As I reconnected with my battle buddy Arik and his good friends Omar and Jorvorskie, I was struck by the unwavering strength and adaptability that binds us. It's the same tenacity that's propelled them from the front lines to the forefront of Lufkin's construction scene with Patriot Construction, and into the tantalizing world of beef jerky. Their stories, show the discipline and camaraderie of service life and channeled it into entrepreneurship, all recounted in our latest podcast episode.
For More Info On Patriot Construction
https://patriotconstructiontx.us/
Order Your Beef Jerky
https://jorvorskielane.com/
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Support@CharlieMikeThePodcast.com
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Charlie Mike Military Apparel
Veteran Owned & Operated
As I reconnected with my battle buddy Arik and his good friends Omar and Jorvorskie, I was struck by the unwavering strength and adaptability that binds us. It's the same tenacity that's propelled them from the front lines to the forefront of Lufkin's construction scene with Patriot Construction, and into the tantalizing world of beef jerky. Their stories, show the discipline and camaraderie of service life and channeled it into entrepreneurship, all recounted in our latest podcast episode.
For More Info On Patriot Construction
https://patriotconstructiontx.us/
Order Your Beef Jerky
https://jorvorskielane.com/
Please like share and follow..
Support@CharlieMikeThePodcast.com
Website
https://www.facebook.com/CharlieMikeThePodcast
Youtube
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNyGgJYIgU8b02NypoJgHAg
Charlie Mike Military Apparel
Veteran Owned & Operated
This is Charlie Mike the podcast Veterans helping veterans. Talking about things happening in the veteran community, Things we've experienced and overcome, such as addictions, PTSD, depression, legal trouble, and we also promote veteran-owned businesses. If you're talking about it, we're talking about it. This is Charlie Mike the podcast.
Speaker 2:Yo, what's going on everybody? Welcome back to another episode of Charlie Mike the podcast. As always, I'm your host, Raul Guys. Man, it's been crazy. It's been crazy, I've been excited. You guys know I get extra excited when I have a friend of mine that I served with not only in the States, I served with him in combat, so y'all already know how I feel about that situation. So, modest, I'm going to let you start off. Introduce yourself, bro.
Speaker 3:What's up guys. My name is Eric, Me and Raul met. What was it? 2007?, Was it? I think? I think, I don't remember 2007, october 2007. And you?
Speaker 2:know, hit it off. We weren't in the.
Speaker 3:Army. I wasn't in the Army at my unit for like three months and then when I got to the unit they were like, hey, you know, we go to Iraq in like three months. Right, y'all just got back from NTC. I was like what I?
Speaker 2:just got here.
Speaker 3:I can't go nowhere yet. And sure enough, it was like January 5th, we were in Iraq, gone.
Speaker 2:It's crazy, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, man. I want to learn more about you, ben, but I want you to introduce the guest.
Speaker 3:All right, so brought with me my boy Omar and my buddy, javorski. So me and Omar grew up together and Javorski I mean we've known him or like Omar and him knew of each other, have knew each other growing up and stuff. I was a little bit younger so I didn't really wasn't in that group, but me and Omar own a construction company together. And then we got with Dravorski and Dravorski's got this beef jerky line he's trying to come out with. So we started putting our heads together and kind of trying to launch that thing too. So we're running buddies now.
Speaker 2:Man, tell us a little bit about yourself, who you are, where you're from.
Speaker 5:All right, my name's Omar Omar Yancey from Lufkin, texas. Like Eric was saying, we grew up together. I didn't just run around with Jaworski, but we knew of each other. He's a big football star. I'm sure a lot of people are going to know of him out of Lufkin Texas.
Speaker 5:um he don't look that big A&M, little dude, nfl, the whole run. Um, so, eric and I he went to the military, like you're saying, ran through everything with you. He come back. We uh linked back up as old friends and got into the construction business. Uh, both worked for the same company. I separated from that for a couple years. Come back to it we're going. Didn't really like how that was going so I tried to beg him for, you know, multiple years like, hey, man, let's get out on our own. We need to do this. Like we can take this another step. I think that there's a lot of things we can change to be successful on our own. And uh, finally convinced him to that about a couple years ago. Yeah, we started patriot construction out of the veteran aspect for him and now it's number one construction company.
Speaker 3:number one construction company in lufkin, number one construction company in Lufkin.
Speaker 5:Everything's taken off and I think we just blend really well.
Speaker 3:We got an award this week. From what?
Speaker 4:was it.
Speaker 3:It's like best in the US company.
Speaker 5:Yeah, recognized as one of the best companies in the US as far as customer satisfaction. Damn, that's what's up Keeping a five best companies in the US as far as customer satisfaction Damn that's what's up Keeping a five-star review in your company?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:It's pretty cool.
Speaker 2:That's what it's about, man customer service. You get one bad Google review and that's your company.
Speaker 5:That's it. Everything's about a paycheck right at the end of the day, but we try to treat the business not just that, you know, because the paycheck's inevitable. You're going to get that at the end of the day, but you know, your success for long term you have to provide, you know, a level of customer service that I really think is dead in a lot of businesses nowadays.
Speaker 5:I think if you take pride in that and you treat people right and you take pride in what you're doing, you're going to go to the next level for longevity instead of be this just bam on the presents, make some money, fizzle out and kind of lose what you put your efforts into. At that point you're going to get surpassed yeah, man, that's, that's dope.
Speaker 2:It definitely is, you know once you get to learn.
Speaker 3:So why construction is just something you you both were were into accident yeah yeah, really as crazy, as it is complete accident uh, just necessity of needing a job coming out of the military yeah and I went to work for the company omar, went to work the same guy and then we just took everything we knew and learned.
Speaker 3:And the guy that we worked for you know he was. He was one of the best companies in lufkin, so we got to learn a lot of things. We just didn't like some of the practices that we saw overall in the market or like in the in the business, and so we just try to take out all the things that we saw that we didn't like and, you know, apply our values to that and change it all up and come up with our own deal.
Speaker 5:You know that being said, big shout-out to that company that we started with. It was a really great mentor. Oh, absolutely.
Speaker 3:In that aspect learned a lot from it, mentor?
Speaker 5:oh, absolutely, that aspect learned a lot from it and uh, you know, so he he does. He does deserve that recognition as well he really did help build, build us, you know we just it was time to take a different path and go on to a different level.
Speaker 2:You know I, I see a lot of y'all when y'all, when y'all talking about business, I see a lot of myself. You know it's when people come and talk to me and they say like, hey, I want to learn about podcasting. I'm not going to be like, look, this is. I'll tell them bits and pieces. That's not what I do. I tell them everything. I tell them how I became. You know, in the situation I am. I tell them the things that I done wrong, that they don't want to do. There's no secrets, man, because I'm not competing with you. Your audience is going to be different than my audience. You know what I'm saying. Yeah, so sometimes people are going to click on it and be like man, I don't like that dude's voice and just click off and it's the same thing. So it's not like I'm not competing with anybody.
Speaker 3:No, we just had a guy last week that was another one of our friends we grew up with. He called and was like hey, man, do you think y'all could help me look at this house, figure out what it needs to renovate it? He's trying to ask us questions and the years we were coming up, I remember asking several home builders or people that had already been doing it for years.
Speaker 2:Won't do it.
Speaker 3:They wouldn't tell me nothing.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So we had to learn everything the hard way. Yeah, everything the hard way. So whenever he called, I was like yeah, man come on. We'll go just ride with us for a whole day and we'll teach you everything we can teach you in a day and just absorb everything you got. That's what it's about.
Speaker 5:I mean, it's a lot of people out there that they feel like their level of success depends on the level of failure of others.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh man 100%.
Speaker 5:And that's not really what it is. What it is is your level of success is all a part of your own right.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 5:What pride do you take? What practices do you have? How are you going to grow yourself or your company, and how are you going to be the best you're going to be? And if these people would worry more about internal growth within what they're doing, then they wouldn't have to worry about, you know, the next person. They'll be successful on their own, even if this person, this person and this person is also successful. I don't have to beat you down and step on your head in order to find my success.
Speaker 2:Yes, that's 100. Yes, that's for sure.
Speaker 3:So we just took a. You know, we've kind of had like a long-term plan, we've been doing the remodeling construction and so we just bought our first house.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, our first flip house.
Speaker 2:First flip In Lufkin.
Speaker 3:Yep Dope man. Super nice neighborhood on the golf course.
Speaker 5:Yeah.
Speaker 5:It's going to be a good one and you know, on that point there, you know, to some people that's not like, oh wow, you know that's not like this big thing and everything. But you know we didn't come from the same background that a lot of people that get into companies, own companies, have Like this, isn't we're not from generational wealth. Yeah, companies have like this isn't we're not. We're not from generational wealth. Yeah, we didn't have, you know, father didn't have a company that got passed down to us and, matter of fact, you know, father wise was pretty absent in in all of our lives here and you know, just to have that struggle growing up and to miss that guidance, you know, of the father of the man, I feel like it was a really big achievement that we have achieved to break out of, get into what we're doing, find the success we're doing, growing it and then being you know, a father in our children's lives on the back end.
Speaker 5:I mean, it was a big hole for us to climb out of. People with similar scenarios can probably relate to that. If you didn't live through that yourself, you might not understand what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:I feel you. Let's introduce you and let's talk a little bit. Bro, how do you say your last name? Is that your last name? Which?
Speaker 4:one. That's my first name. Javorski is my first name.
Speaker 2:Say it Javorski. Javorski, that's your first name, that's my first name. Damn, okay, okay, damn. Tell us a little bit about yourself.
Speaker 4:We'll make it real simple man. I'm from Lufkin, texas, born and raised Became. This phenomenal athlete Got a full scholarship at Texas A&M. Played four years there.
Speaker 2:You play quarterback.
Speaker 5:No I play a little bit.
Speaker 4:But no man. I played all four years there. I still hold an all-time touchdown record there. After college I went to the Dolphins for two years and played with Tampa Bay for two years.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, I bet you got to experience a lot man doing that. You know I got some questions for you offline.
Speaker 4:Stuff we were talking about a little here. Yeah, no, man, I got to experience a little bit, man, coming from Lufkin man and able to travel the world. You know what I'm saying doing something that I love to do being on my own, learning school, being a full-time student, being a full-time athlete, you know, being a father, being a boyfriend, being all. You know all the stuff that go into it, man. So, man, I learned a lot on the way, for sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, man, that's crazy. So from Lufkin you know, born and raised, you did your NFL college dream and then you came back and what are you doing now?
Speaker 4:Man. I've been back and forth. I lived in the cities for years and man, that city life would get boring. I was just talking to the boys on the way here, man, the traffic, I hate the traffic. That's another reason.
Speaker 2:I was late.
Speaker 4:Right. So after my NFL days, man, you get caught up in that world of trying to figure out what to do. I opened up a gym, tried to get into real estate, just all certain stuff you know what I mean Become a coach and stuff like that but, man, none of that stuff interests me. So I got in the funk of trying to figure it out. So about three months ago, this beef opportunity came through. It presented itself and I ran with it.
Speaker 2:That's good man. I tasted this Wagyu beef jerky man. This is. Oh, what is this one? This is barbecue, the barbecue bacon. Yeah, man props, it's good and I'm not gonna lie, bro, I'm, I'm uh, I'm uh. When it comes to beef jerky, I'm picky about my shit jerky, that's what I said, yeah, yeah it's like oh yeah, man, but this is good bro.
Speaker 4:No, I appreciate it, man. It's just one of those deals, man, where you know what I mean. It's the expectation part. You know what I'm saying? My name on it, my brand on it, and I got to be the best. I mean, that's just what it is.
Speaker 2:So J Train, is that what they called you?
Speaker 4:Yeah, that was my nickname. Yeah, that was my nickname, yeah.
Speaker 2:That's what's up. Yeah, why'd they call you that? I run over your ass? Yeah, he did. That's what I'm talking about. Were y'all able to witness him play I?
Speaker 3:watched him play. Yeah, yeah, Dope man, that's how he did it too. He run straight over those dudes. Yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it was in In high school.
Speaker 3:What did you average per carry About?
Speaker 4:five, six. Easy, every time it's that small, yeah easy, you know what I'm saying. I just had it on my mind. I mean you had to make a decision. Like a big guy moving that fast man, you don't want to hit that Nice, that's common sense. I mean I wouldn't want to do it.
Speaker 2:You're running at me.
Speaker 4:I'm running the way, bro. So now man, it was. It was a good experience, man that's what's up, man.
Speaker 2:That's uh. Congratulations on that, man. I know it takes a lot, you know well shit, just to finish college. It takes a lot, bro, to do, to do the college life. I've been back like 10 times and I still, you know, ain't you know?
Speaker 4:oh, I get it, bro, it's. It's a hard process yeah, I mean it takes what I mean. It takes a lot out of you and a lot of people don't understand that. So just imagine juggling that and being a full-time athlete.
Speaker 5:Nah, and what they're requiring of you Right.
Speaker 2:Oh, and they didn't pay you. You didn't get money back then, though I didn't get no money back then.
Speaker 4:So I'm a little pissed off about that, yeah.
Speaker 2:I would be too, man. I saw these boys in college buying their mama's houses and everything Like damn got that college money. That would be crazy. I didn't think that that was a thing man.
Speaker 5:Transformation to the game man.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's craziness, you know so, man. So, being when you were young I know a lot of us said it. You know, man, you know, one day, when I get older, I'm going to go into the NFL Kind of like a dream, you know what I'm saying. How did it feel to actually make that happen? Was that something that you said when you were little? Were you always a big dude?
Speaker 4:I've always been a big dude, but I had always understood that I was different.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 4:Like from the basketball court, from track to football to baseball. Anything I did, I dominated.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 4:So it's crazy that me and him met. It was an AAU basketball team that was created when we were kids. He's had a chip on his shoulder because he didn't get to play on the team but, his homeboy got to play on the team.
Speaker 4:But to sum it up, that's what changed my life only because I wasn't just playing talent in Lufkin anymore. We was going across the state, going to Louisiana, oklahoma, arkansas, playing against older kids. So that's where the monster was built. So when I got back to Lufkin, say during when school started back, I'm dominating my classmates and they looking at me like who in the hell is this dude? So I took that same approach that I couldn't be stopped in all sports.
Speaker 2:Shit, bro. Just keep that for the rest of your life. Man, that mindset, anything I do, I'm going to crush it, I'm going to crush it. Yeah.
Speaker 4:It's nothing that I can't do. Became a lion, right.
Speaker 5:Yeah, that's shit that's hard to find. Yeah, that mindset, yeah became a line right?
Speaker 2:yeah, that's hard to find, yeah and that mindset.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like you don't see well, I mean, you know it's different these days, man, it really is. And you know, I, I told you I was just at the va and um, you know, man, sitting next to these guys, that that are just, you know, oh, you know, this va sucks. You know, this b-i-t-c-h, blah, blah, blah, like yo, bro, you know, if you chill, man, just chill and don't say thank you, yes, ma'am, no ma'am, I mean, don't act entitled. That shit goes a long way, bro, you know, and and it'll change the way people look at you in the way that you're. You know you, yeah, I don't know, I just got, I got. So it was just like it rubbed me crazy man.
Speaker 3:So I don't like people getting just you know being like that either.
Speaker 5:Man built off of what he just said. Like you said, at a teenage level. There was a moment that that year of traveling and going against that competition opened up his eyes and he knew it was like know for the taken absolutely, and he went and and earned it himself and took it himself, and it seems like you know the youth nowadays.
Speaker 5:It's like I deserve it. Yeah, you're right, it's twisted up because really and truly you don't deserve anything that you don't, that you're not willing to go put in the work for and go take yourself Like bro, like you know that's.
Speaker 4:I can remember I drew the line in the dirt. If you wasn't my teammate, you was getting it, dude, you was getting it, yeah.
Speaker 2:I didn't want to be.
Speaker 4:I didn't want to shake your hand. I didn't want to be your friend. I didn't want to be. I didn't want to shake your hand, I didn't want to be your friend. I didn't want to sit with you If you didn't have. I think the time we were, and one man if you didn't have, and one across your chest, man, it was war.
Speaker 5:Right, yeah, that's crazy man.
Speaker 3:This is the same thing with us, but we were actually at war. You know what I'm saying?
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah nah, man, that's crazy. Nah, that's, that's what's up. I uh keep that mindset, man how old are you? 37 oh, you still young too. I say young because you, you're younger than me. You're still young. How old are you? 37? I know how old you are 36, 37, yeah, man. So so, y'all, when was the first time that you met J Train? I'm going to call you that bro, because I can't fucking pronounce it hey J, yeah, yeah, yeah, welcome to my world.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so we just met this year and we started talking. And once he started talking because I mean we meet people all the time, like constantly meet people, because I mean we meet people all the time, like constantly meet people, and Omar and I have the same mindset, you know, as far as having an entrepreneurial mind, or like wanting to go and do and have ideas and pursue those ideas, take chances, and you just don't meet people like that yeah so, after 10 minutes of talking to, him he starts telling me all these things.
Speaker 3:I'm like this guy's got it yeah, you know like we can do some stuff, and then you know he's telling me all these things. I was okay, this is what, when we clicked right there, okay this is my boy. Yeah, that's what's up, man and then so it's like his beef jerky deal. You know, me and omar, our main deal is sales. You know, like we, that's our role in the company other than running and owning.
Speaker 3:But sales man, we still, we sell everything. So we told him like hey, man, we'll take your product and you know we can figure out how to get it on the market, get it in the stores and do whatever. So that's kind of we're at that point at the bottom floor getting it going but dope man.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you be sure to send me your logo, man, I'll put it all over this mug.
Speaker 4:So we can share the information bro, get this higher.
Speaker 2:I like, I like it man it's good with that wagyu beef yeah, so there's not a lot of so I got questions for this beef jerky game, man, because I noticed some. There's some big competitors out there, bro, so how? How did you get into this? This is, I mean, where have you always been a beef jerky head?
Speaker 4:you know what I'm saying man, it's one of those deals where you know I don't know if you know anything about texas and them, but that's a it's a. It's a good. It's a close group aggies, take care of aggies, yeah, yeah so, like I said, man, I had got out the league and I had started looking for different avenues of entrepreneur. Because I mean I learned in the National Football League, I mean I couldn't work for nobody, right. So I was in that deal of trying to find something, something to do so a buddy of mine that I went to college with.
Speaker 4:He worked at Form 44 in College Cameron or College Station 1 or 2.
Speaker 2:And he had just hit me out of Facebook.
Speaker 4:He had just hit me off. Facebook because I had just got out of rehab and stuff like that from drinking alcohol and prescription drugs and all the football-related stuff, right? So he had just sent me a kind message like hey, bro, keep your head up. You know, I know I'm keeping up with you online, man, you got your head on straight, just stay there. He said. Man, there may be an opportunity for you somewhere in this thing and I'll reach out to you when it's time.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 4:So he finally reached out to me. Long story short, they offered me the beef jerky job.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 4:So it's just all about who you know.
Speaker 2:That's what's up, man. So how are you doing as far as your recovery?
Speaker 4:Man, I'm doing good, you know what I'm saying I got good guys like this that I can talk to and I can help. I mean that we can all help each other, because, like I said, man, I was just missing the camaraderie and the team aspect.
Speaker 3:That's a big deal.
Speaker 2:Yeah it is.
Speaker 4:When I left the game.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 4:Everybody around me didn't understand the nature of where I come from, yeah, so I got in the funk right. So once I met him when I met him, you know what I mean I immediately like, oh shit, this shit, finna take off like nonstop now. And the fact that I found people that's wired like me, that makes me feel better as a person too as well, because it's somebody out there that is like me.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's that old saying iron sharpens iron man. Yeah, man, that's the thing. Like-minded individuals yeah it's the same thing, man.
Speaker 2:I got in my funk when I got out of the military and I missed that camaraderie, I miss being for all those times. I remember waking up and at my house and going downstairs and there'd be five or six people in the living room like man who let y'all in. You know what I mean, but it was just, it was, it was cool, it was, it was comfortable and then once you get in, out and being by yourself and have to experience life alone, it's just crazy. Yeah, it is.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and that bond that you have, there's like a big emptiness there.
Speaker 2:There is man.
Speaker 3:And a normal person you meet is probably not going to feel or make you feel comfortable to fill that hole Right and I don't know. It's weird.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you just, man, find a good group of people. You know I relied on the alcohol and drugs. You know, when I first got out, I did that for a long time. I did too. I did it for a couple years and, just like I say, a couple years, it was like a lot. Yeah, it was a lot.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but you know I didn't learn my lesson, man, and you know I kept, you know, getting away with this, getting away with that. And I finally got in trouble and I was like, all right, you know, they sent me to counseling and I had to do all these programs with the VA and things like that. So I was just like, ok, well, let me do what the court wants me to do and I'll stop doing all this shit until I'm off this program. So I was like, all right, 30 days went by. I was like, damn, 30 days feels good. 60 days went by. A year went by. You know what I'm saying and it's just like man. I was like man, I think I'm going to.
Speaker 2:I got out of the program and then they were like, yay, yo, you did great. You know, we want you to come back. So the month that I got out of the program, I went back into the program as the speaker of the graduation for the next class, just about like, hey, I'm gonna tell you my life, man, and just it feels good, you know, not knowing that people, people relate to your story and people say, hey, man, you know, because I saw you do it, I know I can do it, and that's the dopest feeling in the world, bro yeah, people say you placed a like a level of accountability onto yourself to be that representative for for these other people as well.
Speaker 3:You know it's hard, that helps you.
Speaker 4:It's really hard to come out of that like most people don't mentally that was probably some of the hardest shit that I've ever done.
Speaker 5:I agree.
Speaker 2:Oh, 100%, mentally 100%.
Speaker 3:That's saying a lot when you're talking about Iraq the. Nfl, all that stuff.
Speaker 4:Yeah, we at the top, we at the best of the best.
Speaker 3:And we're saying it's the hardest thing you've ever done.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, 100%, bro. You know I've had some dark moments, man, and I think that was how I seriously got into like podcasting was sharing my story and my message and somebody hitting you up and be like hey, man, thanks for saying that. I know that I'm not alone anymore and I remember being alone in my darkest, deepest place on the floor with the gun. You know, I remember that and I remember saying like damn, I'm all alone. You know, thinking that in my head when I probably actually wasn't all alone, but it's just the way I felt, and when I after that is when I was like all right, I'm gonna try to make some changes in my life, try to do these things right and see what comes out of it. Man and bro, a few years ago y'all would have told me this shit. I would have been like man, you're fucking crazy right you know what I'm saying it's just insane.
Speaker 2:Hey, god is good. Yeah, man, yeah, definitely I don't even talk about.
Speaker 3:You know, like mine was like five years, I think yeah, you know I was just like doing drugs and alcohol and basically anything I could do to kill myself. What? Was the wake up the legal system.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, mine too.
Speaker 3:Legal system and then have kids. Having a kid, yeah. And going to rehab five times, damn. You know, yeah, five rehabs. Yeah, I'm a persistent person.
Speaker 4:That's good bro.
Speaker 2:I damn you know. Yeah, five, yeah, I'm persistent. That's good, bro, stop till, I get it. You know that just makes perfect.
Speaker 3:Yeah, man, but I don't, you know, I don't talk to people or tell. I kind of try to put that behind me just because of the you know, the business stuff. I almost just, you know just pretend like it didn't happen unless I'm talking to somebody who, yeah, needs to hear that, but yeah, I try to that. I understand.
Speaker 2:But you know, what the crazy thing is is I'm so open with it, man, and when I knew at first, when it all happened, I was so like I'm not telling anybody. I'm not telling. Well, people knew my my struggles because when you get in trouble in this city, right here, they post it on facebook.
Speaker 2:So when my mugshot went viral. Yeah, you know what I'm saying. So, like people were like, oh, dang, dang, look at this food. Blah, blah, blah, blah. So I was like you know, after that I got out and I was like, all right, okay, okay, you know, I was embarrassed, I didn't want to be seen around the city, I didn't want to be seen doing things. And, and when I finally knew I was in that recovery, I was going to NA NA, na and I was like you know, I'm ready to work the program.
Speaker 2:I put like a picture of myself now and then I put a picture of that mug shot and I posted it myself. I was like this is me, this is where I was and this is where I am now. But I don't tell no secrets, because people come in here, man, we have politicians that come in here congressmen, state senate, the mayor everybody comes in here and is on the studio, does different things, and it's just. I want them to know who I am and you know what's cool is like. They don't fucking judge me, bro yeah, yeah, I'm not.
Speaker 3:I'm not. If you ask me, I'm gonna tell you, but I'm not gonna tell you unless you ask me yeah, yeah, yeah my son got in the car, picked him up from the school the other day and he said dad, what's this? It was my mugshot on Google. Oh dang, he pulled it up. Yeah, I was like.
Speaker 5:How old is your son now? You know that's like a big thing. You know it's like a fad on TikTok yeah. Facebook, you know, like Google your parents.
Speaker 3:Was it really?
Speaker 5:Yeah, yeah, so my kid did it. For some kids it ends up hitting, ends up hitting. Yeah, you know, I've got like three mugshots on there oh bro, I got a few.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and then one of them it's weird. So one of them, like it has my mugshot, it has my picture, but then it has some crazy charges underneath it, and so I don't know why my picture's there.
Speaker 3:But once you click on it, then the actual guy's picture comes up, oh so, and son it's. It says like uh, you know, guy tries to tell his officers, you know that he's gonna kill him when he leaves the jail. And I'm like son, I didn't do that, I swear yeah that wasn't me, look, and I'm trying to click on the show and I was like I've been in jail, but not for that yeah, you know he's like I don't believe you, dad.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but so I had to cross that road the other day. But I told him, like he, you know, when we were, when he was younger, like he asked, I think one time I was like yeah, Ben and Jill.
Speaker 2:whatever, let me go. You know it's different now because when my girls are a little older Faith is 19 and Layla is 12.
Speaker 3:So it's just this tall. Last time I saw them yeah, I know.
Speaker 2:So I try to tell them to be careful with what you do as far as substances alcohol, drugs because it's in our blood. You know what I'm saying. Like, my older brother is still struggling with it. My mother struggled with it until she passed and it's just in the blood yeah.
Speaker 2:So I think that scares her a little bit, my 19-year-old which is a good thing, you know and I tell her I was like you know I don't know if this is me just doing bad parenting I was like I'd rather you smoke weed than drink beer, absolutely. You know what I'm saying Like I'd rather you do that and I mean, we'll see how it goes. I never did anything crazy when I smoked weed Me, neither man Shit Gang wait, gang wait and sleep Watch movies.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I never did anything life-threatening.
Speaker 2:No, I never did anything life-threatening. No, yeah, yeah, man, every time I got arrested naked around the city was because of Apple man. So what's going on with this business, man? Tell me more about it.
Speaker 3:Man, it's just I don't know. It's just been kind of like you're talking about. We were just on a whim, just tried it, yeah, and it seemed like everything just fell into place.
Speaker 2:Well, first of all, let me ask you this man how is your family, bro? Awesome, I see your boy looks just like you. Yeah, he really does man. Yeah, like I had him, yeah.
Speaker 3:No, he's doing golf and he got into golf. He started playing soccer the first year. My uh, my daughter's like third year she's been doing cheer yeah that's her thing um. My wife is.
Speaker 2:You know she got her rn like last year yeah yeah, last year, I think last year, I think a couple years ago it was last year, the year before, and then she's.
Speaker 3:She did a couple pre-reqs and in may she starts the rn to be us in transition. So I'm trying to get her through that so I don't have to work so hard anymore.
Speaker 2:Yeah, how's she doing? She's doing good.
Speaker 3:Yeah, she's good, good, good. She's mad at me today because I'm here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh well, she's griping at me on the way here. I told you don't piss her off. I know I what? Nah, man, let me tell you. So me and this dude have been literally around the world together, man, we've been, you know, kuwait, iraq, saudi arabia. We were in qatar. We we swam in the persian gulf.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, we uh man, we just we've done some crazy things, um, but you know it's just. Uh, man, I miss you. I had I had billy here few months back and he came down to the studio.
Speaker 3:So I watched the. You know we went down for Sands.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:And Sands actually came down to my house a couple weeks ago and he's actually coming. I invited him because I wanted to meet Jay and he's coming down, I think next month. He's going to stay the weekend. Oh yeah, and we went down there to see him. But I think somebody told me. So I watched the podcast and I heard you and Billy talking about the watermelon deal. Yeah, but y'all never told the story. We can't tell the story. I was like you can tell the whole story.
Speaker 2:We can't.
Speaker 3:We can't. I died laughing. I still tell people that story and that's probably one of the craziest you know at like wildest nights to this day that I've ever, you know, experienced.
Speaker 2:You remember martha stewart no what's what that was. That was your name. Oh, that's what we called you. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I remember that. Can't tell that. Yeah, no, that's another story. You can tell that one yeah, man, we had some good times yeah, we did even in which is crazy, because you're, because you're in Iraq, it's weird to say that Most people are like what do you mean?
Speaker 3:Some of the best times of my life.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's what I tell people, man. Military was some of the best and worst times of my life. You know, I tell my kids I wish I could have changed it, because I wish I could have been there for your earlier years. And then now, when y'all are kind of getting to that point where y'all don't really need me as much, I wish, I wish that's what I was doing. My military service, you know, did you have kids as you were traveling?
Speaker 4:yes, sir, I had man. I had my first one at 18 oh, you were young yeah, right out of high school shit. Back to back. Three back to back.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I mean I've always wanted kids, you know what I mean. So my grandfather had told me at a young age like dude man, have kids. But when you have them, have them young.
Speaker 2:So once you get older you'll be able to join. So I shot my shots. Yeah, three for three. You better stop.
Speaker 4:Yeah. I had three back to back and I had a daughter, daughter son son daughter, so I have five kids total.
Speaker 2:You know what that tells me? You got a weak ass pullout gang.
Speaker 4:It was cold at night.
Speaker 2:You having more kids.
Speaker 3:No, yeah, no, man, I couldn't do it.
Speaker 2:What about you? You got any kids.
Speaker 5:I got a 14-year-old daughter and a son that just turned three. Three, oh, you got a baby.
Speaker 2:So I got a pretty big gap there. Oh yeah, hey, but look on the bright side, man, you got a babysitter.
Speaker 5:Yeah, kind of no. Look on the bright side, man, you got a babysitter. Yeah, kind of Nah, no, he is different man.
Speaker 4:They ain't watching no kids. Oh yeah, they're different. Nah, he different man. These kids ain't watching no kids.
Speaker 5:When we make her right, I remember my brother watching me man.
Speaker 2:Negotiation, I was one, he was two. Yeah, basically back in the day that's the way it was, that's what's up. Man, tell me some more. Man, tell me what y'all been doing. Man, now that you've I know you said what you've experienced a little bit how about yourself, man? Did you, did you, hey? So wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. This is a question. So, lufkin, y'all just, y'all just repped, y'all just wanted to go back, y'all just just wanting to go back man.
Speaker 4:I don't know, man, for me, man it was. I got tired of the cities, man, you know what I mean. And then, plus my grandma, there too. She's still living, so I get to spend a lot of time with her in her older days but if I wouldn't have had nothing for this business, I probably wouldn't have moved back, Because that's I mean, there's no jobs there. So once I got this opportunity, I was like you know what? I need to start looking back and going home.
Speaker 4:So, man, I thought about it and I prayed about it and it brought me home.
Speaker 5:That's what's up man Lufkin. As crazy as it is, Lufkin's a really unique place. So if you're from the small country which is kind of what it was when we were young kids but if you're from the small country you go to Lufkin, you might feel like it's the city. But if you're from Houston, or a bigger city. You you go to Lufkin you say this is a small town so you know it kind of has a lot of the, the attributes and and features of all worlds yeah, it's pretty nice place to settle down.
Speaker 5:You got enough there, but not too much there, and it's uh as far as raising your kids and you know it's it's a pretty humble. I guess you feel like safe place no, that's good, you got the.
Speaker 3:You got two colleges there, well you know. You got natchitoches, sfa right down the road. You got the junior college at ac right in lufkin and dude in the last. What five years or ten years?
Speaker 5:how much has it grown oh, tremendous dude I'm talking about, then they're running i-69 straight through it. Yeah, they're building right through it right now it's on a growth they're building.
Speaker 3:Uh, brookshire brothers, that there's only one like it in texas right now. That's an a and you know, brian college station. They're building one in lufkin. It's two-story picture, brothers.
Speaker 2:Oh, it's kind of like a, it's like the bar at the top. All kind of crazy stuff, I think the guys, the brisket guys that. I was telling you all about. Earlier we were talking about it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so that's I mean, man, you got almost every restaurant you can think of I give it another's and then we have about. So Lufkin only has a population of like 36,000 on the sign.
Speaker 4:That's what they say.
Speaker 3:But yeah, on the sign. But if you got, I was talking to a friend of mine that- you know, knows all these numbers for whatever reason, but in the surrounding areas he said there's over a million people that flows with Lufkin. It was either on a daily basis or a weekly basis. Dang, yeah, so it's not as small, you know, as maybe you would think it would be.
Speaker 4:But it's just small enough to but I mean, if you really, if you really think about it, man, we done been there, we done done it yeah, we done, done it, experienced that fast life. Yeah, we done experienced that. So now we're at a point in our life where it's slow.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I feel you.
Speaker 4:And we want to keep it slow.
Speaker 2:You right, you right.
Speaker 4:So you adapt back to a slower environment and you try to make a living off that.
Speaker 3:Dude, and after living, having to be in the military and having to live out of state and be away from home not knocking any other state, but I would never live outside of Texas again- oh, 100%, Like you can't get me to cross the line and go live somewhere else.
Speaker 2:No same here, man. I got to experience different places, different states and things like that. You know, I enjoyed Colorado just because it's beautiful. Yeah, yeah, it is, but it's not texas, no you know I'm saying no place like yeah.
Speaker 2:And then I got to live in. Um, well, it's mexico, el paso. You know what I mean. They were like. They told me when I was in colorado. I was like hey, aren't you a texas boy? I said yeah. They said you want to go home? I said yeah, I was thinking that man for a hood. Yeah, they sent me to. Mexico.
Speaker 3:I was like man, it's like Texas, that's some racist shit right there. You said home, but I thought you meant home.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it was literally the same amount of time to get from Colorado to Houston than it was to get from El Paso to Houston.
Speaker 3:That's ridiculous.
Speaker 2:It's insane man. Yeah, I was like yo. All right, whatever. Yeah, Texas is crazy big, it's crazy big man. So, abe. So what kind of flavors you got with this beef jerky man? Let me hear it.
Speaker 4:Let me see. Right now I'm eating bacon. You know, barbecue bacon. I have habanero, sweet and spicy. Dill pickle Dill. Pickle Original jalapeno. Original Teriyaki Teriyaki.
Speaker 2:You said dill pickle. Yeah, dill pickle.
Speaker 3:Oh, let me taste that you want to try that one. Yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 5:I'll get you one of those, yeah.
Speaker 4:Man, it's good bro, it really is. You know, I try to do my razzle-dazzle.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you've got to, You've got to. So what are you thinking, man? Where are you going to go with it? What do you see? Long-term? Give me a six-month one-year.
Speaker 4:Well, you know, I only dream big. I say in a month I'm trying to put it in across the states.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I like this guy In all 50.
Speaker 4:In all 50.
Speaker 2:I like this guy.
Speaker 4:You know what I mean. I can't dream small. I never dream small. Yeah, I don't know what small is. Yeah, so I need it in Walmart, 7-eleven, buc-ee's all the Brookshires. I want it all.
Speaker 2:That's what's up, man. I like it, man, so you know it's crazy. What was I thinking? I was thinking one of the times that I remember you coming into the city was during Hurricane Harvey.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, yeah, that was cool man. Yeah, that was a really cool thing to do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I remember. You know I was watching I think it was the Mayweather fight that Saturday. I want to say it was the Mayweather fight. I was watching Mayweather fight somebody, I don't remember who, but and then early in the morning I get a call and he says yo, I'm on the way, you good. I was like, yeah, where are you going? What's going on?
Speaker 4:I didn't even know bro.
Speaker 2:He's like the city is underwater. I said what city? He said we're coming down. They came down.
Speaker 4:That sounds like Mayweather and Canelo time.
Speaker 2:I think that's what it was. I think that's what it was.
Speaker 3:That was cool man. We just had the boat and we're like, hey, this sounds fun. You know they need some help, let's go have some fun.
Speaker 2:So I remember. So let me tell you how this is funny. So a couple of days later, I'm laying down and I hear this voice on the TV and it says this is the Republic of Texas. We take care of our own down here. This is what we do. And I was like I know that voice. I kept playing it. I was like it was this boy Taking them to safety. Come here, honey. We're a little different. Down here in the Republic of Texas, we look after each other and take care of our own. He was on the news.
Speaker 3:Dude, I was in the New York Times USA Today. Yeah, yeah, hey, that's what's up. It was cool man. I was like I know that voice.
Speaker 2:I told the girl I was with. I was like, oh man, I said holy shit yeah.
Speaker 3:And so it was all. We're in the right place at the right time.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So we've been down at Tidwell we're. We're the first boat. You know that there's like a famous picture of hurricane harvey and it's got like an 18 wheeler out. It's a bunch of cars and a bunch of boats and people and there's 18 wheeler like in the middle of the picture. So it was tidwell.
Speaker 3:So we were the first boat and vehicle to ever show up at tidwell yeah and we were there for like I think like nine hours before the next boat showed up. That's crazy. I think we had like 60 people out of there before anybody else showed up. So when we got there middle of the night like I say, 10 o'clock at night, stayed there all night until 8 in the morning and then, you know, sun came up and we got back with one of our loads of people. There was freaking airboats and all these other trucks. So we're like, hey, they're covered here, let's go see if we can find another place to help we other trucks. So we're like, hey, they're covered here, let's go see if we can find another place to help. We were dog tired. So we went to a hotel right there in um, in humble, and got some rest and we went out again.
Speaker 3:That afternoon came back and a friend of mine that came in from lufkin that night and wanted to go out and I was man, we've been out freaking, you know 18 out of the last 24 hours. I don't really want to go, I need some rest. Beg me to go, beg me to go. So we take off and we're just going to go to Tidwell to see if they needed any more help and we get to the boat ramp not boat ramp, basically the bridge where you throw your boat out in the water. Yeah, yeah, yeah. State trooper was like yeah, man, tell him to hop in. And he says there's 30 or 40 people trapped in a church up Tidwell. He was going to try to get to them and see if we could help them and get the status of them, whatever. And once he got in the boat, he's like by the way, my name is Bob, bob, I'm with the New York Times. I was like, oh snap, we got a New York Times reporter Riding in a boat with us right now.
Speaker 2:I was like I better put these pants on. Yeah, let's get serious, let's act hardcore right now.
Speaker 3:And I swear we did, man. We were like Like trying to be all hard and stuff, like shining the light, looking for people All professional.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's what's up Shit. They needed it, though. We needed it, man it was cool.
Speaker 3:I ran over a couple cars Like the top of cars, with the propeller of the boat Like hit them.
Speaker 2:What's that? I think that was a car man. Those cars ain't no good anyway. No, they were done.
Speaker 3:They were done. Yeah, man, it was fun, dude, I mean I say that fun, I don't mean that in like a Right, right right. Like a. You know, it was almost like a kind of something you would do in the military, so I enjoyed doing it.
Speaker 2:you know so with the construction company Patriot Construction.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Patriot.
Speaker 2:Construction and Consulting. Construction and Consulting. How far do y'all go out from Lufkin?
Speaker 3:So that's a question that basically depends on the job.
Speaker 5:Yeah.
Speaker 3:You know, if you said hey, I want you to do this apartment complex and it's going to you know net us X amount of dollars then it's worth it to go and stay in a hotel for three months, but other than that, I hate going past an hour.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:It seems like we always lose a lot of our profit margin the further we go.
Speaker 5:Right, you lose your profit margin is lose a lot of our profit margin the further we go. Right, you lose your profit margin.
Speaker 4:It's harder to deliver the service that we really are trying to build the company on.
Speaker 5:Yeah, makes that ability really tough. But, that being said, we've came to Houston, which I think it was south side of Houston, so it was about two and a half hours from where, like, home base is located and, uh, we painted, uh, entire apartment complexes exteriors, um done some stuff like that. Probably the thing that we would travel the furthest and the best on would be roofing roof.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we could do a roof anywhere in texas yes, we have the ability to. We have the crews across texas to do that, and I think we have 50 roofing crews in our phone right now. That's what's up.
Speaker 5:Yeah, you know it doesn't require the same amount of time. That, say, like a renovation project or a build or something of that nature, actually requires being like hands-on for extended periods of time.
Speaker 3:No, if you called Omar and said hey, you know, I'm over here on the south side of Houston at 123 West Lane. I need a quote on the roof. Fifteen minutes later, using you know the software or whatever, he could say okay, it's going to be $16,573. Yeah, and he never even had to show up. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, so they have stuff like that with roofing. That makes it really easy.
Speaker 2:That's what's up. That's craziness.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so you could do the whole thing other than the installation and never go look at the property.
Speaker 2:So starting a company and this I know you know, how are you figuring it out? Like, as far as the financial aspect, the bookkeeping, there's a lot of shit that you have to do with the business.
Speaker 3:You have to LLC correct? Yeah, we're learning as we go.
Speaker 2:Yeah, big time.
Speaker 3:Yeah, man, we just got a full-time secretary like six. Oh, I don't know. Probably about seven or eight months ago. Seven or eight months ago, and so before that we were owner, foreman, secretary, bookkeeper check writer payroll every single aspect of it.
Speaker 5:And that was a little bit overwhelming. That was yeah.
Speaker 3:It is, it is.
Speaker 5:And then you know they say you make it through your what it's something like two years, maybe even three years. If you can get through those first few years, then you actually have a shot for long term, right? So when we started this I think I speak for both of us whenever I say we kind of felt like that meant if you could get enough work for year one and year two and year three and all that, then you're going to get stabilized out and be good. Well, we got completely blindsided with the financial struggles that go along with that and basically when we get in this line of work so we do work with insurance, we work with insurance companies and customers and bridge that gap state provide a service.
Speaker 5:You know it might be 30 days before you get paid yeah and then we do a government thing and it's a net 45. So we fund the whole job, labor, materials, materials, everything, finish it. They call it net 45. As you get paid 45 days later, it might take them five or six days to process it. For that time to start.
Speaker 3:And they're not even starting processing until you finish it out.
Speaker 2:That's all out of pocket. Yeah, this is all out of pocket. So you got to float all that.
Speaker 5:So all of a sudden, the busier we got which was great, like we started this thing out. Within a month and a half we landed 135 unit apartment complex remodel to really like kickstart us Like I don't know it. Just we went and had the meeting.
Speaker 2:We got to turn a profit from that.
Speaker 5:Yeah, yeah, we said the right things and started out. So we're like, hey, we're on a good start. We started getting these net 30s and net 45s and all this business started kind of coming in. And then that financial part hit us all of a sudden and I was like that's the other aspect that they're talking about. Yeah, If you can make it through this. Because all of a sudden it was like so we did, we completed job one, two, three, four or five, waiting on the money for it, needing to start job six and being able to, you know, balance that out and being able to fund progression on these other jobs all of a sudden became tough. And it wasn't because we weren't getting the work or weren't making money off of the jobs. It's just like the timeline started getting crazy there.
Speaker 2:So you got to have a lot of like in-pocket funds, funds man, you had, like I said, we came from nowhere you got a plan, so that part was you got that part was a little tough, but I think, uh, you gotta juggle I guess you could say you gotta juggle, have you went out and got
Speaker 3:any business loans uh, no, no, so we just this house we've muscled through this and I think we're.
Speaker 5:we're just about to the part of stability where, like things like that, aren't going to be such a struggle anymore, and so that you know that growing pain there, I think we may.
Speaker 2:But you need to be proud of yourselves, bro, because a lot of businesses don't accomplish what you've accomplished already without owing money to people. No, for sure, as far as taking out loans and things like that man.
Speaker 3:that's an accomplishment in itself bro, it's been a struggle, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:You're always going to struggle the first few years of business If you're not as financial because you're putting a lot of your own money into it, especially if you don't want creditors and you don't want to owe people this and that you know what I mean. And if you want to grow yeah, you know you want to grow.
Speaker 5:I mean sometimes you know your first money is. I mean it's back into the company for a future growth and for a better position in the future. You know we don't want to be a handyman service. You know we don't want to be a handyman service. No, that's not what we were looking for. We did not want to do that you know.
Speaker 3:We want to completely stay away from that. Like we've got a billboard, you know, and down on one of the highways, no shit you know, like, we reinvest in marketing and advertising, and I think we've got almost to the point where now we're a known name.
Speaker 2:That's good man. Congratulations the point where now we're a known name that's good man, congratulations.
Speaker 3:That's good, and that's all, just one piece of it yeah you know like the financial part is one piece of the puzzle and the next part that you need to figure out is your employees. Yes, that's so. If you get, say, you got five great guys, but then you get they're all on these work jobs where you got three more jobs coming up, who's working those jobs and so managing those guys? So you got 20 guys working for you. Well then, all of a sudden, you complete four jobs. You have 20 guys. What do you do to keep those 20 guys?
Speaker 5:yeah, so it's like 20 guys busy.
Speaker 3:I mean you're, you're talking, you're talking a lot of work, yeah, and it doesn't always stay consistent, but you don't want them to leave and go work for somebody else, because that might be one of the best guys you have and it's just a constant, like crazy battle.
Speaker 2:One thing I've learned, man, I always tell startup businesses and businesses that are coming up is one thing for sure is fucking get an accountant. You know what I'm saying. Have somebody do the books that you don't touch, because it's always a struggle. You know what I mean, especially if I'm looking I spend money, bro, I spend, I spend too much fucking money and I shouldn't. I see something shiny and I'm like, oh, I want to get it you know it's for the company you know, you know, or whatever.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, that's definitely something I recommend to everybody one cool thing I think we do do good at and I really think, if you, if anyone, I was telling Sergeant Sands this other day and he was saying he was going to work, he just got this job I said, man, you need to start your own company. Like you were a fantastic leader.
Speaker 2:You have all these skills.
Speaker 3:He was one of the good ones. Yeah, you could be a good one, and so I think omar he's. He's exactly the same in this aspect, like the way we treat our employees or I don't even call them our employees, the guys we work with the way we treat them and like, take care of them, and like I think that has a lot to do with our success too, absolutely because those guys care they don't want to let us down now.
Speaker 5:Now they want to do good. They want to do good for us. Yeah, it's back to that. You know, at the end of the day it's all about a paycheck. But if you're treating these guys right, they know a paycheck's inevitable right. If you know should be right, yeah, but they don't want to. It's not not just for that. They begin to take a pride in what they're doing, because they also want to do good for us, because we just do good for them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's what it's about, man. That's definitely what it's about.
Speaker 4:What are we going to do for dinner?
Speaker 2:Barbecue.
Speaker 4:Barbecue.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm going to take y'all down over here down the street there's a good Barbecue restaurant Called Killin's Barbecue Killin's Killin's.
Speaker 4:Killin's yeah.
Speaker 2:Ronnie Killin. He does some, some barbecue out here. Man, I'm excited to take you guys Over there. We can check it out.
Speaker 3:So, me and Omar, we've got we might be starting Something new. I'm not even going to say what it is, but we might have got a new venture On top of what we got here. We got a new thing. In the next week we'll know, and if we get into that that'll be a pretty big game changer as far as a new business deal. We got going on too.
Speaker 2:That's what's up. Man J-Train, tell me some of the things you learned so far. Man, with this business venture coming up, you good bro, yeah no.
Speaker 4:I'm good, I'm good, I'm good, well, I mean, I learned a lot. You know what I mean. I've been a walking brand myself.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 4:You know what I mean. So the hardest part for me is the learning. The learning curve is just applying what I already knew to business. I mean it's really the same thing, but I've learned to put myself around people that's been there and done it, because I can take constructive criticism, I can take the do's and the don'ts, more so the don'ts. I'm not the guy like, I'm not going to listen to you because you this, this, this, this, this, this no.
Speaker 2:I'm going to sit down with you.
Speaker 4:I learned from you. You learned from me. I learned from him. I learned from you to become successful. That's really all I learned, like, look, you got to put yourself around people. That's done. Been there and done it. That's what's up.
Speaker 3:I don't like to hear constructive criticism.
Speaker 2:No, he doesn't you know what, but I listen to it, I just don't like to hear it, because I'm mad at myself already. I think, well, I do take constructive criticism. I don't know, maybe not necessarily right, but I take people coming in and be like you know what would look tight, or you know what would look good.
Speaker 5:Or this and this and this. So I do do that, but you know, but other than that, I kind of just do what I want to do With Eric. You got to disguise that constructive criticism in like I'm pumping you up. You know, man, you'd be really good or kick-ass if you did this. Yeah, that's so true, I don't like it. Then he's like oh yeah, yeah, I believe it, you're right, I would do good if I did that.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's crazy though I mean, but we all different though, yeah.
Speaker 2:You know, we all different in different ways. So the way you speak, you ever thought about doing anything along those lines?
Speaker 4:No.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 4:I mean it's just, it's because dude like man this world right now is soft, you right. You know what I mean and I don't like wasting my time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, you know what I mean Shit I feel you Like.
Speaker 4:I know, out of seven billion people in the world, there's nobody built like me Okay, that's for real shit. Like at nine dude, I told myself I was going pro. I done that. Like it took me years to get there, but I followed my own blueprint and all I did was hard work, pay attention, stay out of trouble be disciplined, accountable, hold yourself accountable. I put all that. I learned from Michael Jordan, I learned from Magic Johnson, I learned from Kobe.
Speaker 2:The greats.
Speaker 4:I learned from Shaq. I learned from Elijah.
Speaker 2:Warren, don't say LeBron.
Speaker 4:Come on now. We can't have that man.
Speaker 3:Please not today.
Speaker 4:I'm just saying why not LeBron?
Speaker 2:Why. You know what? I think he's got a. I think he does a lot for the community and I just think that honestly, in my opinion, I think that he changed the NBA in a different way. Yeah, it's off and I think that he created that or that movement.
Speaker 4:No, that's the nature of business.
Speaker 2:Would LeBron be LeBron in the 90s?
Speaker 4:6'8" 260.
Speaker 2:Would he be LeBron?
Speaker 4:He'll be way better than LeBron right now.
Speaker 2:Man, they used to choke Michael and fucking throw Kobe against the damn board.
Speaker 4:I get that, but we're talking about a freak of nature 6'8", 260 pounds, pounds, moving the way he move.
Speaker 5:Agreed. I think he would be one of the greatest, no matter what era. I don't think he has what like a Kobe Bryant or a Michael Jordan.
Speaker 4:Is he your top? No, kobe's my top. Second LeBron Over MJ, over MJ, as long as you didn't go one.
Speaker 2:I'm a Kobe. Bryant Kobe's, my top LeBron over MJ as long as you didn't go one.
Speaker 4:Kobe was the because I looked at what Kobe done. He mimicked Michael yeah, yeah, yeah 2.0 oh yeah, with the asterisk and star so of course he's better than Michael to me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man.
Speaker 4:That's just my opinion.
Speaker 2:No, you're right, You're right. I just feel different man because I don't know if he could have the Elijah Wines, the David Robinsons, the he dunking on him.
Speaker 4:You think so? Easy Shaquille O'neal and his prime no no, no, no, no, I mean, I'm just. I mean man, you, man, you can't be stupid like we can't. You can not like lebron, I'm fine with it.
Speaker 2:no, I just say that's the reason I don't like LeBron.
Speaker 4:Science is science. Yeah, that dude is a freak of nature man.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So if he comes out right now he was to piss hot for steroids would it be anything different?
Speaker 4:No.
Speaker 2:He would still say like he was.
Speaker 4:Because steroids don't make you a better basketball player. They don't make you a better basketball player.
Speaker 2:It don't make you a stronger player. No, what's the point of steroids?
Speaker 3:Longevity this is what they taught him in the NFL to say Longevity.
Speaker 2:He said I plead the fifth Longevity. Yeah, okay, okay, he's what 39?
Speaker 4:Yeah, and still putting up numbers, absolutely that.
Speaker 2:You think he'll win another championship?
Speaker 5:No, yeah no.
Speaker 2:You know Houston might take him out this year, out of the playoffs in general.
Speaker 4:I mean it's becoming a younger league. I mean he's still got about four or five in it.
Speaker 2:What you think about old Jalen Green.
Speaker 4:He's an animal.
Speaker 2:Yeah, boy.
Speaker 4:Yeah, he's an animal, I like him yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm a fan man. I think one of my favorite players of all time in the NBA was Vernon Maxwell.
Speaker 4:He locked Jordan ass up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was one of my favorite players because he didn't give a shit. He was the first. I'll run into the stands and punch you in the face, yeah he locked Jordan ass up. Yeah.
Speaker 4:And he talked about it. Yeah, every time he wanted, he wanted jordan shit every time, dude, I still remember that time.
Speaker 3:I don't know if you bet on the super bowl. Did you bet? What did you do? Yeah, I bet on you won, like it's that well I don't remember.
Speaker 2:Back then I thought it was like it was like seventeen thousand dollars yeah something crazy.
Speaker 3:I was like what the crap dude did you win? I won. It was when, uh, new y000. Yeah, something crazy. I was like what the crap dude Did you win? I won.
Speaker 2:It was when New York was in the Super Bowl and Plaxico Burgs caught that ball like that.
Speaker 4:You remember that when he caught the ball Against the Patriots?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and they won. Yeah, yeah, I put in it was like 16-1, 17-1, something like that, and I put in $1,000 on the fucking. Giants to beat the Patriots Just because actually my buddy, billy, told me to do it and I was like, all right, cool, I mean, we had the Iraq money. It was a little different then Did you pay Billy. No, I gave Billy my friendship for the rest of his life. Oh, I get it. You know what I'm saying. We still there. He knows what's up, yeah.
Speaker 3:Do you remember Chad Daltrey? I do, yeah, that dude could. He was like a freak when it came to sports. I always thought he was, because you could be like hey who, you know what, tell me about this player. And it could be some like random guy from 1970. He could tell you the high school he went to, like his yardage and the story behind where he came from.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it was crazy. Sports run the world.
Speaker 3:Yeah, he was a sports fanatic. I mean, he is too, billy is too. Oh, yeah, yeah man, we were talking about a long time ago, man, about a long time ago.
Speaker 2:Man, I was like me and this dude are going to start a podcast together. No, we said a radio show. This was back in the day, before podcasts was a thing. And he came over here a couple months. He said man, I'm still waiting on that show. I said shit, I got it now.
Speaker 3:Let's do it, yeah, for sure yeah, man. That's what's up bro.
Speaker 2:So what do y'all see? What's going on?
Speaker 3:Man, give us six months, you got any events coming up. We don't really have none. I mean, we've got this house we're doing and we don't really have anything big coming up.
Speaker 2:Well, tell me, how can people find you man?
Speaker 3:So check us at Facebook. Our website PatriotConstructionTXus what else? Actually, we've got a couple different websites, so we have a couple different kind of things like uh, for different sites, different advertising. They have their own little platforms and they'll kind of click funnel it over to ours um facebook.
Speaker 2:We just started instagram, so that's something we're gonna kind of pursue yeah, kind of get with the times you got to man the only thing I want to do is I don't do tiktok, bro, because it's just it, my thing. The only time I watch a TikTok is when my kids send me something like Dad watch this. That's it, because that's too easy. Next thing you know well, it's like YouTube. Remember YouTube? Yeah Well, I mean, of course y'all know YouTube, I still watch it. But like, yeah, me too. But like I'll start something educational and five o'clock in the morning and I'm watching bone fights or some shit.
Speaker 5:Yeah, you know what I'm saying, like, like sucks you into that, and then it gives you the same stuff you're interested in and keep sending.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I keep watching. By the time you realize.
Speaker 3:No man, I think, um, like you know, the the first full year we had. We did over a million Good shit. So I think this year, you know, I'm really excited to see what we're going to do. You know, six months from now, holler at me.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Come back in here and tell me what we're doing.
Speaker 2:Cool man, yeah, you know. Besides numbers, man, if you feel growth in yourself that's what it's about, bro, oh 100%.
Speaker 3:That's all it is.
Speaker 2:It ain't all that number shit and that's cool.
Speaker 3:It's a building, what we've been building, and what's it called? Like the atmosphere that you're creating yeah, I'm looking for a different word, but like that, like what you've created in here.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Like the way you feel when you come in Homey.
Speaker 2:I just wanted it to feel homey. Yeah, I wanted people to come in here and just feel relaxed, like it's just me and you talking we.
Speaker 3:I wanted people to come in here and just relax, like it's just me and you talking we ain't doing nothing else. We built that same thing with our stuff, where it's like a group of friends and family. Yeah, the first day the secretary came to work we felt like she'd been there for 10 years?
Speaker 5:Yeah, no, absolutely. And just the constant grind and, you know, doing the stuff that we thought we wanted to do, taking on the jobs that we didn't so much want to do, and just going through you know the pit basically to get the right growth. You know we're super excited. It's like next week we're closing on a flip house funded with the bank that, like all of that hard work, put the numbers into the company that have allowed us to now begin the journey with the bank fundings and get into things that we think are really cool, to where, now you know we'll take on projects for you know ourselves, yeah, do new builds from the ground up for ourselves, versus you know, working for you know so-and-so and so-and-so.
Speaker 5:And some of these customers that we have are, you know, absolutely amazing, really great experiences, and then some you know it's a fight, it's kind of a battle.
Speaker 3:Business baby. It's cool to take our experiences and our creativity and now put them in something that we want to do, because we've had customers where we've literally told them, hey, you shouldn't do this, and they do it anyway, and then in the end they're like not happy. It was like, dude, you have to be told. We told you.
Speaker 5:We recommended this, you said no, you know I like that idea, but you know we want to spend the amount of money, we just want to do it this way. This is going to be suffice for the goal that we have, and then in the end, I mean everything, just points out to where it's like, maybe not the decision, you know, and then that falls on us in their eyes, to a certain extent.
Speaker 4:It's like.
Speaker 5:We tried to guide you down a path that we thought would be y'all's greatest success, but at the end of the day, you know we're working for you at this point we run into how to do what you want, because how many people are on budgets you know.
Speaker 3:So that's understandable, but so it's nice to be able to do it without having to worry about the wrong decisions being made yeah, you know, you got to find your clientele too, man, because when I started this, my initial clientele was just whoever.
Speaker 4:You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:But now it's kind of different. My biggest clientele are churches. Right, I want to come in here and create podcasts and things like that to share their message to different ages. That's cool, it's dope, yeah, yeah, ages and and you know it's dope, yeah, yeah, it just you know it is, we got people, I got okay. So, uh, the different podcasts we have. We have something coming here, like I told you to talk about barbecue and just, we had the churches. We have a couple of kids that come in here. I say kids, they're 21, 22 years old kids, so like they'll be out at the club or something like that, and he'll call me but like, hey, man, can we shoot a podcast? So yeah, then you know they got a few drinks in them. They come, they talk about everything from entrepreneurship to women you know what I'm saying so.
Speaker 2:It's just, it's good listening, though. And then, uh, man, we got a bunch of different ones that come in here, man, so it's dope, you know, and and like, and, like. I say, bro, a couple of years ago I would've been like man, you crazy I ain't doing no damn podcast studio. What is that? I don't even know what that is. That's the only one in Maryland, so it's really taking the no. No, I don't either, bro.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I don't either. I got one radio show I listen to because it's on every morning when I take my kids to school.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Kid Craddock. That might be the only one I listen to.
Speaker 5:That's probably it. Yeah, I don't.
Speaker 3:I'm YouTubing or music app.
Speaker 2:Well, as soon as my kids get in the cars, like Dad, dad passed me the auxiliary cord, right, you know, I'm saying like man we're always talking in the truck.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean we don't.
Speaker 5:The radio never comes on the whole day we're driving around and we're in the truck like seven hours a day sometimes yeah at least five hours a day we're riding around the truck and I mean oftentimes that little, those truck rides and stuff are it's our office meetings? Yeah, and it's, it's almost our only opportunity to, you know, plan things out, go over things, bounce ideas, prepare for the next person we're talking to, go over who we just met with and talk to and, you know, analyze things Because, like you say, in the beginning, it was just any job that came to you. Good job, good job good job.
Speaker 5:Long term. You realize, not every job's a good job.
Speaker 2:You ain't a good fit for that job or good fit for that people.
Speaker 3:I'll tell you a quick funny story. So before I ever met or got with Omar, before I ever even worked for this other guy that we worked for together, I wanted to try to do construction on my own. No experience. I had like a screwdriver at my house, maybe a hammer. Was it a craftsman? I think it was a pink one.
Speaker 4:It was my wife's that she got for Christmas.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, and so the first job I ever tried to go land. Are you serious?
Speaker 2:No, I'm dead serious.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:I know you are, I'm absolutely serious.
Speaker 3:First job I ever went to land because I put a little Facebook account, made a little business name, and I walked in there and they started asking me all these questions and stuff and all I did was like, hey, give me one second, let me run to the truck and grab a pen and paper. I walked outside, got my truck and I watched a youtube video about the sheetrock and stuff they were talking about because I didn't know.
Speaker 3:I was like I don't even know what they're asking me right now and I was googling stuff and so when I went back in there I was oh yeah, you know, we're gonna tape and float this stuff right here. I was faking it till. I'll make it, man, you got to man I never you're talking about youtube? Yeah, I was youtubing shit out in the trunk, bro I still do that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I do that. We still do that sometimes because sometimes there's things that we run across that we're like whoa, I don't know when I'm doing editing, different video editing and things like that, bro, and there's a question I have, I youtube it. I'm like yeah, come on, teach me you know what?
Speaker 3:I know what I'm saying. Imagine if they had YouTube when we were kids.
Speaker 2:I don't know, man, I might be in prison. Yeah, maybe.
Speaker 3:I don't know yeah.
Speaker 2:I don't know if we would have wanted that recording Not been able to handle that? No, yeah definitely so, man. Tell us the Beach, jerky, how can people reach out to you? How can people reach out?
Speaker 4:to you. How can people find it? It's on Facebook.
Speaker 3:It's on.
Speaker 4:Instagram.
Speaker 2:It's basically JavorskiLanecom J-O-R-V-O-R-S-K-I-E-L-A-N-Ecom, yeah, so y'all be sure to check it out. Man, I can vouch for the barbecue bacon. It's delicious and I'm not sharing this one with nobody, so fuck off, absolutely, man. Hey, it's been great. Guys, we're going to wrap this up, man.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we enjoyed it. Thanks for having us.
Speaker 2:So we can go have dinner, you guys. Man, thank you as always for tuning in. Be sure to like, share, subscribe, follow. Be sure to check my guys out, man at uh patriot constructioncom txus there you go and then check out. Uh j train say, say your website one more time javorskylanecom yeah, english was my second language, bro. No, it wasn't. I don't know spanish so you guys yeah, me neither. Yeah, okay, how about you?
Speaker 3:man, we're trying to learn, that's one thing I wish we would learn.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I can imagine especially in that that much needed yeah, so, uh, you guys be sure to follow us, man, as always, check out on your friends, check on your family. If you're in any assistance in a crisis, be sure to text 988, press 1. If you're a military or veteran, if you just need someone to talk to, you can also text that number. You can call 988 for any kind of assistance. If you need, be sure to reach out, check on your friends and family and, as always, charlie Mike, yo yo yo. What's going on everybody? As always, charlie Mike, yo yo yo. What's going on everybody. It is me, soulja Harwell, redcon1 Music Group. And thank you for listening to Charlie Mike, the podcast. Yay.