00:00:58.120Yeah. And, but it was also conference weekend at the same time.
00:01:06.620And for a conference, we usually invite people over. I'll make, uh, Indian fried bread and, you know, and we decided to still do both over the weekend. So I'm like, oh my gosh, like, I got to get to work.
00:01:20.560I want to go into the office. So people will leave me alone. Totally. I did eat five Indian tacos yesterday. So, um, so I always, I always refer to them as Navajo tacos. Is that what they are? Is that the same thing?
00:01:32.460Well, if you're Navajo? Yeah. That's, that's the, that's like politically incorrect or whatever. Yeah.
00:01:37.580We all know what people are talking about. Indian tacos. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I was actually, it was funny because I was somewhere I can't remember. And we called them Navajo tacos is what we called them. And somebody asked somebody who was actually Navajo, what they called it. And they said tacos.
00:01:52.680Yeah. That's super funny. Yeah. It's, it's pretty insane that we live in this world of like political correctness. And what if one person on the planet happens to be offended or takes it out of context or it's, I was watching. Do you ever, have you ever watched this show called studio C? I know about it, but I've never watched it. It's really funny. It's, it's, it's, it's like Saturday night live or something like that, but a family friendly version of it.
00:02:22.520So my kids watch it all the time. And there was this skit on there. The guy's name is Stacy and he's a black guy and they're all pretending to be crayons. And he got assigned the skin color crayon, which is, it's our skin color. Right. And he's like, and I got assigned this. Just think about that for one second. And it was a joke, but I'm, and I don't know how long that skit was made. I don't even know if that would fly today, which is sad. It's just a joke.
00:02:51.200Everybody needs to lighten up and just relax a little bit, but man, people are so uptight about the slightest thing that might hurt somebody's feelings or offense. And usually it's not even, it's not even offensive. It just, it's just a bunch of virtue signaling of, of, of I'm better than you. I'm morally superior because I thought about that.
00:03:12.300And you didn't think about that one thing you said and how it might actually hurt somebody's feelings. Yeah. Absolutely ridiculous.
00:03:18.460Yeah. And some of that is, it's out of, it's out of like, um, well, we're as an example, I was talking with Asia about this and we're saying that sometimes when people are a little ignorant about certain cultures, right. They, they might, they might dress up or, you know what I mean? Cause they're, they're intrigued by it.
00:03:40.460But the person that knows a lot more about the culture might be offended. Like, you know, but where's that coming from? It's coming from a place of like, I'm interested in that. I, yeah, I'm stupid. I don't know the details, but I'm fascinated about it. And I'm trying. Right.
00:03:55.200It's like literally from a place of like, of appreciation. It's not from a place of like being insult, insulting or anything else, but yet it's like, Oh, how dare you wear? I don't know. A headdress because my ancestors, you know, it's like, I know they don't know that they think it's neat. You know, it's like, it comes from a place of, of interest, you know, not from a place of trying to be a little, you know, some.
00:04:21.820It is. And I think most people that let's say somebody wears a traditional garment that a particular culture may wear. I think most of those individuals that come from that culture don't actually take offense to that. I don't think they read into it. I think they might look at somebody and say, that guy's an idiot. He's wearing that wrong or something, you know, but I think that's probably the extent of their angst.
00:04:47.060And yet it's everybody else that thinks they have to come in and rescue other people. They can speak up for themselves. Everybody can speak up for themselves and their cultures and whatever individually. Like nobody has to come rescue anybody else, but this is the moral superior society that we live in. It's crazy.
00:05:03.840I mean, I, I, let me ask you this. So if, if Washington Redskins changed their title to like Rednecks or like, I don't know, that would be awesome. More whiteys or something would actually go to the game and they would have pride in that.
00:05:20.840They would, I would too. I would be like, yeah, that's awesome. That's a sweet name. Yeah, of course. Yes, of course. But whatever. All right. Well, should we answer some questions today? Yeah, let's do it with Facebook. These are coming from Facebook, right? Yes, sir. All right. All right. Let's get into it. Get after it.
00:05:41.580Dad, Pillar Apparel. On the merchandise side of your business, what are the biggest hurdles you face concerning growth? Are you constantly streamlining your ordering and inventory process? Have you had to cut ties with silk screening and embroidery places because they could not meet your expectations?
00:05:57.280And when quality controlling your orders, did you have to check your expectations for perfection at all? Because you would see every minute and every minute mistake. Thank you for your persistence in the work of this movement and shout out to Kip for showing up every week.
00:06:13.080That was nice. Even though. Yeah, that was nice. Okay. Well, okay. So let's talk about the merchandise element of things because that is a big and a growing component of the business model, frankly.
00:06:22.860So when I started, I worked with a local merchandise store that did a phenomenal job. And actually up until I would say the last six months, we worked with them exclusively. So we had business with them for nearly five years. And I'm still very satisfied with what they did. We moved away for a couple of reasons. I'll explain in a minute.
00:06:42.840And then what we would do is we would have our merchandise, t-shirts, hats, everything shipped to a warehouse, a fulfillment warehouse. And so what that warehouse would do is they would charge me X amount of dollars per shelf that I needed based on our inventory quantities.
00:07:02.980And then they would charge me per package. And then they would charge me per package. And it was just, it was, it was getting stupid. They would just, they were just nickel and diming me over every little thing. Well, you know, this isn't a traditional size package. So this is more.
00:07:15.920And then I noticed the shipping boxes and containers that they were purchasing were, were more expensive than I could find via Amazon on my own. And then they were charging for that shelf space. And then I would actually have multiple orders that were getting sent back because they were fulfilled wrong, wrong size, wrong color.
00:07:36.520So I told the people, I'm like, Hey, for every order that you get sent back, like, I'm not paying you for that. Like, Oh no, no, no. That's built into the contract. I'm like, I'm not paying you to do crappy work.
00:07:45.700Uh, and then I started looking at their shipping rates. Their shipping rates were higher than what I just an individual at that time could get.
00:07:51.740Yeah. So I like, it's not even a discount.
00:07:54.080No, it's, and you would think a shipping warehouse would be able to get a discount or something.
00:07:59.840They would actually make your life easier and it just became harder and harder.
00:08:02.680So several years ago, I would probably say two years, maybe three, but probably right around two years ago, I, I reached out to this, this warehouse.
00:08:12.920And I said, this fulfillment center, I think I should call it. It's probably the more accurate term. I said, look, I'm done.
00:08:18.560Look, we're, we're bringing this in the house. My 11 year old son's going to do this. Oh yeah. I'll never be able to do it.
00:08:24.480And, and he does a, he does a 10 times the job that they did.
00:08:28.980So we brought it all in house. I continue to work with that same, uh, merchandise company and they would send it directly to us.
00:08:38.580And we bought some shelves and we got our stamps.com account and got the printer.
00:08:44.180The printer was the thing that I made a mistake on. We use the ink jet printer for a long time.