The Foureva Podcast
Welcome to The Foureva Podcast, where we break barriers and redefine success!
Join host Jamar Jones, a dynamic entrepreneur, national speaker, and author of "Change Your Circle, Change Your Life," as he takes you on an extraordinary journey of inspiration and motivation.
In each episode, we bring you an impressive lineup of star-studded guests, each with a unique voice and a wealth of insights to share. From industry leaders to renowned experts, we uncover their secrets to success in personal, business, and marketing domains. Prepare to be captivated by their stories, strategies, and experiences that will empower you to reach new heights.
Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur, a marketing professional, or simply seeking fresh perspectives on life and business, The Foureva Podcast is your ultimate destination. Discover the transformative power of changing your circle and unlocking your full potential. With each episode, we delve into the minds of the most influential voices in the industry, providing you with the tools and inspiration you need to overcome obstacles and achieve greatness.
Don't miss out on this dynamic podcast that will fuel your ambition, challenge your limits, and propel you toward success. Tune in to The Foureva Podcast and join a community of driven individuals who are ready to make an impact. Get ready to be inspired, motivated, and 'foureva' transformed!
The Foureva Podcast
Big tech tried to cancel his family business (you won't believe now)
Want to build a purpose-driven brand, make bold moves in your industry, and create impact through authentic storytelling? In this episode, the Foureva Podcast sits down with custom flag creator and bold branding expert James Staake to unpack what it really takes to stand out and scale with integrity.
James is the founder of Conservative Grounds and the mastermind behind powerful, patriotic custom flags seen in media, politics, and public spaces across the country. From getting canceled and rebuilding, to turning creativity into a movement, James shares his unfiltered story of resilience and reinvention.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
✅ How to bounce back after being canceled and come back stronger
✅ Why having a strong message is the secret to building a standout brand
✅ How James turned a creative idea into a six-figure business
✅ The role of purpose and conviction in long-term success
✅ Tips for building community around your mission
✅ How to stay grounded when you’re building something controversial
James also opens up about how his faith and personal beliefs guide his work, how he’s navigated media scrutiny, and what it takes to stay authentic when the pressure to conform is real.
🎯 If you’re a creative entrepreneur, brand builder, or mission-driven business owner, this episode delivers real talk and inspiration.
🔔 Don’t forget to LIKE, SUBSCRIBE, and turn on notifications for more bold conversations on branding, resilience, entrepreneurship, and turning your vision into a legacy.
We didn't have a dollar to spend on starting a business. We couldn't afford to go buy the material for the flag, just, you know, maybe 30, 40 bucks. But my wife was like you know. My mom and dad gave us that gift card to Home Depot for $50, we could use that. So my son and I went down to Home Depot, we used that gift card and his idea. This business was literally started on a six-year-old boy's idea and a $50 gift card to Home Depot.
Speaker 2:James, welcome. Welcome my man to the Forever Podcast. So I mean, this is a conversation that I feel like is long overdue to have with you, man. I can't wait to dive into your business, what you stand for, just all the things. Man, you have so many stories you know you're like a natural storyteller. First, let everybody just know just real quick just who you are and also what you do.
Speaker 1:My name is James Stocky. I'm the co-founder, along with my at the time six-year-old son, who founded our business, your American Flag Store. Our business took off. We made local news in San Diego when we lived there In the first few months. We moved here to Tennessee, bought our very first house, living the American dream.
Speaker 2:Four months after we got here, we got canceled and uh last year's been a struggle.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, we're coming through with it and you know we just believe in prayer and god answers prayers and takes care of his people and he's taking care of us yeah, man, I mean you, you're resilient.
Speaker 2:You're resilient man because a lot of people that would have happened to they would have probably threw in the towel.
Speaker 1:Well, hunger makes you resilient.
Speaker 2:When you get hungry, you need to work. That's the truth. That is the truth, man. Well, first I want to dive into how and this will go into a lot of different segues of conversation with you but what does media mean to you?
Speaker 1:Oh man, I mean, today, it's the only way that you can communicate a message, you can promote your brand, your thoughts. I mean, it seems like if you want to talk to the people, or I mean geez, with social media, if you go to the, you know the, the, the more most most available media to us all. That's how we keep in touch with our friends, our family. Um right, I mean media. Media really has become like to me the, the town square where everyone shares thoughts, shares views, and and and comes together and, unfortunately, sometimes comes apart.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and you've taken media to like a whole nother game. I feel like through your story, can you just walk? So first, actually, before we get into the media, spot your company, what you guys do. You have beautiful pieces, man, absolutely beautiful pieces. How are you able to launch your business and grow it to the place that it is today?
Speaker 1:Well, launching it was. I think that's the best part of our story, to be honest with you. So one day we were, I had a bunch of my buddies from high school this is from when we still live in california, my hometown valley, center california and uh, all my buddies came over we were watching a ufc event and so the dads are kind of in the the garage, you know, doing our thing, and then the moms are inside doing their thing and the kids are just running amok. And uh, my son comes in on his bike and says dad, I got, I got a business idea. So we're expecting him to be like, you know, a paper route or lemonade stand, and we live in a very rural town. So, you know, not a very good idea. But then he says daddy, I want to make. All my buddies are like, okay, max, tell us your idea, you know. And everyone kind of sits back, like pitch us, like like we're all sharks or something. He, uh, he says, well, I want to make. Actually, he kind of like it's a backhanded comp, well, not even compliment, it's like insult, but he's too young to understand. So, since you're always waiting for to start new jobs I was a carpenter and you'd wait for permits.
Speaker 1:In California it could take weeks, sometimes months. So when I was waiting I had all my tools sitting there and you know I, you know, during the first couple of days I, you know, run around the house doing chores, but when the chores are done, I'm literally sitting there doing nothing and my wife's going to work every day, going, you know what'd you do today? And I'm like I sat around and just kind of waited for that permit. So, so around and just kind of waited for that permit, so yeah. So he came up with the idea that, rather than me sitting there doing nothing and waiting for the grass to grow, uh why don't you and I use your tools to make wooden american flags?
Speaker 1:And mommy being an artist, uh, my wife worked at trader joe's for 17 years. She's one of the artists that does all the you know, the art in the stores and stuff. Oh cool. So my son put the two together Daddy's a carpenter, mommy's an artist, me and Max would make the flag, mommy and his sister, evelyn would paint artwork. So we say it's a good idea. What kind of artwork, max? Well, maybe George Washington and Abraham Lincoln and stuff like that, and me and my buddies and stuff like that. And me and my buddies are like that's a really good idea, like if I'm not doing anything, that that's a good idea.
Speaker 1:So you know we all talk about it and you know we jot. I jot down just a couple ideas. You know the obvious stuff the second amendment, the constitution, the we, the people are preamble, um, you know the basics, the simple basic patriotic symbolism. And by in that few minutes we came up with like 20 or 30 ideas and we're like man, this is almost too easy. And this is almost eight years ago. Before there was like five people doing this thing. Now there's over 500 people doing it. So we got in right at the beginning. And so that night goes by, the we all go to bed. You know the UFC fights on the on the west coast end around 10, 30, 11. So we were in bed, you know, fairly early we wake up to my son storming in our bedroom jumping on the bed let's go get the stuff to make the flags and let's start this business. And I'm like you know I, you know we were, I had my buddies, I was drinking a little bit before. I was like what are we talking about?
Speaker 1:again.
Speaker 1:And uh, he reminds me. And I was like, oh, that's a great idea. And I look over at my wife and I was like, hey, do we got a little bit extra money? We didn't. We didn't have a dollar to spend on starting a business. I mean we couldn't afford to go buy the material for the flag just 30, 40 bucks. But my wife was like, my mom and dad gave us that gift card to Home Depot for $50. We could use that. So my son and I went down to Home Depot, we used that gift card and his idea to start the business was literally started on a six-year-old boy's idea and a $50 gift card to Home Depot. Crazy, yeah, that's it, absolutely Just going around. And you know we made that first flag. I posted it to show people. Hey, look what me and my son made One of my buddies, actually a guy.
Speaker 1:In the previous in the interview I was telling you about my buddies from Valley center that have the horses and stuff, mike turner. And uh, mike turner saw it and he says I want it, give that to me. I sold it to him. He came by, picked it up, he put it in his house proudly showing it and promoting his buddy from childhood. Four or five of his friends buy it. They put it in their house, they promote me. Four or five of their friends buy it.
Speaker 1:Within the first month we had like 50 orders, wow. So then we're like and that's through word of mouth, right, that's just for the move. And just in my circle, like in a very you know, small little little town, there's more cows and horses and people, so, um, so it just kind of blew up and then we were like you know what, let's, let's really see like. At that point we're like you know, of course my friends are going to support me. Of course they are, they're good people, so they're going to support us. Let's take it outside of our market.
Speaker 1:We found a little. It's actually in that town, but people from Los Angeles and Orange County and Riverside County and Southern California all come to this place called Bates Nut Farm to do their. They do pumpkin patch, things grow a bunch of pumpkins, everyone comes in and gets them and they have fairs and rides and stuff and arts and crafts. So we said let's set up there, let's see what happens. We go there and the outside of our community was every bit of supportive. We ended up selling almost $10,000 of flags in two days, of that thing. But on top of that, it was like the comments we were getting, like people were like you know, can I take a picture with your son? And you know he came up with the idea. You know we're sharing the story. Yeah, we just started a month ago with our son and people just love the whole thing. So right away it was good. They had another fair.
Speaker 1:Uh, like three or four months later at that fair, kusi News, san Diego was there. They, they walked by our booth. At that time we built a really elaborate booth. They come in and do an interview and of course, my son, you know, just kind of sitting there with his cowboy hat and belt buckle, and you know they, he did a really good interview. So they, they walk away after the interview. But then they come back and they said, hey, the producers are on my ear. "'can you guys go in to the studio tomorrow? "'to talk about your business'. And we said, "'yeah, we'll go on TV'".
Speaker 1:So during that interview this is on YouTube, by the way they're interviewing me. I'm standing here, my son is right next to me, my daughter and then my wife. They're interviewing me, asking me questions about the third question. You see like a little hand come into the picture tugging my shirt and the camera pans down. Daddy, I started the business, why is she asking you all the questions? And man, my phone. I didn't turn my phone off and on live TV my phone just starts blowing up.
Speaker 1:So that was kind of the beginning. It all kind of snowballed very quickly and it was very organic and genuine. And then from there we just traveled around the country to you know as far as way, to South Dakota, to Sturgis motorcycle rally, which was interesting. My daughter was walking around there the first night looking all these you know big biker dudes and stuff, and she's like Daddy, I don't know if I'm, I don't feel very safe and I said, honey, if you screamed, you are in the safest place on earth right now, all these men around here. If you scream and said, that's not my daddy, I'm a dead man.
Speaker 1:So you know, and from there on we, we just went around the country. We really enjoyed our, our family bonded, we saved up a month, fixed our credit and then moved to Tennessee.
Speaker 2:Wow, I mean, this is such a. So there's a lot of takeaways from just the inception of the business. One, having a great story. I mean for your family to start this thing. You know it's really a family project that got put this, you know, put together and launch this business. Also.
Speaker 2:The other thing is events. Like you, really, you started then to go to these events and say, hey, that was the marketing strategy to get it Get in front of our core audience and be able to share our story. And we know, if we match up those two, you know sales will happen. And then the third thing because of that, the ripple effect is hey, you get some media attention because now you know, because also, you have a good product. So that's the other piece too. The quality of the product actually works and people enjoy it. So word of mouth starts to happen and so referrals are natural.
Speaker 2:Uh, but then the media actually wants to share that story because you have all the pieces there. So for a lot of people watching, listening, um, make sure that like this is once again just doubling down on what I tell people like the story is so important, um, having a core of of why, of what, why you do what you do. Um is so, so good. So now, let's, now, let's fast forward. So so, what are you doing today as far as um in business, and and how are you, how are you marketing?
Speaker 1:marketing the business today, today, well, before we were canceled from marketing for a while when COVID hit that whole model, like you said, I mean, in the beginning. Man, my suggestion to any new business is man, do the hustle. You got to get out there in front of people, you got to be willing to be rejected and people say I know, you know you got to be with, you know you're going to get 10 of those customers. But then that 11th person is going to come in and be like, hey, have you ever thought about doing this or that? And you're like, wow, that's a good idea. You never would have done that unless you got out there in the public.
Speaker 1:So when we were doing that, that's really what helped our brand and our business grow People getting to know us as a family, getting to know our products, our beginning, you know, kind of our foundation story and that kind of thing. But then COVID hit and all of that ended. So that's where we had to go over to social media and really kind of, do that hustle and it's all a hustle. I mean you got, I mean it's, you know it's a grind. You just got to get out there and uh and and make it happen. And the way you make it happen is you. You, you throw everything you can, every idea, knowing that 98% of what you try is not going to work, and you keep on going. Ain't that the truth? Oh, it is. But you know if, if you just keep on going, you're going to find a few things that that work in your niche and your product and your clientele. And once you find them, then you can scale. You just say, ok, so this is my customer, this is my market, where are all these people? And then you just get out to all the people, all those areas and markets and sectors where those people are going to be. So social media is a extremely valuable tool that we've been able to use and today the way that we really use it is a lot with the organic stuff just make kind of good content. We have a lot of improvement to do. Don't get me wrong, we've got a lot of improvement that we got to make on that.
Speaker 1:But really just staying constantly engaged with the audience, constantly trying to push into new markets and test them out, I mean you can't just get into one market and say this is it, this is good, I mean, at some point, even if that market is never ending. There's slow parts in that market that you need to kind of back off from and you need to have that secondary market that you push into. And in my business it would be like, say, for instance, the second amendment, that's always. You know, gun buyers are. You know, we're crazy, I'm one of them, you know. If you see something with a gun on it and you're like, ooh, we got to have it, yeah, yeah, but that's not always a hot market. Sometimes you know it's just not a good, like Christmas time, for instance, people aren't thinking about guns, or some people do. So you got to have something else out there that that you know fits the season, fits the market. Fix the client.
Speaker 1:And once you really figure out your customer and your target market, it's real easy to get onto social media and use all media to reach those people. And you know again, like you were saying, tell your story. Sometimes with with us, I actually had the privilege of talking to Rob Sig, the owner of Real America's Voice, and told him our whole story and he was like James, stop selling flags. You don't sell flags, all the flag. People are selling flags. You need to sell your story, like, how many companies were founded by a six year old and $50 gift card and then were canceled. And then come back and get on TV. I mean, that's the story.
Speaker 1:I often say that I think a lot of time when people buy our flags, they didn't wake up that day going I'm going to go find a wooden flag to buy. They see our story and they're like you know what? They tried to shut this guy up. They tried to cancel him. I'm going to buy a flag. It's a product provider and then engage in those conversations and don't be afraid for people to say I'm not interested Because that's just one more person. You're closer to the person that says I love it. And then when the person says I love it, don't just.
Speaker 1:I mean, there's this old saying in sales that when they say I'm ready to buy, shut up, don't talk yourself out of a sale. You'll talk yourself right out of a sale real quick. But sometimes, if you got a story, sometimes like, engage with your customer, you know, as you're bringing them up, but you know, just keep that conversation going so they really understand who you are, what you're all about. And when they look at that product that you're buying in our case it's our flags. They're like that family I bought that flag from man, I'm behind them and then they feel part of your business and part of your success and everybody out there wants to be and feel part of something bigger than themselves. So invite them in. You know, don't be like okay, transaction closed. Next, that's, nobody wants to be part of that transaction, but everybody wants to be part of that transaction where they're like nah, this, I'm with this team over here.
Speaker 2:Yeah for sure. And what? What are some of your uh the, your uh the, the channels that are really producing revenue for you today? So you have like, is it social media that's the best thing? Are you running ads, like I? I think a lot of our, a lot of our audience are ceos, entrepreneurs, um, people trying to figure out ways to grow their business but also to grow their brand. So, understanding what's working for you. So, potentially, you know, for others that are more in a B2C market, or people that are like, hey, I want to reach the people and a certain type of target client that they can work with or target customer that they can work with, they're trying to find new ways of how to approach that. So what are some of the channels that are working for you? I guess the best ones that are working for you. I guess the best ones that are working for your business.
Speaker 1:Well, I think that you know anytime that you can reach the most people with the least effort, and I'm not saying that to be in a lazy way, I'm trying to say smart, yeah, you know you don't want to.
Speaker 3:I mean, when we were doing the, the, the, the hustle of driving around the country.
Speaker 1:I, oh man, tomorrow, this thing was we were. When we were doing the hustle of driving around the country. Oh man, tomorrow, this thing was we were leaving on a Friday night, driving through the night, setting up early in the morning, grinding all weekend, getting home late Sunday, sometimes early in the morning, getting our kids to school Monday, building the flags that week and then heading out again. It was a grind. It was rough. Yeah, yeah, it was a grind. It was a grind but it was needed.
Speaker 1:So what we've come up with is kind of this balance. When COVID hit, all that was taken away, which turns out was a blessing for us because we had mastered that part of our business. So then we moved into the social media part and we had to start balancing this thing between paid ads and organic content. A lot of times people will see your ad, which is the best. When you're doing the organic stuff, people are going to see you because they're already subscribed to your channel or your page, so they already see, they're already with you. But the way that you've got to bring more people into that family, family, that funnel, uh, is through the ads, and then with the ads, we'll get them to you and they'll like you, but then what usually will drive the sale is your day-to-day content.
Speaker 1:So I would say the three places that I would focus on is get out, talk to the people in booths and and really hear from them and really listen. I mean, god gave us two ears and one mouth for a real good reason. Listen to the customers and find out what they want and what part of your story that they identify with and that they really want to support you with. And the best way to do that is face-to-face. I'm sure everybody has sent out a text or put out a post where you post it and you're like, oh man, this is so positive, people are going gonna like this. And all of a sudden people come in there like what did you mean? You know, like you say I think I saw meanwhile ago that says I love oranges, and someone said, oh, so you're saying you hate bananas and you hate grapes, and you know, the social media thing can be just kind of this weird thing like I didn't say that I just, I just really love oranges. Yeah, I just really love oranges.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I just really love oranges. What's wrong with that?
Speaker 1:So there's a part of it that has to be. You know you gotta be careful, but you have to be persistent and use the paid ads to bring people into your funnel and then, once they're in there and they're watching your content, really just I mean, be genuine, pour your heart out to them and show them what you're all about, so that they want to be part of your story and we really feel that our customers are. We have a very unique situation because we were canceled. Yeah, our customers are the biggest part of our story. I mean, without them we would have been canceled. But when people found out, they're like wait a minute, the American flag was canceled. What did? You do Like what did you put?
Speaker 1:what'd you put on the flag that you know we're like? Well, we put. You know, we, the people we put Bible verses, I mean I, I, we have a line scripture shirts. We didn't do anything that was offensive, or at least we thought. But you know. You know everybody's got an opinion and the people who are negative, you know misery loves company and they're going to be the loudest ones. So you know, when you get those people on your page, tell them god bless you. You know, pray for you and move on.
Speaker 2:You know, move on, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's uh. Well, there's a couple things I want to break down and then I want to get into um, the the cancel story. Um, because I think it, because I think it's just a really important thing for people to know, kind of the power of your voice and how it works at scale as well, and then also that would be a great segue into how you really launched and took ownership of your own voice and your own media. But a couple of things I want to break down for people of what James is saying is that so ads are great awareness piece to really get the have people become aware of that? Your brand even exists to people that don't know who you are, and that's great. People that don't know who you are and that's great.
Speaker 2:But now and and I would say maybe 10, 15 years ago, uh, you could get away with just running ads and then it'd be a conversion right, it'd be a. It'd be kind of an easy thing like hey, I trust them, they're running an ad, I'm trusting the product. Nowadays it's not so much. People do research and so so what james is saying on the secondary level is that you can run ads, but then you gotta have. You gotta have a base of of content, of of stuff on your page, because if they the days of running ads and having like one post on your page, uh, like they're not gonna buy from you, they to be like is this a spam account? Like what? Who is this person? I don't get it. It looks like they're not really selling anything and just you could be, but because you don't have any actual foundational content for anybody to explore, it's just so important.
Speaker 2:And then the third thing that you were saying, as far as you got to get tapped in and actually reach the people to get that feedback and I think that was the most important thing that you said was the feedback. Yes, will you sell things if you have a booth? Will you make connections, relationships? Sure, but the feedback is so important to get that one-on-one, face-to-face feedback and you could take it for good or bad, but it's feedback nonetheless. So at least you're getting some of that and you're internalizing that to say, hey, if I'm hearing a lot of X, even if it's bad, maybe it's something I should at least look into and just see hey, my copy's wrong on the website or the way how we tell this story, we're missing out a key part that people keep having questions about. Or the product. Like there's a piece of the product that doesn't really make sense. Okay, maybe we need to change or refine that.
Speaker 2:So, like you're talking and it's awesome for the marketing strategy, especially like just getting started, like that's a three-prong approach that a lot of people can take today and be able to implement, and then you and you keep refining it as you go. You're not going to be knocking out the park out day one, but this is a great way, because that per in-person feedback can then translate to the ads and then go to the organic content. Like it all hums together, um, by doing that. So that that's incredible, man, that's such a great strategy, great approach. So let's talk about when you're humming. You're clicking on all cylinders, right, business is growing. Yep, what happened to you to get canceled?
Speaker 1:So right after we moved to Tennessee I think it was about four months and I mean you got to understand. We started the business. We're traveling around the country, we're hustling it's middle of COVID, so we buy our first home. We're in California, renting, doing the California thing, going into debt, but the weather's good. So you always kind of come up with, you try to see the brighter side of things, and for us the only bright side of California was that all my buddies, my childhood friends, the community and in the weather, but the climate wasn't good for us. So when we moved here we literally were living the American dream and my wife and I would literally just have to like pinch ourselves daily because we're like man, we busted our butt. You can see this Dream Warrior book behind us.
Speaker 1:Me and my wife started that 20 years ago, flopped, just couldn't get it going. It's a book that helps kids conquer dreams and nightmares and stuff like that and has superheroes and bears in it. It's a cool idea, but we just couldn't get it. It was one failure after another but we just couldn't get. We, it was one failure after another. And then this just kind of like when it's your time, god will let you know it's your time. So by time we got to Tennessee, we're literally just. It's not just that we have our home, our dream home, that we're finally homeowners and we're out of the renting thing, but everything is just clicking. And then one day it just stopped clicking and I started looking into it and found out that Facebook had, after several years of or about a year and a half, actually a place in those ads. They just said your ad privileges is this is the email or the message we got in Messenger your ad privileges have been suspended. Your products do not go along with our community standards. So we had to take it.
Speaker 2:That was verbatim what they sent. That's what they said.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. Now, since then, I want to be honest with Facebook. We were canceled by three companies and Facebook was one. Facebook was the first one to kind of reverse and say, oops, this was an algorithm. We don't even know who you are, you are not specifically targeted. It was an algorithm. It was right after the supposed insurrection I don't wanna get into that whole thing, but it was right after that. So there was a lot of, I think, that they put out algorithms to limit the, the two sides just going at each other. So they just wanted to cancel people saying certain stuff. Well, we got kind of caught up in that and some of our ads mentioned second amendment and that kind of stuff and they just wanted to tone down all of that stuff. So they figured it out and they were like okay, after about a year they were through a lawyer too. It wasn't like I just called Mark Zuckerberg and said, hey, that didn't happen. There was nobody there to talk to. Really it was all bots and everything. But our lawyer called them and they were like, look, this was not supposed to happen. So that part was kind of remedied pretty quickly.
Speaker 1:Shopify, who had our website? We were hosting our website. They took down a lot of our products, too, saying the same thing, and went against their community standards, so that really sucked, but that was an easy move. Take our website, let's go to someone else that doesn't feel that way, and we found that with WooCommerce, and so that was back up and running. The thing that really the cancel that really hurt us was PayPal. Paypal took $111,000 of our money and held it for 311 days, all the while saying that they're doing it because we got a shady business. Wow.
Speaker 1:They can keep this money, but that's not shady at all. And they never apologized. In fact, at the very end they had divvied out the money and given little bits in part, not to us but to our lawyer again, and our lawyer was Harmeet Dhillon of the Dhillon Law Group and the Center for American Liberty. She saw us on TV and she was like, hey, I'm going to help you guys out, get your money back. And after she was involved it was about six months, and then she spent about five months and was able to do it.
Speaker 1:But when they had $11,000 left of our money, uh, they said we're not going to give it back unless James signs a non-disclosure agreement. And uh, I said I'm not signing a non-disclosure agreement. You know, like at that point I'd gone on the news a couple times and that was really how I mean very effective marketing, because people were finding that the six-year-old boys company that was his idea, making American flags was cancelled and people were just like no way, yeah, yeah, that can't happen. So that I wasn't going, I was not going to sign a nondisclosure agreement. Obviously, I talk a lot, so the likelihood of me keeping my mouth shut.
Speaker 2:That's probably not going to happen.
Speaker 1:I knew that was going to get me in trouble if I signed it.
Speaker 2:It takes a lot of self-awareness to know that.
Speaker 1:It's not going to happen. So I knew that I was going to break that contract, so I wasn't going to sign it, so I was just gonna. I knew that I was gonna break that contract, so I wasn't gonna sign it. So that day we went on Fox News and Fox News kind of outed well, I outed PayPal on Fox News. This is keep in mind. This is 311 days into it and I've been told for almost a year now that hey, if you don't get your money on Thursday, you're not getting it Friday, saturday and Sunday, and probably not Monday, because it's more or less a bank, even though it's not a bank, but they're banking hours. Nobody's there on Saturdays and Sundays. So we went on Fox and Friends on Sunday and told our story and this was at seven o'clock in the morning and at 11 o'clock that day they gave us back our money. So someone over at PayPal saw us on TV and was like give this dude his money, what do?
Speaker 2:we hold his money for. There's a few things I want to unpack real quick. So, first of all, they hit you on Facebook. So they hit you with the ads. So you were kind of like, okay, got hit on the ads. Obviously that's our awareness piece. You were building customers and having some retention there, so you're probably were through referrals and stuff. So your business is still operational. It's just it sucks when you know, uh, one of your main channels for awareness starts to get you know, starts to get locked up. Then they hit you on the Shopify Now that's your actual store. That's, that's the Shopify. Now that's your actual store. That's the website, that's the store. So that's a huge hit. You can't take orders, you can't do anything, and it's not like you can just snap your fingers and, like you said, you went to WooCommerce. But it's not an instant transition either. You're losing out on days, weeks, maybe months, who knows it's about three months yeah out on days, weeks, it may be months, who knows?
Speaker 2:It's about three months, yeah, yeah Of of people trying to order and they literally can't. So maybe you're sending direct links. I mean, who knows, who knows what you did but to survive, but it's you. I just want everybody, for context, for people to know, like Shopify they take down that, like that is your engine of your business.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, when Facebook took away the ad. The ads are how we get people, so even if people knew of us right, without the ads, they don't know of us. But let's say they did. Then they go to the website. Yeah right, you can't do anything like we're literally we're dead in the water.
Speaker 2:Yeah and no say you're dead, you're dead in the water. And then, even when you do have the little bit of sales that you have, that you're cranking through, then PayPal locks up that and that's when it's like dude, what the heck is going on. That, the power of community, the power of media, the power of of even having a voice and a message for you to be able to then go onto these platforms, these news outlets, right and luckily enough and I mean we will get into that, but luckily enough, you know, they didn't cancel you too, because they were at least willing to share your story at that time, you know, to get that message out there. Um, and it's funny how companies react when everybody else starts to know what they're doing. You know, it's funny how that changes Because you see it also with really big cases that get national or global attention.
Speaker 2:You see, it's like the priority of the case gets all the way up here and they're willing to work, they're willing to figure things out, because you can't stop the onslaught of the people. You really can't, and I think this is just a huge. It's just a huge learning lesson of if you're building a business, try to build community as much as possible, because your community may come in handy when you least expect it For you to have that community of people backing you and understanding that story to get you in those places.
Speaker 1:That's gold man, that is you need it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so what happened with PayPal? What happened with PayPal? So they locked up your money, $100,000 plus. How long did that go for and what happened? What?
Speaker 1:happened with paypal. So they locked up your money a hundred thousand dollar plus um, what. How long did that go for? And what happened? 311 days they held the money, so I mean almost a year it was. It was brutal. So during that time I'll summarize this real quick and I want to back up real quick.
Speaker 1:Uh, yeah, but uh, it was brutal. I mean, we had money but we didn't have money, and I'm perhaps a little bit too prideful, so I'm just trying to figure out how am I going to? What are we going to do Nothing? And there were some companies that could help, but they're like this is the middle of COVID. Again, we got to keep that. That's like. A huge part of this is that people were like look, I got employees. I don't want these companies to find out that I'm helping you, because what if they cancel me? What's going to happen to my employees? Like so you know, we feel for you. I just can't take the risk right now. So there was a lot of good people that were just like if I didn't have, if I was not responsible for employing these people, I'd help you. But it's not me, it's you know. I got 20 people that you know depend on this job. But you know, depend on this job. So, man, it was rough.
Speaker 1:My, my son was growing. I mean, he's still growing, he's 12, but at the time he was about 10. And so he needed new shoes. We didn't, we didn't have, we didn't have access to our money. So he's getting ingrown toenails and just limping around. My daughter her, she's in band. We couldn't get her a new instrument or even pay to rent her one. She's got braces.
Speaker 1:We had to skip appointments, the kids my wife was having to ration food, sending the kids to school with a half a sandwich because we did not have groceries, so we were literally rationing out food just trying to bridge gaps. My kids are literally going to bed crying because they're hungry and me and my wife are having to. Oh man, dude, I don't even like talking about it. I get emotional even talking about this stuff because, like, when you're when, when, when your kids are hungry, dude, my wife and our group of friends everyone calls my wife the viking woman because she's hardcore. I could be like honey. I just cut my toe off in the shop and she'll be like put some duct tape on it and get back to work. You know she's Wow, she's rough, she doesn't man, she's got COVID right now and she's working.
Speaker 1:And I'm like relax, you got COVID. She's like we don't got time for that, we don't got time for COVID. Who's COVID? Who's that person? So she's just she's a beast man.
Speaker 1:So during that whole time it was the worst time of it and, honestly, the way that I deal with it is I try to kind of find humor in it and laugh. That's why you know I love having conversation with people like you. That can, you know, help me kind of sort this stuff out. This kind of stuff is therapy.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, we backed up a little bit to like right when we got canceled. I call on people. People are like I'd like to help you, I can't help you. We even have a family member in media, five time Emmy award winning director. She was like I can't, you're, you know I can't, I can't be associated with you because you know you, you have stuff with Trump on your website and I was like I'll put stuff with Obama on my website. We're not this side or that side, although we've become kind of one leaning because of everything that's happened to us, and I mean Jamar dude, we've gotten death threats over this stuff making the American flag.
Speaker 1:So if I back up to right after we were canceled a couple months out. I was just trying to solve it, figured out what was going on and just kind of lost in the whole mess and really confused. I reached out to everybody that I know and everybody's like I wish I could but I can't. And, um, at some point, my, my shop is about a hundred yards away from my house and it was about 10, 15, 10, 30 at night. I go up to our house, I start making the walk and I basically had figured out the only way out of this for us is we got to sell our house before we lose our house and we have equity that'll bridge the gap. So this American dream that we're living, we're going to have to rebuild it. So that's a hard walk to take. So I.
Speaker 1:So going through my mind of how I'm going to tell my wife. And then it occurred to me I've called everybody that I know, talk to everybody that I know, but I never talked to God about this, I never said a prayer, I never asked for, you know, a path. So in that hundred yard walk to my house, rather than telling my wife that we're gonna give up, I say I, I come up with the idea let's, let's, let's just take this off of us and put it on to God, because I'm about to break. I mean, the thoughts were going through my mind at that point were not good and I I was at the end man and so, um, I just wanted to just take it all off and like anybody that would take the load, I was calling people and everybody said no, but I didn't ask God to take the load.
Speaker 1:So I get to my bedroom. My wife and I are both Christians but we've never prayed together out loud. We both pray all the time daily, but we've never done it out loud together. So I get up to my bedroom. It's about 1030 at night For the first time in 17 years of marriage. I go in there and my wife is weeping. I mean, this woman is a rock and she's crying in bed. So I asked her to get out of the bed and come to the foot of the bed with me. We both get on our knees. I just said.
Speaker 1:I asked God, show me what path you want me to walk. I don't care if we got to go back to our old businesses. I'll go back to building cabinets and remodeling houses. My wife there's a Trader Joe's 30 minutes from us. Even though we're 22 miles away from where she used to work at Trader Joe's, there's another one right up the road. She can go back there. We can go back to our old life. God, just if that's what you want, show me the path. But if you want me to stay in this business and you want me to fight, show me the path. Just show me the path and I will walk it. And this is in a minute. You'll see why this is so important. I said, god, just show me the path and I will walk your path till the end. So then we go to bed, and that was the first night in about six weeks, eight weeks or so, that we actually like it was off, that we right, put it on to god, and so freeing?
Speaker 2:I, I've, I've been there, man. I just want to just just say this really quick is that people listening? Like this is a normal kind of occurrence with entrepreneurs? Um, this is the stuff that people don't talk about. Uh, entrepreneurship is. It gets, you know, glorified and amplified, um, with the fancy cars, all the things right, but this stuff is what real entrepreneurship is about. Um, I've been there literally asking I, I mean kind of the same thing.
Speaker 2:Um, you know, at a certain point in my life where I was like, just show me the path, and it's just so freeing to give that to God and get that off your shoulders and like, look, this is not on me anymore, this is, I'm giving this to you and I'm surrendering. And there's power in surrendering. Yes, you know, and doing that, and it's almost like God puts these things in your life to get you to surrender. You know, in a weird way, but it also, when I surrendered, it's like that also unlocked the path and I think that's where you're going with your story. But it's crazy that it has to take something to almost break you, to surrender yourself and say, look, I'm not going to hold this burden anymore, but show me wherever you want me to walk like, I'll do it. I'll do it. At this point especially, you got a family. I'm I'm locked in in this story. So so what happens after? After you've you've prayed, you've surrendered, with you and your wife, like what? What happened next?
Speaker 1:So that night at 1030, we say that prayer and again, the end of that prayer is I will walk your path until the end, just show me the path. So we go to bed at 730 the next morning. This is like nine hours later. We get a call from Newsmax, from a producer at Newsmax and said hey, I saw a post of yours on LinkedIn where I met you too. Linkedin, yeah, me man, yeah, yeah, great for me. He saw my post. He saw Tell me more about your story. I tell him pretty much everything I've just told you and he's like like this is crazy, like there's nothing more. So the newsmax asked for all. They needed proof of everything, all the screenshot, they needed everything. They were like like, honestly, they didn't believe me and and they shouldn't who?
Speaker 2:would yeah well, they need sources for that kind of claim. I mean they, they do, you do, and you can't go on to national tv.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know that's going to get you in trouble. So we went on. So he calls me and, what's most important, at the end of his conversation, after I told him everything, he's like James, your story is not going to end here. You're going to come on tonight. We hope that it works for you, but your story is not going to end here, and when change is happening in your story, we will be here on that path with you until the end. And I'm literally going wait, whoa, whoa, whoa. What did you just say? What'd you just say? And he repeated it and I was just like I cannot. And I look at my wife. We're where we're supposed to be. We're not giving up. We're in this. We're where God wants us and if we're supposed to fail on this path, we're failing on this path, but we're on the path that he wants us on and we're going for it.
Speaker 1:So we went on Newsmax that night and on the Rob Schmidt show man. We got something like 1,500 emails that night of God bless you, stay in the fight, don't give up. We got. I couldn't tell you how many messages our messenger and through social media our phone is just blowing up all night long, three o'clock in the morning, and we're fielding every call, talking to people why, you know, I got a phone here and a phone, yeah, doing it. We're juggling, trying to keep up with messages and everything and we're completely unaware of the website. And that night we got $90,000 worth of sales. And that one night and me and my wife were just looking at each other and we're like, wow, we got to pray more. We got to pray a lot more. What is wrong with us? Like why?
Speaker 2:It took us that long to sit down together.
Speaker 1:What were we thinking? That we could do this by ourselves? Like what man? Your ego is not your amigo. Yeah, yeah, you have to learn the hard way, just by almost losing everything, and thanks to God that he saved us. But that's really. I think the key of our story is that it humbled us. But that's really. I think the key of our story is that it humbled us and we just realized that we can like going back to the beginning of our conversation. You can have all the hustle in the world, you can have all the marketing in the world, you can have it all, but, man, if you don't have God on your side, it is temporary. Whatever you're feeling, it's temporary, it's not going to last. If you want longevity, man, go with God. God will provide that longevity. Nothing else can Not your hustle, not your hard work, not investment, not money.
Speaker 2:Nothing, god will provide that longevity for you oh my goodness man, what a, what a. And so it took all that time for PayPal. So once you got this 90 K plus to to go, you know for that, that, really that miracle of of a situation to happen was the PayPal lifted at that point. So you were able to okay, so you went through a different uh provider or something like that, a payment processing, processing step.
Speaker 1:They saw us on TV and they're like dude, we're second amendment processing, we're not going to cancel you. And I was like, well, with that name you're probably not, so they've been. I would highly recommend them Anybody. They don't care what you're selling, as long as it's not you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, you know bad stuff, extreme, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:But they're great and it's a small. It's also a small family business and I encourage people that whenever you can it's not always possible, but whenever you can stick with small family businesses in your community, not just small family businesses, like, if there's a flag maker that's in your community, I want you to buy a flag from that guy. I mean, you can buy it from me. I'd love to make it for you, but I want you to buy it from your community. Stimulate that local economy, be part of their story. And you know, if you can do that, you know, do it. If you can't, don't, you know. But but I think support and small family businesses is is a blessing. Every single sale when you have I mean you know that every single sale, every new client is a blessing. And when you and the experience that you're going to have at Amazon is click, click, get my stuff, the experience that you're going to have with us is much, much different. So I would encourage people to you know when you can, you know, shop with those small family businesses.
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely, definitely. And so this, that whole scenario, that whole thing that happened to you, that's what prompted you to do something, which is not crazy, but it is crazy in the sense of you launched your podcast studio Because you're like, hey, since that happened, I want to take control of my own voice, my own media, and so but you also didn't have a full plan yet.
Speaker 2:So I want you to talk about that, because a lot of people you know in our space and what we do of forever media and everything like people want to launch their own podcast. They want to. They see these other one percenter podcasts that are out there. They want to launch their own thing. Um, it's great for a lot of different reasons, um to have a podcast, but you literally took it to the extreme. Some people are like, ah, maybe I'll get a mic, maybe I'll get this. You built, like you're in it right now, I mean, a full-blown production studio, looking crispy. You know that way looking crispy.
Speaker 2:So, um, how did how did that come to be? Why did you decide to go literally all in? It's not like. Hey, I want to take control of my own message. I'm gonna buy a mic and a camera and a computer and just at least do something. You have a full-blown studio, so I don't know.
Speaker 1:I honestly I don't know why I did it. I I was just like I did a few tv interviews and there was one time that I was gonna go on a major network and, uh, the camera wasn't working in this and I was like I can't let this happen again. I gotta get, I gotta get myself right. So I actually called some friends over at Newsmax and I was like, if I want to be a regular, what do I got to do? And they're like, well, I mean, first of all, you got to have something to talk about and you got to have a good story and you got to, you know, be entertaining and that kind of thing. But you know a decent camera. If you're going to be consistent, um, you should get a good camera, decent mic, have a good backdrop and have a good internet connection.
Speaker 1:And so we worked on that kind of stuff. And then I just realized there's so much more to it with lighting, and so over the time I just realized that there's all these elements that really help. And and then, if I'm being 100 percent honest, is that a lot of it was I was procrastinating, I was scared to get in front of the camera and talk. So I'm like I can't do it until I get the lights, I can't do it until I get feel that. And then finally, like all of that's done and my wife is sitting there going, okay, you've done. Like are you gonna do it? Like I don't know if you're gonna do it or are you gonna keep on talking about it, or is there something else you need before you start it?
Speaker 2:and oh, man, a lot of people can relate to you on that. A lot of people can relate. I mean, there's a ton of people like, oh, I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna do it. And it's like sometimes you just gotta start, you know it, just get going and and that will get you the motivation to to actually do it. But yeah, thank you for being transparent about that, because there's a lot of people that feel you, feel you on that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and if I, in full disclosure, I'm still in that state, I've got a who's who that's willing to come on. Like from all the different companies that I've gotten to, you know, fox and newsmax and real america's voice, I've got their hosts that are ready to come on. They're like hey, james, when you want to have me on. And i'm'm like well, I got to make a flyer, you know, and I'm constantly doing that. But you and I had a conversation about six months ago and you're like hey, pull the trigger.
Speaker 2:What's wrong with you? Pull the trigger. You have a lot more than most people. Yeah, james, you have a lot more than most people. I think I told you that six months ago or something months ago or something because, like, you got connections, you got relationships, you got the studio, you got. I mean, you now have all the pieces to the puzzle. Now it's just about execution.
Speaker 1:I just got to get the guts, you know, and just go out there and just you know, you got like with everything else, you got to be willing to fail and yeah, here's the good thing is that everybody wants to see a train wreck. So if you have a podcast and you do something really stupid, you don't know, go for it, man. I mean, that's it. But really what I want our podcast to be about is I want it to help people, I want it to be entertaining and I want to really start talking about, like the way that I see where our country is is that at some point we were told that it's taboo to talk about politics and religion. And that's just to me, that's just that's terrible. When you know, 50, 60 years ago, I asked my grandmother this one time what did you guys talk about around the dinner table? And she said well, we talked about God and we talked about religion and how you paid respect to God today and how you know, and then also what you know, uh, john kennedy was doing in the you know they, you know, back then they were talking about like, what's happening in life and at some point, when we weren't talking anymore, our paths just started doing this, yeah, and we could still talk, but then we stopped talking and now here we are to where the only way that this guy can hear the other guys if you scream, it's so much different, and who wants to be screaming at each other? So we've got to come back to a point where we can sit down and just say, hey man, you're Democrat, I'm Republican Cool. What do we all believe in? Do we all love this country? Yes, we all love this country. Do we love God? Yes, we love God. Do we want what's best for our children? Could you believe the three most important things in life we all agree on? How can we be divided? How have we let ourselves be fooled into this thing that we're so different, when we all want good for our country, we want good. Good for our country, we want good for our neighbor, we want good for our children. We all want god to be a part of our life. I mean, if you just build your friendships and your relationships on those things, the heck with everything else, it doesn't freaking matter. Just, you know like, go back to that bill and Ted stuff. Be excellent to each other. Man, just be cool, we're all good, like we can, we can agree to disagree, and not only that.
Speaker 1:Once upon a time in this world, if you didn't agree with people, bad things happen to you. I look at. I look at differences in people as color. Do you want to live in a boring black and white world where everyone like you this or you that? Or do you want to live in a boring black and white world where everyone like you this or you that, or do you want to live in a colorful world that is just, is magnificent? Yeah, fiber, you want to live in that world? Yeah, listen again. God gave us two ears and one mouth for a good reason, and all of us need to start.
Speaker 1:And another thing is if, like, I'm pro-life Cool, so, and so might not be there's a reason, they're probably not. It's not that they just woke up and were like I don't want it. Yeah, yeah, or whatever. Yeah, so, but if you understood their story, if you really understand why, you'd probably have some compassion for their story and it would probably make sense. And then, rather than sitting there arguing about it, pray with them and then you'll find that common ground that, look, this person is not a bad person. This person had circumstances that we don't understand. I think Robin Williams said sometimes that you never know the battle of someone else's fighting in their head, and for us to be able to, you know like who are we, to sit there and be like that person. Man, get over yourself. Just love each other.
Speaker 2:A hundred percent, man, and that's that's why I love and enjoy talking with you, because and I also think that most of America is actually where you're at I think I agree that's that's my belief is that most of us are in that middle ground. Most of us have that level-setting mindset around dialogue, discourse, discussion around life, and I just think that what gets amplified is the two extremes of both sides. That that's just that's what I is, the two extremes of both sides. That that's just that's what I think and that's and, unfortunately, that's where a lot of our time and energy and effort goes into. But most of, I think, america is is in the is in that middle ground, and I am a hundred percent on board with you when it comes down to discussion. I am 100% on board with you when it comes down to discussion.
Speaker 2:Every time anybody has a different opinion than me, or maybe something I don't understand, man, I'm all ears. I actually want to learn and soak it up like a sponge. A lot of my close friend group knows that and I tell us like this is, this is one of the things that I think ego drives a lot of the confusion and dismay that's happening in America today. It's it's ego. So what happens is people feel like they need to take a position on every single conversation they get into, when you don't. You literally don't have to. So there's a lot of things that I had in my life where I have literally not taken an actual stance or position on because I'm learning, I am literally like okay. If somebody's like, oh, what do you think about that, jamar? And I'm like you know, I'm learning, I'm learning tomorrow, and I'm like you know I'm learning, I'm learning, I, I I'm not in, I'm not in a place to put my stake in the ground and be like, yeah, that's that's where I'm at with that and there's nothing that you could do to change my belief or mindset on that. Uh, there's things I go into a situation and I look at it and I say, okay, I'm learning and especially about that, you know, with being pro-life is like that's one something I really, because I lean way more pro-life but there are there are more situations and, like to your point, there are people that have definitely where I'm like you know what, in that circumstance, I may, I may actually sympathize with that, I may actually be like you know what I totally understand, and most people in conversations, instead of figuring out, you know like, prove me wrong, prove me wrong, prove me wrong.
Speaker 2:Let's start on the common ground, and you touched on this. Start on the common ground of what do we agree on. Let's start there, what do we agree on? And then work your way back from that and then most times, you will have a way more dynamic, interesting, really like, really like where both both sides are learning about each other than yelling and screaming and fighting and like it's just, it's childish, it's stupid and it's just like that. Nothing's gonna happen from that, except for more people putting their stake in the ground and creating more barrier, more resistance and claiming size. This is like. This is how gangs work, man.
Speaker 1:This is exactly how.
Speaker 2:this is exactly how the streets work. You know, like I mean you, even if somebody is on the other side like you're, like nah, nah, I'm not even going to even think about that, because you, you over there, you're, you're, you're claiming X, I'm over here claiming this and that's just what it there. You're, you're, you're claiming x, I'm over here claiming this and that's just what it is. And we're not even going to have discourse and and and it's just such a, it's such a like, uh, a crazy way for us to to be in in this society.
Speaker 2:So that's why I love talking with you and the open-mindedness and because you choose God first, you choose love first, instead of just going hyper. Even with what's happened to you, man, even with what's happened to you with being canceled, and I mean all of that, it's it's to have that openness is is so powerful and so, and I think people and I that's why I know a lot of times on our podcast we don't get into this type of conversation, but I think it's so important to get into it a little bit today, to let people know of, like this is how you do it, man, this is how you do it. You create that openness, that environment, and you know like, and I love to be in those environments too, where I don't, I, you know, I'm learning man, I'm, I'm, I'm a sponge and I love it well, what?
Speaker 1:what has hate ever gotten like? I mean ask people, ask, ask the audience. What has hate ever gotten you? What is closing people out ever gotten you? Has it ever? Has it worked? Does it really? It's never worked for me you know and.
Speaker 1:I think that when you, when, again, if you start from a foundation of what do we agree on? I mean, there's certain basic human things like like that, bond us together. We want well for our kids, we want freedom, we want our own choice. I want to be. Look, if I fail, cool. I don't want to fail because some other person did it to me. I want to fail. I look, I hate being wrong, like probably being wrong. I love being right.
Speaker 1:A lot of us are like that, though, if I'm wrong, don't tell me, show me and I will, I will admit it. So my, this is something, me and my, what my wife it. Sometimes it drives her nuts because, uh, you know, like I'll do something stupid and uh, she'll say something and I'll be like, no, prove it. And sometimes she can't and I'm like, see, I'm right. But then when she proves that I am. There was this one time that I'm a woodworker and she told me hey, you did this thing out of this kind of wood, and I was like, no, it was maple. And she's like, no, it was beech. And I was like I bought the wood, I worked with it. I, I'm telling you what it was. You're an artist, stay in your lane, she.
Speaker 1:She went in the house because she does the books. She brought me the receipt and she said what does this say? And I was like, well, what is it? And she's all, it's the receipt to the wood you're working on. And I was like it says oh beach, you're right, I'm sorry, and she's all, that's it. And I was like, yeah, I'm wrong. Yeah, yeah, sorry. And she was like oh, and it like, was it like she? She was happy. I said sorry, but it just came that quick. You show me I'm wrong. I'm not going to argue on this Like, and that's, I think, a lot of people, uh, the mistake that all of us make. I'm just as guilty as the next guy, but we get so dug into what we think that we will not even accept. When our eyes were looking at the dang receipt, I was wrong. There's no way to argue it. She was right and I just had to let go of it.
Speaker 1:But a lot of times you know, our pride will hold onto it, our ego will hold onto something, and now we're arguing something that we know isn't even true.
Speaker 1:So I think that when we just all and then the other side of that is like when someone has the grace to say I'm sorry, I was wrong, don't be like, yeah, you were wrong. And you know, don't jump off, just be okay, cool, yeah, yeah. Now let's go forward and, like you were saying earlier that you know, we've just become so kind of hyperbolic and and let's just all like, take it down a notch and like, enjoy this beautiful life that we have and this experience that we have and stop trying to break each other down. Just imagine if, um, rather than we put out like, imagine if, like, rather than all the negative energy we put out there as a society, imagine if we, we reversed it, like here's something that like, uh, when I eventually I'm I'm convinced I'm gonna meet, uh, uh, mark zuckerberg one day, yeah, uh. And I also think I'm gonna make donald trump one day, I also think that I'm gonna meet, you know, I think I'm gonna meet all kinds of famous people, but I'm not.
Speaker 2:But once you get that podcast going.
Speaker 1:I also told people that I was gonna get our logo on a nascar and everyone's like sure, buddy, and we did it. So you did it. There you go. We just let go of our ego and just like, chill out, like it's all good. We're better off if we just relax. You know, this tension that we're pushing is not taking us anywhere. So I would just encourage people you know, know, talk to god a lot, chase your dreams, don't be afraid to fail. Take risks. Uh, listen to your significant other. Uh and um, you know, you know, when you can. Uh, you know, say you know, go out into the world and say hello to some random person. Know, go out into the world and say hello to some random person do you know how good it?
Speaker 1:makes you feel, oh yeah, see what happens. Go out there and just like, go out there in your normal day-to-day life and just say, hey, how you doing today to some and just see how they're. Sometimes people look at you like you're crazy. Well, it's not a normal thing.
Speaker 2:it's not, but it should be, especially depending on what part of the the world you live in too, because I know, as far as a Southern thing, it is to say hello to your neighbor when I'm walking around. There's a big difference. I lived in Milwaukee.
Speaker 3:Immerse yourself in a place where bold ideas are sought after, where all are encouraged to bring their personal flourish. Here, innovation is a way of life In this city. The beat flows Together. We're dancing to the rhythm forward. Now it's your turn to grab hold of that energy where you'll remember not just the meals, the celebrations or the uncommon coasts. What you'll remember is how we made you feel. Come experience Milwaukee, where fresh meets fearless every day.
Speaker 2:Now we're in virginia um, there's a difference, you know, um. And then when you even go further south, there's it. People just get warm, and you know it just. And to the point that sometimes they talk too much. Where it's like, they're too.
Speaker 2:Like, like I gotta keep it moving, like we can't have a full-blown conversation over here, like I just said hello yeah, yeah, yeah, I gotta get my friend used to live in um hawaii and they have such a laid-back environment over there like they're living in a whole nother uh realm over there. But they have this thing that like like time almost doesn't exist to them, even like in the workplace, like they just have a different, a different world that they're, that they're living in. And he said that like you'll get in a conversation, did somebody just say hello, and it'll be like 30, 45 minutes later you're talking about life, you're kicking back Like you got nothing else to do and he's like he's like dude I. And he's like, he's like I just love that way of life. But he's like.
Speaker 2:I moved back to Milwaukee and it was like such a almost like a culture shock for him. You know, because he had gone back in that environment, got off the what they call you get rock fever because you're you're island fever basically. So you're like you're just you're on that island, you can't quickly go in your car to another state or another place. So once you're in that, once you're off the rock, it's like he was like it's just so different, everybody's in a rush and just running around and he's like I hate it. I hate it, man.
Speaker 1:So when we moved, when we moved here to tennessee, uh, there was a shock, man, there was a shock. You know, like being on the 405 and the five freeway and the 15, and just like you know, like you're like every single place you go, it's white knuckle. And then here, no, like there's more traffic, it's just people relax, people will wave to you, like you You're in the fast lane and people get out of your way. Oh, my goodness, so much much. And so it fits me. Well, you know there's some people that are just, you know they're, you know they're. There's those, uh, there's a very intense people that you know they thrive in that you know, more aggressive environment, and good for them. We need those people. You know too, for sure I'm not one of them. I want to, I want to chill you want to chill, relax bit?
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, this has been a fantastic conversation man Really really deeply enjoyed, I think, to send us off. We got to talk about the password situation. We got to talk about that as a send-off. So for context, everybody, james had me dying laughing on our last call. Um, it was honestly like one of the most enjoyable calls I had that week. I I was, I was in tears. I was literally in tears because we were just having some good conversation and somehow it got into.
Speaker 2:In today's age, we feel like, um, people are not as, uh, thick skin as they used, as they used to be growing up, and I got in this conversation with a couple people recently, actually because of that conversation we have, because I keep bringing it up to people and it's funny, because, you know, a lot of people are like, yeah, man, actually I grew up with, uh, the same similar thing, um, and and it and you know they don't, it's just so funny. Anyways, we'll, we'll get into it because they, they basically said the things that you said because there's a. You obviously don't want to be known for it.
Speaker 1:No, there's some people that would love to hang on to that and just right, right, because they're like, like, like, I'm not an advocate of this, but it did help me out.
Speaker 2:So what we're talking about is, you know, growing up, um, you know, for people that are not kind of in the newer generation, you know we kind of had a a different upbringing, um, of how you kind of raise, raise your kids and stuff, and so we were just talking about like sometimes. So my friend was talking about every once in a while. Now this is the far extreme of what we're talking about. But my friend was saying one day we're having a few drinks and he, you know, he said something that was pretty powerful. Actually he's like hey, you know, I think everybody just needs to get a good punch in the face.
Speaker 2:You know, um, at least once, at least once in their life, because you kind of think about things different, you take situations different. You know what that feels like when somebody takes it too far. Or maybe you took it too far with your words and you got a good punch in the face and they lit you up and you start thinking about life differently and it just puts it in perspective. And there's even some things even in the Bible that suggest this as well. But me and Jace were talking about the paddle, so I don't know how many people have grown up with the belt, the paddle situation, yeah, the spoon, the switch. Can you talk to us about that story, about the password with your, with your, with your son, as much as as you, as you could share at?
Speaker 1:least so. Uh, when we first started the business, uh, we were just looking for all kinds of wood product, right, right. So one of the things we came up with was like, hey, let's make novelty paddles, you know, like, because we're in the age where we don't really discipline our kids that way, but let's just, the parents will get a kick out of it. So we, we came up with, uh, like paddles, with like cool things like the Punisher, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah and then, uh, we got the holy one. That's lit. That's what set me off.
Speaker 1:Right, you gotta, you gotta, you have a good grip. This one's a good one. Right there, it's got the grip it's got the holes in it for a good laugh.
Speaker 1:this one says it didn't have to be this way. You could have listened, but you didn't. You brought me to it. So what happened with with these was that seven years ago we first started, we came out with these. My kids are great. They are like we don't need the paddle. We don't need the paddle. But maybe the reason my kids are so great is because I've had like this arsenal of paddles hanging on walls and displayed. So they're just like no, but I call it the nuclear option for families.
Speaker 1:But we'd hang these in our booth when we were traveling around the country and everything. And then, you know, most people would laugh it and they'd be like oh man, I remember this one, oh man, my dad. And they'd laugh and, as weird as it may sound, they had fond memories of their dad whooping them and you know they want to share it and they tell their kids and their kids would be like no way, dad. But they're like oh yeah, this is how grandpa handled me. So we had these paddles and some people didn't like them and they'd say, oh, you're advocating child abuse and this kind of stuff. And we're like look, we're not advocating for anything. These are jokes that it's meant to like smile a little bit and I think that maybe your audience has kind of gotten to know my personality.
Speaker 2:you know I don't want anybody to hit their kids.
Speaker 1:That's not what I'm saying, but sometimes, little jerks, they need it. So, um, so for years my kids never even came close to getting that, not even a threat. Then, um, one day, my, I, I go, I come into work and I I go to get into. You know, I check my social media, I check my email, I check all that stuff first thing I go to get into. You know, I check my social media, I check my email, I check all that stuff first thing I go to get into everything. My password's not working. I can't get in my email can't, check my website can't, and you know. Also, keep in mind that, with my history being cancelled, I got anxiety when that stuff has. I was like am I going to kill somebody? You know, I'm just going nuts.
Speaker 1:I started looking around. I'm blocked out of everything, all my passwords have been changed around. I'm blocked out of everything, all my passwords have been changed. And then one of the apps that I found led me to a gaming app that my son uses. Now this is about after about an hour and a half, two hours of me trying to figure out what's going on. Why am I blocked out of everything? So it dawned on me where's my tablet? My tablet's linked to my phone, my phone's linked to my computers, all that kind of thing. Where's my tablet? I go looking for it. It's not where it's supposed to be. I go to my son's room and it's on his bed. I hit it the gaming app is open, that the new password was set. But when he set that new password, it set it on everything. I don't know the password yet, so I'm still blocked out, but I know where it happened.
Speaker 1:So I get in the car and man, I drove to his school at like a hundred miles an hour and I pick him up and he's walking out to the car like confused, like why am I getting picked up from school halfway through the day? And he gets in the, he gets in the, he gets in the truck. I'm not. I haven't said a word to him, I just want to stress him a little bit. And he's all. I don't know what I did, but I'm getting a paddle, aren't I? I go yep, you're getting the paddle. I didn't say anything, he's all. Are you going to tell me what I did? I say yeah, what you did, and I show he's not allowed to touch my tablet.
Speaker 1:You know when we go on shows and we're on the road. I let him play with the tablet. So he's got games on there so he can occupy him. But he's not allowed to take it out of my office, right, right and take it up to his bedroom and hide it. So so, so that so that day Max got the paddle for the first time and let me tell you something he has been so unbelievably helpful and polite ever since. He is willing to take out the trash. He wants to know how he can help his mom. His teachers have even said what has happened at home. Max is just he's a new man, he's a new Max. But my son is like a straight, a student. He's such a good kid and for the teachers to even say what happened, he just seems so much more helpful. So it worked.
Speaker 1:I don't recommend it, I'm not condoning it, I'm not saying that's what needs to happen, but if you need it, you can find it on our website. The best thing is that you don't even need to use it sometimes if you just hang it on the wall. Hang it on the wall, let's you know you got that nuclear option if you need it. And if you need it, you know it's there, but usually if you've got it, you don't need it. So yeah, um, and it's a good talking piece, you know if your friends come over be like what?
Speaker 1:do you have a paddle on the wall? Well, you just never know what's going to happen. Sometimes these kids get a little bit out of control.
Speaker 2:You had said, Sue, after the paddle situation, that you had paddles on almost every wall of the house. Yeah, we'd put them everywhere.
Speaker 1:You would just point them. You don't know where they're going to act up, so you need to have it. It's like a quick draw, it's like an old cowboy. You got it. You got to have it on your hip, it was an arm's reach.
Speaker 2:It was an arm's reach.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but mom and dad have got it and my wife, my wife has it. She's got spoons and you can find them on our website too. But we have all kinds of spoons, like she's got one that says no bitching in my kitchen. She's got in that says cook with love, all these really cool things for moms. But there's this one spoon that says on one side of it says and apologize, there's a cuss word here it says on one side, it says this side is for a whooping up little, or this side is for a whooping up cookies. And you flip it over and it says this side's for a whooping little ass. So it doesn't matter if you're dad's part of the house or mom's, you better be polite.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, dad are ready oh man, dude, thank you so much for being on on the podcast, man. Um, we're gonna have all the links and everything once it uh officially publishes out. Uh, as far where people can find you at the have the link to the website. People can get some of your amazing work with the flags and all the other products that you have. Yeah, I always tell people that with anybody that I have as a guest on this show, they are reachable. So, reach out to them, connect with them online and definitely not only just support James and what he's doing, but just actually connect with them, because I feel like I feel like you're going to really reach a lot of people with this episode. This is a little. This is definitely different. And so pure legislation.
Speaker 1:That's one thing we need to have time to talk about, but we've got legislation that will make what my family went through. No other family should have to go through it. It's Tennessee House Bill 846. Yes, support it, and that way, no other family has to endure what we did.
Speaker 2:Amazing man, amazing. So if you're listening, watching, definitely like, comment, share this episode. If anything really touched you in this episode, share it with somebody. Don't be selfish. Share this episode with somebody um, somebody that needs to hear it. If it's the beginning piece of the marketing of how to launch your business. If they're struggling right now and they're getting cancelled or something's happening to them, this, this is a great uh episode to share with them on. Hey, this is what james did. This is a great episode to share with them on. Hey, this is what James did. This is how he got out of the situation. If something was like hey, this is a great conversation around what's going on in America today, there's gonna be a lot of micro clips out of this episode. This is gonna be fantastic. So, like comment, share with the podcast. We're everywhere where you listen to podcasts and don't forget, forget everybody. If you could change your circle, you could change your life. Thank you so much, james, for being on the on the podcast and we'll catch everybody on the next episode.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much, man, I enjoyed this.
