Life Wide Open with CboysTV - Micah Tells Story of Dad Passing Away, Growing Up On the Farm and Not Caring About Money

Episode Date: September 1, 2021

Micah is on the hot seat today, he talks on his Dad passing away, growing up on the farm and not getting into the national gaurd and plenty more. Follow us on Instagram @cboystv and @lifewideopenpodcast To watch the podcast on YouTube: https://bit.ly/LifeWideOpenYT Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast for free wherever you're listening or by using this link: https://bit.ly/LifeWideOpenWithCboysTV If you like the show, telling a friend about it would be amazing! You can text, email, Tweet, or send this link to a friend: https://bit.ly/LifeWideOpenWithCboysTV You can also check out our main YouTube channel CboysTV: https://www.youtube.com/c/CboysTV For merch check out: https://cboystv.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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It's everything you need to make a podcast in one point. place. Download the free Anchor app or go to anchor.fm to get started. Are you recording right now? I think I follow them on Instagram. I'll start over. Was that good? Are we just running it? No. No, no, no. That was not the intro. Let's just start right now that. Now that Ryan's that ain't. I'm like, no. Nope, that is not the intro. We're starting over. I want a clean cut in the game and the way it gets filmed and we're just like, Ryan, why you intro it for us since you'll be editing it. Yeah, intro is, intro is in Ryan. All right. I think you can do that. Do it. Do it. You're going to love it, I promise.

Do it. guys welcome back to the wide open podcast with uh see boys tv we're here you get the name right like wide open podcast oh i thought you said wide open he did no the life wide open podcast i heard wide open podcast too i think i might have stuttered on life play it back jammy sorry i'm dude jamy knows all well everyone has ears heard that you said it wrong but ryan you've come a long ways from the first podcast and now you're introing i'm introing still fucking it up man chase your dreams kids yeah welcome back you guys even if your friends make you do it it's a rainy Saturday today we were supposed to go golfing actually but real golfing

yeah not not reckless golfing as you guys just saw in our latest video it was going to turn into reckless golfing we already know that yeah but to an extent it wasn't going to be nearly as reckless as the video though because we were we were showing up to play I don't know man when we were we were filming the video we showed up and we were like we're here to fuck around we're probably going to get thrown off it's going to be cut short it wasn't a real game that was the goal but today i mean if it wasn't raining we were going to show up and like compete yeah but all of the boys would have been here today and it's like every time we talk about when we get the entire squad together things escalate so fast and there's no way that

we wouldn't have gotten out of control i'm not saying to the fact that especially to the fact that we weren't filming it so we were like we were just like probably getting into the booze a little bit man every single you guys think we're alcoholics out here but we just talk about it a lot but you know we probably would start boozing a little bit and then things would have escalated only to the extent of everything reckless except for reckoning golf i don't know if micha would have drove a golf cart off a retaining wall again if we had to if we would have gone out without if we were leaving that golf course and had to buy another golf cart i would have been filming i would have been alarmed i'd be like okay maybe we golfing is not for us i didn't realize

how much fun golf was. I know. I thought it was just kind of like a thing that old men did. Dude, but it's fun. I hear about it all the time. All my, all my girlfriends,

friends, boyfriends and husbands, that's what they do on Saturdays and Sundays. I'm like, it sounds kind of boring. It turns out it's a blast. It's a blast. And we're not even good at it.

Except for Ben. That Ben's not that good. Don't pump his tires. He's literally 30 times better than I am. Well, it's not that hard to be better than you like. You literally break the club every time you go. For being, what did you play?

High school golf? right for being in high school you did you got to be hands down the worst golfer i've ever seen i play my that would consider himself a golfer be on the special ed team or what if they had one i would have been bro i've never seen somebody shank so many balls like at least making contact and if you have just a gnarly slice or a gnarly hook and it's not going in the fairway that's one thing but the fact that you can't even make contact with the golf ball with the face of the club and it might go just straight right or it might go in between your It went between your legs at one point.

He went backwards multiple times. Like, it's seriously a safety hazard to golf with white guy, dude. It is. You don't know where to stand. You don't know where to stand. You don't know where it's going. It's okay. At least you can drive the golf cart.

Wait, don't you. That's true. The best golf cart driver I know. He came through heavy on that video with the golf cart. Oh, yeah, you're right. Thank you. Appreciate that. But you stand in front of the golf ball.

You want us to stand in front of it or you stand up? You don't know where to stand. I'm like, you just put it between the two white markers and then you stand in front of the golf ball. you us idiot i'm like bro i know where to stand yeah well definitely stand behind me you you guys act like the ball that one ball that went behind me like if it hit you in the shin you go ah and then that's it bruh there was a couple ones bro i saw them with my eyes you could have killed somebody right you would have been a if you're club the way it was like fucking the head of it

you'd like a fragile fragile little baby for me to kill you with that i don't think most people are trying to get smoked by a golf ball off of the teeth there's There's still some heat behind them. Yeah, but yeah, not really. When you hear Micah's, like, ratio to clubs broken to rounds played, it's one for one. Every round of golf you play, you break a club. And if you didn't know Micah, and I was just telling you, yeah, my friend Micah, he breaks a golf club every time he plays, you'd probably think he's just this jacked, strong guy that's just smashing the balls.

My brain would go more towards, like, angry. Oh, yeah, he's got a real anger problem. He's got a temper. Snapping him over his leg. Both of them, quite the opposite. So, yeah, if you haven't seen that video, go check it out. We've actually been doing a really good job lately. Knocking out of the podcast, trying to do one a week.

We still don't have the best schedule for it. So if you guys are watching this, just hit the notification bell because we sometimes post Tuesdays, sometimes post Wednesdays, sometimes post Thursday mornings. I'm doing my best out here, okay? I'm sorry. Ryan's killing it on the edits, dude. The beauty of the podcast is that you can, like, you could listen to one from three weeks ago. It's still relatively relevant.

But yeah, no, we've been killing on the uploads. We've been doing, the podcast, been rolling. And then on top of that, we just had a merch drop. It's Saturday. We dropped the merch drop on Thursday. So it's been about a little over 24 hours. It was probably one of our top merch drops. And it's still going.

It's still going. The giveaway Pipike is, that's, I don't know. People are stuck for it. I mean, it's that, but also I think it has a lot to do with the merch. Like, the jerseys, they're sold out. There's a lot. There's a lot of cool stuff on the. this drop for sure and i mean there was a lot of jerseys and they win so quick so quick we had two

variations it's just amazing so thank you guys so much for that speaking of the merch shop we got a dful of all the new merch going to castwell customs we announced last merce shot or last podcast that we were going to be given away a full line um so yeah caswell customs we're going to send you a DM we're going to send you get your size and then we're going to send you a little care package so what do you guys attribute the success of this last merch drop to everything i mean i'd like to give a good amount of credit to mike on the designs but also like i'll come up with an idea i think the the dare no can do was that mine that was mine right and like the icon came up with i just i tell micah about it right and he makes it happen he comes to me and he has it and it just it looks right it's like whenever you come up with

an idea which all of us do we all we all tell micah he makes it happen then we have have this meeting. We look it all over and this is, you know, a month before you guys ever see it. And we go, change that or that looks golden. Maybe change just a little bit, tweak this or all this looks great. And then it just all comes together so good. But then also I think, you know, it has to do with everybody. Just being entertaining, staying on their shit, working hard and staying consistent. And obviously you guys buying it too. That's right. I mean, that's why I'm almost quiet about it. I'm just, like, silently stoked for, like, literally, I mean, thousands of people being like, I like that, I want to buy it.

Right. I know some people do just to get entered, but I know a lot of people do just because they want it, which is the best. You know what's just crazy to me? When we, like, when we go and we do a meetup, right, and I stand in line, or I stand at our booth and I take pictures for, like, seven hours, right? And you just have people just rolling in, rolling in. and you're taking pictures and like holy shit dude you've got to be making so many sales and like there's just so many people here

and you get to the end of the day and you like see how many you sold and you're like I mean you're not mad but you're like oh I thought we would have sold a lot more than that and then compared to a merch drop when it's just like instant puts perspective to the masses of people that like can get to you on the internet

yeah like if you put all the people if you put the 300,000 people that have already watched the video in a room, you'd be like, holy, that's a stadium. That's more than a stadium. I don't think there is stadiums. It's like two stadiums put together. Exactly. Yeah, that just shows the power of the internet these days. It's truly changed the way people do business, do business, buy things, you know, obviously. But like the scalability is tenfold.

So something you guys don't see is, you know, we plan out these merch drops like, okay, we're doing one now, space it out. We go pretty much every two months about, right? And Mike is in the hot seat today. We haven't touched on that. So I hate to grill you too hard right off the bat, but for the longest time, we would have a merch shop planned. Okay, so if it's in eight weeks, we need to have everything done, you know,

six weeks beforehand, so then it can all get placed, ordered, and then we get samples. We can, you know, wear them, promote them. The whole shebang. And Micah, for the longest time, you're getting better at it, would just, dude, you would just miss deadline after deadline by like three weeks for these merch drops. So, I mean, it's tough because Micah does such a good job, and he absolutely kills it on the entire drop. And it takes a lot of work. So you hate to be too hard on the guy, but if there's a deadline, you kind of want to hit it or at least hit close to it.

And dude, would you just not realize that there was a deadline and just try and get it done like around that time or like what? Yeah, no, I definitely realize it. I think that is the worst part. You're just like, well, I just don't get it. It's like you're not even close. You're just missing it. Right. And so I honestly, especially for those at those times, I don't even have an excuse for that.

The biggest thing now is it's like I am not just the guy who designs the merch. being the merch coordinator is by far more work than being designed. Product sourcing, all that, yeah. We've got to get these, like, heat presses for samples. And then it's just like, well, it's going to be this much money. And so then I try to, like, find another good place. And if they're, like, not good, then next merch drop, I need to figure out a new place to get those samples, things from.

And, like, there's so many moving components. Yeah. For a limited time at McDonald's, enjoy the tasty breakfast trio. Your choice of chicken or sausage McMuffin or McGrittles with a hash brown and a small iced coffee for five bucks plus tax. Available until 11 a.m. at participating McDonald's restaurants. Price excludes iced coffee and delivery. And we understand that.

We understand that for sure. But yeah, as far as like the deadlines, it was just like I was, yeah, I was clearly aware that they were that they were there and I wasn't like, you know, screw these guys. I just want to chill. It is kind of your M.O. Mike. Oh, yeah. You disregard deadlines, no matter what the deadline is, whether it was, you look back to your days in school you i think you had like the record for most tardies you were you were showing up

so late um you show up late for this back me had a girlfriend you show up late to dates you know everything you're just literally you're on your own time it's not a good thing no i don't yeah i was like it's it's not a good thing but that that is i am on my own so it's not just the merch drop i mean at least you're staying on pace with like yeah you're staying on brand when do you think that started that's start like going to school and just yeah i was high school basically just like i was like, screw this. I think you just have... High school, 7.30 in the morning, like, bro.

Would you say you have a disregard for authority? Yeah. Why? I don't... It probably came from... Honestly, it came from teachers. I think it came from your parents trying to tell you what to do younger than that. Yeah.

And I think it was... Yeah, it was tough because, like, my parents... A lot of that literally came with a curfew. That's why I hated the curfew. I hated it. and honestly that's probably a big part of it yeah they were they were like let's do midnight and then i'm like well if i'm going to come home after you guys are sleeping what's the difference i was the kid i don't think that's the point of a curfew bro and it's not it's not and that's what

they would obviously yeah i'm like they just wanted you to come up so they could chill with you can hang out with you yeah bro you got to be owned by 12 because we're trying to hang out that'd be funny not because we don't want to run around the streets like when i did get caught sneak i would never sneak out i would only sneak back in but when i got caught sneaking out or sorry sneaking back in and my dad's like towering over me in the kitchen hits me with the what are you doing in this house i mean you literally shit yourself piss yourself and and gas ball at the same time let's get into that because you i mean your parents were pretty they're strict but unstrict is just certain things because you come from a pretty

religious family let's let's backtrack a little bit and start from the beginning here uh kind of what what your early years were like because i mean we didn't know you when you were little kid we met in high school and we'll get into that obviously but but tell us kind of growing up what it was like um pretty much grew up in the country which is good grew up we like moved to the country when i was like four so that's all i really knew and uh yeah like you know going to church going to like wednesday school that was a big part of it um like tractors basically before i was in school my grandpa was retired and he just loves john dears so me and my grandpa would chill every day and just literally tractors dude he's like what are we gonna do today work on tractors which is weird now

because like i'm not super associated with it you should get a tractor yeah no i haven't saved me two of them yeah we got to do a video with it sometime i'll bring it here yeah but uh well so what age was that that was basically from like five years old four to five up until you know when i was like 10 obviously i was in school you were kind of a you're kind of a farm boy yeah yeah it's like that's that's just all I did you know oh can I I lit oh this is funny I remember asking my grandpa if I could mow and I was like get six years old and he's just like I yeah I don't know I don't know if you should be turning the blades on let how about this you can drive the mower in a straight line up and down the lawn and I'll let you mow and he did I like proved him and then I you know shortly after I was

like okay this isn't all it's cracked up yeah is it funny oh I still want to mow yeah well I had a mowing business when I was and that was when I never knew that what Yeah, when I was like, I mean, it was like, I had like five lawns, but that would be considered as a business. I definitely didn't have an al-you, dude. But I was like, as a kid, that's good, five lawns? 13, and I had, like, I mowed a cemetery, which everyone's, like, tripping about that. Why do you mow a cemetery? Isn't that sketchy?

I was like, I don't mow it at night or anything. And then it was weird because my ancestors are in that. So it was a little weird, but, and then I mowed, like, my mom's bank in a couple apartments. So that was, that was good. I do love mowing. Who was driving you around for that? My mom. Really?

well the yeah honestly my mom and then the uh the cemetery i would just drive the mower from my house but yeah lots of lots of farm stuff growing up until i got my license then i spent a lot more time in town so where did it turn from you being like a country farm boy into like the flat brim skater boy that that that you were when i mean you gene way yeah yeah i would say it definitely it all depends on your friends pretty much what you do in high school is dependent on who you're hanging out with but skateboarding so how did you fall into that friend group versus like the country boy friend group like i never grew up wanting a truck like you know my for my 16th birthday i was like i don't want a truck you know which most country boys they're like i want a truck i want a silverado you know yeah

but yeah i start but before i had my license i started skateboarding and that was my way of getting around town so that you just adopt that skinny gene flatbrim skate shoes wearing lifestyle it is amazing how your current friend group like dictates who you are as a person. When you're younger and as you're getting older too. It does. I think the story of you becoming friends with us is incredibly interesting. Yeah, so basically I broke my foot in 2013.

I was like 17. I broke my foot. Me and my buddy Pete rolled a ranger and, you know, classic. You put your foot out or your hand or hopefully not your head. But the roll cage crushes it. Crushes it. I like broke all my toes. except for my big toe.

And I was in, like, a wheelchair for, like, a couple weeks, too. It was bad. And then I remember calling Jake up or Jake called me up because all my friends weren't hanging out with me because I was crippled, which it wasn't, it's not that deep, you know. I was just at home playing Call of Duty. And they were like, well, there's not much we can do with you since we were. I was, like, skateboarding and snowboarding. And so then I called Jake and he's.

Jake Sherbrooke? Yeah, Jake Sherbrooke. And he's, yeah, dude, I meant my dad's playing Mortal Kombat right now, like eating ice cream sticks. But you guys weren't that good a friend. No, I had just. like one or two. Basketball games.

Which is like the most Jake thing ever. Like, oh yeah, come on over. We're going to hang out. Like, it really is. Yeah,

he was, uh, I met him at a couple of basketball games and he was just like stoked. He's just like, dude, I heard your Mike Saman from all, you know, like,

I don't know how he really had a reputation. You were a Viner, yeah, he was a Viner. You were a Viner. I knew you up from Vine before I met you. Yeah, a bunch of people at Ben school knew me from Vine,

which is honestly, I, par for the course now that were social media. But he had like, what, 2,500 followers? Yeah. So, yeah.

I remember that being so huge at the time, though. I was like, damn. So then the funny thing is that night that I, like, when hung out with Jake, we made vines. Super weird. Jake probably was just trying to get some cloud off. After that, I remember he's just like, well, I know your foot's broken, but, like, if it heals up soon, we could, like, duct tape your boot up or something. We could go snowmobiling. I'm like, sure, yeah, I'm down.

And that's what we did. And then he was like, yeah, my buddies want to ride with you. and it was all of you guys, I don't know if you were with at the time, but basically all the C-boys were with snowmwheeling. Because we had a pretty, the group was pretty tight at that point. Yeah,

me, Ken, Micah, CJ, and Jake. Not me at the time. Oh, yeah, yeah. Sorry. But I roll in. I was there too, dude. Ignore that.

But fucked all that off. The other cool thing was I met all you guys in the Cormon store. Like that, I don't know, that just makes it cooler to me. I walk in the Cormon store. I see Ken. And keep in mind,

to school with him and at the time at the time he's grant i'm like oh that's grant what's up dude and we weren't friends in high school we were just acquaintances and so i saw him and then i see ben and he's like four foot one and i see ryan and i'm like all right cool let's go sledding and like i remember yeah all you guys had pretty nice snowmobiles so i was pretty intimidated by that but uh shortly after that i was like well that was really fun i really like these guys and that's what it's like to find friends at the lake obviously you know there's no one around so i was just like this is great i found friends who like to snowmobile around the lake and then after that uh everyone wanted to or ryan wanted to wanted to or could or whatever and so ryan asked me to i was like i don't know each other but i'm down

and then honestly from there it was history yeah man you really fit with the group dynamic yeah and then yeah as soon as i realized that you guys like action sports i was like sold we got you into dirt biking Yeah, actually, that's crazy, too. I had never ridden a dirt bike besides, like, once or twice before I started hanging out with you guys. So before, I hate to shit. I don't want to shit on your old friends, but, like, it was a, they weren't going down a good path, right? No. And so do you attribute, where do you think that you would be right now if you would have never met us and you would have stayed in that same friend group?

Because when you started hanging out with us, you kind of ditched that group, right? Your mom even says that before you met us, you were kind of going down the wrong path. I think especially where some of those guys are now is like I think I would just be working, you know, I hate to overuse this, but like working 9 to 5. Like I'd still be very content because I'm a content, optimistic, happy person, but it wouldn't be much. Not even that, though. It was like just the choices that they were making. And one of them's dead now because of drugs.

That, yeah, like one of my best friends for a long time. And he wasn't, that was almost like almost two different friend groups. But yeah, one of my buddies who has friends with for a long time who was easily the worst, you know, like the worst, I don't mean to speak bad on his name. But things were just toxic. And I remember like canning that friendship and I was, I never, I was so happy. And then, yeah, like years later he OD'd, which is insane. So do I think I'd be anywhere near that past? absolutely not but but it would be as far as a career path and and maybe like my overall

outlook on life would be a lot different what did you see yourself doing like at that point in your life what did you want to do around when I was like 16 I remember uh my mom would go to Bible study and then we go to this person's house from our church and he was a mechanical engineer so he had dirt bikes and snowmobiles and all this and I was just like oh so you got to be mechanical engineer and you can you can afford all these nice toys and like And then he was in the power sports industry. I forget where he worked. But so I was like, I want to be a mechanical engineer.

And then I met you guys and I was still stuck on that. I was like, sweet, snowmobiles, love snowmobiles. And then I applied to the National Guard. That's right. It's a funny story. Yeah, or I should say they reach out to me. And then I was like, oh, shit, if I can pay for college. Like, and I know people that have done it and that have finished it.

There's a lot of our friends. Yeah, yeah. It's not, it's not that crazy. but looking back if it were me it's crazy right so what happened now mike is you applied and you you tried to go through with it to join the national guard and they make it very easy because they literally beg you to join they beg you and so then i remember halfway through that uh they the air national guard reached out to me and they're like they're literally like hey army national guard is like staying in a tent and air national guard is like staying in a five-star hotel that's

literally what they told me these guys want everybody in any but so then anyway i was like all right cool well if you're not lying air national guard cool i'll apply and then i applied and filled out all the medical questions and i said that i had asthma because i do but it's very minor like not severe i've never seen you have an inhaler no or need an inhaler yeah it's basically like if i over-exert myself in the winter i'll get a little wheezy that's about it yeah yeah wheezy baby sorry uh and so i applied and like i i said that and they're like ooh you know that could be a problem and then i was like well let me know if it is like I'll do some physical tests or some breathing tests.

I don't know what goes into it. But no, I don't even need it. I don't know. It's no big deal. And they're like, yeah, it might be a big deal. And so they like push me around for like three months. You know, every month I'd be like, hey, could I get an answer? Like I need to know if I'm going to basic because I basically miss the summer basic,

which I'm glad I wouldn't have gone because it would have been really hot. But I come two weeks before you're supposed to basically like be starting classes, August, whatever. They're like, I'm like, can I have an answer yes or no? like i don't you know it seemed very unprofessional and then they're they're almost like i don't want to tell me you tell they're like that could have been what it was and so then they're just like you didn't you didn't make her and i'm like that's fine

i just picture all of them standing in like a conference room with a picture of just you with your flatworm and like flippy hair and your purple skinny jeans standing there and they're like all right seriously we take everyone But do we want this guy? You are literally the only person I've ever heard of in the history of ever that got to turn down by the National Guard. And they're going to beg to get in. They still said, no, they didn't want you. Dude, they would go to a draft before they made, before they put Micah in there.

No, seriously, like, I'm ready to fight. I want to serve my country. Like, no, you can't do it. That'd be a funny skit. And then just looking at me and they're like, we can't, who's going to tell them? But we can't let this guy in. We've kind of had that joke going for even in our content, though, too. Like, we'll be like, all right, who wants to do the stunt or whatever?

And then everyone's kind of quiet and Mike's like, I'll do it. And then we're like, all right, anyone else? Seriously, anyone want to do the stunts or anyone else. Fine. All right. I guess, Ben, you're going to have to do it. We didn't even remember that whole story until like a couple months ago. But we've been doing that for the past like four years, dude.

All I have to say is. Think how much different in your life. I feel. I feel so blessed that I didn't get in. Like, screw that, man. Respect to everyone that's in it, though, obviously. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I was like, it's like, no hate.

I'm just glad for my life that it didn't work out. So then I guess the way it took a turn in a really good way, really fast, was that I go to a community college. Because at this time, I'm like, well, I can't enroll in a university. And, like, at that point, I was accepted at NDSU, but I still couldn't have enrolled. They just don't work like that. But you can go to a community college and enroll. and schedule your classes in all in one day. So I was like, cool, I'll do that.

And then we go there and they have, like, their full list of professions. And I was like, can you imagine just showing up to college? Because there's no generals there, really. Showing up to college and just being like, all right, pick one. That's what you did? Pretty much, like the night before. Actually. That's the most micah thing I've ever heard, bro.

You procrastinate and put everything off until the last minute. You're like, ah, I need a career. It wasn't his fault. It was not procrastination. That is true. Not procrastination. Anyway. That's the one time it wasn't.

That's true. Okay. So then I, I'm looking and I see, like, graphic design, and then I hear they have a really good graphic design program. I'm like, well, this looks a lot more fun than accounting. It looks a lot more fun than being a nurse, even though the nurse's program is really good. And you get paid really well doing that, but graphic design I picked. And then they're like, you need to see you being a nurse.

Now that you say that. Can you guys picture that? Michael walking in. Hey. Hey. Here's your ointment Rub it on some old lady I'm going to come back and check on you in 20 minutes

Ring the bell if you have any issues Okay So you go you become a graphic designer Or you start the course But I remember them being like And keep in mind community college was cheap But I remember them being like You need a MacBook

And I was like, do I have to? Because at that time, I just was like anti-apple because they were so expensive. And I still am anti-apple because- It was the status quo. You've always gone against the status quo. You don't give a fuck about how expensive something is or if it's like supposedly nice. You just like care about getting the job done. Yeah, dude. So I bought, I like spent my entire grad money on the MacBook.

And then that was the MacBook that we like built the company. I don't have built the company on it. It was crazy. And it worked for. five years so like i never regretted it after that did graphic design and then once we started doing all this it was perfect couldn't have been more perfect it was like the stars all aligned you have made the most out of your two-year degree on so many levels dude like can you did you ever even imagine the amount of success you would you would create from that degree dude like did you

even comprehend that because most people getting a like a trade job like that they can maybe picture themselves starting their own business one day but it's like you've been out of college for five years and the amount of things that you've done with that degree is insane yeah think about how many designs you've made that are on t-shirts around the world bro yeah and that's like a hundred thousand t-shirts around the world it's sick that i would now i'd feel comfortable like legit teaching other people not necessarily graphic design but teaching them what they can do with it. I remember when you know that people come into the classroom and they're

like freelances and they were talking to us and I was like this is cool, but I can't see myself doing this in the near future. Like, I feel like I got to learn a lot. And then I did because you're thrown through the flames. Which we all were. That's the best part about everything that we've ever done. It's basically like we were thrown into the flames.

What do we got going on here? Sorry, what do we got going on here? I didn't expect the OJ can I. It's all good. Why don't you tell the audience what you're making? This is called a beer mosa. So we normally drink these in the morning, as terrible as that sounds. I love the normally. Not normally.

No, like on a Saturday. You get up and going, you know. But so, like, normally bush and new course. But then you just, you pour a little bit of orange juice. And it's like a, instead of like a mammosa, it's like a manmosa. Mamosa. Believe it or not, it's really good. Yeah, it's a phenomenal combo, actually.

I actually, super weird, Tombo, got like four dudes when I was at the corn run in just for the weekends. Were you sitting in a hot tub? No, no, but I turned them on to the... Oh, yeah, I mean, they were rock hard sitting there drinking these beermosas. They were fucking, because they're good. They're good. But yeah, no, that's a really good point, Ben. Would you have ever dreamed that your designs would be getting worn all over the world, you know?

I mean, sitting there in class, learning how to do this shit. It's something I would have never even thought of. Exactly. Yeah. I almost feel like, uh, and your mindset has changed over the years. It's like the more you've hung around us. Um, and I will say like, like, Ben and I especially, we, like, always have really aimed and like shot really high up. I would say, like, you know, we've always aimed for, for the stars. And the more you hung around us, I'd say, like, your mindset. has almost changed. I don't know, maybe I'm... I think, yeah, it was... For the record, it was hanging around you guys, but it was meeting all of your parents. Yeah.

That's what it was. Really? None of... I mean, and my parents did just fine, but they didn't own their own business, you know, they worked for someone, and they hustled, but they never could scale it anywhere. And so then I saw all of your parents,

and I was like, every single one of their parents own a business, and I want that. That's all I want. It's all I want. I want to do, you know, American Dream sort of thing. Grant, I don't want to skip too far ahead here, but on the topic of that, what was your, what was your opinion on making a lot of money? Did you care about it?

Yeah. Because a lot of people think, like, it's not, it's not good to make a lot of money. It's, like, good to make enough to sustain your livelihood, and, like, that's all you need. And people think that, like, people that make a lot of money are just, like, arrogant assholes. I mean, some are, but, I mean, everyone's different. Some poor people are the happiest people in the world. Some poor people are depressed, you know, or whatever. Did you want to make a lot of money?

I wanted, no, I wanted to be, honestly, no. I wanted the little, middle things, like, my family never took vacations. And I just saw, like, just a simple thing as taking your family to Florida. I'm like, how hard can that be? That'd be so fun, you know. How much money could that possibly cost if we just, like, you know. So I want to do just stuff like that. Yeah, just I have money to go on vacation and then not go, oh, we're not going to get a, like, this is how my family was, but, you know, we're not going to get a pop when we go out to drink or a soda, whatever you want to call it.

You know, we get waters to save money. I was like, screw that. Like, I want to go out to eat and get what I want. I don't need to get the filet mignon, but. I think they almost, would you agree that they live very much so, they don't live beyond their means, you know, or needs. it's like would you say the number one priority in your family still and also obviously growing up

was God yeah you know and and church and religion community family all that stuff which is all really good but yeah I mean that was your guys's main thing yeah yeah we didn't need to do anything too crazy well especially with like material possession right they didn't care about that

yeah they're like which none of it does really matter it doesn't yeah it really doesn't so I mean and that's kind of where am like right now it's like remember someone goes when are you going to buy your you know hundred thousand dollar car i'm like shit i don't know man i don't care about that shit i'm gonna but like i don't know what it is i don't know when it's gonna be like i'm happy with the sube dude but i can relate to that like for one your super is like so sick you got that thing for what was it 10 grand 10 grand put oh the fuck wait but put another 10 grand and do it that's true but still like

i remember when we went there it was just me and you to buy it and i was like If you don't buy this, I'm going to buy it. It was so funny because you could have bought in a lot of other vehicles besides that. And you could have fucking times 10 the value of that. I'd say you care the least out of everyone by far about making a lot of money. Yeah. Yeah. Which I, yeah, I was like, which I don't want to be mistaken as.

Good for you. Which I don't want to be mistaken as not wanting to hustle. It's not that you're cheap. You're not cheap. But, yeah. Which also, another thing to be said is like, I don't want to skip the. the buildup. I don't want to skip the buildup, skip the workup.

So like, I mean, and this isn't like a hit at you guys, but like Ben, for example, has a brand new WX sitting, you know, in the, we surprise you with it. It was amazing. You have a brand new WX. That's because your family loves you and they're able to provide for you. Yeah. And so anyway, I wanted that WX that I never had. If I just skipped that, then I instantly would be like, why would I get it?

You know, so anyway, I'm just like taking it by levels, I guess, if that makes sense. If I were to go buy, I don't know, a Corvette or something or a GTR, I'd just be like forever. Yeah, I wouldn't want that. I wouldn't want that. I wouldn't want that DWX, ever. That's true. I wouldn't. Do you think that you have everything you need right now? You have enough money in your bank account.

You have a house. You've got every toy that you could. For the record, the only thing I don't have right now is a lot of money in my bank account. Because he's not so much stuff. From the house. From the house. But, yeah, I have. every toy that i could literally ever want but there's always new ones like you know but i definitely

have the most toys out of all you guys oh yeah i know you get a ton of shit yeah a lot of stuff it's just fun what i like dirt bike snowbiles jet ski i mean two wheeler four wheeler a pit bike a pit bike yeah don't oh no another ranger yeah that's right yeah the way you're living though mike honestly like that's the right way to live and I've told you this off camera many of times because we always get into it maybe like because Ben and I are very like I'd say business oriented like we look at it like

is this making a profit if it's not then we cut it you know and and you look at it as is this a good time and that's the honestly the better way to live best way and then the fact that we're able to mesh that in the one thing is exactly great yeah it is interesting

how different we are but how well we work together because me you and cj like could not be more polar opposites honestly but it just works and we do bud heads a lot too though it keeps micha in line of looking forward and doing stuff and it also keeps you two in line sometimes like michael will check your guys's decisions and be like hey no we should do this for this reason and i think it's what makes our group work is the five totally different attitudes it is so many things and that's why we work. No, 100%.

Yeah, Mike definitely keeps us grounded. Yeah, exactly. Level-headed. Because, dude, like at the end of the day, you have so many things to have an ego about, you know, everything that everything, dude, your world is crazy, right? And anyone that has a brain can look at that and respect that. But, dude, you have no ego. You have nothing that you brag about or you've got a chip on your shoulder when you're

talking to someone. It is pretty amazing. It's funny when I do feel like a little bit of an ego coming. on, I almost feel like there's like a monster inside. You check yourself? Yeah. Well, that's good, Mike. Hopefully you stay that way. Your ego monster is like this tall. And like literally anybody else's is like up here.

Whenever he grows, I'm like, no. You know, I feel like, I don't, I've never told you this before. But if it wasn't, if you weren't cut, you know, obviously tied in with all of us, tied in with the business, you know, you're making videos, all that. I feel like you would be like traveling the world. And your blue van before we wrecked it. I mean, it would be a blue van,

but it would. You'd be traveling the world, living very minimally, just meeting new people hanging out, chilling. Yeah. And by minimally, would you agree with that?

Yes, but by minimally, there's like two definitions of that. There's like, you know. You live minimally, Mike. Yeah,

yeah, yeah, but like I want to live comfortably minimally, and you need money to live comfortably minimally. That makes sense. There's minimally, You're eating sandwiches on the road and you're showering like once every three days. And I was like, no, like if you wanted to grab a hotel and you wanted to like, I don't know.

I don't know if you'd do that though because if you were really out there doing it like, eh, I can just sleep in my van. But also like if I were to travel like that in a van, I would want to be making content and in the end want to be making money from that content. Like let's say at 21, it doesn't take much to travel a country in a van if you have the van already. Like, it legit, you could live, you could travel the whole United States probably for, like, 10 grand, you know, and take months off. Right. But I don't really want to do that. Right. You want to like.

Obviously, right now, it's not at the time. Yeah, not at all. But, I mean, that's, it's funny you say that, because I would love to do that. I know you would. But the weird thing is, as time goes on and you, like, get a girlfriend, you need to have. Right. You got to have a girlfriend that's down for that. I would imagine that the next girlfriend you find would probably be down for that.

I literally almost forget that you have. a girlfriend. I feel like you've been single for so much longer than nine months at this point. And you just started hitting the market. Smacking it, dude. Yeah, I know. Really hitting the market. Not really, though. I'm just like being single.

Like, I would not consider myself a ladies' man. I don't know, Mike. Not that's what I've been saying, dude. You're a magnet. You are a bit of a magnet. I almost think you can't get out of your own way on that. Oh, I think it's because... Should we circle back around to my incredible ability to be friends-owned in high school?

Mm-hmm. And the worst part is there's varying levels of it, but like, oh, my gosh, dude. I, so many, there's so many nice pretty girls in my high school, and I somehow was best friends with all of them. You think they might have been misreading it? Yeah. Maybe. We didn't even touch on that. No.

We did. We touched on the first podcast. Yeah, we did. No, yes, I was gay in high school. He wasn't actually gay, but I thought he was gay the first time. I'm mad. Yeah, dude, it was just funny. Like, I, and you just don't pull girls if they think you're in the friend zone.

And then other girls are like, oh, yeah, he's super nice. Nowadays, it's quite the opposite, though, Mike. You just got to avoid the friends on it all costs. It's because whenever there's any girls around us, whether it's our girlfriend's friends or whatever, you know, it's like, there's only two single options. So it makes it nice for you. I mean, that's true. It's quite the setup. that is true um yeah there's a group of girls around us there's only like two people to choose from

i'd say we're a pretty good time too so like they're enjoying themselves they're like man i'd like to come back this is almost like a PSA like if we're like you just got to have a really good time and don't over as soon as you're like that girl's really cute i want to like start moving in uh as soon as you start putting an ultimatum on it or whatever uh yeah throws it off just be yourself dude mike you Snapchat more girls than anyone I know though really yeah bro you've got like 25 on the hook at one time that is an exaggeration but not far off I agree it's it's no it goes to that dude is also it is crazy like what what is what I mean this is kind of more of a gen Z thing but like what is a high snap score I know you guys like keep track that but what even you literally no idea

yeah I'd say everyone says like a million is a super like you a ho if you have a million Do you have a million? No. What do you have? 998. 600K, which I think is a lot. I got 120. Decent.

Yeah, dude. But also, I've had Snapchat since it came out. Oh, that was another really, really funny thing. Dude, when I was the first time I ever met Jake at the Lake Park basketball game, he comes up to me and goes, dude, so you've got to get this app. It's called Snapchat. And keep in mind, this is like 2012. I don't know, whenever it came out.

And he was like, you've got to get this app, dude. um so basically you just send pictures it's it's mostly meant to send nudes you just like send pictures and they just disappear that is kind of what it was actually it was meant for it it was i mean and i don't know if it was meant for that but that's what it was used no it was that was the initial concept of it i remember downloading it and it was just him and then this one other girl that i was friends with that had it and that was it i was just like man well no one uses this app well thank god you picked a good username mike no kidding so many people just Perfect terrible Snapchat usernames because no one had it.

Or you just... I've always really like C.J's. Just C.J. Lotzer, one, two, three, four. C.J. Lotzer, one, two, three, was already taken and all the ones before that... Wait, that's still your username? Yeah. Yeah. Can you change it? You can't. And also, I don't use Snapchat. I'm not, like, no offense, but I feel like that's for little kids. Yeah. And, like, now that Instagram has stories, why am I going to post a Snapchat story?

But, like, I live on Snapchat. Like, I post me a lot. Yeah, I know. Because you got a lot of girls. You got a Snapchat. no but i'm saying on my stories too like if i put promos like new video i but i built my snapchat audience right and i still could do that but i just don't see the point because you could just post it right to your instagram and like i'd rather just have my instagram pop in at least snapchat to mike and i yeah you guys got it yeah ryan's got me uh got my back on this at least i just like snapchat so you were graduated out of college you know while some of us were completing it or trying to complete it and we had that shitty ass trap house college house that we were running the business

out of that was like i feel like those were some nice nice times for you yeah absolutely you you weren't you were just a full time working on the business but it wasn't like super serious yet so it was like you were hanging out you had everything you needed but like but i were chilling being able to live the college life which like it didn't feel weird didn't feel like i was like some old graduated person because I had to say, I graduated earlier than you guys, even though you were younger than me. But, yeah, I got to, like, live the college life, but I didn't have to waste my time on fucking homework.

I got to... No, you're just partying. Well, no, no, no, no. I was partying with all you guys. And then when you guys had to do homework and go to class, I got to work on actual shit. We had so many psych gigs back then, too, though. Yeah.

I mean, we were just trying to make money any which way we could. Those were building years, dude. We did anything. We had our fingers in so much stuff, and I don't think we were doing anything well. No. We had to freaking... We were doing it better than anyone else.

Than not doing it. Because we were just doing it. We were doing it. We weren't thinking into anything. We were just doing it. Yeah. Which I don't know if that's good or bad, but building bricks or brick by brick or whatever fuck's saying is.

Brick by brick, baby. So Ken's brother, Cody is an arborist. He's got a huge tree pile. He cuts down trees. We were like, well, what if we made a subscription-based thing in the summer so that we deliver bundles of firewood to people? on the weekends or whenever they want them never came to be but goodwood good wood uh still might work like that yeah still might work and then you can elaborate on that some fucking big kromat t-shirts or

whatever yeah bunch of different yeah side hustles but yeah to circle background that was it was a great time in my life because basically because of that i was able able to like live like a college kid but actually make my you know make money and not waste my time in class not that when you're in class you're wasting time but a lot of times it feels like it so yeah we we don't have to talk about this if you don't want to but um your your dad passed away during that time yeah yeah that was tough and that was like i don't even know i'm really bad about like dealing with it or talking about but he had cancer and he like kicked it for like three years and then it was kind of one of those things that like wasn't yeah like you just not going to come out of but i would say the scariest thing

out of all that was like the last like two weeks like if you've ever seen anybody with cancer like he looked like a zombie like he didn't look like my dad anymore like crazy crazy i was like this is terrifying but uh yeah it was it was sad how did you cope with that i don't know that's the thing like i you know i had you guys as like i'm not you know i'm not much of a cry or I think like I just coped with it by you just having you guys honestly really like just I'm like man I was so happy with what we were doing and so happy that it was successful and so happy to be on YouTube and staying busy that I was like oh this is if I wasn't doing this I don't I would be in rough shape too at the time because I mean you I mean I always say this but

you are actually the happiest person I know um I do remember uh talking to you about it at the time and I remember you you mentioning to me and you even said this up there at his funeral you said there there's like so much comfort in you know knowing that he is with God now and like just just the faith that your family has and yeah and I think well yeah that honestly is a big part of it too to elaborate it was very like your whole family was I don't know just they they were so calm about it yeah I was like I was like like so that was a big part of it it's kind of just like not i don't know not just being like yeah sending good energy to to you that you know like i'm not saying that's all false but i was just

like no i mean it feels real i guess but it is crazy that we had time to prepare you know right that is a huge part you you were able to like kind of be like accept like this is going to happen because i think shortly after that not to make the story any more dark and and we weren't too close later on in life but me and uh he was my parents were his god parents but uh me and my like childhood best friend shortly after that passed away in a car accident and i was like fucked up from that i was like crying and i was just like well why wasn't i like this with my dad because it was unexpected so there's something to be said there like unexpected death who i remember you told me that you were like almost at a bit of peace because you knew that he was in a better place you're

like he's not suffering anymore and stuff like that right yeah he he was like suffering it was bad so uh positive note of that like right i mean shortly before that like no he passed away in december and in november we went on an elk hunting trip oh man we didn't eat we didn't get an elk but it was like the best it was like the best and he was having a really tough time getting around but like it was like we shot some mule deer and uh if i wouldn't have had that experience with him that would have been really tough but you know just having some closing experience because like you guys know like i don't spend a ton of time with my family i'm bad about that i don't know what it is i love them just the same but so bad about that we're all pretty pretty bad about it but yeah

you mean you you're just busy and again it comes down to like your guys's families all live close by and yours is what 30 25 yeah yeah but makes a little bit longer of a trip no real excuse but yeah do you and uh they live on a gravel road so i'm not trying to get my car dirty do you uh do you have any like advice for someone that like i'm sure that out of i'm sure there's plenty actually of kids that are probably listening this right now that are in a similar situation to you at that time yeah i would say it would circle back around to what i said about having you guys you got to have and if you that's the thing if you don't have good friends then i like i don't know what to wouldn't you say just something to to focus on yeah yeah something to focus on stay busy

yeah for sure that but also like the friend group to me is the most important even if i don't have to like talk about it with you guys just knowing that like like there's so many people i know that like just don't have a friend to call or they're like i hope i you know i hope my friend my one friend is available this weekend so we can hang out. I'm like, it's not like that. Like, I could literally show up at any of your doorsteps at any time. But even five years ago, I could have done that. What about at, like, if they don't have any friends that they feel they can reach out to?

Yeah, then I guess, like, stay busy. And just cherish that, that bit of time that you had before that? Yeah. I mean, it's definitely, it was like, it's okay to cry about it. I cry as much as you want, but don't, you got to, like, move on. And this, that sounds really, really insensitive, but, like, time heals, like, you can't live in despair forever. And that comes to me being, like, a glass half full type of guy, like, it's life, but that, it's a lot deeper than that. But, yeah, you know, like, it, what am I supposed to do?

Right, exactly. Cancer has killed millions of people, right? so it just happened to be in my family luckily like have you guys had any of your grandparents passed away anything like that i've had a whole a lot of my one side of the family has passed away from cancer actually that was my only uh chance my only time with it other than that like i haven't i haven't dealt with that before so in that aspect again i felt really lucky like now that i'm past that and and over and happy now i felt really lucky i was like man i'm glad that that was the only thing I really had to deal with.

I think part of what reason, I mean, just right there, you kind of proved it, you always stay positive, no matter what. I think that's, yeah, the biggest takeaway from whatever we're doing. Yeah, stay positive. Everything would be going wrong. You're like, well, I mean, we still got this, you know, I'd be like, yeah, but we need this. And you're like, but I mean, what are you going to do?

Yeah. You think he'd be proud of what you've done to the Beamer? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, the BMW was your dad's car. Yeah, that was cool. I remember my mom She basically gave it to me I sold my Subi that so I could buy it from her

And then she I paid like five grand And I'm like I'll get you the rest of the money soon And then she's like I'll just give the rest to you And then I'm like I sold my like My boy for this Now you got the real car that you wanted So yeah that was his car

It was like dude it was also funny Like you know I think we are tainted now But like even at the time when my dad got that car Like we were doing C-boys right and he loved that thing for no particular reason besides like cool i got a cool car now and i'm like that this car this car ain't cool it is but uh but now it means a lot more obviously right it's got sentimental value yeah so i'll probably keep that forever forever yeah i think he'd i think you'd be really proud of the car but also everything else you've done i remember that was

the worst part i never got many encounters with him uh where we were out walking with fans like when there was fans but we were at steamer hill which is coming up Labor Day but anyway a bunch of tractors and uh this kid comes up to me asked for a picture and he was just like that guy so he just out of the blue just recognize you and I'm like if only he could see that now or even if you could see that in a different I mean uh I'm like it happens all the time just but at the time it didn't yeah maybe even less yeah so he was dumbfounded by that really yeah he was like they just recognize you I just that's crazy because I think I'm also carrying out kind of my dad was like on the radio he did like a bunch of radio stuff and he was like a car salesman so he definitely was the type of person that wanted like everyone's praise but not you know not in a cocky way but he just loved knowing everybody and so then when he found out I remember when he was like you should you guys should do an ad on the radio I was just like nah this is worldwide but uh same kind of premise he also uh tried to do politics for a little bit yeah you're right he did and you put a fucking

sticker on a turtle, I'm like, what are you doing? Yeah, I don't want to talk about it. I was just putting a bunch of his stickers. This is funny, but so dumb. But I only credit this because I was young. I was like, you probably do it today, too. No, because I know how, I wouldn't make that mistake again because I didn't realize how dumb it was.

But anyway, gives us a bunch of stickers, you know, Paul Sandman for State Representative. We're putting them all over and it's great. And then me and the one shithead friend that I had, put it on a dead turtle like why what a marketing scheme they got that but like it clearly was not thinking

to be fair I see that dead turtle I'm voting for Paul to be fair you were young you were you were 19 years old yeah he was just a little kid he had to give him a break you guys

I just remember that he was just like he literally reamed me out for that he's like you're dumb dude why don't you do that but other than that so did somebody find the turtle and like take a picture of it

or how did you get marked on yeah someone saw didn't even see it. No, no. Someone saw it and then, like, was like, hey, I saw your sticker on this and it was kind of off-putting. Oh. And I was like, how did he know it was you? Because who else was coming up to do that?

Stickers on turtles, dude. I think the funniest part of him running for state representative was we would, we had to be in all of the local little town parades. I was in like 15 parades that summer with him. And I was like, this is so weird. You just roll through main street. of, you know, rink-a-dink town in Minnesota, and then you scoot over the next one, and then scoot over the next one.

Throw out tutsy rolls, dude, super whack. Would you ever use your influence nowadays to follow in his footsteps and carry on the legacy of that? No. I was going to say, who do you think is going to vote for this guy? You don't imagine? But, Mike, you could be like the independent party. No, no, that's what.

He was basically running up against a guy that had been in office for 20 years. Way too long. And he put up a, he got like 33% votes. That's pretty good. Dude, to answer your question, I think a lot of people would vote for Mike because they'd be like, I know him. No, they'd be like, I don't know what this guy's about because he's kind of all over the place

and he doesn't show up to half of the events. But I kind of like it. He seems real. Pretty trusting. If you were going to run, what would your platform be? The Green Party? No. No, I mean, like, what would you stand for?

What would be your big thing? I'll probably be on MySpace. Dude, I don't know. I don't want to... I'm trying to make up something funny so I don't actually, like, tell you how I really feel. But there's a lot of crazy shit going on in this,

and I would probably come bat all that. I don't know, dude. I was a hell of a politician answer, dude. You got a future in this. Yeah, dude, roundabout answer. Nice. I'd probably fix it all. Well, Mike.

I think this was probably our best hot seat episode thus far. That was really good, man. It felt really good, and it was natural. And I really, I appreciate you guys being my friends. We appreciate you being ours and how genuine you are. So don't change. Stay the same, please. Just, I mean, don't change.

Just improve. I mean, still improve, but stay you because we love it. Thank you. So thank you guys so much for watching and listening. hit the subscribe button and we will see you next time