Speaker 1: You guys have been asking me some good questions. If
Speaker 1: you have ever sat down and been like, I wonder
Speaker 1: what Granger would think about this? You could email me anything,
Speaker 1: any question, any subject, Granger Smith Podcast at gmail dot com.
Speaker 1: Ask the question. And I've been loving the questions that
Speaker 1: have been rolling in and I get it. I get them,
Speaker 1: and I stored them and I say, oh, this is
Speaker 1: a career question, or this is a girl question, this
Speaker 1: is a music question, this is a touring question, and
Speaker 1: I kind of get them all put together and then
Speaker 1: depending on who my guest is, I'll go through that
Speaker 1: list and pick the right ones for that episode. This
Speaker 1: is a great one, and these are good questions. And
Speaker 1: my brother Parker is helping me today. Love having Parker on.
Speaker 1: He's so he's so good at going through these questions
Speaker 1: with me and like having a good thought behind it,
Speaker 1: as if we're in sitting in the truck driving down
Speaker 1: the road and two buddies are having a conversation about
Speaker 1: a question, or even better yet, we're sitting at a
Speaker 1: campfire chilling. Here comes the question and we get a
Speaker 1: long form, thoughtful answer. And I love this podcast and
Speaker 1: that's that's so much of what this podcast is is
Speaker 1: just having a conversation with you guys and answering your question.
Speaker 1: So thanks for that. Grangersmith Podcast at gmail dot com.
Speaker 1: Ask me anything. That's what we're gonna do today. I've
Speaker 1: been pretty pumped today because we've been also been talking
Speaker 1: about touring, and on this podcast, I'm gonna talk about
Speaker 1: some of the dates that are starting to come in.
Speaker 1: We're seeing more and more. There's like a run, a
Speaker 1: five show run. We're doing it in April. There'll be
Speaker 1: some in May, and then June, more and more July.
Speaker 1: It is starting to look like, hey, we're gonna be
Speaker 1: busy and then after that we'll be on the road.
Speaker 1: We're becoming to your town. So pumped about that. We'll
Speaker 1: get the podcast back on the road again, back on
Speaker 1: Wildflire just like it started. It's all coming full circle.
Speaker 1: This craziness is almost over. This is episode seventy seven.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening. Great shift podcast, did kids in decent
Speaker 1: much tires and long line of five, fool of husband
Speaker 1: dined back. It's crazy, cool wagation. Good to have whole
Speaker 1: Parker back, brother Parker helping answer some questions. I want
Speaker 1: to start out with some really profound, deep questions. The
Speaker 1: subject line is Parker. It says, Hello, I'm Mariah from Michigan.
Speaker 1: Shout out to Michigan love the podcast. Number one, Why
Speaker 1: is Parker single? Number two? How old is Parker? So
Speaker 1: she sent this and I immediately put it into the
Speaker 1: Parker folder, waiting for you to be back so you
Speaker 1: could answer these profoundly interesting questions for the world. Well
Speaker 1: we could. We could switch it and we'll start with
Speaker 1: number two. I am twenty seven years old. Question number one.
Speaker 1: I have not ever been somebody to get in a
Speaker 1: relationship just for the sake of being in a relationship.
Speaker 1: I don't see myself as someone who enjoys just having
Speaker 1: someone else's company just for its own sake. I date.
Speaker 1: I haven't been on a date in probably over a year,
Speaker 1: because if I'm going on a date with someone, it's
Speaker 1: because I have vetted them and I see qualities in
Speaker 1: them that could be a potential wife and mother to
Speaker 1: my children and grandmother to my grandchildren. Vetting by social
Speaker 1: media or mutual friends. I gotchau and so I just
Speaker 1: have I just have standards that I put in place before.
Speaker 1: I don't date casually. I date to marry, and so
Speaker 1: if I go on one date with you, and I
Speaker 1: don't see myself marrying you, then I don't go on
Speaker 1: a date with you again. So that's why I've been
Speaker 1: single for most of my life. You you could have
Speaker 1: when you're twenty two. That's probably different. When you're twenty seven,
Speaker 1: that's changed, right, You would casually date when you're twenty two,
Speaker 1: like just have fun because you weren't. Yeah, just because
Speaker 1: I was just a completely different person. So that's more
Speaker 1: of just a matter of you're like dating just for
Speaker 1: the social aspect of it, to like go to like
Speaker 1: go to dances in college and formals and just because
Speaker 1: you're always around them and like hanging with friends and
Speaker 1: it's fun sort of thing. But yeah, when you when
Speaker 1: you're out of college and like you're a young man
Speaker 1: and you have work and responsibilities, I don't just do
Speaker 1: it casually. So what's something that you would see on
Speaker 1: say Instagram or Facebook. What's something that you would see
Speaker 1: that's agreeable, like, ah, this person has potential. Well, I
Speaker 1: personally have six non negotiables that I have written down
Speaker 1: here we go. No, And this may sound pretentious, and
Speaker 1: I don't mean it to be said that way. I
Speaker 1: don't think I'm that great of a guy by any means.
Speaker 1: But it's the most the person that you end up
Speaker 1: with for the rest of your life is it's the
Speaker 1: most arguably the most important decision, one of the most
Speaker 1: important decisions you'll ever make your whole life. It determines
Speaker 1: the generations of thousands of people that come after you,
Speaker 1: of your kin and your grandkids. And yeah, and it's
Speaker 1: the person that you will be with more than anybody
Speaker 1: else for the rest of your life. Like they are,
Speaker 1: they become You become one flesh when you get married, right,
Speaker 1: So anyway, my non negotiables are sweet. It's the six
Speaker 1: s's wow, sweet, secure, social, sweet, secure, social, spiritual, servient,
Speaker 1: and smoking hot, which sounds sounds really that Really it
Speaker 1: just means beautiful. And by servient servant could be taken
Speaker 1: the wrong way. I really don't mean that in a
Speaker 1: way like I want you to like be my slave
Speaker 1: and like do everything for me, but just servient and
Speaker 1: like God gave you a servant heart and you genuinely
Speaker 1: enjoy being a caretaker and being a mother and the
Speaker 1: person that and I deserve, I mean I don't deserve.
Speaker 1: I enjoy caring for others as well. So I don't
Speaker 1: mean that in that way. Well speak, I'm your brother,
Speaker 1: so I can tell you that you're not saying this,
Speaker 1: but in coming up with those six non negotiables, you're
Speaker 1: also I'm assuming you're holding trying to hold that same
Speaker 1: standard to yourself as well. So I like the old
Speaker 1: saying of there's a guy who he was like kind
Speaker 1: of known for being the single guy who didn't date
Speaker 1: just to date, and when I think he was like
Speaker 1: thirty three or thirty four, he finally found the girl
Speaker 1: that he was going to marry and he said, there's
Speaker 1: a quote that he said that when I became the
Speaker 1: man I knew I was capable of becoming the woman
Speaker 1: I was worthy of appeared m So that's just kind
Speaker 1: of like my never ending quest thus far to become
Speaker 1: the best possible man that I know I'm capable of
Speaker 1: on earth, and then a woman that I could potentially
Speaker 1: be worthy of would come into my life through that. Dude.
Speaker 1: That's awesome. Okay, so those are the six that not negotiable.
Speaker 1: What are what's something that you would see on social
Speaker 1: media from a girl that you'd think she's out really
Speaker 1: if you're I mean, gosh, it's it's so it sounds
Speaker 1: kind of pretentious for me to say you're out, Like
Speaker 1: I really don't mean it like that. But I could
Speaker 1: say just some of the things that I may look
Speaker 1: for in terms of like if I'm going on, like
Speaker 1: say your social media, which I don't like to just
Speaker 1: judge someone based on their social media, Like I don't
Speaker 1: like to do that either, But if someone showed me
Speaker 1: a girl's social media page, I would look for pictures
Speaker 1: with her and her family to see if she has
Speaker 1: a good relationship with them, not a lot of overfiltered selfies.
Speaker 1: When the girl has a lot a lot of selfies
Speaker 1: or a lot of like risque pictures and like bathing
Speaker 1: suits and stuff, then it it's typically a sign that
Speaker 1: like maybe you're not the most secure, maybe you're trying
Speaker 1: to get social validation through likes versus a girl who's
Speaker 1: just genuinely knows her worth and knows her value is
Speaker 1: not going to rely on likes on social media to
Speaker 1: validate herself. She'll post a picture with her grandma and
Speaker 1: it'll get six likes, and she's just like I literally
Speaker 1: don't care, Like that's totally fine with me. Yeah, that
Speaker 1: sort of thing I would say what a good judge,
Speaker 1: I could say, is and this is disqualifies probably the
Speaker 1: music business because if you're like a girl singer, most
Speaker 1: of your pictures are probably gonna know, yeah, you on
Speaker 1: stage or something. But if it's a personal page, it's
Speaker 1: a good indicator. With how many pictures on your Instagram
Speaker 1: are you with someone else, like a friend, like your
Speaker 1: arm around somebody, you're doing something kind of activity with
Speaker 1: other people. That's a really good indicator. If you see
Speaker 1: someone on social media and every single picture is them
Speaker 1: with friends and they're smiling, and they're with family or
Speaker 1: friends or dad or mom, or sibling or niece or
Speaker 1: nephew or or you know whatever, that's a good indicator
Speaker 1: that this person, this person is pretty secure in themselves
Speaker 1: because they've established a group around them that they love
Speaker 1: and trust. The opposite is if you see someone that's
Speaker 1: not not in the music business or whatever, that every
Speaker 1: single picture is them by themselves in some kind of pose.
Speaker 1: You got to wonder, like, why why do you don't
Speaker 1: have any pictures with friends? Yeah, agreed, Let's move to
Speaker 1: a question. And by the way, if you have any
Speaker 1: question for me, anything at all, email Granger Smith Podcast
Speaker 1: at gmail dot com I'll check these, I'll kind of
Speaker 1: categorize them and throw them into the podcast with my guest.
Speaker 1: This one. The subject matter or subject line of the
Speaker 1: email is business advice, says Hey Granger, your my name
Speaker 1: is Clay. I'm from Tennessee. Shout out to Tennessee. I'm
Speaker 1: seventeen years old. I just started a business this past
Speaker 1: summer making wood flags, and I'm soon going to be
Speaker 1: making gun holsters out of KAIDEKX thermoplastics. I'm wanting to
Speaker 1: eventually start making all tactical items such as police s,
Speaker 1: gear racks, consalment flags, concealment coffee tables, gun holsters. I'm
Speaker 1: also wanting this to eventually be a full time business.
Speaker 1: Just wondering if you had any advice for someone trying
Speaker 1: to run a successful business. And I put this into
Speaker 1: the Parker category because you do run a successful business
Speaker 1: at Ee Apparel. And the first thing that comes to
Speaker 1: my mind, Clay, well, you know, congrats man. You've got
Speaker 1: a lot of ambition, and you're a step of head
Speaker 1: already with having this kind of ambition and wanting to
Speaker 1: run a successful business, and you're only seventeen. So the
Speaker 1: first thing that pops out to me is you're seventeen,
Speaker 1: and when I was seventeen, I was playing high school
Speaker 1: football and singing on the weekends and didn't have that
Speaker 1: kind of ambition like you do. So that's really cool.
Speaker 1: And then at the same on the flip side of that,
Speaker 1: I would say, whatever you do in life and business
Speaker 1: and dreams and goals, whatever you do, don't skip over
Speaker 1: being seventeen. Don't let this year fly by because you're
Speaker 1: planning for the future. The most important thing you could
Speaker 1: do right now, and this is maybe contrary to what
Speaker 1: you might think, I'll say the most important thing you
Speaker 1: could do right now is just soak up being seventeen.
Speaker 1: I can't tell you how many songs I've written about
Speaker 1: being Saideen are being eighteen or being in being that
Speaker 1: age group and the girl you're dating at the time,
Speaker 1: or the friends that you have, or the trouble you're
Speaker 1: getting into with your buddies, you know, the late nights,
Speaker 1: the early mornings, that just enjoy that because you're only
Speaker 1: seventeen once and so it's so awesome that you have
Speaker 1: these dreams and goals. But don't worry about it and
Speaker 1: don't let it become so much of a focus that
Speaker 1: you're skipping out on just being a seventeen year old.
Speaker 1: Enjoy making this stuff, like you're making these holsters and
Speaker 1: wooden flags. Do that and put it on social media
Speaker 1: and perfect that craft. But only do it out of
Speaker 1: love of it and the fun of it. Don't already
Speaker 1: start preparing yourself for being twenty seven or twenty eight,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, right, Yeah, Yeah, and while
Speaker 1: you're doing it, enjoy the process. Don't be worried about
Speaker 1: It's hard to say that to a seventeen year old,
Speaker 1: but yeah, try to not try to not have a
Speaker 1: monetary goal in mind of why you're doing it. Like
Speaker 1: once I have ten thousand dollars of sales, one thousand dollars,
Speaker 1: five hundred dollars, you know, whatever it may be. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's just good life advice. And then on the business side,
Speaker 1: I can't really attest. I was thinking yesterday about how
Speaker 1: people ask us all the time about business advice, and
Speaker 1: I was like, man, I can only speak for what
Speaker 1: I'm just so fortunate enough to have been in a
Speaker 1: brand where we were in a different spot where our
Speaker 1: marketing kind of outgrew the product, and it was like
Speaker 1: the brand just took off and it's just been us
Speaker 1: trying to create quality product to catch up with it.
Speaker 1: But if I could do it again, I would just
Speaker 1: say it comes down to two things from a business
Speaker 1: sense form, and that's do you have an A plus
Speaker 1: quality product that's there's a million different people out there
Speaker 1: doing that these days. Do you have a product that
Speaker 1: you know we call it? We try to say, what
Speaker 1: is the word remarkable? Well, it's something that's worth remarking about.
Speaker 1: When someone gets that, wholester is it? Is it thing
Speaker 1: that it's going to just say, Wow, I'm going to
Speaker 1: tell my buddy about this. And so you got to
Speaker 1: have a great quality product and then you have to
Speaker 1: market it in an interesting way. See, you have your product,
Speaker 1: and then you need to get that product in front
Speaker 1: of eyeballs for the least amount of money possible. Right So,
Speaker 1: whatever that may be for your customer or your position
Speaker 1: in your life right now, whether that may just be
Speaker 1: posting on your Instagram or going to going to tailgates,
Speaker 1: or walking around the high school or walking to a
Speaker 1: local gun club or whatever that may be, focus on
Speaker 1: those two things and have persistence and don't give up
Speaker 1: and be focused on the journey and not the outcome. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I would say immediately. What you could do is start
Speaker 1: an Instagram page that's separate from your clay personal page
Speaker 1: and make it, you know, quote unquote your business page
Speaker 1: and concentrate I've heard people say this, like, especially in
Speaker 1: the photography world and the video world, concentrate on your
Speaker 1: top nine. Your top nine post on your Instagram are
Speaker 1: your most important post at all times. So whatever your
Speaker 1: top nine is, most people won't scroll below that. So
Speaker 1: get these awesome holsters and wooden flags and position them
Speaker 1: in really cool spots. Like sometimes with EE Apparel, we'll
Speaker 1: literally use an old stump and put a hat on
Speaker 1: top of the stump, and we have a couple where
Speaker 1: there's snow in the background, and then a couple where
Speaker 1: there's like wildflowers or green grass or just make it
Speaker 1: look really cool in that environment. And take take a
Speaker 1: couple angles, you know, edit it, color it a little
Speaker 1: bit so it looks it looks really sharp, and make
Speaker 1: your top nine on this new business page all the
Speaker 1: different varieties of what you can do and make them awesome,
Speaker 1: make them cool enough where people go, that is the
Speaker 1: coolest wooden flag I've ever seen. And then I would
Speaker 1: go to your local police department and bring a prototype
Speaker 1: of these gear axts that you're talking about or one
Speaker 1: of the things that you've made out of thermoplastic and
Speaker 1: go talk to a deputy there and just say, can
Speaker 1: I show you something? You know, my name is, I'm seventeen.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to start a business, and I'm trying to
Speaker 1: get into making tactical items and police gear racks. Could
Speaker 1: I show you a couple of things I've been working on,
Speaker 1: See what you think, how if you would actually use it?
Speaker 1: And could I give you guys one for your department?
Speaker 1: Start it with that way, and then if they like it,
Speaker 1: then say, oh, by the way, we follow my Instagram
Speaker 1: page and share it. And that's the beginning of all this,
Speaker 1: while keeping in mind to just enjoy being seventeen. But
Speaker 1: that's the beginning, Parker. Set it right, enjoy the process.
Speaker 1: Don't think about mass producing or just think about making
Speaker 1: the best, coolest, best quality items you can and make
Speaker 1: only like four or five of them, perfect them. If
Speaker 1: it's not right, make another one, Get really cool pictures
Speaker 1: and fill that top nine of your Instagram. You do
Speaker 1: all that, You're off to the races, all right, here's
Speaker 1: the let me pop up another one. I'm trying to
Speaker 1: build up into some of the heavier ones here. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna read this cold. I don't know what this says.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna read it cold. The subject matter is life advice.
Speaker 1: It says, Hey, I would like my name to remain anonymous.
Speaker 1: He says, I just wanted to say that, even from
Speaker 1: a big city, I still find your music very relatable
Speaker 1: and meaningful in certain ways. Listening through a shuffle of
Speaker 1: every single one of your songs since the late nineties
Speaker 1: is great because it touches on so many aspects of life.
Speaker 1: I'm seventeen. Here we go again, seventeen years old and
Speaker 1: about to go to college. I'm planning to go to
Speaker 1: med school and be a doctor. I would love to
Speaker 1: know what advice you have for dating. I have absolutely
Speaker 1: no experience, never been to a school dance or asked
Speaker 1: a girl out. I've always thought it was too early
Speaker 1: to be dating, and that I should focus on school,
Speaker 1: albeit my school's valed victorian, but at the cost of
Speaker 1: me being a bit uncomfortable socially in certain situations, like
Speaker 1: maybe talking to a girl or being at a party
Speaker 1: with a girl. But now I'm looking to change that.
Speaker 1: I don't want to just be single until I'm like
Speaker 1: thirty years old or something. Thanks so much for your time.
Speaker 1: Why right, No, right, This is a good transition from
Speaker 1: what you just talked about being twenty seven and still single.
Speaker 1: So I think you to remain your name remains anonymous.
Speaker 1: I think, first of all, it's okay if you're still
Speaker 1: single at thirty. Dude, you're about to be a doctor,
Speaker 1: a val Victorian, super smart guy. There is nothing wrong
Speaker 1: with you having not dated or been to a school
Speaker 1: dance or asked a girl out. There's nothing wrong with
Speaker 1: that at all. So, first of all, change your mindset
Speaker 1: from thinking you're missing out or you're not living appropriately,
Speaker 1: because that is what the world wants to tell you,
Speaker 1: and that's what so social media wants to tell you.
Speaker 1: Sitting here next to a twenty seven year old, I
Speaker 1: didn't get married till I was thirty. My brother Tyler
Speaker 1: is single and he's what thirty eight, So yeah, we
Speaker 1: come from a family of waiting for the right girl,
Speaker 1: and to be honest, when you find a girl, and
Speaker 1: you will, eventually, you're gonna find someone that's compatible with you,
Speaker 1: and it's going to appreciate your vulnerability and you saying
Speaker 1: and all the girls out here could listen, could and
Speaker 1: probably agree by you saying, I'm really nervous right now.
Speaker 1: I've never asked a girl out. I've never been on
Speaker 1: a date. Probably most girls listening would think, well, that's
Speaker 1: pretty sweet, Like I have a chance. This is great,
Speaker 1: Like I could I could come in and I'll show
Speaker 1: him everything for the first time, Like I'll go and eat,
Speaker 1: we'll eat dinner for the first time together. I could
Speaker 1: be his first kiss ever. That's that's really attractive to
Speaker 1: the girl that you're wanting to be with. Okay, if
Speaker 1: a girl is not attracted by that or is turned
Speaker 1: off by that, she's not the right girl for you. Dude,
Speaker 1: you don't want a girl that's been like I've been
Speaker 1: dating since I was eleven years old, So you don't
Speaker 1: want that. You're you're mister val Victorian and mister doctor.
Speaker 1: You're gonna go along your path. You're gonna go to
Speaker 1: medical school. You're gonna focus on you. You have to
Speaker 1: put you number one. You are number one in your
Speaker 1: life right now, because eventually, when you find a girl
Speaker 1: and you get married, you're no longer number one and
Speaker 1: this is This is guys and girls both. You have
Speaker 1: to be selfish when you're single, and people go selfish,
Speaker 1: that's that's rude. You don't want to be selfish when
Speaker 1: you're married, so you want to you want to focus
Speaker 1: on yourself, develop yourself, focus on school, get your good
Speaker 1: grades in medical school, get that land, that good job.
Speaker 1: If along the way you meet someone, that's great. But
Speaker 1: if you get all that and you focus on yourself,
Speaker 1: you're going to be ready to open up and give
Speaker 1: the rest of yourself to your spouse eventually when the
Speaker 1: time comes. And then when you're forty, you're not going
Speaker 1: to have any kind of regrets. You're not going to
Speaker 1: say I wish i'd focus more on school. You're going
Speaker 1: to say, I'm ready to give my life completely to you. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's like what we're talking about. You become the man
Speaker 1: that you can become. Focus on your mental health, your
Speaker 1: physical health, your spiritual health, get your finances in order,
Speaker 1: and when you do that, the woman that you're worthy
Speaker 1: of will appear. The type of girl that you're looking
Speaker 1: for will probably be probably a peer. There's you know,
Speaker 1: at seventeen, you'll probably only have so much to offer,
Speaker 1: right but you know, I was a loser at seventeen,
Speaker 1: pretty much like to get the girl of your dreams, Like,
Speaker 1: you know, a supermodel girl that's twenty four, that's everything
Speaker 1: that you could dream of. Probably is not going to
Speaker 1: go for a seventeen or a twenty or twenty one
Speaker 1: year old guy in college that hasn't nothing to offer,
Speaker 1: that's overweight, that's just studying all the time, that has
Speaker 1: no time, that has no money or no way to
Speaker 1: no way to provide for potential children. But the more
Speaker 1: you develop yourself and and as time goes by, you
Speaker 1: will be in a better place to attract that type
Speaker 1: of girl and then really to bring I think about
Speaker 1: it all the time. It's a it's a line of
Speaker 1: you know, having faith too and trusting God and knowing
Speaker 1: you know. I struggle with it as well, saying you know,
Speaker 1: you alone are sufficient, Christ, You are all I need.
Speaker 1: You know, That's my prayer every night. It's like, Man,
Speaker 1: I want somebody to share life with. Man, I want
Speaker 1: children and more than anything, but but I know that
Speaker 1: this is your plan and you alone are sufficient if
Speaker 1: I don't find anybody, And so always having that in
Speaker 1: the back of your mind, knowing, hey, no matter, true
Speaker 1: confidence that life comes from knowing no matter what I know,
Speaker 1: I'll be Okay. That's so good man, so good. So
Speaker 1: once again, you're seventeen. Enjoy being seventeen. Focus on yourself,
Speaker 1: get done what you need to get done now, and
Speaker 1: don't worry. There's a lot of people in your same
Speaker 1: boat that have not dated or asked or grow out
Speaker 1: or been to a school dance at age seventeen. There's
Speaker 1: a lot of you. It might seem like you're the
Speaker 1: only one, and you probably look at TikTok and think, wow,
Speaker 1: I am a loser. You're not. You're normal. So just
Speaker 1: remember you're normal and you're doing everything right. The fact
Speaker 1: that you're even asking these questions, the fact that you
Speaker 1: even emailed this podcast because it's on your heart. You're
Speaker 1: on the right path. Man. Hang in there, and congrats
Speaker 1: on being Valvatorian. That is an unbelievable accomplishment that I
Speaker 1: couldn't even come close to doing, never would in a
Speaker 1: million lifetimes. So you got so much going on for you.
Speaker 1: And I always say when I talk to law enforcement
Speaker 1: or our veterans, our active duty military, I always say
Speaker 1: thank you for your service, but we also need to
Speaker 1: say that to medical personnel and not just nurses. We
Speaker 1: need to say it the doctors too. Thank you for
Speaker 1: your service. And you haven't done it yet, but what
Speaker 1: you're about to do. Thank you for what you're about
Speaker 1: to do is sacrifice a decade, just shy of a
Speaker 1: decade of your life to medicine, to learning a craft,
Speaker 1: a trade, so then you can go into the field
Speaker 1: and heal people and make people's lives better. And that
Speaker 1: is a massive sacrifice that might get overlooked because you're
Speaker 1: really smart and you're gonna make money doing it. And
Speaker 1: because you're really smart and you're gonna make money doing it,
Speaker 1: people go, oh, privileged. No, that's a massive sacrifice that
Speaker 1: you were making, you're preparing to make, and God puts
Speaker 1: you on this earth with your brain to be valedictorian
Speaker 1: so you can go into that medical field and make
Speaker 1: a difference. So thank you for your service, buddy. You're
Speaker 1: going to be just fine. Let's see, here's a this
Speaker 1: is almost on the same line. This question says, good morning,
Speaker 1: Granger and Parker. He just happened to know you're here.
Speaker 1: I'm coming to you from San Bernado County, California. My
Speaker 1: name is Chance and I'm also a smith. My question
Speaker 1: is I heard that you are looking for a charity
Speaker 1: for different launches while I'm a volunteer out of Southern
Speaker 1: California and we have a nonprofit here that's the Silver
Speaker 1: Valleyfirealliance dot org. Check it out. It is to help
Speaker 1: us get out and get new gear in our neighborhood neighborhooding, neighboring,
Speaker 1: excuse me, departments. If you could help out, that would
Speaker 1: be amazing. Your Cali friend, so that's interesting, and anyone
Speaker 1: else that hasn't an idea of charity. We usually every
Speaker 1: time a new launch is coming up, we have this
Speaker 1: discussion internally, and Ye Apparel will always support a different
Speaker 1: charity for every big launch. And there's something we haven't
Speaker 1: done yet, Silver Valley Fire Alliance. So that's awesome. Thanks
Speaker 1: for the info. And God knows California needs Southern California
Speaker 1: needs firefighters and gear and equipment. So yeah, that's that's
Speaker 1: pretty cool cool. I have time for another We have
Speaker 1: one more question before for a break. This is my
Speaker 1: name is Dylan. I'm from Shawnee, Oklahoma. Shout out to Oklahoma.
Speaker 1: Just wanted to drop in a line and say thank
Speaker 1: you for being in encouragement to so many people through
Speaker 1: your many different social media accounts. I personally feel as
Speaker 1: though we are truly friends sitting in your truck having
Speaker 1: a conversation, which is what I want this podcast to be.
Speaker 1: So thank you, says I also appreciate how much you
Speaker 1: respect our military and first responders. As an EMT, I
Speaker 1: could say, it's nice to know people there's still good
Speaker 1: people out there and who appreciate what we do. My
Speaker 1: question is this, when the Country Things win? Is the
Speaker 1: Country Things Vinyl album going to come out? My wife
Speaker 1: tried to order me one for Christmas, but it was
Speaker 1: not on yigie dot com website or Amazon. Please help.
Speaker 1: My wife got me a record player for Christmas and
Speaker 1: I really want this album. Thank you, Dylan, s are
Speaker 1: we gonna do that? Didn't we already do that? I thought?
Speaker 1: I don't remember. I think we went through them and
Speaker 1: sold out. We did a short run and we did
Speaker 1: like five hundred of them and sold out. So I'll say,
Speaker 1: first of all, Dylan, thanks for your service, thank you
Speaker 1: for being an EMT, and shout out to Shawnee, Oklahoma,
Speaker 1: love that town, and also thank you for appreciating the
Speaker 1: music so much. That you wanted to be on vinyl.
Speaker 1: That is a good question. I don't know the answer.
Speaker 1: I'd have to ask Tyler, and I don't know where
Speaker 1: we are if we're going to reorder vinyl. But if
Speaker 1: we do, I'll announce it on this podcast and social
Speaker 1: media and maybe we'll do like another short run this song.
Speaker 1: The reason we don't is the reason we don't just
Speaker 1: have them in stock is because we order them. Looking
Speaker 1: at it right here, the Remington vinyl We ordered a
Speaker 1: bunch of those on the Remington launch and then we
Speaker 1: got stuck. They didn't sell very well, so we got
Speaker 1: stuck with it, just piles of them in the warehouse.
Speaker 1: We still were like, how are we going to get
Speaker 1: rid of these vinyls? And the things we finally got
Speaker 1: rid of them, people start saying, where's your vinyls? Yeah?
Speaker 1: It's hard, y'all. It's hard running not only apparel but music,
Speaker 1: music memorabilia because it's so expensive. I don't know how
Speaker 1: much a vinyl record for us would be fourteen or
Speaker 1: fifteen bucks, you know, it's like pretty high for us
Speaker 1: for our cost, and so to go in and order
Speaker 1: five hundred and it's kind of taking a risk that
Speaker 1: they might sit on the shelf. That's a long way
Speaker 1: to answer. I don't know, but thank you for caring. Man.
Speaker 1: We'll take a quick break of you right back. This
Speaker 1: podcast is free to you wherever you're watching or listening,
Speaker 1: but it does cost me some production costs. So I'm
Speaker 1: very lucky, very grateful to have some sponsors. Today's sponsor
Speaker 1: brand new. I haven't done this before. This is called Candid,
Speaker 1: and it's crazy. I started reading about it, and I
Speaker 1: know people have told me before, Like one guy said,
Speaker 1: the two greatest gifts your parents ever gave you was
Speaker 1: your name and your dental work. And I was like,
Speaker 1: that's a great that's a great analogy, and I agree
Speaker 1: with that. I agree those are great gifts. So here's
Speaker 1: where candid comes in. Are you unhappy with your smile?
Speaker 1: Are you sensitive about your smile? I know guys really
Speaker 1: close to me that say the same thing. They're sensitive
Speaker 1: about their smile, they're self conscious about it. Well, thousands
Speaker 1: of people are, and thousands of people have used candid
Speaker 1: clear comfortable, removable and practically invisible aligners to help strengthen
Speaker 1: your teeth, and now people just love their smile. So
Speaker 1: this is well worth your time to at least listen.
Speaker 1: If you fall in this category, Candid is here to
Speaker 1: help straighten your teeth so you could fall in love
Speaker 1: with your smile. Your treatment is prescribed and closely monitored
Speaker 1: remotely ya a license orthodonist who's an expert in teeth movement.
Speaker 1: You'll have the same quality of care you'd get from
Speaker 1: any kind of in office orthodonist, from the comfort and
Speaker 1: convenience of your own home boom. That is awesome, especially
Speaker 1: in this crazy world we live in. You stay home,
Speaker 1: they come to you. And while other companies are general dentist,
Speaker 1: Candid only works with orthodontists. There's a difference. It's teeth work,
Speaker 1: not teeth cleaning. With Candid, the same orthodontists who created
Speaker 1: your plan is with you from start to finish. You
Speaker 1: never have to wonder how or what you're doing. The
Speaker 1: average Candid treatment is just six months. You'll start to
Speaker 1: see results way before then. It costs thousands of dollars
Speaker 1: less than traditional braces. That is huge. So that's the
Speaker 1: biggest turnoff with or teeth work. It's like, I don't
Speaker 1: want to pay that, I'd rather just not smile, and
Speaker 1: that's a terrible compromise to make become the best you
Speaker 1: start straightening your teeth today. Right now you could save
Speaker 1: so why are you serious? Seventy five dollars right now?
Speaker 1: You could save seventy five dollars on candid starter kit.
Speaker 1: Go to candidco dot com slash granger. I told you
Speaker 1: this is the first time I've seen this candidco dot
Speaker 1: com slash granger. Use the code granger. That's candidco dot
Speaker 1: com slash granger, code granger. Take advantage of this limited
Speaker 1: time offer to save seventy five dollars on your starter
Speaker 1: kit Candid CEO slash granger, code Granger. This is awesome
Speaker 1: podcast is also brought to you by one of my favorites, Headspace.
Speaker 1: Are you feeling stressed? Are you feeling like you need
Speaker 1: a breather but you don't know exactly how to do it.
Speaker 1: Wouldn't it be great if there was like a pocket
Speaker 1: sized guide that helped you sleep, focus, act feel better. Well,
Speaker 1: there is, and if you have ten minutes, Headspace could
Speaker 1: change your life. It's a daily dose of mindfulness in
Speaker 1: the form of guided meditations and an easy to use
Speaker 1: app right here on your phone. Headspace is one and
Speaker 1: only meditation app advancing the field of mindfulness and meditation
Speaker 1: through clinically validated research. So whatever the situation, Headspace really
Speaker 1: can help you feel better. Are you overwhelmed? Headspace has
Speaker 1: a three minute SOS meditation just for you. You need
Speaker 1: help falling asleep as wind down sessions for that people
Speaker 1: just swear by and parents. It even has meditations to
Speaker 1: help you with your kids winding down, which is important.
Speaker 1: Kids are so distracted these days, so its approach to
Speaker 1: mindfulness can reduce stress and prove sleep boof focus, and
Speaker 1: increase your overall self or sense of well being. And
Speaker 1: I've been using Headspace long before I start talking about
Speaker 1: it on this app. It's just super easy to use.
Speaker 1: You could music to it, you could just fall asleep
Speaker 1: to it. Like sometimes I'm on the bus and I'm like,
Speaker 1: I'm so wired from the show I can't fall asleep.
Speaker 1: Pop in my headphones, hit play on a fall asleep app,
Speaker 1: and you instantly start just feeling relaxed and tired. It's
Speaker 1: backed by twenty five published studies on its benefit, six
Speaker 1: hundred thousand five star reviews, and over sixty million downloads.
Speaker 1: Somebody out there thinks it works. Headspace makes it easy
Speaker 1: for you to build a life changing meditation practice with
Speaker 1: mindfulness that works for you, on your schedule, anytime, anywhere
Speaker 1: you deserve to feel happier, and Headspace is meditation made simple.
Speaker 1: Go to headspace dot com slash granger that's headspace dot
Speaker 1: com slash granger for a free one month trial with
Speaker 1: access to Headspace's full library of meditation for every situation.
Speaker 1: So this is so easy. You just try for free
Speaker 1: see if you like it. If you don't, then you
Speaker 1: don't use it. But I promise so you're gonna get
Speaker 1: hooked on this thing. This is the best deal offered
Speaker 1: right now. Head to head to headspace dot com slash
Speaker 1: granger today. If you have a question for me, anything
Speaker 1: at all, could be about relationships or God or jobs
Speaker 1: or music or touring. Email Granger Smith podcast at gmail
Speaker 1: dot com. Speaking of touring, we do have some tour
Speaker 1: dates that are just like starting to come in in
Speaker 1: April on April twenty second, Shy and Wyoming April twenty third,
Speaker 1: inmand Kansas April twenty fourth, Manhattan, Kansas April twenty fifth,
Speaker 1: Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Then there's that's a little run.
Speaker 1: We're gonna do. We're gonna then there's nothing really until June,
Speaker 1: and then we're gonna be shooting out to We're gonna
Speaker 1: have some Texas dates in June, including New Bronfels on
Speaker 1: the twelfth, Rockdon, Illinois is on the seventeenth. I know
Speaker 1: we're doing Countryfest and cat at Wisconsin on June twenty fifth,
Speaker 1: So there are dates starting to fill in as this
Speaker 1: crazy mess is starting to clear up and people are
Speaker 1: starting to feel more confident and shows are booking, So
Speaker 1: I'll keep you guys up to dated, up to date
Speaker 1: on that too. This question comes from Mark from Pensacola, Florida.
Speaker 1: He's thirty years old. Shout out to Florida. He says,
Speaker 1: my wife and boys love your music and how God
Speaker 1: is using you amber and your family in such a
Speaker 1: positive way. I'm reaching out because I just landed a
Speaker 1: new job and will likely be bringing in much more
Speaker 1: money than my prior job. Congrats man, he says. My
Speaker 1: family and I are followers of Christ and we want
Speaker 1: to be good stewards of our money. We know having
Speaker 1: money is a blessing, but we don't want to get
Speaker 1: caught up in loving it to a point where we
Speaker 1: become materialistic. It feels in this season, especially many people
Speaker 1: who are struggling with job security and finances and we
Speaker 1: want to remain humble through it all. I'd love to
Speaker 1: hear some tips or life lessons with what you've learned
Speaker 1: going on from going paycheck to paycheck to having a
Speaker 1: little bit more freedom financially and how to be wise
Speaker 1: with it. Thanks for advice, ee ye, thank you, Mark.
Speaker 1: It's a good question and it comes up a lot,
Speaker 1: especially internally, like what do you do And we spoke
Speaker 1: about it a minute ago that you know, first of all,
Speaker 1: Gee Apparel, we feel like we exist because the community
Speaker 1: and our fans and friends choose to support us. So
Speaker 1: we always want to be able to give back to
Speaker 1: the community every single launch and throughout the year. It's
Speaker 1: very very important to us on a personal level. It's
Speaker 1: it's always good to think about it and ten percent increments.
Speaker 1: So if you get, you know, your paycheck at the
Speaker 1: end of the month or every two weeks, and it's
Speaker 1: you just want to take ten percent of that and
Speaker 1: give it back to your church or local charities that
Speaker 1: you trust. So that's a really good way to start.
Speaker 1: And the fact that you're being you're wanting to be
Speaker 1: good stewards of your money is most of the battle
Speaker 1: right there. The fact that you even care and you're
Speaker 1: thinking about it already makes me think that you're going
Speaker 1: to continue to remain humble no matter what, because, as
Speaker 1: we all know, dude, you got this good job. It's awesome.
Speaker 1: You can get fired next week, or you can get
Speaker 1: some kind of disability that takes you out of it,
Speaker 1: or a pandemic hits like it did for us, and
Speaker 1: all of your tour dates go away. So we don't
Speaker 1: worry about tomorrow, but we financially prepare for it, but
Speaker 1: we don't worry about it. So there's a big difference.
Speaker 1: And so you prepare like it could all be gone tomorrow,
Speaker 1: and you live your life in a humble way knowing
Speaker 1: that it could all disappear tomorrow. And you also live
Speaker 1: a life of complete gratefulness knowing that in a way,
Speaker 1: and I'm sure you're an awesome dude, and you work
Speaker 1: really hard and you really so, I'm sure, but in
Speaker 1: a way, you don't deserve it in the same way
Speaker 1: that I don't deserve it. I don't deserve any kind
Speaker 1: of human success that we've had. But when we get it.
Speaker 1: I put gratefulness at the top of the list instead
Speaker 1: of thinking, well I did the man, I did good.
Speaker 1: Look how good I'd done. Instead of that, I put
Speaker 1: gratefulness to the top, like wow, wow, we're really really
Speaker 1: feel grateful And you could verbalize it, you could say
Speaker 1: it out loud, but it's it's a big part of
Speaker 1: leading to answering your question. Yeah, I think that's a
Speaker 1: great answer. I like to I like to think that
Speaker 1: you know, we're just vessels that money can just pass
Speaker 1: through and we you, you, us, whoever is doing okay,
Speaker 1: who is more than just can pay the bills anything.
Speaker 1: Everybody knows you get that security, You can pay your mortgage,
Speaker 1: you can put food on the table, you have water.
Speaker 1: You know, anything past that is not going to bring
Speaker 1: you any more happiness, right, So, just trying to view
Speaker 1: yourself just as a vessel of you just so happen
Speaker 1: to be offering a good or service to the market,
Speaker 1: so that you have some leftover money, give it back.
Speaker 1: You know that's going to come through you and it's
Speaker 1: just going to pass and it's going to be nothing
Speaker 1: but good to go back into the economy, go back
Speaker 1: into the market. So, yeah, everything you said right, there's
Speaker 1: a number that came out. Some kind of research team
Speaker 1: did this number, and I think it was sixty five
Speaker 1: thousand or seventy thousand dollars collective household income. If you
Speaker 1: make sixty five or seventy thousand dollars a year collective
Speaker 1: between you and your spouse in your in your house,
Speaker 1: that is the max that you need to meet all
Speaker 1: your needs and to not have any kind of financial worries.
Speaker 1: Something like that, like, that's the max you need unless
Speaker 1: you're just buying a house that's too big or a
Speaker 1: card that's too big. And so a lot of people
Speaker 1: will actually look at it that way, like if I
Speaker 1: make seventy thousand in my house, that's then I'm rich
Speaker 1: and that's all I need. And anything after that is
Speaker 1: you know, I'll use it for experiences. I'll spend it
Speaker 1: on experiences instead of junk, instead of buying more junk
Speaker 1: that you can't You can't pull a U haul behind
Speaker 1: your hearst. Do you hear that a million times? You
Speaker 1: cannot take you haul to your to your grave. So
Speaker 1: it's better to spend the money. If you're not going
Speaker 1: to go to a charity or donate it, it's better
Speaker 1: to use your money to buy experiences with you and
Speaker 1: your kids and your wife and things that are that
Speaker 1: will last a lifetime. So you're on the right path. Man.
Speaker 1: Congrats on the job, the new job, and we we
Speaker 1: truly wish you the best. Here's here's a question. It says, Hey, Grangeer,
Speaker 1: I found you on YouTube first, and since then you've
Speaker 1: become one of my favorite two artists. Who's the other.
Speaker 1: One says, I go first to Pandora or just to
Speaker 1: play your music, and I love it. I remember a
Speaker 1: video of the Smiths where Amber asked you about how
Speaker 1: you didn't you don't cough on stage and you mentioned
Speaker 1: it came from the core cadets at Texas A and M.
Speaker 1: Did you or did you just go through the core
Speaker 1: program at A and M. Also, i'm the history major myself.
Speaker 1: I didn't go to A and M, but I love history.
Speaker 1: It says at the end here it says you mentioned
Speaker 1: your grandfather was a pilot, and sadly we're losing the
Speaker 1: Greatest generation more and more each year. So it's good
Speaker 1: to know that we have plenty of people who appreciate
Speaker 1: the subject and want to ensure we aren't the generation
Speaker 1: who has to repeat history due to not learning from it.
Speaker 1: And I saved this question because Parker was in the Core. Also,
Speaker 1: neither one of us served in the military. But we're
Speaker 1: in the Core cadets at A and M, which is
Speaker 1: a what did they call that, it's n R O TC. Yeah,
Speaker 1: n RTC. It used to be A. A and M
Speaker 1: was a military academy until I believe the sixties or
Speaker 1: seventies when they opened it up to a regular university.
Speaker 1: Is it used to be only military academy. So when
Speaker 1: they opened it up to everyone else, they offered at
Speaker 1: A and M the Core to opened up to an
Speaker 1: option called d n C, which is Drill and Ceremony,
Speaker 1: which means you can go and join the Core and
Speaker 1: you could go into the military and they'll pay for
Speaker 1: your school and your books and they send you off
Speaker 1: to officers training and boot camp and all that stuff.
Speaker 1: Or if you go dn C, that means you're only
Speaker 1: doing it for the camaraderie and the discipline and the
Speaker 1: work ethic and the military environment in college for your
Speaker 1: own growth. Akay, you're a crazy person. Yeah, so you're yeah,
Speaker 1: you're crazy. So Parker and I and our dad did
Speaker 1: the Core and it's funny. I don't remember saying that
Speaker 1: on the Smiths about coughing on stage, but coughing and
Speaker 1: sneezing because of the core. We would have to, you know,
Speaker 1: every morning formation, we would we would they call it
Speaker 1: getting crapped out. We'd have to go like on a
Speaker 1: run or do push ups or whatever, and then we'd
Speaker 1: have to be up on the wall and they would
Speaker 1: inspect us or talk to us, or yell at us,
Speaker 1: or discipline us in some way. And while we're standing
Speaker 1: against the wall, you just have to be locked on forward,
Speaker 1: just eyes locked on, glazed over, looking straight ahead. Can't
Speaker 1: look at can't look any direction or look at an upperclassmen.
Speaker 1: You can't move, you can't sway, you can't scratch an itch,
Speaker 1: God forbid. You cannot cough or sneeze. You cough for
Speaker 1: sneeze while you're doing an inspection. Like here you and
Speaker 1: all your buddies are going to do push ups till
Speaker 1: you just about die. So you just learn how to
Speaker 1: not cough for sneeze. And think about that. Sometimes on
Speaker 1: stage I'll think like a sneeze is coming on, or
Speaker 1: maybe maybe I'm at a meeting, you know, and somebody's
Speaker 1: talking in the meeting. I mean, maybe it's something important
Speaker 1: and I feel a sneeze coming on, and I'll just
Speaker 1: go straight back to the core. I'm like, don't you sneeze?
Speaker 1: Don't you sneeze? Smith, And I could get it where
Speaker 1: like not even my nose moves, and it's just a
Speaker 1: mental exercise. Do you do this, Parker? Can you do this?
Speaker 1: You can? I know you can. I don't. I don't
Speaker 1: ever really think about it with sneezes when you didn't
Speaker 1: sneeze in the core. No, but no, I was really
Speaker 1: I was a good freshman in the court. Your freshman
Speaker 1: year is the year that you're that's like your your
Speaker 1: intro year where you're the follower, where anything you do
Speaker 1: that's wrong, you're you're in training, so you have high
Speaker 1: standards that you have to follow. But uh, it's the
Speaker 1: being a freshman is is the ultimate training of not
Speaker 1: letting your outer surroundings affect what's going on internally, keeping
Speaker 1: a thousand yard stare, your perfect hands, the exact way,
Speaker 1: standing at attention, not sneezing, not coughing, not moving your
Speaker 1: mouth or blinking or turning around. It's really a great
Speaker 1: lesson probably for you in concerts with you know, thousands
Speaker 1: of people screaming random things that you throwing things at you,
Speaker 1: things going wrong, and you just have to stay internally
Speaker 1: calm and laser focus to get the job done, which
Speaker 1: obviously is why. And in ROTC programs they're doing that
Speaker 1: so that you can stay calm in a life or
Speaker 1: death combat situation. Yeah, but not so much. I don't
Speaker 1: think I hold back sneezes, specifically from my training in
Speaker 1: the Core. I don't think I really ever hold back
Speaker 1: a sneeze. Honestly. I'm just not in a situation where
Speaker 1: if I sneeze, something bad happens. Granted, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I don't know if like it looks bad if you
Speaker 1: sneeze on stage when I say a meet like I'm
Speaker 1: in a meeting. Of course, there's nothing wrong with sneezing
Speaker 1: in a meeting, But I just it's almost like a
Speaker 1: fun challenge in Trouble, it's like a fun challenge like, oh,
Speaker 1: can you completely suppress this? And you can, you definitely can.
Speaker 1: Amber doesn't understand that, but she could too if she tried.
Speaker 1: On stage. I do remember a few times I sneezed,
Speaker 1: and I'll do it like almost as a joke because Todd,
Speaker 1: my guitar player, he notices everything I do that's out
Speaker 1: of the ordinary. But sometimes I'll just turn my back
Speaker 1: to the audience and sneeze really big, like onto the ground,
Speaker 1: and he'll start laughing at me. But it's really rare
Speaker 1: that I'll ever anyone will see me sneeze or cough
Speaker 1: on the stage. I could do it off Mike, But
Speaker 1: that's a funny thing. That Probably what I learned from
Speaker 1: the core that I use more than that every day
Speaker 1: is when we had to greet our upperclassmen. We had
Speaker 1: to stick out her hand and offer her hand like
Speaker 1: a handshake, and you squeeze as tight as you can
Speaker 1: in the firmest handshake you could imagine where you're You
Speaker 1: basically want to crush every bone in their hand. That's
Speaker 1: the goal. And if if they do it back to
Speaker 1: you at the same time, you're okay. If you beat
Speaker 1: them to it, you could actually hurt them, which is good.
Speaker 1: If they beat you to it, they're going to hurt you,
Speaker 1: which is bad. So both of you had the mindset
Speaker 1: of I got to just intensely shake his hand as
Speaker 1: hard as I can and at perfect attention with your
Speaker 1: eyes now your eyes if you're meeting them, are locked
Speaker 1: right on his and you're speaking clearly. And that's the
Speaker 1: only time they ever let you look them in the eyes,
Speaker 1: the only time you can look them in you. It's
Speaker 1: called the whip out. Yeah, it was when you're shaking
Speaker 1: their hand and you look them straight in the eye,
Speaker 1: never breaking it, and you speak clearly and loudly. And
Speaker 1: that is missing so much in culture. I see it
Speaker 1: all the time with little kids, like you get a
Speaker 1: limp handshake. They're not looking at you, they're looking down.
Speaker 1: They're not speaking clearly, like what what are you saying?
Speaker 1: And that's to meet you don't mumble, especially for meeting someone.
Speaker 1: So I think about it. When you're in the core
Speaker 1: at A and M. We would meet upper classmen, and
Speaker 1: these guys are intimidating. You know, they come at you
Speaker 1: and if you mess up, you're going to pay for it,
Speaker 1: and you have no choice. There is if an upper
Speaker 1: classman that you've never met walks down the hallway or
Speaker 1: into the hallway or out of his room, you have
Speaker 1: to immediately meet him immediately, so there is no hesitation.
Speaker 1: So that translated to my life, Like I've walked in
Speaker 1: a lot of rooms with semi important people, and it
Speaker 1: never crossed my mind to hesitate in that moment to
Speaker 1: go and meet them, look them in the eye and
Speaker 1: shake it. I remember when I met George W. Well,
Speaker 1: I was like, that was probably George w was probably
Speaker 1: the most intimidating person that ever walked into a room
Speaker 1: that I was in, because he just has this booming personality.
Speaker 1: Unlike you see on TV. He's actually pretty tall, big presence,
Speaker 1: loud voice. So when he came in the room, like
Speaker 1: my heart was pounding. But I snapped him too freshmen
Speaker 1: in the core mode and gave him my best handshake,
Speaker 1: tried to crush his bones in his hand, you know,
Speaker 1: and looked him straight in the eye and said nice
Speaker 1: to meet you, sir, you know, like in a clear presence.
Speaker 1: And I attribute that to the core, which is it's
Speaker 1: pretty cool. That's a long way of answering the question
Speaker 1: of do I call on stage. I'll see this question.
Speaker 1: This is not a question. This is a thank you
Speaker 1: from Edward said thank you from Eddie and Arkansas. It
Speaker 1: says that he was in the Marine Corps stationed in
Speaker 1: Okinawa and that's the first time he went to a
Speaker 1: country bar. And heard the country boy song in Earl
Speaker 1: Dibbles Junior. So that's awesome, man, he said. About six
Speaker 1: months ago, I discovered your podcast and I've listened to everything.
Speaker 1: The title of this is to thank you, because once
Speaker 1: I started listening to your podcast, I've tried to be
Speaker 1: as good as you. I don't necessarily like that that
Speaker 1: sentence because I'm I'm a work in progress. But thank you, buddy,
Speaker 1: he said. I've changed my morning routine and started reading
Speaker 1: the Bible and turning my phone off and I just
Speaker 1: sit and enjoy the morning. This has really changed my
Speaker 1: life for the better. By doing this morning routine. It
Speaker 1: makes every day so much better. Thank you for all
Speaker 1: your due, dude, Eddie, thank you man. That's awesome. God,
Speaker 1: somebody's listening. Anytime someone says they listen to the podcast
Speaker 1: and they've heard all the episodes, I think, Wow, somebody's
Speaker 1: actually listening. Because I sit in front of this mic
Speaker 1: and I don't always know. I wonder if people like
Speaker 1: listen to thirty seconds and then move on. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: Parker does the same thing. I get up at five thirty.
Speaker 1: What do you get up at five? I five thirty
Speaker 1: five thirty. I get a pit five thirty. It's every
Speaker 1: since Daylight Saving time, it's turned into five point forty
Speaker 1: ever since, I still haven't. It took me about a week,
Speaker 1: so I used to have it was six that week. Dude.
Speaker 1: It's hard to day a savings time. But I get
Speaker 1: up at five thirty and my alarm goes off five thirty,
Speaker 1: and then I have I had this, you know, morning routine,
Speaker 1: and a big part of that routine is reading the
Speaker 1: Bible and no phone, cup of coffee, no one's up,
Speaker 1: everything's quiet. Do you still meditate? I do not. I
Speaker 1: do not, even though on this podcast I advertise headspace
Speaker 1: a lot. I haven't done it probably six months, because
Speaker 1: I've been kind of replacing it with just pure honest prayer, quiet,
Speaker 1: you know, Like I'll get I'll get up five thirty
Speaker 1: and I'll go in there and I'll get like a
Speaker 1: cup of coffee, and I'll get my stuff set up
Speaker 1: on my little table in the barn. And before I cut,
Speaker 1: before I touch the coffee, it's still hot and steaming.
Speaker 1: So before I even touch it and take my first sip,
Speaker 1: I close my eyes. Then I start praying, and it
Speaker 1: always starts with like, dear Father, you know, your I'm
Speaker 1: so grateful for another day, you know, to start another day.
Speaker 1: Sustain my life for your purpose. And whatever happens today,
Speaker 1: whatever I do, let it manifest for your promise, your purpose,
Speaker 1: your will. And then and then I'll more thanks. I
Speaker 1: try to do all my thanks at the beginning before
Speaker 1: I ask anything, you know, if you could get that
Speaker 1: out of the way, then then I make my meaningless requests,
Speaker 1: you know, my little human request, and then I usually
Speaker 1: finish it with somewhere around saying I'm about I'm about
Speaker 1: to jump into this word. I'm about to jump into
Speaker 1: this Bible. And I know that this is the living words.
Speaker 1: That's because that's what you said. This is the living words.
Speaker 1: So let this word come alive to me. Let me
Speaker 1: learn it more about you today, let me see something
Speaker 1: I haven't seen before in a new light that helps
Speaker 1: me to be closer to you, to seek you more.
Speaker 1: And that's kind of replaced meditating and because and I
Speaker 1: probably there's nothing wrong with using them. I loved my
Speaker 1: meditation out, but I kind of run out of time
Speaker 1: if I do that for an hour and then the
Speaker 1: kids are up, and so there's a there's actually this
Speaker 1: apper here. It's called Logos Logos Bible and I started
Speaker 1: this and it's really awesome, and this is going to
Speaker 1: freak some people out, but I've been reading the Bible
Speaker 1: on my iPad and I know some people are like
Speaker 1: paper people, and I get that. But I read there's
Speaker 1: this pastor that I follow on social media and he
Speaker 1: says he does this, and so I started looking into
Speaker 1: it and sure enough, it's this really awesome program called
Speaker 1: Logos and you could start reading plans. And so my
Speaker 1: reading plan is McShane reading Plan. I think that's how
Speaker 1: you say it, m c h E y n E.
Speaker 1: And the McShane reading plan is in one year, you're
Speaker 1: going to go through the Old Testament once, the Psalms twice,
Speaker 1: and the New Testament twice, and so it just every morning.
Speaker 1: It's like, lately mine has been one chapter in Genesis,
Speaker 1: one chapter in Matthew, one chapter in Nehemiah, and one
Speaker 1: chapter in Acts. So what's that for. I feel like
Speaker 1: it can make it easier to read because it's it's bright,
Speaker 1: the words are bigger than they are on a Bible
Speaker 1: where they're a little bit smaller, which kind of adds
Speaker 1: a little bit of a potential disconnect. I feel like,
Speaker 1: I've never done that before, but that could help. Here
Speaker 1: it is and you hit next at each page, and
Speaker 1: so now we're in Matthew. And the cool thing is
Speaker 1: these little numbers right here, like the little letters. You
Speaker 1: tap the letter and it goes that's the reference for
Speaker 1: that verse, and it says the same thing in Luke
Speaker 1: as it does in Matthew years and you could jump
Speaker 1: to that reference. Sometimes there's a word you could you
Speaker 1: could check out the Greek or the Hebrew translation for it,
Speaker 1: which is just really cool. So I've really dug this,
Speaker 1: and I've dug this. I'm on day sixteen right now
Speaker 1: of this program, and you can see I'm fifteen completed
Speaker 1: out of three hundred and sixty five, and by the
Speaker 1: end of the year, I'll be like, wow, I've read
Speaker 1: the New Testament twice, Psalms twice and on. It's pretty cool.
Speaker 1: The question that everybody has when they hear that is
Speaker 1: how do you build the discipline to wake up that early?
Speaker 1: That's my number one question. When I say that, I'm
Speaker 1: sure that's yours, It's like, well, cool, I would love that.
Speaker 1: Of course, my life would be better if I did that,
Speaker 1: because it's all about having a mental check in in
Speaker 1: the morning before you get your busy life going. How
Speaker 1: do I feel right now? Why do I feel that way?
Speaker 1: And how can I talk to my creator in a
Speaker 1: one on one quiet place. But I can't get up
Speaker 1: there early because I don't have the discipline and not
Speaker 1: hit snooze. Okay, well, so first question is why why
Speaker 1: do you do it? Answer for me, mornings are much clearer.
Speaker 1: My brain is much clearer and relaxed in the morning.
Speaker 1: At the end of the day, it's trashed. My brain
Speaker 1: is trashed. I've made too many decisions I've thought about
Speaker 1: to me that I'm worried of whatever. My brain is trashed.
Speaker 1: So the key to getting up early is going to
Speaker 1: bed early. Like that's the key. Yeah, you don't wake
Speaker 1: up at five point thirty if you go to bed
Speaker 1: at midnight. Yeh, you just don't. No human, that's not right.
Speaker 1: Like humans need seven to eight hours to sleep minimum.
Speaker 1: That's just it. So you got to go to bed earlier.
Speaker 1: So you start by getting up early the first time,
Speaker 1: and you feel terrible all day and then you're ready
Speaker 1: to go to bed early, so you're automatically on schedule.
Speaker 1: And the theory behind it is some people are like, dude,
Speaker 1: I can't I have to go to bed at midnight
Speaker 1: or I have to go to bed at eleven thirty. Okay,
Speaker 1: and this is scheduled. It's not sick. I'll say one
Speaker 1: thing real quick. I heard someone say the other day,
Speaker 1: you don't have to do anything people, You literally don't
Speaker 1: have to do it. No, I got I got a
Speaker 1: mortgage de Bay. You don't have to pay your mortgage.
Speaker 1: I have to go to work tomorrow. You don't have
Speaker 1: to go to work tomorrow. It's like life is just
Speaker 1: about thinking about the consequences that happen. It's like, I
Speaker 1: don't we don't start working here until nine. I don't
Speaker 1: have to wake up at five thirty. I could wake
Speaker 1: up at eight forty every day and rush here. I
Speaker 1: don't have to even come here and do this. I
Speaker 1: could go work at Starbucks if I wanted to. But
Speaker 1: it's about asking yourself why. Well, it's because I genuinely
Speaker 1: know my life will be better if I wake up
Speaker 1: at five thirty. In the moment, it's hard to get
Speaker 1: over that feeling of being tired. But I know for
Speaker 1: a fact that when I wake up and I have
Speaker 1: my quiet time and I go work out, and then
Speaker 1: I come to work my life and my everything about
Speaker 1: my life is better and I'm more fulfilled and satisfied. Yep.
Speaker 1: So Tyler always says this or other brother, but and
Speaker 1: he always puts it right about seven pm. I mean
Speaker 1: he might even say five pm and on after that
Speaker 1: is trash time for the brain, like there's you're probably
Speaker 1: not doing anything productive in your life after seven pm.
Speaker 1: Intellectually you're just kind of existing. You eat dinner, You're
Speaker 1: doing some just like easy TV watching or Instagram scrolling
Speaker 1: or TikTok scrolling or watching YouTube, but none of it's
Speaker 1: really You're not doing any work for your You shouldn't be,
Speaker 1: because if I try to do work at eight pm,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna I'm not gonna accomplish anything substantial. And
Speaker 1: some people are listening right now and going no way,
Speaker 1: like that's my best my best time in every videographer
Speaker 1: and photographer, and it seems to be creatives for whatever
Speaker 1: reason late at night love doing that. So I'm a creative.
Speaker 1: And I'm saying my brain just the way I'm wired,
Speaker 1: is better in the morning because I'm fresh off asleep
Speaker 1: and i haven't made any decisions the day has not
Speaker 1: stressed me at all, and I'm completely fresh. I haven't
Speaker 1: eaten anything yet. I'm just drinking coffee. So that's my
Speaker 1: best time. And if you if you get it right now,
Speaker 1: at nine o'clock every morning the five thirties, it's like
Speaker 1: a nightmare. So you got to build into it. And
Speaker 1: if you would have asked me four years ago, I
Speaker 1: would have said the same thing. You're crazy. But you
Speaker 1: build into it and then you just it becomes your life.
Speaker 1: You get used to it. So the point being at night,
Speaker 1: if you think you're so busy that you have to
Speaker 1: go to bed at midnight, then I go back to
Speaker 1: this time. Block your day, meaning for seven days in
Speaker 1: a row, write down each hour what you're doing, and
Speaker 1: be disciplined enough for seven days to be honest and go.
Speaker 1: From four thirty to five, I sat here and looked
Speaker 1: at Instagram. From five to five thirty, I talked to
Speaker 1: my girlfriend on the phone. From five thirty to six,
Speaker 1: I ate a snack. You'll realize when you look at
Speaker 1: that that man, there's like five hours of this day
Speaker 1: that I'm just kind of wasted. And I know there's
Speaker 1: people that listen that work sixty hours a week that's awesome.
Speaker 1: We work super hard. Like when I'm on tour, we
Speaker 1: have crazy schedules. But even in the craziest craziest of schedules,
Speaker 1: like for me, when I'm traveling, there's airplane time or
Speaker 1: airport time. What am I doing in the airport time?
Speaker 1: Like there's you could always find these windows of Man,
Speaker 1: I shouldn't have been just sitting there scroll on Twitter.
Speaker 1: I should have been on Headspace. So anyway, Eddie, appreciate you. Dude.
Speaker 1: I'm just I'm glad somebody's listening. And I'm glad that
Speaker 1: you know you're a marine so you understand it. But
Speaker 1: I'm glad that someone looks at it and goes, dude,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna get up early and read little Bible and
Speaker 1: start my day off, and then here's your testimony. It
Speaker 1: makes my day better. I love that, dude. I mean,
Speaker 1: if you're the only one listening, you're the only one
Speaker 1: that's ever done that, that's listened to this podcast, then
Speaker 1: to me, this podcast has been a success because I
Speaker 1: could truly say that the last two years of us
Speaker 1: doing it every single morning, I'm talking about it. I
Speaker 1: do it on Sundays, I do it on Saturdays, I
Speaker 1: do it every day. If I'm on tour, it's becomes
Speaker 1: I have to refigure. If I'm planning a show and
Speaker 1: getting off the stage literally at twelve thirty, then my
Speaker 1: next morning is not five thirty. At seven thirty. So
Speaker 1: if I'm staying up late working on stage, I set
Speaker 1: my alarm seven hours from when my head hits the pillow.
Speaker 1: So if my head hits the pillow at eight at
Speaker 1: one am, I'm setting my arm for eight am, and
Speaker 1: that still works for me. Yeah, everybody will go, well,
Speaker 1: if I can't do it five thirty, I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: do it at all. It's like and they'll say, well,
Speaker 1: you can't do it. That's that's exact time. Every day.
Speaker 1: It's like, no, but you just work it in because
Speaker 1: life happens. I get my eight hours. You like to
Speaker 1: get your seven hours. People always tell me it must
Speaker 1: be nice to not have kids. You just wait, buddy,
Speaker 1: all that's going down the joints. I love being here
Speaker 1: with you because you have kids and you still do it.
Speaker 1: I got kids, and you know, I get up at
Speaker 1: five thirty and they're usually rocking by seven. By six
Speaker 1: thirty to six forty five, they're coming in and rocking.
Speaker 1: So my window is five thirty six thirty. I have
Speaker 1: that window, and that window's going to end. It's cool.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Eddie. Appreciate all you guys for asking questions.
Speaker 1: H Grangersmith Podcast at gmail dot com. If you have anything,
Speaker 1: If you want to see more Parker, hear more Parker,
Speaker 1: put in the comments more Parker. If you think Parker's stupid, crazy,
Speaker 1: If you think I'm crazy, If you think we have
Speaker 1: bad ideas, put that in the comments. Yeah, love you guys.
Speaker 1: Ye thanks for joining me on the granger Smith Podcast.
Speaker 1: I appreciate all of you guys. You could help me
Speaker 1: out by rating this podcast on iTunes. If you're on YouTube,
Speaker 1: subscribe to this channel. Hit that little like button and
Speaker 1: notification spell so that you never miss anytime I upload
Speaker 1: a video. If you have a question for me that
Speaker 1: you would like me to answer, email Graingersmith Podcast at
Speaker 1: gmail dot com. Ye