1
00:00:00,760 --> 00:00:03,399
Speaker 1: Follow the adventures of Sir Duncan the Toll and his

2
00:00:03,560 --> 00:00:07,080
unlikely squire Egg as they travel across the realm, baffling

3
00:00:07,120 --> 00:00:09,439
to make a name for themselves in the exciting new

4
00:00:09,480 --> 00:00:12,279
game of term series A Night of the Seven Kingdoms

5
00:00:12,359 --> 00:00:16,000
on Now, starring Peter Coffee and Dexter saw Ansel and

6
00:00:16,039 --> 00:00:19,160
based on the novellas by George or Or Martin. Stream

7
00:00:19,160 --> 00:00:21,920
At Weekly enjoyed this and more for only four ninety

8
00:00:22,000 --> 00:00:24,600
nine a month for six months, with now eighteen plus

9
00:00:24,640 --> 00:00:27,679
new Now Entertainment Cinemon Boot customers only six month minimum term,

10
00:00:27,760 --> 00:00:32,679
standard pricing after six months. Further terms apply, meaning a

11
00:00:32,759 --> 00:00:36,600
live man like this man letting butterfly Flatini wing big

12
00:00:36,679 --> 00:00:37,520
down in our force.

13
00:00:37,600 --> 00:00:38,960
Speaker 2: Man, it gonna cause a tree.

14
00:00:38,759 --> 00:00:42,679
Speaker 3: Fall, letting five thousand mile away. Man, nobody see nobody

15
00:00:42,719 --> 00:00:48,759
else when you see you know, need no.

16
00:00:49,000 --> 00:00:50,240
Speaker 4: Man, we don't like you.

17
00:00:50,359 --> 00:00:52,200
Speaker 3: Follow in another story and.

18
00:00:52,280 --> 00:00:55,520
Speaker 4: Again like that man, don't.

19
00:00:55,320 --> 00:00:56,799
Speaker 2: Black a dag on pan right now?

20
00:00:56,840 --> 00:00:57,119
Speaker 1: You don't?

21
00:00:58,880 --> 00:01:08,640
Speaker 2: I know? All right, Lukespotkan, Welcome to Jay Burdens Show.

22
00:01:08,640 --> 00:01:10,359
How you doing then doing good?

23
00:01:10,400 --> 00:01:11,120
Speaker 3: Thanks for having me on.

24
00:01:12,439 --> 00:01:15,359
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's it's good to finally get this going. You

25
00:01:15,439 --> 00:01:17,359
and I have some friends in common, and so it's

26
00:01:17,400 --> 00:01:19,239
always interesting when you have sort of a you know,

27
00:01:19,319 --> 00:01:21,120
a warm hand off. But I'm really excited to have

28
00:01:21,239 --> 00:01:24,439
you on now. Obviously I am familiar with you, know

29
00:01:24,599 --> 00:01:26,959
who you are and what you've done. In fact, I

30
00:01:27,680 --> 00:01:30,079
use some of your old products basically every day.

31
00:01:30,239 --> 00:01:32,359
Speaker 3: Cool, but some of my audience might not be. So

32
00:01:32,599 --> 00:01:35,439
who are you and what do you do? Yeah? So

33
00:01:35,799 --> 00:01:41,319
I'm a young, non educated, no high school diploma, no

34
00:01:41,439 --> 00:01:46,480
college degree, homeschool kid who started a ulster manufacturing company

35
00:01:46,519 --> 00:01:49,920
in twenty thirteen in Middle Tennessee. So we made you know,

36
00:01:50,040 --> 00:01:56,120
holsters for modern handguns, mostly no revolvers, and launched that company,

37
00:01:56,280 --> 00:01:58,680
marketed it on social media. This is you know, twenty

38
00:01:58,719 --> 00:02:01,840
thirteen twenty fourteen, at the height of you know, Instagram

39
00:02:02,000 --> 00:02:05,599
and some of the social media is going gangbusters. Facebook

40
00:02:05,760 --> 00:02:08,520
was kind of doing its thing and it worked really well.

41
00:02:08,759 --> 00:02:13,280
A company was successful. We grew rapidly into a forty

42
00:02:13,319 --> 00:02:17,199
million dollar company over a decade. We were positioned really

43
00:02:17,240 --> 00:02:19,680
well for COVID. We started doing a lot of different

44
00:02:19,759 --> 00:02:24,159
kinds of products, nylon body armor type products, plate carriers,

45
00:02:24,199 --> 00:02:27,680
things like that, retailing select products from other companies and

46
00:02:27,719 --> 00:02:31,919
so we were. It's kind of hard to say what

47
00:02:32,000 --> 00:02:35,240
the company was or is today because it sort of

48
00:02:35,439 --> 00:02:38,360
it was a blend of a retail company, a hulster manufacturer,

49
00:02:38,599 --> 00:02:41,240
creating over one hundred thousand holsters a year up until

50
00:02:41,639 --> 00:02:45,039
recently when I left the company, and we were also

51
00:02:45,159 --> 00:02:48,879
designing and developing soft good nylon products as well, so

52
00:02:48,960 --> 00:02:50,280
we kind of did a little bit of everything, and

53
00:02:50,439 --> 00:02:53,680
also had a lot of media presence online. I'm a

54
00:02:53,919 --> 00:02:57,840
bit of a hate the word, but influencer, just because

55
00:02:57,879 --> 00:02:59,680
of my time on social media and because of some

56
00:02:59,759 --> 00:03:01,639
of the things that I did in the shooting space.

57
00:03:03,479 --> 00:03:06,840
We got pretty big on YouTube, with a YouTube channel

58
00:03:06,879 --> 00:03:10,639
of one point six million subscribers. I think my top

59
00:03:10,719 --> 00:03:13,800
YouTube video has twelve million views on that channel. So

60
00:03:13,919 --> 00:03:16,159
a lot of people, you know, in that farm space

61
00:03:16,280 --> 00:03:19,120
know who I am. You know, they know the kinds

62
00:03:19,120 --> 00:03:21,879
of things that I've been doing the last decade, and

63
00:03:22,680 --> 00:03:25,319
that's all I've done, pretty much, is just work on

64
00:03:25,439 --> 00:03:28,479
that company, build that company, and some stuff has changed recently,

65
00:03:28,639 --> 00:03:30,439
but that's who I am, and that's what I've been

66
00:03:30,479 --> 00:03:34,000
doing for the last twelve years now it's not even ten,

67
00:03:34,039 --> 00:03:37,280
it's a little bit longer than that. So I tossed

68
00:03:37,319 --> 00:03:38,319
a short short story.

69
00:03:39,840 --> 00:03:42,840
Speaker 2: I want to ask about being homeschooled because I was

70
00:03:42,879 --> 00:03:48,439
home skilled and that has a certain negative connotation right

71
00:03:48,560 --> 00:03:51,599
in some In some settings, it was good for me.

72
00:03:51,759 --> 00:03:53,919
I basically was just a free range child and like

73
00:03:54,000 --> 00:03:56,080
ran around the woods and read a bunch of books

74
00:03:56,120 --> 00:03:59,000
and you know, still can't spell with a gun to

75
00:03:59,080 --> 00:04:02,400
my head. But I'm curious, right, what was that like

76
00:04:02,520 --> 00:04:04,680
for you? And I mean, is that something you intend

77
00:04:04,719 --> 00:04:05,639
to do with your children and.

78
00:04:05,680 --> 00:04:12,840
Speaker 3: You have them? So homeschooling is it's different for everyone, right,

79
00:04:13,039 --> 00:04:15,439
Like we've all met the weird homeschool kids. We've met

80
00:04:15,439 --> 00:04:18,079
the homeschool kids that were a little bit more normal

81
00:04:18,160 --> 00:04:21,920
but still weird. I think that connotation is also a

82
00:04:22,120 --> 00:04:25,920
huge gross stereotype because if you look at public school

83
00:04:26,319 --> 00:04:29,639
kids from the last decade, they're even weirder in a

84
00:04:29,680 --> 00:04:32,160
lot of ways. In fact, that was one of the

85
00:04:32,360 --> 00:04:35,720
discussion points for me and my wife when we started dating.

86
00:04:35,920 --> 00:04:37,639
I think it was our second date. We got into

87
00:04:37,720 --> 00:04:40,759
deal breakers. I was like, we're doing this deal breakers,

88
00:04:40,839 --> 00:04:42,839
here they are, and one of mine was, we're going

89
00:04:42,879 --> 00:04:45,079
to homeschool because I don't want to send my kids

90
00:04:45,120 --> 00:04:48,240
to school for tons of different reasons, and she was

91
00:04:48,279 --> 00:04:49,920
a little more on the fence, Like she knew there

92
00:04:49,920 --> 00:04:52,920
were some issues in you know, the public schooling, private schooling,

93
00:04:53,000 --> 00:04:55,240
like she knew, but she you know, I hadn't really

94
00:04:55,240 --> 00:04:57,240
thought about it a whole lot. But then as we

95
00:04:57,360 --> 00:04:59,879
saw things transpire with COVID, and as we saw things

96
00:05:00,279 --> 00:05:02,399
come out more about like the transagenda, you know, things

97
00:05:02,480 --> 00:05:05,160
like that, she was like, Oh, yeah, we're not sending

98
00:05:05,199 --> 00:05:09,560
our kids to another institution where like we're not able

99
00:05:09,639 --> 00:05:13,000
to really check in on what they're being taught. We're

100
00:05:13,040 --> 00:05:15,480
going to homeschool them ourselves. Now, we have every intention

101
00:05:15,680 --> 00:05:19,040
to bring in you know, tutors if we can, and

102
00:05:19,079 --> 00:05:20,519
we're gonna work very hard so that we can do

103
00:05:20,600 --> 00:05:23,160
that so they can get a high level of education

104
00:05:23,319 --> 00:05:26,600
and not just rely on us because like math is

105
00:05:26,680 --> 00:05:29,040
not my strong suit. I can teach my kids business,

106
00:05:29,160 --> 00:05:32,759
I can teach my kids different things I've learned, you know,

107
00:05:32,920 --> 00:05:36,319
in my life. But there's certain aspects of traditional schooling,

108
00:05:36,519 --> 00:05:40,199
whatever that is, and that even needs some redefinition probably

109
00:05:40,319 --> 00:05:43,360
in development that I'm not going to be able to

110
00:05:43,360 --> 00:05:45,160
teach them and they'll have to get that from something else.

111
00:05:45,759 --> 00:05:48,519
But my homeschool background, it very much sounds very similar

112
00:05:48,519 --> 00:05:51,199
to yours. I ran around. We lived on a farm,

113
00:05:51,360 --> 00:05:52,920
so it was a lot of farm chores. It was

114
00:05:53,000 --> 00:05:55,680
not a lot of academic studies. It was a lot

115
00:05:55,720 --> 00:05:59,800
of you know, milking cows, putting up, fencing chickens, you

116
00:05:59,839 --> 00:06:04,079
know things like that. I hated reading. I always had

117
00:06:04,120 --> 00:06:06,519
to be doing something that was a lot more stimulating,

118
00:06:06,560 --> 00:06:10,279
and reading is just very slow and slow paced, and

119
00:06:10,319 --> 00:06:13,160
so I always hated that. When I was younger, loved

120
00:06:13,160 --> 00:06:16,879
playing video games, and then that usually that got throttled

121
00:06:16,879 --> 00:06:20,079
because I played way too many video games and rules

122
00:06:20,120 --> 00:06:23,680
got put in place. But uh, but for so for me,

123
00:06:23,800 --> 00:06:27,920
my homeschooling education was I think it was okay. I've

124
00:06:28,000 --> 00:06:30,560
known other homeschooling kids that get it's way more academic,

125
00:06:30,680 --> 00:06:33,720
it's way more forced. And then I've also seen other

126
00:06:33,839 --> 00:06:36,399
kids where they're not allowed to read any books until

127
00:06:36,439 --> 00:06:41,839
they've memorized the Bible, and that caused serious issues with

128
00:06:42,240 --> 00:06:44,160
those kids, you know, as I got to know them

129
00:06:44,199 --> 00:06:46,519
as they got older, because they just did not understand

130
00:06:46,600 --> 00:06:48,720
the world for what the world is. And that's not

131
00:06:48,839 --> 00:06:51,079
a good way to raise your kids. You have to

132
00:06:51,199 --> 00:06:54,240
raise your kids with an understanding of the world they

133
00:06:54,319 --> 00:06:56,519
live in, and you can't just sort of put them

134
00:06:56,560 --> 00:07:01,360
in in a padded cell utopian box. That's not setting

135
00:07:01,360 --> 00:07:04,079
your kids up for success. So I think my homeschooling

136
00:07:04,480 --> 00:07:07,399
situation it was I think it was good. I think

137
00:07:07,439 --> 00:07:08,959
one of the things that was very helpful for me

138
00:07:09,160 --> 00:07:12,279
was I was taught I can learn anything, and that

139
00:07:12,560 --> 00:07:15,160
can be both good and bad. And I've seen that

140
00:07:15,319 --> 00:07:18,680
go both ways, where kids think they're homeschoolers, think they're

141
00:07:18,720 --> 00:07:21,480
so you know, no, it all teach you. I can

142
00:07:21,519 --> 00:07:24,240
teach myself anything. I don't need professionals, And it's like, well,

143
00:07:24,519 --> 00:07:27,279
hold on, like you actually do stilly to rely on

144
00:07:27,319 --> 00:07:30,199
professionals who make this their life mission, you know, who

145
00:07:30,279 --> 00:07:33,079
go study this thing for ten years, this one thing, Like, yes,

146
00:07:33,160 --> 00:07:34,639
they're going to know more than you even if you

147
00:07:34,759 --> 00:07:38,079
go read online for a couple hours. I think I

148
00:07:38,160 --> 00:07:40,360
got just the right amount of I could teach myself

149
00:07:40,720 --> 00:07:42,959
you know stuff, and I need to, but I also

150
00:07:43,079 --> 00:07:44,959
need to go rely on experts. And I learned that

151
00:07:45,079 --> 00:07:48,000
with my business that it was a healthy amount for me.

152
00:07:48,160 --> 00:07:51,319
But I've seen that go wrong for other people in

153
00:07:52,680 --> 00:07:54,879
some of my environment and some of my community that

154
00:07:54,959 --> 00:07:57,199
I came from where they really thought they knew more

155
00:07:57,240 --> 00:08:01,199
than everyone else. And so the homeschooling, it's it's such

156
00:08:01,240 --> 00:08:04,639
a tough one because everybody tries to make it a formula.

157
00:08:04,800 --> 00:08:07,360
They try to say, teach your kids this much reading,

158
00:08:07,480 --> 00:08:10,360
this much history, this much math, this much you know,

159
00:08:11,560 --> 00:08:15,480
street smarts, and nobody really has it figured out, and

160
00:08:15,680 --> 00:08:19,480
every kid learns differently, Like for me, I love video games.

161
00:08:19,519 --> 00:08:22,439
Growing up. Eventually it was sort of throttled and taken

162
00:08:22,480 --> 00:08:25,160
away from me, which is probably good. But all that

163
00:08:25,319 --> 00:08:28,240
video game playing now I actually think was helpful for

164
00:08:28,360 --> 00:08:30,800
me and developing how I learn different things and how

165
00:08:30,839 --> 00:08:33,480
I multitask. I still play a lot of video games,

166
00:08:34,080 --> 00:08:36,679
some high level video games, and that I know for

167
00:08:36,799 --> 00:08:39,240
a fact translates to a lot of my work and

168
00:08:39,320 --> 00:08:41,000
how well I'm able to work, how well I'm able

169
00:08:41,080 --> 00:08:43,639
to shoot, how well I'm able to make decisions, very

170
00:08:43,720 --> 00:08:47,200
fast decisions. And there's been tons of studies showing people

171
00:08:47,240 --> 00:08:49,480
who play video games who grew up playing video games

172
00:08:49,480 --> 00:08:51,639
people who didn't grow up playing video games, and the

173
00:08:51,759 --> 00:08:55,279
decision making process and the problem solving process between those

174
00:08:55,320 --> 00:08:58,360
two groups of people is radically different. And so I think,

175
00:08:58,960 --> 00:09:01,559
you know, early on in my homeschooling. You know, early on,

176
00:09:01,639 --> 00:09:04,320
in the early two thousands, late nineties, you know, video

177
00:09:04,360 --> 00:09:07,279
games bad for the most part. Most home homeschooling parents

178
00:09:07,320 --> 00:09:09,639
thought that. But now I actually think some of that

179
00:09:09,720 --> 00:09:12,279
has to change, which is now some video games are

180
00:09:12,279 --> 00:09:16,360
actually good for development. We live in an electronic like

181
00:09:16,519 --> 00:09:20,279
computer society where everything runs on computers. I actually want

182
00:09:20,320 --> 00:09:23,279
my kids to understand how all of that works, and

183
00:09:23,320 --> 00:09:25,759
they learn that through playing video games. I don't want

184
00:09:25,799 --> 00:09:28,679
them to just be stuck to reading a couple of books,

185
00:09:28,759 --> 00:09:30,360
because that's not going to teach them a whole lot

186
00:09:30,440 --> 00:09:33,559
to be successful. So we are going to homeschool, me

187
00:09:33,600 --> 00:09:36,240
and my wife. We're going to do it very differently

188
00:09:36,679 --> 00:09:39,159
than you know, how we were raised. She went to

189
00:09:39,200 --> 00:09:41,879
public school, she went to college. She's a chemical engineer,

190
00:09:41,960 --> 00:09:44,840
so she's had a very traditional, you know, schooling background.

191
00:09:45,200 --> 00:09:47,519
I had a very not traditional schooling background. And I

192
00:09:47,519 --> 00:09:49,559
think we're going to find something in the middle, and

193
00:09:49,600 --> 00:09:51,279
I think it's going to be really cool. I think

194
00:09:51,320 --> 00:09:53,759
our kids are going to be super involved in the businesses,

195
00:09:54,120 --> 00:09:57,320
not forced into being in the businesses. I think that

196
00:09:57,399 --> 00:09:59,480
could be a problem, but they're going to be in

197
00:09:59,600 --> 00:10:02,240
it around it all the time and going to you know,

198
00:10:03,480 --> 00:10:05,600
the different business trips that we go on. They're going

199
00:10:05,639 --> 00:10:07,480
to see us working all the time. They're going to

200
00:10:07,559 --> 00:10:11,080
see my wife, you know, talking to lawyers in the evening,

201
00:10:11,279 --> 00:10:14,559
or I'm talking to you know, some vendor, or I'm

202
00:10:14,639 --> 00:10:17,120
flying somewhere last minute, and they'll see that, and I

203
00:10:17,200 --> 00:10:20,279
think that's really good for them to see. And we

204
00:10:20,399 --> 00:10:22,799
also are trying to figure out how to make some

205
00:10:22,960 --> 00:10:25,519
of that more normal for them, or not normal. But

206
00:10:27,360 --> 00:10:30,440
let them understand, it's going to sound horrible. We don't

207
00:10:30,480 --> 00:10:32,080
want them to see how we live and think everyone

208
00:10:32,159 --> 00:10:34,799
lives that way, because it's not true. And so we're

209
00:10:34,840 --> 00:10:39,159
trying to figure out how to balance our crazy entrepreneur

210
00:10:39,279 --> 00:10:42,759
lifestyle to hey, not everyone lives this way with these

211
00:10:42,840 --> 00:10:47,080
crazy schedules or eating fancy steaks sometimes or often, or

212
00:10:47,120 --> 00:10:50,639
whatever business dinners and stuff. This is how we do

213
00:10:50,720 --> 00:10:52,480
it because we've worked hard for it, and so we're

214
00:10:52,480 --> 00:10:54,039
trying to figure that out. And we're going to figure

215
00:10:54,080 --> 00:10:57,399
that out and make mistakes along the way. A very

216
00:10:57,440 --> 00:11:00,080
long winded way to answer your question, but the hopesto

217
00:11:00,399 --> 00:11:02,720
was good for me. I think some parts weren't, and

218
00:11:02,840 --> 00:11:05,000
some parts had to learn the hard way, and that's okay.

219
00:11:05,240 --> 00:11:06,519
I mean, that's just how it is. I don't think

220
00:11:06,519 --> 00:11:08,000
anyone's schooling is perfect.

221
00:11:08,440 --> 00:11:11,279
Speaker 2: So well, yeah, I mean there's a lot to that.

222
00:11:12,279 --> 00:11:14,120
So I was I was sort of half and half.

223
00:11:14,159 --> 00:11:16,799
I was homeschooled halfway through, and then my parents sent

224
00:11:16,879 --> 00:11:19,440
me to a Christian school, which I think was very good.

225
00:11:19,720 --> 00:11:21,519
You know that there wasn't much more they could teach

226
00:11:21,600 --> 00:11:24,279
me and I needed some structure in my life. But

227
00:11:24,799 --> 00:11:28,360
I think there's another part of it, which is kids

228
00:11:28,440 --> 00:11:31,759
really aren't all the same. And I was on a

229
00:11:31,919 --> 00:11:35,200
track before I was homeschooled to be put in like

230
00:11:35,399 --> 00:11:39,000
the special program because I just refused to learn how

231
00:11:39,039 --> 00:11:40,200
to read. I was like, yeah, I don't want to

232
00:11:40,240 --> 00:11:43,799
do it. And you know, the conclusion was, no, he's

233
00:11:43,960 --> 00:11:46,639
just really stubborn. There's nothing wrong with him per se.

234
00:11:47,159 --> 00:11:49,080
But I mean, you know, if you get set on

235
00:11:49,159 --> 00:11:52,480
that track at age six, you're kind of cooked, right,

236
00:11:52,559 --> 00:11:54,440
Like it's difficult to break out of that. So I

237
00:11:54,480 --> 00:11:56,639
think that's certainly a part of it. And you know,

238
00:11:56,679 --> 00:11:59,840
I'm glad you brought up raising kids in the business

239
00:12:00,240 --> 00:12:03,799
because this is something I experienced. My grandfather was an entrepreneur,

240
00:12:04,159 --> 00:12:06,519
for a variety of reasons. He you know, did a

241
00:12:06,559 --> 00:12:10,480
lot of raising me, and that was incredibly positive because

242
00:12:10,559 --> 00:12:12,279
you know, you mentioned right this you know, sort of

243
00:12:12,320 --> 00:12:15,960
canard that homeschoolers are weird, and it's like, well, okay,

244
00:12:16,000 --> 00:12:18,799
well weird compared to what, right, the average product of

245
00:12:18,840 --> 00:12:21,960
a public school good, you know, like you don't want

246
00:12:22,000 --> 00:12:24,240
to be that, you know, Yeah, But I think one

247
00:12:24,240 --> 00:12:26,679
of the really positive things is that I was exposed

248
00:12:26,799 --> 00:12:30,440
to a lot of you know, real conversations with adults.

249
00:12:30,799 --> 00:12:32,559
I was doing runs with him. He would make me

250
00:12:32,759 --> 00:12:34,879
go in and talk to a vendor, you know, talk

251
00:12:34,919 --> 00:12:37,480
to a customer, something like that, and so very quickly,

252
00:12:37,799 --> 00:12:40,000
something that a lot of people don't develop until their

253
00:12:40,080 --> 00:12:43,159
mid or early twenties, right, how to talk to an

254
00:12:43,200 --> 00:12:46,360
adult was something that was just expected. And that's not

255
00:12:46,480 --> 00:12:48,799
something you can put on a standardized test, right, I mean, like,

256
00:12:49,080 --> 00:12:51,360
can you imagine right filling out a like the eye

257
00:12:51,399 --> 00:12:54,279
contact bubble on the SAT. It sounds stupid, but that's

258
00:12:54,320 --> 00:12:58,039
a very real skill set. And honestly, you know what

259
00:12:58,159 --> 00:13:00,399
you said right off the rip there about you know,

260
00:13:00,519 --> 00:13:02,919
what is going on in public schools. Like my wife

261
00:13:02,960 --> 00:13:05,000
worked as a public school teacher. She taught art for

262
00:13:05,080 --> 00:13:07,600
elementary so it's not like the most technical thing. But

263
00:13:07,799 --> 00:13:09,879
a large part of the reason that she left is,

264
00:13:10,559 --> 00:13:13,320
even in a conservative area, for whatever that's worth, she

265
00:13:13,519 --> 00:13:15,720
was seeing what was going on, right, the sort of

266
00:13:15,879 --> 00:13:18,039
other people that were getting hired, what they were trying

267
00:13:18,039 --> 00:13:20,399
to communicate to kids, And it's like, well, not only

268
00:13:20,480 --> 00:13:23,399
do I certainly not want my children doing that, but

269
00:13:24,000 --> 00:13:26,080
you know, you sort of feel guilty by association, Like

270
00:13:26,120 --> 00:13:28,240
wait a minute, I'm working as part of an organization

271
00:13:28,399 --> 00:13:30,200
that promotes these sort of values.

272
00:13:31,120 --> 00:13:32,720
Speaker 3: So I want to go back to.

273
00:13:34,480 --> 00:13:37,320
Speaker 2: You founding a business right cause you mentioned right, don't

274
00:13:37,360 --> 00:13:39,720
have a high school diploma, you don't have a college degree,

275
00:13:39,799 --> 00:13:42,840
you don't have, in my mind, the most useless piece

276
00:13:42,840 --> 00:13:44,200
of paper in the world, an MBA.

277
00:13:44,879 --> 00:13:46,960
Speaker 3: Right, Oh yeah, what does that look like? Right?

278
00:13:47,720 --> 00:13:50,159
Speaker 2: By the way, I've met literally one impressive person with

279
00:13:50,240 --> 00:13:52,679
an MBA, and he was an impressive person before who

280
00:13:52,759 --> 00:13:55,720
got one for free, So it's exactly fair enough everyone else.

281
00:13:55,799 --> 00:13:58,799
It's just like, okay, I can discount everything you're about

282
00:13:58,840 --> 00:14:00,639
to say, but sorry, side bone.

283
00:14:00,720 --> 00:14:03,519
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, correct, no, I have well on that. I

284
00:14:03,600 --> 00:14:05,519
had a funny story where I've only interacted with one

285
00:14:05,600 --> 00:14:08,679
person with an NBA and it was from social media

286
00:14:08,799 --> 00:14:11,399
and he was talking just mad crap behind I didn't

287
00:14:11,399 --> 00:14:13,480
know anything about business, and so I got in the

288
00:14:13,559 --> 00:14:15,440
DMS or he DM me, and I was just like,

289
00:14:15,639 --> 00:14:16,879
he was like, I could do a better job if

290
00:14:16,879 --> 00:14:18,279
I was in your position. And this is back in

291
00:14:18,399 --> 00:14:21,720
like twenty nineteen, so we were already doing like thirty

292
00:14:21,759 --> 00:14:23,799
million in sales something like that. So I was just like,

293
00:14:24,360 --> 00:14:28,279
I was like, okay, man, what would you do, Like

294
00:14:28,399 --> 00:14:30,960
tell me what would you different? And he was like, oh, well,

295
00:14:31,039 --> 00:14:33,960
I can't you know. And he couldn't give me anything,

296
00:14:34,039 --> 00:14:36,840
not even a single suggestion even seeing the business. And

297
00:14:38,000 --> 00:14:39,519
I finally pressed him on it was just like, yeah,

298
00:14:39,519 --> 00:14:41,559
you've never run a business, you never started a business,

299
00:14:41,759 --> 00:14:44,360
you know anything about business, and you're talking to a

300
00:14:44,440 --> 00:14:47,879
guy who's been doing it for six years, like, you know,

301
00:14:48,159 --> 00:14:50,519
good luck out there. And he didn't have anything for that.

302
00:14:50,600 --> 00:14:54,200
But anyway, so long story short. So so starting the

303
00:14:54,279 --> 00:14:56,600
business was interesting, and this is this is what's this

304
00:14:56,759 --> 00:14:58,639
I think is this is an interesting part of my

305
00:14:58,759 --> 00:15:00,519
story that has resonated with the a lot of people.

306
00:15:00,840 --> 00:15:03,519
So I was the laziest person in our family, like

307
00:15:03,639 --> 00:15:05,519
by far to the point I would get poked and

308
00:15:05,600 --> 00:15:08,360
prauded about it. I don't want to say it made

309
00:15:08,399 --> 00:15:10,080
fun of, because that sounds really bad.

310
00:15:11,440 --> 00:15:12,799
Speaker 2: But it was encouraged.

311
00:15:13,200 --> 00:15:16,799
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't even know if I would say it

312
00:15:16,879 --> 00:15:18,320
was more like it was more like the statements that

313
00:15:18,320 --> 00:15:20,519
would just get made like so lazy, you know, it

314
00:15:20,639 --> 00:15:24,080
wasn't really an encouragement. So everyone knew in the family

315
00:15:24,120 --> 00:15:25,480
I would try to get out of work. I'd pot

316
00:15:25,639 --> 00:15:30,120
off on my younger brother. Eventually I learned to like

317
00:15:30,240 --> 00:15:34,000
the farm work. I had hung out with, actually, someone

318
00:15:34,039 --> 00:15:36,799
who was a bad influence on me when I was

319
00:15:36,840 --> 00:15:39,519
like fifteen. He was a farm country kid. But the

320
00:15:39,639 --> 00:15:42,080
interesting thing with that was I learned to like work

321
00:15:42,120 --> 00:15:47,279
from him. Even though he was a problematic influence just

322
00:15:47,519 --> 00:15:51,000
character wise, he did seem to like the work and

323
00:15:51,080 --> 00:15:52,759
he would do the work, and I picked that up

324
00:15:52,759 --> 00:15:55,279
from him, so he could still learn things from questionable people.

325
00:15:56,679 --> 00:15:58,840
And so I started to like the farm work. But

326
00:15:58,879 --> 00:16:00,759
I but I was still lazy. And so as soon

327
00:16:00,840 --> 00:16:04,799
as I had something that was interesting to me and

328
00:16:05,120 --> 00:16:08,679
compelling to me, which was this business and making these products,

329
00:16:09,159 --> 00:16:12,000
I was all in, and I mean all all in.

330
00:16:12,320 --> 00:16:14,799
That's all I did. I didn't play video games. I

331
00:16:14,960 --> 00:16:18,440
didn't I didn't go to parties. I didn't spend a

332
00:16:18,480 --> 00:16:20,519
whole lot of time at church after lunch, like I

333
00:16:20,639 --> 00:16:23,159
usually wanted to go, like take a nap or sleep.

334
00:16:23,159 --> 00:16:25,399
Because I was working literally six days a week all

335
00:16:25,480 --> 00:16:28,759
the time, that's all I did. I was so invested in,

336
00:16:28,919 --> 00:16:34,519
so obsessive that I think that the obsessiveness from wanting

337
00:16:34,519 --> 00:16:35,840
to play video games all the time when I was

338
00:16:35,879 --> 00:16:39,320
younger translated as soon as I found an outlet. And

339
00:16:39,440 --> 00:16:41,840
I've heard this from a lot of other young men

340
00:16:41,879 --> 00:16:47,440
who are super like ADHD, lazy whatever. It's because everything

341
00:16:47,519 --> 00:16:50,799
around them is so boring and dull that they have

342
00:16:51,000 --> 00:16:54,399
to find something more interesting to grab their attention. Like

343
00:16:54,480 --> 00:16:57,480
video games, you've got economy, you've got action, you've got

344
00:16:57,519 --> 00:17:01,080
reaction time, decision making. Depending on what kinds of video

345
00:17:01,120 --> 00:17:06,079
games you're playing, they're insanely mentally simulating. And then you

346
00:17:06,119 --> 00:17:09,200
look at real life and a lot of it's like

347
00:17:09,319 --> 00:17:10,680
pretty boring compared to that.

348
00:17:10,759 --> 00:17:11,160
Speaker 2: It just is.

349
00:17:11,759 --> 00:17:14,240
Speaker 3: And so if someone's listening to this who maybe has

350
00:17:14,279 --> 00:17:17,119
a kid who seems like that where nothing around them

351
00:17:17,519 --> 00:17:20,920
compels them, they may be one of these kids where

352
00:17:21,039 --> 00:17:25,200
no they need something so high risk, so challenging, so

353
00:17:26,640 --> 00:17:29,920
interesting to them for them to go from video games

354
00:17:29,960 --> 00:17:34,480
that are also interesting to ooh, super complicated, hard to solve,

355
00:17:35,200 --> 00:17:40,039
compelling project, business, whatever it is, to actually capture their attention.

356
00:17:40,160 --> 00:17:43,359
And that's what happened to me. So I started the company.

357
00:17:44,200 --> 00:17:47,359
I had like a thousand bucks from an inheritance a

358
00:17:47,440 --> 00:17:49,799
grandparent died and I got a little bit of money,

359
00:17:50,319 --> 00:17:53,839
and the tooling was cheap, four hundred bucks in some parts.

360
00:17:53,960 --> 00:17:57,559
It is harbor freight tools from China, and was able

361
00:17:57,599 --> 00:18:00,200
to make this stuff by hand, and which is or

362
00:18:00,279 --> 00:18:02,480
fortunate because a lot of products that you can't get

363
00:18:02,480 --> 00:18:05,960
into it that cheap. And I just would make I

364
00:18:06,000 --> 00:18:08,400
would sell a few and then I would buy more stuff,

365
00:18:08,440 --> 00:18:10,599
and I literally was funding it as I went. There

366
00:18:10,720 --> 00:18:14,000
was no like massive capital infusion to run things, and

367
00:18:14,079 --> 00:18:17,000
it was slow. The first year. It was painfully slow,

368
00:18:17,400 --> 00:18:21,039
but I was so focused on that that I guess

369
00:18:21,160 --> 00:18:23,240
I didn't really care about how long it was taking,

370
00:18:23,279 --> 00:18:25,519
because you know, it's all I had, and I was

371
00:18:25,640 --> 00:18:29,000
just deep into it that I just went in every

372
00:18:29,079 --> 00:18:32,720
day made made holsters. And in the first winter, there

373
00:18:32,759 --> 00:18:34,960
was no heating and air conditioning, so I'd bundle up

374
00:18:35,000 --> 00:18:38,880
with like multiple jackets and make like five holsters and

375
00:18:38,960 --> 00:18:41,119
then go home and send emails and ship them out

376
00:18:41,160 --> 00:18:43,799
like the next day. And I did that for a

377
00:18:43,920 --> 00:18:48,480
year before things started to really take off. And that's

378
00:18:48,559 --> 00:18:52,240
often what it takes. And in my case, thankfully, you know, providentially,

379
00:18:52,359 --> 00:18:54,880
I had a simple product that could make my hand,

380
00:18:55,160 --> 00:18:58,680
didn't require a whole lot of capital. People online were

381
00:18:58,720 --> 00:19:00,799
willing to trust me with their money, and I was

382
00:19:00,839 --> 00:19:02,680
able to move the product and then market it on

383
00:19:03,000 --> 00:19:06,319
social media. Didn't spend a dime on marketing traditional marketing

384
00:19:07,000 --> 00:19:09,839
until I want to say, twenty eighteen. It was all

385
00:19:10,000 --> 00:19:13,039
just self marketed through social media and the timing. This

386
00:19:13,119 --> 00:19:15,400
is where people say like luck in business, and I

387
00:19:16,440 --> 00:19:18,240
kind of agree with the concept. I also don't like

388
00:19:18,359 --> 00:19:19,960
it because it could take away from the hard work

389
00:19:20,000 --> 00:19:24,200
people do. But there was definitely a luck or providence

390
00:19:24,319 --> 00:19:27,759
component of I started this back when social media was

391
00:19:27,839 --> 00:19:31,799
fresh and new and it wasn't censored, Instagram wasn't coming

392
00:19:31,839 --> 00:19:34,160
down on gun stuff yet. I was definitely there at

393
00:19:34,160 --> 00:19:37,039
the right time. That definitely helped, But I still had

394
00:19:37,079 --> 00:19:40,319
to be the one to identify that post post every day,

395
00:19:40,680 --> 00:19:42,559
figure out what to post figure out what not to post,

396
00:19:42,799 --> 00:19:44,559
figure out when to delete a comment, when not to

397
00:19:44,640 --> 00:19:46,279
delete a comment, Like I still had to learn all that.

398
00:19:48,160 --> 00:19:50,079
But that's what it was like starting the business. There's

399
00:19:50,079 --> 00:19:52,200
a lot more I could say, but like it was

400
00:19:52,319 --> 00:19:55,000
just coming in and doing the same thing every day.

401
00:19:55,119 --> 00:20:01,720
But for me, it was so much multitasking emails, proct development, manufacturing, marketing,

402
00:20:02,000 --> 00:20:04,160
social media. It was like playing a video game. It's

403
00:20:04,240 --> 00:20:06,160
it's almost identical to playing a video game. I just

404
00:20:06,480 --> 00:20:08,599
it was just in real life, which is cool.

405
00:20:09,359 --> 00:20:11,640
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's an interesting point if something I see is

406
00:20:12,000 --> 00:20:17,200
as well, where a normal life, right whatever you want

407
00:20:17,200 --> 00:20:18,880
to qualify that as where it's like, you know, you

408
00:20:19,640 --> 00:20:21,160
have some sort of like nine to five job with

409
00:20:21,160 --> 00:20:23,799
a certain amount of benefits. And let's be honest, many

410
00:20:23,839 --> 00:20:26,960
of these jobs are not particularly difficult. There's a large

411
00:20:27,000 --> 00:20:29,079
kind of social safety net. You may not be rich,

412
00:20:29,160 --> 00:20:31,200
you may not have a great life, but the kind

413
00:20:31,240 --> 00:20:34,039
of bare minimum level of existence is really not that

414
00:20:34,240 --> 00:20:37,000
hard to do, right, Like, it's not something where it

415
00:20:37,160 --> 00:20:40,599
takes that sort of you know, advanced level of decision

416
00:20:40,680 --> 00:20:43,880
making and additionally, right, and I see, you know a

417
00:20:43,960 --> 00:20:45,920
lot of guys, I'm in my mid twenties. So I

418
00:20:46,000 --> 00:20:47,640
see a lot of guys kind of at the stage

419
00:20:48,079 --> 00:20:50,559
where it's like, once they get that, it's kind of like, well,

420
00:20:50,599 --> 00:20:54,759
why would I like working? You know X percent harder

421
00:20:54,880 --> 00:20:58,319
doesn't get me that much more? So all my attention,

422
00:20:58,480 --> 00:21:00,680
all of my energy is going into you know, something

423
00:21:00,720 --> 00:21:03,200
like video games or you know, maybe some other kind

424
00:21:03,240 --> 00:21:06,559
of more you know, like nefarious fights, right, And I

425
00:21:06,599 --> 00:21:09,599
think a large part of that is that in that setting,

426
00:21:09,640 --> 00:21:13,599
a lot of people are kind of insulated from making decisions.

427
00:21:13,640 --> 00:21:16,000
To be honest, like what you do moment to moment

428
00:21:16,079 --> 00:21:18,720
doesn't matter that much. It's not exciting, there's no risk

429
00:21:18,880 --> 00:21:21,279
to it, and to be honest, there's in many cases

430
00:21:21,640 --> 00:21:24,480
there's not that much reward. So like you know, you

431
00:21:24,559 --> 00:21:26,640
read all these articles or you see these headlines about

432
00:21:26,880 --> 00:21:30,400
you know, gen z is checking out, and it's like, okay, yeah,

433
00:21:30,440 --> 00:21:32,799
that's not a good thing. But you can kind of

434
00:21:32,880 --> 00:21:35,640
understand it, right, because it does feel like, okay, like

435
00:21:35,720 --> 00:21:39,519
if everything around you is kind of pointless, right, it

436
00:21:39,640 --> 00:21:43,680
feels as if there's no direct correlation, like you can

437
00:21:43,720 --> 00:21:46,319
at least understand it, like it's not the correct thing

438
00:21:46,400 --> 00:21:48,880
to do, but it is from a certain perspective rational

439
00:21:49,720 --> 00:21:53,599
and as someone who's fairly recently kind of struck out

440
00:21:53,640 --> 00:21:55,920
on my own, right, I don't have a real job anymore,

441
00:21:55,960 --> 00:21:58,720
per se. It's kind of scary, right because you basically

442
00:21:58,759 --> 00:22:01,279
want to jump in. You don't have that safety net,

443
00:22:01,400 --> 00:22:04,279
and if you mess up, it's not like you get fired,

444
00:22:04,400 --> 00:22:06,559
per se. It's like the thing you built goes away

445
00:22:07,240 --> 00:22:10,000
and you're a loser, right, But at the same time,

446
00:22:10,559 --> 00:22:14,319
like and you're sort of grabbing on to that like

447
00:22:14,400 --> 00:22:16,920
what you know, Ted Kaczinski that you know, the famous

448
00:22:16,960 --> 00:22:19,279
mail bomb guy, what called like the power process, right,

449
00:22:19,319 --> 00:22:22,240
and making decisions that actually matter for you, And like,

450
00:22:22,279 --> 00:22:27,279
aside from any financial motivation, that's incredibly motivating because you're

451
00:22:27,279 --> 00:22:30,440
actually doing something real, you know, it's not like you're

452
00:22:30,480 --> 00:22:32,640
sort of doing something for someone else. I don't know

453
00:22:32,640 --> 00:22:34,720
it's in the most elegant way to put it, but

454
00:22:35,400 --> 00:22:36,880
once you've had a taste of it, I almost feel

455
00:22:36,880 --> 00:22:39,519
like you can never go back for sure.

456
00:22:39,599 --> 00:22:42,920
Speaker 3: And this is this has been a frustration for me,

457
00:22:43,359 --> 00:22:48,240
is the entrepreneur bro marketing, because like, I would love

458
00:22:48,279 --> 00:22:50,400
for there to be more entrepreneurial people, but the reality

459
00:22:50,519 --> 00:22:53,319
is there's just not a lot and there's a reason

460
00:22:53,400 --> 00:22:56,000
for it. Not everyone's wired to handle it. Now. I

461
00:22:56,079 --> 00:22:58,319
think you're you're touching on something that that's super important,

462
00:22:58,359 --> 00:23:00,519
and that is there's right now, there's sort of this

463
00:23:01,440 --> 00:23:04,640
sort it's a spectrum, right, everything is, but there's a

464
00:23:04,680 --> 00:23:07,200
spectrum of how checked out people want to be with

465
00:23:07,440 --> 00:23:10,079
their I don't want to say their life, but their job. Right,

466
00:23:10,640 --> 00:23:13,359
it's very predictable. They have a salary, they could plan

467
00:23:13,480 --> 00:23:15,720
their life around their sixty grand or whatever, eighty grand,

468
00:23:15,759 --> 00:23:18,960
whatever it is. They go into work, not lots expected

469
00:23:19,000 --> 00:23:21,799
of them. They could do this stuff. They can go

470
00:23:21,880 --> 00:23:23,640
home and they can do football, they can play video games,

471
00:23:23,640 --> 00:23:26,039
they can do that thing that they like to do.

472
00:23:26,599 --> 00:23:28,519
And there's tons of people that are okay with that

473
00:23:28,680 --> 00:23:30,799
that that's just how they're wired and how they're driven.

474
00:23:31,240 --> 00:23:32,519
And then on the other side of the spectrum, you

475
00:23:32,559 --> 00:23:34,640
have all the entrepreneur ros or people like me or

476
00:23:34,680 --> 00:23:37,279
whoever who are saying everyone needs to be like us,

477
00:23:38,000 --> 00:23:41,319
and the reality is, well, that's impossible, that's not going

478
00:23:41,400 --> 00:23:43,799
to happen. But I do think there's this area in

479
00:23:43,839 --> 00:23:51,200
the middle which is finding more compelling interesting things for

480
00:23:51,359 --> 00:23:56,160
people in today's era. Because young men are surrounded by

481
00:23:56,279 --> 00:23:59,160
so many distractions. I mean, video games are the best example.

482
00:24:00,039 --> 00:24:03,319
Why I go work at a factory where you're doing

483
00:24:03,400 --> 00:24:06,440
this super mundane thing when I can stay home and

484
00:24:06,559 --> 00:24:11,240
play the most high paced competitive video game that I

485
00:24:11,400 --> 00:24:15,759
feel like, you know, my performance matters because I'll let

486
00:24:15,799 --> 00:24:18,759
the team down. You know, competitive team based video games

487
00:24:18,839 --> 00:24:22,720
feel super purposeful, super meaningful, especially Battle Royales. When those

488
00:24:22,799 --> 00:24:25,119
came out, I think that cooked a whole generation of

489
00:24:25,359 --> 00:24:30,039
young men, good and bad in both ways, because it's

490
00:24:30,079 --> 00:24:32,079
just so meaningful playing a game like that where you're

491
00:24:32,079 --> 00:24:33,839
the you know, if your team is the best, and

492
00:24:33,920 --> 00:24:35,599
you get to the end, you win and you beat everyone,

493
00:24:35,680 --> 00:24:37,119
and you know it, you beat one hundred other people.

494
00:24:39,079 --> 00:24:41,680
So there's this area in the middle that for young

495
00:24:41,759 --> 00:24:45,079
men's or for today's workforce, where where can we offer

496
00:24:45,240 --> 00:24:51,440
a more compelling lifestyle to men that outweighs or at

497
00:24:51,519 --> 00:24:55,640
least is equal to the distractions of today, like video games,

498
00:24:56,039 --> 00:24:58,000
where they want to go to work, they want to

499
00:24:58,079 --> 00:25:00,200
go and create stuff, They want to design product, they

500
00:25:00,279 --> 00:25:04,599
want to make stuff for you know, today's warfighters or

501
00:25:04,839 --> 00:25:08,720
for you know, you know first responders, or these people

502
00:25:08,799 --> 00:25:10,559
over here, or they work in the food industry, which

503
00:25:10,640 --> 00:25:12,599
is super important because food is, you know, how we

504
00:25:12,759 --> 00:25:17,880
stay alive, Like, how do we make that work so compelling?

505
00:25:18,039 --> 00:25:19,960
And I think there's some people that are starting to

506
00:25:20,480 --> 00:25:23,160
hit the nail on the head in the reindustrialization movement

507
00:25:23,440 --> 00:25:25,599
where they're starting to say, we need to make manufacturing

508
00:25:25,680 --> 00:25:28,599
more like a video game, where it is more rewarding,

509
00:25:28,799 --> 00:25:32,839
it's more simplified, it's more understandable, it's more teachable so

510
00:25:33,000 --> 00:25:34,519
people can get it a little bit better. And I

511
00:25:34,599 --> 00:25:37,119
think they're starting to maybe go down that road of

512
00:25:37,200 --> 00:25:39,680
figuring out how to I don't want to say gamify

513
00:25:39,759 --> 00:25:41,839
because that starts to make it sound like Wally, but like,

514
00:25:42,599 --> 00:25:46,000
but make it where it's more attractive and understandable to

515
00:25:46,119 --> 00:25:49,279
people that what they're doing is important and there is

516
00:25:49,319 --> 00:25:52,319
a reward behind doing it and it's not just this

517
00:25:52,519 --> 00:25:57,079
mundane work that they go and do. And so my

518
00:25:57,200 --> 00:25:59,519
frustration with the entrepreneur bros. Is how much they tell

519
00:25:59,559 --> 00:26:01,720
people your life socks unless you're one of us. And

520
00:26:01,799 --> 00:26:05,279
I'm like, well, not everyone's gonna go put up literally

521
00:26:06,440 --> 00:26:10,039
all their money, their house, their cars, take great risk,

522
00:26:10,720 --> 00:26:13,359
Like not everyone's wired that way. They just aren't. I'm

523
00:26:13,440 --> 00:26:16,200
doing that right now. I'm putting up literally everything to

524
00:26:16,279 --> 00:26:20,119
start two new companies. I love it. I'm stress, you know,

525
00:26:20,319 --> 00:26:22,440
a few times out of the week, like looking at

526
00:26:22,440 --> 00:26:24,640
the ceiling at night, but like I'm okay with that,

527
00:26:24,960 --> 00:26:27,880
Like I have no problem doing that. Most people aren't

528
00:26:27,920 --> 00:26:29,720
wired that way. They need a little bit more safety,

529
00:26:29,720 --> 00:26:32,039
they need a little more cushion. They're not maybe as creative.

530
00:26:33,119 --> 00:26:36,400
But it's finding that that middle ground for people where

531
00:26:36,440 --> 00:26:39,480
they can feel really fulfilled with their nine to five,

532
00:26:40,279 --> 00:26:43,119
with their four ten, like whatever, you know, work situation

533
00:26:43,240 --> 00:26:46,880
they're in. And that's my goal with my new companies.

534
00:26:47,000 --> 00:26:48,559
And I even had a long discussion with my wife

535
00:26:48,599 --> 00:26:51,079
last night about a manufacturing company i'd like to start,

536
00:26:51,480 --> 00:26:53,200
and we talked about, well, how do we make the

537
00:26:53,319 --> 00:26:58,519
people on the manufacturing floor feel like specialists and technicians.

538
00:26:58,720 --> 00:27:01,640
They're not just manufacturing, you know, their salary, they have

539
00:27:01,720 --> 00:27:05,279
these kinds of benefits, they can work whatever hours they want,

540
00:27:05,400 --> 00:27:08,279
Like how do we build a structure where they feel

541
00:27:08,359 --> 00:27:11,079
like they're all part of the team for this really

542
00:27:11,160 --> 00:27:12,960
important thing and they're not just a cog in the

543
00:27:13,119 --> 00:27:16,440
in the in the machine. And I love to hear,

544
00:27:16,599 --> 00:27:19,160
you know, whenever I hear business owners thinking that way,

545
00:27:19,960 --> 00:27:23,359
I think that's what's required now because of the competition

546
00:27:23,480 --> 00:27:26,039
we have with video games and other distractions. We never

547
00:27:26,160 --> 00:27:29,000
had that before. People didn't know what they were missing

548
00:27:29,039 --> 00:27:31,039
out on. If they worked at a potato factory back

549
00:27:31,079 --> 00:27:33,279
in the sixties, they didn't know what else was out

550
00:27:33,319 --> 00:27:35,400
there besides war, and they probably didn't want to go

551
00:27:35,440 --> 00:27:37,079
to war because of all the stories they had heard.

552
00:27:38,119 --> 00:27:41,640
But now, well it's a little bit harder to attract

553
00:27:41,640 --> 00:27:43,160
people to work because of the cool stuff that we

554
00:27:43,240 --> 00:27:45,240
have right in front of us at all times on

555
00:27:45,319 --> 00:27:48,359
computers and on our phones. Like it's it's very difficult.

556
00:27:49,400 --> 00:27:53,160
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, well, and there's also another element too, where

557
00:27:53,400 --> 00:27:55,519
you know, because of those things like you know, video

558
00:27:55,640 --> 00:27:58,839
games or like you know, sports betting or porn or

559
00:27:59,240 --> 00:28:01,440
you know, like all these like synthetic drugs are kind

560
00:28:01,440 --> 00:28:05,759
of more potent than the original thing. Right, you can

561
00:28:05,799 --> 00:28:09,440
sort of fry your dopamine receptors. So, like I have

562
00:28:09,599 --> 00:28:14,559
not played I basically took like ten years off of

563
00:28:14,960 --> 00:28:18,480
call of duty from like roughly about the like Black

564
00:28:18,519 --> 00:28:19,680
Ops two era on.

565
00:28:20,200 --> 00:28:21,960
Speaker 3: Okay, so that was the right call, that was the

566
00:28:22,039 --> 00:28:24,279
right call, and so.

567
00:28:24,480 --> 00:28:26,480
Speaker 2: Like coming back to I guess it would have been

568
00:28:26,559 --> 00:28:31,359
like during COVID so like Modern Warfare twenty nineteen ish,

569
00:28:32,880 --> 00:28:34,519
I felt like I was like a caveman that had

570
00:28:34,559 --> 00:28:36,880
been like handed like a monster energy or something. I

571
00:28:37,000 --> 00:28:39,559
was like, what in the world is going on? There's

572
00:28:39,599 --> 00:28:43,000
so many like stings, and like it's like Nicki Minaj

573
00:28:43,160 --> 00:28:45,279
running around with a shovel just beating me up.

574
00:28:45,279 --> 00:28:47,119
Speaker 3: Oh you got in the wrong one. Oh I feel

575
00:28:47,200 --> 00:28:47,720
sorry for you.

576
00:28:47,880 --> 00:28:50,599
Speaker 2: Yeah, well so, but my point being right, like even

577
00:28:50,880 --> 00:28:53,559
the same medium, right, video game, the same franchise or

578
00:28:53,599 --> 00:28:56,680
whatever from you know that rough let's just say, you know,

579
00:28:57,119 --> 00:28:59,440
five to ten year period, it's like, oh my gosh,

580
00:28:59,640 --> 00:29:02,640
Like I like I am over stimulated. And that's like

581
00:29:02,640 --> 00:29:05,039
an amusing anecdote, right, It's it's a little bit much,

582
00:29:05,559 --> 00:29:07,319
but you think about that on every level where it's

583
00:29:07,359 --> 00:29:10,279
like you were like kind of exposing your body to

584
00:29:10,440 --> 00:29:13,720
like super normal stimulus and so that reward mechanism of

585
00:29:13,839 --> 00:29:16,319
like I did something, I feel good about it. Right,

586
00:29:16,519 --> 00:29:18,920
Not only does that take away longer than a you know,

587
00:29:19,000 --> 00:29:21,799
a forty five minute you know, sixty four v. Sixty

588
00:29:21,880 --> 00:29:25,440
four you know, multiplayer match or whatever, but also you're

589
00:29:25,519 --> 00:29:29,039
getting like those crazy engineered right we know that you

590
00:29:29,079 --> 00:29:32,240
know companies like you know, the big Triple A developers

591
00:29:32,279 --> 00:29:37,039
have whole divisions basically designed to biohack you you know again,

592
00:29:37,400 --> 00:29:40,240
Like that doesn't make it okay to while away your

593
00:29:40,480 --> 00:29:43,200
entire life, you know, one Victori raal at a time.

594
00:29:43,640 --> 00:29:46,359
But it is a huge trap. Uh, one thing I

595
00:29:46,440 --> 00:29:49,599
want to talk about that or talk one thing I

596
00:29:49,640 --> 00:29:52,039
want to respond to. That's how a person would say

597
00:29:52,039 --> 00:29:56,400
it in English, is what you said about, you know,

598
00:29:57,039 --> 00:30:01,160
bringing manufacturing back. Because a lot of the kind of

599
00:30:01,400 --> 00:30:04,960
you know, mainstream on this issue will say it's impossible,

600
00:30:05,160 --> 00:30:08,240
we can't do it anymore. People won't do those jobs.

601
00:30:08,920 --> 00:30:13,000
And I assume you disagree because one you've done it

602
00:30:13,160 --> 00:30:16,519
and you're continuing to do it. So if you could

603
00:30:16,599 --> 00:30:19,359
just kind of give me your thoughts about you know, reindustrialization,

604
00:30:19,480 --> 00:30:22,279
both why it's important and you know how you've gone

605
00:30:22,319 --> 00:30:22,640
about it.

606
00:30:24,680 --> 00:30:27,240
Speaker 3: So I was invited to, So I'll just say this

607
00:30:27,480 --> 00:30:31,160
full disclaimer. When I left my previous company last year May,

608
00:30:31,640 --> 00:30:33,160
I kind of was like, you know what, I don't

609
00:30:33,200 --> 00:30:37,079
want to do manufacturing again. I want to do design development.

610
00:30:37,559 --> 00:30:39,839
There's other factories here in the States I can I

611
00:30:39,920 --> 00:30:42,359
can you know, have make the stuff for me because

612
00:30:42,359 --> 00:30:44,200
they're good at it, like they've been doing it for forever,

613
00:30:44,680 --> 00:30:47,759
big factories, three hundred employees, foreigner employees, and we'll just

614
00:30:47,880 --> 00:30:51,720
do design, marketing, development, innovation, you know. And I got

615
00:30:51,799 --> 00:30:56,519
invited to this event in Detroit called reindustrialization, a super

616
00:30:56,559 --> 00:31:00,920
cool event, and I was, I was, I was, what's

617
00:31:01,000 --> 00:31:03,200
the phrase? It was way above my pay grade. I mean,

618
00:31:03,240 --> 00:31:05,880
there's people there with like three billion dollars and VC money,

619
00:31:05,960 --> 00:31:10,000
and the lead of skunk Works spoke, and the CEO

620
00:31:10,200 --> 00:31:13,480
for big names are there. Air Prince was there. Palmer

621
00:31:13,559 --> 00:31:16,720
Lucky tuned in via a robot. He wasn't there in person,

622
00:31:16,839 --> 00:31:19,839
but he had a robot delivered with his wine shirt on.

623
00:31:19,920 --> 00:31:22,759
It was great. And I just sat there listening to

624
00:31:23,279 --> 00:31:25,759
the discussion around how important it is to bring manufacturing

625
00:31:25,839 --> 00:31:30,079
back for national security but also for prosperity. And one

626
00:31:30,079 --> 00:31:33,039
of the guys who actually had one of the points

627
00:31:33,079 --> 00:31:35,720
that I liked the most was the CTO of Palenteer,

628
00:31:36,079 --> 00:31:38,799
And that's what Pollenteer's a whole discussion, but he said

629
00:31:38,880 --> 00:31:43,000
that America has always been at its best when it's

630
00:31:43,039 --> 00:31:45,559
been on its back foot. And he was talking about

631
00:31:45,599 --> 00:31:47,720
World War Two as an example where the Germans were

632
00:31:47,759 --> 00:31:51,559
producing so much stuff, you know, from a very small country.

633
00:31:51,599 --> 00:31:55,519
Their their industrialization was so good. They were out building,

634
00:31:55,720 --> 00:31:59,000
out manufacturing everyone. And the States we were we were

635
00:31:59,039 --> 00:32:02,359
actually pretty lame back then, but we recognized that we

636
00:32:02,599 --> 00:32:05,000
tooled up. There was a lot of marketing surrounding it.

637
00:32:05,039 --> 00:32:06,720
I mean, obviously Rosie the Riveter and you know, all

638
00:32:06,759 --> 00:32:09,480
this different stuff, lots of propaganda. There were lots of

639
00:32:09,519 --> 00:32:12,480
incentives as well from the government, and there was also

640
00:32:12,559 --> 00:32:14,599
some strong arming of factories like hey, you're not going

641
00:32:14,640 --> 00:32:16,680
to make this anymore, You're going to make bombs. Like

642
00:32:17,279 --> 00:32:20,559
too bad, Like you have to make bombs now. It's

643
00:32:20,599 --> 00:32:23,720
like that funny meme. But uh, but in that moment,

644
00:32:23,839 --> 00:32:28,400
America transitioned and it was able to meet the needs

645
00:32:29,000 --> 00:32:33,279
for that particular conflict and succeed. And so his point was,

646
00:32:33,480 --> 00:32:36,000
just if we can recognize that the US is on

647
00:32:36,079 --> 00:32:37,880
its back foot right now with China, with some of

648
00:32:37,920 --> 00:32:40,720
these other countries, and just in the geopolitical space, we

649
00:32:40,960 --> 00:32:44,039
can fix this country. Now. He was speaking about it

650
00:32:44,119 --> 00:32:48,119
from a defense posture standpoint. I heard that and went, no,

651
00:32:48,279 --> 00:32:51,240
I think he's he's actually talking about manufacturing as a whole.

652
00:32:51,920 --> 00:32:55,279
If our consumer goods can actually operate that way as well,

653
00:32:55,400 --> 00:32:58,240
where we recognize, hey, we're getting all of our clothing

654
00:32:58,279 --> 00:33:01,000
from overseas, we're getting all most of our food from overseas,

655
00:33:01,000 --> 00:33:05,839
We're getting all the other electronics from Taiwan or superconductors

656
00:33:05,880 --> 00:33:07,720
like all that stuff. If we can recognize we need

657
00:33:07,799 --> 00:33:11,160
to bring that stuff back and treat it like the defense.

658
00:33:11,519 --> 00:33:15,359
In that same mindset, we can bring manufacturing back. But

659
00:33:15,440 --> 00:33:18,599
I think there's a component there that is not being

660
00:33:18,640 --> 00:33:21,359
talked about enough. And I was at that event listening

661
00:33:21,440 --> 00:33:24,680
for anyone who would talk about it. Nobody did, And

662
00:33:24,799 --> 00:33:27,680
that was, well, how do we make it cool again?

663
00:33:28,599 --> 00:33:32,400
How do we make manufacturing cool to the people of

664
00:33:32,440 --> 00:33:34,680
America so they want to do it? And what a

665
00:33:34,759 --> 00:33:37,400
lot of people don't realize. There was a cool story

666
00:33:37,640 --> 00:33:40,720
recently during the shutdown that was about a month long.

667
00:33:41,079 --> 00:33:42,640
There was a Wall Street trader, I think he was

668
00:33:42,680 --> 00:33:45,480
a Wall Street trader. He's a government guy. They're in

669
00:33:45,599 --> 00:33:48,039
New York who was out of a job for a

670
00:33:48,079 --> 00:33:49,599
month because he wasn't getting paid, and he went out

671
00:33:49,640 --> 00:33:51,720
to sell hot dogs at a hot dog stand and

672
00:33:51,799 --> 00:33:53,839
he said that was the most fulfilling thing he's done

673
00:33:53,880 --> 00:33:56,279
in his life. In like twenty years because he knows

674
00:33:56,400 --> 00:33:59,400
the job he's doing is pointless. It's just numbers on

675
00:33:59,480 --> 00:34:01,799
a board. But he went out and actually served food

676
00:34:01,839 --> 00:34:04,559
to people. And I saw that article and I was like, Aha,

677
00:34:04,799 --> 00:34:07,000
he just experienced it. He gets it now, and that

678
00:34:07,200 --> 00:34:10,880
is we are all born to create. You know, God

679
00:34:11,000 --> 00:34:14,079
created us, and in the process, we, I believe, have

680
00:34:14,239 --> 00:34:19,159
this innate desire to also create. I wouldn't say in

681
00:34:19,239 --> 00:34:21,880
his image, but sort of a similar concept. We want

682
00:34:21,920 --> 00:34:25,440
to create stuff too, And most people haven't been able

683
00:34:25,519 --> 00:34:28,480
to create anything. They work these stupid jobs that are

684
00:34:28,519 --> 00:34:30,519
just numbers on a spreadsheet, or they play video games

685
00:34:30,519 --> 00:34:33,079
where you're not making anything, but you're experiencing things. But

686
00:34:33,239 --> 00:34:36,039
the second you get someone who can actually be involved

687
00:34:36,079 --> 00:34:39,119
in making a product and they can see it getting produced,

688
00:34:39,119 --> 00:34:40,519
they see it going to a customer, and they know

689
00:34:40,559 --> 00:34:44,119
how it impacts them, that completely changes how someone sees manufacturing.

690
00:34:44,480 --> 00:34:46,599
And all the guys that I've hired for the new companies,

691
00:34:47,400 --> 00:34:51,000
they come into work early, they leave late. They talk

692
00:34:51,039 --> 00:34:52,760
about I want to come into work, and they think

693
00:34:52,800 --> 00:34:55,079
about it on the weekend because they're all creating things

694
00:34:55,119 --> 00:34:57,679
and they've all experienced that, and so there's a component

695
00:34:57,719 --> 00:35:00,159
there with reindustrialization that has to be talked about, and

696
00:35:00,239 --> 00:35:02,880
that is how do we get people to experience creation

697
00:35:03,280 --> 00:35:06,440
of product anything right, it doesn't really matter, just like

698
00:35:06,519 --> 00:35:11,320
product in general, from taking scrap to finished artisans in

699
00:35:11,599 --> 00:35:14,159
whatever it happens to be. And how do we make

700
00:35:14,199 --> 00:35:17,280
it cool to attract them to getting in and doing that,

701
00:35:17,360 --> 00:35:20,159
because the second they do it, they get the bug

702
00:35:20,519 --> 00:35:23,159
like it bites them and it bites them hard, like

703
00:35:23,480 --> 00:35:26,000
Spider Man or something. And so that's the piece I'm

704
00:35:26,000 --> 00:35:27,920
trying to figure out, is how to make work cool.

705
00:35:28,320 --> 00:35:30,199
And I'm trying to do that with my new businesses,

706
00:35:30,280 --> 00:35:32,400
with the behind the scenes stuff and filming and talking

707
00:35:32,400 --> 00:35:34,960
about it and going on a podcast like this. That

708
00:35:35,280 --> 00:35:37,679
that is the purpose and the meaning that is missing

709
00:35:37,760 --> 00:35:40,440
in so many young men's lives because they don't a

710
00:35:40,480 --> 00:35:42,280
lot of them, I'm not gonna I don't want to generalize,

711
00:35:42,320 --> 00:35:44,239
but a lot of them don't work a job that

712
00:35:44,360 --> 00:35:47,440
actually creates value. And there's this book I've been reading,

713
00:35:47,639 --> 00:35:50,880
Bullshit Jobs by Crap. I always forget the guy's name,

714
00:35:51,199 --> 00:35:53,360
but he talks about how in the last thirty years,

715
00:35:54,159 --> 00:35:57,320
like all these stupid jobs have been created, like hr

716
00:35:57,559 --> 00:36:00,519
weird admin, like all these weird jobs that don't and

717
00:36:00,559 --> 00:36:04,519
the people workers, Yeah, yeah, a manager. It's like they

718
00:36:04,719 --> 00:36:08,599
know they're not creating anything. They know there's no value,

719
00:36:08,719 --> 00:36:10,719
but it's a paycheck. They come in, they collect it,

720
00:36:10,760 --> 00:36:12,360
they leave, they go home, they play video games, they

721
00:36:12,360 --> 00:36:15,599
do football, they do whatever. There's some sort of consultant.

722
00:36:16,280 --> 00:36:18,360
I have to say that lightly because I like some consultants,

723
00:36:18,440 --> 00:36:22,079
but most are a farce. But those jobs don't create

724
00:36:22,199 --> 00:36:23,639
they don't actually create anything.

725
00:36:24,239 --> 00:36:24,519
Speaker 1: And so.

726
00:36:26,039 --> 00:36:28,599
Speaker 3: I think that's what's missing right now in the manufacturing

727
00:36:28,760 --> 00:36:31,400
is we can't bring manufacturing back to the States until

728
00:36:31,440 --> 00:36:34,079
we solve that. If we're able to solve that, and

729
00:36:34,159 --> 00:36:37,480
we're able to create a compelling work environment, compelling pay

730
00:36:37,599 --> 00:36:40,880
as well, that's a very big component, some decent benefits,

731
00:36:40,920 --> 00:36:42,880
you know, not forcing people to work seventy hour weeks,

732
00:36:44,119 --> 00:36:46,599
you know, four tens is a great model, then we

733
00:36:46,719 --> 00:36:49,920
can bring it back. And if the government also can

734
00:36:50,000 --> 00:36:52,440
ease up on the taxes, because honestly, that's a huge,

735
00:36:52,920 --> 00:36:57,039
a huge component that's crushing manufacturing as taxes, we can

736
00:36:57,199 --> 00:36:59,039
bring it back, but some of those things are going

737
00:36:59,119 --> 00:37:02,119
to have to get fixed for it to be readily

738
00:37:02,159 --> 00:37:05,800
accessible to more people to start. But there's been little improvements,

739
00:37:05,840 --> 00:37:09,079
like the government just opened the Trump admin ten million

740
00:37:09,079 --> 00:37:12,400
dollar sbas for manufacturing as opposed to five and that

741
00:37:12,559 --> 00:37:14,800
opens up lots of possibility for people to go buy

742
00:37:14,880 --> 00:37:17,679
certain machines and start doing it and have a little

743
00:37:17,679 --> 00:37:20,199
bit more buffer of money to survive those first few

744
00:37:20,320 --> 00:37:23,000
years while they get you know, clients spun up and

745
00:37:23,480 --> 00:37:27,639
employees trained. But there's that's just a start. A lot

746
00:37:27,679 --> 00:37:29,719
of things have to change. But yeah, my my intent

747
00:37:29,840 --> 00:37:33,280
is to focus on manufacturing here. I will say it.

748
00:37:33,840 --> 00:37:37,800
It's hard, it's it's tough, but it is it is doable,

749
00:37:38,320 --> 00:37:40,760
as as I've been able to do before and as

750
00:37:40,800 --> 00:37:41,719
we're going to do again.

751
00:37:43,239 --> 00:37:46,039
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's several things there. Like you've been i mean

752
00:37:46,119 --> 00:37:49,159
literally for past ten years, right, you've been hearing about

753
00:37:49,199 --> 00:37:51,880
this kind of crisis of meaning, right that you have

754
00:37:52,079 --> 00:37:54,440
people who feel like their life is pointless. Like you

755
00:37:54,480 --> 00:37:56,679
can look to the you know, the deaths of despair,

756
00:37:56,840 --> 00:37:59,400
the people who you know aren't technically dead but might

757
00:37:59,440 --> 00:38:03,960
as well be. And obviously it's multivariate. You know the

758
00:38:04,039 --> 00:38:06,480
fact that these people don't have, you know, a community,

759
00:38:06,599 --> 00:38:09,559
they don't have a religious community, let alone a social one.

760
00:38:10,239 --> 00:38:12,880
But I think another part of that is the fact

761
00:38:12,920 --> 00:38:16,400
that for many people, work feels purposeless. Right, there's not

762
00:38:16,480 --> 00:38:19,920
a connection between the decisions you make in any real thing.

763
00:38:20,559 --> 00:38:22,639
I think in one of my buddies, who's, you know,

764
00:38:22,679 --> 00:38:25,199
a very hard work or very talented, but he's a

765
00:38:25,239 --> 00:38:27,840
financial analyst, and he's literally like, I know, these people

766
00:38:27,880 --> 00:38:30,519
aren't reading them. I work hard, I stay late, I

767
00:38:30,639 --> 00:38:33,400
do a good job, and it doesn't matter, right, They're

768
00:38:33,440 --> 00:38:36,239
not going to look at it anyway, And it's incredibly disheartening.

769
00:38:36,880 --> 00:38:38,760
And so I think that, you know, it's a very

770
00:38:38,800 --> 00:38:41,719
compelling vision, right, like you can be making something, you

771
00:38:41,840 --> 00:38:45,400
can be producing something. And I think your point about

772
00:38:45,559 --> 00:38:48,360
you know, being made in the image of God, obviously

773
00:38:48,440 --> 00:38:51,079
it's it's it's stupid. No one actually believes that, Like,

774
00:38:51,679 --> 00:38:54,400
you know, God looks like us exactly right, that's not

775
00:38:54,519 --> 00:38:58,239
what that means, right, It's something spiritual, but like look

776
00:38:58,320 --> 00:39:01,800
like we God charged at them, right, you know, name

777
00:39:01,840 --> 00:39:05,519
the animals create order make something. And it's a reason

778
00:39:05,599 --> 00:39:07,880
that that is like the most you know compelling, that

779
00:39:07,960 --> 00:39:10,519
that is the most meaningful. And it doesn't mean like

780
00:39:10,679 --> 00:39:14,039
artistic creation in every state in every instance, but like

781
00:39:15,039 --> 00:39:17,800
that's what people are designed to do and sure, like

782
00:39:18,199 --> 00:39:20,119
you know what, like you pay me three million bucks,

783
00:39:20,320 --> 00:39:23,559
I'll make you spreadsheets that don't matter. Fine, whatever, you

784
00:39:23,639 --> 00:39:25,639
know you can. On the extreme end, you know, I

785
00:39:25,719 --> 00:39:27,559
might be able to you know, grit and bear it.

786
00:39:28,280 --> 00:39:31,440
But I think again, when like the situations are where

787
00:39:31,480 --> 00:39:35,559
it's like you aren't gonna starve to death, like realistically,

788
00:39:35,639 --> 00:39:38,000
if you don't have that gun to your head, Like

789
00:39:38,079 --> 00:39:40,559
the difference between welfare and like a you know, like

790
00:39:40,599 --> 00:39:42,480
a shitty, low end job where you're doing something that

791
00:39:42,519 --> 00:39:45,920
doesn't matter, Like that's it really a huge difference. And

792
00:39:46,119 --> 00:39:49,360
so again it's not right, but it is understandable why

793
00:39:49,679 --> 00:39:52,719
people feel checked out. Right, there's nothing connecting what they

794
00:39:52,840 --> 00:39:56,280
do to anything that matters. And on the back end,

795
00:39:56,760 --> 00:40:00,599
on the consumer level, because I think this a lot

796
00:40:00,840 --> 00:40:04,199
where it's like I would and have been willing to

797
00:40:04,360 --> 00:40:08,079
pay more for a product where it's connected to someone

798
00:40:08,239 --> 00:40:11,320
like me, right, like someone else is supporting their family.

799
00:40:11,079 --> 00:40:11,880
Speaker 3: Off this product.

800
00:40:12,280 --> 00:40:14,800
Speaker 2: So I'll pay you know, one hundred bucks for something

801
00:40:14,880 --> 00:40:16,679
made out of a luminum I could get on Ali

802
00:40:16,760 --> 00:40:20,119
Express for fifteen because it's like, well, you know, to

803
00:40:20,159 --> 00:40:22,920
be honest, I don't really want slaves making this. You know,

804
00:40:23,079 --> 00:40:24,800
I don't think that that's a good thing to do,

805
00:40:25,360 --> 00:40:28,880
to have some you know, Chinese school child, you know,

806
00:40:29,239 --> 00:40:31,400
stamping this out, you know, only for them to end

807
00:40:31,480 --> 00:40:34,760
up on Lively three weeks later. And like, I think

808
00:40:34,800 --> 00:40:37,519
that that's something else as well. And I like not

809
00:40:37,679 --> 00:40:41,920
to criticize American conservatives, but to criticize American conservatives, I

810
00:40:41,960 --> 00:40:44,039
feel like a lot of people in that culture, which look,

811
00:40:44,079 --> 00:40:46,840
it's my culture. I love those people have a hard

812
00:40:46,960 --> 00:40:50,159
time talking about something that isn't you know, purely financial,

813
00:40:50,559 --> 00:40:52,239
and so it's like, oh, well it's cheaper to do

814
00:40:52,360 --> 00:40:55,440
it this way where it's more efficient, and it's like, sure,

815
00:40:55,480 --> 00:40:57,400
it may or may not be right. There's a whole

816
00:40:57,440 --> 00:40:59,960
bunch of other things that make that Chinese product cheap

817
00:41:00,039 --> 00:41:03,880
for more expensive that you can't you know, just dismiss

818
00:41:03,920 --> 00:41:06,880
out of hand. But also like I'd much rather live

819
00:41:06,960 --> 00:41:11,280
in a like live in a country where like a

820
00:41:11,920 --> 00:41:14,480
entry level, working class job is enough to support a

821
00:41:14,559 --> 00:41:17,119
family on you know, where it's like you know, like

822
00:41:17,199 --> 00:41:19,519
I again think about my grandparents where it's like they

823
00:41:19,599 --> 00:41:23,199
had working class jobs and they were able to support

824
00:41:23,239 --> 00:41:25,360
a family and have a house. Like I think that

825
00:41:25,480 --> 00:41:28,719
that is a desirable thing. And it again the messaging

826
00:41:28,800 --> 00:41:31,760
to consumer. Right, that's a that's a compelling thing to

827
00:41:31,840 --> 00:41:33,960
sell people, right that you are, you know, part of

828
00:41:34,079 --> 00:41:36,639
something more than just kind of a simple like you know,

829
00:41:37,000 --> 00:41:39,760
exchange of value. But that may be two chins stroking

830
00:41:40,039 --> 00:41:40,880
just something I think about it.

831
00:41:41,719 --> 00:41:43,960
Speaker 3: Well, now I think you're I think you're hitting something

832
00:41:44,000 --> 00:41:45,760
on the head. So like, look at all the problems

833
00:41:45,760 --> 00:41:48,519
that we have today, the geopolitical, the riots to you know,

834
00:41:48,599 --> 00:41:51,320
all the problems. I think a lot of these problems

835
00:41:51,360 --> 00:41:54,480
have been downstream of our country going from being a

836
00:41:54,599 --> 00:41:58,480
country that manufactures a bunch of cool stuff too. No,

837
00:41:58,679 --> 00:42:02,199
we just make ideas and we export foreign policy and

838
00:42:02,400 --> 00:42:04,760
democracy to the countries and we're there to save them.

839
00:42:05,280 --> 00:42:09,679
That's our product. And the people of the country down

840
00:42:10,159 --> 00:42:14,159
the road feel that they're not necessarily part of a

841
00:42:14,199 --> 00:42:17,800
country that's creating things. And I think that's a that's

842
00:42:17,840 --> 00:42:20,960
a huge reason we have a lot of the divide

843
00:42:21,000 --> 00:42:22,800
that we have today and the people who are able

844
00:42:22,840 --> 00:42:27,079
to run around and you know, destroy so quickly because

845
00:42:27,119 --> 00:42:29,400
they weren't ever involved in creating in the first place.

846
00:42:29,440 --> 00:42:31,760
And I think our country would be more orderly if

847
00:42:31,800 --> 00:42:35,400
we were a country of manufacturing and creating things. I mean,

848
00:42:35,519 --> 00:42:38,039
that's that's throughout history, that's always how it was. When

849
00:42:38,079 --> 00:42:41,079
a country was known for its its export of fine

850
00:42:41,199 --> 00:42:44,400
product or manufacturing, it was generally a more orderly country.

851
00:42:44,800 --> 00:42:47,880
And the US, I mean, look look at the entertainment.

852
00:42:48,280 --> 00:42:51,840
This is actually a great example. Most YouTubers can't do

853
00:42:52,000 --> 00:42:55,159
YouTube longer than like and I say, the good ones, right,

854
00:42:55,199 --> 00:42:57,559
the ones who are making millions of dollars, they quit

855
00:42:57,599 --> 00:43:01,239
it like ten years and and I think they do it.

856
00:43:01,559 --> 00:43:03,239
I think some of them don't know exactly why, but

857
00:43:03,480 --> 00:43:05,360
they feel like there's no purpose for what they're doing.

858
00:43:05,400 --> 00:43:07,400
And maybe they haven't been able to put into words,

859
00:43:07,719 --> 00:43:09,400
but I think it's because they know they're not actually

860
00:43:09,440 --> 00:43:12,760
creating anything. They're creating entertainment, which that is a product

861
00:43:12,880 --> 00:43:14,519
that is that is a thing you could feel good about.

862
00:43:14,599 --> 00:43:16,159
You know, people tell you thank you for doing that

863
00:43:16,239 --> 00:43:18,480
got me through a hard time, and you can feel

864
00:43:18,480 --> 00:43:21,840
good about that and meaningful. But it's not the same

865
00:43:21,880 --> 00:43:26,840
as actually creating a product that someone's using or or

866
00:43:27,079 --> 00:43:29,400
you know, clothing or food whatever happens to be, or shelter,

867
00:43:29,599 --> 00:43:32,199
you know, construction. It's just it's not the same. It

868
00:43:32,239 --> 00:43:36,039
doesn't it hits different and like I just saw, I

869
00:43:36,079 --> 00:43:37,559
don't know if it's real or if it's a stunt.

870
00:43:37,639 --> 00:43:41,440
But the big twitch streamer Kaison it huge, big Twitch

871
00:43:41,599 --> 00:43:44,079
like he was the biggest phenomenon for the last few years.

872
00:43:44,079 --> 00:43:47,079
I guess he's quitting. And I haven't watched these video

873
00:43:47,079 --> 00:43:48,440
of why he's quitting. I don't really want to, but

874
00:43:48,960 --> 00:43:51,360
I would surmise that a lot of it is he

875
00:43:51,639 --> 00:43:55,639
wasn't feeling purposeful and just generating slop content. And the

876
00:43:55,760 --> 00:43:58,039
problem is so much of the consumer market because the

877
00:43:58,079 --> 00:44:01,239
custom you know, folks, what we've been watching for the

878
00:44:01,320 --> 00:44:04,039
last you know, few decades in the United States are

879
00:44:04,119 --> 00:44:08,039
not manufacturing people getting put on a pedestal or inventors.

880
00:44:08,559 --> 00:44:15,360
We see politicians, celebrities, twitch streamers, YouTubers, and those aren't

881
00:44:15,400 --> 00:44:19,599
the people that are known for creating like important compelling

882
00:44:19,719 --> 00:44:23,039
things like they're all doing. Entertainment is what it is.

883
00:44:23,719 --> 00:44:27,000
And if we're a country of entertainment, well we're not

884
00:44:27,079 --> 00:44:29,480
going to be a very meaningful society of people like

885
00:44:29,599 --> 00:44:31,039
we just aren't. We're going to have We're going to

886
00:44:31,079 --> 00:44:33,440
be plagued with all these problems and people that are

887
00:44:33,480 --> 00:44:37,079
willing to go destroy because they have never created anything

888
00:44:37,079 --> 00:44:39,360
in their life, or maybe they haven't created very much.

889
00:44:40,079 --> 00:44:44,239
And so I really think that's the downstream effect of

890
00:44:44,280 --> 00:44:47,840
our country transitioning from you know, based self reliant on

891
00:44:47,880 --> 00:44:51,199
our own manufacturing, exporting all of it during like the

892
00:44:51,239 --> 00:44:55,920
Boomer generation, and then turning into hey, we're entertainment central.

893
00:44:56,239 --> 00:44:59,119
We have you know, OnlyFans, and we have Twitch, and

894
00:44:59,199 --> 00:45:01,400
we have Hollywood, we have all this stuff, and we

895
00:45:01,519 --> 00:45:05,920
have the biggest political system in the world that's a

896
00:45:06,039 --> 00:45:09,000
world stage for everyone in the world to watch. It's

897
00:45:09,039 --> 00:45:11,840
not just our own country, Like everyone watches what we do.

898
00:45:11,960 --> 00:45:14,639
There's so much money dumped into politics and it doesn't

899
00:45:14,639 --> 00:45:18,079
create anything, not at all. And so until we fix

900
00:45:18,239 --> 00:45:22,000
that or at least balance it a little bit more,

901
00:45:23,119 --> 00:45:25,480
we're going to have a hard time getting people to

902
00:45:25,599 --> 00:45:28,719
be interested in creating things again because we're a country

903
00:45:28,760 --> 00:45:34,480
of consumers. So I really think that's the downstream We're

904
00:45:34,480 --> 00:45:36,800
feeling the downstream effect right now, and it's why so

905
00:45:36,920 --> 00:45:39,960
many people say we can't bring manufactory back. We've been

906
00:45:40,000 --> 00:45:44,440
consumers for too long. And yeah, those people are probably

907
00:45:44,519 --> 00:45:46,079
not the ones who are going to do anything about it.

908
00:45:46,199 --> 00:45:47,840
But then there's people like me and a bunch of

909
00:45:47,920 --> 00:45:50,719
other folks who are like, no, it's hard. It doesn't

910
00:45:50,760 --> 00:45:53,679
cost double, it costs plus thirty percent to do it

911
00:45:53,760 --> 00:45:56,719
in America, we can do it and people can pay

912
00:45:56,760 --> 00:45:58,880
a little extra until we get the government to ease

913
00:45:58,960 --> 00:46:01,559
up on taxes some of the different things so that

914
00:46:01,719 --> 00:46:04,519
the prices can be competitive and that, and that's something

915
00:46:04,559 --> 00:46:07,400
a lot of people don't understand. Many stuff in America

916
00:46:07,440 --> 00:46:10,679
doesn't cost double. It is like plus thirty percent. It's

917
00:46:10,719 --> 00:46:13,519
not a whole lot more. There's some clever things you

918
00:46:13,639 --> 00:46:16,280
can do to skip some of the margins, especially if

919
00:46:16,280 --> 00:46:19,199
you're willing to. You know, you're not trying to just

920
00:46:19,400 --> 00:46:22,400
suck everyone dry and make millions of dollars. Like as

921
00:46:22,440 --> 00:46:24,280
far as I'm concerned, like I've told my wife and

922
00:46:24,360 --> 00:46:27,159
all the guys working for us know this, I don't

923
00:46:27,199 --> 00:46:29,400
have to make millions every year if I can be

924
00:46:30,280 --> 00:46:34,079
like clean, just everyone's paid for. Everything's paid for. Investors

925
00:46:34,119 --> 00:46:35,960
are taken care of, banks are taking care of the

926
00:46:36,000 --> 00:46:38,800
employees are taking care of billings paid for, Materials are

927
00:46:38,800 --> 00:46:41,480
paid for. My house. You know, I could still eat,

928
00:46:41,639 --> 00:46:44,320
have shelter. That's enough for me. If we can just

929
00:46:44,440 --> 00:46:46,760
run everything. I don't have to put away you know,

930
00:46:46,800 --> 00:46:49,400
fifty percent margin, sixty percent margin, you know, any of

931
00:46:49,440 --> 00:46:51,800
this crap as long as everything works, because I know

932
00:46:52,079 --> 00:46:54,599
I'll have purpose in my life. Every all my employees

933
00:46:54,599 --> 00:46:58,079
are taken care of. We're creating badass products for people,

934
00:46:58,320 --> 00:47:01,679
and what more can you ask for? Like, that's I

935
00:47:01,719 --> 00:47:03,679
don't want to say that's life, but that's that's what

936
00:47:03,800 --> 00:47:06,280
life hit. That's what life should be. Things like that.

937
00:47:06,480 --> 00:47:08,719
I don't need to stack a bunch of Lamborghinis and

938
00:47:08,760 --> 00:47:11,559
crazy stuff. But the people that have made money their

939
00:47:11,599 --> 00:47:14,639
focus are the people who are outsourcing the China because

940
00:47:14,639 --> 00:47:16,719
they want to hit that seventy points a margin so

941
00:47:16,840 --> 00:47:19,440
that they do make you know, thirty percent profit margin

942
00:47:19,440 --> 00:47:20,800
at the end of the year, so that they have

943
00:47:20,920 --> 00:47:24,280
millions and millions of dollars and that's their pursuit or

944
00:47:24,599 --> 00:47:27,280
you know, making their shareholders happy, which is a whole

945
00:47:27,320 --> 00:47:32,199
nother discussion. So yeah, we're a country of consumers. Until

946
00:47:32,239 --> 00:47:34,400
that changes, it's going to be hard to make manufacturing

947
00:47:35,000 --> 00:47:36,079
cool in America again.

948
00:47:36,920 --> 00:47:40,679
Speaker 2: So well, I think that you know, one other, one

949
00:47:40,719 --> 00:47:44,119
other aspect of this as well, and uh, you know,

950
00:47:44,159 --> 00:47:48,079
Burnham's Manager or Revolution's really interesting book, right, it was

951
00:47:48,119 --> 00:47:51,199
actually the inspiration for nineteen eighty four. George Orwell read

952
00:47:51,239 --> 00:47:53,360
this book and it's like, this sounds so horrible. It

953
00:47:53,480 --> 00:47:57,480
sounds like a horrible totalitarian society. You know, just amusing

954
00:47:57,519 --> 00:48:00,559
bit of a music, bit of trivia there. But one

955
00:48:00,559 --> 00:48:02,679
of the things that Burnham talks about is the transition

956
00:48:02,840 --> 00:48:06,880
from what he calls capitalism to managerialism. And he talks

957
00:48:06,880 --> 00:48:09,440
about like even back in the thirties when he was

958
00:48:09,480 --> 00:48:12,679
writing this, he's like, well, like, find me a capitalist.

959
00:48:13,360 --> 00:48:16,039
Like when Ford Motor Company started, you could go into

960
00:48:16,079 --> 00:48:18,639
the office on the factory and you know, shake mister

961
00:48:18,719 --> 00:48:22,440
Ford's hand and he made all the decisions where you know,

962
00:48:22,679 --> 00:48:26,199
shortly shortly afterwards, well, yeah, sure there's still a chairman

963
00:48:26,280 --> 00:48:29,599
of the board who's named Ford. But really, like the

964
00:48:29,639 --> 00:48:31,960
company's broken up. It's all these tiny little bits of

965
00:48:32,000 --> 00:48:35,599
paper that really no one's in control of. And so

966
00:48:35,719 --> 00:48:38,840
the company is run by managers, right, who have a

967
00:48:39,000 --> 00:48:42,239
very different set of goals. They're an employee, right, They

968
00:48:42,280 --> 00:48:44,000
want to make a lot of money, They want their

969
00:48:44,039 --> 00:48:46,559
stock options to look a certain way. They don't want

970
00:48:46,599 --> 00:48:48,679
to mess everything up so they can get another, you know,

971
00:48:49,360 --> 00:48:52,000
seven figure job at another firm and I think that

972
00:48:52,079 --> 00:48:54,480
that's a really big difference, right, the difference between a

973
00:48:54,559 --> 00:48:56,960
company that is run by a guy, a guy who

974
00:48:57,039 --> 00:49:00,440
can make a choice like what you've made versus you know,

975
00:49:00,519 --> 00:49:03,840
if you're a CEO, Well, are you going to turn

976
00:49:03,920 --> 00:49:06,280
to your shareholders and say I could be giving you

977
00:49:06,480 --> 00:49:09,880
thirty percent more profit? And I decided not to. Like,

978
00:49:10,039 --> 00:49:13,400
I mean, maybe you can some do, but you're not

979
00:49:13,519 --> 00:49:15,840
going to be as popular as you know, some brand

980
00:49:15,920 --> 00:49:18,440
new or not some brand new, but some Harvard Business

981
00:49:18,440 --> 00:49:20,920
School graduate who says I can make every one of

982
00:49:20,960 --> 00:49:23,880
your checks thirty percent vigor right, And so I think

983
00:49:23,920 --> 00:49:26,719
that's an important dynamic. But one thing I want to

984
00:49:26,760 --> 00:49:28,519
bring up, because we are sort of coming to the

985
00:49:28,639 --> 00:49:31,960
end of the hour here, is you have made no

986
00:49:32,360 --> 00:49:37,119
secret of your faith on you know, a number of

987
00:49:37,320 --> 00:49:43,280
shall we say, controversial issues, right, and look like you know,

988
00:49:43,400 --> 00:49:45,599
you and I are perhaps biased on this, you know,

989
00:49:46,360 --> 00:49:48,920
but you know, ten or fifteen years ago, that was

990
00:49:49,079 --> 00:49:52,960
much more controversial, especially in kind of the two A space. Now,

991
00:49:54,360 --> 00:49:57,159
you know, being a religious extremist is kind of cool,

992
00:49:57,480 --> 00:49:58,800
at least a little bit more than.

993
00:49:58,719 --> 00:49:59,199
Speaker 3: It used to be.

994
00:49:59,559 --> 00:50:02,840
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I'm curious could you speak to that a

995
00:50:02,920 --> 00:50:04,920
little bit, because I think that's kind of interesting, right,

996
00:50:05,000 --> 00:50:07,480
you were doing it before it was cool in an

997
00:50:07,519 --> 00:50:11,039
area that was much more like big l libertarian than

998
00:50:11,079 --> 00:50:13,199
I think it is now. So do you want to

999
00:50:13,239 --> 00:50:14,079
talk about that a little bit?

1000
00:50:14,679 --> 00:50:19,239
Speaker 3: One hundred percent. It's an interesting topic because I get

1001
00:50:19,480 --> 00:50:23,159
criticism on both sides of the aisle. I'll get other

1002
00:50:23,280 --> 00:50:26,519
Christians and Christianity as you, as everyone knows listening to

1003
00:50:26,599 --> 00:50:30,239
this is a wide swath of belief and how people

1004
00:50:30,280 --> 00:50:32,360
live it out. But I'll get Christians one end who

1005
00:50:32,400 --> 00:50:34,400
are like Lucas, you don't do enough. You need to

1006
00:50:34,440 --> 00:50:37,719
be posting versus everywhere and put them on a product

1007
00:50:37,760 --> 00:50:41,320
like trig econ and and and we even had debates

1008
00:50:41,480 --> 00:50:44,400
at the old company about that, like do we put

1009
00:50:44,480 --> 00:50:46,039
on the front page of our website that we're a

1010
00:50:46,079 --> 00:50:49,280
Christian company? And all these verses? And I always push

1011
00:50:49,400 --> 00:50:51,960
back on that and said, no, no, no, it's not

1012
00:50:52,079 --> 00:50:55,719
about saying it, it's about living it out and doing it.

1013
00:50:56,280 --> 00:50:58,800
I want people to know we're a Christian company based

1014
00:50:58,840 --> 00:51:02,239
on how we interact with customers, how we take care

1015
00:51:02,280 --> 00:51:04,480
of them, how we interact with employees, how we take

1016
00:51:04,519 --> 00:51:07,199
care of them. I don't want us to just put

1017
00:51:07,239 --> 00:51:09,440
it up on our site. And the second we do that,

1018
00:51:10,079 --> 00:51:11,800
the standard people are going to hold for our company

1019
00:51:11,920 --> 00:51:14,400
is going to be completely different than if they just go, oh,

1020
00:51:14,480 --> 00:51:16,320
this company's really cool. I bought a product from them

1021
00:51:16,360 --> 00:51:18,000
and I had a problem and they immediately took care

1022
00:51:18,079 --> 00:51:20,840
of it. They did this other thing, or they took

1023
00:51:20,920 --> 00:51:24,360
the stance on this specific political issue, and they see

1024
00:51:24,440 --> 00:51:27,079
how we actually, you know, live it out in our

1025
00:51:27,159 --> 00:51:30,880
day to day life. And I think that's I don't

1026
00:51:31,239 --> 00:51:33,320
nothing's black and white, but I do think this is

1027
00:51:33,360 --> 00:51:35,880
actually kind of a more black and white issue, at

1028
00:51:35,960 --> 00:51:38,679
least to me. It's you have Christians who say they're Christian,

1029
00:51:38,840 --> 00:51:42,159
and they proclaim it very loudly, and then you have

1030
00:51:42,199 --> 00:51:44,880
people who just don't say it, they live it and

1031
00:51:44,920 --> 00:51:48,360
they do it. And I think that's much more of

1032
00:51:48,440 --> 00:51:51,800
a christ like life. You know, Jesus didn't go around

1033
00:51:51,840 --> 00:51:53,559
telling you everyone, Hey, I'm Jesus everyone.

1034
00:51:53,760 --> 00:51:53,920
Speaker 2: You know.

1035
00:51:54,360 --> 00:51:56,400
Speaker 3: He would just go and interact with them and he

1036
00:51:56,440 --> 00:51:59,280
would say, he would you know, encouraging things to them.

1037
00:51:59,400 --> 00:52:01,039
He would you know, tell them to go and send

1038
00:52:01,119 --> 00:52:04,440
no more. But he wasn't running around saying everyone, I'm

1039
00:52:04,480 --> 00:52:07,199
the son of God. And he didn't start every conversation

1040
00:52:07,480 --> 00:52:10,079
like that. He went and lived it out with the

1041
00:52:10,159 --> 00:52:12,800
Gentiles and with the Jews, and it's one reason he

1042
00:52:12,840 --> 00:52:14,920
had the main reason he was hated is he was

1043
00:52:15,039 --> 00:52:18,199
actually living it out. He wasn't just proclaiming the law

1044
00:52:18,360 --> 00:52:21,400
and saying, hey, I'm the son of God. And so

1045
00:52:21,639 --> 00:52:25,800
my whole approach for living out my faith as a

1046
00:52:25,880 --> 00:52:28,960
public figure, as an influencer, as a whatever is people

1047
00:52:29,320 --> 00:52:33,360
needed to see me living it out in action more

1048
00:52:33,800 --> 00:52:36,880
than they may hear it. You know, me say it,

1049
00:52:37,079 --> 00:52:41,159
or a verse that's posted something like that, And I

1050
00:52:41,519 --> 00:52:46,039
think that leaves a more effective testimony, especially in an

1051
00:52:46,079 --> 00:52:48,079
era right now where everything is just fake and gay.

1052
00:52:49,280 --> 00:52:51,480
Anyone can put a Bible verse like you see it.

1053
00:52:51,519 --> 00:52:53,639
You see the chicks who posed a bikini photo and

1054
00:52:53,719 --> 00:52:57,719
then they have a verse underneath that. That's not living

1055
00:52:57,800 --> 00:52:59,679
it out. It's just not. I don't think anyone is

1056
00:52:59,679 --> 00:53:01,880
going to in that and say, oh my gosh, like

1057
00:53:02,599 --> 00:53:04,880
she's living out her faith. Look she's across and she's

1058
00:53:04,920 --> 00:53:07,400
taking a photo of the top section of her body.

1059
00:53:07,440 --> 00:53:10,960
It's like, no, that's I don't I don't think that's

1060
00:53:11,079 --> 00:53:14,760
living out her faith at all, or maybe not very much,

1061
00:53:14,960 --> 00:53:18,320
maybe not very meaningful, but we need we need men

1062
00:53:18,440 --> 00:53:23,840
and women who actually live it out before they tell people, Oh,

1063
00:53:23,920 --> 00:53:25,800
the reason I did this thing or I said this thing,

1064
00:53:25,920 --> 00:53:28,039
or I took this stance on this issue is because

1065
00:53:28,199 --> 00:53:30,760
I believe it from reading the Word of God. That's

1066
00:53:30,760 --> 00:53:32,920
why I took this stance on this issue. And so

1067
00:53:33,280 --> 00:53:35,880
that's been my whole approach this whole time. Is I

1068
00:53:36,000 --> 00:53:38,519
want people to to you know, know me by know

1069
00:53:38,679 --> 00:53:41,639
me by my fruit, and if they want to ask,

1070
00:53:41,960 --> 00:53:43,559
you know, and they want to interact with it at

1071
00:53:43,559 --> 00:53:45,679
a deeper level, we'll do that. We'll talk about it.

1072
00:53:46,840 --> 00:53:48,199
But I'm not going to be this guy who can

1073
00:53:48,280 --> 00:53:52,039
run around and you know, spout scripture and memorizations and

1074
00:53:52,119 --> 00:53:55,400
things like that all and then and you know, I

1075
00:53:55,480 --> 00:53:57,320
do that on one side, and then on the other side,

1076
00:53:58,360 --> 00:53:59,920
I don't do any of the things that are actually

1077
00:54:00,079 --> 00:54:02,360
required of me. Which I've seen so much from the

1078
00:54:02,480 --> 00:54:06,159
Christian community. They'll use they'll use the Bible when they

1079
00:54:06,239 --> 00:54:08,599
can to win an argument a certain passage or certain verse,

1080
00:54:08,599 --> 00:54:11,119
a certain area. We've all seen it, but they never

1081
00:54:11,199 --> 00:54:13,480
live it out and they never actually read either the

1082
00:54:13,519 --> 00:54:16,119
second part of the verse or apply it to their

1083
00:54:16,159 --> 00:54:19,719
own life and they're being a pharisee. And that's the

1084
00:54:19,840 --> 00:54:21,760
last thing I want is for people to look at

1085
00:54:21,960 --> 00:54:24,639
me and say, oh, Lucas is being a pharisee. He's

1086
00:54:24,719 --> 00:54:27,960
just he's posting the law or he's posting versus when

1087
00:54:28,039 --> 00:54:31,599
it's good for the specific issue, and he won't live

1088
00:54:31,719 --> 00:54:34,360
up to it on these other issues. And I've definitely

1089
00:54:34,440 --> 00:54:36,320
done that in the past. I've been way too judgmental

1090
00:54:36,360 --> 00:54:38,800
on certain topics. I've I've definitely come down on one

1091
00:54:38,880 --> 00:54:41,559
issue and then maybe I didn't talk about another one,

1092
00:54:42,079 --> 00:54:44,039
which might have been me not doing it on purpose.

1093
00:54:44,039 --> 00:54:46,679
Services I missed it because there's so much stuff going on.

1094
00:54:47,480 --> 00:54:49,119
But I never want that set of me is oh

1095
00:54:49,199 --> 00:54:52,079
Lucas is just a pharasetical Christian. I want people to

1096
00:54:52,079 --> 00:54:53,840
be able to say, no, he actually lives it out

1097
00:54:53,920 --> 00:54:55,960
in what he does, and he says what he means.

1098
00:54:56,039 --> 00:54:58,760
He doesn't back down from doing the right thing. And

1099
00:55:00,280 --> 00:55:02,960
and I have a long ways to go. I could.

1100
00:55:03,039 --> 00:55:06,039
I could definitely be, you know, far better and more

1101
00:55:06,079 --> 00:55:09,280
righteous than I am. But I think we need more

1102
00:55:09,320 --> 00:55:11,559
of that. We need more more men and women who

1103
00:55:12,000 --> 00:55:15,360
live it before they say it. And uh and sadly

1104
00:55:15,480 --> 00:55:18,800
with social media on the Internet, so many Christians learned,

1105
00:55:18,880 --> 00:55:21,519
especially as it got cool, like you said, it became

1106
00:55:21,599 --> 00:55:24,960
cool to go Christ is King and and and show

1107
00:55:25,519 --> 00:55:29,039
like a horrible story. I mean, this is a perfect

1108
00:55:29,039 --> 00:55:30,920
example of it. There were about five years ago there

1109
00:55:30,960 --> 00:55:34,920
were some guys that I knew and they posted a

1110
00:55:35,000 --> 00:55:37,519
Bible study in their in their social media on their story.

1111
00:55:37,840 --> 00:55:39,679
They made it look like that a Bible study that morning,

1112
00:55:40,239 --> 00:55:42,400
and a friend of mine asked them when he saw

1113
00:55:42,480 --> 00:55:44,880
them that day, he said, we hey, we're we all

1114
00:55:44,920 --> 00:55:46,639
reading what was your Bible study on? And they went, oh,

1115
00:55:46,679 --> 00:55:49,639
we didn't have a Bible study. And they were completely

1116
00:55:49,679 --> 00:55:52,400
flippant and willing to admit that they posted it for

1117
00:55:52,519 --> 00:55:55,239
people to think they were reading scripture and having a

1118
00:55:55,280 --> 00:55:58,079
Bible study, but they but they weren't doing that. They

1119
00:55:58,360 --> 00:56:00,119
just posted it because it's so easy to pretend to

1120
00:56:00,239 --> 00:56:03,039
be whoever you want to be on the internet unless

1121
00:56:03,079 --> 00:56:06,880
it's you know so, So we don't have a whole

1122
00:56:06,880 --> 00:56:10,039
lot of authentic Christians out there right now, in my opinion,

1123
00:56:10,719 --> 00:56:13,199
who are Lvia Because it is so easy to just

1124
00:56:13,280 --> 00:56:16,840
put on the Internet. Everyone thinks you're this really righteous,

1125
00:56:16,960 --> 00:56:20,320
amazing person and that was just the one percent they

1126
00:56:20,360 --> 00:56:22,079
wanted you to see. They wanted they wanted you to

1127
00:56:22,119 --> 00:56:24,639
see that they had a Bible study. But they're perfectly

1128
00:56:25,400 --> 00:56:28,719
steamed cup of coffee with the perfect little swirl. They

1129
00:56:28,760 --> 00:56:30,920
were posting the coffee monk. They weren't posting the Bible

1130
00:56:31,039 --> 00:56:33,880
like they wanted you to see their coffee setup. And

1131
00:56:34,880 --> 00:56:37,920
and it's saddening to me that that's that's that's how

1132
00:56:38,000 --> 00:56:40,079
people's christian life can be summed up, is in a

1133
00:56:40,360 --> 00:56:43,440
just a social media story post that expires in twenty

1134
00:56:43,480 --> 00:56:45,559
four hours and was actually just a picture of their

1135
00:56:45,559 --> 00:56:49,320
coffee cup. But that's most people's Christianity today. And I'll

1136
00:56:49,360 --> 00:56:51,800
get flag for saying that I don't care. People know

1137
00:56:51,880 --> 00:56:56,119
it's true and and I'm I'm hoping that again this

1138
00:56:56,280 --> 00:56:58,400
goes with that whole the whole purpose thing we talked

1139
00:56:58,440 --> 00:57:02,559
about earlier as man and feel more purposeful in their

1140
00:57:02,679 --> 00:57:05,960
daily life working because let's face it, all of us

1141
00:57:06,360 --> 00:57:10,159
think it more about work and our daily life more

1142
00:57:10,239 --> 00:57:12,079
than we'll think about Christ. And we'll think about praying.

1143
00:57:12,079 --> 00:57:13,920
Even though it says we're supposed to pray without ceasing,

1144
00:57:15,360 --> 00:57:17,280
none of us are praying all the time because we

1145
00:57:17,360 --> 00:57:19,000
have other responsibilities, we have everything, so none of us

1146
00:57:19,000 --> 00:57:20,679
are doing it. So the fact of the matter is

1147
00:57:20,719 --> 00:57:22,760
we're all going to spend more time working, spend more

1148
00:57:22,800 --> 00:57:24,480
time with our friends, spend more time with our wives,

1149
00:57:24,519 --> 00:57:28,599
than we're going to spend thinking about Christ. So if

1150
00:57:28,639 --> 00:57:31,400
we are life doing those things can be meaningful. I

1151
00:57:31,599 --> 00:57:35,760
believe that will draw us closer to Christ because we'll

1152
00:57:35,800 --> 00:57:37,800
have a more meaningful life that we'll be able to

1153
00:57:37,880 --> 00:57:40,199
draw experience from. And now when I read the Bible,

1154
00:57:40,280 --> 00:57:43,679
I'm like, man, like, I live that thing that is

1155
00:57:43,719 --> 00:57:46,840
talking about. I understand this piece of scripture. Now I

1156
00:57:46,880 --> 00:57:49,199
didn't understand it when I was thirteen when I read it,

1157
00:57:49,679 --> 00:57:51,639
But now that I have life experience and I've worked

1158
00:57:51,679 --> 00:57:53,519
these kinds of jobs, and I've worked with these kinds

1159
00:57:53,559 --> 00:57:55,760
of people, and I've worked with some so crappy people,

1160
00:57:55,880 --> 00:57:58,199
Like now I understand what it's talking about. And so

1161
00:57:58,320 --> 00:58:00,880
people need to be an environment where they're getting that

1162
00:58:01,039 --> 00:58:04,000
experience so that they can draw closer to Christ. They

1163
00:58:04,079 --> 00:58:06,320
have to have that. I don't say they have to

1164
00:58:06,400 --> 00:58:10,039
have that, but it's very helpful. So so I have

1165
00:58:10,159 --> 00:58:13,639
no intention of backing down, uh from from my uh

1166
00:58:13,880 --> 00:58:16,440
you know, living out my businesses from a faith based perspective.

1167
00:58:16,519 --> 00:58:18,639
But what I also won't do is and I and

1168
00:58:18,719 --> 00:58:21,039
I there were some temptations, but I was like, I'm

1169
00:58:21,079 --> 00:58:23,639
not doing it. When it got real legy to be like,

1170
00:58:23,760 --> 00:58:25,880
I'm a Christian, you know, Christ is king and all that,

1171
00:58:26,719 --> 00:58:28,639
I had some temptations to jump in on that too,

1172
00:58:28,760 --> 00:58:31,559
but I was like, no, I'm not doing that. Everyone

1173
00:58:31,599 --> 00:58:34,000
else is doing that right now. They're they're saying it

1174
00:58:34,039 --> 00:58:35,960
because it's cool, They're saying it because it's trendy. They're

1175
00:58:36,000 --> 00:58:39,800
they're selling bibles covering camouflage for a bunch of money

1176
00:58:39,880 --> 00:58:42,079
out of profit, which I that's a whole other thing

1177
00:58:42,119 --> 00:58:45,760
that I think is is is disrespectful to the Word

1178
00:58:45,760 --> 00:58:47,719
of God doing things like that for a profit.

1179
00:58:49,639 --> 00:58:50,199
Speaker 1: And uh.

1180
00:58:50,960 --> 00:58:53,320
Speaker 3: And I was just like, you know what, like this

1181
00:58:53,480 --> 00:58:55,119
is always going to exist. There's always going to be

1182
00:58:55,119 --> 00:58:56,719
people in the temple that need to be driven out

1183
00:58:56,760 --> 00:58:59,360
by a scourge and a whip, which is what Jesus did.

1184
00:58:59,760 --> 00:59:01,679
And and you know, I'm not going to be able

1185
00:59:01,719 --> 00:59:05,119
to do that for everyone, But I'm going to keep

1186
00:59:05,159 --> 00:59:07,440
doing what's you know what I can do. I'm going

1187
00:59:07,519 --> 00:59:09,800
to keep interacting with the people in my immediate circle

1188
00:59:09,840 --> 00:59:12,599
the way I believe is right. And if that's able

1189
00:59:12,639 --> 00:59:14,719
to be an encouragement to other people, then mission accomplished.

1190
00:59:15,440 --> 00:59:17,800
And and and I hope that you know, when I

1191
00:59:17,920 --> 00:59:21,760
die and I go before the judgment seat, God will say,

1192
00:59:21,840 --> 00:59:24,559
well done, good and faithful servant. That's that's the goal.

1193
00:59:24,760 --> 00:59:27,079
And I think we get that by by living it

1194
00:59:27,119 --> 00:59:31,559
out while also having faith doing both. It's not just

1195
00:59:31,639 --> 00:59:34,599
workspaceed but actually living our faith out.

1196
00:59:36,079 --> 00:59:38,800
Speaker 2: Yeah, there are several things there, which is one, Lucas,

1197
00:59:38,840 --> 00:59:42,079
you've made a core mistake which you have violated the

1198
00:59:42,159 --> 00:59:45,280
Jay Burdens school of social media, which is immediately block

1199
00:59:45,440 --> 00:59:48,559
and or mute any woman you see. It makes the

1200
00:59:48,639 --> 00:59:53,280
whole experience about ten times better. Drama related to didn't

1201
00:59:53,360 --> 00:59:56,960
see it drama cause I also didn't see it. Kind

1202
00:59:57,000 --> 01:00:02,280
of joking, of course, but I think that, and I'm

1203
01:00:02,920 --> 01:00:06,400
friends with I am not at all, for any number

1204
01:00:06,440 --> 01:00:09,360
of reasons, an orthodox Christian, but I know a number

1205
01:00:09,400 --> 01:00:14,400
of people who are. And I see what's going on

1206
01:00:14,599 --> 01:00:17,880
there right where that is there's a number of like

1207
01:00:18,039 --> 01:00:22,119
motifs and images which have become you know, trendy and cool, right,

1208
01:00:22,199 --> 01:00:24,800
people like how that looks. And so you have this

1209
01:00:25,000 --> 01:00:28,280
you know, large influx of people, and you know a

1210
01:00:28,360 --> 01:00:31,480
great many of them, you know, turn that into kind

1211
01:00:31,480 --> 01:00:36,599
of a real, sincere faith relationship. But as someone whose

1212
01:00:36,679 --> 01:00:40,440
religious community went through a very similar thing, where you

1213
01:00:40,519 --> 01:00:42,039
know that the kind of in church that I go

1214
01:00:42,159 --> 01:00:45,559
to is very trendy in the mid two thousands, it's

1215
01:00:45,599 --> 01:00:48,559
actually pretty helpful to see what it's like after the

1216
01:00:48,639 --> 01:00:52,000
hype fates, right when it's no longer the it thing,

1217
01:00:52,480 --> 01:00:56,280
because sure there's some growth to it, but that thing

1218
01:00:56,480 --> 01:01:00,400
mattered more right than you know, simply the kind of

1219
01:01:00,440 --> 01:01:03,039
social media or the kind of herd mentality around it,

1220
01:01:03,320 --> 01:01:07,360
and that comes and goes. Right. Being public about faith

1221
01:01:07,559 --> 01:01:10,280
is currently in kind of an upswing, Whereas in the

1222
01:01:10,360 --> 01:01:13,000
kind of twenty fourteen era of you know, gun culture,

1223
01:01:13,039 --> 01:01:15,320
it was very much not cool, right, It was a

1224
01:01:15,360 --> 01:01:18,079
different look, different, And I'm using gun culture, but it

1225
01:01:18,159 --> 01:01:20,880
applies to many other cultures as well, and I think that,

1226
01:01:21,199 --> 01:01:23,760
you know, there's certainly something to be said. I mean,

1227
01:01:24,000 --> 01:01:26,320
there's something positive about that, right, you know, we want

1228
01:01:26,800 --> 01:01:27,760
what's all the worsh for?

1229
01:01:28,119 --> 01:01:30,639
Speaker 4: Just ask me in the shop today amazed ar might

1230
01:01:30,760 --> 01:01:34,119
say Bridget's cross, I said, it won't weave itself. This

1231
01:01:34,199 --> 01:01:36,679
sent Bridget's weekend at London's, it's any three for five

1232
01:01:36,760 --> 01:01:39,880
euro across table sharing bags. Enjoy Villa Maria, Sauvignon blanc

1233
01:01:39,920 --> 01:01:42,559
and nineteen Crimes Sauvignon blanc, Chardonnay and red Blend just

1234
01:01:42,679 --> 01:01:45,400
nine euro ninety nine each, and choose from Nesle Munchie's

1235
01:01:45,480 --> 01:01:47,960
Rollo when smart He's pouches any three for just five

1236
01:01:48,079 --> 01:01:50,880
euro at London's. We know what locals want because we're

1237
01:01:50,920 --> 01:01:54,559
local like you, enjoy alcohol responsibly offers end second of

1238
01:01:54,599 --> 01:01:55,840
February and participating in stores.

1239
01:01:55,880 --> 01:01:59,039
Speaker 2: Wilstock's last people to be looking at. You know Christ

1240
01:01:59,119 --> 01:02:01,880
and you know sinceerreallationship with him as a positive thing.

1241
01:02:02,239 --> 01:02:03,880
But I think it's also very important to remember that

1242
01:02:03,920 --> 01:02:06,519
that is incredibly fleeting. Much like you said, a YouTuber

1243
01:02:06,599 --> 01:02:10,719
has a ten year career, like an online religious fad.

1244
01:02:11,960 --> 01:02:14,800
If it has a ten year run, I'll be shocked.

1245
01:02:14,840 --> 01:02:18,599
I'll put it that way, And on a less serious note,

1246
01:02:18,639 --> 01:02:22,880
I'll be honest. When I saw it was funny. It

1247
01:02:22,960 --> 01:02:27,280
was a screenshot designed to discredit you. But you called

1248
01:02:27,400 --> 01:02:29,840
some dude of faggot on Facebook and I was like,

1249
01:02:29,960 --> 01:02:32,920
that's my guy. That's the kind of guy, I'll support

1250
01:02:33,320 --> 01:02:34,079
because again.

1251
01:02:34,719 --> 01:02:36,360
Speaker 3: Let your yes be yes or your nob no.

1252
01:02:37,000 --> 01:02:40,480
Speaker 2: I call it like, I see, that's a word that

1253
01:02:40,519 --> 01:02:43,880
I will never one stop using or to stop thinking.

1254
01:02:44,039 --> 01:02:47,880
Is really funny, especially in like you know, a corporate

1255
01:02:48,000 --> 01:02:51,480
environment where those sort of terms are heavily discouraged. I'll

1256
01:02:51,519 --> 01:02:53,679
put it out way. Yeah, but yeah, dude, this has

1257
01:02:53,719 --> 01:02:58,159
been a ton of fun. I really enjoy speaking with you. Obviously,

1258
01:02:58,480 --> 01:02:59,760
you know you have a new company, you have some

1259
01:03:00,000 --> 01:03:02,639
social media. Where can people find you if they're interested?

1260
01:03:03,960 --> 01:03:07,880
Speaker 3: Yeah, So Instagram is still there's just a good activity

1261
01:03:07,920 --> 01:03:12,119
on there. Twitter's more. Twitter's the x It's the PvP

1262
01:03:12,320 --> 01:03:17,360
server of social media, so it is. Yeah, I get

1263
01:03:17,440 --> 01:03:19,199
something out of it. But man, I click into that

1264
01:03:19,239 --> 01:03:22,159
app like twice a day and that's it. Instagram still

1265
01:03:22,199 --> 01:03:25,840
some wholesome stuff there. Lucas bot Can underscore is how

1266
01:03:25,880 --> 01:03:27,480
people can find me on there. And then my YouTube

1267
01:03:27,559 --> 01:03:30,360
lucaspot Can I should be the first channel that comes up.

1268
01:03:30,400 --> 01:03:33,440
Now newer channel since I left my own company, I

1269
01:03:33,480 --> 01:03:35,960
don't have access to that one anymore, but I post

1270
01:03:36,000 --> 01:03:37,880
a lot of my like behind the scenes business stuff,

1271
01:03:38,000 --> 01:03:41,880
like today I'm filming a video on the firearms industry

1272
01:03:41,960 --> 01:03:45,119
and is it down or is it correcting and some

1273
01:03:45,239 --> 01:03:47,079
of the economics behind that. I'm going to talk about

1274
01:03:47,079 --> 01:03:49,000
that a little bit in that video. A lot of

1275
01:03:49,039 --> 01:03:51,119
business content for people that are more interested in hearing

1276
01:03:51,159 --> 01:03:53,239
some of this I used to do. I used to

1277
01:03:53,320 --> 01:03:55,760
just be known for gun stuff, shooting. I shot a lot.

1278
01:03:56,320 --> 01:03:59,559
I'm pretty good at shooting, doing a lot less of

1279
01:03:59,599 --> 01:04:02,039
that now and now I'm trying to transition more to

1280
01:04:02,159 --> 01:04:05,960
sharing what I've learned again, trying to trying to get

1281
01:04:06,039 --> 01:04:08,000
young men off their ass as much as I can

1282
01:04:08,599 --> 01:04:13,159
to see that creating school works cool and and you know,

1283
01:04:13,239 --> 01:04:16,519
trying to do that the best I can so so YouTube, Instagram, Twitter,

1284
01:04:16,639 --> 01:04:18,239
Lucas Botkin as well. I mean, it's pretty easy to

1285
01:04:18,280 --> 01:04:20,639
find me on there. And then my company, the latest company,

1286
01:04:20,679 --> 01:04:23,199
the first one we're starting a couple is Adaptive Defense

1287
01:04:23,599 --> 01:04:26,440
without the E. If you google that, you should come up.

1288
01:04:26,840 --> 01:04:29,239
That's our defense R and D company with some products

1289
01:04:29,280 --> 01:04:32,559
as well. And uh, then we're starting a men's performance

1290
01:04:32,679 --> 01:04:36,159
apparel brand made in the US. Very difficult to do

1291
01:04:36,400 --> 01:04:38,760
or doing it anyway. We're working on that and that

1292
01:04:38,840 --> 01:04:42,000
should launch in Q three of this year. So we're

1293
01:04:42,519 --> 01:04:44,639
we're we want to create things. We want to make things,

1294
01:04:44,880 --> 01:04:48,960
and that's that's the goal, that's the mission. So that's

1295
01:04:48,960 --> 01:04:49,800
where people can find me.

1296
01:04:50,480 --> 01:04:53,599
Speaker 2: And I will say, uh, I got I got tipped

1297
01:04:53,639 --> 01:04:55,719
off to the fact that the website was going live,

1298
01:04:56,400 --> 01:04:59,480
and so I picked up a couple of your your

1299
01:04:59,599 --> 01:05:02,440
sling right just to kind of pass out to, you know,

1300
01:05:02,519 --> 01:05:05,360
thank you some of my guys. And while I haven't

1301
01:05:05,480 --> 01:05:09,000
used them, I just gave them all away very good reviews.

1302
01:05:09,400 --> 01:05:11,679
So you know, if you consider a review from some

1303
01:05:11,840 --> 01:05:14,079
guy who hasn't used it, know a couple of people

1304
01:05:14,119 --> 01:05:16,559
who has. If that carries weight, check them out if

1305
01:05:16,599 --> 01:05:20,079
they're in stock. Yeah. Man, as that sounds really interesting.

1306
01:05:20,199 --> 01:05:23,079
I've been, you know, watching the development of your company

1307
01:05:23,440 --> 01:05:25,119
from a distance. I'm not going to pretend to be up,

1308
01:05:25,280 --> 01:05:27,599
you know, on every aspect of it, but it's it's

1309
01:05:27,960 --> 01:05:30,119
really exciting to see what you've done and it seems

1310
01:05:30,159 --> 01:05:33,000
speak going well. So everyone check that out. As far

1311
01:05:33,079 --> 01:05:36,639
as my stuff, Jay Burdens Show, Apple, Spotify, YouTube, this

1312
01:05:36,880 --> 01:05:39,320
is what I do. I am a full time podcaster.

1313
01:05:39,400 --> 01:05:41,159
If you think there's value to that, throw me a

1314
01:05:41,199 --> 01:05:44,880
few bucks a month on Patreon, Substack or gum Road.

1315
01:05:44,960 --> 01:05:47,039
I did the math on this not that long ago.

1316
01:05:47,760 --> 01:05:51,119
It comes out to like nineteen cents an hour for entertainment,

1317
01:05:51,519 --> 01:05:53,440
which really isn't half bad. You still get all the

1318
01:05:53,480 --> 01:05:55,480
same content on the on the regular feed. I just

1319
01:05:56,079 --> 01:05:57,639
kind of throw a few ads in there to cover

1320
01:05:57,760 --> 01:06:00,440
my mortgage. Lucas, thanks so much, man, This was a

1321
01:06:00,480 --> 01:06:00,920
ton of fun.

1322
01:06:02,079 --> 01:06:03,039
Speaker 3: Thanks so much for having me on.

1323
01:06:03,679 --> 01:06:38,320
Speaker 2: Keep your head off, good night. Marketing is hard, but

1324
01:06:38,360 --> 01:06:39,360
I'll tell you a little secret.

1325
01:06:39,519 --> 01:06:40,199
Speaker 3: It doesn't have to be.

1326
01:06:40,320 --> 01:06:41,239
Speaker 2: Let me point something out.

1327
01:06:41,599 --> 01:06:43,760
Speaker 3: You're listening to a podcast right now, and it's great.

1328
01:06:43,960 --> 01:06:45,880
You love the host, you seek it out and download it.

1329
01:06:45,920 --> 01:06:48,599
Speaker 2: You listen to it while driving, working out, cooking, even

1330
01:06:48,639 --> 01:06:52,159
going to the bathroom. Podcasts are a pretty close companion.

1331
01:06:52,679 --> 01:06:54,000
Speaker 3: And this is a podcast ad.

1332
01:06:54,320 --> 01:06:55,199
Speaker 4: Did I get your attention?

1333
01:06:55,800 --> 01:06:59,079
Speaker 2: You can reach great listeners like yourself with podcast advertising

1334
01:06:59,280 --> 01:07:02,559
from libs inn. Choose from hundreds of top podcasts offering

1335
01:07:02,639 --> 01:07:05,079
host endorsements, or run a pre produced ad like this

1336
01:07:05,239 --> 01:07:08,119
one across thousands of shows. To reach your target audience

1337
01:07:08,159 --> 01:07:11,880
and their favorite podcasts with libsynads, go to libsynads dot com.

1338
01:07:12,039 --> 01:07:14,840
Speaker 4: That's l I B s y n ads dot com

1339
01:07:14,960 --> 01:07:15,280
Today