2. Building Community Through Authentic Conversations with Ben Grove Artwork

Across the Table

Across the Table is hosted by James Finochio — a Blair County native with grit, humor, and a sharp eye for stories. From construction sites to time served, his life experience fuels raw, thoughtful conversations with everyday people. Tune in for real talk, local voices, and the reminder that behind every face is a story worth sharing.

All Episodes

Across the Table

2. Building Community Through Authentic Conversations with Ben Grove

July 04, 2025 • James Finochio • Season 1 • Episode 2

🎙 Episode Title: Building Community Through Authentic Conversations

In this powerful and unfiltered episode of Across The Table, host James Finochio sits down with Ben Grove for a no-holds-barred conversation about the state of our world and the values that still matter. From the power of authentic community to the realities of politics, economics, parenting, and masculinity, this episode is a deep dive into the modern American experience.

Ben opens up about his personal journey—touching on the long-term effects of military service, the importance of investing wisely, and how to raise strong, resilient children in a fractured society. Together, James and Ben unpack how government dysfunction, media spin, and economic pressures are impacting everyday people—and why surrounding yourself with the right people is more essential than ever.

They also explore the role of health, nutrition, and mental clarity in personal growth, with raw insights like “If you can’t grow it or kill it, don’t eat it.” This episode is for anyone seeking clarity, courage, and connection in the face of cultural confusion.

💡 Key Topics Covered

Building authentic community and strong support systems
Military experience and post-service challenges
Political disillusionment and economic stress
Investing in startups and smart business moves
Parenting with integrity and resilience
Masculinity and modern expectations
Holistic health, cancer awareness, and nutrition
Media narratives and public perception
Mentorship, discipline, and self-leadership

💬 Memorable Quotes
🍻 “The glass is half full.”
🇺🇸 “I think our government is too far gone.”
🥩 “If you can't grow it or kill it, don't eat it.”

🕒 Episode Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Podcast Motivation
06:00 Politics and Personal Perspectives
11:48 Generational Perspectives and Technology
18:04 Investing in Startups and Business Insights
24:05 Power Dynamics and Political Commentary
35:23 Media Coverage and Public Perception
43:05 Masculinity and Societal Expectations
50:41 Health, Nutrition, and Cancer Awareness
56:19 Personal Stories and Life Lessons
01:06:33 Reflections on Parenting and Life Choices
01:14:44 The Value of Struggle and Resilience
01:21:56 Navigating Business Challenges and Relationships
01:28:44 The Importance of Mentorship and Learning
01:36:28 Balancing Work, Relationships, and Personal Goals

🌐 Check out Ben Grove’s brand
💥 Hard AF Seltzer — bold flavor, no apologies.

📌 Tags for SEO
Ben Grove podcast, Hard AF Seltzer, veteran stories, American politics, community building podcast, masculinity and fatherhood, health and nutrition, investing in startups, entrepreneurship, parenting podcast, holistic wellness, societal change, political commentary, military experience, unfiltered conversations, Across the Table podcast

Support the show

SPEAKER_00: 0:01

This is Across the Table. I'm James Feneggio. At this podcast, we feel like everybody's got a story to talk about. And pull up a chair. I'm here to talk about my story. My name is Ben Grove. James asked me to be on. Thanks for coming. Thanks for having me, brother. I appreciate you, man. Absolutely. That's what you try to do when you care about people. You try to help them out when they're trying to do something. Yes. Yes, sir. And I know you always do that. I do. Yeah. Well, as you see, this is a low stop. We're on a low budget. We do have kids here. So, yeah, it's an iPhone and a nice light. So, James, what makes you want to start a podcast? Oh, I feel like I'm getting interviewed now. I like it. Tables, brother. well you know what because too many people like if you look at like news and stuff today everybody's just like extreme and i don't feel like that's most people that are at work don't care about their everyone in the world is negative and i cannot stand it everyone is the glass is half empty this is why it won't work this is why you can't do this and it's like dude Shut the fuck up. The glass is half full. You can do whatever the fuck you put your mind to. Yep. And it doesn't matter. Did you watch Ozarks? I've never seen that. I don't watch TV. But it said it doesn't matter who the president is. It doesn't matter what else is going on in the world. The question is, did you work hard enough? Did you work just a little bit? So I heard a quote today, and it was from... A basketball player's mom. And it was, if you are the best person in that gym, you need to find a new gym. Exactly. Yeah. If I'm not around people that push me to be better. You need to go find other people. And that is actually part of my goal. Right. I sat around and I looked at my life and I was like, man. I need more people around me that are trying because I felt like I quit after I lost my business. Yeah. When you told me you were starting a podcast, I was all about it. I was like, fuck you, brother. You were excited about it. I was. Because I've been wanting to get in the podcast thing for a while, but I didn't know how. And it was literally me coming out of my comfort zone, which I should be okay with, but Between work and raising kids and shit, I can always tell myself I have an excuse not to, but the truth is there is no excuse. Get the fuck off your ass and do what you want to do. Exactly. My goal here isn't making money. It's more about community. Creating a community. How you know it will be successful is because when you put the money out of it, That's whenever you can make pure content. Exactly. Because nobody's going to sit here like anybody on here must speak truth because I'll call you on bullshit. As you should, man. You and I, we've never actually had to call each other on our bullshit because we don't have bullshit. Well, I have bullshit, but I speak the truth whether you like it or not. Absolutely. I am who I am. And that's when it's easy. I'm not a motherfucker that wears a toxic masculinity shirt around Walmart just hoping someone asks me something about it so I can put you in your place or show you why I believe what I believe. Or at least create a conversation, create dialogue. One of my best friends I met was because I had a fucked-up T-shirt on, and he was checking out at Home Depot when I was. And he literally came up to me, and it turns out this dude is a carpenter, but he builds movie sets for Hollywood. Oh, no way. Yeah. That's wild. Good dude. Wow, how did he get into that? I don't know. I know he drives a red platinum Power Stroke. He definitely probably ain't needing that much power. He's a good dude, though. That's awesome, man. How did you meet? Okay. The T-shirt. The T-shirt.

SPEAKER_01: 4:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 4:49

It's wild just starting dialogue with people that you've never met before. He came up to me. And he was like, where'd you get that? And we started bullshitting. And I ran into him in there like three times since. Facebook friends. You know how it goes. Yeah. Next thing you know, I'm bullshitting with the guy every night via text message. Yep. You're on Facebook with our friend from Home Depot that now works at Let's. Yeah, he got kicked out of there, which I think is fucked up. I think the situation's wrong. Yeah. So say you're working for a company and you know theft is taking place and you as a man decide to take action and prevent that theft. And then the company fires you for that? That's stupid. That is completely wrong. I don't know. He was literally being a man and doing what his God-given fucking sense told him to do, which was prevent the place I work for from being a victim. Exactly. I don't see what's wrong with that at all. From when I was... Ten years old, I was always taught, do it quitters, no victims. If you don't quit, you will never be a victim. And stealing's wrong. Dope. All Ten Commandments are basically about stealing. George Carlin told us that. He also told us the dirty words that he can't say. I love George Carlin. I love George. God rest his soul. Yes. It's like... I don't think you and I would have ever really cared about politics until Trump. I never gave a shit. I actually felt like Trump was going to do something. It was like the biggest letdown in my life, to be honest with you. I like Trump, and I like what he has to say. But whenever it comes to, like, putting bureaucracy to ask, I'm just... I think our... government is too far gone. And I think the only way to get it back is to completely reset it. And I'm a libertarian. So like, I'm not a Republican. I'm not a Democrat. I think that Republicans need to be liberal when Democrats are being too liberal. You know what I mean? Yes. Like Democrats, you need to have a happy medium between conservative and liberal. You know what I mean? Exactly. Because you have swings of the pendulum. Yeah. I have no party that I think, I don't even know what I think anymore. Like, I honestly just, I wish it would work itself out, but I'm afraid it's too far gone. When the average working man is taxed 40% of everything he makes, something is fucked. The price of oil. Is it$63 a barrel today?

SPEAKER_01: 7:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 7:56

Something like that. This is being recorded Friday, June 27th, 2020. Before July 4th. Yeah. Why are we in Pennsylvania paying$3.65 at Sheetz's Pumps? Dude, they are made pretty hard right now, dude. Sheetz. And Pennsylvania. They've been just... taxing the fuck out of us man and it's not right it isn't right guy why am i paying 3.99 a gallon for diesel fuel when i'll tuna and i drive 30 minutes to johnstown and i'm paying 358 358 you know what i mean yeah i was just in johnstown a few weeks ago and Fuel was lower up there. Why? Why is it so high in Altoona? Is it because it has a bigger population? It doesn't make sense. And then you go to certain areas out in Altoona, it's$3.50. So if she cared about us, you would think Altoona would be the cheapest place to buy fuel. That's what you would think because you started in Altoona. We put you in the mail. And you got your beer because we voted for those people that would vote for you. And I find it like, okay, you give us... Gas for$1.76 on the 4th of July. But then I'm going in and paying$5 fucking dollars for an egg sandwich? Yeah, but bud, you get that free coffee on Christmas. Oh, yeah. And dude, you take Robert's service station. You know what their price on gas was today?$3.39. Damn. 339. And they wash your windows while you're fucking getting gas. Well, I'm not at Roberts. He doesn't come out. Roberts is on... I thought they washed your windows. No. No, that's right. That's right. They're usually higher than everybody. Yeah, they wash your windows. Yeah, they wash your windows. And there's the oldest gas station. I grew up in the 70s, 80s, and like... How old are you? I'll be 50 July 15th. I'll be 39 this November. Nice. See, that's interesting. Are you a millennial? You're a millennial, aren't you? I have no idea. Don't even fucking care. I'm generation awesome. I'm generation awesome. How are you, fuck? Yep. I've seen it all. I remember before we didn't have cell phones or the internet and then Having cell phones and the internet. I grew up in that. Dude. Well, obviously from... And I've seen it. I think what a lot of people are lacking in this day and age is perspective. Everything happens so fast now. Oh, yeah. It didn't happen like that back when I was a kid. You have to have 10 seconds to catch somebody's attention or less or you're dumped. Dumped. These kids nowadays, these kids nowadays, like, ten seconds or less. I don't even have ten seconds. You have about four. Four and a half. My daughter put all these short little YouTube clips on my liked videos, so I'm listening to, like, music, and I get, like, this little clip, like, of, like, someone being a cat or some shit.

SPEAKER_01: 11:39

Right.

SPEAKER_00: 11:41

I was so fucking mad. I was like, Doug, you're off of my channel, dude. Like, I kicked her off. All my shorts are, like, construction videos that weren't rolling. Yeah. Like, if you've seen that video I posted today, the tree falling down. Yeah, I saw it. That was a good video. See, that's shit I'd like to see. Oh, I love it. But the funny thing is, I know why it fell on that person's house. Yeah. They had the cable up and everything, but... Make your notch, cut your fucking center out. Yeah, you gotta notch it. Do the sides and then hit your trigger. That's how you cut a tree down. I am not, by any means, a cut arborist at all. I do know how physics and inertia work and how structures work. If you see a tree leaning a certain way with the wind, you probably want to drop that tree that way. Because it already naturally wants to go that way. Absolutely. Now, there's ways to do it without, but common sense says go with the flow. Be watered. So that was my first business growing up. When I was in high school, I used to sell firewood to liberals in State College. No shit. Yeah. How did you get on to that? I would cut firewood with my best friend, Josh Cowan, and we would load it up with fucking trefoil and take it down to State College. How old were you? 16, 17. Just add your license and what? We had a license and a chainsaw. So at the time, like the best option would be to work for Del Grosso's amusement park, which at that time you would make$450 an hour. Yeah. I was running a load of fucking firewood to stay in college five days a week for$240. You know what I mean? So I had money in high school. Yeah. Absolutely. And that's where I realized that working for yourself is where it's at. Did you finish high school? Yeah. And I did because I was in the Army. Oh,

SPEAKER_01: 14:07

okay.

SPEAKER_00: 14:08

My mom signed for me to join the Army when I was 17 years old. So in order to fulfill that contract... What's that called when you do that? It's like pre-National Guard or... Well, that was right after 9-11. What's it called when you saw him? What was that? What was it? The split off. The split off. Yeah. Did you convince him? Did you do basic training between your 11th and 12th grade year? Yes. And then when you graduate, you do AIT, which is advanced individual training. Okay. Yeah. What types of stuff did you guys work on? What do you mean? In AIT advanced training. Better ways to kill people? I was infantry. Oh, yeah. So, yeah, it was basically all you did was go into places, fuck shit up, and kill people. Yep. Yeah. My best friend been in since he was 18. Maybe he's now, like, 48. He's working in the civilian, yeah. Is he doing independent contracting now? I don't know. He's still within, like, HR, but, like, I think he has to do... He goes to Coriopolis a lot. I don't know. He can't tell me about anything. So, like, if you do the podcast for two more years, I'll be able to talk about that shit. Really? Once I'm out with my NDA. Yeah. Ooh. Stay tuned, motherfucker. Two more years. Two more years. Get the inside scoop. Yeah. On Blackwater and whatever else. Ooh. I may or may not. have not have done. Unless you'll get dead before then and commit suicide. Fuck it. If I commit suicide, it was not me. That hard as fuck. Can I get another one of those? Fuck yeah, brother. Look, I'm allowed to... How did you get into hard AF? This is my first one and... Pretty much loving it. Got the Penn State fucking line on the front. We are the official seltzer of Penn State. This is the... Well, we are doing Ohio State, too. So we have two NCAA... Two NCAA college teams that we're sponsoring. One is Penn State. The other one is Ohio State. You motherfuckers. You sold us out. You're going to ball my grand. I mean, Ohio State, Iran, it's like the same fucking thing around here, bro. James, I got one thing. One quote that I say. If it makes money, it makes fucking sense. You're right. That's called America, baby. I'm going to take the koozie off of this because I want... I'm supporting the can. I usually put a koozie on because, well, not usually. It's the last podcast because I normally drink a beer. Two years ago, I bought in a hard AF seltzer. How much did you buy in for?$10,000. They were a startup company at the time. And two people that were starting the company had just took... Black Rifle Coffee Public. I drank it. Every fucking day. So I'm like a podcast investor. Basically, I'm like retarded. So I had already known what they had done with Black Rifle Coffee, and they were on WeFunder.com, which is a small website where businesses are trying to raise capital to before they go public. Right. And they were looking for investors. So I invested$10,000 back then, two years ago. And at that time, the only state they were in was Texas. But I knew that because that the people from Black Rifle Coffee Company were involved in it, I knew it couldn't fail. How did you find out that information? Watching Drinking British podcast. Are you serious? Where are you going? Yeah. Wow, man. Yeah. This is totally what I wanted to know. Listen, if Anheuser-Busch would buy that company out tomorrow, I'd be a millionaire. Which is going to happen. We've got to get 50 states right now. We have 39. Why do you want Anheuser-Busch to buy them out? Why wouldn't you want them to be independent? That's the biggest alcohol distributor in the United States. It is. I don't think Bud Light, when everybody got mad at him, was affected that much. Independence is cool, but what you have to understand is to open up an alcohol product in each state takes$100,000. Is that because of? Because every state has its own liquor laws. And you have to buy it. You have my pay to play. To make an alcoholic product successful takes millions. Which the little guy doesn't have. Right. You need$5 million just to open up in every state. And you're not talking distributors, promotion. Manufacturing, all the equipment. That's why when an alcohol company starts getting successful, it gets bought out right away. But the key is you need to be able to sell in all 50 states. That takes$5 million from the rip, give or take. Wow, dude, thanks for that information. I didn't know that. How much research did you do to figure that out? Well, I'm a freak of nature. I don't have a wife. I don't have a wife. I have two baby boys that I take care of. So basically, when they fall asleep, I'm online researching everything from construction to, yeah, that's it, trying to get better. It's like reading a trade journal by when I was younger. Yeah, 1% every day. You can improve yourself 1% every day for a year. What are you at the end of the year? 365, better.

UNKNOWN: 20:54

Yep.

SPEAKER_00: 20:55

I didn't know that number. I'm just agreeing with you. Yeah. Who knows? Oh, okay. You're right. You are right. 365% better at the end of the year. That's a lot. I realized when I got out of jail and after I got out of the army because I was fucked up for a little bit. Oh, yeah. When you, people have to understand, Ben and I first met in CP. Yeah. And is that your first time that you were in? Yeah, it was. And what was it for? DUI. I got three DUIs in the first three weeks after I got out of the Army. Okay. I would like to expand this, if you don't mind. Go for it, brother. Now, as a person who has known a lot of people that have been in the military and been in war, when they come out of war, a lot of them, most of them, have alcohol or drug addictions. Oh, yeah. I'd say at least 90%. What you don't understand is what I will probably get killed for saying this. If you're in an infantry unit, they want you to have an alcohol and drug addiction. They encourage it, from what I understand. That's like the culture. I would get told two days before a piss test, hey, man, we have a piss test coming on Thursday. Yeah. Because they want their soldiers not thinking and fucked up. Why? Why? Because when you're not thinking and you're fucked up and morale is high, then you're going and doing what the fuck needs to be done. Basically, yeah. And as a leader of a country, it makes sense. You want to keep your 18-year-olds, their T-levels high, and their fucking brains low. Okay. Let me give an example. I love what We did in Iran. I think it was great. There was no U.S. losses. There was no... I think it was a very precise mission. Recently. Oh, yeah. It was a very precise mission, and I like that. And it's because we have Trump in office, and Trump isn't a fucking warlord. He's trying to make money off of Halliburton. Yeah, you know what I mean? He fucking won in there. and was like, this is what needs done. This is the most effective way to do it. Let's do it. Yeah, because it's definitely a strategic point. Iran and Ukraine are on this part of Russia and this part of Russia. It's north and south. It's a strategic pinch point. And what the United States citizen doesn't understand is It takes an act of Congress to go to actual war. But they find fucking degenerates like myself who are young, dumb, and need money. And they will send them places to do army things and take care of army business. And you can't tell anyone where you're going. Like I said, in two years, I'll be able to talk about it a little bit more in depth. They make you go play Rambo. Yeah. And I would tell my mom, I'm like, I'm going to the beach. And I would be fucking in the middle of fucking South Africa. Did you see Congo, Rwanda, peace still today? Ducky, would you grab me my bait, my neck bait, please? And then they wonder why when I came home, I had fucking two, three DUIs in three weeks. Well, That's because I was still 19 years old, a young fucking mind that wasn't fully developed, and all I had known at that point was war and childhood trauma. The oldest who was a colonel in Qatar was 28. Yeah. Absolutely. And then there was a private. He's only been there for a little bit. He's 21. Like, we are... I don't want my children to be programmed for war. Really. I want my boys to know how to destroy someone if they need to. Yes. But I want them to hold the door open for women. Yes. So, like, I want my voice to be soft. As in able to protect anyone that they love. But I want my voice hard enough that if you look at them wrong, they will fucking kill you. Yeah. And that is a balance that I'm still trying to learn how to teach. You know, Mariotto Muschini. Or, I forget. Anyway.

UNKNOWN: 26:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 26:36

Musashi, Ushumi. Damn it. I just listened to it. The Art of War? No, that's Sun Tzu. Yeah. But I read that, but then I didn't know. Joe Grogan fucking introduced it. Mariotta. I forget. Sounds like it in time. The Circle. No, it's an Asian guy. And he killed like 48 men. He got so bored, he took an oar and fucking beat a man to death. But he was talking about learning your enemy's stance and learning where we are. But what I think what's really going on when you get down to it, it's a bunch of people with a lot of money. Well, as I got older, I realized that it's all about money. Yeah. They don't give a fuck about the civil war going on in South Africa. They don't. They care about selling arms to South Africans, and they care about sending people like me in there to act like they fucking care. And I've lost a lot of brothers that way. You know what I mean? And that fucking sucks. And it sucks even more whenever you get home and you get on MySpace at the time and someone was like, oh, I spilled coffee on myself today. Worst day ever. And I'm just like, huh, I watched two of my best friends die today. That sucks. It definitely gives you a different perspective. And then they wonder why you get three DUIs in three months when you come back to reality or home. I can't talk to my mom about it. I can't talk to my dad about it. Because why? They don't even know how certain you begin with. You know what I mean? Might be an NGO that paid for it. Oh, I know who paid for it, but we'll talk about that in two years. Yes. There are things that go on that I understand. Like, we have to pay off certain people. But you need a leader. But the thing is, There's a quote that the people in power that want to be in power, if you're in power, those who are in power don't want the power, and those who should deserve the power don't have the power. Go deeper on that, please. All the politicians that we have in this country, other than maybe two or three Matt Gaetz, I still like. I do like him. They're bought and paid for. Do you know that 32 congressmen wear a different flag on their lapel than the United States? No, and I don't give a fuck about them. That is retarded. That means there's money in this country that shouldn't be here. But this is the problem. All the lobbyists, all the money. The only money that should matter is American money. These are the only people that should be influencing us. And that's the problem is our government doesn't care about America. But I think Trump does. I didn't know Epstein. Epstein? Yeah, so... I think he was in Israel, and he was blackmailing people. And that's why we won't get it. And that's why Dan Bongino and fucking Kash Patel won't give us the right information, because they're like, hey, guys, if we say shit, then this, this, and this is going to encamp us. And we're losing millions of kids. Yes, and then, okay, so let's just push past it. But I think when your democracy depends on the suffering of children, then you don't deserve a democracy anymore. Are you talking about fucking Palestine? I'm talking about Epstein. I'm talking about Palestine. It's time to hide. He is a fucking Israel asset. Dude, I tell you what, dude. I watched this guy with his kid that got his arms and shit on and all trying to put them back together. I fucking felt some kind of way about that. Like, I don't know. If you don't have no fucking heart, why is this happening? And why are we involved? We are complicit with it. And I'm not saying I'm anti-U.S., What I'm saying is... I love the United States. I would die for this country. Listen, because you don't... Even every person I know in the military that's been... I've never been out of this country except to Canada to go to Niagara Falls. I'm not allowed in Canada anymore. I have too many DUIs. Dude, if you have a DUI, you can't go to Canada, huh? I haven't tried it, but... They won't let me. Yeah, you're not allowed. I'm also on a fucking FBI watch list. January 6th. That's a whole lot of bullshit. Yeah, and you know how I know January 6th was bullshit? When I was walking up to the Capitol, I saw a five-gallon can of gas ratcheted strapped to the back of a Jeep Wrangler, right? Four hours later, when I was walking out of the Capitol, that same can was still there. So if it was fucking anarchy and fucking bullshit, don't you think someone would have grabbed that can of gas and started a fire? Did you hear that they gave... No, no Capitol Police actually died. No. But the one that they... They gave... Now, what if I'm thinking about George Floyd? I got too much shit going on in my head. Because the U.S. government is so fucked up right now. George Floyd was high on fucking fentanyl. And he died from a heart attack. Yes, but the media already said that fucking dude was guilty, so... That's where we go. Before the jury was even selected, they gave George Floyd's parents, his estate,$27 million. I just listened to this yesterday. When this all went down, I forget what it's called, the way that they suppressed him. I don't know what he was called. They detained him. But with the thing on the neck, it's a common move to call it for the ambulance. The ambulance showed up late because they were given the wrong address. If that was me, I thought that golf was too soft on. I would have done worse to them.

UNKNOWN: 34:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 34:26

I agree. You know what I mean? If you're coming at me and acting all crazy, I'm going to put you down, baby. I'm going to put you down. Yeah, I thought that was being too soft. I think that that is a mistrial. I think that Shogun or whatever should be released from jail tomorrow. And do you know his other... And the fact that Trump hasn't fucking done it yet is bullshit. Here's the problem. Here's the problem with it. And this is from someone from Minnesota. I just listened to... Tucker Carlson did a show with... She used to be an anchor on Minnesota News. She's from Minnesota. She grew up, brought herself up to be an anchor in her hometown, her own city of Minnesota. Right. And she was an anchor for like 12, 14 years. Her husband was the... union president of the police force. Right. When this all went down, he said, hey, let's wait and see the body cam footage. Makes sense. Sounds pretty logical to me. They're like, oh, no! No! Do you ever notice every time there's a shooting in Pennsylvania right now, it's a fucking transsexual? Why wouldn't they eat black people? Why is it not trans people? As soon as they realize that it's a tranny, it gets two hours of coverage and it's fucking buried. I'm not racist by any means. I love everybody. I will fucking die for any racist. My wife is half black. My wife's parents, Paul and Christy, got married in the 90s when that was kind of, like, frowned upon. Right. And they did it anyway. I mean, I'm 50% Native American. My last girlfriend was white, but her children were black, and I loved them like my own children. Yeah, exactly. So I don't give a fuck about race. Don't. I give a fuck about what you... I care about the person. Your merit, your character, and... This is why equity is wrong. Your producer wants something here. Well, you guys, I guess they're just listening to us talk, so that's interesting,

SPEAKER_01: 37:09

because...

SPEAKER_00: 37:11

Yes, you can go back in the office and grab a sharpie. Mind you, this is a low-budget activity. Ladies and gentlemen. She's getting a Sharpie. She's getting a Sharpie. She might need it. I don't know. Do you think she cares about it? Dude, I get concerned about my kids, too. I'm terrified for my kids. I don't leave my house without a gun. I don't. Because I think... I think that to not be able to defend yourself, if need be, is fucking ignorance. It's pure stupidity. I don't care if you're a felon, you're not a felon, you're allowed to carry a gun, you're not allowed to carry a gun. I think to leave your house with your wife and children and not have the means to defend yourself in an emergency situation is fucking... And that's a stupidity. It's retarded. Have you heard of that burner thing? What burner? It's a projectile. It's non-lethal. Oh, yeah. But it'll fuck you up. Yeah, I think my mom has one. There you go. And some ones can carry it. Good. If I go to the sheets down by UPMC, I better have me a gun. Well, I burned a gun. Well, I'm not removing that gun. Well, that gets me on my next topic. So, like, if you're a nonviolent felon, what the fuck aren't you allowed to have a gun? I'm a nonviolent felon. That is bullshit. That is bullshit. Yes. You're fucking, say you're 17 years old, you sell a cup of marijuana to fucking some kids in high school, you get caught. Yeah. You cannot have a gun for the rest of your life. So, therefore, you can't train your children to shoot, huh? How to fish. You know what I mean? Your take is bullshit. It's creating dependence on the government. And the last thing you want, when the government comes into your community and they say they're going to do this, that, and that, you want to do it for yourself because you don't want to suck on the government's dick. Or their dick. That's the fucking truth. Or their dick. You know, all these people say they hate Trump, but yet they want to suck somebody else's dick. Yeah, but why do they hate Trump? That's all I want to know. It's being financially motivated. People want socialism. Until they get socialism. Look at Latin America. Dude, I have this great check. Do you know, he's an old reporter. Do you know that Montparnasse only works for 300 years? We're at the fucking brink of it. Yeah, we're at... It cannot... Like, we're at... Because what happens is people of wealth take all the power, and that's what we're looking at now. Because it... I'm not saying that America is perfect. It's not, by far. But it's better than other countries, and I've been to other countries, and I'm telling you. America's pretty fucking sweet. It is. All these people that are marching for Hamas and Palestine, they kill them the first day they got in power. And my thing is, if you're in America and you're marching for another country, then go to that fucking country. Do it. I see Hamas, Palestine, Mexico. You wouldn't make it a fucking day. You wouldn't make it a fucking day. Like, not to be a dickhead... But all these queers or gay people that are mostly liberal, that are like in these protests, if you would go to this country, they would throw you off a fucking rooftop because you're gay. Ben, can I tell you something? You're in the only country that allows you to be gay. I don't think it's the regular gays. Like, we both know regular gays. People that are gay. And I have no problem with gays. Do not. I have gay friends. I love gays. I have a lot of gay friends. And they appreciate the work that you do. I have no problem with gay people. I have none. I don't have a problem with a transgender person either. I don't either. I don't. And now you're pushing on my kid. Then we have a fucking problem. Because this is wrong. Yeah. When my kid's old enough to make up his own mind, then we can, whatever. The problem is, I grew up a juvenile witness. And so I grew up in a cult. And so I understand the makings of a cult. And when I look at this, I'm like, dude, their brains aren't even developed. Don't. Stop. Stop, man. They are children. If you believed in what you said... You wouldn't have to target 12-year-olds. They're targeting children way younger than that, showing them books and making little... Dude, I know how to do that. I know about psychology. I know about how you break people down. And it's very simple. I'm reading a book right now. Because you have... If you don't have control and you're a person that's not able to control yourself, you're the sheeple, then you're going to be controlled. You're going to be controlled. That is why we have fucking mass shootings, women getting raped, women getting beat the fuck up. All this bullshit is... You know why? Because they took away... From men being men. If you can allow a man to be a man. Then they will stick up for that. And they will stick up for that in their own community. And like I told you earlier, I want my boys to be able to fucking slice your throat. And love you at the same time. In the snap of a thumb. but be able to hold the door for you and make sure your daughter gets him safely every night when he takes her out. And to be a gentleman to an elderly man, to an elderly woman. Because they are lowering male testosterone in this country, whether you want to believe it or not. Dude, testosterone is so low in this country right now. We are not creating babies, so I'm doing it myself. They say right now, A 21-year-old male has the same testosterone as a 65-year-old male in 2021. That is the studies. Yeah. Why is that? Because they're trying to lower the birth rate of males. Because these countries that want to take us over realize that they can't fight us because there's too many dudes like me and you out here. That are fucking crazy. And they've already said, like, if we would try to invade the United States, there would be a hunting rifle behind every fucking shit. Blade of grass. Blade of grass. That's what China said. Their assessment of the United States. Right. And this is true. Behind every blade of grass. Goddamn God. How do you beat the United States? You go long term. You make fucking video games. You make our fucking children fat. a beast, complacent, don't want to go outside when it's 100 degrees and work on a roof. You make it a fucking, like, oh, my God, why would I want to be a tough guy? No, I should be a weak guy. You know what I mean? Yeah. Like, they try to fucking normalize being a fucking pussy.

UNKNOWN: 45:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 45:28

I love you, brother. Hard as fuck. Hard as fuck. I need another one of them. It's not normal. It's not normal if we're meant to act that way. You need dads like me who are like, as soon as you can fucking walk, you're in a boxing gym. Here's the thing. I want to get back to that. And listen, we don't all get a fucking trophy. You got beat. Do you know how many times... Listen, if you are a man and you want your son to be a man... I strongly suggest wrestling and boxing. It's a play thing. Do you know how many times I had to explain to my five-year-old as he was crying because he just got beat at wrestling why he got beat and why it is not a big deal and how that is motivation to get better. There is nothing better to teach a fucking young man how to be a grown man than wrestling and fucking... Physical sports. Combat. Yes. Combat sports. It sharpens your knives. Yes. Do you have any girls? Football? Do you have any girls? I had a daughter, Bregan. She died. I'm sorry, brother. If you don't want to talk about that, we can leave. I don't give a fuck. I love my daughter. She came out premature and she passed away. It is what it is. It's God's will. You know what that made me do? Work hard. Be a better man. That's all any of us can hope to achieve. You know, we're all having like this spiritual awakening. It's like we've been lulled to sleep. But now there's so much information out that we're like, oh, yeah. All you guys are like... A calling away from all social media. Yes. I... I don't want to look at my phone. I don't want to look. Everything about it is dirty and disgusting. The only reason I even get on my phone is because I own a business, but I'm checked out. Take a look at my Facebook. I haven't posted anything. I posted one thing, and it was from Child Predators, and it was a dude I knew. And I was like, yeah, I need to put this out to my community and know that this guy is being a child predator. Yeah. And it's a shame because I really actually, I cared about the guy and he came and helped me out. And then he turned out to be a child predator. Yeah. I killed him. Dude, I remember when his daughter was like two year old. You should talk to his daughter, make sure she's all right. I just don't want to. Dude, I've been up on my own shit. But you're doing what you're doing and starting this podcast and shit? I think this is the right way to go. I love what you're doing, by the way. Thank you. But if you're going to be a voice, then you need to act like a voice. I know. I need to be more involved, but I'm remiss because I know people are going to attack me. Who gives a fuck? Yeah, I know, but I failed with my business. I'm so scared sometimes. Did you fail or did you learn a lesson? I learned. And you know how to build better business. Dude, holy fuck, where did I put that paperwork? I wanted to read a quote with you from Nietzsche about being the Superman. You know who Nietzsche is. Are you not taking a safe path right now? I am not taking a safe path. You are not taking a safe path. Yeah, I'm doing the union. I'm not a baby. I understand what you're doing, and I understand why you're doing it, but I tell everyone you're in the top five best carpenters I know in this town. Thank you, sir. You and Frank McCloskey, one of my best friends, my next. I don't know him, but I would like to meet him. He worked at Clayco.

UNKNOWN: 49:40

Oh.

SPEAKER_00: 49:41

Really? I love that place. Dude, I was working up at the flower shop downtown. This is downtown Alton for people to... The clay cup. Is that 13th Street? I don't know. It's in downtown. Yeah, it's where the post office is. I know. 13th Ave. And you should get him on your show. I would love to have him. He has cancer right now. Really? Yeah, pancreatitis. So we're praying for him and doing a lot of natural shit, trying to get rid of the shit. But he has stage three pancreatitis cancer. So what all type of natural shit is he trying? Basically, it was like, you got to starve yourself. Yeah. Yeah. For like a month. But I don't think chemo is the way to go. No, you can't do anything but water for like a month. And what do you do? And then your body will start eating them tumors. If you just drink water for a little bit?

UNKNOWN: 50:44

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00: 50:45

No, you can go without eating for 30 days. You need to take 21 days, okay? Okay. 21 days. So if they say you have cancer, you can't let them do a biopsy on you because as soon as they do the biopsy, they scope the fucking shit and then it spreads. Yeah. So what you have to do when they say you have cancer, liquid diet for nothing but 21 days. Because after about day fucking 10, your body starts eating those tumors. Because it's eating itself. Because it has nothing else to eat. Oh, my God. It makes perfect sense. I know three people that were like stage four cancer and they did that. Beat it. What else did they do? Did they do anything else besides water? That was it. Just water. Drink water for fucking 21 days. Don't eat a goddamn thing. Dude, isn't it sick that we... Kaiser is nothing but a B13 deficiency. B13 deficiency? Explain that to me. I don't know. Okay, so like okra. It's either... I love it. Black people. I love it. It's basically a deficiency in your body where you don't get enough fucking minerals because we are in the United States right now. We are the dumbest fucking society that has ever existed. We're the only society that thinks that fat is bad for you. where fat is actually good for you because... Your brain is made of fat. Fat is how your body gets nutrients through it. It has to have a fat. Any fucking... But, dude, 500 pounds. Multivitamin. 500-pound fat ain't good. That's a different fat. Well, that's a different fat. But I'm talking any multivitamin that you take... They're like, you have to have a fat for it to work properly. Otherwise, you're a shit. Is it so it sticks? So for blood to absorb nutrients, it needs a fat. Yeah. Okay. We're the dumbest society in the world because we want food that is nonfat. We are obese and malnourished at the same time, which is fucking retarded. Doesn't even make sense. It doesn't make sense. Modern society could come up with something like that. So what do you think is the solution? The solution is if you don't grow it or kill it, don't fucking eat it. Yeah, because I know when they're taking these cows to market, they're giving you broken cows and they're only a year old. I will tell you, as a man that packs my son's lunch every day to go to daycare, it sucks. It's fucking hard. It's not easy. But if you can't grow it and you can't kill it, do not fucking eat it. And for the love of God, don't feed it to your kids. Because all you're going to do is lower their testosterone and then make them school sugars. And they're on SSRLs. Right. Look at all these people that are school shooters. What's the one thing they have in common? SSRLs. They're almost like you could blow them the fuck over. Yeah. They're malnourished. They're fucking brainwashed. Kids are fucking cruel. So, China, they don't need to come over here and fight us. All they gotta do is make our kids weak.

UNKNOWN: 54:42

Dude.

SPEAKER_00: 54:42

Did you see that interview with a guy from Russia in like 1968?

SPEAKER_01: 54:49

No.

SPEAKER_00: 54:49

And he said, we're already here. You're already spreading our idea. It's just Marxism. That is true. It is. You see these colleges. And I'm the first one. I don't know if I say this and Penn State will fucking kick me off. I'm the first one that says democracy doesn't work. We're a democracy country. It doesn't work. It will last two, three hundred years, and then the rich all get in power, and then you gotta fucking do away with it. You know what we need in this country? A fucking king. A real king that cares about the country. Democracy doesn't work. How does democracy not work? I'm sorry, I disagree with you. Democracy doesn't work because the fact is, who do you know that gets elected? Everybody that has money. You have to have money to get elected. So to call them a person like me or you cannot become president. That is my problem with that because when our forefathers thought about this, It was so that a common man, because they were common men. Right. And they, I don't know, the Constitution of the United States is the way it is. Oh, we don't have to pause. We'll edit. All right. I gotta piss. Yeah, your pink philosophy is interesting to me. At first taste, I can't fucking bite the cake. Is this still recording? Yes. All right. Here we go. So the king thing is you can't just elect a king, but you have to elect a king that loves the people. All right? But that's what's going to last in the long term. Because you need someone to say, this is what needs done. This is what needs done. You can't have a fucking group of 100 people fucking 90-year-old individuals trying to read a thousand-page bill in 12 hours. And then voting on it. And then voting on it. It doesn't work. It's fucking retarded. It doesn't even make sense. It doesn't. It's like when these motherfuckers are like, well, what we need in this country is a civil war. And you know what I see in that? What the fuck does that look like to you? What's the other side going to do? What does that look like? Are we going to fight north and south? Because I have a lot of friends in the south that feel the same way I do. So that's not what we need. What we need is to get rid of the fucking federal government. And if we keep the federal government, we need to drop it down to about 10%, and they need to control roads and the military, period. The things that they were meant to do. controlled under a republic. The fact that the federal government owns land is fucking retarded. What the fuck? I didn't know that. It's stupid. You've never heard of a federal park? Okay, okay. So that is the federal government owning land. That is stupid. Why? And then there's domain. You know what I'm talking about? It doesn't make sense. It doesn't make sense. If you don't want to sell out the state, the city, anybody can buy your property. The federal government employs more people in the United States than any other business. That's not sustainable. So if they're taxing me and you to pay them, there's not enough of us to pay them. And that's why we're deeper in fucking debt. And they make more than us. Yeah, because they have benefits. Okay, so you know why he had so much job growth? Yeah. Because he created, like, a whole shit ton of federal jobs. He didn't create anything. He came in after COVID, and he gave unemployed people back their jobs. And people in prison. Yeah, well, yeah. Everybody that was out of work was shutting all these businesses down and they went back to work and they called that job growth. That's what job growth is. That's you going back to work after the government shut you the fuck down. Which any reasonable man would have told the government to fuck off. Well, Gorilla Jim did. Gorilla Jim did. They told them to fuck off. And, I don't know, did they make it through? Well, they're still open, so obviously they did. Is that Rick Ross? Is that Rick Ross it ends at? No. Ross is their last name. I don't know his first name. He's a pretty cool dude. Yeah, he's a SWAT cop down in Washington, D.C. Yeah, he's a good dude. Yeah, I was working at their house down in Holiday Spur. It was like a retaining wall for Bobby Goss back in the day.

SPEAKER_01: 1:00:15

Hmm.

SPEAKER_00: 1:00:16

Bobby's in hell now, huh? Dude, I haven't heard anything from him. I heard he just got arrested. Well, that was about a year and a half ago, I think. That sucks. Yeah. Hopefully he gets it together. Dude, I was renting off of Bobby Goss. I lived right next to him in his dad, Joe Plunkett's house, who is a hero of mine back in the painting days. Um... Joe Plunkett, he owned the Dulux store down on, well, it was Glidden back in the day. He owned that. It was back on Union Avenue. And then he was painting all the Amoco stations up and down the East Coast. He had the first biggest pump, paint pump. It was like a three-man sprayer. Yeah. Yeah, just kill on it. Dude, I remember old man Plunkett sitting on five-gallon bucket. Tuesday comes out. It's my fucking telling these stories. Well, get the fuck to work. Dude, you weren't allowed to have a break with that motherfucker. And I used to kill him. Yeah, I did. But it was a harder generation. I don't even, like, I've been a subcontractor for a year and in my own business and shit. I couldn't tell you the last time I took a lunch break. I don't do it. I don't do it at the union, no. Like, normally when the guys go to lunch, I figure out what the fuck to do next, or I just keep on keeping on with what I'm doing. Dude, I had this one time. Not that I think lunch breaks are weak or anything, but it's just for me. Yeah, I don't want... I get in that rhythm... I want to stay in the rhythm. Because we can take a break after we're done with work, and then we'll get back and drink some beers. I think highly functioning dudes should work all day and not take breaks. I came from a father. I was on my first roof when I was four years old for the church. sounds like me brother yeah i like my dad was doing community work for the church and i was involved when i was four years old and i i remember this my dad had this uh truck and he you know gun rack he had a level in the gun rack and you know he had a couple different levels do you work for your dad yeah oh my god yeah see i quit school when i was 15 because I used to take academic classes at Hollywood-Aceburg. Yeah. And go to Votac. I'll tell you a story. When I got out of the Army, I was working for my dad. He had a garage in Geneva at a Jones car show.

UNKNOWN: 1:03:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 1:03:23

I remember one time I had a couple fines. They were stupid shit. But the sheriff's came to come pick me up. Your dad shot. He was mad. I was in my 20s at the time. Just being young and dumb. He's like, fuck you. So I'm like my dad's best employee. I'm showing up every day. I'm working my ass off. I'm probably the best employee at the time. And the sheriff's came in and And they were like, 500 bucks, we won't take him to jail, Darren. You know what my dad said? Take him. He looked at me. He said, you got 500 bucks on you? No. Yeah. I guess the boys better take him. My dad said. My dad let me sit out of Blair County Prison for fucking at least a week to teach me a lesson. That's a lesson. But you know what the cool thing is? It took me a while until I got older. My dad never really gave me anything but advice. Yes. But it made me a better man because of it. And I thank him all the time because he never bailed me out. He tried to show me a lesson while bailing me out, if that makes sense. It does. You know what I mean? It does. See, this old guy, Charlie Bond. I remember Charlie. He owned the shop. Charlie owned his shop before my dad. Charlie came out to Blair County Prison and bailed you out. Because he was like, your dad won't let me, but I'm out of here now. And Charlie bailed me out. Come on, Dad. I need to make some money. You better believe the next two paychecks went to Charlie Bond. So they did. Yeah. But You better not edit that from this podcast. I am not. I will not. Dude, I love Charlie. Charlie is like my adopted pal. His sons were such fuck-ups, man. They were rich and entitled. Poor Charlie. He couldn't fucking... You weren't rich or entitled, but John was trying. Darren. Darren. John's is his life. Yeah, I know. I kept John's for Charlie. I don't think, I think Charlie is a lot like me. He kept his eye on the ball and he didn't care what was going on around him. And he assumed that eventually it would work out. And that's like a lot how I am. Like, I could be a better father than what I am. I've missed a lot of shit. Baseball games, wrestling. Shit that I don't want to be at. I tell myself that my eye is on the ball and I'm building this business so that my kids never have to worry. And I feel like that's where Charlie was. But the problem was... No, it's not. It is what I learned from Charlie is... You'll turn 60 years old, your kids were entitled, and you'll die alone. And they're going to be doing drugs and doing heroin and shit. Well, it's not even that. It's just that you weren't there to maybe— For the moments that they needed you. And I don't know how to say this without being an asshole, because I love Charlie. Charlie's a good dude. Charlie taught me it. Charlie's my adopted pal. You know what I mean? He's taught me a lot of lessons. I don't know how to say this without coming off conceited, but it's like you should have relapsed a bit. Yeah. Maybe only worked 70 hours instead of 90 hours. Yeah. And try to drill into your kids' heads the real reason why what the fuck you're doing is what you're doing. Principle. That's it. Try to give them principle. That's it. And that's where I struggle because I'm like, I grew up dirt poor, you know what I mean? My mom had me since I was 18 years old. Dude, I lived in Cherry Grove. We were on welfare. My first bike was used at a yard sale. Yeah, I love that bike. But you know what that did? It was motivating when I got older because I realized like, not that it's a bad thing not that it's a bad thing and now that I'm older I even sort of kind of regret it but I never wanted my kids to grow up worrying about anything but now that I'm older now that I'm older I'm starting to think I fucked up because I taught them a lot of valuable lessons but I gave them everything made it too easy yeah I've never made it easy for Jimmy. Jimmy's 21. And Jimmy's probably going to be a fucking leader before you know it. Dude, he has a clothing line coming out. Yeah. Because he did it on his own. He did. And he's an amazing man. I will give this to him. And the works of the rapper Drake. He who made it struggling made it best. Exactly. I'm not sure if you can make it without struggle. No. And failure. I would have never got where I am today without my dad. And it was not even like so much as if I were to listen to my dad, I'd be a 10 times millionaire by now. It didn't. But it was just my dad like twisting my arm and forcing me to go in a path that I didn't want to at the time. But it made me a better man. Because I watched my dad build his business from nothing. He took this 401k, drained it all out, and invested it on himself. You know what I mean? I remember one time I asked my dad for a fucking co-signature. I was younger. My dad said, banks compete to give loans, so if you can't get a loan, there's a problem. I could figure out how to get a loan. You know what I mean? Yes, I do. I still have people trying to give me a loan and I shouldn't get a loan. Everything I ever learned about being a man was from my dad. Yes, I agree. Totally. To my dad, he's Jehovah's Witness. Let me tell you something. That man has more heart than anyone. I have problems with him because he would make sure that the church's mortgage payment would go through. But he was just a good man. How was that growing up being Jehovah's Witness? Was he making you knock at the neighbor's doors? Yes. Let me tell you about Jehovah's Witness. Well, he wasn't making me. It was a cult. Oh, and you just did it because you were a kid. Rather, no. I know what it's called. I don't believe in any religion. You know what changed my mind? This is fucking king. They built a new church in Maple Hollow, which I was very much a part of. They had me install the library and a lot of the books. Russell started it. Anyway, I started reading the other five books that weren't included in the Bible because I actually had access to them because they were in the library. And I was like, I don't know, 14. I don't know, I was 87. I was like 12 years old. I was born in 86.

UNKNOWN: 1:11:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 1:11:54

yeah and you know what i love my dad because a lot of these baby boomers they don't have um dude there's so much information now yeah it's they didn't have that growing up in construction and like I don't know why, but I'm like fucking retarded. I always wanted to be the best, okay? And I always heard about your dad in painting. Fenugia was the best painter in Altamira. That's me. That's me. That's not my dad. My dad doesn't do painting. Well, I've always heard that. We are the best. And what else? Waddell's a good guy. Yeah, Waddell. I love Waddell. And you remember Aaron Waddell. He was locked up with us. Listen, Randy. I like Randy a lot. I do. Randy's a really, really good dude. Randy gave me more chances than I could ever count. And you fucked him up. No, never. I never fucked Randy over. Good. Anytime I was ever doing work for Randy, I made sure it was above and beyond. The problem with Randy is he calls you every day and every hour, and Pam, his wife, will tell you, if she's listening to this, he gets a little bit annoying, but I love Randy. Randy's a good dude. They don't blame me. His son drives his pickup truck with a helicopter following him. He's been Bobby Goss. That's not Randy's fault. It is not Randy's fault. Randy did nothing but right by Aaron. And if anything, you should get Aaron on his podcast. You should get Aaron on his podcast. I called Aaron off because after that, is he out of jail yet? Yeah, he's out right now. He's doing good. He's doing decent. I just want him to be doing good. Get him over here. Interview him. I thought to him. Get him on here. Okay, cool. Help me out, bro. Fuck yeah. We'll get him. I think that See, Ben, this is exactly what this is about. Remember when we were sitting there in prison. It's about everybody trying to help each other. And it's very hard. I look back at all the shit I've been through and I'm like, I'm not even 40 yet. I've lived three lifetimes. Exactly. And my biggest asset is my knowledge. And just my wisdom. And, like, not to be conceited or anything, but I can give, like... You earned it....40-year-old, 50-year-old men advice. You earned it. And know what the fuck I'm talking about. And just be like, this is what you need to do. And get the fuck out of your own way and do this. Dude, I love that when I call you up and you come to my job site, that you come in and... People, we don't want to mess with my mates, but things were going wrong. Yeah. And I called, well, no, I think he called you, but it was like, ah, this is going bad. Well, it was going horrible. And I'm like, oh my God, I put you in charge and you can't fucking do the job. And here we are. Like, what the fuck, man? What did I do? Saved it. I mean, good. Didn't charge him a dollar. He didn't charge me a dollar either. Worked for free for fucking a week. After the baby. And handled it. Yes. And make the customer happy again. Because sometimes life is about karma. You know what I mean? Because I didn't make money on that job, I feel like karma... is going to make me money on it as well. Yes. And do you believe in astrology? No, I don't give a fuck about astrology. There's a whole lot of things lined up. Yeah, I mean, I see them and I love them. And I think it's cool to look at. But I don't believe them. If you're aggressive and willing right now, everything will line up for you. But I don't even believe in God that much. I don't either. I believe in karma. I believe in that if you live a good life and you try to help other people, then good things will happen to you. I believe that, absolutely. Because there is a test about people in capitalism and people in, like, socialism. And people in capitalism are more likely, like, if I give you a$20 bill, I'm going to want$40,000 back next week. But I'm a capitalist. In order to help my friend, I'll give you$10 to help you start making money. Right. Dude, I've made money from zero. All the time. Listen, I want to jail you. Been in debt. The only reason I was able to keep my house was because my mom at least made my mortgage payment. Came out of jail. My mom said, you owe me this much money. And you did. Paid it right to fuck off. Well, fuck yeah. The only good thing about me is that I've always been resilient. I've always had these two hands. And I've always had the mindset that I'll make it back. You know what I mean? You care. You care. And that was my biggest struggle with business is I care too much. That is, dude, obviously I have not been successful in business. And so that's why I like to have Why are you successful in business? Because I care too much, and I have too much of a heart. You act like you weren't successful, but to guys like me, I think you were successful. When? You did what you wanted to do. You built houses. It was fun, dude. I enjoyed it. Why aren't you building houses now? Because of the fourth and federal government. It wasn't nothing you did. It wasn't like you built the house or something. I'm still paying, my final payment of$500 is going in July 15th. You know what I mean? For the lawyers that are paying for me to pay for my fucking phone. You need to listen to me for a second. You act like you did something wrong. You didn't do anything wrong. You built a house, right? Right? The customer was happy. It was the federal government that shut me the fuck down. And workers' comp. The insurance is fucking insane. So, as far as building houses, that's not on you. You are the fucking man at building houses. You are not the man at running a business. And that's where I'm at. I don't even know how to fucking big work. And I'm one of the best hodgers in this town. You know why? Because I feel bad for people and I'm like, I feel bad. And then I'm like, oh, you know, I could do it for this. Yeah. But then I remember this shit like COVID when they're charging four or five times when I'm building a three-tier deck out of treated lumber. Right. And then I put it on my credit card. Now I'm getting sued for my credit card because I've got to pay the federal government. They're coming at me harder than you. Listen, I was working... I was working for Fannie Mae up until October. I was working seven days a week. I didn't take one day off last summer. And it fucking destroyed me. Yeah. It cost me a relationship. Cost me a baby mom. It cost me everything I had. All right. To the point where I had to move out, start over again. Finished the project, and I was drained. Like, when I got out of that project, I was fucking drained. And you know what I did? I went back to work with Daryl Lee, one of my best friends, good buddy of mine. But it's like, how do you go from, I was making$250,000 a year easily, to about$70,000, because I'm very good at what I do. And still, thanks to Daryl. I love Daryl. But this week was my last week with him because I couldn't do it anymore. It's six months. And I was just like, I can't. You know what I mean? Yeah. And I love the guy. I would do anything for the guy. The guy is literally my second dad. But I can't continue. I feel like... I had$30,000 in my checking account when I started with that man. And now you're probably down to zero because... I'm living week to week. Yes, that's bullshit, dude. You work your heart out and you work week to week. I will never say anything bad about Daryl. Daryl is a good dude. He really is. And he always had my back. When I needed fucking$5,000 down to buy my truck, Darryl was right there with a goddamn check. And I will not, like, if Darryl calls me tomorrow... Dude, you should not. If Darryl calls me tomorrow and says, I need this and this, I'll be there. But the thing is, I need to start doing my own thing for a little bit. Yeah. I think when men that are, like, make moves... they need to have a little bit of time away from each other because you just like butt heads because okay i think about it this way and you think about it that way i never butted heads with that man i uh it's like a dad yeah i've done nothing but learn from him i do that with dave hatch I love that man. Me and him. You might get drunk and talk shit about him to yourself and to anyone else around you, but at the end of the day, at the end of the day, you will have his back no matter what. Yes, and he has taught me so much. That's the way me and Darrell are. I'm in on Walmart Distribution Center this year. This is$750,000 contract. You know how I got the confidence to do that? Daryl. How do you even know how to do that? I don't know how to do that. I'm fucking retarded. I just drunk until I write up the contract and then I submit. Are you making money? Yes, I get it. I'll make probably$500,000. He's doing paint. I'm tall and slim, brother. If I put you in my truck, it's got heated seats. I ain't getting out the shovels. But yeah. No, you don't have to. Dude, I love your truck. That's so good for you, dude. I'm proud to see you. I plow loaves, Home Depot, all that. It's an hour for a day. Why? To learn how. Yeah. To learn the business. Because I knew in the back of my head, if I learned it, I would get it. Daryl knows the business, and he knows how to get it. He knows Penn State shit. Dude, if he knows Penn State shit, then he's golden. Daryl doesn't have a son. I am Daryl's son. Daryl is talking so much shit, to the point when Daryl's mom got dementia... I went with him to Florida to move him to his sister's house. That's what you did. Me and Daryl are so tight, it's not funny. So would you say he's your mentor? Yes. Very much so. Everything I learned about business, I learned from Daryl and my dad. I wish I had. But my dad has a different business. My dad has a different business. My dad has a girl business. So it's completely different than construction. But everything I learned about the construction business, I learned from Daryl or Jeff Long. Jeff Long. We built one of Jeff Long's first houses down in Juniata. When Jeff Long started, it was him, my real dad, Bobo. I bet you my dad knows your dad. I guarantee that. I guarantee it. Because the first development they built up in Tyrone, my dad told me they'd fucking framed every house with a goddamn hammer and nine penny nails in a week. They've been ten-pounding now, or sixteen-pounding now. Yeah, whatever. But they had no nail guns, and my dad said he would frame a house in a week. Dude, this is what I've seen. You know this apartment building right here? Yes. So when Jeff was building that development up there, he tried to pay my dad in that building instead of money. Jeff's an interesting guy. I love him. He's probably one of the most influential people. You know why? He had grit. And when people told him he couldn't do it, he said, fuck you. And he's like five feet tall, dude. I think he's got the gumption to fucking. Dude, him and my dad. That's the key to being successful. When someone says you can't do that. where they try to get in your way, you say, fuck you. Get the fuck out of my way and let me hold my beer while I do this. Hey, a lot of people are fucking up this shit. He still has more money than God right now. He does. Especially in this area. Jeff Long is killing it. There's more money than shit. Yes. Dude, we're going, uh, Saints is, uh, the company I work for that. We're going out to paint their new distribution shit in Claysburg. They offered me$75 an hour to come sell to me. Really? Hmm. Did you take it? Is that why you're going to work for yourself? Turns out. Why? I said, listen, I don't know. You want a bottle of honey? Huh? You want a bottle of honey? I don't want to sell for anyone.

SPEAKER_01: 1:27:43

Dude, it's...

SPEAKER_00: 1:27:46

The tax is so high. It was right where it needs to be. Dale was paying me$30,000. I made him$100,000 in the last month. I made$30,000 for an hour. Yeah, but my$30,000 is cash. Yeah, well. So Friday, I get$3,200 a week. Yeah, but... But my thing was, I was like, dude, I added it up. I made you$100,000 in the last... Three weeks. And you ain't compensating, man. That don't work out that great. I was like, all you have to do is give me five grand and be like, here's a bonus. Thanks for doing what you're doing. And you did it. Here's two grand. And that's why today I was crying at work. I was like, I'm done. You were crying? Yeah. All those terrible. You don't want to do it. You don't want to do it. Devil's like another dad to me, and I'm literally shitting in his face by doing what I'm doing. Well, my thing is, if I don't do that, then my kids are starving. Yeah, I'm not here to make you a million dollars, at least share the wealth. All you had to do was say, Ben, I give you$50 an hour cash. Thank you, I love you. You're already paying$20 out of that in taxes. Hey, what are they getting done with everybody else? He literally sent me a text. He literally sent me a text and was like, I can't wire this without you. He has no idea where anything is. Is it MC? But still, you need to know what goes where. To fucking finish all the circuits. I'm the only guy that knows it. Because I did it all. Sure, but you haven't labeled. Yeah, I did. But who's going to figure that out? Me? He doesn't have a guy smart enough to figure out this is circuit one, two, three, four. The problem is, you're not on my level. Yeah. You're not on my level. You have to have 12 years of childhood trauma. grow up on the job site, wake up fucking shingling roofies when you're 10 years old, jumping in a fucking homeowner's pool just to fucking stay alive. Because you're dying from the heat. Yeah, you're not on the heat. I came up doing roofs on powerhouses, and they were all three-tab shingles, and you had to get the rain lines perfect. Chalk line every seven and a half just to keep your tab's arm straight. Yes. The only reason you had the chalk lines in the center, but then again, they had the little tab, which was at six inches, so you could do that too. But you still had to chalk the line, and you had to square the whole roof. When I got out of the army, I wanted to be a go-tech teacher. Dude, I'm not. You know what happened? What? On three DUIs. Once I got those three DUIs, it didn't matter that I knew ten times more than any go-tech teacher they had hired. It was like, you can't be around children because you're a fucking alcoholic. It doesn't work like that. Well, I'm an alcoholic. because I've been to war and watched all my friends die. You know, I don't know anything less about building. It's just that I'm having a mental breakdown. Yeah. And dude, that's what most people that are doing construction are. They're having mental breakdowns. When I see these dudes like teaching Botech, I'm just like, nevermind. Let's get your co-ops to come work for me for a little bit. And I'll teach them how to do shit the right way and how to make money. Dude, I just hate people that... Dude, go be on our roof this week. This week? I mean, it's 94 degrees out? Yeah. And it's... I feel like they're tougher. Like, I was up there all day. And I was like, well... The smart guy is up there in the morning. And then doesn't want to work up the shingles because he cares about the customer. And then it goes up about five o'clock in the afternoon. Yeah. Well, see, here's my thing. I show up at six o'clock. And then while I'm working 10 hour days in Blairsville. Sadly, I'm driving an hour each way. But go and try to get it done. But, dude, it's so hot. Like, it's just so hot. But you try to put yourself in a position where it's not that bad. I was the electrician on the job this week. Doing all the wiring. You know what I did? Run shit on the floor and don't clean it up. All these guys had to do mud. Mud job work. They didn't know how to do it. Didn't know where they were going. So I literally gave them all mudding lessons about how to keep the mud in the center of your pan, how to keep it in the center of your knife, keep your back clean, doing a quarter, right side, left side. Now we're using a five-inch knife, a five-inch knife to bed the tape in the drop wall. Right. And you use golf ball size and the corner right here. I'm the only dude that's going to stop what I'm doing. Watch these dudes fucking it all up and be like, stop. Stop what's going on here. Do you guys ever finish travel before? No. Here's what you need to do. How many people will pay to be a child? I love to. Dude, I'd love to, but like when I have like like uh at east halls i had 17 guys underneath of me yeah you can't three buildings i don't have time to teach yeah four of them were worth the shit four of them cares that's what is my brother my son and um oh okay my brother and my son and that is really what's up Why don't you start a union painting? Because I like Saints, and I like Jeff, and he has the money and the backing, and I don't want to go up against him. I think he's a good guy. Join forces with him. Well, that's what I'm trying to do. And the only way, being that they're a union company, you have to... I always look at the thing that is beating me, or the thing that's more successful to me, and then I think, How will I do that? Exactly. Or how will I get there? And that's like, I'm never satisfied. If I make$250,000 this year, I'm going to want to make$450,000 next year. I'm never satisfied. How do I get there? I'm never content. No. And it sucks. It really does because I don't know how to relax. I haven't been on vacation since 2016. I haven't taken a week off. Do you feel like that's confusing? Like, at some point... Yeah, I feel like my mind is just so fucking dialed in that it's just like... Dude, I need to go on vacation. I need to go on vacation. Yeah, a lot of people do. And that's why you're not built like me. I don't have to be dissing you or anything. I haven't taken a vacation since 2009. I'm a rare breed. I'm the type of person that will walk away from everything to make sure that I'm successful so that I can fucking make sure my kids have what they need. Exactly. And I don't give a fuck what it is. Family, reunions, Vacation, I don't care. I will walk away from it all. So now that we're talking, you brought the kids in. Yeah. What I'm thinking about with my daughters. Every relationship I've ever been in, if it got in the way of work, walk the fuck away. Yeah. I need to make money. Shut the fuck up. It's not even that. And I will tell them, I'm like, listen, I like you a lot. you're a good person, but we're, I care more about work, my children, and then maybe a relationship. Yeah. Yeah. So like, if you think that I'm going to take off three days a week, hang out with you, you're sadly mistaken. It's never going to happen. Hang out. Whatever, whatever you want. But that's the reason why I'm damn near 40 and have never been in a serious relationship. The reason I married the woman that I did is because she contributes as much to the relationship. Right. But you're not going to find that nowadays. I did. She's only 31. Well, you got lucky. I did. But most of these women that I meet on Tinder are like, I'm a model. I'm a hair cover. I'm like, You have nothing to offer me. What do you bring to the table? Nothing. She brought everything. I bring everything to the table. Yes. My thing is, is I'm terrified I could fucking lose it. Yeah. Like, dude, I've worked so hard to create this. I need everything I have. I own everything I have. I got a$92,000 truck out there. Paid off. Your truck is paid for? Yeah. You're... Dude, your house in... You still live in Indiana? It's paid off. It's all paid for. Your house is fucking gorgeous. Congratulations. Thanks. I appreciate that. Your shower... Dude, I want to buy it. I'm going to sell that. I want to get out into the country. I'm going to sell that and buy 20 Reynolds. I believe you could do that. I'm going to put a job payment on each one with the money I let her make from my house. Ben, my goal has always been to get into... We need to talk to Dave Seidenberg, dude. This motherfucker... The podcast is young. How long are we? Three hours? Nah. He's asleep right now. He's got his... Who are you? That's my wife. That's Katie. Oh, nice to meet you. I've never seen you before.

SPEAKER_01: 1:39:16

Nice to

SPEAKER_00: 1:39:17

meet you. The light

SPEAKER_01: 1:39:18

is about to die.

SPEAKER_00: 1:39:20

We're about done with this shit. We're going to have a podcast, too, coming up. We're trying not to put this out on Tuesday. Is the light going to die? Yeah, it's all red. Yeah, I think this is dead for the night. Yeah. Hard as fuck. Go get some... You know, Beaver Stadium selling alcohol now. Dude, you buy the richest buck. Star Beverage and Altena sells it and Hickey's and State College. And if either one of them gives you a problem, call me. 932-9613. I always have a case on stash at my house. On what? You want to deliver it? Yeah, I will deliver it. You're a bad investor. I know the guys that store beverage. You know, Will and Pete motherfucking D. Well, Pete is not there. I know Captain Stewart. Let's just say, like, if my construction business really takes off. Is Captain Stewart part of your thing? My construction business takes off. And that's Jeff Allman. It's still only 75% as if this hits it. I want to get on your freight train. Is there any way that people like me can coattail and hook onto this and make some money? Whenever we go public, you'll be able to invest, but you already missed out on a bigger investment. Goddamn, bitch. I didn't know about it. What the fuck? There was six months where you could invest in hardest buck. Through WeFunder.com. WeFunder.com. And that's like before a company goes public. So, Misha, is there any good WeFunders coming up? Because I feel like hard as fuck is too hard to exist. And now I'm not going to make money on it. XRP, crypto. That was the other thing that I had on the paper. We'll get into that tomorrow. XRP. XRP? XRP, is that correct then? It's$2.14 right now.$2.14 per coin. It's gone about$1,000. XRP. Take that down, peeps. This is going to air July 4th. XRP. Thanks for having me on, man. I really... I love you, man. Dude, you will be. I would like that. You and I have good conversations. I would like to help you interview people. Like, I want to be on every day. We'll see about that. I mean, think about it. Think about it. I know a lot about a lot of things. Nothing about anything. You know what I learn every day is that I don't know shit. But, dude, when it comes to making money... Joe Rogan doesn't make shit. He just listens to smart people. Exactly. I simply want smart people to