Todd Stevens (00:00.814)
Baby Groo Baby Groo in the house. There he is. Guys, this is Travis Groo. He was on our last podcast with Chase Oliver. Travis Groo and I go back a million years, right? One, probably about a million years. So today, you think so? Maybe a little bit longer than a million. So today we were supposed to have a guest on and they bounced on us. So.
Groo (00:03.046)
Baby time.
Groo (00:14.694)
A million, truly a million years.
Maybe a little more.
Groo (00:24.198)
Yep.
Groo (00:28.742)
Yup.
Todd Stevens (00:30.703)
I figured this is a great opportunity for you guys to get to know Travis Gru, aka Baby Gru. Okay?
Groo (00:37.99)
Baby Gru and Baby Todd on a podcast. That's scary.
Todd Stevens (00:41.967)
That's some scary stuff right there, man. Scary stuff. That is right, dude. So baby Groo.
Groo (00:44.39)
It is, right?
I mean, what all have we done together? I mean, we met and started Autumn in Color.
Todd Stevens (00:52.752)
Yeah, when was it? That was 2011? 2012?
Groo (00:58.599)
Our first album was in at Austin Archer. And...
Todd Stevens (01:01.711)
Yeah, yeah, Autumn in Color was a record label that we started together. Yeah.
Groo (01:07.494)
Yep, started the record label, put out, I would say at least 50 releases. We put out a bunch of music, a bunch of albums, a bunch of singles.
Todd Stevens (01:13.295)
Oh dude, we put out a bunch of music in a short period of time. Like, it was awesome.
Groo (01:20.934)
Two years, three years, something like that. We launched our record label at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas. I don't remember what year it was, 2010 maybe, 11?
Todd Stevens (01:23.054)
Yeah. Yeah.
Todd Stevens (01:34.83)
I think it was... I think it was 11. I think so. Yeah.
Groo (01:38.566)
2011 South by Southwest man that was a blast and then we went back the following year and Then I think I went back the third year and handed out merch To folks we were just giving away t -shirts and stickers and buttons and everything and then
Todd Stevens (01:54.721)
Mm -hmm You remember that you remember the first time when we went though the first time we went we couldn't get a hotel because we booked it all so late we couldn't get a hotel close to Was it 6th Street, right? So we had a hotel so far away and we couldn't get and this was like kind of pre -uber Wasn't it? So there was like we were trying to get a taxi We yeah, we couldn't get a taxi. So we walked and it was like, oh my gosh
Groo (02:07.334)
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
Groo (02:15.91)
It kind of was. We walked. Remember we walked?
Todd Stevens (02:23.535)
Four miles? Five miles?
Groo (02:25.286)
Yeah, we did. We walked, we had backpacks on, we walked down there, we stopped at Whata Burger on the way there, of course. We stopped at Whata Burger. And I'll tell you what, man, that was a good time. We had a blast. Yeah, that was amazing. And...
Todd Stevens (02:31.728)
Yep, stopped at Whataburger. Mm -hmm.
Todd Stevens (02:41.232)
We had a lot of fun man, a lot of fun.
So yeah, with the music industry, that's what was crazy with the music industry is I think you and I kind of saw the writing on the wall that album sales were just gonna drop off. No more single sales, no more album sales. It was kind of right around the time that Spotify was kind of hitting.
Groo (03:00.486)
Right. Spotify launched and then we caught wind of iTunes Music launching, which was basically their digital platform to compete with Spotify. And we were like, as soon as Apple starts music streaming, goodbye music sales, bye, they're gone. And we saw the writing on the wall and we bounced about six months.
Todd Stevens (03:14.992)
Mm -hmm, streaming platforms.
Todd Stevens (03:23.665)
Yeah.
Groo (03:28.774)
before iTunes Music launched. And we were right, music sales basically disappeared. We moved into more of a free music platform where we were just letting people download albums for free and focus more on merchandising with the bands and with the artists. And then that turned into a clothing company, Autumn in Color, which was so fun.
Todd Stevens (03:31.824)
Yeah.
Todd Stevens (03:36.721)
Mm -hmm.
Todd Stevens (03:43.952)
Mm -hmm.
Todd Stevens (03:51.664)
Sure did.
Groo (03:56.294)
And then it also, after that, evolved into a skateboard company. So we were actually, yeah, it was amazing. We were actually able to offer skateboards on demand. We found a way to offer on -demand skateboard designs. It was a little bit more expensive than your traditional skateboard at a shop, but.
Todd Stevens (04:03.184)
That's right.
Groo (04:23.142)
we were able to push them out in a way where we didn't have to keep a lot of stock. So we could do as many designs as we wanted to and push out on demand skateboards. It was fun.
Todd Stevens (04:35.218)
Mm -hmm. That was a lot of fun, dude. And then and then I think from there like I kind of after that I really started to pursue the whole Apparel game like the whole manufacturing game That's the route I went and then you went like a political route Which is crazy, you know, so like tell like I've spoken enough on these podcasts where people I think kind of know me but I want people to get to know you because you're
Groo (04:37.446)
Yeah.
Groo (04:45.222)
Right. Right.
Groo (04:52.326)
Right.
Yeah.
Todd Stevens (05:00.465)
You're going to be new and you're going to be doing a lot of these interviews with me. It's going to be a tremendous amount of fun and I'm super stoked. But let people know about you. So once you kind of left that, you went this political route. And what did that look like?
Groo (05:13.158)
Well, it's kind of a I wasn't planning on going that route, you know, I moved away from Atlanta. And moved to Raleigh, as you know, and we were still kind of doing the. The skateboard and the peril thing from here, and then it just kind of died out a little bit for a minute. And then. I decided that the two party system really wasn't resonating with me, it didn't.
It didn't really match my views and my values. And I saw basically Republicans spending just as much as Democrats. They just spend differently, tax you the same, but spend differently, which by the way, it's tax day. So happy, not so happy tax day, baby Todd. Yeah, I mean, so, you know, I stumbled into the Libertarian Party.
Todd Stevens (06:00.656)
Yay. Yay. I know.
Groo (06:10.726)
When I made a move I registered as a libertarian after doing a little bit of research and I found Ron Paul and Actually Rand Paul actually helped me find Ron Paul, which was really interesting Rand is not so much a libertarian but Ron is and it just started listening to him and it made so much sense that We've been
basically lied to for so many years and stolen from for so many years and the things that he was saying were right and they've actually come true. So I started getting involved with a local affiliate here in Wake County and doing some volunteer events and some charity events and then they asked me to run for office so I ran for house.
House 11 here in our district against a fine person that ended up winning. We became friends. But it's funny how I've always become friends with my opponents where everyone else is always yelling at them and screaming and arguing. That's just not my style. And then they asked me, and then I ran for vice chair of the party and I won the election. And then after that, I, I, I'm.
actually in my second term as chair of the party. So I've been very involved with the Libertarian Party ever since. And now we're doing this podcast. So, um,
Todd Stevens (07:46.514)
Now we're doing this podcast. Yeah. And then we had, I guess one of our, our first people that we had on, uh, in this kind of interview section that you and I are doing, uh, was a libertarian presidential candidate, chase Oliver. That, yeah, that came. Yeah. That came on last week.
Groo (07:58.822)
Correct. Yeah, chase Oliver. He is um Hitting the ground running boots on the ground. He's already been to 47 states campaigning, which is impressive He's gonna hit all 50 states by convention Which is next month May 23rd. He was you up?
Todd Stevens (08:19.122)
Do you think he wins it? Do you think he wins at convention?
Groo (08:22.534)
I really hope so. He's probably the most qualified and probably the most well -spoken and represents the party.
Todd Stevens (08:28.882)
Well spoken for sure. That blew my mind when we had him on. Just the way that he spoke and it was like, oh my gosh, yeah, you, you sound like a, like a presidential candidate. Like it was impressive.
Groo (08:39.238)
Yeah, he's very, he's gotten a lot more polished now that he's traveled a lot. I think that's helped him, um, polish up a little bit. Uh, cause he's spoken at many, many, many, many events, many conventions, many debates. It's polished him up a little bit. He wasn't as polished at the beginning, which was something that people were saying. He was not so polished, but I don't believe he could say that anymore. I believe he's very polished and.
Todd Stevens (08:58.161)
Sure.
Todd Stevens (09:07.57)
Oh, he's very polished, yeah.
Groo (09:09.446)
Yeah, he's very well spoken. You know, there's a, who knows? I don't know what's going to happen. The conventions, conventions can go anywhere. And so the way, the way the libertarians selects their, their nominee is it happens at convention only. The delegates select and vote on the president and the vice president.
Todd Stevens (09:21.523)
So as far as the...
Todd Stevens (09:37.587)
Okay.
Groo (09:37.798)
We're the only party that does it. The body selects it. So let's say Chase wins. Chase will not get to select his running mate. The body at convention will select the vice president as well.
Todd Stevens (09:53.331)
Wow. How many people on the libertarian ticket are running for president?
Groo (09:59.078)
There's probably a good seven, seven or eight, maybe three or four of them are qualified. The other ones, I don't know, they just throw their name in for name recognition, but not all of them are so much qualified. There's three or four of them that would be far better than what we have now, so.
Todd Stevens (10:27.922)
Yeah, and I think we talked about this last time that, you know, with the Libertarian Party that most Americans probably sit in the seat of, they don't really care for either party, the Democrats or the Republicans, so they're trying to find a middle ground, but there's this fear to even explore the middle ground or a third party, right? So we talked about it with Chase. That is the goal for the Libertarian Party.
Eventually, I think eventually is to make it to the White House right but is the current goal just to like really shake up the establishment really make people aware that there is a Valid third party choice
Groo (11:10.31)
Well, yeah, there's messaging campaigns. Um, and I believe right now we're in messaging campaign mode where we are trying to let people know that there is a third option. You'd be surprised how many people don't know this because the media certainly doesn't want to pick it up. They don't want to cover it. And so our job is to make people aware that, Hey,
you're not stuck in a binary system. The uniparty has not really done anything for you and has not helped you and actually has made things worse. So a lot of this is education. A lot of this, the campaigning is messaging education and just bringing people into the movement more so than, yeah, of course we want to win.
But how realistic is it? It's not very realistic. When we're getting 1, 2, 3, 4 % of the vote in even some of these local elections, people are scared to take the jump and you know, we say, you know, continue voting for the lesser of two evils. But when you finally make up your mind that you will no longer vote for evil,
and you will no longer vote for the lesser of two evils, and you will start voting your principles and your values, things change for you in your mind. You don't really necessarily care. You cast your vote with integrity. And when people say it's a wasted vote, it's actually an insult to the voters. Anyone who says that insults every single voter that didn't vote for their candidate.
Todd Stevens (12:50.227)
for sure.
Groo (13:08.166)
So I think people need to stop insulting voters. And if they're such great candidates, then they'd earn the votes, right? So it's not a waste when someone's principles are in play.
Todd Stevens (13:18.963)
Mm -hmm, yeah.
Todd Stevens (13:25.685)
Yeah, that drives me crazy when I hear that. It really does that, you know, it's a wasted vote. No, I get it. I get the theory behind it, but I think it's one of those things that's been said for so long that we all truly believe it. And it's far from the truth, man. Like I'm with you. If you, if you vote principle, you vote with your heart, you vote with the person that aligns best with you, whether they have a chance or don't have a chance. Right. I want to be able to lay my head down at night and go, I think I did the best I could.
Groo (13:49.158)
Right.
Todd Stevens (13:54.996)
I made the best decision I could for my family, for my country. I'm okay with that. For my pocketbook, I mean, I'm okay with that, dude. I mean, I am. I cannot find it in my heart in any way to vote for either of the major parties this year. I mean, if it ends up with Trump and it ends up with Biden, I just, I can't. There's no way.
Groo (14:02.182)
For your pocketbook. Yeah.
Groo (14:20.198)
Yeah, it's not that exciting.
Todd Stevens (14:23.22)
It's not exciting, man. And it's just like voting for the same decrepit system that's broke. We all want change. And we all think that these same 90 -year -old men are gonna give us change, and they're not. But for some reason, we think that they are. They're so out of touch with reality. They're so out of touch with everyday man and woman. I don't know. I don't know what else we have to do to wake people up.
Groo (14:40.806)
No.
Todd Stevens (14:52.307)
You know, there's a movie coming out. Um, oh my gosh, I can't remember when it's coming out. Have you seen the trailer for it? It's called civil war. So a friend was telling me about it. And when he was telling me, but actually Josh was telling me about it. And when he was telling me about it, he said, you know, Oh, you gotta check out this new civil war trailer. It looks really cool. I'd love to go see it. And in my mind, I'm thinking civil war, like the civil war that we had. So it's a, you know, a take on, you know, the old civil war in the 1800s. It's not.
Groo (15:00.294)
No.
Groo (15:17.798)
Right.
Todd Stevens (15:21.267)
It's a modern version where two states secede from the union, Texas and California, and they create their own. And it's the civil war between it's like with the president bombing Americans and dude. So in my mind, is that what it's going to take for us to go? This is jacked up. This is wrong.
Groo (15:27.046)
Wow. Wow.
Groo (15:44.998)
Well...
Todd Stevens (15:45.043)
I don't know.
Groo (15:47.846)
I believe everyone has a right to secede if you aren't happy with your organization or your situation, you as an individual or even as a group of people have a right to secession.
Todd Stevens (16:05.043)
But we don't anymore, do we? Because since the last secession...
Groo (16:08.134)
Well, that's just a government. That's just words on paper. You still have a right and a freedom, freedom of association and freedom of secession. You have a right, but unfortunately, they'll take the right away and throw you in jail for implementing your right to secession. So do you really have a right? No, not really, because they'll imprison you for it.
Todd Stevens (16:14.035)
You're right, that is just words on paper.
Todd Stevens (16:36.531)
It's a federal crime.
Groo (16:38.598)
Yeah, but it's made up. It's not real. It's fake. You know, it's a fake wall, you know, that somebody doesn't like the idea of secession, so they put it in there. But as an individual, as a free human, free traveling human, you have a right to secede from anything you want to. If you don't like your job, you can secede from it. I mean, no one has a right to keep you somewhere that you're not happy with.
Todd Stevens (16:42.387)
Right, oh, it 100 % is.
Todd Stevens (16:47.635)
Mm -hmm.
Todd Stevens (16:55.859)
Absolutely.
So true.
Todd Stevens (17:05.619)
Right. Yeah.
Groo (17:06.566)
So, I mean, Texas actually has it written in their bylaws that they can secede from the union. It's in their constitution. Yeah.
Todd Stevens (17:12.883)
But that's what's crazy. It's in theirs, but then in the federal constitution, or in the fed, I don't know where it's written or wherever, but there was some type of amendment made that if you secede, again, this was after Civil War, this is after everybody came back and said, if you secede again, you're out. You're out of everything. Like there's no coming back. It's like, whoa, whoa, okay. Mm -hmm.
Groo (17:27.142)
Uh.
Groo (17:35.398)
Right and people are like, thank you. Yeah, we'll take it. We want no part of this. Yeah so I mean It's interesting man. Um You know the the right of association the right of secession is a is a freedom that should be looked at more carefully, but Yeah, so I mean I took the political route you kind of stayed in the merch route and um So maybe we can join the two
Todd Stevens (18:00.595)
Mm -hmm.
Groo (18:05.798)
and do something new and fresh with this. I mean, that's why I like this podcast idea. It's like we're rejoining after years and years and years of doing different things. And then here we are again. And it's like, dude, let's do something, you know?
Todd Stevens (18:18.643)
Yeah.
Todd Stevens (18:23.283)
Oh yeah, and I think it's gonna be fun. So Travis and I, our plan for this portion of Created by Human is to do interviews. So we want to bring on just all kinds of people. We started out with a Libertarian Party candidate because obviously that's where Travis, his passion lies, and we're in election year. So it was kind of just something we decided to do there.
But we have a bunch of just odd people that we want to talk to as well. We were kicking around ideas and we don't want to give any away, but it's our secret. Yeah, we want to bring on some really fun people and just kind of pick their brains, man. Just hear what people who think differently have to say. So that's the direction that we want to go in with Travis and I. I don't even know what we call it. It's just kind of some interview section. I don't know. It's just...
Groo (18:54.15)
No, no, that's our secret. Don't tell anybody.
Groo (19:07.366)
Right?
Groo (19:16.774)
Yeah, man. It's created by humans.
Todd Stevens (19:17.619)
Just us getting together, created by, well yeah, it's created by human, but it's just him and I having some fun, chatting with some people like we used to. We used to have a blast.
Groo (19:26.47)
Well, you know, I think the thing that I want to pursue is to talk to these people and get to know them personally, not so much their political mask or their political pitch. Like, I want to hear people, who they are, and I hear about who they are and what they're doing and we'll make some tick and really get to the nitty gritty of who people are and take the mask off and just be real.
you know, and not have to pretend like there's somebody that they're not, you know. I just want to get real with people and find out who they are as an individual. I mean, you and I know each other pretty well, but let's get to know other people really well through this podcast. I think it'd be fantastic.
Todd Stevens (20:03.891)
Right.
Todd Stevens (20:19.347)
Yeah, let's make some new friends. That's always fun. How to.
Groo (20:21.254)
Yeah, how to make friends. We need to read that book, how to make friends and influence people.
Todd Stevens (20:27.155)
That is actually a great book. If you haven't read it, it is a must read. Now, I think if you're a wise person, a lot of it is common sense, but I am surprised at how many people are not wise people. How many people just go, uh, what? But there's a lot of common sense things in there. Yeah, it's an interesting read. Everyone should read it.
Groo (20:29.606)
Is it really? I need to read it. I need help.
Groo (20:51.878)
Yeah, man. So yeah, I mean, that's going to be fun. So I hope everyone sticks around for future episodes. And we plan to have a lot of fun. I think it's going to be exciting. And, you know, I mean, we're not going to keep it all political. We want some interesting folks on here. So.
Todd Stevens (21:16.467)
Oh yeah, and that's what's gonna happen. Well Travis, I just wanted to have that quick conversation with you today since our guest was busy. That way I can get people to know you a little bit and be excited for what we're gonna talk about. And I'm excited, man. I can't wait to spend this time chatting with you and getting to know all these other people. Yeah, it's gonna be a good time.
Groo (21:23.782)
Yup.
Mm -hmm.
Groo (21:33.382)
Yep.
Groo (21:38.662)
Oh yeah.
Yeah, so stick around for more and there's plenty to talk about in the future. And don't forget to pay Uncle Sam your fair share.
Todd Stevens (21:54.963)
That's right. Pay Uncle Sam.
Groo (21:56.614)
Ugh, that just sounds terrible.
Todd Stevens (21:59.635)
It's awful. Alright guys, go waste all your money. Alright? Alright, love you. Alright. Alright buddy.
Groo (22:01.062)
What's your stuff? Yeah, ThinVore. Thanks, Todd. Y 'all have a great day, everyone. All right.