Latest / Built In The Bayou / Episode 5 | What We Don't Usually Talk About

Transcript

Episode 5 | What We Don't Usually Talk About · Built In The Bayou

• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Good morning and welcome to another episode of Built in the Bayou.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: We are back in the home studio today.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um, Evan and Joe got to meet with Colt and do a podcast with him at the end of his summer camp event.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it was our first ever off the grid podcast episode.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: So that actually drops a week before this one.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I hope everybody enjoyed that.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: So that'll be exciting to get feedback from that.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: We actually have a few, which we'll get into that in a little bit from some of these questions, but we have a few of those planned for the remainder of this year that I we're really excited about.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so today we're just it's just Evan and I today.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: We don't have a guest today.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we've had so many questions come in over the past, probably really since we've started doing the 50-year things and really putting third generation out there more and going to events more.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: And then especially since the podcast has been airing, we get these questions a lot on our personal DMs or company DMs.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: And so we were just gonna kind of run through some of these and then just talk about the remainder of the year, which is wild.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, very busy.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: So um right off the bat, we just got back from, or Evan and Joe just got back from Colt Summer Camp.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that was really fun.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_03: It was a good week.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_03: We uh flew out to Colorado.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_03: We had three days in Colorado.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_03: We uh ran mountain pass roads in the morning, and uh, well, actually, we did the mountain pass roads in the afternoon and we hit some rock crawling trails in the morning.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_03: That was really fun.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_03: It was a great group of people.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_03: We had no issues with the Jeep, which was awesome.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_03: Didn't even have to break out a tool or a wrench.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_03: Um and uh just had a good time.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_03: Colt put on a really cool event.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_03: It was fun to be able to do the record a podcast with him and you know, everyone to kind of learn more of his backstory and what got him to what he's doing today.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_03: Um, yeah, it was a really fun event.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_03: It was a good time.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and that was his first event, his first summer camp event.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: And our first time to add another event, it's you know, we get asked to do events this time of year a ton, and our year from I mean, June all the way through December is normally fully locked in.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: So to squeeze one in, um, it was a little chaotic, but it ended up it ended up being the perfect time.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: If it would have been any later with other events we have going on, I just don't know if we could have made it work.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: So I was pumped they got to go to that.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and Joe and Evan survived off Pop Tarts and whatever else they ate.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: Increstables uncrescibles.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so yeah, we're excited, and we'll um you'll all get to see more of that as he releases his stuff.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so Colt Builds It, we'll release a video.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_03: Uh Trailmator will release a video, and Fab Rats will release a video.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_03: So if you're interested in checking out the event, you can find it on those YouTube channels and uh see what we did for the week.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: And that kind of brings us into like the remainder of event season.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: We'll kind of do that before we go through some questions is um Unreal Adventure is coming up, it's the next event we have um for a wheeling event.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: And same thing where you just name like these people who you can find all the videos and stuff from.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: Like these are new people we got to meet, or you guys got to meet and make a connection with, and that is what Unreal Adventure for us has always been about.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, do you want to talk about Unreal Adventure a little bit?
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so Unreal Adventure or UA for short, it's kind of what all all of us call it.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_03: Uh really cool event.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_03: It's a seven-day trip.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_03: Um, it's roughly about a thousand miles of off-road and highway.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_03: Um seven days, you got some camp nights in there, some hotel nights, and then it's just all out, you know, man and machine and co-driver trying to survive the week.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, I mean, there's been years where we've had no issues, and there's been years where dad and dealer, when it was just them two going, didn't finish.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_03: So it's been it's a tough week.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, and the wheeling is legit, you know, eight, nine rated trails the whole week when we're wheeling.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so you got to be careful, and and like the saying is, you know, we'll for wheel for the week, not for the day, because you have seven days of that.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_03: And uh honestly, one of the hardest parts of UA is when we get on the highway, because that's where it really shows a lot of rig's weaknesses because a lot of people can go hit the trails and have a good time, but then what happens when you have to go drive 300 miles on the highway after that?
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's such a good point.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: And we've y'all have seen multiple people completely have to pull out for the whole week, not due to the hardcore rock crawling, but just driving it down the road, which obviously is one of the things that I feel like we pride ourselves on for our product is road to pavement or pavement to obstacle, you know, all whatever, however you say that.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's gotta work on the trails and then it's gotta be able to be a daily commute if it needs to be.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_03: I mean I know Paw Paw in the early years when they were designing stuff, it was always if he wasn't comfortable enough with Mama or Aunt Cindy hopping in and driving it, then it it wasn't gonna work.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_03: So for us, it's always got to be something that's uh super comfortable drive on the highway, but also perform and hang with the big stuff.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I feel like we've we've kept that this whole time.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like everything we build, we build for that space.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_03: So that's why I feel like UA is a great event.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_03: One to prove that, and two, it's a great testing ground for um future products, uh stuff that we have on the on the deck to come out with, and two, just continue abuse of products that we have out to find weak points if if we can.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's been a really good testing ground for us as it's before SEMA.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: And again, this year we will have some new things out there.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: We're not gonna tell anybody what's coming on that, but we do have some new products coming and some exciting stuff that will be getting tested at the UA event this year, so that's exciting.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then so but before UA, I need to back up a little bit.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: We have our ambassador meetup.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, that's our first one ever.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: The ambassador program is something that has been uh a work in progress and uh we love that program so much, and this is the first time we finally have been able to do a meetup after three full years.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: We've we've had an ambassador program four years, but we've really dialed it in the last three years.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so I and you as well, aside from SEMA, Moab Patrol Hero, have not gotten to meet any of our ambassadors at any of these shows.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um and this year we did, we opened up our ambassador program for people to bring their vehicles and builds to the booth and display, um, which has been awesome for them, but also helped us as well because we haven't had to send two jeeps out or two rigs out all year long.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: We get to keep one in, which we've needed for product testing.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so Anna just diversifies the booth of people and builds.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so our ambassadors are genuinely some of the best people.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we love them so much.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: I hope to really grow that program and do more with it every year.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: That's the goal.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but this year is the first time that we're getting to have a meetup, and we are actually doing a podcast with some of the ambassadors.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: I'm so excited.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, because I've yet to meet some of these people that have been an ambassador of ours for three years.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: We have a few that are three-year ambassadors, so we'll finally get to face-to-face meet with them.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so that's exciting.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: So that'll happen at Great Smoky Mountain um in Tennessee at the end of this month in like two weekends.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_01: That'll be awesome.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: So um, so yeah, we have that, then we have UA, and then we go to Trail Hero.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_03: Yep.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, Trail Hero, um, Southern Utah, great place.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_03: It is, I hate to admit this, but it's slowly becoming maybe slightly better than Moab, in my opinion.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, I don't know.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_03: It's just fun because I mean Moab's like one of those places where I think it'll always be number one for me, just nostalgia purposes.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, but Trail Hero is awesome because it's a park and it's all in one place.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_03: So you show up to the park and you can hit two or three trails in the time it takes to hit one trail in Moab.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, I think that it definitely for us logistically, who only get our full crew of rigs out a couple times a year, it is so beneficial.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: We get to meet and and wheel with more than one group of people a day, which for us really is something that we have to pre-plan and really schedule out, but works to our benefit.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so yes, I agree.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: There's a place for both, and we love both dearly, but I have really enjoyed Trail Hero for sure.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_03: And and like you've talked about a lot, the content that we can get at Trail Hero is double the amount almost just because we can constantly we can hit a trail back to back, we can see new faces, yeah, go well with people we haven't gotten a chance to.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_03: And it's just, I don't know, it's just it's one of those places where you show up, you get in the park, and you're like, you've got the lake behind you, and then you've got like all your plethora of trails that you can go run for the next like eight hours, and it's awesome.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and last year we actually got to the guys got to golf um on one of the days because the golf there is beautiful.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: I am one of the I'll just I'm along for the ride.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: Don't give me a club.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but this year we're gonna try to do, which one year we did, but you didn't get to make it that year.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: But one year we did do some um like Polaris or side-by-side stuff, and that was awesome.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: So this year we're trying to get El Presidente in a side-by-side.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: He's gonna definitely have to sign a waiver because he's wild.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: But it's gonna be really fun because that's another thing that Trail Hero brings is that aspect too.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: And um, that's obviously not the main reason that we go, but we like to have a little fun while we're well.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_03: Also, too, if you like golf, that San Jollow course is next level.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_03: So if you're ever in the area, you need to go golf for that course if you're a golfer.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: It's just been um it's been good to see that event grow.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: They do such a good job on that event.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um we we really have enjoyed that.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_03: And I feel like Rich does a good job of they want to bring value to the brands coming.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_03: And I feel like that's getting I mean, you can speak to it more than I can, but I I feel like that's getting hard harder and harder to find.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: Well, and I think him and Brandy, because Brandy's like the driving force that helps him get all those things done, and she's just as good with that.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: She cares so much about the brands and wants the brands to get what they need while they're there too.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: Because a lot of times I work with her, I'm like, hey, this year, this is really what I need from this event, or hey, last year that worked, but this year I want to do this, and she's always like, Yeah, whatever you need to do.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: And he always, you know, supports that.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: And also, one thing they started last year, which is happening again this year, which is great for us because JR is on the board, but it's the Rock Motorsports Hall of Fame.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: They actually have the gala while we're at Trail Hero, and they announce the new Hall of Fame members, and we get to like see those stories.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of times we only get that either through social media or like SEMA events, and it's so hard to really like mingle at SEMA um because you have you're pulled so many different directions all week long.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: And so I really like that they do that at Trail Hero because you get to have the time, it's a little smaller of a group than a SEMA gala, yes, um, which it's growing, so it's not much smaller, but it is a little bit smaller, a little more laid back, and then you get to like hang out and chill after or the next day on the trailer.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_03: The pace, the pace of the event makes it very uh valuable to do something like that there because you just have the time to actually give it the attention it deserves.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: And JR being on the board is great, it's great for our brand, it's great to be able to be um a voting force.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: He enjoys that a lot because there's some really great companies.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: They they build they vote on families and individuals and just different things that each person has brought to the table um over the years for our industry.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: And so I love that they that they're doing that now and doing it at Trailhero.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: So that's cool.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then after Trailhero, we go to SEMA.
• 12:39
  unknown: Woo!
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: SEMA, SEMA, SEMA.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: No, um we have taken off since COVID.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: COVID changed everything for everyone.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody knows that.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: That's no secret.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um used to with SEMA, and you hear all the all the veterans talk about this.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: If you didn't show up for a SEMA year, if you took a year off, something was wrong.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: You were not, something was wrong with your business, something was wrong with your money, like what happened?
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone's like calling, are you okay?
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and um, since COVID, I think it's just helped people free up that time to be able to take that every other year if need be.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and we actually did take last year off after having two big 50-year anniversary booth years um where we took extra staff, a huge booth, like the 50-year Hall of Fame for people who saw that.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: If not, we have a documentary and things like that on our website.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: You can go back and watch and look at that.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: But um we needed a year off.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: It was like even it was a lot.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: It was a lot, and I think what people don't get, and that's one of the questions on here, was like, when do you start prepping for SEMA a year in advance?
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I feel like it starts when you're at the SEMA before.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: Especially for the design side of the booth.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, um, you have to have your theme essentially, and then the theme off of what vehicle you're gonna bring, does that match the theme you have in your head?
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: And then you have to build it out.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: And um, you know, anybody who's done SEMA knows it's not like a you don't start in July.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_03: Well, and I know the first year when we brought our you know 50-year activation and everything, that was like a at least a two-year plan in advance.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: It was because we did the documentary with it, and so we built it we built the assets, the asset board out, then had the documentary done, then moved to the Hall of Fame walls.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_03: I mean to the uh the time of the history, the hallway of history.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_03: And that was difficult because you're talking about fifty years, yeah.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_03: And every year you have, you know, most almost every year important things that need to be jot down.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and that took a long time.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: But thankfully, our grandparents don't throw anything away.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it was almost whoa, too much information of sorting, which was we had all hands on deck for that project, so it was easier to get done.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I mean it's like we're almost at the 55.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: I know it's crazy.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: Like I was thinking about that because you know it's my job for apparel for the year.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: And so when I'm picking colors, I'm like, okay, when's the last time we've had this color shirt?
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: And you look back, I'm like, oh, that was for the 45th year, and I'm like, oh my gosh, we're almost at the 55th year.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's insane.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_00: And so it just is crazy how it how fast it truly goes by.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um but yeah, so we start prepping for SEMA a year in advance.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: So we've had our theme for SEMA for a year.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and we actually it went it coincided with a relaunch of Rock Ready that we did in January.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: January 1, we did a relaunch of Rock Ready.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um obviously Rock Ready was one of our more well-known prominent.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: It was initially just like a slogan, but it ended up being just like a total brand recognition for Jeep and the rock crawling side of our brand.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and we kind of let it die.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think on purpose.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: I think they just got so busy at the day-to-day grind that um it just didn't get put out how it should be.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_00: And then it's like you don't want to halfway do it, you know, and that's the struggle we have is like when do you do a full launch?
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: When do you do this?
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: When would it make the most sense?
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: And so we started that January 1.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: And so our booth will be a full rock ready theme, just a little hint of good things that are coming for the booth.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_03: It's gonna be awesome.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's gonna be a really great booth.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we have a good booth space, so we're excited about that.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: A whole different layout than we've had for years and years.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: We had the same layout, we're changing that up.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um but so yeah, the every other year worked for us.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: We were able to take last year off and kind of regroup and revamp, and we're excited to be back at SEMA this year.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, absolutely.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, all new things at SEMA.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: They have a new awards ceremony set up, and you know, they always are trying to have they have all the classes now, which are great, the education classes, the media stuff, the um RD side of it, that's great.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: And then the Torah and the SBN, and you know, they really are trying to really keep the industry and aftermarket just like going.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I love and appreciate that.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: We have a lot of people who are on some of those boards, and man, they work hard.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: So shout out to all you all the SEMA guys.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_03: Absolutely, for sure.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so then after SEMA, then people are like, Oh, you get to rest after SEMA.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: No, like we have industry Christmas gifts and send-outs and Christmas parties and pre-planning for January and calendars and it never stops, never stops.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: And so um people were like, when'd y'all slow?
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: I get that.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: I that's one of my questions I didn't even put down for today because I knew we would get into it, but when's y'all slow season?
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I can I can honestly say when I first started, we I did have a slow season.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: I had probably February was okay, whoo, you can breathe after everything in January got like put out, then you could kind of breathe.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: And then probably like a June.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, June was always slow, so you had two months, so you really got like if you needed to vacation or take some time off, those are your two months to do it, and now like there is no that's what I know slow months.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_03: I'd tell because some of our friends are wanting to go on a trip, and I'm like, look, if it's like after March or April, I have a very hard time trying to swing something.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_03: Cause it's just nonstop after I feel like you know, we gear up January is like January, February.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_03: You can sort of catch your breath.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_03: And then we gear up, we go to Moab, and then I just feel like it's constant after that.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: Well, and I think that's like, and that's on Evan's side, which is something else we'll get into.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: On my side, it's a little different because then we have show season.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: And so um the planning for show season, we do that in November.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: And so then by January, you're still trying to finalize some things because some things don't open all the way till January to finalize, and then you're placing ambassadors now, which is a positive, but then again, more work and things to sort out.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but again, good problems.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's what we talk about a ton is but oh, it's a good problem.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: We're blessed.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_03: Like, you know, I was talking to a buddy uh the other day about just events and everything and how like it works, and um, I was like, essentially, it's like we execute this year everything that we set up last year.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_03: Like I feel like we're always working a year ahead.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_03: A year ahead, you have to is pretty much the flow of work here.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I know that when I first started, I feel like it was a little bit less of that, and I felt like um between all the things that we put into place of processes and meetings and things like that, have helped so much just the efficiency overall.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I think employees who've been here who've had to be in that grind before that are very thankful for that too.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: Because you know, it was hard to really plan.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I feel like internally the past two years, a lot of uh the right strides have been taken to take a little bit of stress off to be sure we have the right things in place.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, definitely.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: I would agree 100%.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so now that we've kind of ran through what the next few months for us look like, I want to get to some of the questions.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that um they're fair questions.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: I think that people who all of a sudden we pop up and now they see us trying to do as much as we can um out and about, and when they call in, they're talking to us or different things now.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I had somebody who was like, Um, can I talk to Lonnie?
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, Yep, he told me I could talk to you.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: And he was like, Oh, you know, it's like you know, like the shift a little bit where I'm like, no, I'll relay it.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: I promise.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I'll check.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: And they're like, oh, okay.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I'm like, no, I promise he trusts me.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna relay it, I promise.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, even internally, I think sometimes, like on emails, they're like, Hey, JR, are you good with this?
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: And he's like, Yep, I'm good with it.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's like, which is fair, totally fair.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: These are really long-term employees that have only had our four owners to really have total say-so no matter what, and not that we have say so above the owners, but I think that they are trusting more to be able to pass on some of those decisions.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_03: Well, we're coming into a time where uh we have more authority.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: And so um some of the questions we get a lot is like, okay, well, what all what you what you actually do?
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: What is it that you do?
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_00: And so I'll let Evan start.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_03: So that's always a tricky question because Valerie knows it's a family business.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_03: I kind of feel like everything bleeds into everything around here.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, but the so my titles operations manager, the easiest way I could explain that is I'm basically responsible for like the full cycle of an order from the time it's placed to the time it leaves the warehouse.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_03: Um, there's a lot of things we need to improve in that area, in those areas, and that's uh really what I'm trying to strive to get to uh just to make you know fulfillment better, our warehouse processing.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_03: Better, that's packaging, it's uh the inside sales team.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_03: You know, Chris does a great job with those guys, but it's me helping to try to give them more tools, uh, get them more equipped with RD because they're our first line of defense, right?
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_03: Well, not defense, that may not be the best way of saying that, but they're the first line to the customer.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_03: So it's like they need to know if it's a new product, yeah, all the features and benefits, all the you know, the SKU numbers, you know, it's trying to relay, clear up, give them better education what they've had in the past so they can do their job better.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and then as of lately too, I've kind of been an RD a lot, mainly because I'm building my Jeep, but that's also been uh putting me into a place to contribute into new product development in areas like that.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_03: So that's the easiest way I could explain it.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_03: Uh but like Mallor knows, it's a family business.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: Kind of feel like everything bleeds everywhere, but yeah, I was gonna say I think that um for third gen for sure, we've worked in different departments before we've gotten to the department that we're at now.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um a lot of things bleed over, like you said, um, where he's talking about helping sales team and talking about the orders.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_00: We're the marketing side's on the other side of it, filtering the complaints or the emails to filter to the sales guy.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like we're all constantly in communication, um, which I think is exactly how it should be.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I think that's the best way.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: And that's like why we've put in place all these meetings now, and a lot of that stuff is become full circle.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like, hey, this is this has to do with actually what your role is, but I'm here's this part.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_00: You know, so it's like, and same thing, vice versa, for different things.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I can't market new products unless I'm in touch with operations side, or I can't help how something runs in the back unless I know what's going on in the back for me to do on a marketing or a you know, an employee side.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_00: So um, it definitely I think is like a major team effort on third gen.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_00: I think second generation is different, they're very like here's this side of the business, here's this side of the business.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_00: They they blend and they work well together, but they don't really work in their day-to-day together.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I feel like that's where we differ.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: We are so like in each other's lanes all the time, but yet still have our own lane.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_00: So it's just kind of funny because Evan even was in marketing for a little while.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: He's been in the back for a little while, like RD for a little while, like in sales for a little while, you know.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um, because his journey started here much longer ago than mine.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so I'm director of marketing now.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I started in accounts pay receivable, payable.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_00: I don't even remember one of the accounting ones, okay?
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_00: I don't even remember which one it was.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I was only there for a very short time before a marketing manager position opened, which is what I did previously and what my degree and things were in.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: But um, and then I've been able to, I was entrusted in that department in that role, which was, I think, major because I really had not worked here at all, had no idea about the business side of it.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_00: Like, not I knew about the market, I understand marketing and business.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_00: That's actually what I'm good at.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_00: It was the product side of it and like the industry side of it.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: I was so green.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_00: I remember my first time with Tom, it was like, just tell everybody you're green.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_00: It'll be it'll go so much better for you.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, Yeah, okay, thanks.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I did, and it actually was great advice.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: And um, I think that's one of the things that have helped us is the people who we have that work here are incredible.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, and they have guided and led us and given so much time and effort into like helping us get there's no way I would be where I am today without the people here who are like, you do not know what you're talking about.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_00: This is what you need to be looking at, or this, or like say this instead, or let me show you how this works.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_00: Because our we have not we do not have one business, we have multiple businesses, multiple lanes of this company.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_03: Um well, and our products are not really easy to understand.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: No, they are not.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_00: But I can say, oh, let me jump in that.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_00: So when I was doing the accounting, again, payable or receivable, I don't remember, but during lunch hours, because that was right before COVID or right when COVID hit, I don't I don't exactly remember the timeline.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's been wild, but I was doing some lunch breaks on the calls on the sales side.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_00: And um, you know, learning the system and learning products and having to talk to customers.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I never it was the one of the best things I ever did for what I have to do when I work with the employee side of it because that was intense.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my gosh, which I never had to deal with too angry of people, um, angrier customers, but there were some you could hear the next person over talking.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, oh thank God that I didn't get that call.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it'd have to be very upfront, like, hey, I'm just filling in for the lunch break.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: Let me take that message.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_00: And like I did learn some of the things, but it I learned right then some struggles for the sales teams that I was able to take back to an operations point and look, hey, we can fix that.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_00: But it's like until you dive into those departments, you don't know the struggle all the way unless you've had to be in them.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so I think that's and I do think the employees appreciated that we took those roles on because I think third gen has steered those.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_03: Well, and I think there's, you know, just everybody knows in business there can be a loss of communication in areas.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_03: And I think like you briefly touched on it.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_03: Like my his I think touching on our history again would be good, what got us here now.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_03: But my my brief history was I started when I was young, sleeping the floors, then I went to the machine and fab shop.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_03: Uh when we were caught up there, I'd work in the warehouse some, then I came up front, handed out mail for a few months, and then you know, just then I went to sales for a few a couple years, two or three years, then I came into marketing with you for a little while.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_03: And now it's like so I've touched, I've kind of felt all these areas of where um pain points were.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_03: And it's also helps the employees, you know, when you've been somebody who's you know, I've sweat with them in the back, and now it's like, you know, I'm trying to do what I can to help make their job better.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_03: Um it just brings respect.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_03: And I feel like that's something even with the older people here who are pouring into us, they know we're not like some cocky like banging on our chest, like I have this authority, et cetera.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_03: No, it's like yeah, they want to teach us because we want to learn.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, and I think that that a hundred percent.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_00: That's one thing that Tom has said to me is I just appreciate that you want to learn and that you care enough to learn.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that that um is key.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_00: Cause like even like with Mike Ardwan, who like is our IT guru, shout out, Mike.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, you've spent a lot of time in there and helped on website things, and he bounces that off you, and you're like, Yes, I love that.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_00: And you give him good feedback to then be able to take back to, and yeah, I think they they kind of feel like we're um a safe go-between yeah for communication.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_03: I think that's a great way to put it.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um, which is needed, which was a gap, I think.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_00: And so I think we've the last five years, we have come strides because of those things.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I think people like Mike Um Ardwan, I I like to use him a lot because he's just such a good example of like when you let him use his brain and give him some freedom, yeah.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_00: The stuff that he can create for us internally that we can use for our business that's so beneficial, it's like, oh wow.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_00: Like if you would have had him so bottlenecked and choked up of no, you can't do that, only do this, you'd have never got that from him.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so I think that people like him thrive on getting to pour into the business too.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, he's 25-year employee, you know.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_00: And so anyway, I think that those things are important.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_00: I think we do that well.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, I agree.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_03: And then uh briefly, real quick though, you owned your own business before you came over here, right?
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, a whole lifetime ago.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_00: That was a different life.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_00: I um so I was one of those people, again, we all know I'm very type A.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I knew what I wanted to do from like a very young age.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted to have something to do in fashion or merchandising.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted to own my own business, went in uh to school and college for marketing.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and that was my path.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_00: I stayed very true to that.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_00: Opened a store shortly after college, um, after I moved back home because I saw my child the day I had her and I said, mommy.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I moved back home.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_00: It is very hard for the people.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_00: So props to the people who live off from family and raise kids.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_00: Cause let me tell you, I needed a tribe.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_03: Um But before that, you played college softball, right?
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, I did.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_00: I played college softball.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, that was a huge part of my life and the difference of why I wasn't involved in Skyjacker.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_00: That's I feel like I wasn't ever here because I was always playing sports in the summer, where almost every other one of the family member cousins worked here for the summer.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_00: I I can't maybe Austin, because he also played college sports and he traveled in the summer like me.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_00: But I think every other grandkid worked here in the summer.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_03: Probably at some time.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, probably.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_00: And so early on, Skyjacker was never, it was like what my mom did.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_00: Like it was never a part of my being.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't what I knew.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't, it was like, oh, I got to go to some cool um races.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_00: I got to go to the Tomb Raider premiere when we were in that movie.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_00: Like, oh, we were on Law and Order.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_00: Like I I never grasped it because it just wasn't my passion.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_00: Where you were in here at or riding in Moab in a car seat, yeah.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_00: I was playing ball, you know, and things like that.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_00: And so that was always my drive and passion was sports and then business, and I wanted to do business, I want to do clothing.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I did do that.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I tell you what, I'm not knocking college, it's important.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_00: I did learn a lot about time management and discipline from college.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I made a lot of great friends, but I didn't learn anything until I did it.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_03: Well, college is a big debate right now, and like a the time management thing is crucial.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, but like even when people ask my opinion about it, because I worked here the whole time I was in college, and it's like I learned more in the days I was working here than I spent in the hours in the classroom.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_00: I'm serious, and obviously I was very blessed because I had softball for sport, like for my schooling cost, and my mom obviously helped, which was a huge blessing, and I didn't have time to work.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I had so many friends who had to do both, though, and it was like I just commended them all the time.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, oh my gosh, you know, how do you do this?
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_00: Because it was so hard on that part.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_00: So the discipline and things like that that it taught me, um, I definitely appreciate.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_00: But I it was a whirlwind.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_00: You get out of school and you're like, oh, I know everything.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_00: I know what I'm doing.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_00: I'm about to open this store and I'm gonna be the next.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_00: In our town, we have a store named Karas, and she just that's I was like, I'm gonna be the next Karas.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_00: And let me tell you, it was hard.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_00: It was hard because I had had to learn about things that you didn't necessarily grasp in college.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_00: Just yes, you took a test on it, but I also was one that I didn't work during college, and that hindered me a lot because then when it was like instead of just going to get a big girl job, it was, oh, you opened a business.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_00: And there's no employee here but you.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_00: And so, like on a very, very small scale, I understood and appreciated our parents and grandparents who, if you didn't make those sales that day, you like didn't get paid, you know, and so but the bills didn't stop.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_00: And so I did have that learning lesson.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I had that store for I don't like a pretty good while it felt like yeah, eight, eight years or seven or eight years, and um loved that.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_00: And then in the time of that, I also became a CrossFit coach, which also led into like athletic wear into my store, which I just loved.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, that was like a whole nother passion.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_00: I was a CrossFit coach for like 10 years, I think.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, a long time.
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I still did that when I came here for a little while.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_00: And Evan CrossFitted with me, and it's like a family thing, and we love that.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_00: And but um then some stuff happened with my daughter, and it was just I couldn't handle a whole business and handle that.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and so we happened to have an opening up here because that was one thing.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_00: Like, if you there wasn't an opening, you weren't coming here.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you don't get to just like come be here, maybe in the summer, but not like a big girl job, like you know, unless there was one.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_00: And so thankfully there was an accounting position open when all that happened in my life, and so I was able to transition here.
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_00: And then shortly after, Lee, who was our previously previous market director for like 10, 12, 12 years, somewhere in that for a long time, yeah.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_00: You know, she stepped away to move to go work somewhere else, which was Chuck Hero at the time.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_00: And so it was like, hey, here's this position, and it was like such a god thing on how he moved in that.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_00: And so um, to then be able to come into Skyjacker, learn the industry, and honestly, I know it's so much deeper for y'all because it's been longer, but I love let me tell you if there's anywhere I could live, it would be Utah.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, if there's, I mean, it's just like my favorite place to go.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_00: I don't care what part of Utah, Colorado, mountains, give me that.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I just wasn't a mountain girl.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I was a beach girly, not a mountain girly.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_00: And now it's a hard toss-up of where I want to go.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_03: Well, uh, my wife, you know, they've always grew up going to the they they went to the beach son, but always grew up going to the mountains.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_03: And so she's like she loves it just as much as I do.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_03: And it's like we are always are like, man, mountains or the beach.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_03: Like, I know.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_03: I think we we would both prefer, I think, going to the mountains over the beach.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_00: But I think a lot of the family, at least Austin as well, too.
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_00: I think Allison will always be a beach girl, but there's a few of us I think that it'll be a toss-up.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_03: Oh yes, that's no doubt.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_00: But um, I do know, you know, with sharing some of my journey, you have you have a journey.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_00: You have a journey.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_00: Do you want to talk about little bits of that of what got you like through the last few years too?
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_00: Because I feel like everything that we've gone through the past handful of years has only brought, I think, the determination to make the company work more.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I think too, you know, so I graduated high school in 2018, started uh right out into college and and working part-time and trying to navigate both.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and then coming into let's see, I graduated in December of 2022.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_03: So my senior year of college was a pretty tough year.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_03: My wife and I got pregnant, super exciting.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, we had our uh baby boy, his name was Everett, uh, he had some heart issues and some genetic chromosome disorder, which was called 1P36, if you don't know what that is.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_03: So he was missing part of his first chromosome, which also resulted in some brain stuff, and he had nine heart complications too.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_03: So I uh in January of 2022, I switched to online school for my senior year.
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_03: Um and I had started at Louisiana Tech, transferred to because Louisiana Tech does the quarters, and then I went to Delta first semester before I finally ended up at ULM my sophomore year.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_03: So I was at ULM then.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_03: Then we had COVID after that, and then leading into everything, so it was just a crazy college experience.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_03: And so then I when I found out we were pregnant, I was like, well, I'm gonna have to work just about full time because we had just bought a house, you know, yeah, you gotta afford life, right?
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_03: So I transitioned to online school and started working um a minimum of 32 hours a lot of weeks.
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_03: I was working 40 plus hours to try to support my wife, the pregnant wife, and getting ready for lunch.
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so that was a very challenging year because one now I'm going to work and then doing college work from six to one in the morning every evening.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_03: And then uh we had Everett, and because of his complications, our local town, it's great, but did not have the care that we needed for Everett to be born, so we went to Austin's New Orleans.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_03: So he essentially moved there for the first three months of his life.
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_03: Um and you're still in school during this time.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_03: So that was we so he was born October 12th of 2022.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_03: So we we moved to New Orleans October 10th of 2022, and from October to basically January, we lived in New Orleans, and I was still full-time college because because I transferred, I had lost credit, so I had to do yeah, I went that the first semester of the year, I went all of summer, and then I went all of uh the fall fall too.
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_03: And the the fall semester I took like an extra, I was taking like 22 hours or something because I if I could I knew if I could just grind it out, then I'd be done, I'd be graduating and be over.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_03: Little did I know we would have complications in life.
• 39:40
  SPEAKER_03: So it was difficult because I was taking 22 hours of uh college courses, and then so I was doing that.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I mean, we'd wake up in the morning and go to the hospital at seven or eight in the morning, we'd be there for doctors' rounds, we'd stay there all day, then I would come back, do school for a few hours, go back to the hospital, and then at night we'd come back, and then I would.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, there were several nights I was up till three or four in the morning trying to just get through it, grind grind it out, and grind through it.
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_03: Because it at that time I was like, I have three months left.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's like life is so crazy, but I don't want to drop out because if I drop out, I literally have one semester of college left, and I know if I drop out, I'll probably never go back.
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_03: So I'm like, I just need to grind this this last semester out.
• 40:28
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so it was crazy.
• 40:30
  SPEAKER_03: We I I ended up finishing that semester, graduating college, and then uh Everett never got the surgery he needed um just because he was there was so much comp complexity going on with his case.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_03: So then we basically were sent home um with really no plan.
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_03: But we have a great doctor in town, Dr.
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_03: King, who phenomenal, world-renowned heart surgeon.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and he fought for Everett like he was his own kid, and we contacted like nine of the biggest children's hospitals in the country, and they all denied Everett's case.
• 41:07
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, but Arkansas Children's and Little Rock accepted Everett's case.
• 41:12
  SPEAKER_03: So then shortly after that, we uh essentially moved up to Little Rock and um they took care of him.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_03: We had his surgery there.
• 41:21
  SPEAKER_03: Um great people, wonderful staff, and that's where you know Ashton and uh Ellen M are getting Ella's care at now.
• 41:30
  SPEAKER_03: Phenomenal place.
• 41:32
  SPEAKER_03: Um but Everett ended up passing away due to his complexities in March of 2024.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_03: So from that, that year and a half was you know constant of fight or flight, and then I really wasn't able to work much because there was so much, it was so demanding to be there for Everett in summer in that time.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_03: And those years really the biggest lesson that those years taught me was how to just like put your head down and and like grind.
• 42:05
  SPEAKER_03: You gotta take care of the responsibilities in front of you.
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_03: Um and that was pretty tough.
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_03: Obviously, I mean losing a child is terrible and it's heart-wrenching still to this day.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_03: The pain doesn't get any easier.
• 42:16
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but it's just one of those it's the cards that we were dealt, and the Lord was kind to us through it all.
• 42:23
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and we're so grateful.
• 42:25
  SPEAKER_03: Now we have our beautiful baby girl Eloise that was born six months ago, healthy as could be.
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_03: We're so grateful for that.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_03: She's beautiful too.
• 42:33
  SPEAKER_03: Lord definitely blessed us with a beautiful, healthy child, and she is literally the easiest baby.
• 42:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 42:40
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, she only cries if she's hungry or half the time has a diaper, other half the time you don't even know.
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, but we're blessed with her.
• 42:49
  SPEAKER_03: And uh, so yeah, after uh Everett passed away, we came back home.
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_03: I was finally able to get back in office full-time again, and that was hard for me too, because my whole life, all I wanted to do is work.
• 43:00
  SPEAKER_03: Work.
• 43:01
  SPEAKER_03: It's like I finally am like at the end of my school to where I can, and then this came up, so it was like very much.
• 43:07
  SPEAKER_03: It was hard for you to accept my reality because I just wanted to work.
• 43:13
  SPEAKER_00: Well, and because of like you've just because we've talked so much, I'm not speaking for you, but I know you wanted to take on so much responsibility, and really you couldn't until you got back because you had to have a whole different responsibility that mattered more.
• 43:25
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 43:26
  SPEAKER_00: And so I know that that was a hard push and pull for you during that time.
• 43:29
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it was it was very tough because I mean, like I said, I've this is all I've ever wanted to do, and I knew that from a very, very young age.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_03: I feel like the Lord has always made that path very clear for me.
• 43:42
  SPEAKER_03: I've I've never questioned what I'm gonna do.
• 43:44
  SPEAKER_03: This has always been what I want to do in the trajectory.
• 43:47
  SPEAKER_03: So I was like, I didn't really want to go to college in the first place, but dad and paw paw wanted me to go, and I was like, All right, I'll go get the degree, whatever.
• 43:55
  SPEAKER_03: And so then it's like finally, senior year, let's close it out and get to work, and then you know, all that came up.
• 44:01
  SPEAKER_03: So it was tough to like, all right, I've wanted to do this my whole life, but now I've got to put this on the back burner to take care of this.
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_03: And um I'm glad though, because it taught me lessons that I never probably ever would have learned without that experience.
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_03: And yeah, at the end of the day, I think too, it makes like experiencing hard things in business now, I don't think rattles me near as much as what they would have been if I if I wouldn't have had a hard season of life that I would have had to go through.
• 44:31
  SPEAKER_00: I remember one of the times that you you saying that to me about it was something silly.
• 44:36
  SPEAKER_00: I think it was like a family thing, which is normal.
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_00: But it was you were just so like unbothered.
• 44:43
  SPEAKER_00: You're like really if that's the worst thing like let's roll with it.
• 44:46
  SPEAKER_00: We're good.
• 44:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I do think that that um a hard lesson to have to learn in the way you had to learn it obviously no one wants to have to learn it that way or be able to come be able to handle things that way because of a situation.
• 44:58
  SPEAKER_00: But I do think that it definitely has helped and I think it will help you going forward in business in the roles.
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_03: I agree.
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_03: I feel like it's you know you have to go through hard things to grow as a person and to uh figure out who you are.
• 45:11
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 45:12
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm grateful for that.
• 45:13
  SPEAKER_03: And I know you've you've had to experience that as well.
• 45:17
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah but I'm grateful I'm grateful for our story because it's made me who I am today.
• 45:21
  SPEAKER_03: It's made my family what it is today.
• 45:23
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 45:23
  SPEAKER_03: My marriage what it is today.
• 45:25
  SPEAKER_03: And um it just I feel like it better prepared me for my path in life and especially in business yeah in the future.
• 45:34
  SPEAKER_00: I would agree.
• 45:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I think too on top of that just to add to it you also now you and Summer which Summer will have on the podcast at some point we're going to try to have our spouses on which will be wild.
• 45:45
  SPEAKER_00: But um she handled everything I mean I can't talk about it a lot because I get emotional and I'm not crying on a podcast.
• 45:52
  SPEAKER_00: I refuse.
• 45:54
  SPEAKER_00: But she is such a light and so bright.
• 45:58
  SPEAKER_00: But y'all also were able to start a whole different business.
• 46:01
  SPEAKER_00: Y'all something that none of us have ever experienced or done.
• 46:04
  SPEAKER_03: So you want to help so we started a uh a nonprofit organization called Everett's Light Foundation.
• 46:10
  SPEAKER_03: It's a foundation to really just show love and support those that are walking through similar paths that Summer and I walk through whether that be financially supporting them, giving them grants paying for counseling you know whatever that looks like maybe because I mean there are times when it's tough and you can't even afford to get a hotel room because your bills back home didn't stop but you can't work because you're with your child.
• 46:37
  SPEAKER_03: So maybe we can put them up in a hotel room for a couple nights you know just something we can do to ease the pressure of those families walking through the hardest moments of their life.
• 46:47
  SPEAKER_03: So that's been really really cool and it's been a blessing.
• 46:51
  SPEAKER_03: We are we got a really cool board in place.
• 46:55
  SPEAKER_03: We do little baskets for like each holiday season like Mother's Days summer's summer likes to make baskets for all the mothers we'll go up to the hospital and pass those out uh Christmas baskets just because holidays for us holidays were almost basically the worst in the hospital.
• 47:12
  SPEAKER_03: Can only matter because you're just seeing everybody else celebrate their holidays and it's like man, you know, you wish you could be out you're grateful that you're there with your child but it's hard.
• 47:21
  SPEAKER_03: And um so we just do what we can to help and love and support those families walking through some of the similar stuff that we did.
• 47:29
  SPEAKER_03: And uh it's been a really uh cool experience and it also keeps you know Everett's name alive and using our our pain uh to give other people hope.
• 47:41
  SPEAKER_00: But I do think that um that's part of our family business and for part of the core belief system of us is firm rock on Jesus and knowing like there's no other way to make it through.
• 47:56
  SPEAKER_00: Even like for your parents and things you know that we saw struggle and have to go through that losing a grandchild and then supporting their son as he's going through this unimaginable pain.
• 48:05
  SPEAKER_00: Like you know so I feel like y'all have been able to shine light on Jesus so much through it.
• 48:10
  SPEAKER_00: And so I just I know Summer and her happy little glowy self and when they say they go take baths to the hospital they don't mean local they mean they drive to where these patients are to these hospitals and give these parents these gifts of love where they're like like you said stuck in a room for a holiday when everyone else's lives are not stopped but yours is stopped.
• 48:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yours is in that moment and until you experience that or see someone close to you experience that you really can't grasp the pain and the realness of that.
• 48:41
  SPEAKER_03: And so um anyway I I'm that's a whole different side of business that now you get to do and yeah and I mean talking about business it's pushed me more and summer's incredible summer has handled most of it just because I don't quite have the time to uh but I mean it's I mean you know you started your own thing too it just it pushes you and grows you even more you learn different things different lessons that you never could learn so but that's really I think the core thing that drives us is just doing it together, doing it for the family, growing it no matter what we always have I feel like each other's backs on that going forward and um again great staff great support here for employees and um so we just wanted to kind of like tell a little bit and answer some of those questions.
• 49:31
  SPEAKER_00: I think we're way over our time but these were these were great things.
• 49:36
  SPEAKER_00: We've had these questions a lot and so we haven't really had the time to stop and answer them um between events and then what do you do and things like that.
• 49:43
  SPEAKER_00: So I felt like today was the perfect day to do that before absolutely the rest of the season gets here and the events and the holidays and things like that.
• 49:51
  SPEAKER_00: So um stay tuned we have all of the ambassador meetup podcasts coming we have off the grid UA podcast coming um that's going to be exciting and then we have some actually planned at SEMA as well with some really cool people that we can't wait to have on.
• 50:08
  SPEAKER_03: So anyway thanks Ev all right thank you bye