Welcome to Other People's Perspective, a place for you to listen, learn, laugh, and always feel better at the end of every episode, taking something bigger away from it for you and others. And now, here's your host, Freddy CocekIntro/Outro

Welcome back, everybody. This is Other People's Perspective. I'm your host, Freddy Cocek Thank you all for tuning in and listening today. I have a fantastic guest, Mrs. Sarah Jones.

Freddy Cocek

Hey, hey.

Sarah Jones

Welcome, welcome.

Freddy Cocek

Thank you. I'm actually really looking forward to this conversation today. Thank you for having me on.

Absolutely. Thank you. We actually had the opportunity to all meet face-to-face and sat down and had lunch a few weeks ago. I felt like it was a great intro and a great opportunity for us to get some face time and talk and meet face-to-face prior to actually chomping it up and executing a podcast episode, but it was, it was good. It was, it was, it was good. And it's good to see you again. Fantastic. And great to have you on here. I appreciate your time. Thank you.

Yeah. Thank you.

And I see, uh, I, I meant to, before I started recording, I meant to ask you or take note of, uh, I noticed you, you, you put your, you got your hair back. And when we met the first time you had it, he had an ironed out and straight and you, you went back to the, back to the, uh, back to the dreads.

Yeah, I love these things. I absolutely love them. So I wear it more than I don't. So

How much of a, how much of a process is it to get to actually, you know, go from having straightened, you know, your, when you're, like I said, when we first met, your hair was straightened out, ironed out. Well, whatever you do, I don't know if you got to iron it or what, whatever, but then how do you, how do you transition or how much of a transition is it to go from straight hair to putting it back into, back into, to braids or dreads or what is it considered?

So these are dreads, but this is a little secret. So these are just synthetic that I just like three strand my own hair on top of, so I can put these in and take them out in a couple of hours. So my regular hair is here. It's... It's way easier than natural dreads or natural braids. It does take me a couple of hours to put them in or take them out, but I can do it. I could do it every day if I wanted, but that's way too much work. I wear these so I don't have to mess with my hair, right? I want things to be simple.

So given, given the, given the fact that y'all y'all have been, I know y'all been down here in South Texas for, you know, month and a half, couple of months or whatever. And y'all are actually, you know, you're still here in South Texas now. And this, this time of year is like the, the peak season for when the, the, the South wind, that Southeast wind is like the worst. I'm serious. Like, like usually. March, maybe sometime into, you know, first part of April, um, as the, as the last, uh, the, the last cold fronts and stuff are, are, you know, coming down kind of the, the, the lingering tail end of the, the winter and the cold season. It's like every time when the, when the, when the Northerners come down and blow through. once those northers pass, you know, however the weather phenomenon works, as they're usually like, as a norther is approaching, it sucks up and draws that air, draws the wind, that's what creates that, what I've read, what's been explained to me anyways, that's as the norther is approaching and pushing south, That high pressure system is drawing air in it draws and that's that's what you know that you're you're northerners moving this will moving south and so it's sucking up wind and creates that south southeast wind and down here it's bad like I mean your your hairs. Your, your, your natural hair and your, and your, your dreads are a lot longer, but mine ain't that long, but this thing turns into a fucking bird nest, like in no time between humidity and, you know, 30, 40 mile an hour South wind. Uh, and it, it, it sucks. So that's probably, that's probably actually kind of a help for you. So you don't have.

Yeah, it is. And you know, we ride motorcycles quite a bit too. And so my hair, my natural hair is very thin, very fine. It's healthy, but it's just thin, fine hair. And so it tangles easily and everything. So when we're on the bike, I mean, you put this in, my hair is healthier now than it's ever been. It's thicker now than it's ever been. Because I wear the dreads, it's considered a protective hairstyle. Oh, wow. And so it my hair is healthier. But these it's just you put it up. Doesn't matter if you're on the bike. It doesn't matter. These crazy winds around here. You can be out on the beach. You can be hiking in the mountains. It doesn't matter. It just it stays out of your face. You know, it doesn't blow around. It's so easy. I have to think about how how am I fixing it? Like none of that, Freddie. Like, I don't have to think about it at all.

It's like a, it's just a major win all the way around.

It is, it's just like, how am I going to wear it? Like, oh, I just pull a couple of these back, tie them in a knot. Like that's the hairstyle for today.

Like that's what we're doing. Do they make them shorter? Maybe I can do that with my hair. So it's not, maybe I need to look into that.

They do make some shorter. And actually it's funny. I mean, you've seen James's beard. We, we braided a couple into his beard not too long ago, just to see what it would look like. And the ones I have are a little too long for that, but you know, it, uh, it works. It works.

I bet that was a sight. Did he enjoy that?

Well, it was his idea. Let's just see what it looks like. So I braided them in real quick and. Um, he needs some shorter ones, but I'm like, Hey, you don't have to worry about, you know, cause his beard is pretty long. Right. And so when we're on the bike, it's like always flapping up and everywhere. And I'm like, you wouldn't have that issue.

Hell yeah. That's that's good. That's awesome.

Yeah.

So tell, uh, tell me a little bit about, uh, what, what y'all do. Um, I know, uh, you know, before, uh, you know, before I started, started, uh, started recording our, our podcast and our episode here, you know, obviously we, we talked prior and then we talked some this morning. Um, you know, I was telling you how y'all's, uh, your, your. I'm going to say business model. I know it's not your business model, but, but the, the kind of the, the, the lifestyle that y'all have taken on as far as like traveling, um, you went from, you know, being a, uh, you know, like the homeowner, you know, living in, you know, Hey, I'm in my house every day. I got my house, I got my place. And, you know, we come home to the, to the same house every day. We all, y'all took on the model of, of, you know, traveling. And, uh, I was telling you, I'm, I'm intrigued by that concept because. You know, the, the, the career that the career field I've been in and the jobs that I've worked in the past and my business that I had. It's always, you know, it was a model that that lent to me to have to be, you know, always in a in a relatively you know within a radius like I didn't really have the opportunity to to travel um you know and and conduct business other than you know going to like I said within a radius of where my business was my service like a service-based business um But I think what y'all are doing, or at least the travel aspect of it, I don't know exactly what your different businesses are, but to travel and live that way while you're conducting business, I think it's interesting and I think it's awesome, but I know you said it also comes with its own set of challenges.

Yeah, it does. And I just want to say that we've been on the road about three and a half years now, but our initial goal wasn't to travel. Our initial goal was to sell our house in Colorado, move to Arizona and buy a house. It's so interesting because one of my businesses is, I'm a financial coach, so I help people get their money organized. I help people get their money working for them. I help them get a good money plan, as other people call it, a budget. Save for the future, really live for today and plan for tomorrow all at the same time, right? And we are not taught how to use money. So that's one of my businesses. And so when we went to sell our house in Colorado and moved to Arizona, Freddie, we were debt-free. But we couldn't qualify for a mortgage, even though we had 50, five zero, 50% down for a house in Arizona, we couldn't qualify. And part of that was because my business hadn't been registered for long enough because it really, it basically showed that I had no income, even though I did, but the business hadn't been registered for long enough. and my husband was switching jobs. And so it basically looked like, oh, you have no income. So here we are, you know, got our house in Colorado on the market. Like it's on the market, it is under contract. We are like three weeks out from moving and we have no way to get a mortgage, no way to, you know, to buy a house.

It's like, we're about to sell all our shit and we got nowhere to go.

It was scary actually, right? And talk about stressful situation. So we were like, okay, plan B. Let's just find a place to rent in Arizona. We'll just rent for six months or something. Let's just get down there, get settled. He had another job lined out, but let's just get settled and then we'll look for a house. That way we don't have to worry about buying sight unseen and everything. Nobody would rent to us because we couldn't show proof of income. And I'm like, I'll pay for the six months in advance. Like what do you, I'll pay for a year in advance. They didn't have to change their procedures just for us. Right. And, and, and so, okay, now we're at like two weeks before we, our house closes, we load up our daughter cause she was going to ASU. So we load her up and drive to Arizona. um get her settled in and as we're driving around looking we're like what now like what do we do now and we happen to. say something to some family members and we had a family family member that said hey i've got i've got an old camper and old fifth wheel, you know you guys are welcome i'm selling it. You're welcome to buy that. And I was like, I have no experience with a camper or a fifth wheel. James had no experience with a camper or fifth. Like we're like, we have no experience, but OK, like, let's just do that because we didn't know what else to do. Right. We couldn't live in a hotel. We got two cats and a dog and, you know, like all these things. Right. And so when we took our daughter to Arizona, we drove around, we looked at a couple of different RV spots, most of them 55 and older. The other ones were I'm just going to say complete garbage. And I'm like, I'm not living here. You know, I do have some standards. We found one, happened to be a Sunday. They were closed. We couldn't talk to anybody. I'm like, this feels a little bit kind of out of the way. Called them on our way back to Colorado on Monday. And they're like, yeah, sure. We've got a spot for you. Just send a picture of your RV because, you know, it was an older one. So we do that, we get back to Colorado, we finish selling the rest of our stuff, we pick up the camper. Now, mind you, it's complete chaos. Life just feels complete chaos. We're about a week, little bit less than a week out from closing on our home. We go to pick up the camper, hitch doesn't fit. Long story short, I call the RV spot in Arizona and they're like, yeah, we don't have a reservation for you. I literally went down in tears. I was like, yes, you do. Yes, you do. I promise you do. Like, look my name up again. Anyways, jumping ahead, we get down there, we get into the RV spot. And James ended up working at his job down there for a couple of weeks, but there were a lot of safety issues, right? And money is one thing, but your safety is way more important, right? So he walked out of the job. He said, listen, I've tried to talk to you guys about the safety issues. So he walked out, he came home. And, um, we had talked to a couple of other people that we met in the RV park and we just looked at each other and said, why don't we just travel full time? Like, why don't we just go out on the road? Because I already had my coaching practice. I could do that anywhere. And, um, I had another business that I wasn't actively working, but it was remote. Like, why don't we just go on the road? We're making enough money. Let's just do it. And, um, five minutes, we decided. So we sold that other old fifth wheel. We bought the one that we have now. And literally, I guess you could say the rest is history. Like it's, you know, three and a half years later, I couldn't imagine living any way different.

Wow. That's a, that that's like a, it's like a night and day change, but then to go from, you know, the, the, the, you know, the, everything you had known and were, you know, or basically pretty much everything you had known and were relatively accustomed to, at least as far as, you know, how you live. I mean, most people, you know, that that's, I guess there's, there's probably a very small margin or maybe there's a bigger margin of people that actually do it and I don't realize it, but most, I'm sure most people are, You know, their living situation is, you know, they come home to a home, you know, a house, you know, brick, you know, sticks and stones, you know, and as opposed to, you know, traveling and being on the road. So most people are used to coming home, but, you know. I mean, y'all come home every day. What is home? I guess it's whatever. You ever see that movie? You remember that movie, The Waterboy, that Adam Sandler movie? I don't know why you like it. He goes, oh, you like to see homosapiens? What? to play it to play off a movie quote, I guess, you know, home is wherever you make it. And that's that's I'm sure it was. I'm sure it was probably, you know, some moments of apprehension, especially like if you know the situation you were talking about, like you're you're in that time period leading up to closing, like for anyone that's ever sold a property and had to make plans and provisions for themselves to move out of their house, if you're selling your house, you're selling your property, okay, we got to pack up all our stuff and we got to move and once the deal closes and funds and the buyer, you're gonna pass the key, you're gonna hand them the keys in the hall and everybody, You're going your separate ways and then it's like, holy shit, but we're going to pack up and move and where are we going and what are we doing? you know, what the, what the fuck?

Right? I said that way more, way more often than I normally do. Like, I say it pretty regularly, but it happened way more because, you know, and the thing is, is, you know, we were packing up and moving states and, and I had lived in the same small town of 1800 people my whole life, you know, I mean, I'm 45 now. So for 40 years, I lived in the same small town. And so moving states was a really big deal for me. And I wasn't the traveler. I didn't like to travel. Right. I liked to come home. I liked my garden. It's what grounded me. Right. It's what brought peace. It it calmed the anxiety. Just knowing, you know, that here's home, you know, you've got your neighbors and and everything that's familiar. Right. Yes. And now I always say, that I think this opportunity presented itself because we had done the work ahead of time, not knowing that this opportunity was going to come, but We had, we had built the foundations ahead of time, right? That when this opportunity came up, we were able to say yes in a split second. We didn't even have to think about it really, because we had already built all the foundations that we needed for it. Right. And, and I believe the universe gives us a lot of things that we don't know that we need. And for me, I needed, I needed some patience, you know, I needed some work on compassion. I needed some work on, um, reducing anxiety, which traveling full time doesn't necessarily reduce anxiety. It creates it in a lot of ways. But I'm a very different person now than I was beforehand. I am. way less judgmental. And it doesn't make me happy to say that per se, that I was a very judgmental person before. I was very, I had sympathy for people, but I don't know that I had a ton of empathy for people beforehand. And now being on the road and being able to see different cultures, being able to see different ways that people live and really almost immersing myself in just new places all the time. I have much more compassion for people and it makes me a much better coach. It makes me a much better business owner now because I can talk with people a lot differently now and it resonates much more because I actually know, right, more of their story because I've been able to put myself in those situations. I was very sheltered beforehand and now still would consider myself a pretty sheltered person, but not as much as I was before. And so just being able to get out, you know, and live this way has been everything that I didn't know I needed.

Yeah. Well, you know, they say that experience is the greatest teacher or one of the greatest teachers and for For what y'all are doing and how you're doing it, it, it gives you a different level of experience with, like you say, you know, when, when you're. A lot, a lot of people that they kind of, you know, they, they, um, doing whatever they're doing. And we all play into it, or we all fall into it, or have fallen into it at some point in our lives. But you're kind of in your little bubble. And especially, like you say, hey, I grew up in a small town. I was born and raised, lived in the same town up until I was 20, 20, 21. And where I live now is only about 25 or 30 minutes from town I grew up in. So I've always been in relatively, pretty much the same area, same spot. In the last few years, I've tried to take it upon myself and make a more conscious effort to, I haven't traveled to the extent that y'all have, and I'm trying to get myself closer to a position to do more of that. But I think that It definitely makes a person much more well-rounded in many, many forms and fashions and many senses of the word when you actually get out and just like you said, you know, experience, experience, you know, different people, different situations. You can get a feel for different cultures and, you know, but you, You can, you can read about it in a book, you can watch it on TV, or we can all fucking sit there and scroll on our phone and watch reels and internet videos and all that stuff. But it's not, none of that is near as real as actually getting out there and being, you know, being in those places or being in lots of different places and getting to experience that. I mean, that's firsthand, you know, firsthand knowledge and firsthand experience, in my opinion, is better than. any YouTube video you can watch or anything. So that's awesome. And that's pretty amazing that you feel like it's, I mean, you've definitely taken notice of the fact that you feel like it's made you a different person or it's brought. It's brought some things to light for you and, and, you know, change the way that, that you, you know, view and perceive certain things. You know, you said, well, I used to, I used to have, you know, sympathy, but not as much empathy, but now that you have have lived that lifestyle for a period of time and, and, uh, It's change your outlook, change your perspective on shit. That's great. That's awesome. I like that.

Yeah. And I've also seen, too, firsthand all the limitations that we put on ourselves, too, right? That we limit ourselves so much, we say we can't do it. And the truth is, we can. We might choose not to, right?

It's a comfort and complacency thing, to a degree. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

And back to that, back to that, you know, that deal of, you know, people, people, you know, being in their little bubble or in their, in their rut. And it's like, well, it's, you know, I like it here. It's comfortable inside this bubble. It's like, well, okay. You know, maybe so. You know, then, then when, when you, when you haven't had, haven't put yourself in a position, uh, to take, you know, the awkward steps toward getting out there and experiencing other things and getting a feel for other stuff. You know, people need to realize that the reason you're missing out on that shit is because you don't want to go and do it. Cause you don't want to step out, you know, take that first step out of the comfort zone. It happened.

So, right, right. For sure. Yeah.

That's good, that's good. So tell me a little bit about your business or about your businesses. I know you say you do the, was it like financial kind of, I say financial planning, really like educational planning or teaching people how to be smart with money or how to use money, because there's not a lot of education out there on some of that, or at least not in school.

Right. Yeah, that's one of the businesses and I'm not a planner or an advisor, so I don't sell any financial products. My business is solely based on literacy and helping people feel really confident in their money. So when they work with a planner, when they work with an advisor, when they go and look for different insurances, they have the confidence to know what questions to ask, to have the ability to see like this is kind of where we want to go. Right. And so my specialty is helping people get their money organized. And actually, Freddie, I just everything I do goes underneath what I call the six pillars of finance. And so everything that I help people with is in these six pillars. And it's creating money, spending money, saving money, investing money, giving money and organizing money, right? And so what we do is we build solid foundations in all of those areas. And whether it be personal or business, because I work with a lot of business owners, that their business finances are in complete disarray. We're not taught business finance, right? And if your personal finances are a shit show, guess what? Your business finances are gonna be a shit show too. You don't automatically become a master at money just because you start a business, right? And I say that lovingly. I say that lovingly, but I have a heart for small business owners and a heart for entrepreneurs and solopreneurs because We want we start businesses, because we want to fill that gap and we want more freedom and we want to be able to make more money. And yet, most small businesses closed down because they don't understand cash flow and they don't understand money right and so. that's what I want to do is help people to understand money and to use it in a way, really, that it works for them and not against them, that is. That's my, I will say my number one passion, right, is really helping people. And that came about because I was introduced to the debt-free lifestyle through another business that I have. I've had the other one for 18 years. And that's where I do some education and marketing for a US-based manufacturing company that manufactures household consumables. and really teaching people about toxins in their home and shopping smarter, safer, but saving money. And it's because of that company that they introduced me to the debt-free lifestyle, right? And so I was introduced to that and I was like, wait a minute, people live debt-free? Because I didn't have anybody around me that did. I had nobody that, growing up, nobody talked about, they talked a lot about money being stressful, about not having enough, a lot of scarcity, right? But nobody talked about giving, nobody talked about, you know, organizing it, nobody talked about it working for you, right? And so starting that business 18 years ago and being introduced to debt-free lifestyle, I was like, hey, now I can help people then in these other ways. Heck yeah, I wanna be a coach and I wanna help them do that. And then a couple of years ago, being on the road, we got this crazy, weird, wild idea that we could take your photographs from your phone and print them on metal. So that's what we do for our third business is we print photos from like your phone or your computer or digital graphics logos or whatever. And we print them on metal. And that's our third business that is just taking off. And I mean, it's wild. It just is wild.

I saw, okay. And I saw, I saw James had posted something the other day. I can't remember if I saw it yesterday, day before, a couple of days ago or whatever, talking about that. Um, and I didn't, I didn't realize that's, that's, that's what it was, but I, I remember reading something about, about printing pictures or transferring them, printing them on metal somehow or other. And I feel kind of stupid now, like I should have read it in its entirety and been like, okay, what the fuck is he talking about? What is that? But that's awesome. Is there a specific, I mean, I'm sure there's a specific process for how you do it, but I guess it's like a, more of a, like a custom, obviously custom, you know, I don't know if there's, if there's a one, one type of metal or process that that's better than the other, or, you know, if it's just, you know, dependent upon, you know, what, what a person wants or what their, what a customer, how they order it or how they request it. How do you, how do you go about doing that? How do you, how do you print a picture on metal?

Yeah, it's nuts. So most of our metal, it's actually aluminum, right? So they're really lightweight, but it's thick enough that it's really durable. We get our aluminum from a small business that he gets it from a manufacturer here in the United States and he cuts it and everything. So we support small business and our small business efforts, that is really important to us. And actually I've got, I'll just show you one right here. but it's a two-step process, but it's, I mean, you can't really bend it, right? It's pretty durable, but it's like, so you can see like the light reflecting. It takes us, I don't know, like 20 minutes to do a photo and it's a two-step process. And basically what we do is we upload the photo, right? It's digital. we print it on a special paper that infuses ink into the paper. And then we take that paper and we put it on top of the metal and we heat press it. So we infuse the ink into the metal. And so, yeah, so then the, and it's UV coated, so it doesn't fade, really durable. It will scratch if you're pretty rough on it, but there, They're very unique and they're fun. And people are just amazed because they're like, we've never heard of this before. And it is out there. It's not a new thing. But we do it all here. A lot of people do drop shipping. So they might take the orders and have somebody else print it. We do it all here in our fifth wheel. We are the ones doing all of it here.

No, that's awesome.

It's fun.

Yeah, cha-cha. Where y'all, um, well, I know, like I said, I had seen something that James had shared or posted or whatever. Um, as y'all, as y'all travel around, uh, from place to place, uh, are y'all going out anywhere? Uh, like in a, in a given area, like, are y'all, are y'all still staying in the same, same spot where y'all are? I know you said y'all were like over in like a Ranza's pass rock port area. Um, do y'all, uh, Do y'all go out and set up and put stuff on display and advertise it in that capacity as well? I know there's a lot of outdoor stuff on the weekends and stuff like that this time of year, if the wind doesn't blow you away.

Yeah, so we've traditionally sold it online, sold them online and ship, but the past, oh, probably month, We did a small show, first time ever setting up. We did a small show actually at the RV resort that we're at now. Did very well at that little show. And then we just did a big, well, they call it the Rockport Market Days. We just did that for three days. Yeah, we set up over there. Oh, it was crazy. And that's hard because these are not, It was challenging, it was challenging. I'll just say that.

Another set of challenges, imagine that.

a big set of challenges. We learned a lot and we didn't do as well as we thought we what we wanted to do. Right. We had we had really high goals and really high hopes for the show. We did not reach those goals, but we learned so much and we can take that now. Our plan is to do some bigger shows as we travel. So now we're going to start planning our travels, maybe around some bigger shows and some things that I don't want this to be our lifestyle every weekend. I don't want to be out at a show every weekend like some vendors are. And because we travel, it's hard because communities then, a lot of people over here said, oh, well, we'll see you next month. And I was like, yeah, you won't. We're gone, right? And so that's what a lot of the shows you know, as a vendor, you gain popularity because you show up and people are used to seeing you. And so we're, it's a unique set of challenges because we're going to move, you know, and we travel. And so, um, setting up booths and doing this at shows because it is custom. People are not just walking up to your table and picking something up and buying it and walking away like what we are traditionally used to. So, you know, we've got a really slick process set up to where people come and order it, right? And then we send them a text when it's ready to pick up. Generally, depending on workload, it can be 20 minutes or it can be a couple of hours, just how many orders we have ahead. So that's a new venture for us. And so it's going to change the way we travel right in the future now, because we want to do some bigger shows.

So, well, you get, you know, like you said, the what y'all did on this, this past weekend, or this, this person, you said that was like the first time that y'all done like an outdoor deal like that. Even if you had some numbers in mind or if you set some goals, even if you didn't get the goals as far as dollars and cents, it was still a great opportunity to get some data points and some information and some learning experience, learning opportunity from it for future shows, future ventures. It's like anything else. You learn through experience and trial and error, and this worked this time, but this didn't work. So the next time, you just take the things that do work and that are beneficial and keep building and improving. That's awesome. I like it.

Yeah. Well, and that's what we should be doing in business all the time anyways, right?

Absolutely.

doing things long enough to to collect that data right and and really taking note of what is working and what maybe isn't working and then making adjustments as you go along and and. I wouldn't say it got a unique perspective, but I guess I feel like I do just from the financial side that we know how to build this business. to make it financially healthy and financially sustainable as well right and and we had a lot of people to show saying Oh, you need to do different sizes and you need and I told them respectfully no we don't. Right, because of our situation, you know if you want to go to a store where they've got the warehouses to. carry all that inventory and everything, that's fine. But we wanna specialize just in these areas because we're darn good at it, right? And our goal is to not offer everything, it's to offer these sizes and these things because we live and travel. And so we don't have the ability to carry all that inventory with us, right? Weight, space, all the things. But to be able to say no to a lot of people is what a lot of business owners don't do, right? clients it and they take orders and they do stuff, right? Because they think, oh, I can make, this adds to my revenue, right? I can make a little bit of money doing it. And oftentimes what happens then, you end up losing money on the deal because you've said yes to things that you really shouldn't have said yes to. And so I think we've started out on a really solid foot with this business. Again, still learning certainly, but financially being able to say no to you know, some of the more custom things that people are wanting because that's not our business model, right? That's not what we specialize in and that's not the areas that we want to go. So.

Well, that, that, that follows, that follows a familiar model that, that, you know, I've heard this, you know, spoken and echoed many times. I'm sure you have as well. Um, you know, that they, You can't, like you were saying, a business can actually lose money by trying to get get too diverse. You try and take on too many things and you stray, if you start to stray yourself too far away from, you know, what your specialty or what your, we'll call it like the core, the core of your business, the core function that, you know, that core, that central piece or theme that you want to primarily focus on because you know that you're, That's what you're best at and that's what the business model, that's what suits it best. A customer, everybody's got a different idea of, oh, well, you should do it this way, or you should do that, or you should offer this or that, and that's great. One business can't appease everyone. You got to stick with what works and what you know works best. And if anybody that ever tries to build too much off of that or stray too far away from the core, you lose efficiency. it doesn't, it doesn't lend well. So you're, I think you're, you're, y'all are definitely on the right track to say, Hey, you know what, it's like, this is, this is what we offer. And you know, it's, it, it's like a parallel to, to, uh, you know, like a person's your, your, your, your character and your authenticity. If you're trying to act like too many things and you get away from, you know, who, who you are at the, at, at the core, um, just be who you are and be what's best, be what suits you best and what's your best fit. And you're gonna attract the people that are meant for that. And your business is going to attract the customers that are meant for whatever that best core function is.

So. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

I hope that deal keeps on like it is, and I hope it takes off. That's good. You keep James busy. Crack the whip on him.

Well, you know what? We both, um, that's really, you know, he's the one that really wanted to start that business, right? It, uh, which is great because it's like the creative outlet for us to, you know, a lot of what I do working with money, it can feel very heavy sometimes, right? Money affects people in a lot of ways. A lot of my coaching is mentally heavy, right? And there's a lot of great wins and everything, but it's also mentally heavy. And so getting able, or being able to do these metal prints, it's like, it's the creative outlet. It's the fun things. It's, you know, we printed one for a gentleman. He spent, you know, $250,000 on this truck, right? And really loved it. And just to being able to memorialize that, right? And put it in, it came out stunning. stunning, right? We do a lot of motorcycles, a lot of car photos, and a lot of pet memorial photos. So pets that have passed, we do a fair amount of those photos. But it's just like that creative outlet. It's, it's getting to put something that means something to somebody, you know, just on this unique metal, right? And it adds a different dimension. And And it is, it's a lot of fun to see their eyes light up when they get them. So it's a fun business. It's a fun business to have.

Now that I know that y'all do that, I've actually, I need to get with you because I've got a few, I've got a few photos from a trip I did a couple of years ago with some people that I've been wanting to, I've been wanting to, do something with these photos that I've been, you know, friends of mine that I went on this trip with, I wanted to give them out as gifts, but it was like, I was considering doing the, you know, like having them printed on like a, like a canvas for like a wall hanging. But I'm, I like this, I like this deal. That's even cooler. So I need to, I need to get my pictures together. I need to get with you and get some made. I hadn't even said anything to anybody. I'm just going to like get them made and then, Hey bro, give me your address. And then just, just ship and send and, and. then everybody opens up their stuff one day oh wow holy crap you know or remember that trip you know but it's you know something like that uh you know that that's a that's a uh an item that will last you know It'll last a long time, and it's a great way to memorialize a lot of stuff. Like you say, a lot of people are car people. I ride motorcycles. Anything that's near and dear to you, that's a great way to put it on display and make a good memory out of it.

Yeah. We did one for, I'll just say, a younger kid. I'm going to give him late teens, maybe early 20s. Right. But he had, you know, his truck that he has now that that you could just tell he's really proud of it. Right. And he put it on. And just to see, like, that's what some of this is really about, Freddie. Right. It's about just being proud of something and wanting to display it. And Just seeing the look in people's eyes when they get these photos back, right? And it is different, but that's where a lot of the cars and the bikes come in because we're proud of those things. A lot of people are really proud of them, right? And they mean something. The trips, the... the special moments, right? That really were a memory that is ingrained, but to be able to walk by and see it on your wall or whatever, just, you know, on metal, it recreates that every time you see it. And I think we need to remember those.

Kind of like, you know, stirs up the emotional pot and it's a good, you know, that visual reminder that it brings the memories back to surface.

So I like that.

That's awesome. Well, congratulations. I hope that deal that that's, that's good that it's going well and I hope it keeps going.

Yeah. So do I.

I gotta ask you, before we wrap it up and we close, I meant to ask you, how is your garden going? How are your plants? I know you got a pretty good spread of plants. I haven't seen all the plants, but just judging by our conversation about it, and James was like, yes, there's a lot of plants.

Yeah, so I currently have about 35 house plants that we travel with.

That's another set of challenges as you travel, I would imagine.

It's a huge set of challenges. My orchids are doing great. They're like all blooming, they're beautiful. All of my philodendrons, I've got several different, I've got like an, it's called an orange, orange print or prints of orange philodendron. I've got a pink princess philodendron. They are struggling. They are struggling. Um, I've got Yeah, my Hoyas are doing great. Like, I don't know plants are my jam. Like that's, you know, that the that's my That's the grounding piece, right? Because I don't have my outside garden. I can't walk in the dirt, you know, and mess with my flowers at a house, but I can mess with my plants and touch them and talk to them and, you know, take care of them here as we're traveling. And so 35 is no easy feat being a full-time RVer and traveling around. It's not easy, so.

I can only imagine. I enjoy gardening and horticulture, and I don't have 35 plants, but I've got several. I've got a lot of potted plants on my patio and stuff, and I keep up with them. I can't remember if I told y'all or not, I've got that pecan tree that I have. I found, and it's actually right around this time, March. It was March of 2015 when I first found that tree, and it was about four or five inches tall. Now, I'll have to send you a picture of it. I have it planted in an old whiskey barrel, like a whiskey gask. And so that tree is 10 years old, and that's probably the longest successful relationship that I've maintained in my entire life. That tree has been committed to me longer than anything else. besides my kids. And I need to get to a point where I can get it in the ground somewhere. But, you know, to your point about talking about plants, you know, that being kind of your grounding. I've always found gardening, horticulture, you know, keeping plants and growing all that stuff. I've always found it to be, at least for me, you know, it's therapeutic. I don't know what it is about it, but it's just, I don't know, maybe it's the seeing the progress as a plant grows and develops. Maybe there's a level of satisfaction in seeing the growth and the progress. But I've enjoyed that and that's awesome that even though y'all have taken on the lifestyle of being full-time RVers and being on the go and not having, like say, you don't have your garden and your home dirt that you can go walk around in, at least you've got that. So that's, I would say that's a pretty good substitute.

Yeah, you know, I try and my Well, I was going to say my specialty. I don't know that that's necessarily the case, but I like going into places and getting the marked down plants, you know, the ones that are going to be thrown away. And, you know, let me just rescue them. Let me just see what I can do. Right.

Like put your tape on and go in there and go save all the plants.

Well, you know what? We were walking in, I told James a couple months ago, I said, I need to go into the plant rescue place. And he's like, what are you talking about? I'm like, Lowe's. Lowe's puts a lot of their houseplants on sale, right? And I'm gonna mark some down.

Back over in the corner with all the wilted plants, like, no, I'll save you.

And I do. And it just it breaks my heart to see him like knowing that they're going to like go into a dumpster. And I'm like, let me give it a shot. At least if they die, then they knew that they were taken care of in the last, you know, little bit of life, because not all of them survive. You know, I'm I'm I do pretty well. Like I've got a pretty green thumb, but the philodendrons. And so just real quick, one thing that's really challenging with traveling is plants like a lot of things. They get used to a certain humidity level. They get certain used to temperatures, used to light, water. And as you're traveling, all of that changes all the time. Humidity level changes all the time. Light, depending on how we're parked, they might get more or less. And I have artificial light. I have grow lights on them. but it's not the same as regular light from the sky, right? And so it is challenging to, water is different everywhere. Even though we have a softener, there's different minerals, it's all different. And so I am sad when I have some that don't make it, but also the ones that have been around, I've got one, a couple of plants that I still have, they're close to, 25, 26 years old, you know, and they're still hanging with me. And so, um, you know, plants that have been passed on from people that are no longer alive, you know, and I've gotten a cutting from their plants, um, as a side note, if anybody's listening, those are great gifts to give is a cutting from one of your plants to somebody else because it's, um, it really is carrying on a little bit of that legacy, a little bit of that heritage, a little bit of the, the, um, it's like that true legacy passing down something, you know, recipes are great, but plants are great too. So I still have some of those that are from people that are no longer here that, um, I do my darndest to keep them alive, you know, and, and I've done that over the years.

I've done that taking, you know, taking cuttings and rooting gel and propagating and growing new plants with cuttings. And, and it's, it's, uh, that that's another level of satisfaction to, you know, to, uh, you know, to be able to like, it's like you're carrying the leg, you know, the legacy, so to speak, you know, you're carrying that plant forward. And it's just like generation after generation, if you, you know, every growing season, you know, you go into winter and then, you know, in spring, typically everything everything grows up fresh in the spring and and it's like a new opportunity every year to to grow a new plant or new set of plants and and to it's like you're kind of keeping the keeping the that lineage of that plants like you're keeping it alive so it's it's it's it's enjoy it's been enjoyable for me and it's and it's it's like a gratifying feeling too so that's cool yeah yeah yeah i love them and

If anybody is a philodendron expert out there, I could certainly use a little bit of help because all of mine are struggling right now.

Like you say, the changes when you're mobilizing those plants and moving them from different environments, the change in the atmosphere, the water, the humidity, all of that, a plant that's indigenous to a given area, is designed to primarily be at its best in whatever area it thrives in. And if you take it and move it to another area, then, yeah, it's going to get exposed to different things. And so you've got to kind of supplement its environment and what it's getting fed to keep it going.

Yeah, that's been a challenge in itself. But, um, you know, my orchids are all doing great. Um, it's just fun to watch them bloom. I have those in water culture, so they grow in just water.

Um, so yeah, I remember you telling me that now. Yes.

Yeah. So I don't know. It's just, it's fun experimenting. You know, I think I actually might transfer, um, more of my plants. A lot more people are doing water culture for a lot of their plants, their monsteras, their philodendrons, all of these. So I might try and switch. most of my plants over to water culture and just see what happens with them, so.

It'd be an interesting experiment to see how it goes.

Yeah, yeah, we'll see. Knowing that I might have to sacrifice a little bit.

Well, fingers crossed, fingers crossed, hopefully everything goes well and they all survive.

Right, for sure.

Well, Hey, I appreciate your time. I enjoyed it immensely. Thank you. It was good talking to you again.

Yeah. Thanks so much, Freddie. It's always a pleasure having a conversation with you. And I like the laughing. I like the light heart and heartedness, right? It's just, um, we need more of this, right? We need, there's a lot of serious conversations that happen and they need to, but sometimes I think we need some more of just fun. conversations, a little bit of laughing.

Business, business is business and, and, you know, business, you know, there's, there's serious aspects to it, but, you know, I definitely agree with you. You know, you, we, uh, everybody, everybody needs to, you know, have moments and opportunities like this, lighten up a little bit and enjoy it. We should be enjoying every day anyways, no matter what, because even, even, uh, even the, the, the bad days or the rougher days, even, or even when we think it's bad or we think it's rough, it's still good.

So it is, it is, we woke up, we're breathing, you know, we, we have another opportunity to be intentional with a lot of things and to be present. Right.

So absolutely, absolutely. Well, I hope y'all have a great day and a great weekend. I appreciate your time and we will talk again soon.

All right. Thanks, Freddy.

Take care of yourself. Have a good one. Thank you.

Bye bye.

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