Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 779 | Jase Accuses Willie of Being a Bed-Wetter as a Kid & the New Alternative to Amazon

Episode Date: November 1, 2023

Jase’s adventures in Maryland take a turn for the weird as Jep’s fall down the stairs results in a UFO sighting. Al gets taken back to his childhood, where he and Jase accuse Willie of being the bed-wetter of their trio. Lisa Robertson joins the guys in talking to special guest Michael Seifert about his solution for people who don’t want to spend money with big corporations that shun conservative beliefs. Shop your values locally and online with Public Square at https://publicsq.com, and check out America’s only pro-life diaper company at https://everylife.com. In this episode: 1 Corinthians 15, verses 3-4 & 22-24; Romans 12, verse 2 — Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? Welcome back to Unashamed. Got Jason for a little while on this podcast, just really for the open. He's got to go do some hunting family treasure. Or teal, apparently. Or teal, apparently this is turned into a duck show as well, Jay. It's a smorgasbord of activity here in Maryland. I literally cannot leave.

That's right. So, Jay's is a way on assignment. And, Jase, your assignment as it always is when you're not with us on a podcast, is you have to have outlandish things happen to you that would happen to no one else on the planet so that you can come back and tell us about them. So we're expecting that. Well, it's a tough life, Al. That's what adventure is all about.

You know, we're having to overcome a lot of obstacles. That's my brother, Jet. Yep. I just saw somebody looming into the shot. I saw UFOs last night. Two story. So yesterday, Jep took a tumble off the stairs. He gets up from my mom, I think.

So he sprained his ankle. Oh, boy. And so, yeah, but then he woke up in the middle of the night, restless. And he goes out to the deck here where the Chesapeake Bay is behind us. And now he has. Si flavor has now seen five UFOs and he's been telling that ever since he got up. So that's welcome to my life. Oh, my goodness.

I feel like the last time we did this and y'all were together somewhere on the water, I feel like he fell in the water. Is that true? He did. It was a deck a lot like this, but it didn't have rails at the end because if you wanted to go jump off the deck. Well, Jeff was just walking in the middle of the night, I guess looking for UFOs. And he just walked off the deck, but that was a river with current. I mean, it was 20 foot deep.

Yeah. That's, uh, oh, my goodness. He was too embarrassed to tell us about it. So when the dryer woke me up the next morning. Because he's trying to. Yeah, I said, why would you be drying clothes before we've even got started? And he said, well, I stepped off the deck last night. And so we started riding him and he's like, I could have died.

So Jep is always getting injured or seeing strange things, as we say. James, that told me back to our childhood because when you heard the dryer running, usually in the morning when we were kids, it meant somebody who peed the bed and was trying to dry the evidence so we wouldn't know who it was. So that goes all the way back to when we were. That was probably Willie. Then he wet the bed. He was the bed. Yeah, we didn't figure it out.

Until we all moved away who the bedwether was. The problem with three brothers sleep in the same bed is, you're not sure who it is. You wake up in the same urine pool. So you don't know if you're just in the middle of the night. You're sitting there and you're like, man, it gets warm all of a sudden. It feels great for about 30 seconds. And then it's miserable after that, yeah.

No, it never felt great. And I'm glad you didn't put that in the movies, Zach. I didn't know. I'd have known that that was going on, I would have definitely put that in the movie. I was never the guilty party. And so I learned that, you know, how to forgive at an early age. Because that's about the worst thing that you can be a part of. That is bad.

Where do we end off? I felt like we were going to talk about the kingdom in the last episode, but now it feels a little bit like. Yeah, we're going to have to put a hold on that kingdom discussion, Zach, because we started into it. And then we talked a little bit about an overtime, but it's going to be a while we're all back together again. We've got some exciting guests coming up on future episodes. So we're going to, so not this week, but next week. Next week, you have to come with your Bible. Come with your Bible.

If you're following. And an open mind. And an open mind because we are in a minority position and come with a notebook. And we're going to talk about all things eschatology. Oh, Zach, use real words. There's, where's the, where's your deal, Al? Yeah. But we're going to be prepared.

Big word alert. We're going to have to punt it because I was like, because, Jay's, you're leaving. We got guests coming in at the end of this episode and then the next two episodes we have guests. Right, Al? That's right. That's right. We got a lot of exciting guests coming up. Sadie is making her debut, Jase, while you're not here.

Oh, my goodness. Yep, you're missing it. But she's bringing Christian with her to protect her from us. But I told her she didn't have anything to worry about because Jace is not here. So, Lisa's coming on. So Lisa's coming on. Sadie's coming today. Lisa is coming today.

Lisa's already supposed to be here, but you guys are getting to experience what I've experienced for 40 years, waiting on a woman. You know, the Almighty knows that I'm an impatient man, so he connected me with this beautiful woman who makes me wait all the time. So that's just to teach me patience. That's what he does it for. Well, just to give you a teaser about the kingdom, you know, I talked about Jep's in the UFOs. Oh, there's this. I wonder why he said this beautiful lady. He was all being tall.

That's what you called Talas. I was like, she in the room? That's good, man. You notice that recovery, Zat? That was good. Sorry, Jase. You got to give a teaser. I was just going to say I made a big deal about IFOs on a past podcast, which is identified.

Oh, that's right. Zach wasn't here. Tell them that's your new movie idea. Yeah. Look, your next movie is IFOs. and you get it from 1st Corinthians 15. When we come forth from the ground or whether we're still alive and are changed 1st Thessalonians 4, then we will levitate because, you know,

Jesus seemed to do that in Acts chapter 1. Yeah. And you are an identified flying object because our identity is in Christ. So there's the subplot there, which segues into the kingdom. when you surrender to the king, because the kingdom is where the king reigns. So once you surrender to Jesus, you're part of the kingdom. And so my teaser for the kingdom study and the IFO movie is 1st Corinthians 15 when verse 22, and I'll leave you with this, for as an Adam all dies, so in Christ all will be made a lot.

There's the in Christ. He's the king, king of kings. That's good. I think that should replace the zombie. The good of it. Jason, I did have a guy. No, no.

Look, the zombie idea is the first segment. But it's going to morph into the IFO. So now it's all the same film. Exactly. I know you're the movie mogul, but for any picture or story, you have to have a beginning,

a middle, and an end. I've given you the beginning. You have zombies walking around, but they're good zombies. I've given you the end. We have IFOs. Our identity.

is in Christ. We know how we got here. We know what we're doing here, and we know how we're leaving. That is the definition of identity. So fill in the blanks. And so then can I read this last verse? Then the end will come. This is 1st Corinthians 1524. When he hands over the kingdom to God, the Father, after he has destroyed all dominion, authority, and power, and the last enemy that will be destroyed is death itself. So if there was no kingdom yet, how is he handing over the kingdom to the father? That's the teaser. That's good.

For when I come back. So, Jace, I met it. There was a guy at an event we just in Illinois, and he said, be sure and tell Jace, because I love the podcast, be sure and tell Jays, I am all in on the good zombie movie. So you have at least one person I've met that crossed the fruited plains, Chase, that says he's all on the movie. Zach, be a trailblazer, make it happen. All right, I'll see you on a couple weeks.

See you, buddy. See you, Jay's. Let me mention before we go to break about the movies, Zach. We talked about on the last podcast about how folks, when they can get the November 3rd was digital, and then November 14th was DVD and Blu-ray. And then also, if folks want to be able to get it for their church, you may be in a rural area, some place that, you know, you can't get to a theater or whatever. That's still available, right?

If you go to the blind movie.com, is this click on bring to my church? You have until November 6 to do this, right? Yeah, there's a, there, there's no upfront fees, by the way, if you do this, it's just cost of tickets. And we can get you set up with everything you need to show the movie. Just go to the blindmovie.com. There's a tab, I think it's orange, an orange tab that says. bring to my church and you'll have to November 6 to get it all set up.

And yeah, I think this is cool. We've had a lot of churches that have already shown it. And they've kind of used it as an evangelistic tool. And lots of people have come to Christ and been baptized in the Christ. So it's been really, really cool to see this in churches. So if you're in any area, really, even in a bigger area, because our theater account has shrunk a little bit, go check it out, theblindmovie.com. bring to my church.

Excellent. So check that out. Yeah, we got, you know, we, what, it was guaranteed a week, Zach, and it wound up over a month in a lot of theaters. Yeah, we're in our, yeah, we're in our fourth week right now. We, I guess this podcast, by the time this podcast comes out, we've already, this has already been announced, but the number one fathom release that they've ever done. Yep. So it's done really, really well, you know, you got to keep in mind, we didn't have a big marketing budget like a lot of studio. films. We had a lot of obstacles that we had to overcome, which is a whole other discussion.

But this film really surprised Hollywood. It surprised all the industry people. I love that first opening weekend, one of the best headlines was the biggest surprise of the weekend was the blind. And then they said basically because we didn't even know it was the thing. You know, we didn't know it was here. But it's continued to do well. So I want to thank you guys. The best part about it, though, honestly, is the tens of thousands of comments and messages that we've received of how this film has impacted people. And, I mean, it's just been incredible. I don't think I anticipated the response from all of you guys that have watched it and been a part of it and shared it and experienced it.

I mean, it's been, it has been humbling for all of our family to be able to know that filling case story, I know it's impacted me, but to know that. that's also impacted so many others is it's humbling. So thank you guys. So Lisa and I were talking to some people at the last event we did, and they were like, oh yeah, were you the one in the movie that kept being told to go to bed? I was like, yeah, that was my wrong.

In a short, condensed version, according to the Apostle Paul in 1st, Corinthians 15, for what I received, I passed on to you as of first statement. importance that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures, that he was buried and was raised on the third day. That's my complete statement on the movie. That's your review. Pais on to y'all what we've heard. I think that's excellent, Dad, and I think you're exactly right. The gospel plays out in a lot of different ways. That's right. And that's it played out in this movie. I was only after 28, whatever's happened.

and I'm doing it in the name of Jesus, following Jesus. And amazingly, I can't remember the last time I said a cuss word. That's pretty good. Not one. Someone said, well, a little girl asked me yesterday when I baptized her, and I told her she would receive God's spirit. She'd be born of the water and the spirit. I said, you'll receive it.

She said, how will I know I have him? I said, you'll know. You'll know. you'll be changed right yeah i just saw i was on my way out she wept on my way out i stopped by tony's and he showed me a painting that he's painting of you baptizing a woman in the river yeah and it's beautiful i mean i thought man what a great thing he wants to show it to me today's yeah we're gonna show it to unashamed if i would feed him and his woman hamburgers hamburgers he said i'll let you in on tony tony the good thing i love my brother-in-law he will work for food which is that's it

He negotiated the terms, and it was homemade hamburgers. That's right. And cooked it in the cast iron skillet with the wheat buns. They are the best. I never thought it would be, you know, shows a female in this picture, but she's going down into the water, and the way he put that together, he's an artist. It's beautiful. But the way he put that together, I said, that is pretty cool.

Yeah, I thought it was pretty cool, too. So we'll show it to you when he gets it finished on Unashamedness. So we're going to take our first break. We come out on the other side. We've got a very special guest. And so we'll let you know who's here after the break. So welcome back. We lost Jace, which it'll probably be a little quieter on set now.

We want a little less opinionated. Somebody can get a word in edgewise. Exactly. So I ask people when we go on the road, I say, when they say they listen to podcasts, I said, You think, oh, Jace is ever going to run out of stories? And they're like, nope. Never. And I love it.

So we have a, in Jason's place, we have a very special guest. I'm sure our intelligence is going to go up quite a bit. We have Michael Seifert, who's the founder and CEO of Public Square. Welcome to Unashamed podcast, Michael. It's good to be here. Thanks for having me. Yeah. What did you think when you were listening in on that last segment where you like, what about us?

He gets to listen to what we call the color. What was your take on that? Well, my take is normally I'm used to going on these shows and talking about boring stuff, like business or politics, and within 30 seconds of jumping on, we got into UFOs, IFOs. I didn't even know what those are. UFOs and IFOs and wetting the bed. So it was a cultural experience. It was great.

That's excellent, man. I think that's a good description of the Unashamed podcast. It's a cultural experience. I like that. Redneck tendencies. Redneck tendencies. That's exactly right. So, Michael, it doesn't sound like you're from where we're from. You have a little bit different accent. Where are you from originally? Well, I'm from California, but we actually just escaped California. We're political refugees, and we made our way to the free state of Florida. So we are loving the sunshine state. It's a wonderful place. Just made the move about a month ago. Yeah. Well, you know, there's a lot of left-wingers that have moved to red states. And so that's a bit of an issue if they bring their podcast. with them. So I love it when conservatives make the track because that just makes us a little bit

stronger. I know it sounds crazy, but there's been more than one, one, there's been multiple people who are coming out of California and they walk in the door where we are over here in Louisiana. Oh, yeah. And they're saying, I think I need to be baptized. I said, let me go through the gospel with you to make sure where are you from in California. I said, California. And so... So what's your first line you always say to? You say the same thing every time.

You're from California, but you look perfectly normal. That's right. California, I said, well, good night. You're carrying on a decent conversation with what? I said, this world is rapidly changing. Yeah, we had a waiter at a restaurant the other evening. I'm sitting there, and the waiter, real kind, said, where are you guys from? You don't sound like you're from around here because we were talking about it.

It was our first time at this restaurant. And we said, yeah, we're from California. And he said, oh, no. We're like, oh, no, we promise, we're the good kind. Yeah, you hate to have the oh, no, from the waiter. That's not a good lead in. Well, since we know that you're a good guy, just step over the state line into Alabama and come join me and Alan over there. That's right.

You're not too far from us. So we spend quite a bit of time in Gulf Shores, Alabama. So I have my studio there called the Southern Lair and Lisa sales real estate down there. But we love it on the Gulf Coast. It's fantastic. Well, my wife was born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama. Oh, there we go. That's good stock coming out of there.

Good stock there. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Absolutely. Well, eventually today we're going to talk about her because we're going to talk about a company that I can't wait to hear more about something you guys are involved in. But let's talk about Public Square first because, this is an amazing idea.

And when I was reading up on it when you were coming on, I had heard about you guys, obviously, and Zach knows a little bit about you guys too. Because we have a lot of sponsors of our podcast, and more and more when we do ad copy for them, we read these words, parallel economy, you know, conservative value. And so there's more and more people out there. They're kind of having the same idea you have, but you've kind of really taken it to the next level. and they're in that process of it. Tell us, Michael, about kind of the idea behind Pubbett Square and, you know, where did this come from and how did you get this thing started and what it is?

Well, in January of 2021, so this was just over, just under three years ago now. My wife and I were sitting together at a restaurant. And at the time, we had a list of businesses on a yellow sheet of paper that we knew we could feel proud of supporting. These businesses were in the, quote, unquote, parallel economy. They were businesses in our local community that love the country, the Constitution, the values that it protects. Many of them are owned by believers in Christ, and I'm a man of faith. And so that was special to me. Many of these businesses also were run by veterans, people that had served their community with the ultimate sort of sacrifice. And we just said from now on, for all of life's needs, we're going to go to these businesses. We're tired of

watching the economy turn into almost a progressive political pandering session. And more corporate entities today are acting like political organizations rather than providers of value. And so we said, we're going to make a list of businesses we should go to. It's not enough just to boycott. We actually want to move our money elsewhere. So we had this list. We said from now on in 2021, we are going to go to these businesses for all of life's daily needs. We have the restaurants, the coffee shops, the dry cleaners, the electrician, etc.

Well, sitting there at a restaurant that evening, we thought, man, I bet other people would like this list too. We can't be alone. Every survey that I see and every data resource that I've come across has shown that tens of millions of conservative Americans are tired that companies are continually moving left. And yet we don't have any options. We don't have another place we can go to to shift our dollars. I bet that people would hunger for a list like this in their own community. And that hunch turned into me going and asking a few friends, hey, if we had a digital directory of businesses that had a set of values that they hold dear that had them acting

different than the Bud Lights and the targets of the world, would you enjoy that? And the resounding answer was yes, absolutely. In fact, we ran a 27 state survey and we asked conservative Americans, how many of you would drive 10 minutes farther or spend 10% more if you knew that every dollar you were spending aligned with your values? And 98% of our respondents said yes. So we thought, okay, maybe we're on to something here. That was two and a half years ago. Now today, Public Square, you can find it at publicsq.com. You can download it on the app store or Google Play.

were the largest directory in the world of patriotic, freedom-loving businesses that value the country, the classic American values that made it so special, the Constitution, and all the rights that that wonderful document holds dear. These companies that we have on our platform, over 70,000 small businesses now, would never lecture you about gender ideology when you're simply trying to buy a pair of pants or a cup of coffee. These are businesses that are run by salt to the earth, family-owned an operated enterprise, and it's been wonderful to promote them to now over 1.6 million consumer members on our platform. So we are the parallel economy in a digital marketplace experience, and it's free to join for both consumer and business alike. So it's really caught fire,

and we're incredibly grateful to be building America's marketplace. Man, that's amazing. And so good. They're doing the work of the kingdom of God. That's it. Because, you know, you're you just. describe it so well, Mike, it's so frustrating for people because, you know, I, you know, I find myself just longing for the days of neutrality. I mean, like, I get it that you're probably in this state and you're probably may have a certain bit, but, you know, back in the day, that didn't matter because you were neutral. You were a business. You were trying to sell to everybody. But now it's gotten so in your face and you're actually accosted, you know, by doing business

with people and it just it's a slap you know and it's just the verse that hit my mind is roman chapter 12 what our man here is talking about therefore i urge you brothers in view of god's mercy to offer your bodies as living sacrifices holy and pleasing to god which they're doing which is think about this which is your spiritual worship don't conform any longer to the pattern of this world that all of the stuff that our man talked about don't don't conform any longer to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind then you'll be able to test and approve what God's will is his good pleasing and perfect will they they have found that kudos are you my man yeah

Thank you. Those words mean a lot. And obviously, your family in all of your faith is inspiring to me and to our entire team. We're big fans of what your family has accomplished over the years, integrating your faith into your work and what you do. And for us, you know, it was as simple as Proverbs 3-9, honor God with your wealth. We were having a hard time honoring God with our wealth when it felt like every time we were spending money, it was funding something that stood against the kingdom of God. You know, Target this summer when they're coming out and they're trying to lecture the next generation about second. sexuality and gender, you know, the mama bears that have made up Target's audience over the past three decades, we're not having that. There are millions of Christians that have gone to Target

for years and now feel like you're slapping our faith in the face. You're trying to indoctrinate our children. And it's not, it's not helpful if I just depart Target with no other solution. It's only helpful if we can help people go somewhere else that will honor God, we'll honor the classic values that have built this great nation. And so we're happy to be able to help people kind of take that next step to do something proactive and positive with your money, rather than just taking it out of somewhere else. I downloaded your app, Michael, because I'm an Amazon person. I mean, you see something.

It's like, well, let me go to Amazon and see if I can find that. But now that I have Public Square, I will cancel my Amazon account. And whenever I need something, I'm going to go to Public Square. I love it because, I mean, the categories, food and drink, clothes and accessories, home, automotive, health and wellness, recreation, kids, fitness, beauty. I mean, y'all have everything in there that we could possibly need for our everyday life. And the bonus is that we're buying from fellow Christians and people who have our same faith. Yeah, well, that first of all means a lot. thank you. We hear often, gratefully, how people are shocked that how many industries there

truly are represented on this platform. I bought my toilet paper from a public square business the other day. So it is pretty amazing how wide and deep the parallel economy really is. And, you know, it's the testimonies that keep us going. This has been a real challenge building this business. It's been a pioneering journey. But the stories of people having their lives changed through these simple transactions are what keep us very driven for the future. We had a lady reach out actually just three days ago and say, hey, I found a new doctor on your platform. And this doctor knew that I was skittish about hospitals and the past with the medical profession.

And I just have a lot of trust that's been broken. And so this doctor just asked if they could pray for me. And that was our first interaction. You know, that's, those are the stories that we live for. And we're really grateful at how this thing is building with really a multitude of services provided. Yeah. And you guys are, and really the expansion of it is so, so, it's happening so quickly, right?

Because just on the notes, I had, you mentioned 70,000, it was 55,000 just on what I pulled off your website. So that's how quickly you guys are going. And, you know, it's all, everything's in God's time. I love that verse, Dad read, because, you know, we're in a time where now we see our ability to expand happens because the internet and people, the way they purchase, all that's changing anyway. And so we still have local community, but then you have these new opportunities to do things. So it seems like to me the Almighty has inspired and given you this vision, Michael, and your team at the right time to do something like this, to really make an impact. And I love it because when I read on your, you know, I read the different things that you guys put on your websites, what is our values. Here's what they are.

That resonates with a lot of people. I mean, I would say still the vast majority of our country. are going to align with the values that you guys talk about on your websites and on the app. I mean, no doubt about it. Well, it's pretty neat. Those values have certainly resonated with millions of Americans, not just because there's a sort of surface level, political or cultural agreement, but actually a much deeper principled agreement.

For us, we say often that this thing is way deeper than politics. It's way deeper than political views or party preferences. We actually never mention that stuff when you look at our values. It's about the deeper principles. And ultimately, for us as a company, we want folks to be able to know with blessed assurance that they're not funding their opposition. My wife worked in the pro-life pregnancy center space, leading one of the most successful pregnancy resource centers in Southern California as a director there. And she was incredibly disheartened to learn that Starbucks had actually come out and announced that they were going to match employee contributions to Planned Parenthood. It's hard to hear news like that from the largest coffee company in the world when you're fighting so hard every.

day for the lives of the most vulnerable, the unborn. And so it's not enough to just complain about it. We wanted to create a solution where people could know, hey, if that bothers you, here's a coffee shop that would never do that. So we discovered the ones in our own community. We discovered the coffee shops online where we could order coffee and know like seven weeks, for example. Seven weeks coffee is a great example. They're on our platform. You'll see them promoted. They called their company seven weeks. By the way, I'm a coffee snob and I really love their coffee. It's fantastic quality. But the reason I love their company so much is because they give back to pregnancy resource centers, incredible institutions around our country.

And they call it seven weeks because that's what size of baby is. Or that's how old the baby is when it's the size of a coffee bean, seven weeks. So it's this amazing message as a part of their products. So we've got those companies, but also, as you mentioned, we've got companies that on the surface, you wouldn't know that they are political or cultural or principled or anything. They're just a normal business, but they happen to say, yeah, we absolutely agree with these values. we're not political. We don't really pick aside necessarily, but we are certainly aligned with these values and we definitely don't do what targets doing. We don't do what Bud Light's doing. We would

never do that. We are led by our convictions. So it's a very cool marketplace in the sense that it's relational. It helps bring a lot of character and integrity back in the marketplace. You know, there was a mention about Amazon. Amazon, unfortunately, has turned completely unethical. You know, they have abused not only their customers and their values, but their own workers for far too long. And so on November 1, we're actually launching a fully immersive e-commerce marketplace experience where you can actually add multiple products into one shopping cart. Check out right there at the point of sale, we built that whole shopping cart experience

from scratch because we knew that Americans needed an alternative e-commerce solution. So we've got the best team on the planet working on this, people coming out of companies like Target, actually, Etsy, eBay, Amazon to come build this because just like there's a desire for consumers to spend money in alignment with their events. values. There's also a desire for employees to work with a company that promotes their values. And when we hired our chief product officer, for example, he was the head of all digital products at Target and said, you know what, I just can't do it anymore. I've been there 15 years. I got six kids, a seventh on the way. I want to work for a company in the second half of my career here that can make me feel good when I

go to bed at night, knowing that I'm contributing to my kingdom values. And so we're just getting started. We've been at this now 16 months since we've launched nationwide. And I can tell you, we've got big things in store. Man, that is super exciting. Let's take another break. Yeah, I just love to. Like, I mean, I've thought coming out of COVID and one of the things that was so disruptive for our country was that we were so isolated and everything can be done, and this is more of a philosophical point, but everything can be done now virtually. I mean, you can shop from someone that you've never met. You can be entertained 24-7. You don't have to leave your home and actually do life with people and have community. And I love anything that we can push people back into engaging in local economies,

to me, that is huge. I've almost thought, we need to rebrand the term conservatism because it's, and let's rebrand it localism. You know, I think you bring people together in local economies. So I love that you guys are identifying places for people to shop locally as well. I think that's, it's this idea. Let's deconsolidate the power structures. You know, Lord Acton said that power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. And so I've always a fan of anything that is like deconsolidating power structures. And I love that you're giving businesses, you know, mom and pop businesses as an opportunity to compete in the marketplace that has really been taken over by just a handful of businesses. So that part of it to me is probably an under,

undervalue part of what you're doing. But I think for me, that's a huge, that's a huge win for any culture to bring back local businesses, you know, where you can actually buy, you know, from someone that you can see their face and you can shake their hand and you can develop a relationship. But that's a great accountability to keep people together, you know. Well, you know, I love that you brought that up. We, we have a very similar desire. That's been at the forefront of all of this. Even as we're launching Amazon-like functionality, we've said from the beginning that we're never departing from the local accessibility of the platform. Amazon, you know, they say they have 300 million products on the platform. We've only ever really

seen 10 to 20. And that's because they really show you just what they want you to see. It's who they make money from. And I totally respect that. But at the end of the day, there are millions of business owners around this country. There are 30 million small businesses in this country, by the way, that deserve a voice and an opportunity to shine that haven't sacrificed their values in the proctor and gambleization of our country, as I call it, where all these incredible mom and pop shops end up getting kind of bought up by a few big conglomerates. There's a lot of small businesses that still make their communities incredibly special. They service products and goods and services to their neighbors. And that has to be cherished. We're losing our republic on the altar of this sort of globalist

corporatism. And I actually think if we want to preserve the values in our community, we have to preserve the economic ecosystems of our community as well. We say often, if you want to change the country, you've got to start with your state. You want to change your state, you've got to start with your county. You want to change your county. You've got to start with your city. And if you want to change your city, you've got to start with your own backyard. And so for us, it looks like, like helping the average American consumer know that with a simple cup of coffee purchase, you can actually have fundamental change in your society. We're told we only get to vote every two to four years.

But at Public Square, we actually believe that you get to vote every day with your purchasing power. What you spend your money on is what you empower. So there's nothing like the gratifying feeling of seeing my neighbor prosper. That's a soccer coach. That's my local teacher that's got a side gig. Like, those are the people that deserve to succeed in my mind. and we're trying to protect localism for the generations to come.

My daughter turns one years old tomorrow. And I want her three decades from now to be able to raise her own kids where the local community is still prospering. And there's that one-stop shop you can go to in your local community that you know the name of the owner and you know the values they stand for and you know that they want to make the country a better place. That's what we're trying to build. It looks like legacy.

Yeah, you know, I went on a vacation recently. you, I used one of the sites that you can purchase vacation on. It wasn't Airbnb, so you can maybe figure out who it was. And they completely misrepresented everything about what I was purchasing. And the, I mean, it was, when I tell you, it didn't have the number of beds. I mean, everything was wrong, everything. And I tried to complain about it. And it was like, you could not get to the person.

It was like so, it was such a maze. of corporate structure that it's like, man, I, that's still my wife. I mean, I hate dealing with big structures that were I really don't matter. And I'd much rather purchase anything from a local person that I at least couldn't call the owner. You know what I mean? And to me, I think the future hope of America is going to be just that. Well, you think about it, Zay, what you just described. Everything, anytime you have a complaint with one of these big groups, you're shipped overseas in Indonesia, India someplace.

because you're talking to a person who has a script in front of them, but they don't, they don't know about this business. They don't know about your issue. They only know what they've been told to try to placate you or get you to then give up. And so, I had a mother. So frustrated. I had a mother with her daughter, and they came 9 o'clock in the morning in Louisiana to hear what I had to say about life itself and death. And I said, she said, the mother said, you see these people with these signs and they're all carrying a sign and they're chanting. And I said, where are you from?

She said, New York City. I came all the way down here to see what you had to say about that. I told them the good news of Jesus. And the mother and the child obeyed the gospel. And they said, finally, we can put our stuff. signs down. We can just take a walk without caring them. So it was a sad story. I was amazed at it. I said, New York City, so you came all the way here to hear what I had to say about it. I pointed them to Jesus. They became Jesus. Now they end the faith and they're doing great.

The gospel of Jesus helps you put down your signs. That could be a new t-shirt. They put their signs down. I'm like, let's take our last break. So in our last session, segment, Michael, I wanted to, for you to talk about every life, because that's really kind of what you got you on mine and Lisa's radar. We do, we travel around the country and we speak at mostly at fundraisers for pregnancy centers. And so when I saw that your wife had been a pregnant center director, I haven't met her, but I met so many women like her who were dedicated, who are innovative, who love people. It's more than just saving babies. It's about saving young women. women and young men, too. It's a complete ministry, which is amazing. So when I saw that background, I wanted to talk about that. Before I have you tell about what every life does, I wanted to read this. This was from the website on your values. It says, celebrate life. Every baby is a miracle and a gift from above. We cherish it, celebrate it, and seek to protect it, always. And then I love this, stand with integrity, champion, parenthood, and you're rooted in faith. But I love that idea. But I love that idea.

that commitment to life, because that is obviously now such a major battle in our culture. And, you know, which side your own matters, you know, and it matters to so many different people. So tell us a little bit about the idea behind every life and what you guys do and how Sarah, your wife, is involved in that. I'd be happy to. So before the break, we talked about the wide variety of products that we offer on Public Square. And those products are owned by third parties. Those are small businesses that we promote. And for most of life's purchases, whether you're looking for a new bike or toilet paper, you're going to find options on the Public Square platform.

But there are the niche industries where there are still yet products to be made in this parallel economy that we're learning day in and day out because we're having consumers come to the platform. They'll search for something and they either find it due to the wide variety that we offer or in the rare cases they don't, we discover a hole in the marketplace. and there's a need for a solution in certain key industries. And then our opportunity of Public Square is how do we spin up a great team of industry leaders to go and actually create the solutions to those industry gaps and sell them back into our marketplace so that we can offer this holistic product offering

for all of life's daily purchases. So what happened with every life? Last summer, just after we had launched nationwide, we started seeing in our search bar very frequent searches for diapers and wipes. A lot of women were searching for it. A lot of dads were searching for it. And they were not finding what they're looking for on Public Square. So we do a little research and we discover that every single major diaper brand in the United States today, without exception, every single one of them, are either vocally or financially pro-abortion.

It was shocking to learn this. Not only does it make zero moral sense. It also doesn't make any economic sense. That would be like me saying, I want to start a shoe company for men and therefore I'm going to use the proceeds to terminate men or to cut off their feet. It doesn't make any practical sense. But that's how, quote unquote, woke, our marketplace has gone in the United States today. You're having businesses make decisions based upon their desire for a high social ESG score rather than for providing quality products at an affordable price.

So, obviously, given our pro-life values, given our deep commitment for protecting the lives of the most vulnerable, every little miracle from above, we felt really disheartened by this. At the same time, my wife and I were having our first child last October. So we thought, okay, well, all these worlds are coming together here. There's clearly a need to create a diaper brand that embraces the pro-life message that celebrates and protects every innocent life and creates high-quality premium products for those beautiful little miracles from above. So we thought, well, why don't we create it?

We had the idea to create every life. We brought an amazing team on board to create this product line with us. And we're proud to say that on July 13th of 2023, just a few months ago, we launched the only diaper brand in the United States that is unableness. apologetically pro-life and pro-family. Amazing. The mission is simple. No matter where you're from, thank you, sir.

No matter where you're from, no matter what you look like, no matter the circumstances of your conception, every life is a miracle and deserves premium products that will celebrate and protect every little miracle. So now you can find diapers and wipes that will affirm your pro-life conviction and your love for every life at everylife.com. And our manufacturing association called us last week to tell us the good news. We are the fastest growing diaper company from launch that they have ever seen. Here's something that I love about it too, Michael, is that what they say is because I don't have children in diapers.

I don't even have grandchildren in diapers anymore. All of ours are older. But what I love is that you can, there's one of these things in here and it's called buy for a cause. So you can buy diapers and donate them to the Pregnancy Resource Center. which I think is a wonderful idea. Because whenever we speak around the country, we hear girls that say, are women, young women, that say whenever I go to the Pregnancy Resource Center,

if I can't afford diapers and I can't afford my wipes, they will give them to me. Well, what better way to support a pregnancy resource center than giving diapers to that center so that they can give it to these women that are in need. I just love that. I think that's a great idea. That's good. Had that come about, Michael, that idea, does you just see that as an opportunity, like Lisa said,

for people that just want to give and are looking for a place to do that? Yeah, we thought there's got to be a way for the folks that do not have babies or grandbabies and diapers to still contribute to the mission. And so we thought, well, what if we could sell a discounted, a discounted diaper? package basically at cost. We don't make any money on it, but it's a great opportunity for folks to actually donate those to pregnancy centers, adoption facilities as well. And then when certain areas are in crisis, we'll actually designate the buy-for-a-cause diapers to that area for a period of time. So, for example, in August, when the fires ravaged Lahaina and Maui, there were hundreds of mamas and dads that were out of diapers for their kids. They were escorted from their

homes and no longer had anywhere to go and they were missing all resource. So we actually donated over 140,000 diapers in partnership with our Buy for a Cause donors. It was incredible to those families in Maui. So they're stocked for the future and they're good to go with every life diapers. And it's, you mentioned something really important, you know, for us, look, knowing the pregnancy center world well, it kind of hurts to see that every pregnancy center unfortunately is stuck using pro-abortion diapers. And we thought, well, we got to change that. And that's an industry we know well. We want to make sure that these centers are stock in their shelves with products to give away to mothers and fathers in need for their little ones that will affirm the gift of every life and

the culture of life more broadly rather than detract from it. So it's been a really cool program. And thankfully, it's given people, no matter what stage of life they're in, an ability to actually feel like they're contributing with the every life product. Yeah. Well, and that's one of the things that Lisa and I love about being in that sphere is that we get to hear about things and then we go and speak and we get to meet these people and we tour their centers and all around the country. And I've compared it, Michael, the churches. They're independent. You know, there's 3,000 pregnancy centers around America.

They have to raise their own funds, you know, no money from the government, which you wouldn't want any money from them anyway because then they'd be trying to tell you what to do. So they're totally independent. And yet they all have this cause. to help save life, but also to help these young men and young women. So I can't wait because now that we know about this, we're going to be talking about it everywhere we go, which is what you, you know, that's how it happens.

I mean, our show, you mentioned our show order, our show, and even this movie we just did, and even this podcast, they're all successful because someone told somebody else, hey, you got to watch these guys down in Louisiana, or you've got to watch this movie because it's such a story of redemption. You got to listen to this podcast because these guys talk about the Bible, you know, and it's helped my life and my faith. And that's what you guys.

I'm convinced, I mean, not only is God blessing you and has anointed you, but at the same time, it's because when people hear this, that's good news. That's like, well, I've been pouring my money into these things I hate and I don't believe in. And so now I've got an opportunity to do that. So what a, what a blessing for us. We only have a couple of minutes left in the last couple of minutes. One more question, though. Can you, can you, can you, when you do the baffir, calls, Michael, can you send them to your own area PRC? Or do you guys choose where those go? Currently, we choose a few every month that we give to, just to help the operations of it kind of stay bite-sizeable in the early days. But what I will say is that we are working hard at that

program more broadly now that we've seen it really take off. You know, in the early days, we only launched three months ago. We thought, will people, will people really do this or will they want just a percentage of their purchase go into pregnancy centers? How do we really want, we know we want to give back, but what's the best avenue to do that? Now that we've learned that it really is this buy-for-a-cause program, we have big dreams for it. We have dreams where you can actually choose which one you want to send it to in any given month. We have dreams to partner with different churches or larger networks to do big disbursements. We've got some exciting ideas there. So what I'd love is if If you're interested and you have a pregnancy center in your area that you know would love these

EveryLife diapers, reach out to us at EveryLife.com. Let us know and kind of affirm that idea. Because anytime we hear from our customers that they want opportunities to help their own local communities, as we've described in this episode, we're going to take all those opportunities we can get. That's great. I'm going to talk to embrace grace about you guys too because they do a lot with with women in a community through a church that are unwed and pregnant. And I think this would be a great resource for them too. So I'm going to, I'm going to send a note to them too.

Well, Michael's been a true blessing having you on the Unashamed podcast. I'm going to do something I rarely do, but I want to invite you and your wife because I want to meet your wife too. Sometime to come over here to Louisiana. And the baby. And the baby, of course. That's right. Come over here when you have a minute.

we'd love to meet you and meet your family. Then we can have you in studio in person and give us an update sometime down the road and tell us how this business is doing because our audience is going to love this. I know it already and ask a lot of questions. So God bless you and what you're doing. Please give our best to your family. And just keep doing what you're doing, brother. Well, thank you so much.

That's an honor. And I look forward to joining you in Louisiana. Not only does that sound like an incredible trip with great people, but you have the best food in the country. We do. Yeah. It's very good. I won't lie.

It's very good. You don't get this body from abstaining. You know what I mean? So, thank you so much, Michael. God bless you. Give them again, that's publicsq.com. Tell them where people can get it one more time. That's exactly right.

Publicsq.com. Sneak peek, by the way. We're actually moving to Publicsquare. com fully written out in the month of November. So that's pretty exciting. We're doing a brand revamp. But go to publicsq. com.

If you want to check out the marketplace to discover over 70,000, thousand businesses that love the country, the Constitution, and the wonderful values it protects. And then EveryLife.com, if you're looking to go purchase diapers and wipes that are pro-life and pro-family for yourself, your child, your grandkid, or you can also go to EveryLife.com and contribute to the Buy for a Cause program if you want to give back through the powerful medium of diapers. I love it. Well, thank you, Michael.

We're going to do overtime, me, dad, and Lisa, and tell you guys a little bit about what Lisa and I've been doing in our pregnancy center speeches. So we'll see in overtime if you want to. follow us over at blazedtv.com slash unashamed. Thank you again, Michael, for being with us. Thanks, Michael. Thank you all. Thanks for listening to The Unashamed podcast. Help us out by rating us on iTunes. And don't miss an episode by subscribing on YouTube and be sure to click that little bell to get notified about new episodes. And for even more content that you won't get anywhere else, subscribe to Blaze TV at blazTV.com slash unashamed.