The Way I Heard It with Mike Rowe - 384: Matt Hagan and Chloe Hudson—Freedom Food and Funny Cars

Episode Date: May 7, 2024

Matt is a four-time NHRA Funny Car world champion and first-generation cattle and CBD farmer. Chloe is a mikeroweWORKS work ethic scholarship recipient, an AWS Certified Weld Inspector, and a social media influencer. She also runs social media for Matt Hagan and Tony Stewart. This conversation does not stay in its lane as it veers from the high stakes involved in going 330 mph in four seconds to the tasty steaks that the Hagan Cattle Company produces in Virginia to the political stakes of not keeping your food supply chain in America. 

What we have here, my friends, is another episode of the way I heard it. 380 something, 3.84, I guess it is? 380 something's good. Yeah, sure. We're still under 400, but we're closing in on it. This one's called Freedom Food and Funny Cars. And not even necessarily in that order, but all three of those things definitely come up because our guests are uniquely qualified, I think.

To discuss Freedom, food and Funny Cars, it's Matt Hagen and Chloe Hudson. If their names sound familiar, it's because they've both been on the podcast before. Hudson is what we like to call a micro works rock star. Woohoo. Got one of our early work ethic scholarships became a welder. And then a welder with a capital W. Yeah. And then dare I say an emissary for the trades.

Oh, absolutely. She is a cheerleader for the trades. Yeah, an emissary is good. Ambassador. Ambassador's nice, too. Ambassador, yes. She also handles the social media, among other things, for Matt Hagan. And Tony Stewart now.

Yes. Tony Stewart, I suppose, is more famous than Matt Hagan because Tony's been driving cars real fast for a long, long time. But Matt drives really, really fast. And he's, what is it, three-time world champion? Four. He won last year as well. But just with Tony Stewart, they're like teammates on the, gosh, what is it called? It's the Stewart Race Team, I think.

Yeah, right? Stewart Race Team. And last year, for the last couple of years, Tony's wife was driving the top fuel rail, you know, long skinny cars. And so Leah, Leah Pruitt was driving it for a couple of years. And then I don't know what happened, but I guess Tony said, hey, you know what? Why don't you just take a break and I'll drive that now. I'll do it. Yeah. Don't panic, folks. If you're not up to speed with the world of funny cars and men who like to drive at speeds in excess of 300 miles an hour, 330 miles an hour, this is a passion. And the people who are up to speed on it, follow it with great diligence.

but there's a lot to learn from what it takes to drive a car at those speeds. And as it turns out, this guy Matt is not only really, really good at that, he has a ranch. And he's making some incredible strides in the world. I'm just wondering how to end this sentence. I was going to say the world of steakery. And just in the world of getting really delicious food to your home. I like steakery. Stakeery sounds good to me.

Absolutely. Well, it's actually a funny malaprop there, I guess, because steaks are really the theme of this episode. Mortal steaks and literal tasty steaks. Yes. And so the business of driving fast and the business of growing great food that satisfies our collective addiction to chewing and swallowing things have more in common than you might imagine. Throw in Chloe, who really just showed up as an innocent bystander, but we threw a mic in front of her because she's one. one of our favorites. Yeah.

And you get a little dose of freedom you weren't really expecting to get in this episode. She brings it on. She brings it. I don't care how you vote. Honestly, I don't care what you think about a whole lot of things. There's wisdom in people like Matt and Chloe. And you put them together and the wisdom becomes exponential.

And you put them on an episode of this podcast. And what you get is freedom, food, and funny cars. Right after this. Do do, do, do, do do do do. Dumb. My guest today, Tom Albanyse, is an American giant, and I'll tell you why. Tom understands on a fundamental level that the business of mining is a non-negotiable prerequisite of our civilization and our economic independence, just like the business of making things. American Giant knows this, which is why they committed themselves 16 years ago to make all their excellent clothing right here in this country.

It wasn't easy, but they did it. They sourced locally grown cotton, and they built factories in towns across the nation where they could hire hardworking locals who cared about making a quality product. And then they went about the business of gently reminding people that when you buy a piece of clothing from American giant, you're not just buying a high-quality sweatshirt or T-shirt or another pair of jeans. You're investing in a local supply chain. You're supporting communities from the Carolinas to California. And you're getting a piece of clothing that won't just survive the wash.

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You know, I don't think we need Chloe for this now that I think about it. Okay, it's fair, honestly. You're kidding. There's no way you can't not be in this. Chloe Hudson is with us. Matt Hagan is with us because they're traveling together and it's been a weekend of, what, funny cars and food and hailstorms. Hail storms.

Yeah. Chuck, you were there? I experienced that hailstorm. It was something, yeah. So this was, what was the official name of the race, Matt? So it's Winter Nationals out there in Pomona, California. We race there to Fairplex. So, you know, it's just kind of one of those things where we roll into town, usually in Pomona twice a year.

We used to start there and finish there. A lot of history there, man. I mean, you know, so many champions crown there. So I kind of get good bones. And he was a champion crown there last season. Last season, yeah, we won it all last season. You won it all? She's a great cheerleader.

She's a good hype, man. You know, it's good to have her around. Yeah, but she just. buried it in parentheses here. Let's just go back for a minute. Are you the national champion? World champion. The reigning world champion. Well, I mean, why world? How about galactic? Galactic. I'm into it. Bring the aliens in. I guess we're going to put our full tin hats on, you know. So you guys have both been on this podcast before. And because you were in town and because you were at a race and because Chuck is now

like a big funny car guy, he had to go. And I'm like, well, all it takes is one race and you're a That's a fact. Honestly. Well, look, I've seen it, man. There was, well, John Force. Yeah. So years ago, when I was impersonating a host over at Evening Magazine, we went up to what used to be called Sears Point, which is now, I guess, in Finian, that raceway.

Yeah, that's in Northern California. So you would know anything about the Republican Northern California? What would you do up there? Nothing. But, man, that was the first time I saw cars go from zero to, like, what is it, light speed now, basically? Yeah, yeah. Pretty much. I mean, 330 miles an hour. We're still, we run now to a thousand feet versus a quarter mile, but that's really just more for stopping distance on the cars. Because, you know, these tracks back in the day, man, you know, everybody was still running 200 miles an hour and trying to get there. And now we're over 330 and still same stopping distance. So I've actually re-engineered our parachutes to where we're running a smaller shoot because all last year, every time I'd throw the parachutes, I'd see stars, you know? It's like when you pick up like doing a deadlift and you pick up a heavy weight, you know, that feeling of like, oh, man,

And so I'm like, this can be great for my eyeballs, you know. And actually, we've had a lot of drivers lose their career or stop their career because their retina's detached. And so it's important to really have some input and feedback on like, hey, this is, we can't do this anymore. We have these massive parachutes to help stop us, but sometimes they're too much, you know. And so we finally kind of found a medium, you know, working with Simpson, you know, kind of like an in between of, hey, this is big enough, but this is, you know, not too big to where I'm not seeing stars when I pull the parachutes. And even the hole in the center of the parachute makes it different. In the microphone. Oh, yeah.

If you're going to be interesting. I'm trying to include everyone in the conversation, okay? I mean, we're talking about driving, actually. Although I don't think people who have driven a car really have much of a basis to compare that experience to what you're doing. I mean, like the difference between 60 miles an hour and 300 miles an hour isn't just the mathematical difference, right? Things get exponentially weird. that you're doing in that short amount of time, right? Like, so you can go out to Salt Flats and run three, 400 miles an hour,

500 miles an hour, but you have a couple miles to do that in. And don't get me wrong, I'm sure that's extremely fast and it feels extremely fast. But when you do it in a thousand feet at 330 miles an hour, it feels like a mule kick you in your chest the whole time. And everybody gets out and they're going like, why are you huffing and puffing at top in us? Because I'm 250 pounds. And it's, you know, that time six on my chest, you know, on that run. Because it's a 12G swing.

I told you, dude. You're pulling more Gs. in a funny car, then the Blue Angels are going in a reverse barrel roll. Right. And they do it almost 20 times a weekend. But it's not for the, it's quick. It's a fraction of a little bit of time. Well, and to brag on him, too, something that makes him an exceptional driver above others is he's got a 75% reaction time leaving.

So he's 75% of the time he leaves before the driver in the lane next to him. So that's including when they dump it in and they have their nose of their car in further than his, it doesn't matter. 75% of the time. If that's a batting average, right. Well, that's easy. When they go 3-2-1, all you have to do is take off on two. Exactly. Always beat them.

They always say leave on time, keep it in the groove, and turn the windlight on. Right. But just even further than that, he can tell you what happens to the car at 150 feet. He can tell you when they dropped a cylinder at 300 feet. But that's seat time, right? But that doesn't matter. But it's just, it's astonishing when he can listen to it, not even sitting in the driver's seat and tell you almost exactly what's happened to a car to make it and not go left, right.

It doesn't matter. I mean, there's times where I hear him relay what happened during a run, and they go up to the crew chief lounge, and it overlays exactly, I mean, to the foot of what has happened with him as a driver in that car. So, I mean, that's something that you don't really see with all drivers out there, but it's exceptional, and it's really impressive to me. But that's just honing your craft, right? Mike, I mean, you know that. Like, everything you do, you have to hone your craft, and it's just 10,000 hours. I mean, Gladwell's not right about everything, but he was right about that, right? Yeah, I mean, it's like, pick a thing.

And obsess over it. Yeah. Right. And then obsess some more. And then, you know, hopefully somebody pays you to obsess, right? Because that show I did, somebody's got to do it. That really wasn't about work or vocations. That was about people whose hobbies got a little out of control and who just went to the next level, whether it's like barbershop harmony or square dancing or anything.

Like people can lose their minds really on anything in terms of, and I mean that as a compliment. Disc golf. Disc golf. Yeah. Freak. Right. You'll pick your thing. But your world is so interesting because the poison is money.

Yeah. It's very transactional. And just talk real quick. With dire consequences, too. Well, that's the second thing. Right. Steaks. Right.

So I want to talk about steaks. I want to talk about the stakes you're raising a true harvest that you sent me in the mail. What you're amazing. It's smooth right there. Folks, that's the kind of transvest. You're just not going to hear on other podcasts. You've done this little bit. And we're done.

But not until we're done with the steak stakes. Yes. Because, you know, how's the poem go? We're loving need or won and work is play for mortal stakes. There got to be stakes. You've got to be stakes. So, I mean, I hate to make it dark, but, you know, how often are you reminded? Yeah, you know, obviously we drive a bomb, I guess, you know, and you hope the wick is long enough

to where it doesn't go off before you get to the finish line. But that's, you know, pushing it to the limit every time. You're asking parts and pieces to do things that they're not quite, you know, originally engineered for, and you're modifying them as you go, you know, different things like that. And we have a set of rules that we have to stay in. But, you know, as a crew chief and watching those guys work and stuff, they obviously push it to the limit, you know. And it's kind of like. 30-minute turnaround time.

Yeah, you find a new part or piece that works better and you back it up and to try it. And then you go, oh, we can push it even harder and push it even harder until that part fails. Until it breaks. And then it blows up and, you know, and you're the guy behind the wheel that it blows up on. Are you using it like a trans brake? No, there's no shifting. It's just you basically, you're grabbing a brake pedal and there's a fuel pedal in there and stab the fuel let go of the brake and you're steering.

And basically it would be so hard for your mind to, you know, to see a shift light and to, you know, comprehend that you're trying to just keep this nose and the, they call it the groove. And so basically you have this lane that you're in, but there's rubber that everybody kind of tries to run down the middle of the track. And that's what we call the groove, you know, the dark part of the racetrack. And that's where the best rubber's at. and you're just trying to keep the nose of that car in that groove as you're going down through there. And then you have clutchware, which looks like a sandstorm coming up in front of you while you're driving this car.

Because applying power to the racetrack, 12,000 horsepower, 80,000 foot pounds of torque, you can't apply it directly to the track. Right. So you have to have this clutch, which we run a six-disc clutch that basically is eating all this clutch dis up to allow the tire to slip enough to where we can apply some of that power to the track. So never running out of power. Everybody goes like, oh, my gosh, you're so big. like how do they get you down through there? We don't utilize all the power we have. 11,000 horsepower. Jesus. It's a controlled spin through there.

So applying power is really where it's at. It's not so matter how big you are or what you got. It's just getting that clutch application right to the power that you have to the track and conditions in front of you. And like kind of a visual representation too. So four of his cars on the line, they do four wides in Vegas and Charlotte. And so four funny cars on the line is more horsepower than the entire field of NASCAR. So every vehicle included in a NASCAR field.

So when four funny cars line up on a starting line, there's more horsepower on that starting line than an entire field a NASCAR. But that's not funny. Why do they call them funny cars? Well, back in the day, they tucked the wheels up underneath of them, and then they got that looks funny, and then kind of the name stuck, and one thing led to another, and then you have these cars where the body lifts up, and then the roof hat you come out of the top of it, and you guys used to bell out the side of the windows.

You'd be a real man to be in a funny car. Well, back in the day, not now. Back in the day, these boys, like, because the fire containment was so bad, when you drove a funny car, I have so much respect for force and those guys and snake and, you know, mongoose and guys back then, man, I mean, they weren't running the mile and hour we were running, but every time you crawled in one of those things, you had an opportunity to lose your life. Because then you see the shaft. It used to be open. Yeah, well, even my, yeah, well. So, unfortunately. Yeah.

And you see the drive shaft. Yes. moving at the speed stop. They finally gave me a carbon cover, you know, it makes it me feel better about it because I can't see it. It's a piece of carbon over top of it. But back then the stakes were higher, I think, because fire containment wasn't as good. You know, you didn't have as great of fire bottles and suppression and different things. And when those things were on fire, they were on fire.

And so you knew that going in, getting in that car. It's like those guys and the protection that they had wasn't as good, you know. So with the top fuel dragsters, the engine's behind. So, like, he's just a total. totally different set of circumstances. So unfortunately, there's been a lot of guys come up through that's had some really hard knocks along the way, and we've innovated and brought up the safety standards to where I feel like they're very safe, you know, now to drive, you know.

Relative. Right. Like, you don't know some days what side of bravery or stupidity you're on, but you hope you're on the bravery side a lot of times. But it's just, and there's some things that I don't agree with with our rules and different things like that. As a driver, I feel like, you know, like they tie our bodies down to make sure that they that they don't blow up and go in the grandstand.

But when you tie that much energy down, you know, take a firecracker and put it in your hands, you know, open your hand up, it burn you pretty good. You close your hand and knock your fingers off, right? Same principle with us, you know, we're now, because in the years past, we've had these bodies go 50 feet in the air, and, you know, one or two of them in the past

have fallen over in the stands. I think one, honestly. What you say, are you talking, human bodies? No, no, no. The body of the vehicle. Right, okay. Just sitting our body. No, there are a lot of people listening.

Yes, right, right. No, seriously. Let's just back up a minute. Because I watched NASCAR on TV for years and thought I basically understood as a bunch of left turns and some guys and, you know, somebody's going to win and everybody's got an advertisement wrapped around. I get it. And then I went to one.

Oh, it's totally different. It was like the first hockey game I ever went to. Right. Like some sports, like football, football, you can watch it. Like, football was made for TV. Yeah. Right? You watch it.

In fact, it's better. On TV. Football's better on TV than it is, even if you got a skybox at the 15th. yard line. But you can't understand a funny car situation unless you really go. And so I guess I'm asking you to talk a little bit to go back about that reaction time being 75% on the right side of good, right? Like what's going on in your brainstem when you're watching that Christmas tree tick down? Yeah. That's not going on to the same degree to the guy to your left or right. And what to what degree, like how can you articulate the focus that's necessary?

to do that. And does it have anything to do with the fact that, you know, for a long time, Tiger was making putts that people just couldn't believe. Yeah. Well, so I think it comes down to just turning a lot of that stuff off, right? Like, so you have to be in this zone when you take that adrenaline and you channel it into something that's a positive. I mean, I've been racing against guys that they're puking in a trash can because they've got

the world championship on the line and they can't hack it. And you're going like, hey, buddy, it's going to be all right, you know. Let's pick you up here and wipe you off and put you back in the car. going to be all right. It might be all right. And again, that might be the most justified puk you ever did. I think it's just channeling, you know, everybody, every athlete has that zone that they all talk about, you know, that they want to get in and try to live in when they're playing the sport. And it really is a true thing. I really do believe that, you know, you take me, you know, when I'm at the race, you can do, come up and we can sign autographs,

we can chat, you know, and you can sit in my lap if you needed to, you know, and it doesn't matter to me. But once I get in that car and I pull down tight, it's kind of like I turn everything else, off and I start focusing about what I have in front of me and what I have in hand. Have you left your body before? I don't know about leaving my body, but I've definitely got it to be where it's so slow mo that you're hearing each cylinder fire and you're hearing the clutch come to it. You know where you're at on the track. And it's just like it's become so slow that your processing information that it seems

like it would take, you know, minutes and it's taking seconds, you know what I mean? And it's just kind of, it all comes together and it's just like it's meant to be. It's supposed to happen this way. And I've already kind of in my mind, I already seen it. And I talk to myself a lot before I make the run. I tell myself what I want to happen. I'm going to leave on time. I'm going to be the best lever.

You know, a lot of positive reinforcement and stuff like that. And you just close your eyes and you play it back in your head before it even happens. And, you know, you go up there and do the things you need to. And I've been able to win four championships, you know. So it's like, I guess, let me brag a little bit, I guess. It puts me in a league group with only three other drivers in the history of the sport, you know? So, um, force, um, Kenny Bernstein and Don the Snake Brum and me.

So there's... Wait a minute. You see you got Don the Snake. You got John Force. Who's the middle guy? Kenny Bernstein. I mean, that's just funny. I'm Kenny Bernstein.

Get there with the snake and the force. And the bulk. And the bulk. Yeah. But, you know, I mean, it's so it's definitely whatever you're doing, keep doing it kind of thing, right? If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Well, and a note to add to that,

force is the only other driver in that group that's still driving. So the other two aren't. So he has an opportunity to even edge out some of those guys. Yeah, if we win one more championship, we could edge two of them out. Can I just say something about Force, too? When I was there on Sunday, as we were walking in, Force was on like a little moped just driving through the whole thing. Just, well, it's going on the whole time.

If he took that fire suit off, it'd stand up on his own. How fast was that moped going? I've seen him walk out on that thing before, man. Yeah, he's on it all the time. But no, there is a zone. I feel like, you know, and you have to find that as an athlete and figure that out. No different than singing or her welding. I'm sure when she's welding, you get in this zone of what you're doing and it becomes like it's a natural thing, but you're just, you're reacting.

And I'll definitely think about leaving the start line, but I never think about driving the car because it becomes natural to me, you know, driving the car because you're in that zone and things are happening and you're just making these decisions. And then it's $7,000 every time we make a run if we don't hurt anything. That's just, part of course and pieces, right? Yeah. So it's important to learn from that, to grow as a driver. to grow as an individual. You know what I mean? I've had races I've lost and I've, you know, back, my first championship that I lost,

you know, was to Force. And, you know, a second year trying to learn to drive a race car, still learning to drive the car. And all I had to do is show up and go two rounds and force had to win the race. And I lost first round and he won the race. And they wanted to stick a camera in my face. And I just kind of was like, get out of my face with a camera, let me have my own time and learn not to do that.

You know, that's not a good look, you know what I mean? And so I grew as a man. I grew as a driver. I grew as an individual. You know, you stand up there. You think at people that you need to think. And, you know, then you go back and find a place you can cry in the shower where nobody sees you. You know what I mean?

It's just, you know, that kind of thing. But you have to go through those things to grow, you know. I love stories like this. Seven years ago, a guy named Ben Still was a musician. He had zero interest in running a food company. But he was annoyed that so much imported meat was. being deceptively marketed and labeled as domestic and decided to fix the problem. The result was a company called Good Ranchers.

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Good ranchers.com. American meat delivered. If you could eat a stare, if you could eat a cow, don't take a chance on a foreign rancher. Get good ranchers now. Hey-ha. Well, I think, too, what's interesting about all of this is you're in a world that's intensely familiar to the people who are interested in it and intensely baffling to people who aren't.

Now, you, Chloe, you're a welder by trade. Yes. But I've come to know you, and I think you're a bit more than that. Not that being a welder isn't enough in and of itself, but part of your job is to articulate the weirdness of his passion, both in social media. Right. So you're basically his communications department. Thank God, because he can't spill worth of nothing.

Can't read. You can't get it. Don't give me a script. We're trying to do trivia this weekend with one of our sponsors, and I couldn't read half this. I was like, I should have pre-read this. It's right. It's bad before we were on camera. Yeah.

And so the challenge, I see it everywhere I look now, because you're only really as effective as your communication. It doesn't matter what you're doing. I don't care if you're golfing or playing chess. Right. We're just writing books or driving fast. you have to make a persuasive case for why anybody should give a damn. Right.

So that's your job. They make it tremendously easy for me. I mean, not only is a good looking, best looking driver out there, you know, him and his group that he surrounds himself with, it's family. I mean, very seldom do you see a group of guys because there's such a demand for mechanics and people who specialize out there that it is such a competitive market. You know, these guys are taking more money over here, you know, more perks over here. and him as a driver and Tony Stewart Racing as an entity have created an environment where these guys have stayed with him. He's had guys with him for 10 years, which is kind of unheard of there. Not just one. He's had a few. So it really speaks to the work environment and the trust that they have in creating a car for a driver that's going to win. Because they have a lot more at stake as far as, you know, they get a bonus. So they want to be with a driver that they feel like they can trust 100%. And, you know, I've

heard the conversations where they didn't know I was sitting in the car. And they trust him implicitly. They never question the job that he does on the starting line and the ability for him to get down it. Well, and the stuff that she's doing on the social media side of things and Instagram. It's just the, I get to have the funsies part. Tony was like, I want my page to look like that. So Tony hired her this year to do his page as well, you know. So I mean, this is a guy he's already got a little sour. He's like, oh man, why's mine looking like that? He definitely he's like, man, I got to get my page looking like that too. So you're right. I mean, people do pay attention. They do like you're, that's the outreach to everyone that's not out of racetrack

that weekend, you know. Yeah, because the TV is not going to do it. It's not enough. Yeah. It's not enough to just watch it through that screen. Well, and I started as a consumer of motor sports, not as someone who is passionate about motor sports. Okay, like I come from a welding background. So I was much more, look, ask me about nuclear power plants, asked me about hydroelectric energy, you know, ask me about what the industrial sector looks like right now. And I could talk I could talk your ear off about it because it was something I was very passionate about. But motorsports was kind of an offshoot of aerospace. It was something that I got to really take in as a consumer.

So whenever I was given the responsibility of social media, I look at it is how can I entertain the person who's not going to buy a ticket? How can I make that person buy a ticket? How can I make the guy's girlfriend be like, hey, this is neat? Let's go. It's not just rubber and nitro burning your eyelashes off, which has been. and they're done that. If your eye, let's just catch you on fire, kiddo. That's a five alarm.

It's fully involved. Forest fire. Running for your lives. I know. It's bad news. The luxury of his sport is every ticket is a pit pass. So, you know, you get to shake his hand. You get to see his guys get in there and do a 34-minute turnaround between rounds.

I mean, you can feel the clutch. If you are standing in the wrong spot, you were getting covered in clutch dust after a round. You know, and when we have people who are sponsors to come on and they get to, to be on that starting line. You are the closest to feeling like your heart's going to fall out of your butt if anything else that you can experience. And, I mean, they do it 20 times a weekend. So it's something that is very easy to become passionate about.

I mean, of course, Chuck, you get it now. I totally get it, man. I mean, there's just something about it. It makes you want to rearrange your schedule so you can go hang out for a day. You can see the sound. That's the weirdest thing is that you can see the sound. The shock waves here. It's so loud and it hits you in the chest.

That's real. My buddy Hector was there, and he could not believe it. He was like, did you feel that? I'm like, yeah, man, that's why we're here. That's why we have a hard time competing with football and NFL and TV because, you know, we can't make our TV shake and fall on the floor. It's just century overload when you're there at a racetrack, but you have to go, right? So you have to take that Saturday that you would be doing something else with your, you know,

your family or friends or something and bring them to the racetrack with you, you know. And it's so transferable. So like Constance Nunea, she's a really good friend of mine, teeny tiny, beautiful girl. She's obsessed with it. She loves it. And then you have, you know, guys like the W.W.E. Adam Braun-Stroman guy who came out to the race. And now he's obsessed with it. Yeah. Huge. I mean, Viking Nordic feller. Like, you don't want to ask about his history because you probably took your parents. It's like, sacrifice to the guy. But it's like the two total opposite into the spectrum. And they both love it. They're both obsessed. When can we get another

ticket? Like every single time we're in town, they're there. And so it just really speaks volumes to, nothing makes me happier than when you go out there and you see, you know, somebody's granddad and they've got, you know, a two-year-old with earphones on the fence. Because you're like, that's the next generation. Like, that's the generation of somebody who's going to be so wildly impressed that they have junior dragsters. Like, not only do you have the celebrity of what Tony is and what Matt is, they have junior dragsters at some of these races.

So you get to see the really scaled down version and it's a kid driving, you know, it's an eight-year-old. Speaking of kids, Mike, you know, we have this CAP program where we work with Mopar and we work with Dodge. What's a stand for? Cap, it's, gosh, it's, gosh, you really. And you're in autumn of the programs. I love this, by the way.

So basically, you know, we take these kids that are in a cap program, which is a college that Dodge and Mopar offers, and then we bring them out to the racetrack, and we place them with dealers, you know, with trying to figure out how to make these kids in a master text where they make $150,000, $200 a year. I know, Coletta is currently, I mean, they have a now hiring sticker on their car. Come to work kind of stuff, you know. Yeah, like they're, Coletta Air. I mean, they need people.

We're going to do eight races this year starting in Phoenix, this next race coming up. with the CAP program with Mopar and getting there early in the morning and talking to these kids and then placing them with dealers and franchises and dealerships and service directors that, you know, they walk from one stage to the next, you know what I mean? It's just, it's an awesome thing. You know, I have three guys on my car that have come out of the Western Tech program, and we've also had kids come from the Wild Tech program and different things like that. And it's unbelievable how, you know, they just walk up and hand us a resume, and my crew chief's like,

they want two championships. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. come wash parts for a minute and then once you figure out the routine, we'll place you, you know what I mean?

So how acute is the shortage right now for mechanics in your world? It's hard to find. I mean, we can't find guys. We've been trying to hire a couple guys already, and it's just you can't find them. I've done three or four interviews and different things like that, you know, and just within the last couple week time span and can't get people to show up, can't get nobody on the scene. Guys that say that they're going to be there for an interview, don't, they flake out.

I mean, it's impossible. So sometimes you're dealing with some of these guys that you probably don't want to. but you have to because they're showing up and working, you know. And the need is massive. And so no different than my dad's dealerships, right? Like, so we have 11 new franchises. He's the biggest probably owned used car dealer in the state of Virginia. Your dad is?

Shealer Motor Mile, yes, sir. And we cannot find MasterTex. I mean, like, we're giving them tools. I mean, we're doing whatever it takes, you know, like come to work, you know. So the opportunity is, $240,000 a year. These master techs can pick up the phone and go anywhere in the country they want to go. Snap on toolbox. If they don't show up.

one day. It's not like we can get the guy that's changing oil to come over here and do his job for him. They make their own schedule. They pretty much demand their own pay. And you're going to school for two years to do that. You know what I mean? Is it a skill gap? Is it a will gap? Is it a It's a, I mean, okay, in the industry that I'm in, I've seen it across the board. You know, a huge thing is manufacturing. We need to stop treating people as expendable. When you have somebody who is working for you, who does a great job. If it's somebody who's been with you for 25 years and they ask for a pay bump,

well, I mean, I got news for you. This guy knows where every fire hose spicket and turn off valve and wherever, he knows your building because he was there when it was built. And to let some of these guys retire with that wealth of knowledge that they are harboring is insane.

Just because you don't think that, well, this guy doesn't have a college degree and he isn't in sales and he isn't, just because it doesn't work within the confines of what you think deserves X amount, well, his experience demands X amount because now he can go and have a privately owned company doing electrician work on the side and make more. And here he was giving you an opportunity to hold on to him. And this is the person that you need training your next generation of electricians.

And so I think that's a massive thing, too, that nobody ever talks about. There's a massive skills gap because we're losing the foundation of the people who are going to pass on that knowledge and skills. Look, I went to school for two years. I learned so much. But there is nothing. thing I learned more than being hands-on and finding the grumpy old cromagin man who has been doing it for 40 years. And it's like, that's the kind of person you want to work with. Because you know what, Ted, who is a Millwright at Bear Swamp, Hydroelectric Unit Plan, taught me so much about honing stones and how to figure out which gas gets to use whenever you're... Let me ask you something. Did he come to you and say, hey, Chloe, I've got some knowledge and I'd like to go ahead and share it with you.

Or were you a jagged little pill who was up in his grill every day? thing is, is like, people forget you have to be all in. You have to prove your worth. Look, this shit's hard for everybody. Okay, there's not, when you're a bottom in guy on his car, that's hard. That's what you should come try. I feel bad for the maids that clean the room at night, you know what I mean? Between the clutch dust and the hell. He had goggles on this weekend with taroffs. It's awful. Yeah, it's tough. The thing that I've noticed is losing the people who are passionate about this. And, and, you know, companies holding on to the people who have the very knowledge that these people coming in are passionate about that, want to pull out of them. Any job that I would

take, it'd take me about two or three weeks, a couple dirty jokes that could get me in trouble with HR before somebody would really commit to me being a part of what they do, which is fine. I'm okay with being the green person. Look, I will work my ass off until you trust me next to you. And even then it's like you have to ask the questions. I exchanged Millwright knowledge from him because it was so important for what we were doing. And I taught him how to Tig Weld. You know, so during lunch, I actually have a video of me getting to teach him something that I knew that he didn't. And this is why, quick sidebar, your respective industries were in such stark contrast to the lockdown mentality.

You can't lock down. No. the kind of things that you do. It just made me think of it when you talk about the accidental serendipitous transfer of knowledge during an unplanned lunch. Yeah. That can't happen in a world where there's no lunch. Right.

That can't happen in a world where, you know, let's keep the old guys over here and the young ones over here and everybody getting your silo. Everything needs to be smashed together. Right. Right? I mean, how did you learn to drive? How did you learn most of what you know? I'm an older driver, you know, I mean, basically a guy, Tim Wilkerson was one of the first guys I

I ever drove for it. I thought I was doing a great job and he came back and he was like, don't ever drive like that again, you know what I mean? He's like, you're going to wreck this thing. I was like, I'm doing great, man, I got it to the other end, you know, I don't know, I wasn't on fire. Okay, well, he left out, and look, he left out the part of the story. Yeah, it was doing great. He fogged up his mask and you couldn't see nothing. Yeah, I was breathing so hard, I couldn't see anything. But, uh, that's called the Matt Hagan Barre. I wasn't on fire. He was good. We all won that one. Yeah. So, you know, it's like they got four fire suits in my locker. Ain't used but one this weekend. We're doing good. You know. But no, I mean, honestly, yeah, it's just, you know, having to get in there and having to ask the questions and, you know, feeling like, hey, this is a stupid question, but I'm going to ask it anyway because I'd much rather learn from someone that's already been through it than me be on fire and go through it myself, you know? So it's nice when your environment doesn't permit boredom.

Oh, yeah. Right? And if you've been in nuclear power plants, you've been under all kinds of sports. You've been under all kinds of sports. 40 situations. Obviously, you're approaching the speed of sound. We like to think that. You can't knot off when you can see the concussive sound waves in the air. Sure. Right. So I think you guys have an advantage in that way, right? And you always know how you're doing in the business of welding. Oh, it's a meritocracy. It has a total meritocracy. And I love that. And all you have to do is look around and you can grade yourself. You don't even have to come in. I mean, look, Genitalia does not determine the outcome of my weld. I prefer not to use the words welding and genitalia.

You know, me neither. It doesn't sound safe at all. Meld, fine. Weld, yeah. Oh, man. That is the beauty of a lot of things in life. It's like it's a, well, if it really boils down to it, it's a meritocracy. You either can or you cannot.

You either do or you don't. And it was one of the things that me growing up, you know, my dad raised me with my two younger brothers. The idea that I would go in. to something and that would be what someone questioned my skills for. Kudos to my dad, because he created a world for me where that's not even a possibility. That surely isn't what they would judge me is the way that I look whenever I walked through the door unless they were going to tell me I looked nice for the day, you know, because that was

just... Not allowed to do that anymore. Right, but that's exactly it. Even there was a guy who did mufflers, he had a muffler shop, Chalmy Glenn. And even he had a conversation when he found out this is what I wanted to do for a living. And he said, don't let this industry change you. You don't have to have a chip on your shoulder. Look, you don't have to go in there and be a man.

You don't have to go, don't change who you are. Just do what you do. You're not a weld her. I'm not a weld her. I'm not a, I mean, I'm just, that's exhausting. Like, dude, I clock in with everyone else. I clock in, I want to earn my money the same way everyone else does. Look, we've already chosen a hard profession.

Why are we infighting? Why are we creating this? Even men against men, well, you're not a pipe welder or so you're not a real welder. Or you weld a part at a table. your tabletop parts. Well, isn't that the goal? Like, it's just like, how about let's praise people for doing it. For working nowadays.

Like, let's praise people for going out there and showing up and putting in, well, and you know, I also call it the misery Olympics. I feel like in trades, there's something that's the misery Olympics. And it's like, oh, I'm exhausted. Well, I got three hours. Just like, well, I got an hour and a half asleep last night. Well, I worked 27 hours in two days. It's just, it's like, we have got to stop with it.

It's like, dude, if you want to be miserable and you're in. your identity is what you do for a living. You win. Gold medal. Hooray. Hooray, you're exhausted. I felt such a victim to that. You know, when I first started a nuclear, there is not a day I wouldn't work.

I think that the first vacation I went on where it was more than three days in a row was when I was 27. Okay, I'd never been on vacation. I'd never seen the beach because I was so enthralled in that misery Olympics of who can work the most hours and who can travel the most and where can I go and where can I be. And it's like, what do you got to show for it? a nice truck. I had a great truck. I had beautiful tools. I had everything that you could think of. But it was like there's a balance that has to be struck. And I think that the older guys, you know, telling you you're not worth anything because you didn't work 150 hours in one week. And the new guys that want to work 20 hours a week, it's like, we got to find some sort of happy medium here

where it's like the job still gets done. Is it weird to love people but disarm? Is it weird to love people but discharacter? spies human resources. If so, well, color me weird. It's not to say I don't respect the millions of people who work in HR departments and companies all over the country. I do. It's just that I don't envy him. That's why MicroWorks doesn't have an HR department for better or worse. And it's also why I use ZipRecruiter whenever we need to expand. ZipRecruiter has proven themselves a million times over by helping countless employers get through the hiring process faster and more effectively than ever before. And now they have a new feature that instantly shows you the most interested,

the most passionate, and the most qualified candidates first. This is a huge time saver, hours and hours of save time. And it helps people like me find the people who can function in a non-traditional work environment like MicroWorks. In other words, ZipRecruiter works for me. and they'll probably work for you too. Post a job for free at ziprecruiter.com slash row. And watch what happens. Odds are you'll find a human resource

that just happens to be a great fit for your company in 24 hours or less. ZipRecruiter.com slash row. ZipRecruiter.com slash row. The smartest way to hire. Well, look, you're talking about balance, and that's one of the reasons I wanted you both. not because most of the people listening to this

have an inherent connection to going 330 miles an hour. They don't know. And most of them have never been in a nuclear reactor before. But they all chew and they all swallow. Right. And I want to circle back to nuclear too, by the way, because there's an energy beat. I believe it's pronounced nuclear.

Nuclear. Nuclear. How long we've been talking, by the way, Chuck. I'm going to do better today. Oh, I appreciate that, man. I have to do a little math. But it's about 40 minutes. Okay, great. So we got about 20 minutes or so.

Pivoting to the other steak. All right. The one thing everybody listening to this can relate to is they share my addiction to chewing and swallowing things. You have a farm on top of this ranch. True harvest. We talked about it last time. You sent me a bag of meat, dude. I mean, it's what was it called?

The Cattleman's cut or something? Yeah, I believe. So we have a couple different packages on the website with Hagen Cattle Company. But I'm just digging in. I had the top sirloin. It was the leanest top sirloin I've had. I was surprised. I want to ask you about it. I had the filet. It was one of the best filets I've ever had. That's great. Great to hear. I can't wait to get into all of it. But how's it going? What's it like to be up to your neck in two different kinds of stakes? Right. Yeah. You know, obviously there's always stakes at line, you know, as far as building a company and

growing a company and then obviously the stakes that we have at risk on winning championships and not being on fire. But they do relate to each other for me because it allows me to turn this adrenaline-driven, wild, you know, 330 miles an hour off and get back to the farm. Yeah, it's a 7-mile-an-hour tractor. Yeah, just let me decompress. But I love that about that. You know, but the steak side of things, the cattle company, you know, is doing great. Obviously, I'm trading a lot of cattle. We're buying and selling a lot of cattle.

You know, obviously the economy is really tough right now. And I'm kind of acting like some bank for some of these farmers without charging interest and different things like that. And making money like that, you know, just kind of sticking my money. neck out for some of these other farmers and stuff like that as well. And the industry is we're at the lowest point that we've ever been since the 60s as far as the cattle herd in America. And it's sad to see these small farms going away. 140,000 farms are gone in the last five years, you know, in our country. 140,000.

What kind of farms, small farms, you know, anything that's 50 cows or less, you know what I mean, they're gone. You know, they can't do it. You know, the overhead's too much, fertilizer too much, feed too much, fencing, you know, just everything, taxation, the government's involved too much. You know, just everything, you know, and it's just, it's tough, you know, and you see that we're getting, we're importing more and more and more beef. I want to understand better because this is something I guarantee most Americans just don't have a clue about. Yeah. When is USDA, not USDA? Well, you know, so I guess the whole thing that they're trying to make it look like U.S. beef is they're importing these beef. They kill the cattle here, then they package it and put a USDA sticker on it and basically say it's a product of the U.S.

and they can sell beef from Australia, beef from Brazil, you know, Switzerland. And it's not our beef, you know, we're not eating U.S. beef because our cattle herd is so low right now. You don't know what antibiotics they've been pumped away. Yeah, and it's just, you know, cattle chains five or six times before they ever hit your table in the grocery store. You know, with us, you know, we farm-raised, you know, no antibiotics, no steroids. And we're actually looking into opening up a, I guess, a bad name for us, kill facility or a slaughterhouse. I don't know how you make it sound good. Yeah, I mean, it is what it is.

It is what it is. It is what it is. It's a reality of it. We want to do start to finish, man. I mean, it's going to be millions of dollars for us to do it, and there's some grant money out there to help with it. But I want to be a turnkey operation to where I can say, hey, you can go out here and pick your beef out that you want. And you'll see it start to finish all the way to your freezer, you know. And that's – but I still want to have that still small farm feel to it. You know, I don't want to be, you know, this massive company. I want to still have that, hey, look, you have what you're getting, you know what you eat.

And you're proud to put that on the table and eat it with your family at night, you know. And you know that it's something good for you. You can taste a difference. You know, for us, we're still a very, very small company. I mean, I got a couple of employees back home that help on the farm and help with packaging and the whole meat side of things. And same with the CBD, you know, I mean, we're still very small company. But you want to make money and to grow and to help support other people and jobs and stuff. But you also don't want it to get too big either, you know?

It's like, how do you tell somebody that you don't have aspirations, to be, you know, a millionaire. Like, why is that something that people don't believe? Even people who ask me, like, well, why don't you start your own company? It's like, you're allowed to not want to be a millionaire. Like, you're allowed to just want to have comfort in life. And I think that that's something that they're really doing a good job of trying to accomplish, where it's not like just chasing the cheapest way to make the biggest dollar.

Right. And they have so much of that nowadays. You know, we don't have this whole slime and meat and everything else. I mean, we're just not doing that stuff to make it cheaper to push it forward. And so I think. that for us, it's just really, I can be proud when I send something out to somebody and say, hey, look, this is homegrown, this is what you got, you know, and it's not changed hands five or six times. And I got three freezers full at home that I'm eating the same stuff you're eating.

You know what I mean? And it's just, you know. It's great. It's terrific. I think it's a big world. It's hungry planet. I would just like to see everything on the table. And I would like to see some real honesty in the marketing and advertising of it. And I remember looking at a at the tongue in a pair of old boots that I had, not the Wolverines I'm wearing now, which I love, but a pair of old boots that said, assembled in the USA from parts imported from Malaysia and Tibet or something, right? And it's like, so the whole idea that they had to dedicate that much language to a tag where they could create an impression that there was some level of domesticity that you're still buying America.

Exactly. Right. It's like that, that to me is tragic. Well, like, we've already lost the battle. Right. You know, of course it's not made it. Like, if we're, by the way, how do they get here? Do they put on container ships, the cattle from Brazil, from?

I guess they're shipping a lot of cattle over, you know, by boat, you know, different things like that. So it's just kind of. You think they're feeding them on the boat? You think that they're keeping them, you know. And what are they feeding them on the boat? Right. You know, and so they get here. And then that's when the USDA says, okay, if you slaughter it here and package it here,

It gets the staff and this USB. And the United States have cornered ourselves so far. We have pigeonholed ourselves so far in the opposite direction. We don't even have the equipment to do things here in states. You know, it's like a perfect company that I really look up to is origin. They do everything. One of their facilities is in North Carolina. You know, North Carolina, where I'm from, what used to be textile mills.

We let go of all of that. American Giants down there too. And I mean, all of that stuff, you know, and people don't want to pay the cost of what it means to have something American made. Well, you forget that, you know, the $7 shirt that you get off of some website could be made in America, but because you don't want to pay $50 for something, all of a sudden this consumerism is just so upside down. Like, we don't value the things that requires things to actually be American made. But then it's like those same, very same people will pass judgment when you want to represent a company and they might have a caster that's

built in China, but everything else was made in the United States. And it's just that's something I can kind of get on a soapbox with sometimes because it's like, well, we also sell our steel to China to buy back our steel from China pressed into a different product. Why can't we do that here? I mean, it's like you simplify things and it's like, okay, well, import tax, export tax, all of those things that, you know, you cry about immigration and all of this, but you're not dumping the resources to where they need to be to help your backyard. And it's like, well, could we feed everybody in the United States? Well, we could if we stop sending out aid to every other country that doesn't support the United States. What about making gardens and places so that you do have food available? What about volunteer systems that, you know, there's so many people out here who will get their hand dirty and volunteer to help.

Why does that justify somebody to have a government position that's $300,000 that doesn't incentivize you to actually fix the problem? Careful there, Chloe. Your slip show. Sorry, I'm going to start sweating in a second. No, look, I get it. It's kind of what I meant, Matt, when I said, I just want everything on the, table. You know, Byard Winthrop from American Giant has been on this podcast. And I know Pete Robert up at origin and Jock. And you're right, to make a pair of jeans in this country is incredibly

difficult. And part of their bitch is, look, we treat our workers well and we pay them fairly. And we have factories that actually comply with every OSHA standard and every EPA standard. And so we play ball. You know, we're doing it right. They're not. Over there, they're not beholden to any of those things that drive the cost up. So why then are we competing in such a playing field that's so profoundly uneven? And that's a really important conversation to have with textiles, everything from textiles to toothpicks. Everything.

Everything. But it goes next level with you. Yeah. The stakes go up with steak. Yeah, absolutely. We're not trying to be the cheapest either. I mean, you're not going to find us and you go on there and you say, hey, well, we can compete with this and that. I mean, selling our burger, it's hard to get rid of all of our burger because, you know, a lot of the cattle that we process, everybody wants the stakes.

There's no problem selling steaks, but you got to find a place for your burger to go. And then when I go to a food city or a Kroger or a food line and try to offer our ground beef to them, they were going like, well, we got it down here so low and you guys can't compete. And so it creates this really challenging market to be in. And you're not going to be able to offer the lowest, but you have quality beef that you know where it's coming from. And, you know, when that mom goes into a grocery store and she says, hey, I want to buy something that's a little better for my kids and I know what I'm getting. They pay that little extra.

But you're also going to have that other side of it to where people are just looking at the bottom dollars. So it's just like everything. And you said from toothpicks to toothpaste to beef, you know what I mean? Yeah. You can't. It's very hard to say, one thing that everybody should hear. Right.

Especially when you're behind a mic or looking at a camera. Because I don't know who's looking back. And, you know, I'll never forget, man. I was trying to get, I had a dirty jobs cleaning product for a while. And it was good. I mean, it was about the most effective cleaning product I'd seen. And I got a Walmart. I don't know.

You got some more stored away somewhere. But you know what? I do. But we don't make it anymore. And it's complicated as to why. But the meeting I'll never forget was with one of the, I think it was. as a CEO at a dollar store. And we were sitting down and trying to explain the cost of the thing and why it costs a little

bit more. And part of it was me, right? Because I'm attached to it. I'd like to make some money. And everybody had their agenda. And he said, look, let me just tell you my world. In my world, every single day, as we're talking right now, there's somebody in line waiting to check out from one of my stores and they've got their basket full of stuff.

And right now, as we speak, they're being told by one of my cashiers, what the basketful of stuff costs, and they don't have enough money. So they're going through a calculus right now to decide what to put back in order to leave what the stuff they absolutely positively need. He said that happens a thousand times a day

all over the country and all of our stores. Those are the people who shop here. They're the people who have to decide what they're going to put back at the last minute. So when I look at your product, I have to decide, are they going to grab that and put it back because it feels indulgent because it's got Mikero's face on it,

or are they going to put back the eggs? Bye-bye, micro. This is why socialism doesn't work. Easy. So much for the slip. Easy. So much for the slip. Hey, look.

No, we're probably going to cut it into the open because it's why you're one of our favorite former scholarship recipients. I like the way you think. I like your view of the world. That's not a secret. But our world's changing, Matt. It's changing right in front of us. And it's changing.

every day. This thing is airing whenever it airs, Chuck. But this morning in real time, I woke up to learn the key bridge that I grew up with, sailed under a hundred times, drove over a thousand times, gone. And what's that going to do? There's probably a bunch of cows on a container ship right now. So everything is connected or disconnected by bridges that are there or suddenly aren't. And we're just trying to make sense of every single thing, from food to funny cars, man. And it's tough for people. We're in a tough environment and a tough, tough economy, you know what I mean? Like, you know, where interest rate is extremely high, inflation is extremely high, and everybody's looking at everything under a microscope, you know? So, I mean, how do you as a, putting a product

out there, make that person not put that product back or want to buy your stuff over top of something that's cheaper? And I'll just say, you know, it comes down to values, you know, and what we do with our children and what we do with these upcoming kids now that, you know, you got to put some value in them and understand, like, we're going to pay a little bit more, but this is why it's going to last longer. Or even the motivation behind the creation of a product, like the motivation for him to create CBD oil. CBD oil is because I lost my brother in opioids, right?

You know, so that gave me, it was a driving factor of why we can help people without something that's super addictive or addictive at all. Anything that's pharmaceutical. Yeah. And it has no psychoactive side of it, but you get all the healing and healthy benefits from the plant. It's not the cure, I'll be all. But if it helps you get through your day or it helps you sleep through the night,

then it's a win, right? You check it off as, hey, I'm not addicted to an opioid. I got through my night. I'm sleeping better. resting better. I have people with chemotherapy that use their stuff, you know, people with restless leg syndrome, people with high blood sugar. They were like, oh my gosh, in two weeks, you know, it's lowered my, I had no idea, you know, but you find out through these emails, you know, people are starting to use it for different things. And it gives you that warm and fuzzy,

you know, and for me starting the cattle company, you know, me and my dad were just sitting around and it was during the COVID deal. And I was like, my God, these grocery stores are empty. Like, everybody's on panic mode. Nobody has anything to offer. And my old man was kind of like, well, you got a bunch of beef, let's just chuck these things out of a tractor trailer and a Walmart somewhere. And I was like, you don't quite work like that. But I was like, it's a good idea. He's a great business, man. I mean, he's got 42 companies and 900 employees, so he understands business, you know, but I was like, yeah, I think we probably have to put a USDA stamp on it somewhere along the way, you know, but, you know, that mindset of like, hey, this happened in our country and how do we fix this

or how do we make this better? And the motivation, too, with even that, you know, his employees get first option when new products come out. Like that's helping your community. That's helping the people in your neighborhood. That is something that I think that he has really learned from his father. Somebody who is very humble and gracious. My dad has a growing in the future program. You know,

I go speak to a lot of schools and, you know, we help a lot of schools and fire departments, police departments, all that kind of stuff. But I think that's where people need to start. We're big in the community, right? And so that's taught me coming up along the way, hey, like, you got to figure out a way to make this good for everybody. You know what I mean?

And my dad does. If I've learned one thing from him, with all the employees that he has and all the business stuff is treat you people well and you do that they'll treat you will they'll take care of you and i watched it hand you know time and time again you know when things get tough we went through the you know recession in o eight my dad's guys they locked themselves in a conference room and they're like we're figuring this out we're not shutting the doors as long as you got enough cash to throw with this thing we're going to keep doing it you know and they did it and they came out ahead you know but it just your people that you invest in are the people

that are invest in you and you take care of them and it just it goes a full circle and i've watched it happened so many times just within my dad's companies and now within my company. So bring it back to your team, like your pit crew. Like, I mean, without name and names, there's got to be some people there. And what I'm getting at is if you look at a football game or a baseball game or a hockey game, at a glance, you can see the team. Sure. You see it all.

Pitchers, catchers, left fielder. There he is, tight end, running back, free safety. you look at your funny car, it's you. Now there's no, you get into the pit. Yeah, there's some activity, but it's all just a blur of stuff. Your team members don't have, unless it's through Chloe's efforts, making sure that the people in the industry understand who's turning the wrench and who's doing this and who's doing that. But they labor in relative anonymity.

For the love of the game, man. You know, right. So it's just a long way of me saying, I really agree with what you're saying, But the challenge for you is a little different than it is for a coach on a normal team. So, you know, two things that I say all the time is trust is earned and respect is earned. And they have earned both of mine, not that they need my respect, but it's something that is given freely with them. Because I trust those guys with my life. I know when that car goes up to the starting line, I'm going to 300 miles an hour, you know, that it's put together, right?

Or they've gone over. They've touched the parts and pieces, you know. And there's so many wrecks I probably would have been in and explosions I would have been. and if my guys didn't catch it before it went up to the starting line. And how do you pay somebody for that? You know what I mean? Like, you know, it just, it's invaluable. You know what I mean?

That's not like a stock tip. Right. That's like somebody grabbing you before you step out in the Wilshire and the big blue bus turns. Yeah. Say, hey, man. You know, we got this. Thanks. Thank you so much.

Yeah. So, and it's not something that they've done wrong. It's just parts and pieces break and things come apart and chassis break. And, you know, it's just they're on top of it, man. And so how do you, you like, man, you deserve way more money than you're getting paid. I mean, there's been times. or they've even leaned on me to fix something in a hurry. Well, you know, there was one for your front tree.

Yeah, there was a titanium. Oh, sorry. There was a. It's that large black thing. Sorry. Part of it's the frame underneath his body is titanium. And one of the rods actually had cracked and it had cracked to the point where it was now sheared.

And I had to weld on it in a moment. But Thomas found that crack. Okay. And this is in a tree area where it's very, very difficult to see. And you're talking about a turnaround time where you've got, they came and told me how to fix it in 12 minutes before it's a final round. And this guy took his time enough to find that defect. I mean, it's not something that's just blatantly obvious.

You're talking about a hairline crack that if it fails and he has an accident, will go through the firewall and impale him. So, I mean, that's the kind of... Yeah, exactly. Back to stakes. That's exactly the kind of thing he's talking about. That even in the moment, even in a second where you're like, oh, well, that can wait. You know, I don't have to do that. So this is more important.

Same thing as these trades in what you guys are doing with your foundation and school and investing in people, invest in those people and know that they're going to do a good job for you and you're going to take care of them. I mean, I had guys come to me before that they were going to quit because during COVID, we were still racing, but everybody was taking pay cuts and different things. And I knew we were just going to win the championship. I just knew we were and we end up doing it. But my guys came before we, during the countdown and they were like, I can't afford to pay my rent, man. And I'm just going like, I'll give you my bonus if you just stay. and I did, and they did stay, and we won the championship, you know, but that's how important. And then we want another one.

Yeah, that's how important people are. You can't replace good people. And I feel like in today's world, we have so many leaders and so many business guys that just feel like people are replaceable. And it's just not the case. If you just invest in your people and you take the time to get to know them and understand what they're going through and maybe try to make their day a little bit better here and there wherever you can. A perfect example is Trey. Yeah. That runs his farm. And you're talking about a 20-something-year-old kid. Yeah, he's like 23 and come off of a dairy farm. But that's exactly right.

He grew up in a dairy farm. You know, when I'm hiring and I see grow up on a dairy farm, you're hired. You're a hard worker. He's a hard worker. All the rest stuff, whatever. But tell him about how Trey is completely transformed the way you buy and sell cattle. You give him opportunity to grow and, you know, you incentivize, you know, and do different things. It's a percentage of all the sales and just takes the reins and runs with it, man.

And it just you love seeing a young kid do something like that when you give him opportunity. And it's just, thank God that he does that because I'm not there all the time. I'm out here driving a race car and still trying to farm over the phone and stuff. And I guess I call myself a farmer. Yeah. So it's just remote farming. Remote farming, yeah. But thank goodness for young kids like that that do still have initiative and drive.

And they don't want to just sit there and work from home or do whatever. They're out here getting dirty every day. I mean, he was sending me pictures of you built a half a mile fence yesterday. And it's just like, oh my gosh, how did you get that done? He was like, we got to get it done. You know what I mean? That kind of stuff. So it's unbelievable that there's still kids out there like that, though, you know?

But it's a blessing that you have somebody like you, though, that's like, absolutely, here you go. Here's like, this is somebody that you're going to foster and you're going to create an environment where he can thrive and do better. And it's not just going to be him. Because you know, the internet will tell him, go start your home, cattle farm. That's what the internet tells them. Sure, it's easy. Right. Like, the internet says, well, why are you letting him make money when you can make all the money?

And, like, that mode of thinking is going to be what is the downfall of what the next generation coming in is. Everyone is not built to be a mill. You need employees. You need great employees. Because look, micro is not micro without the help of Chuck or everyone else that you've surrounded yourself with. Okay, maybe I'm going to. All right.

It's a stretch. Matt Hagan is not, Matt Hagan. No, look, I think the moral of the story is that stakes vary. Right. But the underlying things don't. It doesn't matter if you're running a funny car or a farm or something in between. You're right. There are no shortcuts.

No. And one size fits all is a bunch of bull crap. No. And people matter. You're right. I've known this asshole for 43 years. 43 years. Okay?

That guy in the poster behind you standing next to me? That's that guy standing right there. Really? That's Taylor. Okay. Taylor's here. That's the day we met. Really?

How long ago? It's 2013. Wow. So in 2013. Ten years ago. In 2013. Well, I'm 11 if I'm doing the math, right? 11.

2011. Today's, let's not let math get. I can't math. It's not about the math. I was doing a shoot with Caterpillar for the foundation, and I needed somebody to recreate this awful poster that was in my guidance counselor's office in 1978. And, you know, Taylor was there. I'm like, hey, man, would you mind dressing up like a janitor and just taking a quick

picture? He's like, no. Taylor's a cameraman. He's a cameraman. He was working on a movie at the time. You know, like a lot of stuff. But I just needed like a warm body who was game. Yeah.

Who looked like he could be prosperous one day. Yeah. Congratulations. Right. It looks like a january. So the point is he says yes. And that poster now is in tens of thousands of places all over place. That's awesome.

But beyond that, it's like, Mary, my partner was with me that day. And she's like, you know, that kid just says yes. And then he figures it out. Well, Taylor edits. Taylor writes, Taylor directs, Taylor produces. Taylor can run the cameras, he can run the audio, and he can impersonate a model. And so in much the same way, I impersonate a host, and you actually do what you actually do. Just on TV.

But I get it. Anybody who's listening has people in their life that are key. And the reason you were a guest on this podcast over a year ago is because somebody said my sweat pledge was bonkers. And I wanted to talk to somebody who had signed that thing. I was living and breathing that sweat pledge when I signed that thing. So it was not something that was difficult for me to agree to. But that thing has caused more drama in my life. But to your point, we're going to break some eggs, right?

I don't know how many people listening know this, but the sweat pledge is now a curriculum, a work ethic curriculum. And I was telling you guys, we finally got that into a high school in Vegas, and it's tied to a $5 million endowment that's going to turn into 50 or 100 full-ride scholarships. That's great, man. Can you include a copy of Atlas Shrugged with every scholarship giving? Now your slip is totally out. Now you went full-line, Graham?

Oh, boy. Here we go. Here we go. No, look, guys, it's a big world, and one size doesn't fit all. But what you two are doing in your own way is important. I think people can learn from it. Maybe not everything, but certainly have a few laughs and maybe a peek into a world that they don't know anything about. Funny cars, it's a pretty short list.

But so are farms. Yeah. Yeah. Well, like I said, I had my teammate out there stick his hand up a bull's ass. Maybe we can get you out there do the same. Sounds good, man. Just have a weekend

where you start with a bull and then end with bottom end. That way, you're still in the same realm. Just smell a little different. You got an oily smell and the nitro. There's a bull in Indiana who still calls me. Oh, wow.

When you're coming back. That's impressive. Did you ever get your watch back? Did you ever get your watch back? I never did. Where do people go to get your amazing stakes? So basically you can just go on to Hagen Caterall. code.com and pick out a package. We ship across the country. We try hard not to ship to California

just because of it's so expensive. Yeah. But we do a lot of local pickup and stuff like that. Same with CBD. CBD is all. CBCD is all over the country. I mean, obviously we're sending small amounts of tinctures and muscle creams and different things like that. But like I said, not a cure-all be-all, but it's true harvest farms.com. You know, we just re-R-U, T-R-V-E-S-T. Yeah, and just revamped the websites and stuff like that. But, you know, still want to have that small homely feel to everything and just make sure that we're helping people. You know, that's all it comes down to is actually we just want to feed people and help people. And if people can't appreciate that, they don't need to buy our products anyway.

Well, and then if they're feeling that good, then go work really hard. That's right. Get up early. Chloe, why don't you give us both of your social handles? So he is at Matt Hagen underscore F.C is your handles for Instagram, Facebook, Twitter. Matt Hagan, underscore Fc. And then mine is Arkwilding Angel, is my Instagram handle. and that's the only place I really am.

You're everywhere. You're everywhere. You're everywhere. It's a lot because of you, man. You got to start it. Yeah. Talk about. You've actually, you don't know what good you've done.

I hope so. I can tell a story and they're all anecdotal. But when people started hearing from you and, you know, a few hundred others that went through this thing. Well, I hate to disappoint people with my real comments, but it is what it is. You know, I've noticed you care less and less. I'd like to think it was the first story I wrote about you. Oh, yes. Of course.

I should have booked Mark that with freedom from tyranny. All right, folks. That's Matt and Chloe. They're a kick. Check them out at the aforementioned handles. And we will see you all next week. Thank you guys. When you leave a review, which we hope that you'll do, tell us who you are.

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