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Supporting Local Business and Embracing Faith: A Conversation with Pro Skateboarder Beaver Fleming and Christina Werner From Public Square
What if you could be part of a movement that shifts the economy by supporting small businesses? Renowned professional skateboarder Beaver Fleming, alongside Christina Warner, joins us to reveal how they are making that possible through Public Square, an app dedicated to bolstering local businesses across America. From Beaver's intriguing journey of becoming part of the Nitro Circus family to the inception of Public Square and its skyrocketing growth to over 1.5 million active consumers, this conversation is packed with gripping stories and meaningful insights.
Faith plays a central role in the lives of our guests, and we delve into how it's shaped their personal and professional journeys, even in the face of opposition within the skateboarding industry. Christina and Beaver's unwavering faith shines a beacon of positivity and resilience in their work. From ringing the bell at the New York Stock Exchange to fostering respectful dialogue and maintaining healthy family relationships, their faith has been their rock, guiding them through their challenges and triumphs.
Be prepared for a deep, engaging discourse on their steadfast dedication to faith, the importance of respectful conversations, and the significance of family support when pursuing dreams. We also offer an exclusive peek into Beaver's rigorous physical training for the Nitro Circus tour and extract lessons from his book, 'Live', about leading a fulfilling life. Finally, we conclude with a thoughtful discussion on the power of trust, the importance of aligning ourselves with a higher purpose, and the significant impact of Public Square on small businesses nationwide. Join us for this truly enlightening conversation that will leave you inspired.
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Beaver Fleming and Christina Warner.
Speaker 2:You got it.
Speaker 1:Is your name. Do you want an abbreviation for your name? Is it Christina? Fine Christina is perfect. Beautiful Welcome to the podcast. Both of you, you thank you. Thank you so much for taking the time to come on. This is awesome and, Christina, it's taken a long time to get you here.
Speaker 2:It's taken a long time.
Speaker 1:It has taken a long time. But you also brought in really cool guests.
Speaker 2:You know what I figured when we had to do this? We're going to do it right. Bring a good guest with us. Yes, make it fun.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. So yeah, I appreciate you both taking the time and this is really great. I kind of I don't want to say read up, but look, because our guest is going to sound bad, but I didn't know he was.
Speaker 1:She's like I'm bringing people fun, that's all good, I was like sweet, I used to skate when I was a kid. Right, I'm 37 years old now, dude in a career, all I do is surf now, surf and skydiving, all this cool stuff. But man, you're a pro skater, yes, sir, and you are sponsored. Is it sponsored by Nacho Circus? Are you kind of work for them?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I'm part of the Nitro kind of family. Now we were just talking on the way here. I've been with them for 11 years, toured all over the world and it's been exciting yeah, 11 years. Yep.
Speaker 1:Whoa my goodness, how did you two meet?
Speaker 3:So we met. It's actually a really funny story. We're going to go ahead and let you tell that one.
Speaker 2:OK, so there's actually two. Are you thinking of? Was it Atlanta Georgia?
Speaker 3:Atlanta Airport.
Speaker 2:It was in the Atlanta Airport. Ok, so I use this story all the time. I tell people anytime I fly, wear a public square shirt and it's very smart.
Speaker 2:Hands down. There's always somebody walking into the airport. Wherever I am, they go hey, I know that company, or hey, do you work for them? Or hey, really cool. It's kind of like if you know, you know, and if you don't, you don't. So Beaver and his wife are walking the other direction and they just real quick, go, hey, cool company. And I'm like, yeah, yeah, Then come to find out, we were actually on the same flight. We're both headed to San Diego. Long story short, when we started talking about Hawaii skateboards, you ended up giving us 15 skateboards to take. When we went to Hawaii to give out to kids in need. Beaver's awesome.
Speaker 1:My man Beaver, let's go. Yeah with the bell. Very good, heck. Yeah, I like it.
Speaker 2:So Beaver is a big fan of giving back to his community and are giving to kids and encouraging them and supporting them. So that's kind of how it started.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then we both live in San Diego. And then went down the whole public square train.
Speaker 1:So how is Nitro Circus involved with public square? Or is it just you solely, beaver?
Speaker 3:So I signed with public square at the beginning of the year to be an ambassador and kind of they would become a sponsor of everything I was doing. And then Nitro was gearing up for its 20th anniversary tour and I was like this is an awesome opportunity to maybe bring someone in because one of their sponsors ended up pulling out. But I brought that idea to the table. Michael the CEO was a huge fan of Nitro Circus growing up and he's like wait, we could sponsor Nitro Circus, oh my gosh. So I helped get that meeting together and they are the official sponsor of our 20th anniversary tour, which starts here in three weeks.
Speaker 2:That requires a let's go yeah big time.
Speaker 3:It was so it's so rad.
Speaker 1:I think so. How long has public square been around now? Is it three years, two years?
Speaker 2:Well, when we met, that was the very, very beginning of it, that's what I was going to say. I mean it's like rallies, it's freedom. We're just like in your community, like who's supporting freedom here. But we've been nationwide for a little over a year now. So yeah, incorporated February 2021, wrote the first slide of code. April 2021, launched our MVP. Product was just a minimal, viable product of the app October 2021. And then kind of started building from there.
Speaker 1:Public square yeah, from when I met you, because I remember it was almost like I guess you could say it was startup right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah To now has exploded. Crazy.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:Still pinching myself.
Speaker 1:I love it. It's amazing. And so people know what public square is. Who don't know yet? Can you explain that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, sure Do I have the one that says America's Marketplace Perfect. So we started off.
Speaker 3:You could ring the bell, let's go. Simple, right, yeah, simple, let's go.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we all just back up to tell the story in the middle and the idea came prior to the pandemic. But we're in the middle of this season where our liberties are getting taken away and we're realizing wait, who's going to support these small businesses that want to stay open and kind of, in that season, launched out just in San Diego? People want to support these businesses. They just don't know where they are. People are over Starbucks and all the virtue signaling and all the woke stuff. Where is a local coffee shop? Loves America Is open, maybe veteran owned, so that's kind of how that started. Then we went out nationwide.
Speaker 2:So public square now really is shifting like the alternative economy to basically America's Marketplace. So when you jump on the public square app, there's over 1.5 consumers on there actively shopping at these local small mom and pop to medium sized businesses. We have well over 65,000, I would say probably way more than that now. Yeah, nationwide, all over. So instead of choosing to support the Amazons and the targets and the Walmart's of the world, you can go support an awesome local business that loves America, loves freedom, loves family values. I love it, I know I love it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's great. So when you guys first started out, that must have been difficult. I know it's like having a startup and doing something. I have a few businesses even doing this podcast. It is difficult, but to go from where you were to where you are now, I mean it's phenomenal.
Speaker 2:Yeah, to be able to sponsor Nitro Circus. I literally walked in the room that day and I was like, oh my gosh, you guys, I mean my kids even named after one of their athletes. I mean I love Nitro Circus. I was watching them from day one, walked in the office like freaking out. I'm like, oh my gosh, I can't believe this. This is so exciting. So, yeah, it's come a long way from startup literally knocking on the doors of mostly restaurants in Carlsbad, california, knowing that they stayed open with a concept, not even having an app. If we had something like this, would you want to be on it? Would you let people come support you? And then here we are now.
Speaker 1:That's amazing. Now, when someone goes to public square, can they shop online with these places? Or does it let you know where they are so you can commute? Like can not commute but go shop in person?
Speaker 2:Yeah, both, Both. So this is what's. It's very different than Amazon in the sense that we really still love that local community feel. So when you go on the Public Square app, there's the first tab, which is a featured tab. So it's just a way we can feature certain things. For instance, do you remember the Dylan Mulvaney when it was the Hershey's bar?
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:OK, that whole thing right. Ok. So you jump onto Public Square and you find all these alternatives. So somebody reach out to us that day and said, oh, please tell me, you have a chocolate store or two on Public Square? We do, there's like seven. So we just on the featured page, had a highlight of different chocolate alternatives, because that's a hot topic right now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:And the next tab over is an online tab, so you can go look, similar to Amazon, but go on a search bar and look online and at the moment it's a directory of the businesses, but pretty soon we're launching e-commerce.
Speaker 1:Let's go. Yeah, E-commerce OK.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it's going to go from a directory. Right now, when you click on a business, it's going to take you to their website. Pretty soon, you're going to be able to shop at multiple different businesses inside the Public Square app.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's phenomenal.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then the third button is just your local map so you can click on locally. You can see on our way here. We just looked around. It's like if you need some turf grass, it also is on there.
Speaker 3:Transmission, yeah, transmission. I'm like if we lose our transmission.
Speaker 2:we're covered, Covered. So then you can see the local businesses that support these values here.
Speaker 1:How did you get involved so early? Re-friends with it's Mike, right yeah.
Speaker 2:Re-friends with him, yeah yeah. So my husband and myself have known Michael and his now wife before they were even married. So we worked together at a high adventure Christian camp in Northern California. So we've known him for years. And what's really awesome is anytime I get to speak when he's not around I can just say he's legit, it's the real deal. And so when he had this idea and this concept probably 10 plus years ago, but then had started a podcast, basically, where he kept getting asked the same two questions over and over OK, well done with Nike, but where do I find a shoe company that supports my values or at least is not supporting sweatshops in China?
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:And then the second issue all right, well, I'm alone in my city. I'm the only one, and he's doing the rea. I saw him over there. He's like no, you're not. There's about 6,000 people within your neighborhood that think the same way that you do. You just feel like you've been silenced. And so it's just this culmination of those two ideas how do we make people realize You're really not alone, even in Southern California? And then also, helping people be able to vote with their wallet. Those are the two concepts. And so I'm just a lucky friend. To be honest, I am not a tech developer. Remember saying to Michael I'm like, yes, I am all in, whether it's scrubbing the toilets or leading a big team. I said, but I know nothing about technology. I give my daughter my app, your phone.
Speaker 2:My phone did my app. I'm like, how do we turn off the notifications? But he's like, no, we hire those people. I just need people that are in it for the mission and are going to be their support and not sway over any reason or money or power or any of that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1:Well, it's cool. You said you worked at Christian camps, because my first thought was for Public Square to move as fast as it did and do as well as it's doing. You can't tell me God's not in that.
Speaker 2:I mean, that's super natural.
Speaker 1:It's amazing, very much so.
Speaker 2:Very much so. In fact, one of our very first hires I remember being like is this weird? But we offered to give someone a salary, a paycheck, to be our head per person praying over us, because we're like, what we're coming after there's actually kind of a lot of evil.
Speaker 3:Like it's super evil.
Speaker 2:And so we're like we want to be covered. So that's one of our first hires.
Speaker 1:That is so awesome. And then you meet this guy at an airport yeah, let's go. And it was really cool because, like I said, I was kind of looking at your social media and stuff and you had some Bible verses up and I was like no way, man, this is so cool. So has faith been a big part of your life, your entire life, or has it been like during skating, before skating? How does that work? How did that work out?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean absolutely. Faith has always been so important in my life. I grew up, actually, in Tennessee, where skateboarding isn't as popular as here in Orange County or Southern California, where you see 20, 30 people skating down the street every 10 minutes. I didn't even know what a skateboard was till my brother had the Tony Hawk video game, and so that's how I got it was the best. I'm literally watching these guys, and when you're a kid, all you want to do is fly. So my brother he wouldn't let me play the older brother thing. He's like you can sit and watch me, but I'm not letting you play this game. So I'm watching these guys fly in the air, but they're using the skateboard to do it, and this is the coolest thing I've ever seen. These guys are literally flying. I want to do this. And so our neighbor had a skateboard and I'll never forget. I was like I wonder if skateboarding is as much fun as watching my brother play this video game. And then I took it out and just when you're a kid, you have the wildest imagination. You could do the special tricks in the game. So I was like, oh, I'm going to do a Christ Air. And so I'm just standing on the ground holding my board like I'm in a Christ Air, throw it down and pretend like I landed and it just literally.
Speaker 3:I'd always love the idea of being an athlete, but didn't like with team sports. If I wanted to do great at baseball, I had to rely on the whole other team to do great as well. When kids weren't into it, they wanted to dig in the dirt. I was that kid that was digging in the dirt. It was a little too slow to play, to be honest, but it's like you had to rely on everyone to be all in in order to go. But skateboarding it was like if I wanted to get good, I could do that, but it was up to me. Am I willing to fall on my face 50 times before I land a kickflip? Am I willing to continue to press on? So it taught me a lot of that perseverance.
Speaker 3:But faith has always been very integral in my life because I had that dream to be a pro skater. But that was such a far fetched dream from where I grew up when skateboarding wasn't popular. I grew up in a Christian home but it was Southern Baptist and I would say the place I was most told that what are you going to do with your life? You can't really be a pro skater. Was the church, unfortunately, and so thankfully it never turned me away from God. But I didn't really like church because I just felt a lot of hypocritical people Like you're saying one thing but you're not living congruently.
Speaker 3:Then I would read the Bible for myself, like my dad and my mom would pray for us all the time. So that's where the faith really got introduced to me, and I would always see the Bible on my dad's desk and he'd be reading it before work. And so I started reading the Bible and I'm like wait, it says commit to the Lord whatever you do and your plan will succeed. Well, I'm going to commit my skating to him, and so that's what I did. And when I was 17, I moved from Tennessee to California in pursuit of this dream, and that's where I would say I kind of started to stop living off my parents' faith, live on my own faith. Because I was like God, if I'm going all in on this dream and I know nothing and I'm leaving everything I got to do it with you, like I can't do it on my own, that's a big move.
Speaker 1:It was a big move At 17 years old, at 17. Is that when you first got kind of sponsored, or is that when you said you were coming out here? Is that when you started pursuing it seriously?
Speaker 3:That's when I started competing at the national level and the discipline I was competing in was the big half pipe. Well, the big closest half pipe to us was like three hours away. So I was like, if I'm competing and making top the podium at these contests nationally and I don't even have this ramp here, if I get this ramp and I can train on it, maybe I could go somewhere with it. And so that's when I was like, ok, well, if I'm serious about this, then I've got to start making these decisions. And Woodward, which is an action sports camp, it's a crazy God story too, because this school only existed for my senior year high school. So they had a boarding school at this action sports camp for one year, and it just happened to be my senior year.
Speaker 1:And I'm the only graduate.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's out here into Hatchapee.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah. So OK, hold on, let's remember back up here for a second. So you were winning and doing good at these competitions on half pipe, yep, and you didn't have one.
Speaker 3:Yep, I had an eight foot one in my backyard, but the test one was like, yeah, 13 feet. So I'm like all right if I'm figuring out how to do well, and I don't even skate this thing every day like it's game on. So when did you?
Speaker 1:get your first sponsorship.
Speaker 3:So I got my first. Well, actually the funny thing was Nitro has pretty much been my first sponsor, and how I got involved with Nitro was through that boarding school as well, which is a pretty crazy story. If we want to go there, we can get to that, yeah.
Speaker 1:It all wind up, just perfect right.
Speaker 3:It did. It's crazy. And again to faith. I was about to graduate high school. I'm 17, about to turn 18. I'm like, am I going to go back to Tennessee or am I going to try and stay out here in California? What am I going to do? But I literally just remember like clear as day. I just prayed God, if this is what you're calling me to, then I need some sort of door. Like I wasn't quite ready to compete at the pro level, but I knew I wanted to pursue skateboarding and figure out a way to make a living doing it. And sure enough, travis Pastrana ends up coming to Woodward because his wife's a pro skater.
Speaker 1:Oh really.
Speaker 3:Yeah, his wife is a pro skater, lindsey, and so they're coming up there because he's doing some race testing somewhere near there and she wanted to go skate so I heard he might be coming. So I ended up going to the hangar and sure enough he's in there and he started filming me before I even met him, which was crazy. So my buddy, that's a mountain bike guy, he's like dude Travis is filming, you better throw down. And I'm like all right let's go do this, that's awesome, so crazy how it works.
Speaker 3:But then I'm like, hey, I've been working on these tricks into the foam pit, let me know what you think. He starts filming and he's like dude, we've got to have you a part of Nitro Circus. We're touring in Australia in two months. Can you be there? And I'm like freaking out. I've always wanted to meet this guy. Now he's inviting me to be a part of Nitro Circus, which is the biggest group of action sports athletes in the world. And so, literally my 18th birthday, I'm on my first flight to Australia to join the tour.
Speaker 1:Dude, I would be pretty much myself Still Like wait. What this is happening. It's incredible. What year was that?
Speaker 3:That was in 2012. Whoa, so you've been involved for a long time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, good for you. Now the ramps yes, ok, so you go. From what size the ramps in competition? You said 13 feet.
Speaker 3:So yeah, that's the standard half pipe, but then the mega ramp. That's like what we do at Nitro Circus.
Speaker 1:So you do a Nitro Circus.
Speaker 3:What's the? How big is that? So it's about a 60 foot drop and a 50 foot gap. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Christina, I can't. There's no way. There's no way, no way. I would not make it. I wouldn't survive. Yeah, did you have to build up to that? I'm sure you had to at some point, right. For sure you had to go down that 60 foot ramp and all that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was definitely terrifying. I had grown up and always, like I said, watching Tony Hawk. These guys are flying, so the bigger the ramp, the more you're flying right. So, however, it's like I didn't know, and it's really funny because I remember going to Australia I'd skated a few ramps, but nothing that size, so I just had my standard skateboard, but I didn't know that you needed specialized products for the higher speed.
Speaker 1:See, I didn't know that so.
Speaker 3:I just go down. I'll never forget my first time going down the thing. I start getting the speed wobbles. Yeah, I barely make it off the lip of the ramp and then Lindsay Travis's wife looks at my board and she's like you rode down on this thing, what the heck, dude? And then just starts taking my trucks off, rebuilding my entire board, and then after that we were good to go.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so now with NitroSurgus. Yeah, so you pretty much travel with every event.
Speaker 3:Yeah, like I said, I've been with them since 2012, and the tour has taken us all over the world. It's huge. In Australia, we've gone all throughout Europe, we've done Japan, we've even done Russia. It's been amazing. I never, like I'd always, dreamed of traveling the world, but never thought this would be the way it would be done. But again, it's just God's faithfulness to His promise to do more than we could ever ask or imagine.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you got to admit too, I mean stepping out in faith.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Knowing that, I say this a lot now and I always say I'm a prodigal son, ok, yeah. When you listen to earlier episodes on here, you can hear a man struggling. Yeah, someone who knew about his faith but was away from it. Then I had certain things happen in my life. It will bring you to your knees where you have nothing left, but you're a God and it will change you Either. My dad. I love how my dad says this man. He's a very tough man. He was a Green Bray for a long time.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow 20, 22 years, so he's very different. But his thing is you have to learn, or you're taking out a lab Wow, that's what he says every time. That's good, you learn your lesson, or you're just taking out a lab, wow, yeah. And I was like man, I keep taking these labs. I need to. You know like I need to Time to learn. Yeah, like Christian, these labs are getting a little tiring here.
Speaker 1:You know, I got to change something and it's really cool when you finally surrender, and that was a big thing that I had to learn to surrender right. And in the profession that I'm in, even with my co-host Jordan, who's not here tonight, that's one thing that was hard for us as firefighters, because we have to be in so much control. We have to right yeah, call 911. And we're there to help your family. We gotta have the answers. Yeah, you know, we need to fix the problem Right. So for us to surrender is very difficult, you know, and I remember feeling that like, ok, it's time to stop doing it your way, start doing it the Lord's way, you know, and giving it's almost like you said anything that I want to pursue or do late before him. Yeah, you know, put the he even says cast your anxieties, put it on me. Yeah, I'll take care of it, we'll figure it. You know I'll figure it out for you, but it's your, you know, it's your responsibility.
Speaker 3:Right Search that out.
Speaker 1:For sure Word, to be in prayer and to do all that. And I can say, at least for me, and this is like the first time in my life where I don't have control. I don't know what the future holds, yeah, but I'm at peace, come on.
Speaker 3:I'm totally cool, let's go, you know, and it's powerful.
Speaker 1:It's very powerful, yeah, life changing. But it's also made some people really upset, yeah, which is very surprising. People that I've known my whole life. Wow, I started talking about my faith on here and they got really upset Really. Oh yeah, dude. Oh yeah To the point where, like no, not friends anymore.
Speaker 3:That's insane.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:It's funny how like that is so controversial for people it really is.
Speaker 1:It's crazy, that's why, when I saw you speaking, you know, and then Christine was talking about you know, mike, I'm like I love that you're not afraid to talk about your faith.
Speaker 2:Well, here's the thing. I had a conversation on the drive here with someone that you probably only had the one side of it. I was like, listen, your people are always going to be offended.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:There's going to be somebody that doesn't like it. Yeah, it's too hot, it's too cold, like you know what I mean. Just it's okay. Yeah, you just get in. Who are you actually accountable to?
Speaker 3:Yeah, my God, the word right there. Let's go, yes.
Speaker 2:Audience of one.
Speaker 1:So really, at the end of the day, yeah, yeah, that's that's been a you know, for me personally it's been a bit of a struggle at times.
Speaker 3:You know, because you care about the people you do, you do and you're like, really, you're going to let this I mean, it's the same thing as like COVID, though You're going to let that get in the way of us. I always say this I say no offense unless it causes you to change. Yeah Right, because the offense shouldn't be there unless there's something you don't agree with. And that fence builds a wall around you. So you're limited by what you see and you're putting that wall in between you and someone else. You're offended. You're literally building a fence in between me and you. If I don't agree with something, it's like shouldn't be building that fence. We should be open minded enough to have a conversation and not just be guarded.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely no in that in your profession you know be a professor of skateboarder and being a man of faith.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You found that difficult working with certain people. Oh yeah, Absolutely.
Speaker 3:I mean, if you think about it, like skateboarding, the culture, literally, the biggest magazine in skateboarding their logo is a pentagram, right, like it's literally. And I love those things about skateboard not the pentagram, but I love that skateboarding was so rebellious because it made me, it gave me something like I don't. I know I'm different. This gives me an outlet to be different. And the thing about skateboarding is there's no right or wrong way to do it. You can do it however you want to do it.
Speaker 3:However, the skate culture kind of flips on its head and is like, unless you're wearing these shoes, unless you're wearing these pants, like you're not cool unless you're listening to this music.
Speaker 3:So it's really funny.
Speaker 3:So I've kind of had a really unique pursuit in my skateboarding career because it's like I'm not like all the other skateboarders, like I actually have passion, not that they don't have passion, but I actually care about other things than skateboarding and I care about making a difference and bringing positivity into it.
Speaker 3:Like skateboarding is very rebellious and you know you're grinding and vandalizing, like that's kind of the culture in skateboarding, but I'm like man, it can be so much more and so in at times that has definitely there's been a war. There definitely been a spiritual war in a sense, because I mean that's the culture of skateboarding. But I'm trying to be the light in that industry and in that culture, and so anytime there is, there's full opposition, like who is this guy, like what does he think he's, you know, and people do whatever they can to either make fun of you, so your style's lame, whatever, and yeah, I mean I've experienced it all. But at the end of the day it's like I'm not going to let your opinion of me dictate whether I'm having fun on my board or not.
Speaker 2:They can. They can make fun of your style. Who's on the tour?
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, sorry you don't like my style. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:It's good, though, because it seems like you're still steadfast and what you believe. Yeah you know, that's one thing I I would say is a mistake in my earlier years, at least in my 20s, even teens is basing my faith off people yeah, church, and that will wound you, because sure, reality is we're all imperfect.
Speaker 1:People are people, people are people and even our best air is filthy, rags right. It says, yeah, the Lord in the Bible, and you know so that's. That's. One thing I've learned is people are people. Grace, love, forgiveness is what I believe in.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And. But I'm going to base my faith off what the Bible says, what the Lord is and who he says he is. You know, and that's been very powerful for me, it's changed relationships in my personal life. Professional, I surf a lot, I skydive a lot. So yeah, the I would guess you say action sports around.
Speaker 1:Yeah, let's go Gliding yeah you know, people from all around the world come out to California to skydive and to surf. Yeah, I've met some amazing people and it's all just about being nice. Yeah, I'm just cool with. I tried to put everyone the water at the drop zone. Yeah, you know, I used to surf like the big. You know I want to go to the peak and hey, hey, you're yelling at people. Now I'm kind of like off to the side. I'll catch a little bit smaller ways, but I'm having fun. You see, people start kind of coming over, yeah, and it's like I'm cheering people on.
Speaker 1:We're having a good time and there is really cool. The other day there's this guy down at church. You know, churches surf spot, oh yeah. So I usually go down there during the summer because North Orange County is just terrible. Yeah, there's nothing happening. And I see him out a few times and I longboard and have mid lengths and so I'm out there. You know, it was a, it was a pretty big day is when the hurricane hit. So we had probably like a hurricane, yeah right, the guys actually got swell.
Speaker 2:We didn't in San Diego. Oh really. We went down to the beach like 6am. Let's go see this. It was like six inches Nothing.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh. Yeah, it was. It was at least the first day, the first day that the hurricane yeah, you guys got it yeah.
Speaker 1:And it was it. You know, I was down there and it's it's big, there's not too many people out and I took one of my high performance longboard so I was like hanging 10 down the face, wave and but I saw this. I've seen him quite often and usually there's a class between shortboard, longboard and he's shortboards, but I was all when he caught a wave I cheered him on. I was like, yeah, whistling and doing anything and he's like man, I love your vibe Like this is cool.
Speaker 3:His name, scott, super cool dude, so it seemed like he's like yeah, he's like you, don't bring this attitude you.
Speaker 1:You cheer everybody on. You want to have fun? I'm like, dude, we're all here, just have a good time. Yeah, life's difficult enough as it is. Let's come out here and just have fun. We got to share a wave with share wave. Yeah, it is what it is.
Speaker 2:But but you see, people, you can have the most accurate, truthful opinion on something or facts, and if you're shoving it down, people's, they're not going to receive it. Right yeah they're not going to receive it.
Speaker 3:So, 100%.
Speaker 2:You need to be kind. Love people bring something with joy. Actually, since, since we're talking about it, the one of my favorite sayings that maybe I've made up is the fruits of the spirit. You know, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control, seriousness is not one of them. Did you know? Oh wow, joy is joy yeah. So we're supposed to have fun, we're supposed to be joyful and you're supposed to smile at people, and that's really how you just start a relationship and you can crack a heart open when it's so hard.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I've. I've noticed for myself, by living like we're supposed to not judging people, we're all making mistakes. Like I always tell my friends, I don't care what you do you are, life is based off choices. Right, you're going to reap the benefit, you're going to reap not the benefit, depending on what you choose to do. Yep, but I'm just gonna be here and be here for you. I'm not going to judge you, I'm not going to put you down, because I know what it's like to fail and where I'm almost critic, I'm very hard on myself.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I don't need someone to tell me, hey, you messed up, I just need someone to be there. Yeah, that's kind of what I've done and cultivating, just trying to be around people and bring the good vibes, and I've had a lot more buying with that, instead of coming at people and just charging hard. You know it's like because I know I don't receive that way. Yeah, that's not me, I'm not going to listen to you. You can start showing things down, but it just does. For sure I do. But it's really cool to see both of you in your realm working hard, being successful but still having your faith. That's huge. Yeah, because it's not easy. I don't like I want to. You know, I don't know if you guys have watched that chosen series.
Speaker 3:Yeah, a little bit. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:It just shows you how God used the imperfect people in the everyday life.
Speaker 2:Thank goodness.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's like you don't have to go out and be a preacher, like even in my career field. It's tough.
Speaker 1:I'm working with type A personalities hard job Bulldogs oh yeah, Very, very, really tough men. So it gets. You get made fun of oh yeah, it is what it is. But you got to have that tough skin. You can't sit there and just hate back on the person or throw that guy out, what's like. But I've been able to have a lot more deeper relationships at work and conversations, yeah, realizing they're like hey, I heard you're going through this. Yeah, man, you're handling that Well. You're still coming to work smiling. Yeah, this is why, Because I have this and this is what's happening. And next thing, you know they're opening up, Right, and they're talking.
Speaker 1:I'm like oh, you're going through that too. Well, sit down, let's have a couple of coffee and talk. Let's get through this. So I think that's great on both of you what your base, what home is for you, and you're living that not just in your personal life, in your professional life. It's beautiful, it's not easy and being a believer is not, I would say, not taking the easy route in life. It's very difficult.
Speaker 1:You're going to be challenged, you're going to be tempted, it's going to be difficult, but the rewards behind it are so huge. Yeah, you know, it's beautiful. It's a beautiful thing, man, and life is such a gift. Yeah, you know, in my career field, unfortunately, we see people leave this earth daily. And you see the struggle. You see people who are in need of something.
Speaker 3:And you're like ah, I know the answer.
Speaker 1:But you have to dance around that as well. And you're working for the government, you're like, ooh, you got to be real careful what you say but I can see. I believe the Lord has all of us in a position of lives for a reason. You're there for a reason I remember there was a time I went to work. I'm like dude, I want to be here today.
Speaker 1:I'm tired and this and that. And the next thing, you know, we had a call and this lady's husband passed away and I had to tell her she's old and I saw her on her knees and she was praying and so I just quietly shut the door. I said, ma'am, she's like he's gone right. I said yeah, and I said you know, I see you praying. Do you mind if I take a knee with you and pray? And she just started crying. She's like I'm so thankful you're here. Wow, and I remember thinking that day I didn't want to be there.
Speaker 1:She said I was praying that someone just be here right now to be with me and pray, because my kids are on the way but they're not here.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 1:And I was like well, I'm right here. I said I may have some tattoos, but I'm going to pray. Yeah, you were absolutely meant to be there, yeah, so it's like sometimes, you know, I find myself complaining, you know. I don't want to be here right now. I need to be doing this or doing that and then to realize be in the moment. You know, I promise tomorrow you're right here.
Speaker 1:for this reason, you know you're in National Circus for a reason. You're a pro skater for a reason. You're with Public Square for a reason. Look where it's taken off. You know how many times I open up social media and I see your face with people. I'm like how did she get there?
Speaker 2:You know, I actually just pulled out all the lanyards that I think I had like thrown somewhere and it was like, and I looked, I was like, is there that many weekends in one, two years? I was like, dang, how is everywhere? And you know, and some people will think, oh, you're such a big company. I'm like, no, it's me If you're asking me to go to an event, it's the past year and a half too. It's like, well, then I got to go fly across the country, or, you know, we have a bigger team now, but in the very beginning it was exhausting, but that's OK.
Speaker 1:I signed up for it. Yeah, but something great you went to the New York Stock Exchange.
Speaker 2:On my birthday. That is huge.
Speaker 1:Because I remember I had hit you up hey, do you want to come this week? Come to Pog, I should like. I'm going to New York, I'm going to ring the bell and I was like what I know.
Speaker 2:How does this even happen?
Speaker 3:So incredible yeah. I mean, I thought it was amazing yeah.
Speaker 2:God.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:Again, yeah, for sure. I mean, I remember in the beginning saying OK, five, six, seven years head down before we even. I think we even made a pact as a team which I won't hold anybody to it. It's like as soon as we get like a million consumers on the out, we've got to all get a tattoo together or something like that. And now we're like well over 1.5. It's like once we get 50,000 businesses and remember it's like just maybe if we could talk to some local person. Or it's like the time we actually get to talk to Tucker, it's like we've made it and it's like, wow, now our New York Stock Exchange publicly traded. That's amazing, it's pretty awesome.
Speaker 1:How was that rigging the bell doing that? How nervous were you? You seem very confident.
Speaker 2:I wasn't nervous, it just still felt pretty surreal. I'd say the whole day was pretty surreal. It's like whoa. And it's actually very sobering in a sense that most companies, when you ring the bell, it's we've made it, now we sell off our stock, we're going corporate, this, and that it's totally different for us as a company. For us, this is really like the starting point. We're like OK, now we get to buckle down and we've literally just I mean, we're just starting.
Speaker 2:We're just starting to put a dent in the market to help these small businesses. So now it really feels like we just have a little bit more wind behind our sails to actually continue to shift the economy to really support America, to support these businesses that need the help, get the consumers to start shifting their dollars. So it's like the starting point. Honestly, we're just kind of crazy. You go from super exhausted to like OK, here we go, now we're starting.
Speaker 1:I'm sure your company's had some pushback. Oh yeah, because you were. Let's be real, both of you are going against the flow. You are not going with the social norm right now or the agenda.
Speaker 2:So there's had to be a pushback.
Speaker 1:I don't know if you've gotten messages or hate.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:And even when I saw you out some of the rallies, there was times that people were yelling at me. I'm like oh god, here we go, dude.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I had gosh. Just speaking of being at the beach and surfing, it's like a three o'clock in the afternoon. My son's, I think, in third grade at the time out surfing, and this lady comes up to me with her short colored hair and her wife's behind her and she's like shaking mad.
Speaker 1:Here we go.
Speaker 2:You, are you so-and-so's mom? I said, yes, I am. Oh, I saw you on the news. And no, no, no, no. And honestly, I wish I could actually understand what she was trying to say. She was so upset. First of all, the only thing I could hear her say is you support let them breathe, don't you? And I was like yes. And then I wanted to say do you hear yourself? Yeah, yes, I support the children breathing. It's an organization that was against the mass mandates for children so that they can breathe.
Speaker 2:I actually logically think that's a great thing you support. Let them breathe. And she just starts yelling at me and she's pointing fingers and all these parents on the beach are like what's going on. And I'm like, ma'am, you know well on social media I said I actually don't have a public social media account. At the time I didn't, so I'm like I'm trying to understand what you're saying and she goes well here, just sit back up while you're.
Speaker 2:I'm in being. And she turned around and walked away and I just said, well, god loves you. And I wanted to give her a hug but I knew that would not be received and she was like run away from the beach. I was like man, like whatever happened in her life to make her this upset at somebody who wants to just support children breathing fresh air? I was like, oh man, so you're going to get some of that.
Speaker 1:Well, I think the day of agreeing to disagree is gone, and maybe that happened within the last four years, maybe it's been a little sooner, I don't know. But what happened to the day where I could sit across from you, beaver, and say we're different political beliefs? Why can't we just talk about it?
Speaker 3:And have respect, exactly, have respect for one another, respect each other.
Speaker 1:Respect your beliefs and maybe I learned something. Maybe I might change my mind on one or two things not fully, maybe you change your mind on a few things, but why can't we talk and be of different beliefs and just agree? That's what America was founded on.
Speaker 3:Exactly.
Speaker 1:I mean we have the freedom. What's great about this country is you can be anything you want to be. Yeah, you can be a pro skater, you can do business, you can have podcasts, you can be an astronaut if you want to.
Speaker 1:I teach at a college and I teach a bunch of the fire courses and I bring it up all the time your life is your responsibility. If you don't become what you want to become, you have no one to blame but yourself. And I always bring up the astronaut application and it's like can you be a pilot, mathematician and all this stuff? I'm like here you go, is that for me?
Speaker 3:Not at all. I am not going to do that.
Speaker 1:But you can be what you want to be and that's what makes this country so beautiful and what's also beautiful about it. And what kind of lines up with my job is in the fire service. You have all walks of life coming in. You can have someone who worships Satan, atheist, christian, buddhist, whatever, but we come together as a team and we are there to serve the community, even if that means we lay down our lives for the person. And then when we serve and people call 911, we don't care if you're poor, destitute or you have the most money in the world. We're going to treat everyone the same.
Speaker 1:We're there to give you a second chance and help you and figure out what's going on, but now it's just like you don't believe what I believe. Middle finger F you. You're terrible. It's like what happened. Man, why can't we have this conversation and just chat?
Speaker 2:Which one we're talking. Well, OK, I honestly think this is going to swing back around. I think that this whole crazy ideology and just the whole I don't even like to use the word liberal, because really a true liberal is very different, but the way it's gone now in culture, I think it's going to become so avant-garde and actually the cool thing for kids, this next generation, I think, is going to be like I'm just like a traditional American.
Speaker 2:I do I actually think like oh, I just want to get married and have my family and kind of go back to the traditional American roots. I think that's actually going to be like the punk rock kids going to get some fun Next generation so I'm hoping that this swings back around a bit.
Speaker 3:I think it will, and the people that work hard will be rewarded for that Like because here's the thing On their side.
Speaker 3:they're just going to want to keep arguing about things. They're not going to get anything done. So it's like for those that are willing to work like I would say it all the time it's like money's always there to be made for those who are willing to go and make it. It's what you make out of it. You can be like your astronaut list. You can be whatever you want to be, but is that what you want? Decide and then put in the work to get there and it'll happen. Well, let me think about how far you've come.
Speaker 1:How many hours, how many times did you mess up and fall?
Speaker 3:Let me check the scabs on my shins real quick. See what we got Scars. How many scars of me, oh shins.
Speaker 1:I mean you put in the time and the work and the effort right. It's, when you start something, you're not the CEO, you're not Tom Pock, right away. We all start at the bottom. But you have to be willing to put in that time and the sacrifice and willing to fail. And I tell people there's nothing wrong with failing. I have failed so many times but I fail forward, if that makes sense Absolutely. You learn, you re-gather. Okay, I'm not going to make that decision and I'm going to go down this route. So putting in that time and that work seems to be kind of lost as well. I see that with teaching and some other things that I'm involved in. It's like people, I got a degree, I'm good.
Speaker 3:I should be. Everyone wants. Well, I call it the microwave mentality. Our culture is just in this microwave mentality and I think social media is hijacked. This because it's like if I'm not making a million dollars, I'm not doing anything with my life, and it's like people think they start a business. It's got to be successful over time. But it's like very rare is it a public square where it's like actually God's favors on it because we need this in our culture right now, that his hand of provision is going to be around it and all the right people that believe in it too are going to fund it and get it going.
Speaker 3:But for the most part, it's like you've got to believe in it enough that even if it doesn't work for five years, 10 years, whatever it is, maybe by that 11th year it'll work and having that mindset if you truly believe it. Same with skateboarding it's like I truly believe in it and I always say this because I have friends that are musicians in great bands as well and I remember being a kid like same thing in a small town and Buddy loved playing guitar. He wanted to be in a band, but did he really want it? Because those that make it and those that don't.
Speaker 3:It's simple you either make it or you don't. You choose to give up at some point or you choose to push on and be like you know what we wrote like five terrible songs, but hey, that's six song was great and we're going to play that. And now we're going to write more like like you never know when it's going to click. Like I tried 100 kickflips, 101, I landed it. You know it's. It takes time to figure it out, but eventually, if you don't give up and you figure out ways to continue to grow, continue to learn and work hard, I believe anything like can be successful.
Speaker 2:Yeah, to that point we. We had an investor, we had our nice pitch deck and a investor shuts it goes. I just want to know are you going to give up or are you going to just keep on, keep on going? Just tell me you're not going to give up on this. I'm in.
Speaker 3:Wow, like you don't want to look at it. That's amazing.
Speaker 2:Okay, but really, but like no, I just want to know, like I don't expect this to happen overnight, I don't expect, you know, the whole economy to shift. Like I know the whole voting system. You mean all of it. We've got a lot to work on. Where we've gotten, it's going to take us years to get back. You know where we want to go. But it was just like but you're not going to give up, right? It's like nope, not going to give up. Is it going to be hard?
Speaker 1:Yes, you can't. You can't quit man there's. There's something I was a really cool quote that I read the other day and it was talking about. It was referring back to kind of like your faith and it was saying so many people pray for God to get us out of the storm, but God is like looking for you to recognize him in the storm. And there's so many times there's things he wants you to learn, that's going to help you and make you better.
Speaker 1:Once you hit that spot and you are successful, right, you know, there's so many things I've learned along the way that I'm so thankful for now. And during the time, in the moment you're like, oh my gosh, this is terrible, like I failed at this, I'm not doing well here. How did this not work? I put everything into it. But then you look back a couple years later you're like, wow, I learned a lot from that. Yeah, I learned a lot from that heartbreak.
Speaker 1:I learned a lot from that failing business or, you know, learned a lot from you know, going from that journey of starting a podcast three years ago on a kitchen table that was plastic to now we have a full studio. We're getting downloaded world, you know, worldwide. It's like I don't even know how that happened.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm an advertiser right, yeah, but it's like you just keep going. You learn along the way, yeah, pushing, and you get yourself better and better and better. So when that moment comes, like when your moment came, the Travis was trying to saw you, yeah.
Speaker 3:You were ready.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you were. You know what I'm saying. You did. It's not like it just came out of nowhere, you just started going down ramps and half pipes and stuff.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, you put the time in. Yeah, if you prepare yourself for opportunities, opportunities will present themselves to you. I fully believe that spiritual principle. It's like you reap what you sow. You put your time in. Yeah, opportunities will come. Yeah, I agree with you. Now, you two both travel a lot.
Speaker 1:You know how I can see that a lot. How has that been? As far as being having a family, that's got to be tough right At certain times.
Speaker 2:You know, when we were in New York City when funny, you were mentioning that, I was going to say, when you're talking about like, how is that whole experience? I do remember my daughter, who's 14, looking around inside the New York Stock Exchange and she was like, dude, I want to run a business. Like you can see her wheels turning and she's like and she's a feisty go-getter. She's like I'm going to do this and you're like that's the joy of America.
Speaker 2:You can go for it, figure out what dream that is, and you know and go. But as far as traveling, yes, it was a season this last two years, a season of a lot, but my family is 100% for it. My husband actually also works for Public Square too and has been there from the start.
Speaker 2:So this has been like a whole family venture. So while we were in New York City I actually turned around to both my kids and I said you know, thank you for the sacrifice that you guys have made the past years, because mom's been gone a lot more than she really is, or dad's gone or we're tag team. You know, either he's got you or you know. But they realize what we're doing. They've actually been brought into it. My daughter at 12, we were looking for an intern for something and my husband's on the phone. You know, we just need somebody part time who can, you know, do some basic work. And my daughter's like I could do it and I was like, well, I don't know if you're actually legally can. She looks up the laws, prints the thing out, yep, so long as my school signs up on this and talk about go-getter long as my school signs off on this.
Speaker 2:I can work X amount of hours on X amount of days and da, da, da, da. And sure enough, she came into the office and she worked her butt off. It worked really hard and worked really well. So she actually got to be a part, you know, of the office for a bit, until her school started to get a little bit more, and then it was like, you know well, maybe just focus on your schoolwork, but so they've been a part of the sacrifice, been a part of building it, and so I think that's actually been a great thing for them to see, you know.
Speaker 1:So it's like you have family involvement.
Speaker 2:Yeah, family involvement, yeah, involvement, sacrifice. And then there's seasons. I think really truly everything for a season. You know like the Lord prepares you for stuff and you can do it. I've had some. I feel like I should be eight years old if I tell you my whole life story. I've lived in New York City for a year. I've lived here for a year in Minnesota, wisconsin. I mean, we've lived all over and you're like, how old are you? But the Lord prepares you for things, you know. And so it's like if you would have told me like you're gonna go live in New York for your, I'm like ooh. But if you just know it's a season and you're in that season and you embrace it and actually choose just to make it like an adventure, then it's fun. Then you're just along for the ride and you're like, okay, let's go.
Speaker 1:Boy, she's definitely your daughter.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You can see that right now, man. I can see that, no, that's cool. And then you, I mean you have, you're all over the world.
Speaker 3:All over the world. Well, that's the funny thing is like normally with Nitro we're traveling more than we're home. And then it took a season of COVID, where the world shuts down, for me to slow down. And actually how I met my wife was literally in the backyard of the place I'm living in now. Get out of here. There was a back house. It's a crazy miracle story. Like just literally walked out there she's a surfer and she was taking the wax off her surfboard. Howdy neighbor Didn't even know I had a neighbor Didn't know there was anyone living back there. And sure enough, you know, we fell in love. Yeah, love story. And then we just celebrated two years of marriage and we have our precious little boy. That was six months today Just turned six months. I love it.
Speaker 3:But it's been an amazing season because I've been able to pretty much be home. Like tour starts next in the next couple of weeks, so I've been able to be home this whole time and we're trying to figure out ways to just bring them along for the ride. I know it's going to be a new rhythm and there's going to be times like this weekend I'm flying to Pennsylvania for an event, they're not coming, and it's tough in the moments. But I think, like you said, if you know it's a season and it's like, hey, this is what you're called to. Thankfully I have a wife that supports every crazy dream I have and she's like go, like I need you to go, and it's powerful. Having that support means everything that she believes in it to, whereas I think if you have a partner that's maybe not down for it, then you're just so conflicted with yourself and I don't know how it's going to be with little man as he grows. But I think again, just following kind of like what the discipleship technique Jesus taught, it's like bring him along for the ride, like he took the disciples where they were, loved, them into the they can be and just brought them along for the ride.
Speaker 3:I think culturally it's kind of been like the dad just goes to work, doesn't really tell his kids or his wife what he's doing. But it's like I want to shift that a little bit and be like little man, this is what we do. We go to the skate park, we work our butt off, we we fall down 100 times but we land that trick and then we go home we get that video clip or we go out on tour and we put on a heck of a show. You know, we pull this stuff out of ourselves because we know that God has called us to this and that's what I really want to do is just instill into him the things that I've done.
Speaker 3:Like my dad did a great job at providing what we needed, like trips to California for me to go to that boarding school, and I want to do my best to give that baton to the kid and my little man and just be like dude. Here we go. This is what daddy does. You can do whatever it is Like. I don't care if you skateboard, I just care that you have passion and purpose in what you do.
Speaker 2:Okay, quit. Am I allowed to ask a question?
Speaker 3:Okay. I'm like not trying to take over your brother, I was like wait a minute.
Speaker 2:So did you have parents that empowered you, or was this more I'm? I'll just leave it at that.
Speaker 3:My parents were so incredibly loving, supportive and absolutely. However, at the beginning they weren't because they didn't understand what skateboarding was. It was that time where skateboarding was grungy, skateboarding was, you know, counterculture. It was, you know, throwing F bombs and you know vandalism, and that was the skateboard culture. So they got a lot of flak.
Speaker 3:But I think I'm so thankful that once my dad saw I was passionate enough about it and he played college football and he's like if I had ounce of the determination you had, I would guarantee I would have gone pro. It's just something that you have. And so once he saw I was passionate, he was like, okay, I'm going to send you to Woodward every year for summer and then whatever you and this was a cool thing too is like he didn't know how to build a ramp. So he had guys come and build a little ramp in our backyard from Texas. He's like I don't know how to do it, but I'm going to find someone that does and they're going to build a great ramp for you. So I had like an eight foot ramp in the backyard that I could skate on every day Like my mom would.
Speaker 3:Literally we're in the South Tennessee. She had the dinner bell she's ringing that thing for me to go skate and I'm like, no, I got to get this trick first. I got to get this trick and it was great. They were so supportive and so nurturing in that, again, once they saw I was passionate and so that was powerful.
Speaker 3:And my dad kind of had that deal with me and my brother, like if we would stay out of trouble which trouble to him was like drinking or drugs in high school like just stay away from it, cause he, you know, had alcoholism in his family. He's like stay out of trouble, I'll support whatever you want to do till you're 18. And so my brother didn't choose that. He was working at a golf course doing landscaping when he was like 16, 17,. I stayed committed to skateboarding. I'm like I don't want to let something dumb like this get in the way of the dream I have, so I'm going to just stay true to it. So my dad supported me every step of the way and then, like I said, turned 18, joined Nitro and better in a real job.
Speaker 1:Isn't that huge, though, to have your parents support you like? It's everything, it's everything. It's powerful Okay. This is what you're going to do. You're going to do it.
Speaker 3:I'm going to support you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, that's huge, it's incredible.
Speaker 3:I'm so thankful because I know I'm I'm very lucky and blessed to have that, because it's not, it's not normal and sadly not in our day and age. But again, I think, like you're saying, it's got to swing back around and that's what we got to do. We got to build strong families. We got to build, we got to build the families back because we need that, kids need that. And what was it?
Speaker 3:My wife sent me this video I think it was Jordan Peterson, and he was like your kids want to be your best friend, but it's your job to make them your best friend.
Speaker 3:It's like they look up to you so much and I even see it with my baby boy now, like the way he looks at me compared to other people.
Speaker 3:They want to be our best friend, but when we put our pain, when we put our trauma on them or our short with them out of whatever you know, we're pro trying to process and we put that on them, it puts that wedge between us and them. But the idea is that they would become like our best friend and look up to us in that way and it can be the deepest relationship, right, because this is literally my seat, you know it's like my child, like that I was blessed to have on this earth, like the opportunity is there but it's up to me to live in a way that can help him be nurtured in that. So I'm excited. Like I said, I'm six months in but I'm already loving every man of it. And when I travel it's tough but I'm thankful my wife just steps up and, surrounded by a great community our church, awesome people like the Warner family and, yeah, it's when, so when you travel yeah by the way, very deep.
Speaker 1:That was really good. Thank you, I was like yeah who you adopt me when you travel, so I'm sure you go on a tour, right You're gonna do? You do months on end, or is it like you do a couple of weeks come home every tour is a little different.
Speaker 3:Last year it was awesome because my wife was pregnant. She had just got her masters and let's go.
Speaker 3:Hey we always joke, master and Mr Fleming. But yeah, so she got a job on tour after she graduated and I was like, well, yeah, might as well. And so that one was nice because it was like we would fly out on the weekends, be home during the week. But this tour is a little different because it's back to back. So it's going to be like full on rock tour on sleeper buses and stuff we're trying to figure out right now. It's back to back. It's back to back. We're trying to figure out if there's a way to bring the family on this one or if it's just going to be dad, for you know, three weeks on the road. Every tour is a little bit different. Yeah, like a lot of times when we go over to Europe, it's probably for like a month and a half and pretty back to back. We have a few days off here and there, but every tour is different. That's what keeps it fun.
Speaker 1:Gosh, I would imagine the amount of freight and that tour needs has got to be incredible. It's quite a bit. It's pretty. I mean you're talking. All the ramps, all the guys and their dirt bikes, yeah, everything Right.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, oh the sponsors go carts.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah Right.
Speaker 2:Let's go Are there room for these?
Speaker 3:Yeah, fit them in, put them on top.
Speaker 2:They were like maybe.
Speaker 3:Look at all that so much stuff. Yeah, it's a full, full on thing. That's a lot.
Speaker 1:Now to get ready for your tour. Yes, is there like a month, three month prep that you do Physical fitness, skateboarding? How do you kind of get ready for that?
Speaker 3:I mean, it's kind of like skateboarding You're always skating, so I'm always trying to stay on the top of my game, but there's times that we don't get the luxury to skate these big ramps all the time, so we kind of just got to go straight in. Right now I'm actually kind of you just got to go straight.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Gangster dog. It is. It is, and that's that's what keeps it fun, though, because it's like you kind of like. I think if you get too comfortable with it you lose the respect for it in a way. So it's like, very well, you got to keep yourself like in check and that's why you keep pushing the limits. And I think that's why some people like slow down or kind of stop, because they're just not willing to take that risk anymore, and so it's like they don't even want to skate at all. They're like I'd rather not skate than skate like at a low level. But I love it, I'm passionate about it. Right now I'm actually healing up from a couple of old lingering injuries. So I just got treatment last week, I have a treatment tomorrow, so I'm trying to get just ready to go and get my body feeling good again, because I kind of felt like I was fighting myself a little.
Speaker 1:I got you. When you're going off a ramp, that big man that impacts got me pretty hard in your knees.
Speaker 3:Oh, yeah, yeah, but we wear the pads, we stay padded up. Got the helmet always.
Speaker 1:I will jump out of a plane and paraglide all day instead of go down a 60 foot ramp and walk through my body through the air. Dude, that is insane, yeah, but it's great that you have the technique and the ability to even do that. It's fun, it's amazing, it goes. Watch this video and I was kind of like this guy's coming on the pocket. I was like dude, it's crazy, it's fun man.
Speaker 3:I've been so blessed to just be able to ride these ramps with the nitro guys. Like I said, looking up to Travis Pastrana as a kid, he was always willing to push the limits. It's like the guy did a backflip on it. Everybody's like well, double be done. I was watching that live.
Speaker 1:I think I was 15 or something like that. I think I was like 13 or 14. He was 15. Yeah, and he had to get like a waiver from his parents or something to do it. And he comes in and just crushes it, yeah, and I remember that I felt like that's what started making the X games. Oh yeah, moments like that yeah, yeah that moment really started pushing it, man.
Speaker 3:For sure, really started pushing it yeah.
Speaker 1:You brought. Let's see here.
Speaker 3:Got you a hat man.
Speaker 1:Thank you for the hat.
Speaker 3:Let's go that one.
Speaker 1:There's one here for Jordan, but this book here, yes, so did you write? You wrote this. I wrote this, my man, okay, so we're going to put this up here. So is this on camera? Can people see this there? We?
Speaker 2:go.
Speaker 1:Yeah, look at that, we good. So this is written by Beaver Fleming. You called live, live, live. Sorry, live, it looks like live. I'm thinking live-eye. Yeah, that's not. Yeah, that's not, mark.
Speaker 3:Yeah, mark's easy. You got me all stuck on live-eye dude.
Speaker 1:Okay, so this is live by Beaver Fleming.
Speaker 3:And where can people get this? They can get it at beaverflemingcom. Beautiful Soon on Public Square.
Speaker 2:I was going to say, which is on Public Square, and now that we're going to have e-commerce, then you can just click it right there.
Speaker 1:Beautiful, so learn and acquire, visualize, execute. What is this book about? About living.
Speaker 3:I love it. It's about living. It was, honestly, a few years ago. God gave me the word live. I was like God if there's one thing you want me to do this year and he's like simple live, live. And I reflected on that, and I think the Bible verse that sums up the entire gospel is John 10, 10. It says the thief comes to steal, kill and destroy, but I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.
Speaker 3:I think the best way we can honor God is to live a life to the full. Yes, it's to truly live a life worth living Again, one we're passionate about, we have enthusiasm, we have the spirit in us, in, and that's what we can do. And so I broke that word down live. Ok. Well, what does living really look like? It looks like learning, Never thinking you have it always figured out. Like learning to grow, inquiring Like why do things matter, though? We can learn things, but how do we learn the why behind it? Take it a little a step further and then visualize. That's my favorite, because I'm like if you can see it in your mind, you can achieve it in your life. Get that vision for what you want and then execute, put in the steps to get there.
Speaker 3:And so I kind of wrote it from a secular point of view, because same thing, like in the department you're in, you can't preach Jesus at school is unfortunate. You get a lot of backlash. But I'm like, hey, we need kids. They've been doing anti-bullying campaigns for years with no fruit of change. But if more people are passionate about living life, bullying is going to just stop. Like you don't even just like Jesus, you speak the solution. You don't talk about the problem, you just speak the solution. If more kids are passionate and clear on what they want, they're not going to feel the need to put other people down. They're going to be so busy and passionate about their life and I think ultimately that can really make an impact and that's what I want to do. So I wrote it from that point to hopefully it's already been in a few different like mentorship, boys to men, mentorship and different programs and just really encouraging kids like get clear on what they want and put in the work.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this is great. Looks like it's also kind of like a workbook, right, you people? You can take notes in it. Looks like.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I put questions at the end and I tried to make it simple because I know in our day and age, especially if I'm targeting kids, kids don't want to just see like 15, 20 pages of a chapter with small print. I'm like, look, let's put in some photos of me actually living, it's great photos of me.
Speaker 1:Great photos.
Speaker 3:Let's put some questions in, because that's ultimately the thing it's like. All right, I want you to write your own definition. It's like what does living look like to you? It looks different from me to you. It looks different from me to you. Like what is your living and my living? Let's all live and make it beautiful. Challenging people, challenging people, yeah.
Speaker 2:So shameless plug. Beaver also goes to schools and instead of just the anti-bullying thing, which you're saying hasn't worked the past many years, goes and does his stuff on the ramps right there with the kids. I wouldn't say like ultra-cool, but like kids come forward and kind of just want to do this and live it out. So it's amazing because anyone out there with a school that needs to have a good influence, somebody using their platform for good, come and speak to the kids. I think it's incredible what he's doing, because how do you stop all this nonsense? You got to start it young.
Speaker 3:You got to get you got to start it young yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean it's a heck of a lot easier. I mean, don't we're old trying to change somebody's mind? Oh yeah, so I love what you're doing with the schools. That's huge, it's amazing.
Speaker 1:Why it seems like you have a heart for giving back. Where does that come from?
Speaker 3:Because the people that I mean, like my parents and I had so many other people that believed in me, whether or not I believed in myself at that time. Same with Travis Pastrana. Like you need to be a part of Nitro Circus, there's millions of other skateboarders. Why are you telling me I need to be a part of Nitro Circus? Like you know what I mean. Like that encouraged me so much at a young age and saw something in me I didn't see in myself.
Speaker 3:And I think we can do that. We have that ability to see in others and we have a responsibility, I feel, to pull that out of them. Because what's the alternative? If you're not living, you're dying. So that's the thing. And it's like it's better to live a passionate life. And how can we do that? I think, again, we have an obligation and a responsibility to pull that out of other people. We are our brother's keeper and if I see something in you and I know you're not living up to it again, like you were saying, it's not that I'm judging you, but I know you have more. Let's pull that out of you. Let's pull you out of where you are and bring you into who you can become, and I think that's what God does, that's what he wants to do, right? I mean, if you look in the Old Testament I was reflecting on this the other day it's like will I not just bend the bronze and rip everything out to pull you up? Like God is willing to stop at nothing. But are you willing to align yourself with that?
Speaker 3:Like you were talking about faith, and something I've been reflecting heavily on these past probably two years is just faith and trust. They're not passive, they're an active state. And it's because, god, I believe that you're calling me to be a pro skater, that I'm going to move to California, that I'm going to skate for eight hours a day, that I'm going to continue to press in and press on, even when everything else is telling me to give up. I believe so, god, I will go. And it's putting that faith, putting that trust into action. And again, I'm so blessed to be from a small town with a big dream, actually living that dream and traveling the world. And if I was able to do it, anyone can do it, and I want to encourage as many people as I can Like even if your dream is crazy, just go for it and trust God, and you're going to create something beautiful. Ok, my god, dude, you can't be.
Speaker 1:I've seen her listen to you. It does bring up some emotion. I'm like, try not to get emotional. It's a beautiful thing when you see a man stand in their faith, like you are, and step out in faith, but also it's not from a selfish point of view You're also giving back. That's huge. You don't see that very often In this world day and age. You see a lot of take, take, take, take, take. And one thing it's always kind of hit me too recently is I've had minor success. I have a stable career and other things in business going on. This podcast is doing great, but it hit me one day. I'm not taking any of this with me.
Speaker 3:Wow.
Speaker 1:Yeah, none of it. I mean, my card is pulled and that's it. Laura says hey, it's time to come home. It all stays here. So am I being in a good spirit?
Speaker 2:Yes, what legacy yeah.
Speaker 1:What legacy am I leaving for myself and my family? Is it just take, take, take. Or, in these blessings and success, am I putting that back into other people Like Beaver, you're never going to know from this book and how you're living your life and what you're doing, not just circus. The amount of lives you're probably touching you probably won't know until the day you meet the look of those to face. But what's beautiful about that? It's like I've said it on here before it's like throwing a rock into a lake. Right Boom, you threw that thing in there. You shot out what you believed. You did your thing. You're moving on to the next place. You're doing your stuff, but that ripple effect right.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:It keeps moving. You don't know the lives it touches and in those lives that they're going to touch, and it keeps going. And it's all because you stood for what you believed. Yeah, it's huge. I mean, brawl, you can't put a price tag on that. No, you can't give me a big enough house or big enough paycheck to put worth into that, because it's about people. It's about people and that's one thing I've ever been realizing, going through the Gospels and reading the Bible again, is it's all about people Connecting. It's just meeting them where they're at. Yeah, giving them hope. Hope is an amazing thing, it's beautiful.
Speaker 3:It's everything.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's one thing that we've talked about in here a lot. We even had a whole episode on it because in our line of work, unfortunately, it used to be like heart attack and cancer was the number one killer of first responders, firefighters, not suicide. And that hit me. Wow, because these are my people. Yeah, I know exactly what they're going through because I've been there. I've been at my lowest point, where I go to work and I'm helping people all the time.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But I can't help myself. Wow, what's happening here? There is a huge disconnect and a problem going on, and I need to fix it, because I've been in that place where you don't have hope and it is absolute despair. Yeah, we've seen people make a permanent decision to a temporary problem. Yeah, how do we stop that? How do we show them hope? How do we put those tools in for not just first responders but for people? Because, let's be real, the day and age we're living right now, everyone's on shifting sand. Oh, yeah, this the time, the day and age that we're living, is very, very interesting. Yeah, not just in our country, in our state or local governments and cities, you're talking worldwide. Yeah, there's so much happening, is so much change. How do we get people to be like, no matter what you got, to believe it's gonna be okay, there's a plan?
Speaker 1:Yeah that even when it gets dark, there's still light. Yep, and you're gonna be that light and you got to keep that hope and keep it strong. And that comes through Jesus, man, yeah, it comes to your faith. Yeah, comes in believing. And I've said that so many times before. I'll tell you people are gonna listen to this episode. It's gonna be good. I'm gonna get hated on for it. Let's go.
Speaker 2:So many people do. Yeah, we've got your back.
Speaker 1:But it just is, you know, having that hope and that faith, and even with what you're doing with public square, you know like, yeah, we hear stories all the time.
Speaker 2:It's changing lives, it's awesome.
Speaker 1:It's just giving people hope again. And then what's good, I think, about this episode too, is they're hearing the heart behind it from you, someone who's been there from the beginning, and Mike's heart realizing it's not from a place of take, take, take. But it's like how do we get back in and give people hope and show them there's other businesses and places you can go to? Yep you don't have to support these major woke brands that are happening right now.
Speaker 1:They're trying to shove things down your kids throats that you don't believe in. Yeah, so it net goes for for you and you and Mike. You have no idea probably until the day you guys are out of here the amount of lives that you're touching right now.
Speaker 2:It's huge, you know. To simplify it, I just don't want America to be weird anymore.
Speaker 3:That's a good one.
Speaker 2:I don't want it weird anymore so it's like if I can do what I can, well, I'm on this planet and hopefully leave it better for my kids and those grandkids. I mean, when you think about that, it's like, yeah, I just you can't not do something. You got to do something and we do. We hear stories I'm not joking daily from consumers. You know whether it's like they've now met a coffee shop in their neighborhood and they, wow, I didn't realize there was, you know, someone that shares these same values as me, or whether it's mostly on the business end, just story after story after testimony of, like gosh, I jumped on here and I've we had a swim trunk company. Now this is, this was right in the middle of when target, which I'm just going to name employee of the month right now, because because of target, we were like number two or three in the app store worldwide for like two weeks.
Speaker 1:Get out of here.
Speaker 2:So that's huge. As much as I don't like their tuck, bathing suits and this and that, but I'm like, okay, well, if you're going to do that, at least you know the families of America decided to. Okay, well, we need to find an alternative, you know, and get public square. But there was one company that had just gotten on. They swell sell swim trunks and after a week and a half of being on the app they contact us. We just sold more product than we did all last year in one and a half weeks. We're like great higher. Seven more employees, you know, and we heard like a pet store in somewhere in the south say that their traffic to their website once they jumped on public square was 1000% more.
Speaker 2:That is my good.
Speaker 1:Incredible. It's great to see what your, your idea and your plans come together. That is something that's so fulfilling. It's amazing to see it happen, but you're seeing other lives being fulfilled by it. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean, again, you can't put a price tag on it. No, you'll never know the amount of people that lives, that you're touching from public square, from you being a natural circus, and your faith and what you're doing to ride in this book, which is live, not live. Okay, Thanks, marcus.
Speaker 2:Another shameless.
Speaker 1:So this is live live right, live, live, live. So we can get this at your website. Which is what is it again? Beaver Flemingcom, beaver Flemingcom. And then if people put is it public?
Speaker 2:squarecom, public, sqcom, yep. If you go there it's 100% free. It's free for the consumer, it's free for the business. So if you have in in, one thing I'd clarify is you think traditional business like brick and mortar, yeah?
Speaker 2:doesn't have to be that. It can be a podcast, it can be uh, I mean anything. It can be a church, a nonprofit, it can be a brick and mortar. You can just have product that you sell and it's all online. Um, if you're willing to adhere by our core values, which are pro life, pro family, pro freedom values, there's nothing on the website that picks a side or says it's you know this or that. Politically it's very much a values based up, but we'd love to have you on. It takes less than 10 minutes to build the profile and then, bam, you'll be live.
Speaker 1:And I am not on there. Come on, let's go.
Speaker 3:Let's go.
Speaker 2:That's my bad. To be honest, that's totally on me. As soon as I said that, I was like shoot, I was mid-sentenced and I'm like I shouldn't wrap myself out.
Speaker 1:No, you're fine. I say I'm going to get on there, that's right. So I'll be in contact with you on that one so sweet and to let you guys know, um, I have been planning an event that's coming up, probably been working on it really low key. It was going to be January. It's going to have to be March now just because of scheduling conflicts, but it's going to be called first responders night hope.
Speaker 3:Wow yeah.
Speaker 1:No, I've been kind of networking around different departments and talking to people through our you know the US and state and like no one's ever done anything like that. Nothing for our first responders, ashley Iverson. She is the Iverson foundation. She is the one that all the money and benefits going to go to her foundation because she supports um, firefighter mental health and first responders. Her backstory is her husband was a firefighter and he was unfortunately killed in the line of duty. I want to say 2016.
Speaker 1:It was unfortunate. A wildfire got caught and he was you know, taken, unfortunately, and uh, they had like a I want to say a newborn baby and like a two year old at home and, um, it impacted her heart. But, my gosh, has she been steadfast and started this organization and that's where that money is going to go to. It's going to be night, it's going to be concert, worship. Come on, it's where people want to do yeah and uh, I will be doing the music. So you got, I used to do music.
Speaker 1:Let's go, yeah, so um we got a professional band that's going to be back in me and speaker, so I will give you the information. If you can make it great yeah.
Speaker 2:It's all good, I understand. Yeah, many talents over here.
Speaker 1:So it should be good. I'll let you guys know. I love to have you out. Um, I want to thank both of you for taking the time to come on this podcast. Uh, I just want to let you know you guys have really spoke to me today and it's been amazing to have you on here, so thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Speaker 3:Thank you for having us. This has been fun man. Yeah, you guys are welcome on here anytime.
Speaker 1:This is something we love to do. It's just we try to do an hour. We just sit here just talk, talk different things and, uh, man, keep going, please keep going, dude. I want to say right now you encourage me, dude, big time. It's great to see a man of your stature and how far you've come to still be where you're at and be doing what you're doing and your moral compass, your faith and speaking out, not being afraid.
Speaker 1:I mean right in this book, I have my man's just doing it, dude. I love it. So thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. I can't thank you both enough, so please write on Um, and so you know.
Speaker 1:There's challenge coins on that table. Yeah, only give those to guests. Woo, so that's for you. Yeah, let's go On the back. It's a Mark Twain quote Two most important days of your life, when you're born and when you find out why. I kind of figure that one out pretty quick. So keep going, um. At the end of this podcast we always do a let's go on three. You guys ready? All right, okay, let's do it. One, two, three, let's go.
Speaker 1:Yeah, bye everybody. Thank you so much for listening in. If you liked what you just listened to, please do this five star review on Apple podcast and on Spotify. Please follow us on YouTube, on Instagram and on Facebook. And a big shout out to Stephen Clark, our sound editor. He's a huge part of this team that is unseen. It's eight nine barbers are first sponsor. Look good, feel good, be great. It's two locations Orange California and Orange California. Book your appointment online. Eight nine barberscom. Bye everybody.
