Order of Man - GRANGER SMITH ｜ Leading and Living Well in the Face of Extreme Adversity

00:00:00.000 Gentlemen, there is so much negativity and hostility and vitriol in the world today.

00:00:05.080 And it's unfortunate because even in the most difficult of circumstances, there is so much

00:00:11.020 to be positive about and grateful for. And as we look for and embrace those factors,

00:00:17.120 life just becomes so much more rewarding and fulfilling. Today I'm joined by country music

00:00:22.000 artist, Granger Smith. Yes. We also talk about his alter ego, Earl Dibbles Jr. We talk about

00:00:28.700 gratitude, juggling all of the duties and responsibilities of life and attaching the

00:00:34.060 right and empowering meaning to events and circumstances from life. We also get into

00:00:39.940 and talk about the tragic loss of Granger's son and how he continues to lead his family through

00:00:45.400 one of the most difficult situations imaginable, losing a child. You're a man of action. You live

00:00:51.180 life to the fullest, embrace your fears and boldly charge your own path. When life knocks you down,

00:00:56.320 you get back up one more time. Every time. You are not easily deterred or defeated. Rugged,

00:01:02.820 resilient, strong. This is your life. This is who you are. This is who you will become.

00:01:09.060 At the end of the day, and after all is said and done, you can call yourself a man.

00:01:14.260 Gentlemen, what is going on today? My name is Ryan Mickler. I am the host and founder of the Order

00:01:19.400 of Man podcast and movement. I've got a powerhouse conversation lined up, one that I've been working

00:01:24.380 on getting to you for a while now. We were finally able to make it happen. So I'm going to introduce

00:01:29.880 you to Granger Smith here in a minute. Before I do, I just want to mention and tell you, thank you.

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00:02:57.520 All right, guys, with that said, let me introduce you to my guest. His name is Granger Smith.

00:03:03.680 He's an absolutely incredible man. Our conversation was so powerful. You're going to hear that in a

00:03:08.060 minute. He's an extremely successful country music artist. He's the host of the Granger Smith podcast

00:03:13.320 and co-creator of his alter ego, Earl Dibbles Jr. A lot of you guys know Earl. He happens to be the

00:03:20.380 spokesperson for the clothing apparel company, Yigi apparel guys. I've been following Granger for years

00:03:25.340 now and I'd always been impressed with his positivity and outlook on life. And after our

00:03:30.940 conversation today, I am even more. So we talk about so much, uh, his positivity and energy and

00:03:37.240 excitement for life is infectious. And it makes me want to be a better man myself. And I think it will

00:03:43.360 for you too. Granger, what's up brother. Thanks for joining me on the podcast, man. Thanks for having

00:03:49.060 me. Thanks for the, uh, the package too. You sent me some new, uh, Yigi gear and I appreciate you guys

00:03:53.880 sending that out my way. It sounds like you guys have a, uh, a new launch coming up here in a,

00:03:58.500 in a week or two, uh, March 19th. I think it is. Yeah. Do you like it? I love it, man. I love it.

00:04:03.960 Yeah. I love it. And my boy loves it too. He's, uh, my oldest, I've got four kids, but my, uh, my oldest

00:04:09.540 is like, Oh, can I have this? I'm like, well, yeah, but it won't fit you, but it'll probably be a year

00:04:14.200 or two before all of my stuff fits him. He's already wearing my shoe size. He steals my hats. He steals my

00:04:19.820 geese. Yeah. It's, uh, it's kind of interesting how it's working out with him getting as big as I

00:04:23.700 am already. Love it, man. Yeah. Well, if you don't, if you don't like the stuff on this launch,

00:04:28.760 then, uh, there's always a next launch. So we'll just, we'll just keep on sending stuff to you.

00:04:32.460 I thought you were going to say, if you don't like the stuff on this launch, screw off. That's

00:04:35.300 what I thought you were going to say, but no, it's a, it's good, man. I like what you guys are doing.

00:04:41.380 I really appreciate not just obviously the brand, but what you guys stand for and what you're all

00:04:45.960 about. So it's pretty cool to be able to have a conversation. Thank you, brother. Very much.

00:04:50.180 And you got a new, uh, you got a new, uh, music video. I think that just came out yesterday as

00:04:54.840 well. I just, I watched it, uh, just this morning. Turned out really good. Thanks, man. Yeah, this is,

00:04:59.680 you know, I've done a lot of music videos, but this was unique in a lot of ways. Uh, it was the first,

00:05:04.860 first of all, it was the first all night shoot. So we, we started shooting it, you know, as soon as

00:05:09.740 the sun went down and, uh, we finished up about 4 a.m. So that was my first time to do that. I know a lot

00:05:14.780 of people have done that before. Yeah. It's popular in movie making, you know, when you got

00:05:19.720 to shoot a night scene and it's crazy that the music video is only two and a half minutes

00:05:24.620 and it went all night all night. That actually, that actually seems pretty quick. When you said

00:05:29.120 it was in one night, that actually seems pretty quick. But with the, with the set that you guys

00:05:33.780 had on the road and the truck and everything else, it seems like, all right, we got a limited

00:05:37.100 time to be able to do this. We can't spread this out over a couple of nights. And that all

00:05:40.860 falls really on the producer and the director because that a director like this, this guy,

00:05:46.300 TK, we've worked with him several times before and man, he has his shot list created before

00:05:52.020 we start. And it has the song written out lyrically and each minute and each second that each word

00:06:02.180 is said is highlighted. And then underneath the, the second, the minute, the second, and the,

00:06:08.760 the lyric, it has the shot that he needs. And so he literally goes through that shot list

00:06:14.400 and he has to plan it. So you don't shoot in order, right? Shoot in order of how your

00:06:21.420 scenes are set up. So, and I'm sure movies are, I've never shot a movie. I'm sure it's

00:06:26.280 the same way though. You're going to shoot, you might shoot the last scene first, just

00:06:29.600 right. It's not chronologically. You need the setup that you need. And so a good producer

00:06:34.760 will, will know while the director is filming one shot, he's prepping the secondary crew

00:06:42.360 on the next shot coming up, lighting it, getting it ready, getting the, the environment set

00:06:48.940 so that then you could, you could literally finish that first shot. And then the director

00:06:53.760 goes, all right, where's my second shot? And the producer goes right over here. Okay. We

00:06:56.600 have this set up. The director gives a few yes or nos according to the environment. And, uh,

00:07:02.300 that way you could literally go shot, shot, shot, go down the list and accomplish everything

00:07:07.140 you need in one day. And it's a money thing too. I mean, you, you gotta have a crew, you

00:07:12.580 gotta pay them. Right. And you can't go for another day. I mean, that, that would double

00:07:16.820 your budget. Yeah. At least, you know, it's, it's interesting too. Cause I think what a lot

00:07:21.040 of people, even if you're, as you're explaining this for a two and a half minute video, you know,

00:07:26.600 you've got, you're shooting all night, then you've got production, then you've got all

00:07:29.720 the camera equipment and the lighting and the props and everything else. And the amount

00:07:33.480 of investment that goes into it. And it's really interesting because what most people

00:07:37.480 will see and only acknowledge is, you know, two and a half minutes and they won't see

00:07:42.300 everything. I think about this with fighters too. You know, you see a guy get into the

00:07:45.380 ring. I watch UFC quite a bit and you see these guys get millions and millions of dollars

00:07:50.360 of payouts. Like Amanda Nunes, for example, I don't know what she made, but millions of

00:07:54.700 dollars on that fight. And she was in the fight for what a minute and a half. And so

00:07:59.320 people will say, she just made, you know, $10 million an hour or something or whatever 0.52

00:08:05.120 it comes, whatever that waits to you. And it's like, no, no, no, no, no. You, you don't

00:08:08.820 understand how this works. Cause she's put in years and years and years, same thing with

00:08:12.720 you performing, you know, people probably look at you and a performance and think, oh yeah,

00:08:17.440 you know, anybody can do that. And they negate the two or three decades of work to get you

00:08:23.200 to where you are right now.

00:08:24.860 Absolutely. And then, and even so in my world and in the fighters world,

00:08:29.220 similarly, similarly, you, you look at a fight that, that lasted, you know, four minutes

00:08:35.760 in a knockout. Well, he had to, he or she had to travel to that location. They had to get

00:08:43.620 the hotel. They had to, to do all the preliminary check-ins and, and so, you know, the minimal

00:08:51.020 fight is going to take what you can tell me what 48 hours at minimum of, uh, just getting

00:08:58.980 there and getting ready. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Do you get that a lot? Do you get discounted

00:09:05.140 a lot with the amount of work that you've put forth? Cause I think, um, from, from my

00:09:09.520 perspective, I imagine people will look at you and think, all right, well, here's a guy

00:09:13.080 who's extremely successful. He's got the, the, the music career he's doing really well

00:09:17.960 with. He's got his, his brand and his apparel company, and he's got this YouTube channel.

00:09:22.760 Do you find that people are discounting and dismissing what it's taken to get there? And

00:09:26.640 I mean, is that, is that something that I don't want to say bothers you, but how do you address

00:09:30.480 that with people? Yeah, I would say, I would say it's 1% of, of a hundred. We'll, we'll address

00:09:38.920 that and talk about it. The 1%, as we know, as most things in life, the 1% is pretty loud.

00:09:45.100 Yes. They're always the loudest for sure. They make themselves heard. Um, but most people,

00:09:51.540 99% of people realize that there is no such thing as overnight success. There's no such

00:09:57.420 thing as, is really even a flash in the pan. It takes, it takes an army, not, not just that

00:10:02.960 one person. If you're speaking in terms of a singer, it takes an army of, of booking and

00:10:09.640 management and band and crew to, to pull this off consistently over years and decades to

00:10:20.180 create something that's called a successful career. Right. Yeah. And it's probably interesting

00:10:26.400 for you because how early, how young were you when you get, when you got started in, we'll

00:10:31.940 just say professionally performing, singing, et cetera. Yeah. I guess the, the best starting

00:10:38.760 point for me is when, when I could say this is paying the bills, you know, like I'm not

00:10:43.640 doing, I don't have another job that's, that's making more money than what I'm doing. I, I

00:10:48.780 had supplemental jobs a lot through that process. But when I would say this is my main gig, I

00:10:55.040 was 20 years old. Okay. Yeah. And I'm, I'm about to turn 42 this fall. Yeah. So that's

00:11:00.820 what, that's what I'm talking about. Over two decades of work to get you to the point where

00:11:04.340 you are now, when you started, I imagine it was, it was just you, maybe your, your family,

00:11:09.860 your bro. I know you're, you're really engaged with your brothers, your brothers there today.

00:11:12.900 It looks like, but it was probably just you, what singing at bars, trying to get gigs, doing

00:11:19.400 some things with your family. I mean, there probably wasn't a promotion team or a crew or

00:11:23.340 anything else going on. No, it's a great point because when I see people that are wanting to

00:11:30.820 get into the industry, usually your first reaction is to look for, I got to find a manager. I got to,

00:11:38.640 I got to find a booking agent. When I find a booking agent, things are really going to take

00:11:42.180 off or they'll say, I got to get a record deal. As soon as I get that record deal, man, it's just

00:11:46.080 going to fall in place. And I always try to dismiss that as quickly as possible, because

00:11:51.160 if you can't establish yourself just from you and you alone at the beginning, if you can't do that,

00:11:58.900 there's no way you're going to be able to manage it at a larger level. All those things really have

00:12:04.200 to come exactly at the time that you need them the most. And so in terms of a booking agent,

00:12:10.140 I always tell people, they say, man, if I could just get a booking agent, or some people say,

00:12:14.260 if I could just get away from the current booking agent and get with a better one.

00:12:17.900 Yeah. And I always say, man, Tyler and I, at the very beginning, we were just cold calling venues

00:12:24.640 by ourselves way before we wanted to trust a booking agency. When you're the low man on the

00:12:31.040 totem pole there, we were cold calling venues and saying, Hey, you never heard of us. We'd like to come

00:12:37.380 house Saturday night, the 15th work for your schedule. And they'd say, man, we don't, we don't

00:12:41.760 know who you are. Well, listen, you don't have to pay us anything. Just pay us, pay us the door.

00:12:47.400 Give us a hundred percent of your door and we'll charge $5 a ticket. I don't know. My Saturday

00:12:53.240 nights are pretty booked. Then give us a Thursday, give us a Thursday night. How does that look for

00:12:57.240 you? So it really starts with like any other sales job, cold calling. Yeah. I remember when I

00:13:06.320 started this organization, this movement here, I reached out to an organization that was putting

00:13:10.760 on an event for men and I reached out and I had no business doing this, but it sounds very similar.

00:13:15.600 I said, Hey, I want to come speak at your event. And the guy was like, who are you? I said, I'm just

00:13:21.740 a guy that wants to talk at your event. I've got, I've got some things to share. And they're like,

00:13:25.460 no, you're not coming to, but come to the event and introduce yourself. And so I did, you know,

00:13:29.960 I bought the ticket. I went out there, I spent some time and I ended up speaking at that event for

00:13:35.140 four years following, but it took me having the balls to go say, Hey, I want to go speak at your

00:13:40.760 event. When I actually had no business speaking at this guy's event. That's man. That's awesome. If 0.76

00:13:46.380 you don't hear enough times, someone say, who are you? Then you're not doing the right things at the

00:13:52.680 beginning. You need people to say, who are you? And then your answer is, let me show you. Right.

00:13:58.920 Right. Like that's the right question to ask.

00:14:01.120 Yeah. Yeah. I like that. You know, it's I don't want to say it's easier now. I mean,

00:14:06.920 it might, it might be just because you have name recognition and people know who you are, but

00:14:10.320 the other facet of that is you have this incredible tool called social media that you guys have tapped

00:14:14.920 into so well with your company, with your brand, with Earl, you've got everything going on. And that's

00:14:21.220 probably been just a tremendous blessing for you when, you know, 20 years ago, you know, we didn't,

00:14:26.720 we didn't have that. We didn't have social media 20 years ago to be able to tap into the

00:14:30.520 leverage of reaching people across the planet in a blink of an eye.

00:14:34.620 Man, I think there's a good argument that if it wasn't for social media, I wouldn't have made it

00:14:39.520 in the traditional route, you know? And so, so yeah, it's, it's been a huge blessing. We realized

00:14:45.060 quickly that through trying to get gigs and play a show on a Saturday night and playing to a bartender

00:14:54.180 and a couple of random people that just accidentally walked in the bar, we would have better success

00:15:00.040 really thinking about a really viral Facebook posts that we could do, or some really catchy

00:15:08.280 video we could put on YouTube. And we would have better success or better odds of reaching more people

00:15:15.460 through really good contemplation on a Facebook post. Then we would going into a random bar

00:15:22.760 and just trying to, you know, put a notch in the belt and say, there's another gig.

00:15:27.420 There's another gig for the books that probably meant nothing to anyone or including your career.

00:15:33.520 Right. Right. Yeah. You guys have harnessed it so well. How, how have you developed that

00:15:37.520 over time? You know, what are some things that maybe you ran into some pitfalls or how has that

00:15:43.820 evolved? I know my messaging has certainly evolved over a period of, you know, six years and I think it's

00:15:49.220 gotten better. You know, we become more efficient. We figure out what people are interested in. We,

00:15:53.100 we, we, we communicate in a way that resonates with people. How has that changed for you over the past?

00:15:58.280 What is it? 10 years or so now?

00:16:00.460 Yeah. I think trying to always keep a pulse on what people are needing, what people are, how,

00:16:06.380 how people are connecting and what style it's usually the same message you're getting out.

00:16:11.660 It's just how are you relaying that message? So, you know, at the beginning it was my space and

00:16:17.420 my space operated a certain way. And I remember we were, Tyler and I were going to these big country

00:16:25.540 music accounts and going to their fans and then adding them as our friends. Like that was a good

00:16:31.580 way to start, you know? Yeah, for sure. It, it, it leads back to the question, like you said earlier,

00:16:36.440 who are you? Well, come and find out at least to get you the opportunity. So as that, as that evolved,

00:16:43.040 as social media evolved, we tried to always keep it in-house as authentic as possible,

00:16:48.340 never sending out, we kind of made it a rule to never send out a message that's, that after the

00:16:53.440 sentence we posted would say, dash Granger team, as if some big team is making, trying to make

00:17:01.200 yourself bigger than you are. No one wants to, no one cares about your team and what your team has to

00:17:06.520 say about you. So we tried to always keep it, um, in very conversational terms as if, as if we had 10

00:17:15.100 fans and we're speaking directly to them all the time. Yeah. That's actually one thing that among

00:17:19.640 others that I've seen you do very well. It seems to me like anybody who would connect with you,

00:17:25.040 either something like this via zoom or one-to-one would already feel like they're your friend because

00:17:31.400 it is you. It doesn't seem like it's manipulated. It doesn't seem like it's overly curated or produced

00:17:38.820 because you talk about what works and you talk about what doesn't. You've talked about personal

00:17:42.500 issues and hard times. And I think that's what really resonates with people. Why they, why they

00:17:46.860 want to be connected with you in some way. I think we try to always keep in mind who's listening

00:17:52.120 and that's, that goes to what you're saying. For instance, on, you know, in the early days of

00:17:58.060 Twitter, I knew that we had followers, we didn't have a lot, but I knew we had followers that were

00:18:03.760 sprinkled all over. And so for me to go on Twitter and say, doors open at six drink specials, 10% off

00:18:13.660 well drinks, um, first 30 people in the door get, and we're talking about San Angelo, Texas. When our

00:18:22.160 followers on Twitter, we might have 47 followers that are around San Angelo and the rest of them

00:18:28.820 were not. And, and that it just, it starts to look like spam and it becomes not interesting to everyone.

00:18:35.540 So I tried to always keep in mind who's listening when I post something. And is this going to be

00:18:41.440 relative to all the people listening? And, and we, we would always hit these stumbling blocks with

00:18:47.220 say a venue that would say, can you get Granger to post? And we still get this today.

00:18:52.660 Oh, I bet. Can you get Granger to post one more time about the show Saturday night?

00:18:58.040 And it's like, well, you're, you're in Columbus, Ohio. And if we hit them, if we hit all of our

00:19:04.020 followers too hard about Columbus, Ohio, they're not going to want to follow us anymore because

00:19:09.520 they're not there. And that's, yeah, I'm in Maine. I'm like, I don't care what's happening in Ohio.

00:19:13.660 It doesn't matter to me. How does that apply to me? Right. Exactly. Yeah.

00:19:17.960 So when you say who's listening, who, who, who is listening? Like, who is it that you want to serve?

00:19:24.440 What, what kind of individual does that look like? What kind of values are you trying to

00:19:29.820 communicate and portray to them? Cause I look, man, I look at you more as more than just a country

00:19:34.860 music, music artists. Like there there's more behind it. You're not just singing songs. There's

00:19:39.760 messages, there's values. Who is it that you're trying to resonate with?

00:19:43.240 Yeah. It's that's, that question has evolved over the last couple of decades for sure on who's,

00:19:49.940 who's listening and why do I want them listening to me? And, um, that's evolved. It started as a

00:19:56.580 pretty wide, a wide brush stroke. You know, we want to get, we want people to pay attention to us. That

00:20:03.680 was the ultimate goal at the very beginning. Sure. Pay attention to us. Here we are. And this is,

00:20:09.500 you know, this is, this is funnier. This is really dynamic, or this is, this is crazy. Watch this or

00:20:14.680 listen to this. And then as the years went by and we realized as Tyler says, who are, who our tribe is

00:20:22.900 and we would speak more directly to the tribe, you know, to the people that want to,

00:20:28.720 that want to be pulled in and hear a deeper thought from me. Or, you know, if I'm out on a

00:20:34.460 morning walk and I'm thinking about something and, and I think, and I think I want to share this with

00:20:41.000 my followers. I want to, and, and I wouldn't probably have done that 15 years ago. I would just

00:20:46.620 have said new album coming April 17th, get excited. You know, I would have said that. So, um, and as I

00:20:55.360 get older, I think the, the message I want to send, uh, gets a little bit more intimate and less about

00:21:07.320 how many retweets or followers or repost or comments or likes I get and more about spreading a message of

00:21:16.320 hope and, and integrity, positivity, um, things that, uh, an anxious world probably needs to hear.

00:21:26.460 Yeah. Yeah. I definitely agree. Do you ever, uh, do you ever get concerned about sharing too much

00:21:31.980 personally or even your wife, you know, does she get concerned about what you put out there and

00:21:36.480 how connected and, and, and how, how much you're sharing about your own personal lives?

00:21:42.820 Yeah, I do. I do. And, uh, I can't speak for Amber, my wife. Um, she's, she kind of operates

00:21:51.320 differently on social media and she does share a lot and she has just unbelievable engagement on her

00:21:56.380 socials. I don't have that, that level of engagement, the intimacy she has with her followers.

00:22:03.460 I don't have that. I have more followers that are less intimate and that's okay. I'm totally fine with

00:22:09.680 that. Um, and there's times when either things are really down for me or things are really, really

00:22:19.240 good for me. And both of those scenarios, I'm always careful when I share it because not everyone

00:22:26.040 is going through a joyful time and not everyone is going through a dark time. And so I have to,

00:22:33.360 I have to kind of play it where I want everyone to listen to this, to this message, whether you're

00:22:39.740 in a good time or a bad time. And I'm not going to brag about my good times, man. Life is good.

00:22:46.260 Yeah. Sun is shining. I'm out here, man. I'm out here on the lake. This is life doesn't get any

00:22:51.880 better than this. It's okay to do that. But I always have to realize as I'm posting that,

00:22:56.920 that somebody reading that is going through hell right now. Hmm. And it's not going to help them at all

00:23:02.540 to listen to my message. And, uh, the same as, is with the opposite. So I always try to keep that

00:23:09.540 in mind. And I, I don't, I don't ever really go, um, too deep in, in what I'm feeling, uh, because

00:23:17.560 that's, that's, that's, I have to save some stuff for, for personal. Yeah. Yeah. I get that. And,

00:23:23.960 and it's an interesting perspective when you say that I'm not going to share, like you said,

00:23:28.880 you're careful about when the highs and lows are, that's different actually than what a lot of

00:23:34.600 people do. Cause I think what we see more often is the zero F's mentality, right? Like I don't give a

00:23:39.460 shit what you're dealing with. And, you know, this is my life. And, and I can see that, that level of, 0.99

00:23:45.260 um, maybe just a little bit more empathy or understanding how that actually is a, is a pretty

00:23:51.620 good approach in a world that seems to be increasingly selfish, you know? Sure. Sure.

00:23:57.580 I try to always, always paint things with the, with the level of gratefulness with everything,

00:24:03.580 whether it's highs or lows, you could be grateful when you're low, you could be grateful when you're

00:24:06.940 high. And I think if you kind of paint with, with gratefulness as an undertone and everything that

00:24:12.060 you're saying, um, then it, it, it means more. So for instance, I love snow skiing. I love it.

00:24:18.340 So if I'm up on top of a mountain and I like skiing by myself, I get up on top of a mountain

00:24:23.940 and there's always a lift that'll take you to the very top. And I'll look around.

00:24:28.840 And my first instinct is always pull out the phone and give a big old, awesome Instagram post,

00:24:34.120 you know, beautiful panorama. And I always try to, when I do that, I always try to paint that with

00:24:40.840 a good hint of gratefulness. Like, man, I'm up on this mountain perspective,

00:24:47.840 tomorrow I'm going to be back in the grind. I'm going to be working again. You know, I'm going to

00:24:51.900 be grinding something out down and, you know, wherever I'm going to be tomorrow, uh, no going

00:24:57.760 on no sleep, but right now I'm going to soak in this moment, knowing that I don't get these that

00:25:03.560 often. And I'm going to, I'm going to take in this beauty. I'm going to take in this, this clean

00:25:08.020 air that I'm breathing and I'm going to love it so much for what it is. And I'm grateful for this

00:25:13.200 moment. So anyway, I just always try to paint it that way. So then if, if you're down or if

00:25:18.220 you're down and you read that, you could think there's hope, right? If you're up and you read

00:25:22.660 that, you could be reminded that you got to be grateful too. I think there's in what I hear you

00:25:27.580 say too, is there's an element of being present in the moment too, uh, where you're just, you're

00:25:32.180 sitting there, you're at the top of this mountain, you're looking at the beauty. You're grateful you

00:25:36.460 get to do this thing that not everybody gets to do. And that makes you more present in the

00:25:40.220 moment. It seems to me, and this is a weird dichotomy because you're obviously you're public

00:25:44.700 facing. You have to promote yourself. You have to put yourself out there as part of your career

00:25:49.120 and your, your choices. Um, but there's this push to like, I got to show everything to everybody.

00:25:55.920 And I'm working on a project right now with my son. And a lot of people know, cause I've shared

00:25:59.820 things about it. We're building a canoe and, and I've had a lot of people like, Oh, are you going to

00:26:04.940 post a video and you're going to like break this down for him? And like, actually, no, I'm not going to do

00:26:09.860 that. Like, I'll show you some pictures of the progress and things, but I am grateful that I get

00:26:14.900 to do this with my son. And I actually just really want to be present. I don't want to curate any

00:26:19.000 content around doing this project together because that's not the purpose of it, but it seems like

00:26:24.320 in society, we've got so wrapped up in, you know, how, how can I, what kind of angle can I take with

00:26:30.280 this? And what kind of content can I curate from this so that people can think I'm maybe more important

00:26:35.380 than I actually am. And then we lose the presence of being there and the, and the benefits of being

00:26:39.460 there in the moments guys, let me hit the pause button on the conversation real quick. I want

00:26:45.080 to tell you something, having men in your corner cannot be overstated. You know, too many men have

00:26:49.860 decided to walk through life alone. And oftentimes they're left feeling frustrated and overwhelmed with

00:26:56.920 all that they have to deal with. But banding with other men doesn't make you weak or inferior.

00:27:01.400 Some people seem to think that if anything, it gives you access to the tools and accountability

00:27:05.340 needed to make you a stronger man. And with over 800 men inside of our exclusive brotherhood,

00:27:11.340 the iron council, you're going to find the type of men you need to thrive inside the walls of your

00:27:16.440 home, your business, and also in your community. Now, I know a lot of you have been sitting on the

00:27:21.600 fence about and joining the iron council. So I would tell you this, get off the fence and give it a

00:27:27.140 try. Just give it a try. Worst case scenario, you don't find any value and you leave, but I think

00:27:31.960 you'll find that when you band with us, every facet of your life is going to improve because you have

00:27:37.120 other men you're accountable for and two, and you have the frameworks needed to succeed. And you'll

00:27:43.040 probably be asking why you just didn't join us sooner. So guys, if you're interested, head to

00:27:48.120 order, a man.com slash iron council, again, order, a man.com slash iron council to join us in our

00:27:54.400 exclusive brotherhood. Do that after the conversation for now, we'll get back to it with Granger.

00:27:58.260 If you could master both levels of what you said and be, be present and be in the moment and enjoy

00:28:07.920 that moment and then slice out a little bit of time to create content, to share that gratefulness and

00:28:14.700 that presence with other people, then I think you could, you could kind of accomplish the best of both

00:28:19.540 worlds, but it has to start with what you said. It has to start with you being in that moment and

00:28:26.140 seeing that yourself with your own eyeballs or not through the, the iPhone camera and truly soaking

00:28:32.520 that in. How do you, how do you personally deal with that as your demand for time and attention and

00:28:39.500 your energy increases and will only continue to increase as, as we progress? Yeah, it's,

00:28:46.780 it's, it's not as hard. I know you know this, but just speaking out loud, it's not as hard as,

00:28:54.640 as everyone wants to think because we have so much trash time in our lives. Um, you know, I've read,

00:29:02.920 I've read it in terms of unconscious time and that is you think, how could you be so busy and still

00:29:09.220 carve out time for yourself? No one is that busy. We get sidetracked so easily. We get, I mean, how

00:29:16.560 many times have we looked at a YouTube video and then seen the one pop up below it and you get

00:29:20.760 sucked down this rabbit hole. And then 20 minutes later, you're, you're still staring at your app,

00:29:26.060 your YouTube app. And that happens to all of us. And so to be aware of that, that you're,

00:29:31.160 that you're, you just trapped yourself in a rabbit hole and there's ways to, there's ways to get

00:29:36.780 around that. One, I never, I never wake up and look at my phone. I have a set time when I could

00:29:42.980 finally, I haven't, there's not really a time, but there's, there's a sequence of events I have to do

00:29:47.560 in my morning before I get to my phone. And then at night I don't sleep with my phone in my room.

00:29:52.920 So there's a sequence of events I do before bedtime when the phone is now put away, it's on the charger

00:29:59.720 in the other room. And then, and that's usually about, about nine o'clock. And so after nine o'clock

00:30:05.900 and that, that, that could change, but about nine o'clock at and on it's, it's wind down time,

00:30:12.280 it's routine, it's me and Amber, the kids are down and I'm not, so that becomes my being in the present

00:30:21.220 moment, that, that time I need for myself. And then at the same time, then you can carve out times in the

00:30:26.840 day and go, all right, from, from 10 AM to 3 PM, it's, it's all go, it's all work time. And in that work

00:30:34.620 time, I still have to be aware of falling unconscious to the phone or getting sidetracked

00:30:40.740 by, you know, this and that. And, and then all of a sudden, when you start realizing that

00:30:46.480 you realize I had a lot more time than I thought I did during the day.

00:30:50.200 Yeah. It's amazing how much time we waste, but those boundaries that you're talking about

00:30:53.800 are crucial, but it also takes some intentionality. You know, I don't think anybody's going to be able

00:30:58.480 to create those boundaries that you're talking about or putting these little systems in place

00:31:01.900 if they aren't deliberate and intentional about their day, it just seems like most people are

00:31:06.820 just going with a flow, wherever it takes you, the current's going that way. Okay. I'll go that way.

00:31:10.840 And they never carve out that time you're talking about to think about, is this activity helping me?

00:31:16.100 Is it serving me? Is it hindering me? What can I do more efficiently or effectively? Or do I need to

00:31:20.760 get rid of this? They just don't have the time. I should say it this way. They don't take the time to do that.

00:31:25.400 Yeah. Yeah. They want to say they don't have the time. Right. Hey, I get it. I'm human just like

00:31:30.740 anyone else. And I'm no better than anybody else when it comes to managing time. If I leave myself

00:31:36.420 to my own device, then I'm going to fall victim of that unconscious time constantly. So like you said,

00:31:44.880 it's if, if you want to stop, for instance, if you want to say, I don't, I want to really cut back

00:31:49.640 on eating chocolate chip cookies. I love them. I really cut that out of my life. You can't leave

00:31:55.860 a big jar on your, on your counter in the kitchen when you walk past it. You leave yourself to your

00:32:01.600 own device. You're going to reach into the jar. We're not strong enough as humans to, to avoid that

00:32:07.900 kind of temptation. So the best thing to do is get the jar out of the house so that when you're,

00:32:14.320 when you go through a week or time, you're not going to stick your hand in the jar. It's the same

00:32:18.180 thing with the phone, same thing with carving out family time, same thing with really having some

00:32:22.180 deep work focus time when it, whenever you are working on, on your career and not falling into

00:32:28.860 that kind of temptation. It's like you said, you have to be deliberate about first understanding

00:32:34.080 that you're human. You're going to fall victim to it unless you actually set some true tangible

00:32:39.080 guidelines for yourself. Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense. How do you view your, your career

00:32:45.180 aspirations and your desire to be a family man? Cause I know you have both and I have both and

00:32:50.740 most guys listening have both. Do you view those as conflicting pursuits, complimentary pursuits?

00:32:58.800 What does that look like for you? Yeah. I heard it put like this one time. It's cause you're right.

00:33:05.580 We have to have both. You gotta have both. You can't say I'm, I'm a family man. First and foremost,

00:33:11.060 that's all that matters. It's not really true because then you're not following the pursuit

00:33:15.880 of your heart that that's put inside you, the desire to, to, to chase your dreams and follow

00:33:22.980 your aspirator. You gotta have that because if you don't have that, you're not going to be a good

00:33:27.500 family man. You're going to be, you're going to be lonely and depressed and, and static. You know,

00:33:33.320 you can't, you can't be a good family man unless you have an adventure. There's a great book

00:33:38.180 called wild at heart. I love John Eldridge. Yeah. John Eldridge, you know, and then that speaks

00:33:42.660 to that. You gotta, you gotta have your adventure. And as a wife, you can't take that adventure away 1.00

00:33:48.540 from your man. So I've heard it put like this before. It's what it's like juggling balls. We all

00:33:54.340 have to juggle. You got your rubber balls and you got your glass balls. So when you're juggling your

00:34:01.020 families, your glass, you know, don't ever drop that. You could occasionally miss one of the rubber

00:34:07.800 ones. It could hit the ground. It bounces. You can pick it back up. You could enter it back into

00:34:12.280 the juggling, but never let go of the glass. That's going to break. You cannot let go. And so

00:34:17.860 I think of it that way. It's, it's a juggle. It's a juggle and you got to have it both going at the

00:34:21.820 same time, but it's okay to accidentally miss the career and let it bounce. Yeah. Pick it back up.

00:34:28.140 That's an interesting way to look at it. I've never considered it like that. The glass and the rubber

00:34:32.140 balls, you know, you, you had an, and, and I asked you about this out of respect for you, but you had

00:34:37.360 a very traumatic life event several years ago with the loss of your son river. Yeah. And I think that

00:34:45.120 was probably one of those glass ball moments where you thought, okay, this stuff out here needs to be

00:34:50.840 put on hold and I need to re-engage here. Cause I don't, I don't want to let that go. Can you talk

00:34:55.520 about that? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And, um, there's moments we all have these moments and

00:35:03.660 if you haven't had it yet, then it's coming because it's just, that's what we do as humans.

00:35:11.400 We, we suffer, we suffer well. People don't like to hear that. You know, they, they, people want to

00:35:18.040 think that they could try to make their life, um, free of suffering and nothing but happiness.

00:35:24.160 But, uh, the reality is that the cemeteries are full of people that ended up suffering at some

00:35:32.400 level. And that's just, that's, that's our human nature. Um, we, as a family, we did, we had a,

00:35:38.960 we had this event that was kind of the, the unthinkable event that happened two years ago to us.

00:35:45.080 Um, and I had to drop everything really, I had to drop everything. I had to not only deal with

00:35:53.080 my own grief and loss, which was just unthinkable and the darkest of times. I not only had to do

00:36:01.700 that, but I also had to realize that I'm still a husband, a father to two beautiful kids that need

00:36:10.680 my support that need me to lead and guide them in the right way. And, um, um, early on, I, I had to,

00:36:24.180 I didn't decide to, I had to, I had to make it a priority to, to balance my own grief and loss

00:36:31.700 with still moving forward with the family, uh, in, in a positive direction so that the other two kids

00:36:39.680 saw strengths through that and were able to have a, a somewhat normal life when they went back to

00:36:49.020 school that fall, for instance. Um, and, and that's, that's still a challenge to this day. I don't think

00:36:55.660 I'll ever master it, but, uh, it's, it goes back to that word being deliberate and making that intention

00:37:02.660 to, to continue to lead them and guide them while I'm dealing with my own trouble.

00:37:09.280 How, how much of your, your grief and your sorrow that I can't even imagine you must've experienced.

00:37:17.400 Did you allow your children to see, did, did, did they see that? Did you have conversations about that?

00:37:23.560 Or did you try to take a more stoic approach with them? What did that look like?

00:37:29.760 Yeah. Yeah. I, uh, I, I let them see it and I didn't let them see all of it. I let them see

00:37:37.420 what I thought they were capable of understanding and seeing meaning I didn't want to walk around.

00:37:45.240 You know, I was, I was, I wanted to be a zombie and I wanted to walk around and just

00:37:50.260 head to the ground, kicking dirt, tears in my eyes, shouting at God, you know, I wanted to be that

00:37:57.460 guy at the same time. Um, I needed them also. I needed them to, to see strength and see a smile

00:38:09.280 and see, to see me tell them it's going to be okay. And then I had to balance that with

00:38:16.120 guys. It's okay. Whatever you're feeling right now is okay. If you're sad right now,

00:38:23.060 you should be, it's okay. If you feel happy, that's okay too. If you want to smile right now,

00:38:29.700 that's okay. That's up. That's completely up to you. There's no wrong emotion you could have

00:38:34.620 during a crazy time like this. I'm not, I'm not talking about 24 hours in, I'm talking months,

00:38:39.560 months after, you know, if you, if you see a, something the dog does, that's funny laugh and

00:38:46.440 don't feel guilty about laughing because river's not here anymore. And I wanted them to see that

00:38:50.480 for me and kind of show them that example. So I had to balance the, what I wanted to do,

00:38:56.960 be a zombie. And then what I knew I needed to do, I needed to be strong. I need to show them tears

00:39:02.460 when they needed to see it, that dad is, dad is vulnerable, just like you dad goes through highs

00:39:09.740 and lows, just like you, but dad's also going to always be here to protect you and to, to, to show

00:39:16.060 you what's best through all of this. Yeah, man, that's, that's very powerful. You, you guys created

00:39:21.720 a foundation in, in his name were the kids part of that. And was that part of the, the grieving

00:39:29.700 process, but also part of the healing process for you guys too, is trying to turn this into

00:39:34.640 a situation where some good would come of the event itself? Absolutely. Yeah. Like, you know,

00:39:40.440 river is a part of our daily conversation. He's, he's part of our lives daily. Uh, we talk about him.

00:39:48.000 Um, we're at a point now, two years later where there's a lot of laughing that happens when we

00:39:54.680 think about riff, we, we smile, we laugh. Remember when river was dancing on the table and he said

00:40:00.700 this and we laugh, that's, that's really good that, but, but there, there's sad moments too,

00:40:07.680 of course. And the good thing is he's a part of our daily conversations, our daily lives. He's a part

00:40:14.020 of our family and always will be. And I expect the kids to, to be grown adults thinking of stories

00:40:22.140 of river and including them in conversations with their friends and many people that never got to

00:40:26.660 meet him. And so creating the foundation, um, was an important way for us to continue that legacy for

00:40:33.680 people that never knew him or never met him. And to continue the thought that we believe as

00:40:41.760 Christians, that there's no accidents that, that God has a plan. He, he's, he has a sovereign plan.

00:40:48.120 Although sometimes we don't understand it and we might not want to believe it, but we, we, we tell

00:40:55.640 the kids that everything happens for a reason and, and we could find meaning and purpose through

00:41:01.740 river's little legacy through this foundation, knowing that as we see other lives affected and

00:41:07.840 other people helped through, whether that's a financial donation through the foundation or it's

00:41:13.780 us actually, like we did with this ice storm, get out with the kids and actually try to feed those

00:41:19.520 that didn't have water or food. And we try to, we try to instill that purpose with them. Like

00:41:24.620 there, see there there's meaning behind all this. Nothing is for nothing. It's not, nothing is an

00:41:29.820 accident. And I think it really helps the kids move forward like that.

00:41:35.480 Yeah. I imagine, you know, it's, it's interesting as you talk about with your kids,

00:41:39.220 giving them permission in a way to experience and deal with a situation on their own and then tell

00:41:47.140 them that it's okay to laugh and it's okay to smile. I imagine there's a lot of guilt that comes

00:41:51.520 with that, but what about for you? Like, how did you give, I don't know if permission is the right

00:41:56.600 word necessarily, but at what point did you realize, you know, it's, it's okay. I can, I can get back to

00:42:02.680 my career pursuits. I can chase my other endeavors that are important to me. How did you come to terms

00:42:08.820 with that? The only way I came to terms with it was just facing it head on. I wanted to just, I

00:42:16.180 wanted to just hide. I wanted to disappear. There was a good amount of time when I wanted to just

00:42:20.900 disappear and never be seen or heard. You'll never hear from Granger Smith ever again. That was my

00:42:27.100 first real inclination. Let's do that. I want to do that. I want to disappear. I want to go and just

00:42:33.780 bury my head somewhere and pulling out and going back into life, you know, going back on tour.

00:42:43.000 We, we did, we went back on tour about a month after the accident and I brought the whole family

00:42:46.980 with me and going on stage for the first time was a terrifying experience for me going back on stage,

00:42:55.460 facing fans. When in my mind, I'm thinking, I'm, I'm thinking that all of them are looking at me

00:43:02.440 going, there's the guy that lost his son. Yeah. Very judgmental. Oh man, poor guy. Or, or even worse,

00:43:10.380 poor, irresponsible man lost his son. He failed. And the one thing that you have to do, get, get them,

00:43:18.480 get them to 18 and get them out of the house. That's what everyone says. Get your kids out of the 1.00

00:43:21.760 house at 18. So there's the guy that failed at the one thing you're supposed to do in my mind.

00:43:26.940 That's what they're thinking. Right. And that's probably what you're thinking about yourself too.

00:43:30.720 Is it? Absolutely. Absolutely. So then I, I went to the show the next day and it was the same,

00:43:38.180 not as bad. And every show after that was a little bit less. And as I, as I faced the world

00:43:45.360 and I went head on into that, I, I found that now I started looking at the crowd, looking out

00:43:53.520 at the people individually and looking into their eyes and thinking, there's a person that has pain.

00:44:00.100 There's a person that's suffering in some way. And it could be anything. We, everything is relative

00:44:06.340 when it comes to suffering. I mean, someone could have lost their dog yesterday. That's terrible.

00:44:10.720 Losing a dog is terrible. It's relatively speaking to what, what you're doing and who you are in your

00:44:17.060 life. And I look into their eyes and it's, instead of them, instead of feeling some kind of weird

00:44:22.200 judgment back at me, I started feeling a connection. Like there's a guy on stage that suffering just

00:44:28.560 like me. He's been, I lost my grandmother last month and it's hard. And that guy lost his son and we

00:44:34.680 could have this moment as humans. And then I started, I said, I want to feed on that feeling

00:44:41.020 instead of the judgment guilt feeling. I want to feed on that. I want to, I want to, I want to focus on

00:44:47.040 the people that need to hear or need to see that guy lost his son and he's out here doing this. He's

00:44:53.580 out here playing music. He's doing it. I could do it now. I've been struggling with the loss of my

00:45:00.820 grandmother and I can't, can't, can't even imagine going back to work, but that guy's doing it and I

00:45:07.140 could do it. And so I started feeding on that and that slowly day by day mattered more and more.

00:45:16.660 I, I, when you're saying that I hear, I hear almost a sense of, of, I don't know, duty or

00:45:24.260 responsibility in you showing up for the people that want to be connected, whether it's just to

00:45:30.740 listen to your music or laugh at one of your memes or what, in whatever way, I feel like as you're

00:45:36.580 saying that there's, that you might have some sort of sense of duty or obligation is, is that right?

00:45:41.440 Do you feel like there's a huge sense of that? And, and I believe as a musician, when we started

00:45:47.900 finding success, I realized quickly, this is not on my own merit. The success is happening because

00:45:54.500 the community is supporting this artwork that we're putting out there. And, and so my responsibility

00:46:01.600 back to that community, that's allowing me to, to do something as crazy as, is getting paid for playing

00:46:09.060 music. Then my responsibility, responsibility back was the words that you said, to show up,

00:46:15.060 show up for them because, because music has this power of, of helping people erase what they're

00:46:24.080 thinking about or be present in the moment, or maybe remember something they hadn't thought about

00:46:29.060 in a while, or be hopeful for something they don't have yet in coming in the future. Music could do all

00:46:34.520 those kinds of things. And if I disappear from that, then I'm missing the obligation that the community

00:46:40.320 has given to me from this platform. Hmm. That's interesting. Do you ever feel like that could go

00:46:46.700 too far where you start living your entire life for the people who want to be connected with you?

00:46:54.460 And how do you keep yourself grounded? The people that want to be connected to me are still the rubber

00:46:58.720 balls. Hmm. They're still the rubber balls. And, and when we lost rib, I had to drop it all. 0.97

00:47:03.920 So I understand, and I've learned, especially from that, that they do bounce and I can pick it back

00:47:10.240 up again. As long as I continue to show back up, as long as I don't just give it up forever and it's

00:47:15.720 done, you know, as long as I could pick it back up, then they're still going to be there. And so

00:47:22.520 I don't feel, I've heard some artists say to me that they've given up meet and greets because

00:47:29.460 they're tired of hearing people's depressing stories right before they go on stage. Oh,

00:47:34.060 interesting. Okay. And, and I completely reject that idea because the reason you have a meet and

00:47:40.280 greet, the reason people even care to meet you is because of some kind of respect that you,

00:47:45.400 that you have earned. Of course. Through, through their connection with you and to, to, to ignore that

00:47:53.300 and to not want to engage in that is missing a huge part of why we're musicians in the first place.

00:48:01.060 I think that's a good point. I think it goes back to what you were saying earlier about meaning,

00:48:05.120 you know, you could take somebody's story, a depressing story, quote unquote, depressing story.

00:48:10.080 And the meaning that you could assign to it is this is a downer. This is not energizing me. I don't want

00:48:15.160 to hear this. Or alternatively, you could say, this is exactly why I need to perform tonight.

00:48:20.340 Like, this is exactly why I need to show up. And it's the same circumstance,

00:48:24.480 but you've just assigned different, whether you're right or wrong, actually,

00:48:28.700 you've just assigned different meaning that's actually going to be serving you and the people

00:48:32.540 you want to serve. Man, that's, that's so right. And I learned too, that it doesn't,

00:48:36.980 it could be a funny song. It could be a serious, it doesn't matter the content you're connecting in

00:48:42.700 some way. And if you don't assign that kind of meaning to it, you don't do that. It's just another 90

00:48:48.560 minute set, you get paid, you go, you go back on the bus and go to another town.

00:48:52.360 Right. Eventually that energy is going to run out. Eventually you're going to go,

00:48:56.820 I'm good. I don't need to go do another gig. Why would you, unless you've assigned that kind of

00:49:02.060 meaning that's more important than just another job? Yeah. Yeah, definitely. So you're talking about

00:49:08.420 humor a little bit, whether it's funny or serious or whatever. Talk to me about, uh, about Earl

00:49:12.580 and, and where Earl came from. I got to know. Yeah. Earl did to go back to, uh, early in our

00:49:19.120 conversation when we were just kind of doing everything we could on social media to get

00:49:22.980 people's attention. Look at me. Look, this is funny. Look at this. Yeah. We did that before Earl,

00:49:28.680 who's kind of a, just a ultra country boy, alter egos, lack of a better term. Yeah. We were

00:49:36.300 trying to promote music coming out. An album is in 2012, this around this time. So 2011, we were

00:49:46.720 trying to think of some viral videos to kind of get us out there to kind of get something, some kind

00:49:51.020 of buzz on social media. So we were trying different videos to just see if something, something

00:49:57.660 lasted. And Earl wasn't any more than that kind of idea. It wasn't some big grand idea, some big,

00:50:03.740 this will become an apparel company one day when we say, you had nothing to do with any of that.

00:50:08.700 Just another video. My brother, Tyler was working with me and I had that voice, this country voice.

00:50:14.460 And he said, let's go to the country guy. And so we, we, we took a little camera and we're out at mom

00:50:20.320 and dad's place. And, and Tyler says, I think this guy's name is Earl Dibbles Jr. As we literally,

00:50:25.940 as we're driving to film it. And I said, I like it, but why do you say that? And he said, well,

00:50:30.680 he said, I went to college with a guy named Dibbles. I think it's just a great name.

00:50:35.160 He said, Earl is pretty much the country's name. It's classic. It has to be junior. And I was like,

00:50:41.960 I got, I got no idea for that.

00:50:45.260 No, it's so funny, man, to see that and to see how that, that character's developed.

00:50:50.420 Do you, do you notice people being offended about anything that you share or do they take it in the

00:50:54.860 nature that it's intended, which is just lighten up, have some fun, let's joke around.

00:50:58.680 What's crazy is the very, the very beginning, there's some people in the industry, the music

00:51:05.640 industry. They're like, Oh, you guys are just putting a nail in the coffin on your career.

00:51:10.180 Really?

00:51:10.760 Put you're putting stuff out. That's making fun of country people. That's the last thing you'll ever

00:51:14.780 do. And, and I just had a, had a strong feeling against that thought. Cause I was like, man,

00:51:21.520 we're not making fun. This is a celebration of it.

00:51:24.200 Yeah. You're, this represents aunts and uncles and cousins and friends and people,

00:51:28.880 people we work with. I mean, I'm, there's a lot of Earl inside me. So to say that would be to say,

00:51:33.720 I'm making fun of myself. And Earl is so vulnerable. You know, he, he's just, it's like,

00:51:39.500 you want to give him a hug. You almost feel sorry for him. And, and, and since we launched him and

00:51:45.560 since he came into the world, uh, people seem to really embrace it no matter what their thoughts

00:51:52.080 are.

00:51:52.900 I love it, man. I think it's hilarious. Like it's, and, and, and you got to make fun of

00:51:57.320 yourself. You said, make fun of yourself. Like, that's actually the point. Like if you take yourself

00:52:00.880 too seriously about everything, like how miserable would your life be? Like you should make fun of your

00:52:05.660 weird quirks in your culture and you know, the things that are funny, it's funny, but we just,

00:52:11.160 people just don't want to laugh anymore. It seems like sometimes it's just lighten up and relax.

00:52:17.380 You said it, man. Can't take yourself too seriously. That's what it's all about. And

00:52:21.280 there was other artists that were like, man, you can't put yourself out there like that.

00:52:25.280 That just ruins the integrity of your art. You're not a professional anymore, right?

00:52:30.200 Yeah. Like, I don't think, I don't take my art that seriously.

00:52:33.680 Did you, did you imagine, I think I read some somewhere that, did you start playing the guitar

00:52:39.160 when you were, you must've been a teenager, maybe if I remember right.

00:52:42.340 I was at 14.

00:52:43.600 14. Okay. And did you know you wanted to be a country music artist at that point? Or was it,

00:52:50.080 Hey, you know, this'll, this'll get me the girls and that's about it. 1.00

00:52:54.040 No, I had no idea. It only started because I wanted to, my girlfriend to like me a little bit

00:52:59.380 more.

00:52:59.720 It was your girlfriend. Got it. I knew it had to be something with girls, right? 0.99

00:53:03.200 That was it, man. I mean, I just, I had to start. Like if I start now because girls obviously 1.00

00:53:08.300 like the guitar players in junior high where I was, there's a couple of people that play

00:53:12.720 guitar girls like them more. I don't know why that's like the mystery of the universe.

00:53:16.920 I don't know why. So I just thought, man, I need an edge. Like I'm, I don't, I don't

00:53:21.460 have that much going for me. I need some kind of edge. So I started, I was an old guitar

00:53:26.660 in the closet that my grandmother had tried to play. And I just, one day I pulled it out

00:53:31.660 on a mission. And there was a book in there that said where to put your fingers on the fretboard.

00:53:38.400 So I just literally looked at the book, mimicked where the dots were on the frets,

00:53:44.060 would strum and strum and strum until, until my fingers were sore, until it sounded like an actual

00:53:48.940 chord. And that was it.

00:53:50.860 Did you ever imagine in your wildest dreams, you'd, you'd be exactly where you are today with all of

00:53:56.660 this crazy stuff and millions of people engaged with you and want to connect with you and be part

00:54:01.880 of your life to some degree?

00:54:04.020 Absolutely not. There's yeah. Without, without, without question. Absolutely not. I didn't,

00:54:09.900 didn't have any of that planned at all. So yeah, no way I thought guitar. I've said this for 20 years.

00:54:17.640 I've said the sentence, how did music get me here?

00:54:22.600 Yeah. Have you ever been able to answer that question for yourself?

00:54:25.580 Well, it's interesting because kind of what we've, we've talked about on this podcast about

00:54:31.000 assigning meaning to something like this, right? It it's, then I start to think as I get older,

00:54:37.220 like, man, maybe, maybe this is all for something. Like maybe the whole guitar thing and trying to get

00:54:43.200 a girl and then trying to come up with the funny video. Like maybe there was an actual design to all 0.91

00:54:49.020 this that actually matters. And I didn't realize that when I was a kid, but, uh, but now I look at it and

00:54:55.320 go, this is my calling, you know? Yeah. Yeah. That's cool. Well, Granger, I know you're on a

00:55:01.100 time crunch. You're a busy man and I want to be respectful of that. Do you want to, um, tell the

00:55:05.040 guys about the, uh, the spring lineup coming out really quickly and maybe even the, the music video

00:55:10.280 that we referenced earlier in the conversation? Yeah, absolutely. You could find me on all things

00:55:15.400 social Granger Smith, no underscores, no nothing, just Granger Smith. That's the same as YouTube,

00:55:20.440 Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, all of it. And we have an apparel company called Yee Yee Apparel

00:55:27.820 and you can get that through GrangerSmith.com. You could also get it yee yee.com. A lot of people

00:55:33.680 think that's the easiest way, yee yee.com. And, uh, we come up with new spring launches from here in

00:55:39.440 central Texas. Me and my two brothers work on this. It's just like a passion project. It's an

00:55:45.640 extension of the music extension of the, the ideas. And, uh, we love it. And people ask, what does

00:55:51.340 yee yee mean? I always say it means live life to the fullest. There it is. I dig it. I dig it,

00:55:56.300 man. Well, I appreciate you. Uh, man, I love how you show up. Um, I appreciate also you sharing some

00:56:02.300 of the rawness of the highs and the lows and the extreme lows. And, um, you know, as you shared your

00:56:08.080 story about river and I saw that several years ago, that hit me deep because I've got four children

00:56:12.480 of my own. And, um, I just, I admire you and I respect for you for the way that you handled that

00:56:18.660 and the, the positive that's come from it. So I appreciate you taking some time with us, man.

00:56:23.620 I know the guys are going to dig the conversation. So thanks for joining us.

00:56:27.140 Brother, the respect is mutual, man. I love what you do. Keep doing it. And, uh, I'm grateful to be on

00:56:32.460 the show. Right on brother. We'll stay in touch.

00:56:34.300 Gentlemen, there you go. My conversation with one and only Granger Smith. I hope you enjoyed that

00:56:40.300 one. I did. That was one of my favorite conversations. And like I said earlier, his

00:56:45.420 outlook, even in the wake of just unimaginable difficulty and hardship. Uh, and that was,

00:56:53.600 that was hard for me actually to get, to get through that conversation as he talked about his son,

00:56:58.220 because it hit so close to home. So I can't even begin to imagine what, what he must be experiencing,

00:57:03.860 but, uh, such an incredible human, his ability to continue to lead his family well and, uh, and,

00:57:09.520 and pursue his noble ambitions with his, his career aspirations. It's a pretty incredible.

00:57:14.760 So make sure you connect with, uh, Granger. He had the new, uh, music video release. He's got

00:57:20.440 the apparel and their spring lineup is coming out. I believe on the 19th of March, uh, he's got a lot

00:57:26.180 going on and, uh, you need to connect with them because we're always, well, at least I, I, I suggest

00:57:33.740 that we find the best men out there that we learn from them, that we grow from them, that we use their

00:57:40.360 experiences and their lessons, apply them in their lives. And that's the whole point of this podcast

00:57:45.100 and the conversations we're having. And so connect with him, shoot him a message, let him know you

00:57:48.840 heard him on the order of man podcast, what you liked, what went well, how you're going to improve

00:57:53.400 your life. He likes to hear that stuff. Uh, make sure you do that with me as well. And then one

00:57:57.440 other thing, just take a screenshot of this conversation. Maybe it's, uh, even a video of,

00:58:03.040 of the conversation or a specific moment of the, the discussion that you enjoyed or that really

00:58:08.780 resonated with you. And then just share it on Instagram. I'm very active over there and tag me

00:58:12.780 and Granger also, uh, at Ryan Mickler and tag Ranger. And, uh, yeah, it's a great way to promote

00:58:19.100 what we're doing here. And it's a nice way to say, thank you. I look at all those and I continue

00:58:23.380 am impressed and inspired by how much this is seems to be helping you guys. So appreciate you

00:58:28.760 being on the battlefield with me in this mission to reclaim and restore masculinity. And, uh, we'll

00:58:33.920 keep going, subscribe, leave a rating review, check out your apparel and Granger and what he's up to.

00:58:38.440 And, uh, we'll see you guys tomorrow for our, ask me anything until then go out there, take action

00:58:43.660 and become the man you are meant to be. Thank you for listening to the order of man podcast.

00:58:48.680 You're ready to take charge of your life and be more of the man you were meant to be.

00:58:52.480 We invite you to join the order at order of man.com.

Order of Man - March 16, 2021

GRANGER SMITH ｜ Leading and Living Well in the Face of Extreme Adversity

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