ⁓ man.

Erika (29:55)
Eric can relate.

Good, good.

Eric (29:59)
Is it,

you know what? I'm impressed because like one thing you and I have talked to quite a bit last year, by the way, this dropping in January. So that's why, um, you and I talked quite a bit last year and I was just super impressed because you got three kids. got three kids. They're all very young and we have this passion project on the side of our real lives of being dads and having real jobs. You, I even think you work for yourself and then you're a dad and you've got everything else. Plus you're building bare butt wipes.

And let's get into that a little bit. Let's get into just your busy life. What do you do? How did you come up with this bare butt wipes dream? Tell us a little bit about that side of your life.

Sam (30:37)
Yeah, for sure. So like I said, when I was in college, that was really when I got that the real big bite of running consistently in higher mileage. And so when I graduated from college, I actually got a degree in supply chain from the University of Tennessee Knoxville and got a job at Dollar General. The headquarters are here in Tennessee. And so I was working in corporate America for two and a half years in

You know as as you can tell I'm very entrepreneurial and so I've always viewed myself as either owning or running a business You know the the dream of starting a business had kind of always been there I'm a big fan of the podcast how I built this and And so like hearing starter stories were was always an inspiration of mine I just really didn't know you know what what it would be or how I would do that but

So during my time in corporate America, obviously COVID happened. ⁓ And at the time I only had one baby. I was trying to get the Boston qualifier. So I was going out on tons and tons of long runs on the weekends when it was more attainable to do that. ⁓ And when I would go out, ⁓ since it was COVID, everything was shut down. Like the community bathrooms would be closed down. Like you couldn't do anything. Like you literally just had to

Erika (31:51)
Mm-hmm.

Sam (32:06)
either go home, find a porta potty, or squat behind a tree. More often than not, I was finding myself squatting behind a tree. ⁓ After one time, you learn your lesson. You're like, all right, I'm to start running with some toilet paper. ⁓ I just have a running belt. I would just take some toilet paper, roll it up, shove it in my running belt, and take off. Well, many of would get out on your long run.

⁓ You know, you obviously start sweating and I would sweat through that running belt and my toilet paper would just have dissolved. It was like one of those Listerine strips on your tongue. Just like, where did my toilet paper even go? Yeah, exactly. And so it was like, you know what? I'm losing a lot of socks here. Like we need to figure out a solution of like, what are we going to do? Because this is getting expensive. ⁓

Erika (32:43)
no.

Poof.

Mm-hmm. Yep. Not only is that going

to take your long run, like having to stop and, you know, do your business, but losing a sock in the process, that's going to cause more problems.

Sam (33:08)
Yeah.

Exactly.

So anyways, like again, back to, you know, being interested in how I built this, a lot of the starter stories that you hear of products is like, they were created out of a necessity to a interest or hobby that they had, and there was no solution to whatever that was. And so they just went out and thought, you know what, how about I just go create this solution if I can't find it. ⁓

That was always in the back of my mind, but I was like, surely someone's created this. Someone's created some type of convenient solution to just throw into a running bag and go off. Well, the more that I pondered over it and thought about it, which I did during these long runs, ⁓ I thought, I can't think of any brand, so I just did some market research. Couldn't really find anything. And so we just had our first baby, so was like, you know what? I'm gonna just...

going to take some wipes in a Ziploc bag and roll with it. So I did that. And obviously, that works. However, baby wipes are made of plastic, so they don't biodegrade. They don't break down. And so I started thinking, OK, well, there might be something with this idea. And so I started dreaming up of how would I create something like this? Because I need more than one wipe. But if you made it

Eric (34:10)
Yep, that's what I did.

Erika (34:18)
Right?

Sam (34:36)
big enough you could get by with two oversized wipes. Ideally, I was wanting to just do it all in one package, but ⁓ down the road, I'll explain how I got to the design of the packaging itself. But that's where I got. So I just went on Amazon and ordered a vacuum sealer. And that came in the mail. I took the baby wipes just to

Erika (34:39)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Sam (35:06)
have something to start the idea with and I just honestly I just shoved them in there backing sealed ⁓ three sides and then or for all four sides and then cut little slits in it so that way whenever I got it I could just rip it freely and go and so yeah you're fine you're fine

Erika (35:20)
Smart. Yes.

Eric (35:22)
I want to tell you a story. Sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt you there, I

want to tell you a story just before you go on too much here. I want to tell you like something about how we came up with our name and you seem to be very smart. You're an entrepreneur kind of guy. You listen to the startup podcast. I always thought I have all these awesome ideas, but I don't know how to turn that idea until an actual product. Right? The way we came up with our name on the runs is a little bit of a story where

Sam (35:46)
Right.

Eric (35:51)
Of course, we had code Browns during our long runs, but we actually have a friend. So I did the, I did the baby wipe thing and we're talking about starting a podcast, but we don't yet have a name. And Erika and I have a mutual friend who does a lot of hiking and she's into all the, she, has these during hikes, right? And she is prepared. And I mentioned how I take baby wipes and I put them in a plastic baggie and she goes,

You know, those aren't biodegradable. She like yells at me because she, it's just, it's just the way her voice is. It's where, right. And I'm like, yeah, of course I put them back in the plastic bag. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. While I'm sharing the story with Erika and a few others as we're running and saying like, my God, I felt like I was getting yelled at. I go, that's the name of our podcast because there's a gas station here called mobile.

Erika (36:20)
Gotta leave no trace.

Sam (36:23)
Yes.

Erika (36:35)
you

Eric (36:41)
I was like, we need to create this where it's biodegradable. So Danielle doesn't yell at me. And I'm like, there's a gas station called mobile on the run. And I was like, we'll call it on the run. And then I just went, no, on the runs. Yes. So it had to do with the baby wipe story where I got yelled at because they're not biodegradable. And as we get into it, these are.

Sam (36:41)
Yeah.

Yes, I love that. That is awesome.

Right.

Exactly. so yeah, and that played a big role into me like needing to figure a solution out. so, ⁓ and again, like growing up in Tennessee, there's not a lot of like trails to run on. There's a lot of walking trails everywhere, but like I grew up hiking, backpacking, camping. ⁓ So, you know, the more I thought about it, I'm like, you know what? Not only in my running do I have this problem, but I've had this problem

and just enjoying the outdoors my entire life. Because when you're backpacking, you're trying to be minimalist, but to pack, to be prepared like that, there's really no easy solution other than just taking a roll of toilet paper and throw it in your bag. And then it gets crushed and disintegrates like my running belt did. And so I was like, well, maybe I kind of have something here. And that's when I was going on my runs and I was sitting down and my wife's heard a

Erika (37:49)
Yup.

Sam (37:59)
million of my entrepreneurship journey ideas. like, no, think this is one that she was like, you know what, that's actually pretty good. And that's when I honestly on a run, was like, could I name it? I've always loved brands that have funny gimmicky names, but they make sense. And so you can say it and you know exactly what the product is.

Erika (38:21)
Mm.

Sam (38:26)
and you can look at the logo and you know exactly what it is. And so that was my desire when I was creating the name and I just kind of thought, bears, bears are in the outdoors and you have a bear butt. How about we just play on that word and call it bear butt wipes? And so that's kind of how I generated the name, like came up with it. And then down the road that

That's what led me into ⁓ creating the logo because the logo kind of has a B and then if you turn on that side it has the W for wipe. ⁓

Erika (39:03)
I'm staring

at your hat and I was like, see it. do. ⁓

Eric (39:06)
Yes, it has two B's. If you think

Sam (39:06)
Yeah, yeah. Yeah,

Eric (39:10)
about

Sam (39:10)
so two lowercase b's. Yeah, yeah. So I thought a lot into it.

Eric (39:10)
it, it has a capital and a lowercase. And then the W also looks like cheeks.

Erika (39:12)
Nice.

I'm like, wait.

It does look like she.

Sam (39:21)
Yeah, if you look at it like that. Yeah, exactly. So, you know, I gave it a lot of thought. But this was all in 2021, right? So like right at the, you know, the middle of COVID times. And so I thought of the idea, did the market research, but right at the same time, I was starting to kind of get, not unsettled, but just, you know, I wasn't itching the scratch that I needed.

Erika (39:22)
Yep, turn the head.

Eric (39:23)
Hahaha!

Erika (39:34)
Mm.

Sam (39:49)
⁓ itched working in corporate America. And so ⁓ I thought, you know, what's the next next step for myself? And growing up it was, you know, the way that I worked was always like ⁓ hands-on, landscape work. ⁓ It was like hard labor. It was not like trying to go out and just get, you know, an average fast food job or grocery, grocery sack or ⁓

Erika (39:52)
Hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Right.

Sam (40:17)
anything like that. was always motivated to go do hard labor. so, knowing that about myself, my dad and I, I grew up with the son, but he was friends with the father who owned the heating and air business in our community and had owned it for the past four years. And my dad mentioned it to me, like, hey, this might be a good investment, a good pivot if you're ever interested in it because you've

Erika (40:35)
Mm-hmm.

Sam (40:47)
enjoy working with your hands. And at the time I was still in college and I was like, yeah, I mean, that sounds, sounds cool, but I feel like I'm too young. Like I need to get my foot in the door, which is why I went down the corporate America trajectory. And from there, like,

Erika (40:56)
Mm.

Eric (41:02)
Well, at the same time,

you're dad with kids. Like, you need health insurance too. Like, it's easy to take a chance when you have nobody to, that you're responsible for beside yourself.

Sam (41:05)
Yeah. Exactly.

Erika (41:11)
Hmm.

Things change. Yeah.

Sam (41:13)
Right.

Yeah, a ton. I've told so many people who I guess were my age whenever I first had my kid. one guy was like, you know what? I need to start growing up. I can't be out late anymore. said, hey, just get married, have some kids, and you will mature faster than you can snap your fingers. ⁓ It just forces you to be so selfless.

Erika (41:32)
you

Yeah.

Sam (41:43)
But in any case, I thought, you know what, maybe I should venture down, trying to see if I can get into HVAC and learn heating and air. I had no background in it, but I do have a desire to learn and have ambition and a hard work ethic. And I knew that I could do it if I was given the opportunity. And so at this time, it's probably had been five years since ⁓ that

the idea had even been brought up to me. And ⁓ I was looking at it and I can't take any credit. I think that the Lord put it on my heart and mind to think of it this way. But I was 24 at the time and I thought, you know, like I kind of did that self analysis of like a 10 years out. And I said, if I stay at my job now in 10 years, you know, I'm going to kind of

Silo myself into to only being Mono focused into like what I'm what I'm good at in corporate America and retail space, but if I take the leap and And go buy this business like I'll have a decade of experience By the time I'm 34 still young my kids have you know grown up a lot more to where they're a little bit more Manageable as far as scheduling goes and now it still gets crazy

but they're able to brush their teeth on their own and bathe themselves. ⁓ Yeah, yeah, exactly. ⁓ wipe their own butts, yes, exactly.

Erika (43:12)
It's the little things. helps, though. Yeah.

Eric (43:13)
Yeah.

Wipe their own butts. It's a thing. I'm, I'm, I'm

in the thick of it right now, man. No diapers, but lots of accidents.

Sam (43:23)
Yeah.

Exactly. And so I just, ⁓ you know, I had that mindset and I ventured into asking the owner, hey, like, would you consider selling to me? And just so happened that he was starting to shop it around with a broker, investment broker for private equity. And I caught him right in time to where I was able to exclude myself from that deal.

Eric (43:52)
Mm-hmm.

Sam (43:53)
developed the business plan and ⁓ went and presented that to our local bank and they approved me for an SBA loan and me and my dad went in 50 50 partners into this HVAC business and Knowing that I you know, had the desire to start bare-butt life So that's when I had the idea but I knew you know priority, you know has to take take it take advantage over over, know, just a desire and a thought of what something could be so ⁓

Erika (44:14)
Mm-hmm.

Sam (44:23)
So anyways, put that, I put Bare Buttwives on the back burner in 2021. Kind of wanted to learn the trade, not having any background. had to, you know, earn the respect of all my employees who had been with the company for 30 years. ⁓ You know, they're all in their 50s, approaching 60s, and I'm 24, buying this business and I know nothing about it. So it was a lot of, you know, hard sweat equity that I had to put out in order for them to say, all right, I think he's,

Erika (44:37)
Right?

Sam (44:53)
his work is too sensitive of what he says he was going to do. anyways, fast forward to

Erika (44:56)
Mm-hmm.

Eric (45:00)
Well, before we

do fast forward real quick back to your logo, because I feel like logos are so important with brand identity and Erika and I have changed our logo so many times. We had what we call code browns because toilet paper on our logo originally looked like little swimmers, if you know what I mean. We actually, one of our first logos we drew, who is now known as Stooley, the poop emoji, but we didn't go with that right away for a few reasons.

Sam (45:04)
Yeah.

Erika (45:16)
I had to workshop it.

Mm-hmm.

Eric (45:29)
I think you have a story about that too, because your logo is great with the two B's, the W and the cheeks, but there's also a bear. And tell me the story about the bear.

Sam (45:34)
Yes.

Yes.

Yeah, so when I was developing the logo and the idea of what it could be, I really wanted it to kind of pop. So a lot of the time you do hear of these other companies and how they started and how they came about their color scheme or ⁓ the look of what they had. And so it was presentable and eye-catching.

So all I did was I went into Walmart, went to the wipe section and just did an easy analysis of like, what colors do I not see? But what products are catching my eye? And ⁓ obviously everyone's heard of Dude Wipes. Dude Wipes has dominated the home market and they are in most every man's bathroom. ⁓ so, you know, their packaging is great. It's black. It's

Erika (46:16)
Mm.

Sam (46:34)
perfect for guys. You know, before even seeing the name of the product, you're like, that's probably a guy's product, easily. ⁓ When it's right there beside a pink and purple product. Anyways, ⁓

Erika (46:41)
You

Mm-hmm.

Eric (46:51)
Not only that, their

marketing is like really good.

Sam (46:53)
Yeah, yeah, their marketing is great.

You know, it's hard to compete with that. Like they are hilarious. I watched like their the brand partnerships that they do is are so funny. I looked at that and I said, you know what, like there's, know, what, what are my interests? What is the market that I'm wanting to get into? My interests are anything outdoors. It didn't have to just be running, but it was anything outdoors. do like hunting. And so

orange kind of played a role in that. Orange is eye-catching. I also happened to go to the University of Tennessee Knoxville, which their primary color is orange. ⁓ And so I kind of took the orange and embraced that. And then I wanted to throw in more of like a natural color, which was like those two different tones of greens that kind of bring you to that feel of being in the forest. Yeah.

Eric (47:48)
It looks so good too. Like the orange looks amazing.

Sam (47:50)
Yeah.

Yeah. And so, you know, taking those two approaches, I thought, you know, if I put my product up beside all the other wives at Walmart, I think someone's going to see that orange and they're going to pull it off the shelf and know immediately this is for my backpack. doesn't just it doesn't need to have it doesn't have to go into my home bathroom. Like this is going to be, you know, my outdoor wife. And really, that's been my my my

Erika (48:12)
Mm-hmm.

Eric (48:15)
Right.

Sam (48:19)
you know, idea is like, don't, Dude Wipes has penetrated the home market, but I'm looking to penetrate the outdoor market. I want to be in every outdoorsman's backpack or runner's belt or, ⁓ you know, biker's kit or hunter's clean kit. Like I want to be in anything that is associated with the outdoors. And I know that like Dude Wipes has taken over the home. So that's kind of my approach and in, in kind of

the journey into where I'm wanting to take it.

Eric (48:51)
Yeah, that's

Erika (48:51)
Look at that.

Eric (48:52)
for everyone on YouTube, you see it right now. It's a great logo. The two colors really mesh well. I don't know if you already do this, but our blue, we call OTR blue, On The Runs Blue. I'm gonna call that Bare Butt Wipes Orange going forward. Like, it's not just orange, it's BBW Orange.

Sam (49:06)
That's right. BBW

Erika (49:06)
Yeah.

Sam (49:10)
Orange. That's on the Crayola label. BBW Orange.

Eric (49:12)
Yes. You

Erika (49:14)
you

Eric (49:14)
look at it, it says bear butt, bear butt orange. I love it. I love the logo, but the bear now, the bear was part of the original logo. And I used to, it used to be on Instagram. maybe I can't find it right now, but I knew about this bear and I loved him and keep telling us about the bear here.

Sam (49:17)
That's right. That's right.

Yeah, so the bear is on the website. then there's also had one guy who was helping me try to figure out what the logo is going to look like. And at first, since I was wanting to do the outdoors, I really was going to try to embrace the national parks patches and go after that type of look and make the packaging look like a pack.

Eric (49:38)
That's it.

Erika (49:56)
Mm.

Sam (50:02)
⁓ That was one of the initial ideas or make it look like the you're entering Yellowstone Sign like I was going to use the brown and in that that I guess muted muted brown Color and kind of go off of off of that or even smokey the bear have to think but ⁓ Then I then I thought well, maybe I should have like a character like you guys have because that's gonna that could create some like some

Erika (50:28)
Mm-hmm.

It's a good talking point. It stands out. Like I got mine right here. Here we go. There's Julie.

Sam (50:33)
⁓ Yeah, great talking point. ⁓ Exactly.

Eric (50:35)
Yeah.

Sam (50:39)
But then the more I thought about that, I'm like, okay, well, Charmin already does it. Smokey the bear, you know, like there was going to be a lot of probably like copying that I was going to do. And on top of all that, it's really hard. Like you either, there's two types of bears. There's either ferocious bear or there is like a cute cuddly bear.

Erika (50:43)
⁓ mm.

Eric (50:45)
True.

Erika (50:59)
you

Sam (51:00)
But there's no

in between and I was finding it really hard to make that. And on top of all of it, wanted something that because it's going to be in the outdoor, so like hiking, camping, running. I wanted something to be like to be able to put onto like a tent or a table tablecloth and like putting a bear replicating that onto those types of merchandise. Like it was going to be really hard.

Erika (51:20)
Right.

Sam (51:27)
And I've always enjoyed being able to just look at a logo and knowing what it's connected to. ⁓ And so that's what made me go away from focusing solely on like a mascot style and going more so towards the logo. Because trust me, my wife was like totally about the mascot. But I was like, don't know. I think I need to be super delicate because this is all self-funded. I've bootstrapped this whole thing.

Erika (51:40)
Mmm.

Eric (51:48)
Yeah.

Sam (51:57)
When we pay for something, it's literally out of my kids pocket. Like, my kids can't eat if... Right. Exactly.

Erika (52:01)
Uh-huh, uh-huh. It helps you be super focused on where your money is going and making sure it goes

to the right places that's going to help your business and bring in more money. So, yep, I totally understand.

Sam (52:15)
Yeah, yeah.

now you go on.

Eric (52:17)
well, I bring that up only because

like in all the research I've done growing this podcast, I learned like, so we went through that. like, I don't want the poop emoji, not yet. And we brought Stooley back after like a hundred episodes in a couple of years.

Erika (52:25)
Mm.

I was even hesitant when

we were going to bring him back. I'm like, are you sure you want to do this? Give up our logo, like the ones that we have on our sweatshirts. That was pretty much it. And then they had us as little running guys in the bottom corner. And I was like, are you sure? Because it goes from being professional to whimsical. And I was like, do we want to make that jump? So yeah, I was a little reluctant. But in the end, I'm glad we did make the change.

Sam (52:38)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Right.

Eric (52:54)
Well, and the other

Sam (52:54)
Yes.

Eric (52:55)
part was that we didn't want, like everyone just thinks all we talk about is poop. And that's not the case. Like we talk about amazing running stories and the code brown doesn't need to be an actual code brown. It's just a, crap moment. And we want to hear those stories too. But in all my research, like I would spend, would stay up so late at night researching like what to do for marketing, what to do for logos. I learned like you're supposed to have five logos and this is your primary logo, right? So you have like,

Sam (52:59)
Right?

Erika (53:00)
We

have range.

Sam (53:21)
Okay. Yes.

Eric (53:24)
think of Dunkin Donuts. There's five different Dunkin Donut logos. There's the primary, but then you have just the two Ds, and now they're going to just Dunkin. And the other logo is the cup with Dunkin. So you have a primary, a secondary, a simplified logo, usually a transparent one, and then an animated logo. And this is kind of like Stooley's the fun logo. And you throw them in on some fun things. I hope you do, and your website is great because

Sam (53:26)
Right?

Yeah. Yeah.

Erika (53:41)
He really did do his research.

Sam (53:46)
Yeah,

I like that.

Eric (53:53)
one thing, the bear necessities are awesome. But you have the bear here and he looks like he's camping. And then if you click on another one, the bears riding a mountain bike with the backpack and probably has this bear butt wipes like I love the bear. love the bear. I want to say the one I keep remembering was more animated like stoolie here where this bear looks amazing. So did you name the bear?

Sam (53:55)
Yes.

I have not named the bear. I need to. I need to name the bear. I'll probably have my kids name the bear.

Eric (54:19)
All right. Yes.

Erika (54:26)
going to end up being like Barry McBear Bear or something like Bodie McBoatface, Barry McBearface.

Eric (54:26)
There you go.

Sam (54:32)
Yeah.

Eric (54:33)
But I love the process and that's why I'm asking some of these questions because they're so relatable to us growing our podcast, to you growing your, your company here, Bare Butt Wives, because it just seems like you're so passionate and you're like, this is my thing. I am going to make this happen. Like you manifest it, but at the same time we do the work.

Erika (54:52)
He worked hard, yes, absolutely.

Sam (54:52)
Yeah, yeah,

for sure. I think that, so one thing that I really relate to in wanting to buy other people's products, ⁓ even if there's like multiple choices out there, because obviously like there are multiple choices for wives, Like bare butt wives is not your only choice. But what I want is to create a, for someone to look at,

Erika (55:10)
Mm-hmm.

Sam (55:20)
the person that created the product me and say, wow, he created this not just as a gimmick to like profit off of. He created this as a complete necessity. Like if Bare Butt Wipes never like did anything, it's still a product that I would put into my running belt personally every single day until I ran out of the rest of my inventory. And it's, and that's like true to its root. Like that is exactly why I chose to make that leap of faith.

Erika (55:42)
Mm.

Sam (55:50)
and take the chance on myself and see if I could bootstrap the brand or the product itself. it's risky, it's stressful, it's hard. But at the end of the day, I have such good feedback. I have what you guys hear all the time, Code Brown stories galore. You get the people that don't want to talk about it, but you get that eye contact that says, I have a story. ⁓

Erika (56:16)
I know that you

know that I know that you know. Like that kind of thing. Like, mm-hmm.

Sam (56:19)
Yeah, exactly.

so it's such a great thing. ⁓ But being able to sponsor events and get the brand awareness out there, my biggest thing is I want to run as many races as I can to show that you can still train, you can bootstrap it, you can make it in America, you can sell it. for right now, it's not my primary company, not my primary job.

but it's something that I pursue at night in as much as I can to get it out to everybody that would need it. But I'm still out training, I'm still out running races. I just completed my first 100 mile race ⁓ four weeks ago and yeah, I appreciate it. Yeah, right? And that was the first race that ever let me sponsor them and that was our one year anniversary to the day.

Erika (57:06)
Congratulations!

Eric (57:07)
Not a big deal.

Sam (57:18)
And so it was it was really cool getting to do that and again, it was my first hundred mile or so ⁓ It was such a cool experience to get to have but it was the hardest thing I've done for sure

Erika (57:32)
Tell me more,

Sam. I'm very invested in this. It's super cool that not only was it event that you were able to sponsor, but it was one that you put the work into to train and run. So which race was this? Was it like a trail, mountain kind of? Just tell me everything. Tell me it all.

Sam (57:49)
Yeah,

so it was a trail race. in Tennessee. It actually goes across the Tennessee border into Kentucky. And so the race is called No Business 100. And it is a 100 mile foot race on trails. And so you get over the entire course of the race, you gain 14,000 feet of elevation. It was really hard. My goal was a lot of people were going to be like, are you serious?

Erika (58:11)
that's no joke.

Sam (58:19)
but it was to get under a sub 24 and I didn't quite get there. I did get it in 26 hours. So, you know, still, still good for my first, first one. Yeah. But it was like the pains that you get from that. It, I've always told people that obviously they're like, that's crazy. How can you do that? It's like, well, when you run so much, like you can, you can do it. I think the

Erika (58:29)
That's legit. That is excellent.

Sam (58:46)
biggest thing that nobody ever thinks about, I guess if they're not a runner, is that you have to be able to intake the proper fueling in order to get to the finish line. If you can run lots of long runs, if your average is like 60 miles a week, you can run a 100 mile race. You can stay on your feet for that long. However, if you can't eat and do it at the same time, you're toast. And so, yeah, so it's like,

Erika (59:04)
Hmm.

That is the key.

Sam (59:15)
For me, think I'm inspired to do it because it's like a chess game and I always like challenging myself. I guess that shows in like, know, juggling so many things right now. But you also have to figure out when's the right move to speed up, slow down. Because like over even doing the race, like I feel like I had a great result, but even looking back, I'm like, well, I shouldn't

Erika (59:25)
Mmm.

Sam (59:44)
probably have gone out that fast. Just slowed it down. I should have changed my shoes out here and then done different little things. Yeah.

Erika (59:52)
See, it's all a learning curve. Yeah. You

Eric (59:54)
Yeah.

Erika (59:54)
have one under your belt now. Do you think you're going to do another one to see where those improvements can come into play or you like one and done?

Sam (1:00:03)
No, I think I'll do one again, especially being this involved into the trail scene. You know, it's just inevitable. there's so many races that I'm connected with. And a lot of the perks to like being able to sponsor some of the races is that they do give you like an entry. So as many as I can, I wanted to try to pursue, but ⁓ you know, it is a lot on the body. So it takes a long time to recover.

Erika (1:00:07)
Mm.

That's true.

Sam (1:00:32)
And so it's not something that I'm probably going to be like Andy Glaze and doing one once a week.

Erika (1:00:37)
God. He

is the exception to the rule.

Sam (1:00:42)
Yeah, right.

Eric (1:00:42)
His kids are

older too. Like, just let your kids get a little older. You know, once bare butt wipes blows up, you could do that. Yeah.

Sam (1:00:44)
Right. Yeah.

Yeah, there you go. Just

that's my job is like I'm just the traveling poop runner. Yeah.

Erika (1:00:54)
So one quick question.

Eric (1:00:55)
We'll join you.

Erika (1:00:58)
What exactly did your sponsorship of this race entail?

Sam (1:01:02)
So typically how it works is like if I can attend it, then I'm able to set up a booth and set up my tent and ⁓ basically treat it like a convention, like a running convention. And you kind of just get to shake the hands of the racers and family members that are coming to support. And I think that that's so fun because I really get to ⁓ bump shoulders with them and tell them like truly where my heart is in creating the product.

Erika (1:01:07)
Mm-hmm.

Mmm.

Sam (1:01:31)
And a lot of times I met with, my word, you created this? my word, you did this in like one year? And it's like, yeah, I mean, you can do it if you put your mind to it. ⁓ Now I will say like creating it and then taking it to the next step and like carrying it forward and managing it all is, it's like way more challenging after having the product than just like creating the product. But I do know that it's like,

Erika (1:01:51)
Mm-hmm.

Sam (1:02:00)
Just creating it is such a challenge for so many people, but ⁓ I guess that was one of the things that wasn't something that held me back. was like that was the easiest process of it. Where I'm at now has now become the hardest process of just like, nobody knows of Bare Butt Wipes until I've presented it to them.

Erika (1:02:19)
Here you go. might need this. You got a hundred miles ahead of you. There you go.

Sam (1:02:21)
Yeah. Yeah.

Eric (1:02:23)
Well, let's

go back to the easy process before you're rudely interrupted by me to talk about logos, then we got off track with No Business 100, but the process of creating this product was pretty cool because you actually were very involved. It wasn't just like you click here and you say, hey, I want you to make this. You went to the factory. You got to see it. You got to learn how to package it. You even got to sign your very first wipe.

Erika (1:02:27)
⁓ Eric.

Sam (1:02:46)
Yeah,

Erika (1:02:47)
⁓

Sam (1:02:48)
I did. me and my wife, so I just reached out to the company that I found and we kind of put together like what my desires were and then we finally kind of mocked up a draft of it and I liked it. And then I wanted to come out and just

You know, you're doing this cold, like you've never met these people and you're like, are you real? Are you not? Like I'm not about to just, you know, write you a check and hope that the product shows up. So what I did was ⁓ they were more than happy to welcome me out there. And so me and my wife flew out and got to meet the developers and the manufacturer and ⁓ we got to tour their facility before even putting in our order. ⁓

Erika (1:03:14)
⁓ right.

Sam (1:03:38)
And so from there, we really got to ⁓ figure out exactly what we wanted, how it was going to be put together, the lead time, a lot of the supply chain logistics behind how it's developed. You know, after you submit like your logo and your colors and order the product itself, like you have to order the wipes and the solution, you have to develop all of that. And then it goes into production. ⁓ And so we did that. And then it was like,

Erika (1:03:53)
Mm-hmm.

Sam (1:04:07)
four months later is when the production hit in the first one that happened. we went out, and my wife did, and then when we were going for the first run of wipes, when they were creating the first set of inventory, ⁓ I flew back out there by myself, ⁓ remet with them, and then I kind of got to tour around while they were creating the product, and I took the first one off the line and just, I got to sign it and keep it as a memento.

But it was super cool to see the whole setup of it. ⁓ Going through the process of figuring out the solution ⁓ ingredients and what all went in it. ⁓ One thing that I did, and you'll see on the packaging, is I've made it fragrance free and unscented. The reason that I did that was because so many people, ⁓ or there's actually a large majority of people that their skin is very sensitive to fragrance.

Erika (1:04:47)
Mmm.

Eric (1:04:55)
Yes.

Sam (1:05:05)
⁓ But also, you know, not only that, like if you're a hunter, you don't want a fragrance. You're not going to be, you know, you're sent to be picked up. And so again, back to the whole initial, like the origin origin story is like, I'm this to be used applicable to so many different industries and niche sports. And hunting is one of them. And so ⁓ making it unscented, fragrance free is great on.

Erika (1:05:11)
you

Sam (1:05:33)
all skin types, it's dermatologists approved. But also that allowed the pH level to be a neutral pH so that way women can use it and they aren't gonna risk having bacterial infection. ⁓ And so that was a whole other aspect to it that ⁓ kind of can go unnoticed, I do want to, I'm a male and so I've had to lean on my wife for this help, but ⁓ you have to think of

all the different ⁓ scenarios of it. Honestly, for the outdoors, are probably most applicable for women, not men. That was something that could have easily gone unnoticed if I didn't have my wife right there with me doing it.

Erika (1:06:22)
It's good to have a different point of view.

Eric (1:06:23)
Now.

Sam (1:06:24)
Yeah.

Eric (1:06:26)
Now one of the key ingredients or highlighted things here is made with biodegrade well plant cloth fibers. Tell me if I have a code brown on the trail and I go squat behind a tree and use this in that little hole you dig that you take the number two in and then you fill it in with some leaves. Can I leave this wipe in the woods in that hole?

Sam (1:06:35)
Yes.

Yes.

Yeah.

You can leave the wipe. ⁓ Obviously there are several national parks that are going to tell you that you need to pack it out. I don't want to say that you have like... It will not... Correct. It will not destroy the environment that you leave it behind if you so choose. But I will say I have tested it out. Like if you leave it without even digging a hole, if you leave it your backyard after...

Eric (1:06:58)
True.

But it's not going to destroy the environment. This thing is going to, yeah.

Sam (1:07:20)
solid two to three days of like a hard rain, it's already starting to break down. And so it is truly a biodegradable wipe that you can ⁓ feel confident and comfortable leaving behind. ⁓ But if you obviously want to pack it out, then by all means, you can do so.

Eric (1:07:23)
Yeah.

Now Danielle can't yell at me. Yeah, she can't yell at me. Yes, I actually, right, I actually, so I used these for the first time back in November in New York and it was so clutch because it was big. It was seven by seven and it was perfect and so this little thing here comes. Now you only sell them.

Erika (1:07:42)
No, she can't. Danielle's probably using those already. She's probably already got some. I gotta ask her.

Sam (1:07:42)
Exactly, exactly. Now we got to convert Danielle.

Yeah.

Yes.

Eric (1:08:05)
They only come like this and these little, you know, the fit in your pocket, right? You're not selling these in big, like a hundred packs that you'd put on top of your toilet. Not yet. We're not doing that yet, but you know, watch out dude wipes. We're coming at you for you. Yeah.

Sam (1:08:08)
Correct.

Not yet, yeah.

That's right. Yeah,

right now it's just in that pear layout. ⁓ But the great thing about it is I did intentionally design it so that way it's two separately individual wrap wipes split with preparation. So you can split them apart and they... No, sorry, there's one in each. ⁓ But two per pear, obviously like two wipes.

Eric (1:08:36)
So there's two inside each of these.

Okay.

Right, because

Erika (1:08:44)
Mm-mm.

Eric (1:08:44)
like

this is a 10 pack here, and so there's five of these doubles, we'll call it. Right, and yeah.

Sam (1:08:47)
Right. Yes, five, yes, five doubles. Yep.

And you can separate the wipes and you didn't break the seal. So that's the beauty behind it. And a lot of the races that we partner with, one of which, or the biggest of which that I've done a partnership with is Cocodona ⁓ out in Arizona. And the benefit of going in, leveraging these longer races is that

Eric (1:08:57)
Right.

Erika (1:08:57)
⁓

Mmm.

Sam (1:09:16)
They have aid stations, right? So at different aid stations there are, ⁓ there's some that are just like fueling, but then there's some that you need foot care and medical attention. And so ⁓ the great thing about this is that if it's just a fueling station or even if it's a medical one, you can have it to the side and you can just grab and go if that's what you want, or you can clean your feet off with it. ⁓ But at the end of the race, instead of investing into like those bricks of wipes,

Once you pop the seal on those, probably have one, maybe two days before the entire brick of wipes are dried out. So it actually is going to be a more sustainable option for races ⁓ because one, it is biodegradable. But two, if a race were to overorder for their given race, they can take these and put them back in their inventory of race products.

Erika (1:09:50)
⁓

Sam (1:10:10)
put them in storage and they can pull them out the next year for that same race or other races during the year and be assured that it's not going to be dried out. They can continue to handle them.

Erika (1:10:19)
that is the way. Yes.

Sam (1:10:21)
Yeah.

Eric (1:10:22)
Erika, do you remember the second thing we've ever sponsored? The first was Sarah Halleck. Remember, we threw $100 to sponsor her comedy night. Do you remember the second sponsorship we ever did?

Erika (1:10:31)
The second thing.

The only thing I can think of is the Goffstone Gallop, but what else did we do? What did we do? We sponsored her. This was a tiny race to raise money for our friend who had cancer, and we sponsored the race by getting a porta potty. So two porta potties.

Eric (1:10:39)
No. 5K for Jay, and what did we sponsor? What did we buy?

Sam (1:10:55)
Yes, I love that.

Eric (1:10:56)
Yeah.

So what are some of those like, like, do you ever think about that? Like, could you sponsor when you sponsor a race or you're like, Oh, I want to sponsor this aid station or these porta potties, you know, like these are brought to you by bare butt wipes and you can maybe get your logo on it or something. Do you ever, you ever think about that or, or what do you typically do? Do you just like send a bunch of product and it's out there on a table or are you going be like, Oh, I'm going to take this. need it.

Sam (1:11:13)
All

Right. Yeah, that's a great question. And it's something that I'm continually developing. ⁓ Just for being one year in, a lot of the partnerships that we have done have been sending them just a bunch of wipes. A lot of what we do is ⁓ partner with races. then when they give their swag bags out for the racers, you just drop a wipe in there. And that way, every single racer is getting a wipe. ⁓

Erika (1:11:36)
Mm.

Sam (1:11:51)
another thing ⁓ that we have done and it's most recently we've also sponsored the Porta Potties as well. And I think that that's such an applicable thing. Yeah, like it's such an easy, easy thing. It's a need. ⁓ And like you can easily like slap your logo on the front of it and just, you know, be the designated bathroom sponsor. Like no one else is going to do that.

Erika (1:11:59)
That's clutch. It really is.

Eric (1:12:01)
Yeah.

Erika (1:12:17)
You're the hero. That's what it is.

Eric (1:12:18)
See, I think that's where Theodore should

go. I'm putting my pitch in right there. Your bear's name is Theodore. All right, Teddy for short. But that's where the Theodore logo goes, the bear. And it's like, it's your bear necessities right here.

Sam (1:12:24)
Theodore, I love it. ⁓

Erika (1:12:26)
⁓

Sam (1:12:30)
Yes!

Yeah, and kind of make it look like Smokey the Bear, like don't smoke in the park. Yeah, you poop here.

Eric (1:12:39)
Yeah.

Yeah, I love it. No,

Erika (1:12:47)
So good.

Eric (1:12:47)
it's fun because you can be so creative and you can like those things. They just click. It's the what did you say earlier? Looking for that name that perfectly fits. at the same time, like sponsoring a porta potty station at an ultra marathon is perfect for bare butt wipes.

Sam (1:12:50)
Yeah.

Exactly. I love that. do. you know, there's not a lot of places, you know, except obviously the starting and finish line, they need porta potties. ⁓ But, you know, they do have porta potties at some of these aid stations out in the middle of nowhere. you're like, how did you get this out here? Bare Butt Wipes finds a way.

Erika (1:13:01)
on brand.

Yes.

Eric (1:13:22)
Yes. ⁓

I love it.

Erika (1:13:24)
So I have a question for you, Sam. So with the business being so fresh and on its way up, were there any developmental or manufacturing challenges that you've had to face so far? Yeah. Do you have any business code browns for us?

Eric (1:13:36)
Toad Browns, as we call them.

Sam (1:13:38)
Exactly. Honestly,

not yet. ⁓ have not... Yeah, I guess the hardest thing is just figuring out shipping. Shipping rates are crazy expensive. ⁓ And there's really... You kind of get to a point where there's really no way around it. ⁓ Besides, obviously, any brand, you kind of just have to push it onto the customer. ⁓ And...

Erika (1:13:44)
That's good. Knock on wood.

Yeah.

Mmm.

Sam (1:14:05)
But I mean that can make and break a business. You can have a quality product. ⁓ If you can't get the shipping under control, you will lose so much money so quickly because of packaging ⁓ and you're just like the US Postal ⁓ Service. ⁓ Even with that being said, I've had trouble with USPS when I ship things, getting shipments back to me.

for not the right address. I'm like, this is 100 % the correct address. That mail delivery man just chose not to deliver it. Yeah, and then you're kind of stuck because you literally just have to pay for a new shipping label and mail it back. And so then you're hit twice with it. There's just no... I don't know. I haven't figured out a good solution for that yet other than what I'm doing now. And for the most part, it's not like...

Erika (1:14:44)
No.

Sam (1:15:03)
a drastic change or ⁓ a ⁓ large number of orders that are getting shipped back. But that is a pain point that can be frustrating. If you get two in a row, you're like, what in the world's going on? ⁓

Erika (1:15:10)
Mm-hmm.

That's something I wouldn't

normally think of for some reason, but if that's your only problem, that's okay because at least there could be solutions within it. But I'm so happy that Bare Butt Wipes is taking off and it's going awesome and we love it too.

Sam (1:15:19)
Yeah.

Right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Eric (1:15:35)
Yeah, I never thought of it either because everyone kind of just expects to get free shipping now with the way Amazon is, but I was just on Amazon. like you like who's taking that hit you are right. And it's hard when you're a startup, like you're you're a year and a half into it right now. And we'll get into what that first year has been like in a second, but yeah, you're taking the hit or the customer's taking the hit and you probably feel like you have to take it.

Sam (1:15:41)
Yeah.

Erika (1:15:47)
Mmm.

Eric (1:16:02)
to succeed and you're like, okay, I'm going, it's $4 to ship it extra on Amazon. But then you got here, if you order over $50, you get free shipping. like, you're trying to find, looks like a happy medium there to make it worth it to cover the shipping cost. Right.

Erika (1:16:16)
Mm.

Sam (1:16:17)
Right, right, exactly.

yeah, and I mean, I guess this doesn't help you guys, but I've even done like, I'll do free local delivery. Like if you're in within like a 30 mile radius of me, like I'll do my best to just come hand deliver it to you, which is a cool, yeah, exactly. Which is a cool little thing to be able to offer because I get to meet the customer that, you know, is taking a chance on my product that I got to create.

Erika (1:16:30)
Mm-hmm.

Eric (1:16:33)
Tennessee's lucky.

Erika (1:16:45)
That's cool.

That's really nice that you do that.

Sam (1:16:46)
Yeah.

Eric (1:16:47)
When are we gonna

go on Shark Tank? I keep saying we, but I mean you.

Sam (1:16:51)
Yeah, man, that would be cool. you know, think. Yeah, exactly. I think right now, you know, Family Feud didn't take any part of my business, so ⁓ that was going to be a hard one. But you know, I think it would be so cool to go and start thinking one day. we'll see. I definitely see the benefit that have come from other businesses.

Eric (1:16:55)
I mean, you've been on Family Feud.

Sam (1:17:17)
Just tonight I was cleaning my dishes with a scrub daddy and I'm like, man, they take it off. Yeah, exactly.

Erika (1:17:22)
There you go.

Eric (1:17:22)
Yeah. Cause you saw that on shark tank.

Yeah. So all my research I've done was like right after you went public, I think you went live in August of 2024. So it's been about a year and a half since that point. I know you said the hard part is now where you're trying to really expand it and trying to really like grow this and get the awareness because people only find out about this when they hear about it. And like somebody, the way I heard about you, it's just word of mouth.

Someone says, hey, you should talk to this guy. It's perfect. ⁓ So what has that first year been like for you so far?

Sam (1:18:01)
Man, it's been a whirlwind, honestly. It's kind of crazy. It is honestly very crazy how word of mouth works and the connections that you can make just through. ⁓ I put in a ton of effort in just trying to build the brand awareness in and of itself. But the amount of people that have reached out or who have supported me or given me encouragement is like, I've never met these people. And it's just...

It blows my mind. And for every time that my phone dings with an order, I'm like, who is this? Something that I just thought of on a long run, squatted behind a tree, now somebody is paying me money to get something that I created. That's crazy. ⁓ But this first year has just been great. It's flown by. ⁓ It has been expensive.

Erika (1:18:43)
Ha ha ha ha!

Sam (1:18:59)
So, know, trying to figure out the proper way to like manage your money, what to take chances on, what to say no to. That's hard. You know, when you're building a brand, you want to say yes to everything. ⁓ And then you also, get nervous for like offering your product for like a cost to somebody because you're like, well, I want to share it with everybody. But like, if I just give it away, then I don't, you know, I paid for this inventory.

Erika (1:19:04)
Mm.

Defeats the purpose.

Eric (1:19:26)
Right?

Erika (1:19:28)
Yeah.

Sam (1:19:28)
Yeah,

it defeats the purpose and stuff. But my whole intention into getting into business, which is this can bite me in the butt, is I do want people to experience the convenience and the ease of how great this product is, ⁓ which is hard. It's a hard mindset and hard to have when you are trying to the business, right? You do have to be somewhat a profitable focus in order to continue to...

provide this product for the customer base. so ⁓ finding that happy medium is challenging. I ⁓ think I've voluntarily made my plate full. so trying to now organize my plate in a way to properly give everything the correct amount of attention has been a challenge. But I think that the beauty behind Bare Butt Wipes is like,

Quite honestly, I'm living the American dream, right? I was able to easily go and start a brand. I've been blessed enough to be able to just start something out of my own savings account. So it's been achievable. I've done it. And even if this is as big as it ever gets, I've done it. I get the memory to always tell my kids, my grandkids, hey, I started a butt wipe product.

Erika (1:20:40)
Mm-hmm.

Sam (1:20:57)
And like I can know, but I will never say what I think I've seen so many other people say is like, I thought of that. I just never took it to take the next step to creating it. ⁓ And so, you know, I think that this whole year has just been a year of like grit and grind and figuring it all out, continuing to do that. But also realization that like, you know what, like there's there's going to be parts in life.

⁓ where you just kind of have to stay relaxed and stay cool and just realize that like you're one person right now and You can either you know go out and spend as much money on marketing as you want But then you got the caveat that says like if you do that and it does take off Well, then you got to figure out you know how to pay for that next run of inventory So there's a healthy balance and right now my plate is so full that what I'm coming to find out is just like you know what let's

Erika (1:21:48)
Yep.

Eric (1:21:48)
Right?

Sam (1:21:55)
let's continue to just organically grow this thing, because it is achievable right now with the overhead that I currently have. And ⁓ it's nice that it's e-commerce. I'm not having to go and knock on these retail location stores and say, hey, this is my only source of income. I'm able to sit back and use social media, leverage relationships and networks.

kind of grow it organically, which I think is going to pay off in the long run. It's just a long-term approach that I'm taking. ⁓ And so that's kind what I've learned over this course of year of just like, you got to be patient. ⁓ I'm building so many great connections and brand awareness ⁓ and just be satisfied with that.

Erika (1:22:28)
Mm.

Sam (1:22:46)
Don't feel like you're missing out, like having FOMO constantly, because that I think can just eat me alive, because I've allowed it to eat me alive at different points. ⁓ But at different times, you're hitting peaks and valleys ⁓ all at the same time, so you just got to manage it.

Erika (1:22:51)
Mm-hmm.

Well, doing what you're doing because the word of mouth is getting out there. The product is getting into the right hands of people who need it the most. You got the trail runners, the ultra runners, just the hunters. You've got it where it needs to be and it's still going to continue to grow. So I'm just hoping that we can help build that a little bit, give you a little push, pump your tires as Eric likes to say. So we're happy to help.

Sam (1:23:24)
Yeah, I appreciate it. I appreciate it.

Eric (1:23:27)
Pump the tires.

You mentioned the digging of your phone. Every time someone buys you get a ding. So when these come out of the factory, where do they ship from? Do they go to your garage and you ship them yourself? Or do they get shipped from like a distributed, some factory or something?

Sam (1:23:35)
Mm-hmm.

Hahaha!

Erika (1:23:40)
He's a one man show.

Sam (1:23:42)
Yeah,

great question. Yeah, I have a hundred thousand square foot facility now. It is in an 1800 square foot ranch style garage. Yeah. Yeah. ⁓

Eric (1:23:48)
Ha

Yeah, I love it. I love the story. so

Erika (1:23:57)
That's being real. That's how it is.

Eric (1:23:59)
pretty much everyone can buy these online. I found the one Amazon and on your website. Where else can they find these?

Sam (1:24:06)
Yeah, so you can find them on our website on Amazon. There's also ⁓ Walmart. I have it on their platform as well, which is going to be similar to Amazon. But ⁓ the most traction that I get is primarily through my website in Amazon. ⁓ So I appreciate it.

Erika (1:24:21)
Excellent.

Eric (1:24:23)
Your website's beautiful, by the way. I'm jealous. I'm trying to learn how to build

one right now and I'm struggling and somebody offered me thousands of dollars. Not, not me actually. He was like, I'll do it for thousands, 2,500. I was like, no, I'm wearing the same thing as you. We're trying to grow this. You're trying to grow that. Yours is a product. Ours is a show, but, um, everybody just wants a ton of money. I'm like, no, we're doing this out of our own, you know, what we got.

Erika (1:24:36)
It's all out of pocket.

Sam (1:24:43)
Right, right.

Erika (1:24:47)
We're growing.

Sam (1:24:50)
Yeah, you're like, I'm sorry. How about I give you a five-star Google review? ⁓

Eric (1:24:58)
Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to give you one here on your website after, because that's actually what I just read. You have nine and after tonight you're going to have 10.

Sam (1:25:05)
Yes, I hit the tin tin. Yes. See you guys. Just be patient.

Erika (1:25:05)
I can make 11. Hell yes.

Eric (1:25:07)
Double digits. I've even used them in New York.

I'll mention the New York City Marathon and how they came in so clutch.

Sam (1:25:15)
Yeah, I honestly that that is one thing so like I like I said I started my passion of running started by just being in the marathon scene ⁓ In this product like bare-butt wipes in and of itself is I think probably really hard for Roadrunners to view as like a product that they need But I assure you that when you are trying to hit a certain time the speed of which you can go to the restroom is Five-fold when you're using a wipe versus using single ply

Porta Potty toilet paper that you may or may not have once you enter the Porta Potty.

Eric (1:25:48)
Yeah.

Erika (1:25:48)
Exactly. was just going to say,

you remember that story from a few years ago of the Boston Marathon pooper on somebody's lawn. That's because those porta potties had no toilet paper. You just had to do what you had to do. But so much better to use a wipe in the actual toilet.

Sam (1:25:56)
Yes. Yes.

Eric (1:26:02)
Not that we encourage that, but if you were the boss

marathon pooper, it would be such a clean wipe and a easier exit.

Sam (1:26:07)
Yeah.

Yes, they literally would hear you coming, coming past the Cisco sign squeaking.

Yeah, they'd be like, oh my gosh, you must be a bare butt wife to you.

Eric (1:26:25)
These are great, man. I'm so glad we connected. You're not done though yet. We're not done. We have a couple big questions here, okay? So we have, every year we ask two final questions. I'm gonna go first for yours. Mine changes every year. And for the year 2026, I wanna know what is your hot take? This could be, you know, it could be bare butt related. It could be running related. It could be that pineapple does not belong on pizza. What is your hot take? Give us a hot take.

Sam (1:26:30)
Okay, let's hear it.

Erika (1:26:31)
Yeah.

Sam (1:26:55)
man, my hot take on 2026?

Eric (1:26:58)
Yeah, that's question for the year. I'm asking everyone, every guest who comes on the podcast, this question. You're one of the first. So set the tone.

Sam (1:27:05)
⁓ goodness gracious.

Erika (1:27:07)
No pressure.

Sam (1:27:07)
Man, I know for real.

I guess a hot take of mine, it would probably be...

here's a sentimental one that I'm having that can kind of relate to bringing our conversation full circle in losing socks. I think my hot take would be for the year of 2026, making sure that every single one of my socks always has a pair.

Eric (1:27:36)
Yeah. Don't sacrifice a sock.

Erika (1:27:39)
That is harder

to do than you think because you're like, they just get eaten by the washing machine. They get stuck in between things. Like they get static electricity to like sheets and blankets. Like, my gosh, that's so difficult.

Sam (1:27:41)
It is so hard.

Eric (1:27:45)
Right. Right.

Sam (1:27:52)
They disappear

out of nowhere or voluntarily when you're on the trail and you don't have bare-butt wipes.

Erika (1:27:57)
you

Eric (1:27:57)
Yeah, we could paraphrase but basically

it can be like, don't get a blister on your foot because you had to sacrifice your sock. Bring bare butt wipes.

Sam (1:28:07)
That's right. I love that. love that. In Sine Theodore, Teddy for short, TD for short.

Erika (1:28:07)
There we go.

Eric (1:28:11)
signed Theodore.

Yeah.

Yeah. ⁓ man. I love it. I do hope you bring that character to life. ⁓ on like that secondary third logo aspect, you know, you got this, this one's beautiful. Like you did a great job. You really did.

Sam (1:28:26)
Yeah.

Erika (1:28:28)
Mm-hmm.

Sam (1:28:29)
I appreciate

it. No, I think that that's great. ⁓ I had somebody make me a t-shirt with it. It wasn't the exact bear like on our logo, but it's a bear like turning around and the logo is smack like branded on its butt.

Eric (1:28:42)
I feel like that's the one I saw.

Erika (1:28:44)
I love that.

Sam (1:28:44)
You probably

did. You probably did. I probably wore the t-shirt or something.

Eric (1:28:48)
I was thinking that or like a bear was popping out of a port-a-potty or something or looking behind. I was like, it was so good, it was so good, but I digress.

Sam (1:28:57)
⁓

Well here's an idea that I've always had that I'll share with you guys and it's gonna be a work in the making but ⁓ similar to know, Keytone IQ how the guy that started Keytone IQ went to the Tour de France and dressed up in his bottle, he was a bottle costume and was cheering on all the racers, all the peloton as they were going by and got a lot of publicity.

Erika (1:29:10)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Eric (1:29:24)
Yep.

Sam (1:29:27)
⁓ Mine is running in a complete marathon in a bear costume.

Eric (1:29:33)
This might be a bear costume here.

Erika (1:29:33)
You'd fit right in.

I was gonna say he'd fit right in if you're running London because ⁓ everybody, like the charities out there love to do costumes. So you get like the craziest things. that's a, wait, what does that say? Who pooped in the?

Sam (1:29:43)
Yes. Yes, there you go.

Eric (1:29:50)
Who pooped in the park? You're reading a poop book to your three boys. They're in costumes. They're not bears, that must be a bear costume you have.

Sam (1:29:50)
Who pooped in the park?

Erika (1:29:55)
That is the cutest thing.

Sam (1:29:58)
It is a bear costume.

Eric (1:30:00)
Yeah.

Erika (1:30:01)
That

is absolutely adorable.

Sam (1:30:03)
I mean, I would probably sweat through that so quick though. It's so hot.

Eric (1:30:09)
We'll make it. We'll blow it up on social media.

Sam (1:30:12)
Exactly. I'll run the Boston Marathon in it and stop at 19.2.

Erika (1:30:17)
Yes.

Eric (1:30:18)
There you go. We'll be there.

Erika (1:30:18)
Nice shout out. love that. All right. So I have my final question for you, Sam. ⁓ We have, and I refuse to change this question because I am building something awesome, but we have a Spotify playlist and we like to invite our guests to add something to it. So is there anything that just pumps you up, gets you excited that you would like to add to our list?

Sam (1:30:20)
That's right.

Okay.

Ooh,

There's two songs that I would say by two different There's ⁓ I Like It Like That by Cardi B. That's right. And then ⁓ Run the Jewels, Ooh La La.

Erika (1:30:47)
Ooh, we like cut some Cardi B.

Ooh, I actually, one of my favorite songs is Run the Jewels. It's Run the Jewels, like that song by them. Have you ever heard that one? That one pumps me up. Do check it out. But so ooh la la, you said. I got to listen to it. I love me some Run the Jewels.

Sam (1:31:02)
no, I have, I need to look that one up.

Yeah, ooh la la. That one pumps me up.

And I've gotten my boys to love this song too and they're like, yeah, play it ooh la la.

Erika (1:31:17)
Ooh, the one that I suggested is not kid appropriate. So maybe listen to that one first.

Sam (1:31:22)
I definitely yes, I should preface. I do do the clean version with the kids Yeah

Erika (1:31:26)
There we go.

Eric (1:31:28)
All right, I know those are usually the last two big questions, but there's two more things I want to say. So everybody who's here, my original question that I changed it up every year was, I'll go creeping through your Instagram and I made it to the bottom of yours. And guys, one of the last, it's one of the first videos, it's of the factory, it's of the process. Go check it out, scroll all the way to the bottom, see it. It's super cool. But I can't let you go without telling us about Family Feud. You were on Family Feud with Steve Harvey.

Sam (1:31:33)
Okay.

Yes.

Eric (1:31:56)
Tell us about that experience.

Sam (1:31:57)
was.

Man, did you look up the video? ⁓ there's a video. Let me see it. Let me get the right title. man, this was 10 years ago now. Yeah, yeah, so it's been a while, but my family and I, ⁓ well, it's really my mom's side. So my last name is Pate. My mom's maiden name is Peoples.

Eric (1:32:01)
No, there's a video?

Erika (1:32:06)
What year was this that you did that?

wow, okay.

Sam (1:32:24)
We teamed up with our second cousins who are peoples and ⁓ we tried out. They came to Nashville, the production team came to Nashville for tryouts and they're like, just be like as crazy as you can. so me and my brother in high school, did a, our talent show, I think probably a lot of people can relate and I may be hurting some feelings because people that actually have talent, you know, take it seriously.

Erika (1:32:39)
boy.

Sam (1:32:54)
But as probably many talent show goers or attendees notice is like, there's a lot of kids that do the talent show and their talent is only good because their parents supported them in that. It wasn't truly, they're not truly like the best dancer or singer. And so my brother and I were kind of sick and tired of like sitting through an entire talent show and not seeing anything like.

funny or good. so I told my brother at this time, which is funny because ⁓ Lake Winnipesaukee, Jimmy Fallon skit with Justin Timberlake, they had a little camp thing. when we were in high school, I was a sophomore and my brother was a senior. I was like, he had just done, Jimmy Fallon and Will Ferrell had just done the tight pants skit. I was like, my brother's name's Andrew, said Andrew.

Erika (1:33:24)
Mm-hmm.

little camp thing like my god yep

Eric (1:33:53)
Found it.

Sam (1:33:54)
I think it would be hilarious if we did the tight pants skit in front of the whole school. He's like, and I showed him the video and it, and he was like, he's like, that's brilliant. And so we went to Goodwill and found some like women's tight white pants and like these, it honestly looked like a dickie, but it was like just a sweater, like the sweaters that look just like it. And we,

Erika (1:34:00)
That song's gonna be stuck in my head for like ever now. ⁓ I love it

you

Sam (1:34:22)
scraped the song off of the whole commentary and everything off of YouTube, put it on a DVD and ⁓ performed it in front of our school. And to this day, when we walk back into our high school, they're like, there's a tight pants guys. Like all of our old teachers, everything, we are like community famous for tight pants.

Erika (1:34:35)
you

That makes me so happy.

Eric (1:34:48)
Alright, I found it. Do you

guys want to see this? Alright, let's go. Here we go. Hold on a second. Let's do this. Alright, so this is from Family Feud. Sam and Andrew get into Jimmy Fallon's tight pants.

Sam (1:34:51)
Let's do it. Rip the band-aid off.

Erika (1:34:52)
I do.

Eric (1:35:06)
Can you guys hear it?

Sam (1:35:08)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Erika (1:35:40)
my god.

Eric (1:35:55)
Andrew with the... That was before twerking was a thing.

Sam (1:36:01)
We made it a thing.

Eric (1:36:06)
You're also look so young.

Sam (1:36:08)
I It's crazy what kids do to you,

Eric (1:36:14)
That's awesome. What was Steve Harvey like, man?

Sam (1:36:18)
man, was as easy going as he just came off. That's how he is. Cameras turned off, that's how he is. On, that's how he He's hilarious. The things that he comes up with, it's like, do you ever watch Duck Dynasty? The show? You're like, Uncle Si? You're like, how did you just come up with that? It's just effortless. Yeah, he just makes, he takes the edge off. It was perfect. It was awesome.

Erika (1:36:34)
you

Eric (1:36:34)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Size off.

Erika (1:36:47)
Well, you have to tell me, did you guys win? How'd you guys do?

Eric (1:36:47)
man, this was awesome.

Sam (1:36:50)
No,

we did, I mean it was a good game. Honestly, so that game was actually recorded at like midnight. ⁓ So yeah, so there's a lot of like laws and jargon behind like gaming. And so like you can't have your phone, like you have to turn your phone in. We have like six outfits just in case like we went to six days of the event. ⁓ And so like you're put into a green room all day. give you like the

Erika (1:36:58)
own away.

Mm-hmm.

Sam (1:37:19)
six-inch Subway sandwiches and like you're just kind of banished until they call your name and even then like you're not guaranteed to be on the show and so yeah, so they like did a rotation and like this the family that we were playing had continued to win each and every time and So finally they were like, alright, you guys are going on We had been there for two days straight like literally eight to ten hour days ⁓ And you're just in a closet watching

Erika (1:37:28)
no what?

Sam (1:37:48)
run after run of each of these groups winning and losing. ⁓ But yeah, we ended up, we like went to like the fast round or whatever and ⁓ answered it. Like we were three points away from winning. So it was a bummer, but it was like such a cool experience. And like that was worth it. Like just getting to do that dance was so fun.

Erika (1:38:02)
Bummer.

Eric (1:38:10)
That's cool. That's so cool. I'll have to go back and find the views, but that's awesome. I did not know there was a video. That's so awesome. Wicked awesome, as we like to say.

Erika (1:38:11)
Making memories.

Sam (1:38:17)
Yeah, yeah, that is so fun.

I know, I love that. My wife, I'll catch her trying to say wicked because she wants to prove that she's from New Hampshire.

Eric (1:38:27)
Yes. You got to let us know next time you're up here, too.

Erika (1:38:28)
She'll fit right in around us.

Sam (1:38:31)
I definitely will. that I know that y'all are like that close. Her dad was a cop in Lebanon, ⁓ but he grew up in Derry.

Erika (1:38:39)
Mm-hmm.

Eric (1:38:40)
Yeah.

Erika (1:38:42)
very. Yeah, we're like right in the dairy area. So, yeah, he's in Manchester. I'm in Nashua. So I'm right over the Massachusetts border, but I go up to Winnie all the time, actually. ⁓

Sam (1:38:46)
Okay.

yeah, absolutely. Yeah, have fans. Do

you? Okay, well, her aunt lives on Winnie and then ⁓ her granddad lives close to the Wolfboro. So just like, I guess around the other side of the lake.

Erika (1:39:02)
Gotcha.

Yeah, some of my best friends are on Alton Bay, so right at the bottom of it. I'm usually there. Summer. Summer's great.

Eric (1:39:05)
It's a small world, man.

Sam (1:39:10)
so fun. Well my favorite,

Eric (1:39:13)
But this was awesome, dude. Thank you so much for doing this. It's been fun connecting with you in the past year as you've been growing this and I'm watching it grow. You supported our big fundraising night for us where we had over 80 products, but yours was one of them for the New York City Marathon. So that was a blast, dude. Thank you so much. That was wicked awesome.

Sam (1:39:15)
I appreciate it.

Yes.

Yeah, no, I really appreciate it and I look forward to continuing to support you guys as much as I can.

Erika (1:39:39)
The feeling's mutual, Sam. Thank you so much.

Sam (1:39:42)
Thank you.

Erika (1:39:46)
Sam, thank you so much for coming on the pod. It was an absolute pleasure to talk to you and just hear all things running, all things bare butt wipes. I love that you're still doing this out of your house. just you are doing a fantastic job. And keep it up, man. It's hard to run a business. that I know, but I can only imagine. But you are trucking through. Keep it up, man.

Eric (1:40:08)
It's awesome.

Like he's got that huge facility in his garage where he houses everything and he's doing this all on his own. So like we said before, we started to support small businesses. Not only is it like a small, like this is a high quality product. Like I tested these and they work and they're amazing. And they're just like the big box guys. They're just that good, if not better. So try these out. I'm going to buy more. I do suggest you buy them in like big packs because

Erika (1:40:13)
Mm-hmm.

Absolutely.

Eric (1:40:37)
that will save you on shipping cost. Because you heard the whole story about his shipping. Like that comes into play. Like somebody's paying for it. Like is he just going to jack the price up and have that cover shipping or are you going to pay a little bit? Does he take a hit on that? Like, man, you don't think of those things in today when we have like Amazon free shipping all the time. Like the company's actually taking a hit.

Erika (1:40:40)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Yeah, Amazon is huge though. Yeah, Sam is just, he's doing it all by himself. So good for you.

Eric (1:41:02)
So Sam's doing awesome.

Sam's doing it well.

He's got his amazing wife there. From Derry, New Hampshire too. awesome connection. Sam, if you're up here in a couple of weeks for some ice fishing, I've never gone. And I'm not telling you I'm gonna go, but I would love to see you. I would go if it works out. Like, let's do it on a Tuesday. Let's do it on a Tuesday, you know? What are you doing on a Tuesday? But hey, Erika.

Erika (1:41:12)
Love it, love it.

I love how your schedule

is just flexible enough to go ice fishing on a Tuesday.

Eric (1:41:33)
Monday, Tuesday,

Wednesday, day work for me if I just need to know 24 hours in advance. I can't just like get in that DeLorean and, well this baby hits 88 miles an hour, you're gonna see some serious shit. Can't just go back in time to go ice fit. Like just give me a heads up. Give me a heads up. But Erika, let's go back in time.

Erika (1:41:39)
There you go.

That's fair. Yeah.

Eric (1:41:53)
to 1981.

Erika (1:42:00)
1981, it was a good year, I imagine. I wasn't born yet.

Eric (1:42:01)
The

USA hockey team is fresh off their 1980 Olympic championship. They're still celebrating. And on August 1st, what happened?

Erika (1:42:12)
I have no idea. I have no idea what happened. No shit!

Eric (1:42:13)
No clue? No clue? MTV was born, Erika, on August 1st,

1981, and did you see? It turned off on New Year's Eve. No more MTV.

Erika (1:42:25)
No.

Well, it's not like I watched it recently, but that's kind of sad. I grew up like after school watching TRL. All that good stuff. You got to find out who was number one on the countdown. yeah, absolutely. yeah.

Eric (1:42:32)
Right? Because, right? We would like, that'd be the first thing you do when you get home. You would turn on MTV. You would watch TRL. You would, would you vote? Would you, you would vote? I would vote too. It was,

⁓ it was so good. Like Carson Daly and then the real world and road rules. I loved those shows. I grew up on that TV and I just wanted to like, I know in recent years you would hear about the shows they have and be like, what is this? Is this not the same? But like, what the hell?

happened

Erika (1:43:02)
Mm-hmm.

I don't know. That's, oh, it is kind of sad. It's the end of an era.

Eric (1:43:04)
How do you go off air? How do you just end?

I know. Do you know what the first song that was ever played on MTV?

Erika (1:43:14)
I bet I do. The video killed the radio star. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Eric (1:43:15)
Come on. Yes. Do you know what the last song they

played at 1159 on New Year's Eve?

Erika (1:43:24)
Hope it was that I hope it was that yes, okay?

Eric (1:43:25)
It was that. was that. But.

Now, did you know MTV had a second channel?

Erika (1:43:32)
MTV too, yeah.

Eric (1:43:33)
Right. Do you know what the last song they played on that channel was? Come on. It's different. It's different. You know it. You know this. You know this. Come on. Yes.

Erika (1:43:38)
If it's different than that, no, I don't.

Say bye bye bye.

Yes! That's why I would know it. I'm big NSYNC fan. Hell yes.

Eric (1:43:51)
They did a good job with that. Man,

MTV's gone. Like not that I would have watched anymore, but I feel like, you you used to have the VMAs, the big music video awards. Like those were like huge things. I remember running in the Atkinson Road race on 9, 9 99, September 9th, 1999. And we all were in the race. I think Rick and Dick Hoyt were there actually. Cause I remember them being at one of those Atkinson Road races.

Erika (1:44:01)
Mm-hmm.

Okay.

Really?

Sure.

Eric (1:44:19)
And that was the only one that we all ran home to really fast to watch the VMAs because it was on 9999.

Erika (1:44:26)
How fun is that? What a date. yeah. Yep. No, I was a big fan. I mean, though, once they did start getting away from the music videos, you're kind of like, what are you doing? But I was a big fan of Road Rules. That was my favorite of the two. But then they did the challenge. that would have been so fun.

Eric (1:44:28)
I mean that was so much of our life. When I got cable, was Prime Star, so it's satellite. Like that's what we watched all the time. I don't know about you, but that was me.

Yeah. I wanted to be on Road Rules. Yeah.

Erika (1:44:53)
Yup.

Eric (1:44:53)
Yeah. We should bring it back. I don't mind that they went away from music videos. they, you know what they did? They grew and they evolved. They just at some point in the last couple of years, apparently they evolved backwards. I don't know. Yeah. So, bummer, but not a bummer. Not like I'm watching and maybe whatever was on MTV the last few years, I'd be like, my kids can't watch it. But I mean, it's gotta be better than what...

Erika (1:45:01)
Mm.

Eric (1:45:17)
They watch on YouTube today, which is kids playing with toys. don't get it. Remember, like they also had like teen mom and all those shows. Like they were just relatable. ⁓ I wasn't a teen mom or a teen parent, but all their shows are just like you relatable with kids and people your age. They made movies. They produce their own movies. Like it was, they, they, they were like,

Erika (1:45:19)
Probably. Really?

you

Yeah.

Eric (1:45:39)
one of the top channels in the country for the longest time. Remember, ⁓ my God, the Osborns, when they had shows like the Osborns and Flavor Flav. man.

Erika (1:45:46)
Right, right, right. Wait, I thought flavor

flavor was VH1, no?

Eric (1:45:52)
might have been. ⁓ is that still around? VH1 was good too. mean, MTV, VH1 became like, I guess I would watch like that's what my parents liked when I was a kid and pop up video with all the trivia facts and they would have like VH1 behind the music was so good. Let's Google this. Is VH...

Erika (1:45:55)
I have no idea.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Right. Yep.

Didn't MTV, MTV used

to do, or was it VH1 Unplugged? One of them used to do Unplugged. And like, I remember watching Dashboard Confessional and like, they released a CD of the whole Unplugged thing and I used to listen to it all the time, because I'm a big nerd.

Eric (1:46:30)
Yeah, VH1's still around. Yeah, it's part of the Paramount portfolio. I don't have cable. Do you have cable? Me neither. ⁓ I have what's called Samsung TV, and so there's a lot of channels. So I can watch all the popular news channels like ABC News, NBC News, but it's always news. It's not like NBC, the major one.

Erika (1:46:34)
And they made it and MTV didn't.

No. Witch.

Mm-hmm. ⁓ can't pick and choose.

Gotcha.

Eric (1:46:55)
Well,

like everything's streaming and ⁓ if you have like if I have I Disney like I can watch ABC News and stuff on that too. I yeah, we cut the cord last year sometimes so.

Erika (1:47:02)
Right, yep.

I haven't had it in a long time.

Eric (1:47:08)
I wonder if

that's partly why, like, MTV's down. Because nobody has cable, is cause cable's down? Is cable down?

Erika (1:47:14)
It's possible.

I would have thought that they would have like bundled with someone if that makes sense. Like Disney, you could get Nat Geo and like all these things together. So I would have thought that you could pop MTV in with somebody else. So, but I guess not.

Eric (1:47:28)
Nat Geo's good. Yeah.

Nat Geo's really good. mean, that stuff on Disney's awesome. Yeah.

Erika (1:47:33)
Mm-hmm. I love, I do,

I do love Disney. ⁓ cause I can get Hulu through there and that's, I can, I can watch that on the treadmill so I can watch all my shows.

Eric (1:47:44)
Well, Hulu is going away, but it's just the name. The shows aren't going away. It's just all going to be Disney. Right. And speaking of streaming, coming out in two days on Thursday is season two of The Pit.

Erika (1:47:49)
⁓

I got some bad news. I don't have that channel anymore. HBO Max.

Eric (1:48:03)
What?

we gotta make this happen. ⁓ do like a seven day free trial or something. There's gotta be a free trial.

Erika (1:48:09)
I think...

Well, I can get like a month of it, but I don't think they're releasing all of the episodes at once. So I might have to wait until the season's over and then get a month. Yeah.

Eric (1:48:22)
Let's figure that out and let's figure

out when the whole entire season will be completed. And then we'll come up with a timeline of when to watch it, when to talk about it. Yeah, we'll have to do that. I did Google the other day though, how to get Noah Wiley on a podcast. Yes. I'm going to reach out. I mean, what does Michael Scott say?

Erika (1:48:29)
Okay, all right, we can just binge it again. That was good, okay.

Mm-hmm.

Are you serious?

Can you imagine? ⁓ I'd love that.

The same thing that Wayne Greskey says. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That would be cool.

Eric (1:48:49)
Yeah, you miss a hundred percent of the shots you don't take. I mean, how cool. Maybe,

maybe if not him, maybe like someone with a smaller role, maybe one of the student med students.

Erika (1:49:00)
⁓

can we get the little like dude like I don't even remember what his name is but like the the one that all the bad shit always happens to

Eric (1:49:07)
I know the one who you realize is living upstairs in like an empty floor of the hospital. Yeah. He got like peed and shit on so many times. Yeah. Hey, you know what we haven't talked about though yet is Christmas. How was your Christmas?

Erika (1:49:09)
Yeah. Yup. He was so cute. ⁓ Tell me. ⁓

I had, I had a really good holiday. I spent time with some, some family and I had some time off of work, which was kind of nice. Like I got like five day weekend. So.

Eric (1:49:35)
Holy

shit.

Erika (1:49:36)
And Christmas Eve, I know you wanted to take it easy on the run thing, but I went on a Christmas Eve run with Tara and Lindsay and a bunch of other people from the Millennium group and stuff. I did. I'm trying, man. I'm trying. Okay. Thank you.

Eric (1:49:46)
It would look beautiful. And you make content.

You're doing great. You're doing great. I'm not, no judge.

You're doing amazing. You're, you're doing something. It's amazing. You had a beautiful run. Like what a day. Two years in a row. Cause remember last year was the same. It was like snowing. Yeah.

Erika (1:49:59)
Mm. It was actively snowing last year or

2024, I suppose. And then 2025, it snowed the night before and it was just absolutely beautiful. Everything was just covered and sparkly and beautiful. So it was nice. Mm. You must had good weather.

Eric (1:50:15)
Yeah. I went skiing on that day and it was great. You know, it's great with the season pass.

You can go in the morning and get like 12 runs in and then go home. Awesome. Then a couple. I, it was. It was a full day. It was a full day. The boys, everyone slept till like eight 30. Like we didn't start opening up gifts to eight 30, which made us late getting to my parents because we're like, we'll leave at 10 30. That made it and try getting kids to take new toys and, and put them up.

Erika (1:50:23)
Nice, nice. But how was your Christmas?

yeah.

Really?

Okay.

Eric (1:50:44)
aside to go, because you're not going to take everything in the car. The boys did get, I wasn't hesitant, but I never would have just bought this on my own, and now I use it more than them. I love it. We got a Nintendo Switch.

Erika (1:50:47)
Yeah. Mm-hmm. ⁓

I love the switch. I have one. It's so good. Mm-hmm. Nice. Wait, is that the old one? Love it.

Eric (1:50:59)
And I paid for this Nintendo subscription. It's $4 a month. And I just paid for one month. I'll like, I'll let it renew next month if I don't finish. I am currently like 70 % through Super Mario World. I am further along. Yeah. Super Nintendo Super Mario World. I am

more along than I ever got as a kid. I am now learning like there's secret exits to some level. So there's actually two exits and you got to find it. And not going to lie. I'm not going to lie. I YouTube it.

Erika (1:51:26)
geez.

mm hmm.

Eric (1:51:30)
Like, where's the secret door? How do I get there? It's so fun. And I'm only playing the old school games plus Mario Kart, which

we got the Mario Kart game and we're going to buy more controllers so we can play four player soon. And I told Ashley, like, we need to make a reel sometime around the Daytona 500 of me playing all three kids and Ashley going like, will you just let them win once? And I look at her and I'll have my Dale Earnhardt jacket, my Dale Earnhardt hat and like big Earnhardt sunglasses on and be like,

Erika (1:51:43)
Nice.

Eric (1:51:59)
What?

Erika (1:52:00)
You can't let them win. Too easy. Yeah, they got to learn. They got to learn the hard way. Yeah, they have with with that you can play Nintendo 64 games, too. I had that for a while. I even bought the controller like the Switch controller. That's like the N64 one. And it's so much fun. I love it.

Eric (1:52:02)
No! No way! Yeah! So that's fun.

Yes, you can play them all!

Yeah, I'm

not, I'm more into Super Nintendo. So you got the original Nintendo, and then you got, that's the one with the original Mario Brothers and Duck Hunt, which you can't play Duck Hunt on the Switch. And then you got Super NES, so Super Nintendo, that's the one I grew up on. And then Nintendo 64 I had, like, Super Nintendo is it. Like, I can't believe it's 1993 or whatever it was. I thought that was around 97, like I was six or seven.

Erika (1:52:23)
⁓

Yep. Yep.

Mm-hmm. Yep. I had them all too.

Eric (1:52:49)
six, seven when that came out. That, that, that was not on purpose. ⁓

Erika (1:52:51)
She's like snarfed on the mic.

Yeah, yeah, okay. No, I'm glad you're enjoying it. That's fun. Do the kids use it?

Eric (1:52:58)
So, so I love, I love it. But then we hop, so Christmas.

Yeah, in fact, it's kind of great because it takes them away from our phone and from watching like kids YouTube and stuff. No, it is cool. And we're going to play more Mario Kart. I'm like, let him play to get better. And my sister bought them a game, like some farm animal game where you have your own farm island or something farmland farm village. We got to break that one open soon. Once I crush a Super Mario world. So. Yeah.

Erika (1:53:08)
⁓ gotcha.

Animal Crossing? All right, all right, you've got

time.

Eric (1:53:27)
So it was good and we hopped around, my side of the family, Ashley's side of the family, and then Ashley comes home one day from work, like her first day back to work, and it was only like 11, because it was a weeknight, so they close at like nine, it might have been 10.30 or something. She comes into the room and I'm laying in bed, she's thinking I'm gonna be on my phone swiping. I was buried in the Nintendo Switch. She's like, I can't believe you.

Erika (1:53:38)
Mm-hmm.

I'm glad you're enjoying it.

Eric (1:53:55)
I

was like...

Erika (1:53:58)
There you

go. That's perfect. Nice.

Eric (1:54:02)
Yeah, but that happened. Everything was good besides

my truck breaking down. My truck broke down, so... But, well, it's good. It's good. 322,000 miles. First breakdown. Yeah.

Erika (1:54:07)
⁓ what happened? Is it still kicking or, wait, that's really

the first breakdown ever? That's great. shit. ⁓

Eric (1:54:15)
First time it's ever been towed. Battery died.

I, ⁓ but here's what's funny, and we'll wrap this up soon, because our guest is coming soon. I left a light on or something a couple weeks ago, a couple weeks before Christmas, and it died in the morning. And then I left a light on again on Christmas morning and it died. And I jumped it. I have the jumper kit or whatever. And I just noticed like, while doing it, the battery's six and a half years old.

Erika (1:54:25)
Yeah. Yeah.

Eric (1:54:43)
So I've only had two batteries in 13 years. They both lasted over six years. I'm like, oh, I'm going to

Erika (1:54:48)
Okay.

Eric (1:54:48)
have to replace this probably. I said to myself, I'll do it on Tuesday, tomorrow when you're listening right now, because I'm getting an oil change when you're listening right now. I was going to get a new battery. And I started it up to go skiing with Tyler and it started, but it struggled a tiny bit. I'm like, well, it's cold. We're driving to the mountain. We're one mile from the mountain, maybe one and a half on a dirt road. I sent you a picture of this, right?

Erika (1:54:53)
You're

dead, yeah. ⁓

Eric (1:55:13)
I've sent this

picture many times and the battery light goes on. all the lights go on. The radio kicks off. I was listening to Will Run for it. It turned off. I'm like, Oh no, will I make it? I didn't make it to the parking lot. Tyler's sleeping though. Called AAA. AAA is like, we'll send someone out there. So then they contact you by text. They're texting me. They're like, Hey, we're three hours out, but we can send someone to try to jump you. And we're talking on text. I'm telling them what's going on. And they go, Oh, that's an alternator.

Erika (1:55:25)
⁓ no. no.

⁓

Eric (1:55:41)
If your truck died while driving, it's an alternator problem. Your alternator's not charging the battery. I'm like, no, it's the battery. This battery's old. It's not holding a charge anymore. Okay, it's an alternator, but you know what you know. Okay, cool. I diagnosed it, right? This lady comes there in like a Hyundai or with her two kids

Erika (1:55:48)
huh.

Eric (1:55:56)
down this back road and we jump my truck, take the plugs off, dies right away. We put the jumpers back on and I'm able to drive the two miles to the ski resort parking lot with my truck.

Erika (1:55:58)
Yep.

Eric (1:56:08)
like with it on the battery and I park and I park in a good place because I know now they're going to come and tell me three hours later. So I know I got three hours. So Tyler and I go up to the mountain. We get it. We get start getting

ready to go skiing, put our boots on. I get a phone call. Hey, we're sending another truck. He's 40 minutes out. Like, oh, 40 minutes is not enough time to go and do like even two runs of Tyler. So let's get our boots off. Let's buy a cookie. Let's walk back to the truck.

Erika (1:56:32)
Mm-hmm.

Eric (1:56:38)
The guy

picks up and pulls my truck on his flatbed and ⁓ drives us home. Tyler thought it was so cool riding in the front seat of this huge truck, right? And he had, I put the car seat in it. He thought it was so cool because the big window, he's like, yeah, it's an alternator. That sounds like an alternator. I go, yeah, I think it's a battery, but okay. My dad's then texts me. Yeah, it's the alternator. My boss has texted me. That's an alternator. I'm just, I'm in denial.

Erika (1:56:45)
Yep.

Okay.

Eric (1:57:05)
This isn't

an alternate. I know I need to buy a battery. So I'm thinking I need to buy a battery and an alternator and get somebody to do it because I YouTube how to do it and I don't want to do it in the cold. I'm going to be in deep, like $800. So now the truck gets dropped off and I have to now do a new AAA call because they're going to come and test the battery and they can replace the battery. AAA will put it in. They don't do that up North by the way, only South of Concord. So that's why I couldn't have them do it in at Ragged Mountain.

Erika (1:57:11)
Yep. ⁓ man. Mm-hmm. OK.

Eric (1:57:34)
The guy gets there, he goes, I'll test it for you, but that's definitely an alternator. I'm like, okay. So he jumps it. He test it. And I'm like, now I'm just like, I've given in. All right. I'm going in an alternator. He goes, the battery. I'm like, I was like this. It's the battery.

Erika (1:57:35)
You

Validation!

Validation.

Significantly cheaper.

Perfect.

Eric (1:57:59)
Yeah.

I'm like, saving money. I'm saving money. When's the Goal song end? I don't know. I don't know how long some of those are. ⁓ But he doesn't have a battery. He goes, well, I'll tell you what. We'll set up a new call. I'll come at eight in the morning. He comes at eight in the morning and goes, let's test it one more time. I'm like, of course. Right. So he tested it, knowing I need a new battery anyways. And he puts in the new battery. And the thing was, every time we would

Erika (1:58:04)
Nice.

my God.

Make up your mind, you guys.

Eric (1:58:28)
Charge this battery. It wouldn't hold a charge die right after so we put in the new battery start the truck It runs. It's perfect. It's been perfect for a couple days. It's great Then I made another trip back to the mountain with Tyler and I saw Jen Smith She was there and then she invited me and Adeline to go To Jay peak with him and stay with them and bring like an air mattress. I'm like, are you serious? So Jen, are you serious? Cuz I really want to take you up on that. I really want to take you up on that so

Erika (1:58:32)
Mm-hmm. What an adventure.

No way! That's awesome.

He'll jump at that chance. Mm-hmm.

Eric (1:58:57)
We'll come up on like Sunday night or Saturday night, whatever that... Saturday night and ski Sunday. That'd be great. That'd be great. Anything else? Any last hot takes? I got one. I got a hot take.

Erika (1:59:02)
That's cool. What an adventure, man. Geez. For you? I was just, I do have a hot take, but I don't know if it really counts as a hot take. So.

Eric (1:59:15)
No, just like what's

right now, what are you feeling?

Erika (1:59:18)
Well, this was a topic over the drive. So I did a New Year's Eve or a New Year's Day race with Tara and Lindsay, and we were just chit chatting in the car. And we were talking about doing races. And my hot take is that I personally don't like spending money on short races because you don't get the most value for your money.

Eric (1:59:41)
I feel the same

way about like a half marathon or a half Ironman. I don't want to travel to like Porter Lane, Idaho to do a half Ironman. I don't want to train. Right. I don't want to travel to Nashville. I would travel Nashville for a half marathon. Like I don't want to travel to a random place to do like a rock and roll half marathon. It's no offense, Tara, Tara Dactyl or Katie. If you still listen, I'm like, what's the point of doing half marathons in every state?

Erika (1:59:44)
Mm-hmm. Yep.

See, exactly, that's why. Yeah.

There you go.

I mean, that's why I do falls because I feel like if I'm going to travel, I might as well go big. But most of the 5Ks nowadays.

Eric (2:00:14)
Be like, you ⁓ you ran a half marathon?

Why didn't you run the second half? There's that comedian who does that.

Erika (2:00:19)
Yeah, funny. Yeah,

but my thing is just that like, don't like spending more than say like 25 bucks on a 5k. Like it's just, it's a lot of money and what do you really get out of it? But people who do them.

Eric (2:00:31)
Yeah, I'll do 25, 30,

40, 50 bucks for a 5K just to be with people. But local, like, I'm not gonna travel.

Erika (2:00:38)
Well, see, I

will too, but I don't like it. I would much rather just run. Mm-hmm. Yep. Yeah. See, that's making the most of it. But yeah, I just have some trouble. Like, 40 bucks for like a 5K. Like, I've hopefully done it pretty fast. And like, it doesn't last long.

Eric (2:00:41)
I love that races are now doing, we'll talk, we're gonna have a guest on later in a couple weeks where we talk a little about Cape Cod. Like you go, it's a weekend. It's a whole weekend festival. Like that's what I want when I travel. Right.

Well, that's me. I'm the one

paying 40 because I'm paying last minute. Gamophobia. You always sign up right away. You're getting the deals. I got a little hot take and I know this is long episode, so maybe it's good we're leaving these at the end. Dude, I am tapped out of Squares. I'm tapped out. Everybody's asking. Like I did three and then I'm required to buy them for my daughter's cheerleading team and all this like

Erika (2:01:05)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, but they're still expensive. It adds up.

What's Shar-Shar. ⁓ like football squares? Everybody's fundraising. ⁓

Eric (2:01:30)
The playoffs

haven't even started and they're asking me two weeks ago. No offense to you guys who are. I know why you are and I support those reasons.

Erika (2:01:32)
you

There

are really good causes going around yeah

Eric (2:01:39)
Right. Right. But man, one thing this doing this podcast has done, and I'm so grateful for it, but it out pumped the tires for all the fundraising, but I am tapped out. That's my hot take. Yeah.

Erika (2:01:49)
It adds up real fast, but we appreciate

everybody who is out there doing the fundraising because we know it's not easy and you guys are getting it done. So good for you.

Eric (2:02:01)
Yeah. And I

learned that this year. I knew it going in, but I learned it again this year. So, hey, kudos to you. You did your show notes. You did amazing. I said, for realsies and at work. So for realsies, keep it up. Yeah. Yes. And it worked for con. It's just taken some time.

Erika (2:02:04)
Mm-hmm. Yup.

I did something. Guilt. Guilt is how you get me to do things.

The thing is, I don't post often because I don't do a lot of stuff. And it feels boring if I'm just like, here I am on my treadmill again. And nobody needs to see that. Who wants to see that? Maybe we can ask that in our questionnaire. I don't know. Yeah, put an extra section. Like what should Sixstar do on her social media? ⁓ Love that button.

Eric (2:02:37)
Maybe I add that You know what?

But you know what? When you do content, it doesn't work all the time, but 60 % of the time it works every time. You're doing a great job.

Keep doing it. People love it. I love it. It gets good views. It gets good content engagement. You're doing an amazing job, but we got to go because very soon our guest for next week is going to jump on and you guys are going to love it. I can't wait. Erika Take us home.

Erika (2:02:52)
100%.

I'm so pumped.

Happy new year, everybody. Once again, thank you for listening. You know we love you.

Eric (2:03:13)
Don't fear the code brown!

Erika (2:03:15)
and don't forget to stretch.

Eric (2:04:05)
Okay. I said, I know I teased you. I know I teased you guys that we weren't gonna have a guest.

Erika (2:04:16)
Damn.