REAL AF with Andy Frisella - 392. The Black Rifle Coffee Company Story Ft. Jarred "JT" Taylor

00:00:00.000 What is up guys, it's Andy Priscilla and this is the show for the realists, say goodbye

00:00:20.780 to the lies, the fakeness and delusions of modern society and welcome to motherfucking

00:00:25.360 reality. Guys, today we have a full length episode. That means it's just me and a guest

00:00:30.720 and we're going to talk some shit. Before I get going on that, I'd like to remind you

00:00:36.980 that we do have a fee for the show. The fee is very simple. Share the show. If you get

00:00:41.940 value out of the conversation, which I'm sure you're about to, don't forget to post the show

00:00:47.200 and share the show. That's the fee. With that being said, we're going to get right into it,

00:00:51.220 man. I've got my good buddy who was on the show, actually our last episode, JT Taylor

00:00:58.800 from Black Rifle Coffee. What's up, bro?

00:01:00.480 Hello.

00:01:01.340 Yeah. Dude, we've had a good couple of days. We're hanging out. We got a rodeo we're going

00:01:07.500 to tonight. It's going to be a good time, but I want to sit down, man, and just people to

00:01:13.980 hear your guys' story, your story and the story of the amazing company that you guys

00:01:17.540 have built. There's a lot of parallels between what you guys have done and what we've done

00:01:23.120 with our companies. It's been super fun watching you guys do it and succeed and being a pro-American,

00:01:29.160 pro-freedom brand and all of these things. It's just cool. If you guys don't know, Black Rifle

00:01:36.860 Coffee, when did you guys start this?

00:01:38.800 It was 2014.

00:01:39.920 Yeah. Tell us a little bit about that.

00:01:41.460 Well, first and foremost, I got to say, the last couple of days, you've actually re-sparked

00:01:48.960 the spark because like I was telling you when we first got here, man, after 10 years of this,

00:01:56.680 because before Black Rifle, I was doing things with Matt Best and we had a few other ventures

00:02:01.800 and things like this. After 10 years of this and social media and being in the eye and everything

00:02:07.760 like that, it's like you just get drugged. You get drugged down. And it's like, there were some

00:02:14.700 times I had conversations with Evan in the last few months where it was like, the logo would give

00:02:22.120 me anxiety. I see our own logo that should be a beaming thing of pride. Here I am. I'm just like

00:02:30.360 a beaten dog. Like, oh, I don't want it. So I just have to, I have to say thank you first because

00:02:36.620 like by yesterday afternoon, ideas started coming back and I started firing again where, and that's

00:02:43.340 how I've always been. And I, but the last few months I lost it because it's just like, I felt

00:02:48.140 beaten down, dude. You know, I get it, man. Uh, you know, we've had a number of conversations the

00:02:52.920 last couple of days. Uh, and you know, that's mutual by the way, like hanging out and cause it's the

00:02:58.880 same dude. Like people don't realize like they want the, they want it, right? Like a lot of people

00:03:05.160 like, oh dude, that's cool. I would love to have this or this or this, but a lot of people just

00:03:08.420 fail to realize what comes with it and the beating that is taken to build something massive, uh, and

00:03:15.680 the, and the price that's paid. And, um, you know, the last three years, even though business has been

00:03:23.720 good, it's still the social climate, the political climate, the world, the economic climate, all of

00:03:30.320 these things, uh, bro, I'm with you, dude. It's like a teeter totter. It's like, you never know

00:03:35.220 what, what is going to be next or what the next phase is. And, but yeah, I mean, it's been like a,

00:03:40.580 like a battery, you know, like coming here and interacting, like another thing too, I have to say,

00:03:46.380 I'm sure your audience knows, but whoever's listening from our audience, like the staff here is the

00:03:50.920 greatest staff I've ever seen. Like everybody is the coolest, the most polite, the everybody's on

00:03:55.780 point. Like it's been so impressive here, even down to, you know, I've been doing this stuff for

00:03:59.400 a long time and I'm looking at it like, Oh wow, this is, this is amazing. Like it's brought energy

00:04:05.240 back. Like, so I just, I wanted to open that up to say what you've done, the culture that you've

00:04:11.000 created here is extremely admirable. Thank you, brother. And I had probably eight separate calls

00:04:16.380 with Devin yesterday. He's every, every single corner that we had a break. I'm like, Oh my God,

00:04:20.640 did you know they do this? And like, Oh, you gotta, you gotta get here. You gotta get here.

00:04:25.040 But I mean, I, I gotta start at the beginning. You know, my dad was in the Navy. We were, we were

00:04:30.960 in, in the Pacific Northwest and, but he grew up in California and he was a skateboarder. So naturally

00:04:35.780 like he still skated while he was in the Navy and he kind of, as me and my brother became teenagers,

00:04:41.700 you know, we picked up into skating because it was something he wanted to do. So like, he was like,

00:04:45.760 Oh, you guys want to ramp? Yeah, I'll build a ramp. Like, so it was pretty fun. And, and the thing

00:04:50.400 that came with skateboarding though, is you had to have a camera because you had to film a skate part

00:04:56.180 in order to get sponsored by a local shop. So a teenager can afford new gear to skateboard.

00:05:03.120 Yeah.

00:05:03.240 So I first was running a camera at 13, 14 years old. You know, my, what I asked for,

00:05:09.720 for Christmas that next year was I need a family video camera so I can make skate videos.

00:05:14.640 Yeah. And you're talking back then, dude, it was probably one of these shoulder jobs.

00:05:17.980 96, 97. No, they, they got a little smaller right then. The hiate tapes.

00:05:22.560 Were we working with the, uh, the Sony, the, the little handheld Sony one or the cast cam.

00:05:28.120 Like, dude, I had one of those ones growing up with the, uh, you know what I'm talking about

00:05:31.680 where the screen like twisted, you had the camera in your right hand and the screen.

00:05:35.660 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. This one, that was the best one ever. And people don't even know about that

00:05:40.160 shit because everybody's used to it on their phone. eBay was a brand new thing and they came out with

00:05:44.500 a, with a really wide lens that could attach to the Sony. So, you know, I saved up everything I

00:05:49.700 had by mowing lawns and raking leaves to buy this lens. And now, now we, now we had a skate,

00:05:55.180 a skate camera for my junior high. And so I edited my first video when I was 14 years old.

00:06:01.640 And back then I was using two VCRs, like stop, pause, record, like very rudimentary and old

00:06:08.980 school. But then as I got into ninth grade and that was the last grade in our junior high. And

00:06:15.580 then you went to across the street to the high school. Well, when I was in ninth grade, I walked

00:06:18.840 over to their video or their media department at the high school and they had an avid system

00:06:25.180 And so I, I just begged and pleaded until one of the teachers said, yes, after school,

00:06:29.620 you can come over and use the avid system to edit.

00:06:31.640 And, and, and I, I ended up learning that and me and our podcast producer, Dave, you know,

00:06:38.080 cause him and I grew up together. Uh, we started the extreme video club, which was an afterschool

00:06:43.380 thing where all the skaters, rollerbladers and bikers would come and we all edited these videos.

00:06:48.720 And so, yeah, by the time I was eight, 17 and heading to the military, I had already

00:06:54.440 had experience in editing and I, and I really, really loved it. So when I got into the military,

00:06:59.280 I kept the film thing going, especially because my job in the military was something called

00:07:05.080 the TACP, tactical air control party. And it's, it's the air liaison to the army when it comes

00:07:12.140 to air power. So anytime there's a fighter jet that's dropping a bomb in support of ground

00:07:17.460 troops, there is one of us there either lazing that bomb or being very specific with the

00:07:22.620 pilot on how to not hit the good guys. So they have one of us that speaks language down

00:07:28.100 there to constantly battle track our force and make sure that we're not bombing our own

00:07:32.760 people. And this job was fucking rad, but no one knew it existed. You say air force, people

00:07:38.900 like, Oh yeah, chair force, you know, air conditioning. It's like, no, I was essentially in the 82nd

00:07:43.980 airport. Yeah. I went to airborne school and was jumping out of planes and went straight

00:07:49.360 to Iraq. Like, like it was fucking cool. So I was, I was filming things and trying to put

00:07:56.340 out media. I mean, back then there was nothing to host a video on the, on the internet. So

00:08:02.180 it was all like carrying them around on thumb drives. Do you remember this? When a dude would

00:08:06.240 come over and be like, Oh dude, you got to see these videos. I got it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah,

00:08:10.620 dude. People, people are like, what? Like there's people listening right now. They're like, what?

00:08:16.600 So, uh, we were doing, we were, I was making these videos like Dave even was one of the first

00:08:23.420 people to ever have a helmet cam and the helmet cam back in 2004, it, it ran RCA cables into the

00:08:31.680 camcorder. So the, the, the lipstick cam mounted to your helmet, but you still, your, your video

00:08:36.920 camera was in your backpack. So I did a helicopter assault force mission into, uh, the Utah test and

00:08:42.940 training range with a helmet cam, like before anybody had a helmet cam. So I was, I was always

00:08:48.940 trying to push ahead, ahead of the time. And then in, uh, late 2008, early 2009, I got picked up to be

00:08:55.280 an instructor for that school. And that kind of became a very, uh, more so nine to five set schedule.

00:09:02.840 You're not deploying anymore, uh, in that position. So it's not, you know, you're constantly on TDYs

00:09:09.440 away on bombing ranges, training up and then deploying. Now it's kind of like a, okay, you're

00:09:13.800 teaching and you stay here. Well, on the way there is when I was up for my first re-enlistment and we

00:09:20.500 were considered a critically manned career field. So we had the highest re-enlistment bonus, uh,

00:09:27.080 multiplier. So I re-enlisted for $90,000. That was insane to me. Yeah. Like that was the first time

00:09:35.660 I ever had money in a savings account. It was like, but it didn't last because I, you know,

00:09:44.580 I'm in my head and I'm like, I want to have a film business someday. So I turned around and spent

00:09:51.580 a lion's share of that on. Then this was also the first time HD cameras became available to like the

00:10:00.280 prosumers, what they called it. Like the, the Sony FX seven was, was the new thing. It was an HDV

00:10:06.220 camera, but it was full HD. So it's like, Oh, this is cool. And then, you know, again, by like a

00:10:13.060 miraculous, um, network thing, a guy that I had done some photo and ad work for in the airsoft

00:10:21.180 world, his name is Andrew Ho introduced me to a guy that worked for Pixar as security. And if you

00:10:27.620 worked for Pixar, it was owned by Apple. You got one purchase a year that gave you 50% off. And this

00:10:33.820 security guy gave me his 50% off so I could get the biggest editing computer that they offered.

00:10:40.800 Yeah. I still owe it to that guy. I still, I still give him credit because you were helped along the

00:10:47.420 way. Yeah. Everybody was. Yeah. And I was actually thinking that as you were saying that, how cool it

00:10:52.280 is, the amount of success you guys have built that you still remember that. His name is Marlon. And I

00:10:57.980 will always say that he started my career because he didn't even know me, but he gave me his, his

00:11:05.940 discount. I was able to get double the computer and I bought 30 books again. Like the internet is new

00:11:12.880 still like 2008, 2009, like 2009 is when Facebook opened up for everybody. Like, so there's not a

00:11:20.380 lot to Google. When you ran into a tech problem back then with this equipment, like I had to thumb

00:11:27.360 through 30 books and tell, and then you don't know what to look for. Like, you're like, what chapter is

00:11:33.120 this problem? It was extremely difficult. So I hit the books and, uh, and I ran around Pensacola

00:11:40.900 and Fort Walton beach, Florida with a lot of the, the photographers. Then the, the whole kind of like

00:11:46.340 amateur model thing was like really taking off at that point. So there, the photography world was

00:11:52.320 super competitive and cool because photographers were doing really cool things with compositing and

00:11:56.600 lights and stuff like that. So I ran around with them because I was the video guy and they were in

00:12:03.160 with all the bands. They were in with all the businesses. And now here I am with the video

00:12:08.060 camera that can make commercials. So I just, I made free app, like I, I'm in a, a big film group on,

00:12:14.520 um, on Facebook with a bunch of young filmmakers. And I have to say that all the time. I'm like,

00:12:18.860 I didn't get paid for almost eight years. Yeah. Like, yeah, but I made a lot of friends.

00:12:23.360 Say that again. I didn't get paid for almost eight years. Who else has a similar story to that?

00:12:31.020 But you guys have heard a thousand fucking times. And if you ask anybody, bro, anybody that we,

00:12:36.440 you know, probably that's built real shit, they got a similar story to that. Yeah. But all while I'm

00:12:41.500 active duty military, I'm doing this when I'm getting off work and, and, and those school hours

00:12:46.760 were long, but on, on Fridays, I would get off at about two o'clock. I would load my car with all

00:12:55.500 my PA gear and, and, and mixer and everything. And I would go play live music Friday and Saturday

00:13:02.940 night because it was a hundred bucks cash to do it. And it, I loved it. Like it, and it, and it,

00:13:09.780 and it helped me network the area so much better because then I started meeting all the bar owners

00:13:15.600 and I started meeting all the business owners that frequented those bars. And then it was, Hey,

00:13:20.120 do you need an ad or commercial? And I, again, I didn't charge. Like I was like, I will do this

00:13:24.540 for free. And before I knew it, I had this network. I had this beautiful network. And then, and then it

00:13:30.140 was, I would get a phone call. Hey man, I'll throw you 300 bucks. If you can come knock this, this quick

00:13:35.480 video out for me. And, and that started happening. This was all too, because I got a divorce then and was

00:13:42.260 left with the house and between child support and anim alimony. I couldn't fucking afford it.

00:13:47.320 My hot water heater went out and I just got used to taking cold showers for six and a half months.

00:13:53.740 That made you tougher.

00:13:56.380 And it was because I couldn't afford to even have somebody look at the hot water heater.

00:14:00.220 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

00:14:03.000 I just got used to it.

00:14:04.460 Dude, I get it, man. Bro, I get it. I, dude, we live parallel lives in a lot of ways, bro.

00:14:10.060 Yeah. So then, then towards the end of 2011 is when all these people that I had done things for

00:14:18.840 started calling back and saying, Hey, my business has grown. I've got some cash. I want to do more

00:14:23.400 ads. I want to do more projects. Let's go. And then I was, of course I was doing the fun stuff. I

00:14:28.400 was, I was showing up at music, uh, like battle of the bands and offered the current band that I'm

00:14:34.200 in right now. It's called this Saturday. They were a band back then called Drayton Sawyer. And I showed up

00:14:39.380 to the battle of the bands and said, whoever wins this thing gets a free music video by me. And now

00:14:44.660 I'm in the band. That's awesome. That was 12 years ago. That's badass. What instrument?

00:14:50.120 I sing. Oh, that's fucking, I can see that. Yeah. Yeah. Show you some of that later.

00:14:54.540 That's why you have the, your setup, your house. Yeah. Got it. That makes sense. He's got the

00:15:00.620 sickest lounge dude that like that I've ever fucking seen built right at his house for people

00:15:05.700 to come stay. And it's got a stage. It's, it's actually really similar to the lounge that,

00:15:10.460 that you guys see me hanging out in at my house. Dude, it's funny. Cause like, and it's,

00:15:15.620 it's set up for training. Like it's like fucking amazing. If any of our people are, are wanting

00:15:19.540 to try standup comedy or any of the comedians that we employ, they want to practice something

00:15:24.180 like we have it set up to, to where we can run that in house. But yeah. So dude, that's

00:15:28.680 so bad. That's so cool. That shit is fucking cool. It's entertain. You know, the three pillars

00:15:36.360 of black rifle coffee, inform, entertain and inspire. Yeah. And bro, that's ours. What's

00:15:42.140 ours? Educate, educate, entertain, impact. You fucking stole that from me. You could call

00:15:51.400 Evan. I stole it from you, bro. Here's the thing. I was joking about that. These, these dudes are

00:15:58.560 the same as us dudes. We're just selling different shit. I know. That's why it's like the last couple

00:16:04.100 of days have been so good because it's like, Oh, I see there's a marriage here. There's a,

00:16:09.600 there's a deep marriage. It's funny too, because like we spot, we both sponsor BJ's truck and I

00:16:15.920 didn't really know. I didn't really know these dudes when we like BJ was like, well, we're moving

00:16:21.160 away from monster. I got black rifle coffee. I'm like, I seen their shit. They're cool. They're

00:16:25.440 funny. I like their stuff. I didn't know the guys. And then I'm like, we could do that. And

00:16:29.600 we've been the sponsor of the truck for a while now. Yeah. Yeah. And been kind of working together.

00:16:33.660 Not really even, you know, but now we have a big ass, bad-ass thing coming out in January

00:16:39.360 together. That's going to shake the motor sports world. Yeah, it sure is. We're going to listen.

00:16:44.280 Our two companies are going to dominate motor sports. Oh, it's on. Yeah. And I'm going to turn

00:16:48.620 you into a rally driver. I am 100% in. We already discussed this, bro. You guys don't even know

00:16:54.200 what's coming. It's going to be so fun. Yeah. You're going to have a, we got to have a fat guy

00:16:58.940 seat though. If I fit in it, you fit in. You're not, you're okay. Yeah. Yeah. All right. I'm 225.

00:17:05.200 Yeah. Yeah. You're not a little dude. Yeah. So I get, I finished my school tour and I actually like,

00:17:14.360 when you're done with the school tour, you get a base of preference and that means you

00:17:19.240 get to choose where you go. And what I did is I asked every unit who wants me like, cause

00:17:25.820 I wanted to go somewhere where people were excited, like to see me. And immediately one

00:17:32.180 of my really good friends, a Silver Star recipient, Master Sergeant Shropshire was like, you're

00:17:37.580 coming here. And then the chief there, Pedro is like, yeah, you're coming to the seventh

00:17:41.640 ASOS in El Paso, Texas. Now no one ever volunteers to go to El Paso, Texas, but I did. And I got

00:17:50.080 there. And the first thing that I set up and I got to show you all these pictures someday

00:17:53.720 is the studio. Like I have, I have built 35 studios. Like, and that, and it started as

00:18:01.020 a folding table from Walmart with a mattress egg crate stapled to the wall. And now to what

00:18:07.200 you see, all our guys here that run the, that are on the podcast team, we're all shaking

00:18:12.240 their heads. Yes.

00:18:14.360 Bro, that's fucking awesome.

00:18:15.640 To now what, what I have now. And so now when I got to, when I got to, to El Paso, all this

00:18:24.240 time that, that things started kind of ramping up, I had teamed up with a guy, a guy named

00:18:29.100 Gary Stevens. Gary Stevens was actually one of the original air force graphics career fields

00:18:34.340 when air force employed artists, like you could be wearing a uniform as a military member

00:18:39.140 and you're a graphic artist. It was bad-ass. And he was the AFSOC graphics guy. So a lot of

00:18:44.600 the things you still see today in air force special operations command, hanging on the

00:18:49.180 walls are all works of Gary, who was also head of creative for black rifle coffee.

00:18:54.500 That's cool, man.

00:18:55.520 So everything you've seen with black rifle from the, from the very first logo to our

00:19:00.260 bags all comes, you know, is managed and, and created by Gary. And so Gary.

00:19:05.320 That's bad-ass bro. Cause like you guys do some really awesome shit. Like your branding

00:19:09.940 is on fucking point. And that's, that's Evan and Gary all day long. Like those two are

00:19:15.460 like a, a, a 70 year old married couple that fight and bicker and twist, but they, but it

00:19:20.540 fucking works. They birthed some of the greatest visual things that I've ever seen. Like our

00:19:25.420 bags and stuff that they're coming up with in the bags that are coming out next year.

00:19:29.180 Like so cool.

00:19:30.380 Like your guys is hat game. Like you guys crushed the hat game. Like every, like, you

00:19:36.020 know, I see your fucking hats everywhere. Like people that have no idea that we know each

00:19:42.100 other. Like I'm walking around St. Louis, I see them BRCC everywhere.

00:19:46.000 And now think how crazy that is that that's coffee.

00:19:48.600 Yeah.

00:19:49.220 Who wears a coffee brand?

00:19:51.240 Well, when your brand stands for the right shit, people wear it. You know, you guys, you

00:19:55.900 guys are standing for something that's not common to stand for right now. You know what

00:19:59.900 I mean?

00:20:00.300 No, it's a, it's a lonely, it's a lonely Island.

00:20:03.500 Yeah. I think there's two of us on it or fucking six of us or whatever. There's a, there's a

00:20:10.100 couple more, uh, but bro, you know, it's, it's really cool for me. I don't, I love seeing

00:20:15.600 it. I think it's amazing.

00:20:16.900 Yeah. Well, thank you. I love seeing everything here. I just, I'm addicted to, I love that you

00:20:23.620 appreciate good decorating. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of that, a lot of, uh, the decorating

00:20:28.660 here, you know, we, my brother actually did Sal and I don't, you haven't had much time

00:20:33.760 to talk to him, but a little bit this morning. Yeah. Yeah. He fucking loved like where he's

00:20:38.340 right in the conversation with everything we talked about.

00:20:40.160 But the thing is, it's like, I don't think people understand is how creative work you can

00:20:44.940 get out of when you're sitting in a space like this and it comes down to everybody.

00:20:48.060 Yeah. Like it brings it out. So I love it. So yeah, me and Gary at that time, we

00:20:53.340 have a business called bot stick collective. Um, Gary came up with, he had this logo like,

00:20:59.840 cause Gary just had like hundreds of logos on a, on that. He just like, when he's bored,

00:21:04.280 he just designs. And we were like, Hey, we need to, to, to do a company. Do you have anything?

00:21:09.040 He's like, well, I have this logo for bot stick collective. I'm like, what the fuck does

00:21:11.880 that mean? He's like, I don't know. I thought a thumb drive you could call a bot stick.

00:21:16.180 All right, cool. That's our new company. Yeah. And so Gary and I set out and we were doing

00:21:22.260 photo video and ad work for the tactical industry. Um, I mean like from the, from 2011 to like 13,

00:21:30.680 me and Gary probably have three to 400 photos published in every gun magazine.

00:21:34.480 Like we were just taking, we were, whether it was just a gun in on a backdrop in my garage,

00:21:39.820 or I would throw it in the hands of a tactical model or anything like, like all these things

00:21:45.040 and guns and ammo and recoil and everything. Like there was something I have stacks of these

00:21:49.280 magazines from then of, Oh, there's my picture. And there's me like, just because if we didn't

00:21:53.500 have somebody, we would just use me like with dark sunglasses and all kid on and stuff like that.

00:21:58.680 And then Gary and I also would make the, you know, Gary is amazing at making these movie posters.

00:22:05.300 Like he can, he makes the best movie posters. So you guys got to get up. I got to show you some

00:22:09.820 of our old stuff. Cause he'll be like, Holy shit. But the fact that we were quick, we were,

00:22:18.720 we were more effective than, than any of the people that, that really the industry was using

00:22:24.020 at the time. And because this was my job in the military was the tactical side of things.

00:22:30.860 Companies realized real quick that this was cheaper to use us because you don't have to send

00:22:35.560 a rep out to assemble the gear or you don't have to babysit us to make sure that we don't have the

00:22:41.320 flashlight on. Yeah. You're doing the shit right. Yes. Yes. So word of mouth grew that. These are

00:22:46.840 the guys to use for this kind of content very quickly. And we had a lot of amazing, amazing

00:22:53.100 clients. We did stuff for tactical Taylor, gray ghost gear, index fastener, Shane from index like that.

00:22:59.540 They, they do all the raw Kydex for everybody that makes a Kydex holster. Like, like we were

00:23:05.460 doing so many fun projects with him. Like it was a lot of fun. Him and I were going to SHOT Show

00:23:10.620 and like, I mean, we were, we were, I was peddling a four by six photo album of pictures to booth

00:23:18.620 people going, Hey, could, could, could, could, could we do your catalog next time? And all this time

00:23:21.920 Black Rifle is still not a bit, still not happening. This is, this is 2011, 2012. Yeah. So,

00:23:28.000 so think about all the work that you did to see people, because you know, our, our audience is,

00:23:35.460 diverse because we have people that join in for the social issues that we talk about,

00:23:39.440 but we also have a lot of business owners and entrepreneurs. And it's interesting to hear,

00:23:43.500 you know, how people think I try to tell them this, you know, but they don't hear it. And it's

00:23:50.140 like, bro, it takes a long time to get the skills that you need doing things that you love, or even

00:23:57.200 maybe not love for free to be able to execute on a big play. Like, like you guys have, like we have.

00:24:03.920 If we didn't have a client, and this is just a perfect example of what you just said,

00:24:08.580 if we didn't have a client on the books for us to do work for, Gary was in my living room and we were

00:24:14.240 doing photos for a poster that we would take a movie poster that we would look at and we would

00:24:20.940 recreate it completely in under a day. And just because it was honing our skills. And also these

00:24:27.700 were things I was showing potential clients. Like, I'm not kidding. I went to Walgreens and

00:24:33.340 printed, you know, 44 by six, like picture prints and shoved them in a photo album and walked down

00:24:40.840 every booth and said, can we, can we have your business? And so actually what you did was you

00:24:46.280 created your own fucking spec book on fake ass shit that you made up just so you could show the

00:24:52.300 work that you could do. And, and the vow and, and my rate card right there was if we get to keep

00:24:59.200 the first piece of equipment, then your first thing's free. Yeah. And everyone said, yes,

00:25:04.660 they were like, wait, what? And they would look at it. It was great stuff. And they were like,

00:25:07.880 yeah, yeah. So that's amazing. We were, we were having a lot of fun. Yeah. When I moved to El Paso,

00:25:13.500 I realized quickly, like I lost my network that I had in Pensacola when me and Gary were in Florida.

00:25:21.560 And now all of a sudden I'm in this new city and I don't have access to the bars and to the,

00:25:26.400 and to the scenes and the things that I need for us to like do these, these things. And so I'm trying

00:25:33.700 to come up with a way that I can network El Paso as fast as physically possible. And while I'm sitting

00:25:40.380 at work with a couple of the guys, I say, we need to start a news team. And so we start channel 275

00:25:49.420 action news. We, we all go buy suits. Hold on. Hold on. On YouTube. Holy fuck. I know where this is

00:26:00.960 going, but continue. So we buy this bright yellow van. No, it's one of those panels, no windows.

00:26:09.680 We wrap it with us like our, because I have the photo studio. So I take professional headshots

00:26:15.900 of everybody in their suits and Gary designs the graphics. And now we have this news van

00:26:21.840 and our lead anchor is a guy named Butch Rogers. Of course it is. And he looks it. So I can't wait to

00:26:31.460 show you these photos afterwards, but I'm just thinking that scene in Anchorman where all the

00:26:35.500 fucking news teams fight. That's what we look like. Yeah. That's what I'm thinking. We have

00:26:38.800 horrible suits that we all bought at the hand-me-down store. We're, we have terrible hair and I was

00:26:45.380 Troy Rafferty and I was economics. That's proper branding. So we get this van wrapped and then we go

00:26:56.500 to K Fox, which is the Fox affiliate of El Paso. And when you park it outside and we start harassing

00:27:04.280 them, like they're going out to their vans and we're like, what's up? What's up? Where you go?

00:27:08.300 What's the story? Like, what's going on until Erica Castillo walks out the lead anchor of El Paso

00:27:17.340 comes out and it's like, what are you guys doing? And we're like, we're the new, we're the new news

00:27:22.380 team in town. And she's like, oh my God, this is hilarious. Oh, she loved it. Yeah. So she invites

00:27:28.900 us in. So now we're in the newsroom and now we're, we're taking pictures. Like, like we're like, okay,

00:27:33.060 Fox doesn't have nothing with us. And so like, we tell them, we're like, Hey, we're just going to

00:27:38.240 start, we're going to start poking at you guys on YouTube and you guys just share it as social

00:27:43.280 assets. Like this is right. When Facebook is kind of new, like where pages are new and

00:27:48.480 they're like, absolutely. Like she got, she was like, absolutely. So like we make this

00:27:53.580 essentially like ransom video of Butch Rogers challenging their lead anchor to a arm wrestling

00:28:00.700 match. And if he wins, Erica gets to come over to our team. And so we put that out and they're

00:28:06.060 sharing it. And then like we, they were going to cover this wine festival and we show up and

00:28:11.340 we keep, we keep like scooting in on, on where they are. And like, like, and they just went

00:28:15.580 with it, dude, they loved it because like even the audience got them extra traffic. Yeah.

00:28:21.360 But instantly the radio station calls the big radio station over there called KLAQ. And

00:28:28.140 they're like, Hey, what the fuck are you doing with this news? And then we're like, Hey, make

00:28:32.400 us part of KLAQ. And now we're fuck with K Fox because you're the radio station and we're

00:28:36.400 the radio station's news team. And they were like, fuck it. Okay. So, so now they set us

00:28:42.540 up with five or six restaurants and we do this. There's this, this whole thing. Like we're

00:28:48.120 going around now, now I've met the city of El Paso and still to this day. And this is a

00:28:54.080 quick, uh, uh, antidote to this is Erica Castillo is in the movie range 15. She plays the anchor

00:29:01.260 that's in the end that's on the news. And that was filmed in K Fox's studio because we

00:29:08.420 wanted her to be the anchor in the movie and her husband, uh, Sean, who is a Marine and

00:29:14.720 purple heart recipient, Marine veteran. He's in the movie too, like five different places.

00:29:19.120 I can point you out where he is. And he, him and Erica were a crucial help of them, uh, in

00:29:23.560 the movie as well, because we had, um, the deuce and a half broke in the middle of, of

00:29:30.020 production. And we're in Los Angeles, California. We had borrowed that from

00:29:34.020 battlefield, Las Vegas.

00:29:35.240 Now tell everybody what article 15 was article 15 was, this is actually how I found

00:29:39.560 out. Oh, well range 15 is the movie. I'll go, I'll go. So, so after the news team

00:29:44.360 is when I meet Matt and when I meet Matt best, he, he had, he had put out these, these

00:29:51.580 three really good videos that I was like, there's my missing piece. Like I'm not the

00:29:56.880 star. I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm back here. I'm the editor. Like, like I'm the guy holding

00:30:01.920 the camera. I'm like, I've, I found my star. Like, like, so, so fucking hilarious.

00:30:07.820 And no kidding. Matt sends in this, he sends in, uh, um, a message to this, this Facebook

00:30:15.760 page that I, I helped to administer. And he just says, Hey, would you share my video?

00:30:19.980 And I watch it. I'm like, this is phenomenal, dude. Um, call me. And he was like, well, I'm

00:30:25.480 in the, I was in the army. I was like, really? Where? He was like, I was a ranger. I go,

00:30:29.040 what battalion? And I say BN cause I know how to spot a fake real quick. And he was

00:30:35.540 like, Oh, it's second. And he sent me the photo of him in his, in his tambourine and

00:30:38.760 everything. I was like, okay, call me. Here's my number. And he calls me and I just go, you

00:30:42.560 got to come to El Paso. And he's like, what? Like you gotta come to El Paso. Like I got

00:30:46.560 a studio here. I had a news team. Like you gotta, you, you gotta get in on this. Let's

00:30:51.840 go. Like, and he's just like, what? Like, like just sticker shocked. Like what the

00:30:55.560 bro? I just fucking love it. This is like, dude, this is the same shit. This is how it's

00:31:01.180 done, dude. Just do shit. Anybody that knows me. Yes. Anybody that knows me can say I move

00:31:08.540 like this because I already see the end, but I don't explain it well. So I'm just trying

00:31:14.100 to get you to, to go along with it right now. I'm not good at like, I'm not good at telling

00:31:18.920 you because I already see it. Like it's already like, Oh no, we're going here. Like, so you

00:31:23.000 just got to come along for the ride. Trust me. Yeah. So Matt comes down. Uh, we film

00:31:29.040 like three different videos that time we're throwing out ideas. I do photos of him in

00:31:33.920 the studio. And like, I'm saying, I'm like, we got to make you look expensive. We got to

00:31:37.220 make this look fucking like, like we, and we launched his Facebook page in my house that

00:31:41.560 weekend, that first weekend. And, uh, then he went back, he put out how to be an operator

00:31:46.320 and that, that like shot up. Like, and we were, we had this whole network of all the

00:31:51.260 gun and tactical pages. It was called operation social media. And this back end group that

00:31:55.580 we had, we accounted for 33 million likes and what we would do. And it was everybody

00:32:01.900 like, like back when, like before everybody started instantly like cold dead hands was

00:32:06.640 like one of the biggest ones back then they were the first to see a million followers.

00:32:10.860 And like, that was a big deal in 2013. Like, like the first, the first gun personality to

00:32:17.700 ever get a hundred thousand followers, um, was Chris Costa. Like, and, and that was a huge deal

00:32:25.420 in the industry because nobody, nobody had that power. Nobody had that celebrity, you know, unless

00:32:30.600 you paid, you know, Arlie Ermey or something to, you know, but only Glock could afford that. So

00:32:35.500 like this started, this started this huge wave and this new trend and, and, and people started

00:32:40.720 respecting social media more. And so, yeah, as soon as Matt's video started coming out,

00:32:46.880 we're like, okay, Hey, there's a, there's an MBS video coming out on Tuesday. Everybody's,

00:32:51.040 everybody sign up who who's willing to share and everybody be like, I am, I am, I am because

00:32:54.940 it gave him traffic too. And, and that was it. Like, boom, we just took off and the videos,

00:33:02.100 the videos were great though. It was something that the community had never seen. They had never

00:33:07.260 seen comedy where a special operations veteran actually poked fun at them and, and, and poke

00:33:14.040 fun at himself, poke fun at the community. Like nobody was doing that. No, it was very serious

00:33:18.740 shit. It was chest penis. And so all your, I remember this because as a fan, like I remember

00:33:23.720 watching all this happen and it, it changed the whole culture of the whole thing. Yeah.

00:33:28.200 Cause when we launched article 15, all of our shirts were jokes. They were not cool guy. Like

00:33:36.240 I'm going to kill you. If I see you type shit, it was all we were making it. Like it was no shit.

00:33:41.720 We had Joe's Jack shack. It was a port of shitter. Like it was the Joe's crab shack logo. Like that

00:33:49.980 was one of our shirts. Yeah. It's all a joke. You know, it's funny though, dude, it's the, it's

00:33:54.820 from what, you know, I didn't serve or anything, but I have a lot of, we have a lot of common

00:33:58.500 friends, common people, everybody I meet that's actually been in real shit and done real shit.

00:34:04.820 They're all the fucking funniest dudes. It's like, you have to have a sense of humor to be able to

00:34:09.600 do that. It's the only medicine. Yeah. The only medicine that keeps you sane after seeing a four

00:34:13.480 is a four. So yeah, we, Matt and I launched art 15 with, we had four other friends, um, that,

00:34:22.460 that, that were part of it. Cody, Zach, Brad, Brad was, uh, uh, he was an X 82nd airborne guy.

00:34:28.120 He was an accountant and I traded him a DPMS AR 15 for three months worth of clean book CPA.

00:34:36.720 Yeah. Well, that's what it costs. Cody put up the $3,400 that we needed to, to run the first phase

00:34:44.900 of shirts. Yeah. Zach was on operations and we were, and, and, uh, we got Rocco after our first

00:34:52.500 like big event that we held. So he came a couple months later, but we were off to the races and

00:34:57.480 like that first, and he, Rocco's done a fucking awesome career. Rocco fucking went and became a

00:35:03.220 TV star. Dude, he, he's a fucking star. Yes. Like when you meet him, you're like, I met him back in

00:35:09.140 2015 at my, he came to the house with wider and fucking bro. I knew right away. I'm like,

00:35:14.360 this dude is a fucking dude. The first time I saw him, the thing, the first thing I asked him was,

00:35:19.720 have you ever been on camera? Yeah. And he was like, what? I was like, do you want to be on camera?

00:35:25.280 Because I see it. Yeah. Yeah. And so, uh, so the first we launch January 15th,

00:35:34.380 the article 15 clothing store comes out, come becomes live in 2013. We had teased it in the

00:35:40.620 two videos prior to that, how to work out like an operator and, and a few others where it was like

00:35:45.200 art 15 clothing coming soon. And then like a lot of comments of what is this? What is this? What is

00:35:49.440 this? So we went live on February 1st, we had $10,000 in gross sales, but to us, I mean, we are all

00:35:58.120 E5s in the military, Matt's contracting and Cody, you know, is our CFO. He's like, man, that's a

00:36:04.700 120,000 a year business. He's like, this not bad boys. And mine and Matt's goal was, can we get

00:36:11.780 $2,000 extra a month to spend on like helicopter rentals, machine guns and cool cameras for us to

00:36:18.080 make better videos? And like, that's our goal. That was, that was success for us. And then February

00:36:23.960 rolls around and it's $30,000 in gross sales. And Cody in the meeting says the same thing,

00:36:30.420 300,000 a year company. This is actually, this is actually my $3,400 actually made sense here.

00:36:38.400 And then March rolls around and it's 68 and April rolls around and it's a hundred and we're going,

00:36:45.840 oh fuck, oh fuck. And by October of 2013, we had grossed $1 million in sales. And we're all looking

00:36:52.880 at each other like, what? That's amazing. That's amazing, dude. That's amazing. You know,

00:37:01.580 we built our company basically the foundation of our shit pre-internet. It took me 10 years to get

00:37:07.280 to a million dollars. Oh shit. Yeah. Pre-internet though. That's very difficult. I know. And these

00:37:13.020 kids think they got it hard now with the fucking internet. That's amazing. But, but, but look at,

00:37:20.400 look at those videos. It took you fuckers, what? That's eight months? Yeah. Yeah. That's insane.

00:37:25.920 And, and it was, we were, it was very strategic. Like we would, we would put a viral video out that

00:37:33.580 would get one to 2 million views. And at the end of that video, we would, we would have a product that,

00:37:39.000 that referenced a joke in the video. So like how to be a man, fuck lettuce. That was one scene where

00:37:45.960 he just goes, fuck lettuce. Fuck lettuce has sold over 38,000 pieces. Bro, I think that was the

00:37:55.320 first shirt I ever saw you guys was the fuck lettuce shirt. Didn't it have like a fucking steak on it?

00:37:59.960 Yeah, it just had a steak. Bro, I remember that shirt from 10 fucking years ago. Think about that.

00:38:07.520 That's so wild. I didn't even fucking know you guys. I remember that shirt.

00:38:10.740 That's awesome, dude. So, so all this is going on. Matt's still deploying. So what, what do I still

00:38:18.140 print the fuck lettuce shirt? No, we need to do a, we need to be a, can you make me one?

00:38:22.100 Cause I like 100%. I will make you a gold one. I will fucking wear it. I will like all use the gold,

00:38:28.760 the shiny gold. Like you're the only one that has the gold. I will wear it on the fucking show.

00:38:33.500 I love it. So Matt is coming to my house for a week to two weeks. I'm taking a hundred to 200

00:38:43.800 photos in different outfits and everything. We're doing as much as we can on videos. And then he

00:38:48.940 deploys for 45 days and I'm posting everything as if like, so no one knows this. Like they just think

00:38:55.140 like I've got all this banked and now it's just going up like, and then he comes back and we bank

00:39:00.860 everything again. And he goes and deploys and, and that goes, so an email comes down and this is

00:39:06.200 around March of, of 2013. And the email is from someone very high up in Matt's program in,

00:39:14.740 in the agency. So Matt's kind of fucking like pingy. He's like, dude, I keep hearing that someone

00:39:21.140 up top is asking about me. Like, I don't know what this is about. He goes, I just got this email.

00:39:27.340 Will you call this guy? Like, since you're kind of like the straight up. And so I take

00:39:33.680 I take lunch at 1130, like, cause I'm on base. Like I'm still a fucking E5 running the training

00:39:39.860 department and attack P squadron. And I take lunch and I go sit in my shitty Nissan Xterra

00:39:45.480 and I call this phone number and it's Evan Hafer. And I stay on the phone with him for the entire

00:39:51.760 lunch, an hour and a half laughing my ass off because by the end of the conversation,

00:39:56.600 Evan has told me that he wants to fucking build a, uh, uh, a contraption that'll sling a Toyota

00:40:05.720 Prius into the air so we could shoot it with a tank. Like, so you're like, holy shit. Another,

00:40:10.900 another one of my brothers.

00:40:12.100 We found, we found another one.

00:40:14.600 And like, no kidding.

00:40:15.940 And you guys are fucking sweating balls, man. You're like, oh shit, dude.

00:40:18.980 Yeah. Yeah. We're fine. Yeah. So when I get back on with Matt, I'm like, bro, this guy

00:40:23.140 is fucking awesome. Like I'm going up to Utah to meet him. So I fly to Utah like weeks later,

00:40:29.340 like it wasn't even that much time to meet Evan and he's living right in downtown park

00:40:34.360 city. It was fucking bad-ass. And like, dude, the second he picks me up, it's like, he's

00:40:40.080 like, I really want to get out. You know, I, I have these ideas. He had started this, this

00:40:44.240 a company called twist rate, which was, um, all of the crowdfunding websites will not

00:40:51.860 touch anything tactical or weapon related, but there are tons of our friends in the military

00:40:57.000 and in contractors that have developed really cool widgets and equipment, but they just don't

00:41:02.020 know how to, how to product, like how to patent them and how to get started. So twist rate was

00:41:06.800 going to be the Kickstarter for the tactical world. And I was like, dude, we're in, this sounds

00:41:10.580 awesome. We're in. And the great fucking idea first day. I mean, yeah, in theory, but again,

00:41:17.320 I guess we'll find out in a minute. Yeah. There just wasn't enough. There wasn't enough

00:41:22.480 support for it. Like it wasn't as big, like everybody wasn't like running to be like, Oh,

00:41:27.000 I've got a product. Like it just maybe the wrong time. I don't know. Maybe that might work

00:41:31.880 now. Yeah. It might work now because everybody is back to kind of building and designing and

00:41:36.500 trying. And nobody wants to work with these big ass fucking shit bag companies anymore.

00:41:41.020 So that very first day that I meet him, he's like, well, I dude, I have this, I have this

00:41:45.880 book of all these fucking t-shirt designs I've always wanted to do. I'm like, well,

00:41:48.580 fucking get one out right now because I've got artists on speed dial. And he's like, well,

00:41:52.380 I want, I want an elk fucking a deer or a unicorn fucking an elk with a fish on its head.

00:42:00.460 And I just wanted to say gone fishing. And I'm fucking, I get on the phone with this guy and

00:42:04.900 I'm like, all right, we want a unicorn fucking an elk with a fish on its head. And it says

00:42:09.840 gone fishing. And then he's like, wait, no, I want it to say outdoor magic.

00:42:17.960 That shirt exists.

00:42:19.780 Did it do well?

00:42:20.940 Oh, fuck. Yeah.

00:42:24.300 That was one of the first.

00:42:25.340 Bro, I have been so overthinking my whole life.

00:42:28.040 Holy shit. Between this and fucking watching these motherfuckers do this shit the last three

00:42:34.900 years without questioning his fucking thing. Motherfucker. I have way been overthinking it.

00:42:39.400 Holy shit.

00:42:42.280 Outdoor magic.

00:42:43.360 Outdoor magic.

00:42:44.220 Oh my God.

00:42:46.460 Fuck.

00:42:46.980 I'm an idiot.

00:42:49.080 But like, I come home still laughing. Like, and when I tell Matt, like what we did, like

00:42:55.080 he's so confused. Like what you, you, what you designed a shirt with a fucking an elk. What

00:43:00.800 outdoor magic? What the fuck is going on?

00:43:03.760 It is outdoor magic.

00:43:06.260 So as soon as Matt gets home, we all go out there. He meets Evan. Like it's, we're all having

00:43:12.420 fun. Evan comes out to El Paso. Like I've got the photo of us in my garage and we've

00:43:20.020 got a whiteboard and we're like fucking everywhere.

00:43:22.460 Let me ask you a real question. Just to stop the story. Was it more fun then or now?

00:43:26.720 Oh, I would go back to the room.

00:43:28.020 That's what I'm saying. People, you guys out there building shit do not understand how

00:43:35.140 much fun it is to do what you're doing.

00:43:37.060 To see, I would trade it all to see Matt and Evan's excitement and smiles like that

00:43:42.800 again. Like, like I loved, I loved it. We were on fire. Like nothing, like we, we could

00:43:49.720 have built a tank in that garage with, with what we had around there. If we, if, if that

00:43:53.460 was it.

00:43:53.800 So then like, that's when we start learning, you know, Evan has this, this hobby and this

00:44:00.300 passion for coffee. Every time we come to Salt Lake, he's taking us to the best coffee

00:44:03.520 place. He's talking about coffee and, and everything's coffee. He's got this one pound

00:44:08.220 roaster in his basement that I've, you know, sleep in every time I went there.

00:44:12.100 He's the dude from Black Hawk Down, bro. He's the coffee guy. You know what I'm saying?

00:44:16.140 You know what I'm talking about?

00:44:16.940 Oh yeah.

00:44:17.480 Yeah.

00:44:18.040 Yeah. We wanted to mess with that scene, but that guy actually, actually went to jail for

00:44:21.980 child.

00:44:22.760 Oh yeah.

00:44:23.180 Oh yeah.

00:44:23.700 It was an iconic, yeah. It was an iconic, like, like coffee thing. And it was like, oh, we

00:44:28.880 want to, and then we looked at it. I was like, oh yeah, we're going to stay away from

00:44:31.460 that.

00:44:31.620 Yeah. Um, so, uh, yeah, the coffee, like he was roasting in his basement and a one

00:44:38.400 pound roaster. And he had this book, it was all these roasts that he had created and he

00:44:42.200 was ordering beans from all over the world, like high quality beans and doing all the

00:44:46.440 shit with coffee. And around fall, he was like, Hey, let's launch a coffee with, with

00:44:52.440 art 15. So he gets with Gary, our designer. And he's like, I want to do this coffee. And

00:44:58.480 Gary does this, this, this bag and it's called dark roasted freedom, um, from freedom roasters,

00:45:05.320 which was a fake company, but we just built this bag. That's got the art 15 logo is a

00:45:09.760 beautiful bag. Um, and Evan goes down to public coffee and, and, and roast the profile he wants.

00:45:17.480 And he runs 500 bags. We ship those to our, um, fulfillment center. And we do this video called

00:45:25.040 operator versus Grinch. And this is, this is in, uh, 2013, the, the, uh, December, like leading up to

00:45:32.500 black Friday. And we advertise dark roasted freedom and it, it, it, it sold like sold within,

00:45:39.640 you know, six days or so, like just flew off the whole run pretty much. Yeah. I think, I, I think

00:45:45.600 when I got the box back, we had, and these are the only ones we have left actually. I think, I think

00:45:49.840 there was like four or five left. Um, but the big thing was, is our customers and our audience

00:45:56.140 kept writing in how fucking good it was. They thought they kept saying, I just bought this

00:46:00.500 because I thought the bag was cool, but this was actually really fucking good. So every time I would

00:46:05.380 get that, I would just screenshot it and send it to Evan. I'm like, look, dude, you did fucking well.

00:46:08.680 Like this is awesome. And he like, no shit response. All right, well, I'm going to start

00:46:12.820 a coffee. I was like, fuck. Yeah. We're in like, hell yeah. We're in. Yeah. And so yeah,

00:46:19.560 that December he shows the logos and is like, look at it. It's what BRCC. And he's laughing.

00:46:25.080 Now what year is this again? 2014. Okay. Or no, this is, this is 13, like January is when

00:46:30.600 like he officially hit it. Um, but he's like BRCC. He's like backroom casting.

00:46:38.680 Oh shit, dude. I think that motherfucker went to jail for that. Really? Yeah. The black,

00:46:45.000 the backroom casting couch guy. Anyway, if you don't know, don't even fucking ask. You

00:46:49.800 either know or you don't black rifle coffee company, bro. So he shows me the logo and I

00:46:54.340 like immediately, I'm like, I love that. Like that is awesome. Like I could, I like, like

00:47:01.140 I said, I looked at it and I saw how much further that went than art 15, like right

00:47:07.300 away. Like I was like, okay, that actually like, that could be Nike. That could be

00:47:11.840 like, like it has it like art 15, art 15 was a, was a lifestyle, but it was kind

00:47:16.680 of a comedy like brand. And, and, and it, it didn't have legs to stand on itself. If

00:47:22.460 we weren't constantly putting things out and, and, and, and kind of reinventing it. So

00:47:26.800 he goes forward with that. Um, he puts out these two commercials that he films that are

00:47:32.920 wacky and funny. And then, um, we start getting a bunch of trolls like Evan is dump trucking

00:47:43.860 them under the black rifle coffee, Facebook name. So like these trolls are over there

00:47:49.320 like with the black rifle coffee. He's like, fuck you. No, he's like, Hey man, I think

00:47:53.300 I saw you off exit 34 at the truck stop. You had two dicks in your mouth. I'm like, this

00:48:01.520 is awesome. Like he is body slaying anybody that comes over. So I can't wait to meet with

00:48:09.000 my customer service team Monday. Oh, I grabbed my camera shit and I drive over to Butch Rogers

00:48:18.580 his house. I can't wait to show you Butch because you're going to go, this is the greatest

00:48:23.780 human being on planet earth. His real name is Tyler Potter ball. He's, he's still attacked.

00:48:27.680 He's over Washington state. He's the greatest person on the planet. Like the nicest person,

00:48:31.520 but you look at him, you're like, you are from the, you're from the seventies. Um, and

00:48:37.860 I, I light him up and he's wearing a, he's wearing this, this really thin muscle tank and

00:48:44.640 he's, and he's reloading ammo, sweating with a bandana on. And we do this video called the

00:48:51.280 troll policy. And he's like here at black rifle. We're fucking men. We don't have time for stupid

00:48:56.860 things like the internet. And he's loading ammo in between. He's like, so if you like

00:49:02.220 our coffee, great. If you don't, we don't give a fuck. And he's just, and that, that video

00:49:09.320 goes out as the black rifle troll policy. It was the first video we saw get a hundred

00:49:13.280 thousand views. And like, then the, then fans started pouring in of like, okay, this is

00:49:18.420 fucking hilarious. Like, this is awesome. And then, and then, you know, we started, started

00:49:24.240 really looping in black rifle stuff with art 15. And then that was kind of when range 15,

00:49:30.240 the movie was coming about. And Evan was in that movie very briefly gets his dick ripped

00:49:36.760 off by a zombie midget. That's not fun. Did you see the movie? No, I never saw it.

00:49:41.920 Yeah. Which was weird. He pulls it off. And that's why we couldn't get a rating. We couldn't

00:49:46.000 even get NC 17 because we had more than one second of a hard exposed dick was in our movie

00:49:53.980 that we wouldn't cut. If you have more than one second of a hard exposed dick. So there's

00:49:58.880 too much of that makes it x-rated. Well, they won't rate it. So we got NR. Bro. And here's

00:50:05.620 a funny thing. Here's a fun fact for you guys listening to the show. This is very weird.

00:50:09.800 So where was the premiere of that movie? We did, we did the premiere of, of the trailer

00:50:18.480 at SHOT Show in, in Vegas. Yeah. But no, no, no. You guys did a special premiere at Sundance.

00:50:24.160 Yes. We did the advance. Yeah. Yeah. The preview at Sundance Film Festival. These guys previewed

00:50:29.120 their film at Sundance in the very next fucking bar, the very next fucking bar. I spoke that

00:50:36.280 night, the very next bar. And here we are fucking sitting here. It's so wild. Dude, that night.

00:50:42.820 So great story. I spoke to veterans because there was a ton of veterans in the area for that.

00:50:47.540 Yeah. That were transitioning from military into entrepreneurship. It was a room of like,

00:50:54.200 I don't know, a hundred people. It was a very small room, all veterans. And these, you're

00:50:59.720 right next door. Yeah. It's fucking crazy. So wild. Yeah. Like a funny story about Sundance

00:51:05.700 is it's, you know, the, the media there is all liberal. So they watched the trailer to range

00:51:12.160 15, which is for rent, like, like the, the, the so far opposite of them. And the first, like

00:51:19.820 after the trailer stops and because the first showing you do is all for the press, all the

00:51:23.980 writers, they, they want to see it. And then, and then they, they have a Q and a, so we're standing

00:51:27.880 up. I'm standing up top with Nick Palmolshano, Tim Kennedy, Matt best Rocco. Like we're all up there

00:51:33.480 for the Q and a first reporter. Do you think it's in good taste for you to make fun of Marcus

00:51:39.420 Luttrell? And Marcus goes, well, that was me that was making fun of me. And she turns around and

00:51:47.860 he's like, I'm pretty sure I earned the right to fucking make fun of myself. And she's like,

00:51:52.100 Oh God. Because the final line in the trailer is the zombie attacking Marcus and, and Nick

00:52:00.780 looking over and go, well, I guess we're the lone survivors. Dude, those motherfuckers don't

00:52:06.500 know what to do when you do shit like that. No, like her head was going to explode because

00:52:10.300 like you could tell, like she was ready. Like her whole piece was going to be around how distasteful

00:52:16.300 this was to do that. And Marcus is, and Mark, dude, Marcus. And I think that this is on film

00:52:22.040 somewhere, but he goes into this tirade, like almost directed right at her about the sacrifice.

00:52:29.780 And, and if we, if we're not allowed to have comedy, like how the fuck am I supposed to live

00:52:35.120 in a future? And dude, there's an American flag behind him as he's like, he's like getting

00:52:40.820 more and more. Like, it was like, Oh my God, like this was, this was planned. That's fucking

00:52:46.600 awesome, dude. No, it was super funny. So yeah, we did the movie. Uh, we did the movie with Ross

00:52:52.120 Patterson, one of the, the, the co-founders, co-creators and hosts of drinking bros, uh, drinking

00:52:57.420 bros, you know, later that year is when we started the podcast was early 2015 and or mid 2015.

00:53:05.380 It was really, it was exact. It was what month was it? I want to say our first episode aired

00:53:11.960 on Thanksgiving of 2015. Okay. We, we started in June of 2015. Okay. Yeah. We were right

00:53:17.020 there. Yeah. We talked about that yesterday in the gym and your fitness stuff done. Yeah.

00:53:21.920 Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm a fitness guy. I know you're serious. I'm changing my Instagram

00:53:25.480 handle to JT fit. How many protein shakes you drink today? 14. Okay. Yeah. That's, that's,

00:53:30.160 that's a little below average, but okay. Yeah. I need more work on that. All right. All right.

00:53:33.900 All right. Well, there's mayonnaise in most of them. Oh, well that, well that counts as

00:53:37.040 double. Okay. So yeah, the movie fucking milk chicken, milk chicken. Yeah. I got to show

00:53:47.000 you that video. I can't wait to show you that video because this is the type of stuff. Like

00:53:50.820 I just want to run your comedy. Right. Listen, I, I, I'm in perfect. So we, uh, the, the movie

00:54:03.340 was, uh, it was wild because we crowdfunded it. We crowdfunded it. We, we partnered with

00:54:09.260 our direct competitor Ranger up. So I want everybody to think about this. Like we at the

00:54:15.420 time didn't know them. We at the time saw them as someone to try and overtake or take

00:54:22.680 down, you know, when you're new destroy and you're like, Oh yeah, I want to fuck over the

00:54:27.020 big guy. I used to be like that too, bro. Until you, until you realize like, but we can get

00:54:31.380 further together. We changed that. Yeah. It was wait. Like, and that's what I thought.

00:54:36.400 Like, I no kidding was like, you know, at the end of the, like I, I saw that I had this

00:54:43.680 cloud over me from something that I had respected beforehand and looked up to and went, okay.

00:54:50.260 When I got into the, cause I've had to have this conversation with so many people nowadays

00:54:54.300 of like pulling them in and saying, Hey, coming into the business space, you cannot come in

00:54:58.980 with piss and vinegar and wanting to fucking punch him. No, you'll get kicked off the motherfucking

00:55:02.320 ladder. A hundred percent. People don't understand that. I talk about that all the time. Like

00:55:06.520 there's, there's a ladder and people who are up towards the top who become, there's this weird

00:55:11.580 thing in business. And by the way, I fell into it as well. When I was young, I started building

00:55:16.020 a company. I looked at all the bigger companies. I'm like, fuck them. We're going to fucking kill

00:55:20.440 them. And it turns out we never affected them at all. They just kind of did their own thing

00:55:25.880 and went their own ways. And we grew and a lot of those companies are still big and still

00:55:29.760 exist, you know, but if you cut, but I can tell you this, me having that attitude cost

00:55:35.300 me a lot of fucking time. Yeah. And that's where I, I caught myself and I, and I, and I

00:55:40.760 brought it to the guys. I'm like, Hey, what if we, what if we invite Ranger up in on this

00:55:45.980 movie? Yeah. And of course, Cody, the CFO is like, well, yeah, that would cut our cost

00:55:50.580 in half. Cause originally range 15, we were going to fund ourselves and we had set the budget

00:55:54.500 at 325,000. We were just going to sell shirts until we made that block of money. We were

00:56:00.680 going to make the movie and, and, and put it out. So it wasn't huge plans, but we knew

00:56:06.140 we wanted to do a, a, a real film, like a comedy. And so I sent the email to Nick Palmashano

00:56:11.960 randomly from, you know, JT at art 15 clothing.com. I sent him the script. It then was called zone

00:56:19.040 15. I said, Hey, and I sent him a, a, like a three slide plan that said, you know, here

00:56:27.040 is, here is the budget. Here's how we're going to release it. Here's how we're going to monetize

00:56:31.720 it. Here's the plan. He emailed me back. I want to say like an hour later saying, we've

00:56:40.100 wanted to do this forever. We're in, let's get a meeting.

00:56:43.180 So now we went from like thinking that we needed to take this big dog down and, and

00:56:50.100 Ranger up is evil and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But in the back of our heads,

00:56:54.880 we're also like, those guys are kind of the fucking, the bee's knees.

00:56:58.080 Yeah. Yeah. And it's like, dude, we're invited to go sit down with Ranger up, Tim Kennedy,

00:57:02.960 Jack Manderville, Nick Palmashano. Like, holy shit.

00:57:06.320 And we fly to North Carolina and we sit down and, and have this talk about, about the script

00:57:13.760 and everything you do. There's, they had scripts printed out for everybody. And then, you know,

00:57:17.340 they had plant like a whiteboard with things of that they wanted to add to it. And, and

00:57:22.140 then, you know, Nick brought up, he was like, well, what do you think about crowdfunding?

00:57:25.320 And I was against it at first because I always feel kind of embarrassed, like asking for anything.

00:57:31.520 And I felt like the community at the time knew that we were doing well, because as you, you saw

00:57:37.840 the climb and you saw the, the increase in production value and better stuff and more guns

00:57:42.500 and things like that. So they're like, yeah, you guys are making money. So I felt that it would be

00:57:47.500 received wrong. You had a little, you had a little, uh, success guilt. Yes. And, but I just, I just

00:57:52.740 thought that it was going to be received wrong. Cause what I didn't think about, and this is what Nick

00:57:57.160 finally changed me on. He goes, no, get away from the mindset that you're asking them for something.

00:58:04.560 You're letting them be a part of it. You're asking them to be a piece of it. Yes. And I didn't think

00:58:09.780 like that then. And now I've seen it because the people that still to this day come up to me and

00:58:14.480 say, I donated to range 15 and that was the greatest thing I've ever got to do. Yeah. It's

00:58:17.920 fucking awesome, dude. And so we launched this off and I mean, I'm telling you, man, like we,

00:58:23.980 we make this by the way, we're one of the only movie campaigns to, to try and raise money for a

00:58:32.220 movie that had nothing for the movie in the video, trying to raise money for the movie saying like,

00:58:38.960 it was just literally, we're going to make a movie. And the goal was 350,000. And dude,

00:58:47.220 the night before, like Nick is so nervous and he's like, dude, you think we're going to,

00:58:51.820 you think we're going to make it? And I'm like, okay, well, if the launch video hits

00:58:54.860 18,000 shares, it gives us a million views on Facebook that should give us around 6,000 people

00:59:00.640 that actually go to it. Like I'm, I'm trying to break down the conversion math and I'm like,

00:59:05.060 yeah, man, I think, I think we're going to make it like, like we got 45 days. We're going to make

00:59:08.960 it. Boom. This thing goes out. It hits 350 in like the first 10 hours. Shut the fuck up. And we're like,

00:59:16.520 Oh, what? And Nick's like, I'm going to, I'm going to raise the goal. And we're like,

00:59:22.860 why? He's like, we're going to add more explosions. So he puts this graphic on. It's like,

00:59:27.500 if we get to 450, we're going to have big explosions. And then, and then it, it screams

00:59:33.880 past 450 in like three days. And we're like, Oh fuck, fuck, fuck. What are we going to do? He's

00:59:38.420 like, we're going to get a celebrity. If we get to 500. So we kept posting these updates,

00:59:46.000 screams past it. We ended up raising $1.3 million for range 15, the third highest crowdfunded film

00:59:54.620 in history at the time. Dude. The only, the things that beat us out was like super troopers too.

01:00:00.400 How, how exciting was that? It was exciting, but it was nerve wracking because now it was like,

01:00:06.960 as you, cause you can see 14,000, 15,000, 18,000 donors. And I'm going, Oh, that's a lot of people

01:00:15.840 to let down if we fuck this up because that happened like this, this, and this is where the story turns

01:00:22.240 to like, we raise all this money and now you have three massive creative entities, Ross, Ranger up and us.

01:00:36.960 And all now, like we have a million and a half dollars to make a movie. No, no, no, no. It's

01:00:43.160 getting pulled in every direct. We need to do this. We need to do this. And, and fighting ensued. Yeah.

01:00:48.600 And in June, like the, the thing closed the end of May and we got Ranger up's rewrite back and Matt threw it

01:01:01.220 against the wall and was like, this is a disaster. Like he hated some of the things that were written there.

01:01:08.700 He didn't like the way he was written as a character. You started writing it as a committee.

01:01:13.600 Yeah. And so, so like, Oh God, I was sweating like a fucking, like, it was the most awful,

01:01:20.200 like five days, like where I was like, we've, we've just raised all this fucking money and now

01:01:25.320 nobody's getting along. Everybody fucking hates the project. Like, this is a fucking disaster.

01:01:29.880 I hate this. Let me off the ship, please. And finally, like we were honest with Nick. Matt was

01:01:37.340 honest with Nick. He said, I didn't like the rewrite. Nick goes, all right, Jack and I are

01:01:41.820 going to fly out to El Paso. I'm going to rent a conference room and we're not going to leave that

01:01:47.280 room until we are all happy with the script and no shit. They get on a plane. We're, we're in a

01:01:54.100 Holiday Inn Express in a conference room. And Nick has taped Joe giant butcher paper up around the

01:02:01.600 whole room. And we have the laptop and we have scripts for everybody. He's like, let's go read

01:02:07.760 it. And everybody sat at the table and we acted it out in there and rewrote the whole thing, like

01:02:14.120 from start to finish for dialogue and position and using, using each, uh, scene change, uh, like

01:02:22.000 those big pieces of paper. We're all, we're like when we change scenes and how we got there.

01:02:25.960 So we made sure that it flowed and, and then we walked out of there and everybody was, was

01:02:31.960 happy again. And I was just finally like, Oh God, I can breathe. Yeah. Dude. A lot of times

01:02:38.980 when you get all those people trying to make decisions about your product, you end up with

01:02:42.040 a watered down bullshit version. But yeah, the thing is, is you have a lot of very creative

01:02:47.480 people that all have their own vision and, and it's, this is a shared vision. So it's

01:02:54.000 like, it's a very difficult thing. Like you want to talk about the, the, one of the hardest

01:02:59.340 fucking team exercises on the planet, getting three creative entities together to work together.

01:03:05.320 How long did that take?

01:03:07.520 Two days. We got through the whole thing in two days. And, um, and then in October of 2015,

01:03:16.580 we went into production and it was 13 days for 90 pages. So, oh, it was wild. There's a documentary

01:03:26.020 on, um, on Amazon about it called not a war story. It shows like how gnarly it was to, to try and get

01:03:34.740 all that in, in 13 days.

01:03:36.680 You shot the whole thing in 13 days.

01:03:38.940 Yes. It's, it's amazing.

01:03:40.760 You're talking like 10, 12 pages a day.

01:03:42.880 Yeah. That's amazing.

01:03:46.580 So we did it like through a lot of gray hairs, like a lot of, because again, like, uh, I was

01:03:54.920 talking with Ross about this, uh, uh, a couple of days ago when I was on drinking bros after the

01:04:00.220 show. And I was like, you know, it sucks when you are a lead actor and the executive producer

01:04:08.600 of a project because you have to give a performance, but you're also in the know, all the fuck ups

01:04:16.080 that are happening and the budget and the like, dude, every, every day we would, we would start

01:04:20.840 at 5am. We would cut it off at 10 or 11 because of, uh, labor loss. Like the crew would go into

01:04:28.480 overtime and then you have to stop overtime at a certain piece at 11 o'clock. Myself, Matt, Nick,

01:04:34.040 Ross, Rocco would all go in the trailer and the line producer would tell us who stole from us,

01:04:40.320 what went over today, what's missing, what like, and you're just like, and then when that meeting's

01:04:46.900 over, you know, it's 45 minute meeting at 11 45. Okay. The van's here to take you back to your

01:04:51.340 hotel. I'll see you at five. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, by the way, we're covered in fake blood through the

01:05:00.300 whole movie. Like this is something I didn't think about when we wrote this thing. That's

01:05:04.300 like every day you're just sticky with this corn syrup and it's just like, Oh God. Oh, but we got

01:05:12.420 through it. Yeah. We made a movie. That's fucking, we went to 750 theaters nationwide, all of which

01:05:19.360 had an after party. And I'm here to say that is the only time that's ever happened in history.

01:05:24.220 There has been relationships, wives and babies that, that started the night of range 15. I know

01:05:29.860 that's of, of a marriage that came out of, they met at the, at the, at the first showing

01:05:34.580 of range 15. So it's like, and the fans, the first, the year after the year anniversary,

01:05:40.800 after it had came out, they had all got together and they hired a designer and they, and, and

01:05:46.400 the day to the day, one year to the day, June 16th, a person hand like showed up every location

01:05:56.000 that all of us was at. Like we were all over the country, but one, somebody showed up with

01:06:00.380 these two books and the books were photos and like notes from every screening. Dude,

01:06:09.240 that's fucking awesome. It's fucking awesome. Yeah. Like you go through this thing, like

01:06:13.600 photos of the theaters, like they were bringing costumes and like, bro, that is super cool,

01:06:20.680 man. For them to do that. Yeah. Like probably one of the coolest gifts I've ever, I've ever

01:06:25.660 gone. Yeah. I still, to this day, I show everybody when they come, I'm like, you have to see this.

01:06:29.580 Like this is so wild. That's fucking awesome, man. So what, so let's talk a little bit about

01:06:35.960 a black rifle becoming the massive, amazing American coffee machine that has become.

01:06:45.140 Yeah. So, um, Matt and I roll out to our Iraq tour with the movie in, in, um, July of 2016.

01:06:57.300 We get back from that. I want to say July 20th. And on the 22nd, I'm like, we're loading up and

01:07:05.720 going to Salt Lake. He's like, all right. And we tell Evan, like, we're coming to you. Like,

01:07:11.100 it's time to focus on black rifle. Like the movie's done. It's out over. We're coming to

01:07:16.900 help. So we drive to Salt Lake where me and Matt are sharing a single bedroom apartment with a,

01:07:24.780 with a twin bed. I'm on a cot in the living room. Uh, and we're in a, Evan's in a rented office space

01:07:32.720 that he's sharing with another company. And there's, there's two, maybe three employees at the

01:07:37.640 time. The first couple of days we write every awesome video idea that we could come up with

01:07:45.100 together on this, this big, uh, piece of countertop. I think he had just sitting in there.

01:07:51.280 And then I say, can I have, can I have a little bit of money from the company to buy a computer and

01:07:58.820 build a studio in this closet? And he's like, yeah. So I go get a Mac laptop. I buy some monitors.

01:08:04.520 I buy foam and everything. And we, we foam out this, this whole room. And like the next day,

01:08:11.680 Matt and I and Rocco write the song safety brief and record it. And we have that animated and put

01:08:19.140 that out. And then, um, like a week and a half later, we shoot the, how to be an American.

01:08:25.880 And that gets 88 million views on Facebook and black rifle went from averaging three,

01:08:33.860 $3,000 a day to like 15 to 20 consecutively. Like, and it just, and then within two months,

01:08:44.900 Evan's looking to try and buy a building. Like, and he's going through one of our partners and

01:08:50.160 friends like that, that was very wealthy. That's like, okay, we need a space. We need a space.

01:08:54.500 And we find this building, we move into it. And, you know, there were, we were sitting,

01:09:00.560 four of us were sitting on the floor on the carpet and lawn chairs in the Washington room,

01:09:05.200 which is, we call the Washington room because we have the giant, uh, wrapped wall of Washington

01:09:09.960 crossing the Delaware.

01:09:11.980 That's awesome.

01:09:14.280 That's fucking awesome.

01:09:14.900 And we're, we're just throwing out ideas and okay, what's next? What are we doing here? And

01:09:20.560 all while like, we're still kind of like squatting in Salt Lake. Like we're, we've, we've just moved

01:09:26.940 into this building, Matt and I, you know, we still have, uh, you know, people in El Paso and going

01:09:32.760 back and forth. Um, and so then, yeah, we find I, Evan found a new house to move into and I just took

01:09:41.920 his lease at his current house and moved my wife at the time and the kids down there, put them in.

01:09:47.920 But like, I lived at that office. Like I started decorating our side, obviously I started wrapping

01:09:52.940 walls and like, cause I gotta have my space.

01:09:55.120 I get it.

01:09:55.860 I built, I built three studios. You know, there was a music studio, podcast studio. So we like,

01:10:00.560 we got everything, uh, everything down there. We moved Dave down to Salt Lake and, and got the

01:10:06.160 podcast back up and running. And, and, um, yeah, I mean, even like Jason Rao came in

01:10:11.640 from breaking Benjamin and recorded the guitar tracks to one of their latest albums in the studio,

01:10:16.560 like a day after I got it set up.

01:10:18.260 That is awesome. And man, the meeting, and I have a lot of this stuff on phones and I've,

01:10:25.980 I've data logged so many things like, like, cause I, I just had the foresight of like filming

01:10:31.060 certain meetings at certain times, because again, this is still, I always kind of assume

01:10:36.180 that I'm on borrowed time. Like I always feel like I'm not supposed to be here. So I'm taking

01:10:41.420 advantage of this. Like, and I just remember like Evan talking in that Washington room one

01:10:47.400 day, there was a con, you know, he was having this conversation of the potential for this

01:10:53.760 thing to go to a billion dollar company one day, probably 10 to 12 years later. And it

01:11:00.100 happened three years. Yeah. So it's like, and that was so far fetched and foreign, like

01:11:07.120 at the time where it was like, well, dude, and you know, like, like, so he gives me the

01:11:13.260 task. Uh, everybody was pretty fucking grinded up then too. Like it was stressful. So like

01:11:21.960 everybody's kind of testy people, you know, yeah. It's everybody's fucking tired and things

01:11:30.040 like that. Like I'm, I'm staying at the office until like fucking nine o'clock at night and shit.

01:11:35.440 Like just anything, any, anything and anything that I can find to like fix, do whatever the

01:11:40.400 hell it is. And then he's like, we need to get a fucking coffee shop in here. So I get crumb,

01:11:46.560 Aaron crumb from nitro circus. Like, and he, he loves the story because he, he said he would come

01:11:53.640 over to consult because he's, he's, he's also a general contractor. It was, he's like, he's like,

01:11:57.820 I'll just tell you what you need to do, but I don't want to do it. I'm like, okay, okay.

01:12:00.600 Just tell us what we need to do. And he comes over and then no shit. Like an hour later,

01:12:03.740 he's got a tool belt on and we're both fucking taking down walls. And yeah, three months into

01:12:08.700 the project, he's like, God damn it. I didn't want to do this. But yeah, like we designed,

01:12:13.760 we start ripping down walls and like, and, and start building this coffee shop with, and I did it with

01:12:21.360 him. Like the very first one, like I was in there nailing the fucking wood panels to the wall,

01:12:26.840 like on a rainy Sunday afternoon, trying to get as far as ahead of schedule as we could to get

01:12:31.900 this thing moving, you know? And, and like, I remember like, uh, I had the lights installed and

01:12:37.660 again, like I'm pulling my hair out and like Evan walks in and he's like, these fucking lights look

01:12:43.140 shit. I'm like, I didn't even notice. Okay. Like what lights do you want? He's like, I'll go get the

01:12:48.900 fucking lights. And he, he rolls out and he comes back with these awesome lights. Where the fuck do you

01:12:52.740 even find these? He's like, I knew a place. So like, yeah, yeah. I remember him fucking so

01:12:58.460 pissed, pissed about the lights, but yeah, we got that coffee shop up and running and that,

01:13:03.000 that like changed the mood too, because now like Evan had a spot like to start doing what he loved

01:13:08.720 best. Yeah. Coffee stuff. Yeah. Like, and then, you know, things just kept things, things were on fire

01:13:15.660 then. Like, it's like trying to remember it now. It's like, this is like, this is through 2017

01:13:20.640 going into 2018 is when that's when like first investors come in and the talk is we need to

01:13:29.240 move to San Antonio. And we're like, what? Like we just moved here. And he was like, we need to

01:13:36.020 move to San Antonio. All right. Well, we're moving to San Antonio and no kidding. Like when I think

01:13:42.300 about how it like unfolded, like it was no kidding. Like overnight one day, it was like, all right,

01:13:46.860 we all got to go to San Antonio. And then like, I woke up and like 20 of us are in a hotel together

01:13:51.900 in San Antonio. Like, and then we rent this house that we call grandma's house. That's where we're

01:13:58.740 going to work every day. You just call it grandma's house cause the movie. No, it's, it's, it's grandma's

01:14:03.260 house. Cause it was, it was furnished like a, it was just furnished like a, like a grandma's woman's

01:14:08.020 house. Yeah. And it was on a golf course, but that's like where we were working out of every day.

01:14:12.820 Cause we didn't have a building. And so like, then, then we go through the process of, of, of trying

01:14:18.260 to find a building. And okay. We think we found a building and we find a building. And then again,

01:14:21.940 we're back to like where we were in the beginning of 2017, where we get into this building and

01:14:26.380 there's five of us sitting in there like, all right. And here I got to go. I got to build another

01:14:31.340 fucking studio. No shit, man. Got to get the podcast up and running. We're in San Antonio now.

01:14:37.040 So I put the, I put the drinking bro studio together up in there and we, we, it's never

01:14:46.040 not, we never missed one. Yeah. So we always did it and got that studio up and running.

01:14:50.860 And then we, we ended up finding the black rifle ranch that we were able to lease. And we started

01:14:59.260 producing like our Halloween videos out there and started putting up the archery targets and,

01:15:04.800 and everything. And like really started to, to just design the brand. And we, we, you know,

01:15:11.640 the Bernie store opens up, it's a partnered store, you know, ran by, by Mason who owns the gun store

01:15:17.280 right there. It's, it's one of the, it's the only black rifle that has a gun store attached to it.

01:15:21.080 Like that you could walk through. That's really cool. So it's like, once you started seeing these

01:15:25.120 things tangible, like, like they got the fire again, like, so everybody, again, everybody's all

01:15:30.080 over the place. Nobody has like a specific role. It's just, you know, it's fucking organized chaos.

01:15:35.260 Yes. Yeah, for sure. For sure, bro. I get that. Every phase we've gone through as well. It's it's

01:15:41.300 that comes around. Like when we moved into this building, it was like that moved into our last

01:15:45.660 building. It was like that. You know what I'm saying? Um, everything that you're, that you're

01:15:51.100 saying is like, I'm just sitting over here like, yeah, yeah, yeah. I fucking get it, dude.

01:15:55.800 It's fucking awesome. I'm glad it's not just us. Yeah. This is wild. Like it's so much to unpack.

01:16:01.760 Yeah. So how mentally fucked up are you now? Very. I have a lot of trust issues. A lot of trust

01:16:08.340 issues. Holy shit, dude. So that's, um, so you guys, you guys go public, right? Yeah. And, and now one of

01:16:20.220 your big initiatives is, is the retail stores. Yes. Retail stores. And then also, so we have a few,

01:16:26.420 few initiatives here that are, that are, that are going down. We've, again, we've, Evan has always

01:16:32.880 kept us online with this content is king. Like we have to be the leaders of content and inspire,

01:16:40.740 inform, entertain. Let's go like, like, and, and so that was pushing brand. You know, he was,

01:16:49.300 I can't believe they fucking use that same thing. We never talked about this. He briefed

01:16:55.020 that too. Like that became our, our pillar in 2017, I believe is when he briefed that to

01:17:00.460 us. Dude, I have an equation. I use, I teach it. Really? Yeah. It's E2I equals E it's education,

01:17:08.880 entertainment, impact equals engagement. Holy shit. Yeah. That's what I teach. That's what

01:17:14.300 I fucking teach. It's, it's fucking, that's why I can't wait to get him here because he's going to,

01:17:20.260 he's going to, bro, we got to do a show with you three guys and then our guys. Oh yeah.

01:17:26.300 Yeah. That'd be fucking awesome. That'd be super sick. Um, so yes, we have the BRCC fund,

01:17:33.740 which we're, we're the initiatives there are to really lift up a lot of these veteran charities

01:17:39.260 that are doing very impactful work. You know, it's time. Yeah. We saw a ton of veteran charities

01:17:44.320 spark up everywhere, but going through and finding the ones that are really doing impactful work in

01:17:48.620 the community and helping these veterans either transition or get help or anything that's needed.

01:17:54.040 Like, like that's a big thing. Retail store expansion, big thing. We've got to get these

01:17:59.240 stores, you know, up and running as well as, you know, Evans in development of the process for

01:18:05.440 how we're going to take applicants to become store owner operators. So like taking a veteran that

01:18:12.340 wants to have a store. Yeah. And that, that generally doesn't, doesn't have the money or the,

01:18:17.540 or the network to be able to raise the money. But if they go through the program that takes like two

01:18:23.660 years, then we will, we will provide that dude. That's how we do our shit. We take for our retail

01:18:30.180 store franchisees for supplement super stores. We take our employees. We make, they have to go

01:18:36.260 as an employee. They have to work, work every station. Yeah. And then once, once we feel confident

01:18:41.140 enough that they can do it, they have the option to get funded by us to do it. That's amazing.

01:18:45.040 It's the same shit you're doing. It's fucking awesome. I love this. Yeah.

01:18:51.160 And so many parallels. I know. And then, yeah, like he said, like I was telling you yesterday,

01:18:56.300 like he really wants to do this shark tank style initiative where we're going to start

01:19:01.180 taking in these dreamers, these veteran, veteran dreamers and entrepreneurs and saying, all right,

01:19:06.480 we're here to help. Yeah. Let's do it. Yeah. And I'm excited for that because I think that's

01:19:10.900 a big deal. That's going to be amazing. Like I would love nothing more to then go in and teach

01:19:14.620 somebody how to message like, this is what I like. Yeah. You know, what's cool too, dude. I think,

01:19:20.000 I think, first of all, I think that the table is now set for that to, to really go. Yes. Um,

01:19:29.300 people have become awake to the, the, the true monopoly that we face as small business owners. Now

01:19:37.500 you guys aren't small, we're not small, but we're still small business because we're not owned by big

01:19:41.920 business. You know what I'm saying? And, um, the, the table is set for people. They want,

01:19:50.760 they don't want to see any more of these Hollywood jerk offs fucking pretending to help people and

01:19:55.660 shit. They want to see real motherfucking Americans helping other real people do real shit.

01:20:00.300 You want to be able to feel it too. Like this morning, you could feel it here. The community

01:20:05.260 sees it. They can see what you're doing and that goes further than anything else because

01:20:11.760 dude, yes, because dude, they are, we are all the same and people are starting to really understand

01:20:18.260 that there is an us, the normal citizens of America and of them, the motherfuckers that try

01:20:25.060 to squeeze every ounce of fucking profitability out of us. They're just breeding consumers.

01:20:30.100 That is it. That's all they want us to be. They wouldn't be putting 400 pound fucking

01:20:35.080 fitness models on TV. Uh, and then teaching you to sit at home and order all your food and watch

01:20:41.460 fucking whatever streaming service that you have. They wouldn't be doing, they're creating consumers.

01:20:47.480 Those people consume more. Yes. Those people consume more food. They consume more data.

01:20:51.700 They consume more health products. Uh, meaning like big pharma, you need health products, right?

01:20:57.060 To not die for being so fucking unhealthy. Like this is the play and people are becoming wise to it.

01:21:04.000 And that gives an opportunity for people like us to actually go out and do real shit because dude,

01:21:09.320 people are not stupid. They see what's going on. And no matter how hard they push this and propagate

01:21:13.940 this fucking bullshit on us, this woke, stupid ass shit that nobody agrees with. The more people are

01:21:19.660 looking for an alternative to support. I think your whole dude, I think you guys could fucking take

01:21:24.340 down Starbucks. Like legit. I don't know if you ever talk about that, but like when I see the

01:21:29.100 fucking stores and I see the inside of the store and I see their, their culture is, is, is imploding

01:21:35.860 themselves. Let's just say that a hundred percent. If you're going to, you know, allow homeless and,

01:21:41.460 and kick out cops and, and do all this stupid bullshit. It's like, you're, you're, you're not going to

01:21:47.020 win. Nobody wants to go there. No, if it's not safe first off. Yeah. If safety is a fucking is

01:21:52.920 people are afterthought. Nobody wants to fucking be there. A lot of these big companies are going

01:21:57.180 to get eaten the fuck up by guys like us. They really are. They really are. And like you guys

01:22:01.640 who are out there building your brands, you have no idea the opportunity that awaits in front of you.

01:22:08.400 If you don't adopt this crazy shit that all the big companies are doing, just be yourself, dude.

01:22:12.960 Yes. Authenticity will get you everywhere you want. Yeah, for sure, man, bro. I love what you guys

01:22:21.080 are doing. I fucking love it. I hope you guys, I hope you guys open fucking 30,000 motherfucking

01:22:26.260 stores all over the world and fucking dominate coffee, dude. I mean, I, yeah, another thing there

01:22:32.960 needs to be one in here. Yeah. Yeah. Cause the boys were all like, well, can we get some beans and

01:22:39.000 some cans? I'm like, no, we need a store in here. You know what's funny? We're building

01:22:43.360 two buildings across the street. I'm pretty sure we got, I'm pretty sure we can figure

01:22:48.620 it the fuck out. We'll talk about that after the show. I can't wait. Um, look, man, I just

01:22:56.040 want to say, uh, I have the utmost respect for what you guys have done, like for real

01:23:01.100 and, and getting to spend some time with you the last couple of days. Uh, what you said

01:23:05.100 at the beginning of the show is also mutual to me. It gets me excited. Like I'm sitting

01:23:09.080 here as the show is going on. I'm letting, I'm trying to let you talk. Cause I'm really

01:23:12.860 bad about jumping in the middle. Yeah. So like, and people listen, get fucking pissed. They're

01:23:18.600 like, fuck it. Andy, shut the fuck up. I'm working on it. But like, I'm sitting here with

01:23:23.660 all these amazing ideas just from listening. Dude, listen, it's just awesome. It was funny

01:23:30.080 because like, like what I got back last night and I remember like our, one of our first

01:23:35.340 conversations, I'm just like, man, I'm beat down because everything's transactional. And

01:23:38.820 I'm like, Oh God, I got so excited. I started firing off with fucking opportunity ideas and

01:23:44.140 I'm like, Oh no, no, I'm not supposed to be doing that. That's, that's different. That's

01:23:49.560 different. That's different. One of the things that he's talking about was, you know, as you

01:23:55.040 become, and people don't understand this, like unless you go through the process, when

01:24:01.240 you become a person that can solve problems for people or, or that you have resources

01:24:05.740 and, and bro, I'm willing to solve problems for people. Like, and I, I see it as a duty,

01:24:11.120 right? Like I help a lot of motherfucking people that nobody ever fucking hears about or talks

01:24:15.100 about. I know. And you know, the other thing about that is you can't advertise it. Like,

01:24:20.020 no, because you look like that guy. So like, so like if I come on the show and I'm like,

01:24:23.780 Hey, I fucking did this and this and this and this and this and this, I just doubled

01:24:27.740 the donations for our event this morning. Like I brag about these. I'm a fucking bragger.

01:24:32.900 Then if I don't do it, Andy's just a rich motherfucker that doesn't give a fuck about

01:24:36.860 anybody. And people don't understand that when you become a person that can actually solve

01:24:42.000 problems, people really do start looking at you differently. It's not that people think

01:24:47.140 like, Oh, money and fame, it changes people. No, it changes the way people treat those people.

01:24:51.660 Yes. And that's what people don't understand. And then as a result, those people start becoming

01:24:56.040 more withdrawn. They isolate themselves. Lonely as fuck. Yeah. Because every motherfucker you talk

01:25:02.600 to, you're just waiting for the transaction, the transaction, like, and how deflating is it

01:25:08.820 once it gets there? Because there's so many times I've been so excited for something. I know. And then

01:25:13.960 that, that, that ass comes out and I just clam up and I lock up. Bro, you know what I like? I just

01:25:20.220 like motherfuckers to keep it real. Like, bro, just come at me with the shit right away. Like, don't

01:25:24.940 like, if you need help, fucking tell me, I fucking help you. But like, don't come at me with just like

01:25:29.240 pretending like we're best friends or like, Hey bro, it's been a long time since we talked.

01:25:33.680 How's the family? How's this motherfucker? What do you want?

01:25:36.440 Like for real. And that's what it, that's what it becomes. And it's, it sucks because it does make

01:25:43.480 it feel very transactional. It was funny because the first thing that he said, when he got here,

01:25:48.460 we were fucking literally like 30 seconds into the conversation. I'm training, doing my weight

01:25:53.720 workout, him and DJ are standing there. And we were talking about somebody, I forgot what the fuck

01:25:58.780 example we were talking about. Somebody that was, that was fucking around. Yeah. You know,

01:26:02.960 but you had connections too. Yeah. And you're with your guys' deal, right? Or was it me?

01:26:07.420 No, it was mine. I was just talking about, yeah, we were talking about something. Oh,

01:26:10.800 that's right. I remember now. I'm not going to say what it was, but like, basically we got to

01:26:15.840 talking about like how people will do things, not understanding that when those things come to

01:26:22.440 materialize in the public, it's not their fucking name that's on it. You know what I'm saying?

01:26:28.160 My name's in the head. Yes. Like what you said about seeing your logo and having anxiety,

01:26:34.700 you know, I fuck people like, why would you have that? Well, when every motherfucking ball that's

01:26:39.880 ever been dropped ever. Anytime this rings, it's because there's a problem. That's right.

01:26:44.760 And dude, in the culture that we live in, in the internet, and I'm all for extreme ownership.

01:26:50.000 You're right. It's my fucking fault. But like, bro, when you run a company with fucking thousands of

01:26:56.120 fucking people involved, guess what? There's going to be shit that happens. That's reality.

01:26:59.960 And in today's age, that's automatically fucking, it goes out and it's me. It's my name. Right. And

01:27:08.420 like, it's like, dude, if people would just stop and realize like that, like there's always more to

01:27:15.200 the story that, than what people think. And that, you know, trying to manage a massive company like

01:27:21.260 you guys are, or like what we're doing, not truly not knowing what the fuck we're doing.

01:27:26.060 Yeah. Like I never fucking did this before. And it kills the creativity. Like, you know.

01:27:30.340 Because you start playing defense. Yeah. You're like, you're like, oh dude, well,

01:27:34.020 if I say this or do this, this motherfucker over here who got me, dude.

01:27:38.260 It like generally takes almost two to three hours of Evan and I being together before we can kind of

01:27:46.960 sift out everything and the fun and the laugh and the fucking, and the creative ideas start

01:27:52.100 coming back. Like, I'm going to tell you something that we're working on right now when this is over,

01:27:56.580 because it's a secret, because it's really fucking funny. But we came up with it last week when I

01:28:00.020 was, or the last couple of weeks when I was with him. But yeah, it's like, you've got to like,

01:28:04.080 it takes a few hours to like sift because him and I start unloading like this motherfucker did this,

01:28:09.260 this happened, this happened, this, and we're both like all fired up. And then it like settles and

01:28:13.620 it's like, oh my God, I had the greatest idea. Bro, people, people don't think, I don't think

01:28:20.200 customers or fans or even other people who aspire to have their brands or their companies

01:28:29.900 ever consider that part of it at all. Like they never consider that, you know, ever like, dude,

01:28:38.140 like, for example, a dude that was in business 20 years ago, like you, listen, if you're an old

01:28:44.120 motherfucker, you listen to this show and you think, oh yeah, I fucking did that. No, you fucking

01:28:47.360 didn't. Cause I'm going to tell you right now, it's way fucking harder now. You're fucking every

01:28:51.240 move was not scrutinized. No, you're fucking every conversation was not scrutinized. Not on your

01:28:55.640 fucking every fucking thing you ever did in public is not on fucking camera. Like they don't fucking

01:29:00.980 get it. Oh, that's what I was talking to DJ about. It's like, that's a fear. A fear is somebody

01:29:06.000 like trying to fuck with me while I'm eating out with friends. And like, they just want

01:29:10.300 the video of me cause they know, you know, I've got a fucking temper, by the way, which

01:29:16.320 has actually happened to both of us. We were trading these stories yesterday. Both of us

01:29:24.000 have had people beat us, try to bait us in public into a reaction so that they could fucking

01:29:30.260 film it and have publicity. Yes. Like there it's so like, dude, you, and this goes into

01:29:37.580 we can, we talked politics the other day, so I'm not going to get too much into it, but

01:29:41.420 like, bro, I'm just going to let you motherfuckers know if you want people to solve the problems

01:29:46.180 in society, you have to stop criticizing them for being fucking not perfect. You motherfuckers

01:29:52.080 ain't perfect. None of you are. And the fact that you pile on people on the internet and

01:29:57.040 blah, blah, blah, blah, blah is why you get these people in office to shit their fucking

01:30:01.240 pants and rob you of all your fucking rights and money. Like, holy shit, dude. It's not

01:30:06.440 that hard to understand. The best and brightest people are not fucking volunteering to do the

01:30:11.420 fucking service anymore. And so we're stuck with Joe Biden who shits himself on fucking

01:30:15.580 TV or in front of the fucking Pope. Like the fuck are we doing? Anyway, that's my politics

01:30:21.140 for the show. I love it. Thanks for tuning in. I love it. Yeah. Yeah. Well, if we ever want

01:30:26.380 to have this country, the problem solved by people who can actually solve them, then the

01:30:31.880 people you need accountability. Yeah. But bro, you, the guy, you guys out there on the internet

01:30:36.400 gotta start having some fucking grace for people, you know, like this fucking piling on motherfuckers

01:30:41.040 for like, I think it's happening, bro. Like I saw this fucking post today, uh, cancel Kanye

01:30:46.800 and it was from, uh, it was from the anti, uh, uh, Semitic page or something like these

01:30:53.680 guys were, and they're trying to say he's anti-Semite and all this shit. No fucking comments

01:30:59.120 are like a thousand long. And everybody was like, yeah, fuck. Yeah. Nah. Yeah. Yeah. They're

01:31:03.100 not with it. And so I'm hoping that I really hope, cause I feel like we're moving that way

01:31:07.820 that people have started to understand the problem that this kind of bullying creates

01:31:15.380 online. It creates a situation where the best people won't fucking try to help you guys.

01:31:21.540 They won't do it because they're just like, fuck it. I was just sitting with, uh, um, Tito

01:31:27.560 Ortiz fucking Ian Smith. Both dudes ran for office. Both dudes got their fucking family names,

01:31:33.800 drug got their fucking every bad thing said about them that they ever did put like, and

01:31:39.660 you motherfuckers vote for people based off of like these things they did 10 fucking years

01:31:45.600 ago. Yeah. That's not the point. The point is, can they solve the fucking problem or can

01:31:52.240 they not? And, and, you know, in Ian's case, like Ian literally was trying to root out evil

01:31:57.620 in his district. Yeah. Evil. Yeah. Evil. Yeah. Greed and evil that needs to be fucking exterminated.

01:32:03.620 Yeah. And the way they attack these people, bro, is by assassinating their personal character

01:32:07.900 off the mistakes they made in life, bro. That's fucking absurd. I know who fucking cares. I'm

01:32:13.520 with you, dude. Like, ah, well, I know this bro. Like, here's the deal. Like if I have

01:32:18.140 fucking have brain surgery, okay. And my doctor, uh, has some personal indiscretions from back

01:32:24.300 when he has a DUI 10 years ago. Yeah. Um, do, do I care if he's a good surgeon or do I care

01:32:30.560 about his fucking personal indiscretions? I care if he can do the fucking job. And this

01:32:35.360 is a very obvious thing that most of culture is missing, right? So think about it guys and

01:32:40.640 do the job. Yeah. And when you see people getting fucking drug for some shit, let's stop it.

01:32:45.480 Yeah. Stand up for it. Stand up for those people. Like it, dude, I, I hate it. Anyway, I love

01:32:53.560 you though. Hell yeah. I have to say, you know, my one promise to the BRCC customers and your

01:33:00.640 customers, like the promise from me is I am here to bring and elevate the content world,

01:33:08.060 like with this military sprinkle of awesomeness, bro. You guys are the best. You guys look like

01:33:15.320 what to Evans standard, which I love. You guys are the fucking best. Like there's nobody doing

01:33:20.760 it better right now. Thank you. We're not doing it better than you. We're not doing well. You're

01:33:24.620 about to start. You're about to marry into this family. I feel good about how we do things.

01:33:28.820 And I feel like you guys do them better than us in that way. And I fucking bro. It's,

01:33:32.620 and I look, it's inspiring. I look at your culture here and I'm, I'm, we need to start taking some

01:33:37.660 notes out of your book because I love notes. Yes. Yeah. Uh, because the things on the horizon

01:33:43.380 are fucking amazing. Yeah. Gymkhana 12 is going to be fucking wild. Uh, final sin, November 11th

01:33:50.160 is going to be absolutely crazy. And then recoil that's going to be, is going to redefine motor

01:33:56.020 sports. Let's, let's not forget about your fitness journey and Mark hard. Oh yeah. Yeah. Mark

01:33:59.700 hard. Mark hard is coming. You know, we can't talk about it. Not yet. Not yet. Well, bro, listen,

01:34:05.800 man, thank you so much for coming in. Thanks for sitting down and doing the shows. Uh, this

01:34:10.860 is, it's been more than enjoyable, bro. Uh, I can't wait to hang out and make out later.

01:34:16.660 You know what I'm saying? Okay. Uh, we're, we're down to the brass. Yeah. Yeah. We're getting

01:34:19.880 real here. There's the transaction. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There is a transaction. Uh, but JT for

01:34:25.720 real, bro. And, uh, and to Evan and Matt, like it's really fucking awesome. Logan, we love

01:34:30.300 you too. Yeah. All the guys, I don't know all the guys. Yeah. I just making sure I don't

01:34:35.160 make anybody jealous. Everybody over there, like you guys are fucking doing it and you

01:34:39.140 got a shit ton of fans here at this company and our audience. And, uh, I just love what

01:34:43.720 you guys are doing. So man, thanks for taking the time. Thank you. This was amazing. Yeah.

01:34:47.160 All right, guys, that's the show. Uh, where can they follow you? Uh, I'm just JT article

01:34:51.840 15 on Instagram. JT article 15 on Instagram. All right. Go check them out. All right, guys,

01:34:57.580 that's the show. I appreciate you listening. Please share the show.

01:35:00.280 Yeah. Went from sleeping on the floor. Now my jewelry box froze. Fuck a pole. Fuck a stole.

01:35:06.100 Counted millions in the code. Bad bitch. Booty swole. Got her on bankroll. Can't fold.

01:35:11.980 That's a no headshot. Case closed.

REAL AF with Andy Frisella - October 10, 2022

392. The Black Rifle Coffee Company Story Ft. Jarred "JT" Taylor

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