From Service to Purpose 🇺🇸🐾 | Mark Pfeifer on Military Life, Mission, and Building Wigglewow

In this powerful episode of the USA Cares Podcast, we sit down with Mark Pfeifer, founder of Wigglewow, for a conversation that blends service, sacrifice, and purpose-driven entrepreneurship.

Mark shares heartfelt stories from his and his wife’s journey in the military—offering a raw and personal look at the challenges, transitions, and values shaped by their service. But the story doesn’t stop there.

Out of that foundation, Mark built Wigglewow—a unique dogtrot-style retail concept with a mission that goes far beyond business. Wigglewow is dedicated to employing and creating meaningful career opportunities for adults with special needs, proving that impact and innovation can go hand in hand.

This episode is about more than business—it's about purpose, people, and building something that truly matters.

🔹 Military life & lessons learned
🔹 Transitioning from service to entrepreneurship
🔹 The vision behind Wigglewow
🔹 Creating careers for adults with special needs
🔹 Leading with purpose and impact

👉 Don’t miss this inspiring story of service continuing beyond the uniform.

#USACares #Veterans #Entrepreneurship #Wigglewow #SpecialNeeds #PurposeDriven #MilitaryStories

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Hey guys, I want to take a second and tell you about the great folks at Whiskey Lullaby Apparel Company. Now, this is a t-shirt company out of Texas that is really, really passionate about helping veteran families. And they have taken on USA Cares as one of their projects. So they've made some really cool t-shirts. Part of that money is coming right back to USA CARES to help veteran families in crisis. So I hope that you will check them out. Whiskey Lullaby Apparel Company, look up their website and go buy a shirt today. Hey Maeve. What's going on?

SPEAKER_01 0:54

You know.

SPEAKER_02 0:55

Back again. We're back. Hey, we just got back from Vegas. Yeah, we did. That was fun.

SPEAKER_01 1:00

I I think you've letting me go.

SPEAKER_02 1:02

Well, of course. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So if you're not familiar with USA Cares, we do a couple events around the country. We just had a great golf outing in uh beautiful Las Vegas um recently, and just a great chance to get together with some people from different parts of the country from where we are and uh share the story of USA CARES and give a little hope and a little encouragement and just a great chance to hang out with some good folks.

SPEAKER_01 1:26

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 1:26

Yeah. So if you uh if you are new to the USA CARES podcast, uh welcome. We hope that you'll hit that subscribe button and make this part of your regular routine. Uh USA CARES is a national 501c3 nonprofit, and we work to eliminate factors that often lead to veteran suicide. So we stop evictions and foreclosures of veteran families before they happen. We stop vehicle repossession, we help them find jobs, make sure they have food, and do everything we can to keep the family together. So if you want to learn more, check it out at USACares.org. So we always try to bring you different angles of the veteran story and different paths that people take and just the the way that um kind of people find their purpose and meaning in their lives. And MAVE, today is no no different, right?

SPEAKER_01 2:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:17

Yeah, why don't you introduce our guests for us and uh talk about why this is a special episode?

SPEAKER_01 2:24

Yeah, so um Gift for Good Louisville was um in back in September, and I was walking in J Town inviting people um to come pie you.

SPEAKER_02 2:35

Yes, yes, that was not a great not your best idea, but go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 2:39

So, of course, there was a um dog treat store. I was like, I have to go in there, and I met Mark with Wigglewow and got to meet some of their um chefs, and it was I I was surprised to know that you were a veteran when I mentioned it. Um so today we have Mark with Wigglewow, and we're excited to hear his story.

SPEAKER_02 2:59

So, Mark Pfeiffer, you are uh Air Force veteran. Yes, sir. You and your wife. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:05

Well, I don't have a wife, I have a bride.

SPEAKER_02 3:07

Oh, very nice.

SPEAKER_00 3:09

Well done, well played. Are you married, Matt? I am. You just scored big points, buddy. I'm telling you. When you go home, don't ever refer to your wife as your wife again. And that's actually a military story.

SPEAKER_02 3:21

That's great. Yep. I want to hear it.

SPEAKER_00 3:24

Okay, so aircraft maintenance officers. Yeah. Whenever I got on the truck when we're launching the planes, all my guys, because primarily men, there were women too. Yep. But all the guys would talk about the old hag, the ball and she, the war department, the old lady, and I'm this young lieutenant married to this beautiful blonde. I'm like, wow, this is the love of your life, and this is what you call her. And the other, oh, she loves it. She loves being called these things. And I'm like, so I went home, I'm like, I'm praying. I'm like, all right, God, what can I call my wife that truly helps her understand that I love her and want to cherish her to be the daughter of you, God of the universe? Yep. And I felt the Holy Spirit say, once your bride, always your bride.

SPEAKER_02 4:06

There you go.

SPEAKER_00 4:07

Are you married, maybe? Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02 4:08

Recently married.

SPEAKER_01 4:09

Yeah. Oh. Just got married.

SPEAKER_02 4:11

And so how many months now? Six months?

SPEAKER_01 4:13

Uh close. Uh it's like four and a half. Four and a half months. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:18

But so as a woman, would you would you have to say that one of the days you felt the best about yourself was the day you got married?

SPEAKER_01 4:27

Oh, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 4:28

Yeah. So if you think about what an easy way for us as men to build up the love of our life.

SPEAKER_02 4:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:34

To let them know that we will always see them as our bride.

SPEAKER_02 4:38

That's a great story. I love that.

SPEAKER_00 4:40

There you go.

SPEAKER_02 4:40

I love that. How many years in the Air Force for both of you?

SPEAKER_00 4:43

So 10 for me, okay. 28 and a half for my bride. So she she yeah, she outpaced you. She killed it. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 4:53

I can pick them. That's it. What made you want to join the Air Force?

SPEAKER_00 4:57

Uh, so honestly, I was just gonna enlist in the military. Went and talked to a Navy recruiter. He goes, fill out this. Uh you have to take this test and uh we'll see how you do. Come back in two weeks. So I went back in two weeks and he said, You can be anything you want in the Navy. He goes, fill out this paperwork and send it in. And I go, Well, what's this? He goes, It's an application for a full ride scholarship to go to college. And I said, I'm sick of school. I go I want to get on with my life. And he goes, Well, let me show you something I wish Shoman would have showed me 19 years ago. He goes, This is a pay scale, it's public knowledge out there. You can find it in the library. We didn't have cell phones back then. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:36

And he goes that was a thing, they felt no way.

SPEAKER_00 5:40

And so he showed me, he goes, let's say you enlist today and in four years you make the rank of E5. This is what you're going to be making a year. And I saw that and I was like, wow, that's not a whole lot of money. Yeah. And he goes, if you get this scholarship and you get straight C's in college, this is what you start off making as an ensign. And I was like, You mean to tell me if I bust my butt for four years as an enlisted person and I do great for my country, I actually would be making less than someone straight out of college.

SPEAKER_02 6:14

Who didn't even get high grades?

unknown 6:15

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:16

And he goes, not only that, he goes, look at this. In four years as an officer, you will make more than an enlisted person ever will if they stay in this. And so that's why I ended up going to college. Because I mean, I money as a 20, 18-year-old, actually. Yeah. Money motivated.

SPEAKER_02 6:33

Where did you go?

SPEAKER_00 6:34

Uh Colorado State. I was gonna apply to the academy, and then they told me I couldn't have a girlfriend or my 66 Mustang for the first years. I'm out of there.

SPEAKER_04 6:43

No way.

SPEAKER_02 6:44

It's all about priorities, Mark. Yeah. That's awesome. Well, good. Good. So you so you you go into the Air Force, and you know, you were telling me a story earlier, a little bit about um some of the things you did in dealing with aircraft, but specifically jets, right?

SPEAKER_00 7:01

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_02 7:02

And what tell me a little bit about that?

SPEAKER_00 7:04

Yeah, so uh we were working with the F-15s, and it was my last assignment. We were in England, yeah, uh, and uh we were RF Lake and Heath. And uh the 229 engine, which is used in the F-15E strike eagles, um, was failing miserably. And uh they were failing at such a high rate we were not meeting our wartime commitment.

SPEAKER_03 7:24

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 7:25

And so uh so the chief and I uh came up with a plan um that we proposed to our colonel, and then ultimately the winged commander, uh, it was a multi, I think it was like a six million dollar plan that instead of sending these engines and shipping them overseas back to Pratt and Whitney here in the U.S. to have them overhauled and repaired, and then shipped all the way back, and then shipped all the way back in all that lost time. That it makes more sense to take a team of 50 to 55 Pratt and Whitney engineers and technicians, fly them to England for nine months, and just do a mass uh overhaul right there in our and it got approved.

SPEAKER_02 8:03

And you had to run all that, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:04

It was yeah, it was epic.

SPEAKER_02 8:07

I bet it was. I bet it was. So you how you said you were in for 10 years. What you tell me about your bride and what what she did.

SPEAKER_00 8:18

Yeah, so we met at Chinute Air Force Base, which doesn't exist anymore. It the week we were there, they announced they were gonna close it. Oh wow, and the song Don't Be Cruel to Ran Tool came out. But she uh she started off as in what they call tech engineering. So when the nuclear missile maintenance guys would go in and try to troubleshoot uh like the Minuteman and the the MX missiles, yeah, nuclear missiles, and it got beyond their tech data, they called my bride's team to go in to do it the repairs and stuff. So when it exceeded the tech data that the technicians had, my bride went in and did that. So she found she didn't like crawling into those holes a whole lot. So after she did that for a couple years, she moved over within uh the civil engineering squadron. Yeah. And uh she just progressed. I mean, when we were stationed in Tyndall Air Force Base, I had to run away and hide with the kids up in Atlanta when Hurricane Opal was beating the crap out of Tyndall Air Force Base. She was telling the general when to evacuate the planes and everything.

SPEAKER_02 9:19

So So how hard is it to be because we talked to we it was a couple weeks ago or a couple months ago, we talked to another couple. It was that was the first time we had a military couple on. How hard is it to be in in the military together? So how what does that do to the family units? Does it make it stronger or is it is it make it harder?

SPEAKER_00 9:40

So it does, it's both. Okay. Uh where it's it's harder is um you definitely you don't well, I mean, the military is the military, right? You don't have family nearby. So as you start having kids and stuff, I mean, literally the first nine months of our first baby's life, only one of us was home after her first six weeks, right? After the first six weeks, there's only one of us at home with our son because we were in school, at deployments, or whatever. So that becomes very challenging. But the cool thing about it though is you realize that this is what we signed up for. Right. No, this is the life we chose. This is what we signed up for. So there is no option B. We're gonna figure it out, we're gonna make it work, and so you just make the best of it, right? It's so much of life is all about choices and your approach to the challenges you have. We uh both my bride and I we're not the defeatist type, like, oh, poor, poor pittle for me. We're like, how are we gonna get through this?

SPEAKER_02 10:36

Yeah, we're gonna through it, over it, under it, whatever.

SPEAKER_00 10:38

What are we gonna do? We're gonna conquer it.

SPEAKER_02 10:40

So that's awesome. That's awesome. What was your favorite moment or the weirdest moment you had in your military career?

SPEAKER_00 10:48

The favorite, well, those are two different questions. Okay, well, pick one. Yeah. So the favorite moment uh was at Tyndall Air Force Base when I was selected as the Company Grade Officer of the Year. Nice. So that was cool. Nice. Uh the weirdest moment um was when I had met my bride at Chanu Air Force Base. Uh, we were working out in the gym, so we weren't even dating yet.

SPEAKER_03 11:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:15

I just heard about this hot blonde lieutenant on base. And I'm like, whatever. The only things hot in are the enlisted women, and they're off limits. We can't touch them. So uh, so uh she walks through the uh door of the hangar. It was a converted hangar, aircraft hangar that they made into a gym. And I turned to my buddy, I said, Kyle, I go, I'm I'm gonna date her. And he's like, You don't have a snowball chance in hell with her. Well, as God would have it, there were only three exercise bikes in this huge renovated hangar, and she came in and sat down on one. So we're all in civilian classes.

SPEAKER_02 11:46

There you go.

SPEAKER_00 11:46

So she assumes we're enlisted. Yeah. So she's like, Oh, here I am. I'm gonna get hit on again by these guys, right? Yeah, and uh so I invited her to the shark feed, and I said, Hey, I go since our class started at the officers club, they the officer in charge there, the manager, let us decide what the theme was in the club each Friday because we brought him in so much money. And so this Friday was the tacky tourist party. So you had to bring your crazy looking clothes, slap a couple cameras around your neck. It's gonna be a great time. So we're all sitting there partying, and so what was weird is she shows up, she didn't look tacky at all. She looked so fine, she looked really wow. I'm like, lucky for you, I bought three changes of clothes because I know how I am. So you can have one of mine. They have drawstrings, so you can pull them real tight. So that was kind of weird, but yeah, it ended up working out in my phone.

SPEAKER_02 12:36

That's awesome. Yeah, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 12:38

Yeah, who would have thought?

SPEAKER_02 12:40

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 12:42

So your bride Kathy, right? Yes, she was in there a lot longer than you were. What does what made you decide for you to transition out?

SPEAKER_00 12:53

Yeah, so uh we had two children at the time. We were stationed in England, and we were at our nine-year point. And so it's that point when you reach halfway, you're like, all right, we're gonna be lifers, or we're gonna cut the strings. And our oldest son just really, really struggled with transition. So whenever we changed, it rocked his world, and it was rough. And so uh that's when we both decided to put our paperwork in to get out, and so we separate both of us separated at the tenure point, uh, which is what brought us to GE appliances here in the little because uh originally I'm from Colorado and she's from uh Virginia, yeah. And so uh now we're from Kentucky. How about that? Yeah, and so uh so we were here, and I was like, you know, we're not gonna just throw away 10 years. So I went and applied uh to join the Air National Guard here, and I got turned down because at our last assignment I passed out three times, but the Air Force couldn't, and it wasn't because I was drinking too much, right?

SPEAKER_04 13:52

Right.

SPEAKER_00 13:53

They just uh couldn't determine why I'd passed out. And so uh what was crazy is so I didn't get a medical retirement from the military or any compensation, yeah, but it prevented me from getting any kind of retirement because the guard wouldn't let me back in.

SPEAKER_03 14:07

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 14:07

So that's when Kathy said, Well, hey, I'd like to do it. Let me can I do you mind if I join? And so she did, and she ended up being the first female non-rated full bird colonel in the history of the Kentucky Air National Guard. How about that? I'm a proud I bet I'm a proud. That's awesome. That's awesome. Yeah, wow, very cool.

SPEAKER_01 14:28

So you guys moved to for G appliances. What'd you guys do there?

SPEAKER_00 14:32

So I was a black belt, uh Six Sigma engineer. Yeah. Yep. And uh she was an engineer, she started off being responsible for ranges.

SPEAKER_01 14:40

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 14:41

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:42

So I'm trying to figure out where the correlation to Wiggle Wow happens.

SPEAKER_02 14:45

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So Yeah. How do you transition to so help help Maeve and I? We're we're we're rookie podcasters here. So help us make this transition from this this long military career for both of you to and a lot of people may not know what Wiggle Wow is. So you you may want to explain that too.

SPEAKER_00 15:05

Yeah, so uh it was literally 2014. So we came to Louisville, we got out in '98.

SPEAKER_02 15:10

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 15:10

Came to Louisville, worked in corporate America until 2000, well, 2019, but it was in 2014. I'm talking to my brother who is living in the Philippines at the time with his two children. So we're talking over the internet via Skype. Um, because again, we still didn't have cell phones and stuff. Yeah. And so uh I go, hey, uh, how's it going? He's like, hey, uh, it's going great. He goes, I know you've been very successful in corporate America, and I know you have your rental business. He goes, I want you to quit all that and start a company that provides careers for adults with special needs. And I was like, okay. So what does that look like for you?

SPEAKER_02 15:46

Was that just kind of out of the blue?

SPEAKER_00 15:47

Well, so his youngest, uh-huh, uh Soren, is on the severe part of the autism spectrum. Okay. And so has about a 200-word vocabulary, um, you know, still needs help like washing his hair in the shower and that kind of thing. Yep. Um, yep. So uh so that's where the prompt from him came because what I didn't know is how difficult it is for parents of special needs sons and daughters to survive just day to day, right? I mean, you and I look forward to being empty nesters when the kids are out of college and move away and hopefully never move back to the phone.

SPEAKER_02 16:21

It's awesome, Mark.

SPEAKER_00 16:23

Hey, I'm an empty nester. I am not it's it's the great. Yeah. But that's something that special needs parents never experience.

SPEAKER_03 16:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:31

Right? I mean, they yeah, they it so what we do at Wigwow, so that ended up being the genesis of what is now known as Wigga Wow, where we actually create an opportunity. Uh, what I tell people is that for the special needs population, their entire life, they hear from our culture all the time about the things that they can't do. And God created a Wigwow to show the world what they can do. I love that. And that's what we do each and every day. It is right, God gives us a front row seat to see miracles every day. I mean, for you and I just being able to put a glove on by yourself. Oh, what's a big deal?

SPEAKER_03 17:07

Right.

SPEAKER_00 17:07

For someone that's never been able to do it, and then it finally is, it's a huge deal.

SPEAKER_02 17:13

So I remember I I've seen a couple TV appearances that you guys had, and I remember being struck by one. I knew about you all because Maeve had she's a little crazy about her dog. Yeah, and so she likes the dog treat. Um, but you all make these these dog treats, and you're like, okay, it's a dog treat company. But but what was really stood out to me, and I wish I remembered the young man's name, but there was they there are different departments of your your bakery. And there was one man who's like, I'm in charge of this, like this is my area, you know, and just the pride and the excitement and the ownership of something that he's never experienced before, I have to imagine.

SPEAKER_00 17:53

That's exactly. I mean, what I've learned, right, is uh one of the things is that they never get stuff that has their name on it. So the first time I came up with name tags, wow, oh, you swore they all got a lot. They would have the winning lottery ticket.

SPEAKER_02 18:07

That's crazy.

SPEAKER_00 18:08

Wow, look at this. And on that, one of uh Hope, I won't say her last name, but we call her the spicy margarita. She has Down syndrome, and uh, she comes up to me and she's literally on the verge of crying. And uh, she goes, Boss, they call me boss, not because I asked them to, I'll get to that story. But she goes, Boss, I I lost my name tag. And I go, Well, Hope, where do you think it is? She goes, It's in my pancreas. What? I'm like, how do you even know what a pancreas is? Well, it's because uh oh, what's it called? Where you have to take the shots, insulin shots, yeah, yeah, uh, whatever that is. She has type one diabetes. Okay, she has type one diabetes, so that's how she knew what a pancreas was. Oh my god. And so that yeah, so I was like, oh, well, we'll have to go in there and get it out of your pancreas. But uh, yeah, and so I was gonna tell you about Boss. We had uh a young lady that joined the team that was turned down for 20 years applying for jobs.

SPEAKER_03 19:10

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 19:11

I mean, I I mean, I've applied for jobs and didn't get them, and you feel devastated because you're like, what? I know I deserve that job. Yeah, you know, and then but can you imagine being turned down every for 20 years?

SPEAKER_02 19:23

Demoralizing, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:24

Well, and and trying for that that takes a lot. Yeah, a couple of no's really hurts your your ego. Yes, it does.

SPEAKER_00 19:31

And you just don't want to even try anymore. Right. And she is hands down. If you if you ever see Tiffany uh working at one of our booths, she has bright red lipstick, you can't miss her, and she will make you feel like a million bucks and you'll spend a hundred dollars at our booth just because you want to make but she is hands down our top salesperson. But so so she would she was working in the doghouse and she kept calling me boss. And at the end of the day, I said, Tiffany, I go, please call me Mr. Mark, Mr. Pfeiffer. Don't call me boss, I'm not on a power trip, that's not what I'm about. And so she goes, Okay. And she looked kind of sad and walked off. And then the next morning, her parents come in and go, Hey Mark, we need to talk to you. I'm like, Oh, here we go. What I do, it's always the parents, right? Yes, it is. So our employees are called epic chefs. So I never have problems with the epic chefs, it's the parents. And so uh the parents pulled me aside and they said, Hey, uh, we understand that you have a problem with Mark or Mark, with Tiffany calling you boss. And I said, I do. I'm not on a power trip. Yeah, Mr. Mark, Mr. They said, Mark, for 20 years, Tiffany has wanted to have a boss.

SPEAKER_02 20:35

Let her be your boss. Now everyone at work calls me boss. So no getting ideas.

SPEAKER_00 20:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:44

You can just call me Mae or Sir Mae. Yes. Just call me Sir.

SPEAKER_01 20:47

That's perfect.

SPEAKER_02 20:48

Um, that's awesome. And and you know, I've I was I was looking at your website, which give it give people the website so they can check it out if you would.

SPEAKER_00 20:55

Yeah, so it's wiggle like dogs wiggle and wow. WOW says just wiggle wow, all one word, only one capital W in it. So wigglewow.com. And uh yeah, you can order, you can become a subscriber out there if you want to support us and you don't live in the Louisville area, you can get your dogs treats every single month. And literally, the so after I feel God spoke to me through my brother uh when he was living in the Philippines, the second thing I God said was if you don't have a recipe that dogs destroy, you're not gonna employ many people with special needs.

SPEAKER_03 21:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:27

So while working at GE, I told my boss, I said, Hey, we're starting, we're coming up with this challenge where we're gonna give 50 dogs from peers I worked with at Corporate America, yeah, a chance to choose between their favorite treat at home that they got every day and my latest recipe for the Wigga Wow treat. So after the first time doing that, only seven out of 50 dogs picked my recipe. And I was I was devastated. I felt like I've been told no for 20 years trying to get a job, right? Yeah. And so I went home. All right, God, obviously I suck at making dog treats. Toss me a bone here. What am I doing?

SPEAKER_04 22:00

Yeah, what do I do?

SPEAKER_00 22:02

So at uh literally around um it was a year and a half point, uh we had gotten, we were stuck like right around 33 to 35 dogs out of 50. I wanted to hit 45 or more out of 50 dogs.

SPEAKER_03 22:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:15

And uh I was praying about it and I felt the whole thing, you gotta double the amount of bacon.

SPEAKER_02 22:21

Double the bacon. I doubled the bacon and isn't that really the answer to life, mate? Just double the bacon.

SPEAKER_01 22:27

Yeah, yeah. Why not?

SPEAKER_00 22:28

Yeah. 47 out of 50. And today, so it's not official, but all the feedback we get from our customer, over 95% of the dogs, when given a chance to choose between their favorite treat at home, yeah, and a wiggawa treat, chooses wigga. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 22:42

And I I did this test.

SPEAKER_02 22:44

What does Dutch think of approved? Okay, there you go.

SPEAKER_00 22:47

Yeah, he did you already told me that before?

SPEAKER_01 22:50

I don't know. Okay, I might not have, but he he he was into it for sure.

SPEAKER_02 22:56

Yeah, that's awesome. I love it. And what a what a wild path to go down. You know, you go into your career and you think, well, I'm gonna come out and this, you know, my life's gonna look like this. And and here you are, yeah, making dog treats.

SPEAKER_00 23:10

Yeah. Well, so what's crazy, Matt, is uh, you know, you had mentioned the focus on USA cares. And so something I struggle with. I've every day, and so I hadn't really shared this with anyone because uh one of my own guys that didn't report to me when we were stationed in Montana deployed to dead storm, but uh because he couldn't go home and be home with his wife that was having complications with their first child actually came up behind me and held a knife to my throat and threatened to kill me. And this is when we were deployed to dead sealed dead storm, and so uh ever since that I've because you wouldn't let him go home. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so then all these just I call them satanic thoughts are going through my mind, you suck, you're worthless, you know, just end it now.

SPEAKER_04 23:53

Right.

SPEAKER_00 23:53

What what good are you? You know, you're keeping people away from seeing their children born, blah, blah, blah. And so even after separating the military, that's something I dealt with for the long. And I just tried shoving it as deep as I could, not dealing with it. And uh since then I've been getting professional help, which is good, because I finally applied for via disability. Yeah, and I was telling my, he's like, dude, are you seeing someone about this? And he said, No. And so uh, yeah, so but that's really why I'm so focused because the epic chefs depend on me, yeah, right? And so it gives me a purpose and a reason to make sure I get my butt out of bed, yeah, and help them make a difference every day in their lives.

SPEAKER_02 24:34

And that's beautiful, and that's something we talk about all the time. And and we sit here, as I've mentioned to you before we started, you know, we're over 200 episodes in this, and we're we sit here and we listen to people's stories, and we talk about and and there are some common themes that come up every single time, and it's finding that sense of purpose, and it's finding that fulfillment, and it's finding that thing that that moves you forward. And I I was thinking when we were talking about doing this episode, I was thinking about talking to you and and talking about your purpose. I wasn't even thinking about their purpose. I wasn't even thinking about the the epic chef's purpose and and what kind of fulfillment and how that fills their heart and how excited they probably are to go do that every day. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 25:20

Yeah, they they have all the same wants and desires that we do. Yeah, and that's what a lot of people I mean, I don't know how old you are, Matt, but I know for my generation, let's just say 25. Okay, perfect. So I you can be my son. Yeah. But growing up, you would see back then it was the special ed class, right? You'd see them at lunch, you might see them at recess, but after you graduated from high school, you never saw anyone with a disability out in public.

SPEAKER_03 25:46

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:46

It's like they're institutionalized, whatever. And fortunately, our culture cultures come around and they're more accepted, yeah, right. But they do, they have all the they want to be able to take mom and dad out to lunch and pay for it with their own money.

SPEAKER_02 26:01

Absolutely, right?

SPEAKER_00 26:02

They yeah, they want to get married, they want to have children, yeah, they want to go to college, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:07

They want a full life, just like we all do. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 26:11

Yeah, one one of my epic chefs. So on every the back of every blue bag that we create, each epic chef gets its own label. So it provides a connection from with customers to our staff. Oh, cool. So they know who they're helping providing a career for. And if you're ever in the Louisville Valerie and you go to one of our shows and get a blue bag, one of our epic chefs will even autograph your bag for free.

SPEAKER_02 26:32

That's cool. Yeah, I love that. That's so cool.

SPEAKER_00 26:35

Yeah, so it's yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:37

What do you guys have coming up? You got anything coming up this summer that you're doing? Are there are there opportunities for people to pitch in? Are there ways that they can give to you guys? Because you recently became a nonprofit yourselves.

SPEAKER_00 26:48

That's correct.

SPEAKER_02 26:48

Yeah, so what what can people do to help support WiggleWow?

SPEAKER_00 26:52

Yeah, so on the website, obviously, if you'd like to donate, you can donate on our website at wigglewow.com. Uh, but really what we'd like to see happen is people to become regular subscribers.

SPEAKER_03 27:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:03

You know, uh, you know, even if you don't have a dog, I bet you know someone that does have a dog, right? Yeah. I mean, what's 20, 25 bucks a month? Yeah, you know, knowing that you're truly making a difference. I we have God has us on a mission to be the largest employer in America for adults with spectrum.

SPEAKER_02 27:19

I love that. I love that. So people could even buy, like if they didn't have a dog, they could even buy a bunch of these and take them to shelters and take them to other places and donate them there.

SPEAKER_00 27:28

Yep. Or even or let's say you have a grand dog but don't have a dog yourself, you can actually buy them and have them ship so that you're paying for them every month, but have them ship to your grand dog every month.

SPEAKER_02 27:39

I'm amazed how many bumper stickers I see that say I love my granddog. I know.

SPEAKER_01 27:43

They're everywhere.

SPEAKER_02 27:44

Never would I've I ever thought of that.

SPEAKER_01 27:46

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:47

That's crazy. Well, I love what you guys are doing. Congratulations to you and and to your wife, your bride. And I almost I almost said it wrong. I know. And um, but I love it. I love it. I love the story, and I hope people will check them out and um yeah, make sure they they buy the double bacon dog treats. I have not given my dog any of these yet, so I need to I need to get some. Yeah, and uh I will get some ordered. Absolutely. Awesome, Mark. Thanks for being on.

SPEAKER_00 28:16

Thanks for having me on.

SPEAKER_02 28:17

Yeah, it's a real pleasure. So, like I said at the beginning, if you are new to the USA Cares podcast, please check us out. Please hit that subscribe button, make this part of your routine. You're gonna hear some really, really cool stories just like today. And um uh if you want to learn more about USA Cares, go to USACares.org. Go ahead and hit that donate button. This is a time of year when requests for help are high, but donations are low. So we would love it if you would jump in there, become a monthly donor of any amount, and we will greatly appreciate it and just know you're gonna change somebody's life. So from me, from Maeve, from Dutch the Dog, and from Mark, thank you for joining us, and we look forward to being with you again next time.

SPEAKER_01 28:59

See ya.