Mansion for Sale! Solar Power and Serving your community

Hey, everybody. This is Craig from The Homeowner Show. Wanted to give you a heads up. We had some audio difficulties on the first 4 minutes of this episode. Please bear with us. It's such a cool episode live from a mansion here in Montgomery County. We hope you can hang in there, or you can just skip ahead to where the audio actually gets good. But if you don't wanna miss the intro with my buddy Sean, hang in there. Thanks for joining us on this one.

Welcome to The Homeowner Show, a live episode here at the Collins Estate and I don't know what you're going to call it.

Sure.

Um, hey Rizzler, the, the audio sounds like distorted or something. I don't know what's going on. Anyway, whether you're DIY or looking to hire, we're here to bring you the best information and options for you and your home. Thank you for joining us here on The Homeowner Show. Yeah, you can turn that off. Uh, we, uh, well, I've got a special guest host. Hey! My buddy Sean.

Woody woo!

From, uh, the infamous YouTube page. Know the fight. Know the fight, baby. Yeah. So we're gonna, you know, he's he's here to get those extra two subscribers. That's right. That we promised. Yeah. Ever since my mom stopped following me, hoping somebody else fills that spot. Well, our two faithful will definitely jump on the absolutely. Yeah. So it's it's good. How's the audio in the on the iPad?

It says that's going.

It's going. Like the levels are good. I mean, just keep on talking. So if you guys, if you guys are listening online, let us know how the audio sounds. Video looks good. Yeah, got the live feed going. So we, we are here in, in this house that is currently for sale, uh, in Montgomery County, uh, Calavera's Estate. It's on the lake. I'm about to lose my mic. It's gonna be a disaster. I got it, I got it, I got it. Good catch. Thank you. That's what a pro looks like, ladies and gentlemen. Guys, it has been a fun day of getting this show ready, let me tell you. Oh my goodness, if there's one thing that's gone wrong, all of them have. So, but we're gonna endure because this is, this

is, this is gonna be a cool show. Um, so Sean and I got to take a tour of this place. Yeah, it was beautiful. What were your favorite rooms that we, that we got to take a peek at? So the master looks great. Giant master bedroom, uh, bathroom. Yeah. And actually, I think one of the main things I've seen tie everything together was the hand-scraped wood floors, wood doors, handle there, uh, window sills, beams. I got to take a little snooze in that, uh, circular tub. Right. And actually, yeah, I'm surprised you don't already have one. I need one in my life. So maybe just outside. Yeah. Oh yeah. Sunlight. Take a nap or something. It's right in there. The horses come around you. I'm just like,

Papa. Yeah. Dude, in the in the master though, there's those huge metal doors going out to the incredible. Yeah, man. And also that one windowpane that opens up just so you can hear the water flowing.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's beautiful. I think she said that was like what she called. Yeah, come inside! It's a custom piece.

Yeah.

Oh my goodness. So one of the things that blew me away, one, there's like all the doors are different and a lot of them are custom. How old did she say? How old the one on the front of the house was? No, she just said antique. Antique. And so that means really old. Yeah, it looks like it's over 100 years old. Oh, absolutely, absolutely. Actually, it looks like it's from an old Windows show. Is the audio not coming through? I can hear it and it says it's going through here, but it's not.

Is it showing up on the iPad?

Yes. Okay, that's fine.

Go ahead and hit the record button on the RODECaster there though, that way we don't— we've lost some of it, but that's fine. You know, it's all part of the show.

Yeah.

We're doing great here. We got the Rizzler back. He's a little rusty, but he hadn't lost the rizz.

That's right. The ladies love the Rizzler. And that's therealrizzler.com.

That we just, that we just acquired.

I literally just bought it. So you're going to see the beauty that comes from it.

So go subscribe at therealrizzler.com.

Oh man, that's funny. No, hey, but the house, I mean, I love the, the, uh, the slate, uh, anchoring that's inside the wall. Um, the mosaic pieces that are throughout the bathroom. And you're right, those almost— I think there was 6 doors that all have an antique view of it, also with some like church stained glass. Yeah, yeah, above it.

So I like, I like the old doors that you like, you can't just walk through, you got to step over.

Yes. Yeah, yeah.

So yeah, and one of the things, well, I mean, like the room that we're in right now, this— I don't know if you can see like the rock work that's behind us on the, on the video, but this is in like 4 different areas of the house.

Yeah.

And they said it took the guy that was doing it— like, it's on the pool, it's on the outside on the back porch, it's in here in the wine cellar, and some bathrooms, and yeah, around the tub. That's right. And they said it took him like 3 years to do this.

Yes.

And from what I understand, it's his brother, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So the guy that owned this house apparently specialized in like faux paintings and textures and different things. And you were saying, like, in the laundry room, there's, like, stamps on the wall.

Yeah.

Every, every room has a different kind of artistic feature that they did for the walls and the ceilings. And then the bedrooms upstairs with the, the curved ceilings that were, uh, sheetrocked.

Right. So there's no corners.

Yeah.

Uh, they're just floated— the floated corners, which, um, gives it, instead of like a cube feeling, more like a sphere.

Uh-huh.

And definitely messes with your your space.

Yeah, yeah, you want— you're looking for the corner and you can't find it, and the wall just keeps— it just keeps going, and you're like following it up the ceiling. You don't know where to go. You wouldn't know where to hang a picture.

Hey, go stand in the corner. There's not one.

There's no corner. So, but yeah, I mean, like, like when you— I think if you're standing like a bit off, it would look like this is kind of like a pattern. behind us, but it's not. Every, every single piece was like cut and then put in there in, in its— I mean, he kind of created a pattern, but like, it's, it's incredible. So anyway, we got a, we got a good fella sitting down here, Mr. Josh. So hello, how you doing, bud?

I'm doing well.

Yeah, good. So, uh, have you, have you gotten a chance to tour the house?

Yes, yes, we just got, uh, done looking upstairs and—

okay.

Um, I think, I mean, this room's awesome.

Yeah.

And my next favorite is the master bath.

Master bath.

I love big tubs. I'm a man that likes baths. Yeah. So yeah, that's definitely, and then obviously the view of the lake is beautiful.

Oh yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

I can attest to the tub. I took a little snooze in there earlier today. Okay. Oh yeah.

It's comfy. Like a kitten. Yeah.

I've seen it have like little holes for maybe aeration or something.

Little bubbles.

Yeah, put some, put some salt and some one of those bath bombs in there.

That's right.

Good to go.

That's right.

Have a little, little cocktail in the tub. Be all right.

And there's no— and it's, and it's big enough to where like it covers everything, you know, like in TV shows where it comes up to your neck. A lot of those, the newer tubs, you can't do that. It's either knees or these. You don't get both, you know what I mean?

Have y'all seen the, uh, the Japanese soaking tubs that you can get now?

Oh no.

No. Have you seen these?

No.

So rather than, you know, like Most, most tubs are kind of like ovals. Sure. That are, you know, like a regular tub. And then you have like the ones in there that are like, it's sort of like a mini jacuzzi that's just perfectly round. The Japanese soaking tubs, they're intended to sit on the ground and then, but they're like 3.5 feet deep. So they're not as long. So you sit in it rather than like lounge in it.

Oh, like those, those, those polar tubs where—

Oh, like the ones you're doing the ice bath in?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Very, very similar.

Okay.

So yeah, and but they're cool because they take up less You can, you can make a smaller bathroom feel bigger by putting a deep tub. Yeah. That you gotta step up into and then sit down in rather than like a long one.

Yeah.

But it's always gonna— you can't— you could never have like a shower in there or anything. So it's just like, it's just like a weird water feature.

What if you put a shower around it?

Yeah, I've seen those.

I've seen those. Yeah.

It's like enclosed by glass and then you can just put a bathtub in the middle and then shower heads over top.

Oh yeah, they're doing a lot of that now where they make like a whole room with just the tub and the shower all in its own enclosure.

Exactly.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Those are cool.

We're thinking about doing that.

You think about doing that?

Yeah, yeah, man.

Me too.

We're starting to, uh, build our new house and, uh—

Oh, nice.

Here's the problem. Every time we see something nice, we're like, oh, we should do that. I'm like, uh, we're doing 19 other things.

Right, right, right.

What's wrong with 20? You know?

So yeah, what's one more?

It's like in Robin Hood.

There's always room for one more.

There's always room for one more.

That's awesome.

So, all right, well, so here's— are you gonna put solar on it?

Oh man, we're thinking about it.

Well, there's the dude.

That's why I'm here. So we were actually gonna go the Tesla shingle. When it first came out, right? And it was $7 per square foot is what we were quoted. Now it's $700 per square foot. So not in our budget.

But yeah, so have y'all messed with that at all?

So insider information, EOL 2024, no longer being created.

Really?

Wow.

Yeah, they're going— they're getting out of that, moving into a hydrogen fuel cell. So they're going solid-state and hydrogen fuel cells. So they're getting away from the panel and working on the storage.

Oh, those in the future power storage? Well, that is the bigger problem, right?

Yep, because if they can create storage, then they can fix grid, right? They can fix a lot of the problems across the nation and world for that fact.

Yeah.

So, wow, they're having these hydrogen fuel cells and solid-state batteries. LG did the same thing. They had the panels, they pulled out the panels. Everybody's focusing in the rat race to get storage figured out in an efficient and cost-effective way.

Wow. You heard it here first, people.

Yeah.

Well, I mean, That's good.

I know that there's a lot of roofers that put some energy and time into looking at these installing. I know a guy that installed the first one in Houston over at Fair Claims, Justin O'Neill. He put the first one on in Houston. I don't know how that one's performing.

They're great. They work great.

They're working great.

The product's awesome. Yeah, I know the guy that has procured the South region of all the materials that are left in the market, and his name is Robert Bailey. He's He's a great guy, does great stuff in solar. So he's now the master dealer and they're trying to work out a deal with Tesla to either buy the patents so that they can get a manufacturer to create a replacement to keep the warranties going. And so there's a bunch of negotiation going on right now. But as of today, you know, it's still available. The name may change. We may see some things happen over 2024.

Okay. Well, maybe while Elon's focusing on this whole X project, he's not paying attention to the patent, then we just snap it up. Yeah.

Yeah. So, so yeah, I mean, we, we love, you know, the whole energy sector, you know, we're into the battery side of it as well as the solar.

Yeah.

And then in some cases, especially when we're working a complete off-grid, we pull the generator in too. Okay. It's just a failsafe when you have the trifecta, no matter what, you, you're good to go. If the grid goes down, you got power.

So are you guys, when you guys do that, are you, are you using the generator to recharge the batteries first?

Yes, yes, because so that shortens what we call the spark gap. So if we can charge the batteries in a couple hours off a generator and then deplete those over several hours, you get a benefit for your costs that you spent on the natural fuel. Okay, so it's a really cool way to create more efficiency, right, with that dollar you spent running that generator.

Are people moving— Kevin is one of the ones I know that has done this for the generator on his home. He's got like a tri-fuel generators. So like even generators now kind of have a redundancy in them, right? You know, so you can have natural gas, but if that goes out, you could always use propane. Or if that— you don't have that, then you can always move over to gasoline. But it always seems like gasoline and diesel are going to give you the most electricity. They just perform better for the generator, but it's cheaper on the natural gas side, correct?

Yeah, yes, that's all correct. Uh, the generator with the, you know, Gasoline, they have a, you know, higher combustion rate, you know, diesel, higher combustion. It's gonna give you more, you know, power in return, stator moving. So yeah, that's accurate. And, you know, the cool thing about bringing the battery into the mix is, you know, you can save all the funds you would've spent on a natural gas generator. Say you had an 8-hour outage, 4-hour outage, you can turn that generator on for a little bit and then, you know, again, charge the batteries and have a lot better money savings, you know, over time.

Yeah.

But if you look at 8-year, 5-year, 10-year, you know, however long you expect that generator to run, your battery is going to do a lot better for you.

What's the life for a battery?

They're warrantied for 10 years, serviceable for 20. So it's, it's pretty long now with the lithium-ion. They have way better technology. Cycles are pretty lengthy now. And it's a, it's a solid, solid product, solid engineering in the chemistry.

What? So like, I know that they have like a step down in output over, over the years though, right? I mean, like, because like they're warrantied for 10 years, but it's like only if it drops below like a certain output. Is that, is that right?

Yes. And, and the battery brands we work with, um, a big one we like to use is HomeGrid. Theirs is 94% at 10 years.

Oh wow.

So it's a very strong one. The industry standard is about 1% annually. Um, but so you can see somewhere, somewhere around 85-90% at 10 years. But there's a lot of, you know, I don't want to get technical, but there's a lot of stuff that gets into why, you know, we chose certain brands, why we partnered with certain manufacturers rather than just go with the bubble gum of what, you know, everybody buys. So we've really dived into it, done our internal R&D, you know, met with the engineers and discussed, you know, our, you know, just different things, different things that we could see would be a problem in the future with these.

Yeah.

could be potential hazards, you know, how do they handle, you know, overheating situations, or, you know, do they have internal fire extinguishers, you know, or what UL ratings are they carrying, you know, all kinds of different little things that we really scrutinize before we chose who we're going to partner with.

What's the UL rating? What is that?

So, uh, don't quote me on the numbers, but there's different ratings for the listings, um, that they're, you know, uh—

I just don't know what it means.

It's going through regulations that they, they've matched and met regulations that are either stateside or international. Okay. So there's certain regulations for temperature, you know, drop, how many times can they be dropped or kicked or hit or smashed with a car without exploding in your garage when you pull in that Tesla and hit the, you know, battery? Is it going to handle that?

You know, sounds like CPS.

Yeah, that's right.

That's it. That's it. So that's, you know, that, you know, so our batteries are Inverters are 10 years as well. We have a few inverters that are 25 years. Okay. And then almost every panel on the market's 25. We have a few that are 30 that we achieved by becoming authorized and getting our installation team certified.

Okay.

So how much do you have to use for you to start getting checks from the energy company?

So that is a lot. I knew it.

I knew it.

I walked in and was like, I'm going to find the The 3 to 5 things that bother me about the solar scammers. Yeah, let's hear it. Is number one, I'll never have another electric bill. That's just false. Sure. 100%. Just for being connected to the grid, you're gonna have base fees. Yeah, they're somewhere between $25 and $35 a month. Most of those, if you're on a $25 one now and you add solar, they bump you up to $35 because now they're like, oh, you're not buying from me. Like, I'm gonna penalize you for that.

Yeah.

So then they're gonna have their linemen and then, you know, taxes and fees that are regardless if you use zero kilowatts, they're going to charge you those. That's to, you know, upgrade the grid and keep, you know, you know, send the lineman out to get the power back up during storms or accidents, you know. So that's, that's a big one we hear. And then the government will pay you to put it on your house.

That's right.

No, they don't. They do not pay. Nothing's free in America. And so, you know, that's a big problem that we have in the industry, you know, and, and there is a tax incentive. There is things that incentivize us to buy it and put it on.

And what is that? What's the tax?

It's a 30% tax credit. And I have to say this, I'm not a tax advisor. Consult your CPA. Um, but a, a 30% tax credit is available, and that's dependent on your liability. Like, do you have taxes that you're going to have due at the end of the year that could, you know, eat up that 30%? Or do you— have you been paying in all year and you could potentially receive that as a refund.

Okay.

So those are 2 options. The common consumer, you know, that 30% can be pretty large depending on if you went with the generator or batteries, solar. That 30% could become a large number that would exceed what you would have at the end of the year. So just for easy math, let's say it's $20,000 that you would be getting back at the end of the year. You only had $10,000 in liability that you either paid towards or that you would owe. You can only take $10,000 of that $20,000, but it will roll over with the current administration for 10 years. So you could get that.

You can draw on it for a year.

Yeah, you could draw on it for 10 years. Now, if a new president comes in or a new administration or a new Congress votes on a new bill, that could be gone.

Did you just crush me?

I'm with you. So anyways, the, the, you know, so if that comes in, that could change. You know, it changes. Just last year in September, we were at 26%. It was supposed to be going down to 22%. Biden came in, signed that it was going to stay 30% now for 10 years.

Wow.

So it changed just like that.

Yeah.

So the same thing could happen. So say you had a remaining balance, you were hoping to cash on in 2025, things changed. Now that's gone potentially.

Yeah.

So that's, that's another one. You know, we, we really educate on that as much as we can. And we have a whole process we go through with our clients to let 'em understand that and then recommend 'em to a CPA if they don't have their own.

Yeah. But like, don't— but like if you're doing so like full solar, you wanna cover like all your electrical, you're doing the, the home, home, full home battery. Mm-hmm. You're doing a generator. I, I imagine you gotta be getting close to like a 6-figure install.

Yeah, absolutely. You're probably talking $50,000 and $100,000. And if you're looking at 30% tax credit, that's $30,000. That's $30,000. Yeah, absolutely. So it's, it's, you know, it can be substantial. And if you're with a bigger home, you know, somewhere around 3,000 or 4,000 square feet, that's when you're getting to those 6 figures. Those people can usually take that liability.

Right.

You know, they want it. They're like, oh yeah, I'm gonna have so much taxes due at the end of the year. Let me get that.

Right.

Um, and then if you're in commercial, you get another 30% over 10 years depreciation. So now you got 60% incentivized to buy it in commercial.

How frequent do you get commercial?

Well, for us, it's— we're diving into it this year. We're quoting it big time this year. Um, last year we really focused on residential, getting our feet wet, really understanding the industry, um, choosing good partners and manufacturers. And this year we're finally diving into commercial. Um, it's a big market. It's very lucrative. We're meeting with energy brokers. Like, we're doing some cool stuff in that. And We're excited for it.

That's awesome, man.

It's gonna be a new brand.

Is True Texas Solar your company?

Yes, sir.

Oh, awesome. So, so how did that start?

So it's a, it's a crazy story. Um, and I am a partner in the company. Uh, Reg Dawson is my, my business partner. And so I came from automation. I built— or I didn't build, I, I designed and engineered systems like Iron Man homes where everything was automated and sensed you walking in the door and adjusted the house for your lighting and turned on your music and, you know, thumb readers on the wine rooms to enter them because there's, you know, million dollars of wine in their rooms, you know. And so I designed these systems for many, many years, and I was contracting out the, the, the solar and energy portion because I'd have rooms like this with server racks in them. And so when their power went down, their house didn't function. Their security wasn't

up. Their lights are all— they didn't even have dimmers on the walls, all controlled by voice or by their phones. And so everything was, you know, had to have power— their home, their fridges, you know, had meat and freezers on freezers. And so when, when I started contracting out, I was going to these, you know, big companies, and I found out those were sales orgs. That was the wrong way to go. And so they were, you know, you know, college kids, you know, thought they knew and were getting educated by a training module and trying to come out. And when I'm working on very large houses like this, you know, you can't just one cookie

fits all, right?

Right.

It was very— we had to customize it. We had to really scrutinize the energy packages and with how many AC units they have, they have a pool controller, all this different stuff. And so we've seen like everybody we brought in, they couldn't deliver, you know. They would drop the ball on design and we'd put in subpar systems, or they would drop the ball on installation. And, you know, it was just like we were just running through them. One out on every project, we'd try a new one, we'd try a new one. And I was like, is there really nobody that can do this professionally?

Yeah.

Really understand it? And, and so I was working at a company, we were doing a big national brand and sitting at an office table, you know, in a meeting with owner's rep and an architect and the builder, etc. And, and I have this solar contractor and they started asking questions and the architect asked a question, the electrical engineer asked a question, and that solar guy is like a, you know, deer in headlights. And I'm like, okay, I can't do this anymore. I've been in that industry for 17 years. I see the whole niche I can grab. I can understand it. I can calculate how to be successful in it. And at the same time, my father-in-law got laid off after being in oil and gas for 40 years.

Oh my gosh.

And so I put together a business plan. We scraped up all of our piggy bank money and said, you want to do it? And he said, yeah. So we hopped in and it made sense. And we've been successful and hadn't looked back since then.

That's amazing.

How long?

We opened March 2022, the 23rd. So we're at about 16 months or so now.

Yeah.

And we're up to about 30, 35 employees right now. So very successful.

That's awesome.

Yeah, it's a blessing.

I bet.

Yeah, we put it all to— we hand it off to God.

Yeah, that's who brought it in.

We know where it came from.

Amen. Blessed and highly flavored.

Yes, sir.

Thank you.

Oh, yeah. So, you know, and, and those, those other, you know, the hardware, you never have an electric bill.

Oh, yeah.

You know, you know, the government will pay for it for you.

How much of the rainforest are we saving using solar?

So I say this, I've done some math. Don't quote me on it. I'm not a mathematician, but, uh, it's— I say we use 1/4 oil for every panel produced.

Okay.

That's the number I've came up with.

Yeah.

And, you know, you cannot get a panel from raw material to on somebody's roof or building and commercial without oil. It doesn't happen. And so it isn't so much that I look at it for saving the rainforest.

Sure.

I look at it for correcting our infrastructure, getting our power where it needs to be in the state so we don't have these brownouts, blackouts, weeks without power, you know, that when a hurricane comes. You know, having battery and substations can fix so much of that problem. And that's really where I'm seeing the benefit for us as a nation.

That's really cool. Yeah, because last February— was it January, February? I was out for 23 hours. And so listen, here's the thing. I'd rather be hot than cold. A lot of people are against that. I get it. Um, but I'm inside my house freezing. I have 9 socks on, 3 blankets, 2 dogs, you know. And, um, yeah, I was just freezing. I was, I was— I mean, every time I'd breathe, my breath would come out, fall to the floor, fall on my foot. Hospital visits right after that. Actually, I was like, you know what, I need to go get some gas for my generator. And so I got my truck and I put it in reverse,

and then I looked out, my neighbor was backing out And it was all ice. And so he just kind of like spun out and did like a 360 in his own driveway. And I was like, put it back in drive. This is not my atmosphere. We'll be all right. I'll set something on fire and be okay for a little bit.

Yeah.

I mean, I think that's the reason a lot of people are, at least around here, are starting to look into systems like this is because they've been through a situation where they didn't have power.

Exactly.

Whether, whether that be, you know, just lights or air conditioning. And I know that's one of the— air conditioning's like the big one right now since we've had like 5 weeks of triple-digit weather. We need to keep the air conditioner rolling. And, you know, solar— when the— when solar systems initially came out, that's one of the things they would tell you is like, hey, you can't really power your air conditioner. Like, you can, you can turn the lights on. You might be able to run a few appliances. But other than that, like, you know, tough noogies.

Yeah.

You know? So, but, but now with these whole home batteries, I mean, like, you have the power to actually run the whole home.

Yes, absolutely. You know, we have, you know, we've really figured out the inverters that are powerful enough. So, and we have panels now that are, you know, in the 500s, 530, 525. The market average has been 400 for maybe the last 5 years or so. Yeah. Premiums around 430, 450 watts. And so now our big panels are 530, 525 watt. And so now, for the same real estate, you can get a higher production out of a panel where years ago they were 250, 200-watt panels.

Right.

And so now that we can get more power out of the same square footage, and then we have batteries to store the power, and then we have the inverters that can really run the whole home, especially here in Texas.

Thank you.

You know, we need to have, you know, at least a 200-amp service. That's what every home here is.

Yeah.

If you're up north or in the mountains and stuff where, you know, a lot of 'em don't even have ACs, Which we found that out when we moved to Colorado and we bought a cabin in the woods and then we found out, wait, it doesn't have an AC unit? Like, what is this? And so they don't have to deal with that. So it was easy up there and you come down here to the South and we love our AC. And so it does take a substantial battery.

Oh yeah.

It's not a— that's another thing, a lot of misconceptions around the Tesla battery. I can throw a Tesla wall up and run my whole house. Well, That little Tesla wall will run your lights and your fridge.

Right.

Yeah.

You need like 6 or 8 of those if you wanna run your whole house for a 24-hour period, you know? So, but we've figured out the science on it and we do what we call the perpetual cycle. We design it for 16 hours. And if we size that and the solar right, your batteries charge during the day, they deplete overnight, and that rinse and repeats.

Yeah.

And as long as you do that, your solar can run your home, charge the battery, Nighttime, evening comes, the battery starts to pick up the weight when the solar curve starts, and then it carries you through the night. This morning, the solar curve starts picking back up, and then it switches back onto solar during the day. So that's the perfect design to get that perpetual cycle of energy happening.

So is—

do you— you know, I mean, we probably just need to have you on to do kind of like a deep dive on some of this kind of stuff.

Yes.

Because I'm in my head, I'm thinking about like rainstorms and different elements. Yeah, all these things.

Thanks so much.

But I know we got a lot of people we want to talk to. How did you end up here today, man?

So Armando.

Oh, you know Armando?

Okay. Yeah. So my sister Winter and him go back to when he was working at La Torreta, Del Lago, whatever you want to call it. Okay. What is it now? Margaritaville.

Margaritaville.

I've been here so long, it's had 6 names. Yeah. So they linked there. My sister met Armando, was like, dude, you gotta link with him. He'll help our business grow. He's great in the, in the community. He's a local guy.

Yeah.

And I was like, let's do it. And, and he linked us up, invited us out, and we're supporting a lot. And, and it's, it's been a great relationship.

Fantastic.

What's the name of the group that Armando—

Well, he, so it's Go Lake Conroe.

Yes.

But then he also hosts the Texas Ticket Show.

Texas Ticket.

Yep. Am I missing anything? I know he is pretty busy, dude. I mean, like, he does like some home shows and boat shows and, and different things like that.

Yeah. the Montgomery County Home Show. I'm drawing a blank on the full name of it, but it's the one at the Lone Star Convention Center.

Did you guys have a booth there last year?

Yes. Yeah, we did. And we'll have another one this year. We're actually going to do speaking on this, covering a lot of these topics.

It's okay.

I only got a 30-minute window, so it's gonna be hard to squeeze all this knowledge into that, but we're gonna try to figure it out. But yeah, so, and he's doing a fashion show at the Shout House coming up Don't quote me, but I think it's September 16th. Don't quote me on that.

Sure.

Ask him, he'll tell you the day.

What's up?

But it's kind of interesting and we're gonna be sponsoring that. And so we're gonna have some swag out there. True Texas Solar will be all over it.

Okay.

And it'll be a cool event and hopefully get us some— we're just trying to grow our name local.

Yeah, for sure.

And change the perception of local solar and let people know we're doing it right.

Yeah.

It's not for everyone.

Right.

You know?

Right, right.

It's not a one shoe fits all.

Yeah.

And we go through the real education of it and let people make an educated decision. We're not hard sales. We don't sign it in your home that day.

Right.

Go home and sleep on this. This is a big investment. Talk it over with your husband or wife behind closed doors, you know, and then we'll discuss it again. And so we're very low pressure, do it right, you know, and all of our businesses, you know, we're family owned and operated. I could go through the list of who all works for us. That is literally our family.

Yeah, family tree.

It's so long. And then all the people we hire, we call them our family.

Yeah.

So it's all local people.

That's fantastic, man. Well, I mean, like, you know, if you, if you just need somebody that draws like a lot of attention with microphones and stuff like that, we, we, you know, we might be able to work something out.

No, I'm definitely like, like I said earlier when I ran into you here, like, why haven't we done this yet?

Yeah, just right.

We literally, I don't know if you'd give a backdrop, we, we were both coaches on our kids' Little League.

That's right. That's how we met.

Yeah, that's cool.

You know, and we'll be sponsoring that again this year.

So that's fantastic.

Always involved in that community.

Well, speaking of sponsors, this episode of The Homeowner Show is actually sponsored by Lone Star Appliance Repair. If you haven't met my friend Sarah over there, she runs a fantastic company. It's way cheaper to get your appliances repaired rather than replaced. And especially in the COVID area, I mean, like, they have access to all the parts and pieces that the big box stores can tell you, like, we don't have those, it's going to take 3 weeks to get in. They just got them in stock. Uh, she actually saved my life once.

Wow. Yeah.

That's good to hear. I had a gas leak in my house and she came out and fixed it.

Oh wow.

So fantastic company. Love those guys. If you need to get a hold of them, you can reach them at 936-647-2364. They will answer the phone and get somebody out there very quickly, uh, to get your house repaired. They don't need to come here, but I think all the appliances here are in good working order. Yeah, the top, top of the line stuff happening in this house.

Wait until I leave.

Just do it.

Okay, I'll make sure something's messed up.

Well, man, we don't want to keep you from the party, but I mean, like, if you don't mind, like, shooing somebody in here for us to talk to.

Absolutely.

I mean, because I just, I get a little bored talking to Sean.

No problem. Thank you for the airtime.

And dude, thank you. Yeah, no, we'll schedule something up. Maybe we'll play some baseball.

Yeah, absolutely. We'll see you again.

Thank you.

It's nice meeting all of you.

Hey, good to meet you too, bud.

So we just bought a $3,500 fridge.

Uh-huh.

Sasha loves that Samsung. It has a screen, and we had to replace it because, um, it kept freezing over because the fan unit— they don't make that piece anymore, right? And so our warranty was for 5 years, and this was 5 and a half years, and they're like, hey, so we don't cover that. We don't even make that piece anymore.

Oh, the fan?

Yeah, for the fan.

Oh my gosh.

So I would have loved to have called Sarah. Yeah.

Well, one of the things that they told me not too long ago is most people don't realize, like, the motors on most appliances, even though the appliance may only have, like, a 2-year warranty or a 5-year warranty or something like that, the motors in them tend to have a 10-year warranty. And so, like, you have to pay them to, you know, swap it out, but you get the part for free if it goes out before 10 years.

So brand new information.

I know, right?

$3,500 too late, but brand new information. Next time I'm calling you, Sarah.

That's right.

All right, we got Ben sitting down now.

How you doing, guys? Thank you for having me.

Dude, thank you for sitting down. Congrats on the award.

Thank you very much.

So I'm also digging that Ariat shirt you got going on there.

Oh, yeah, that's great.

The famous Barst B there on the chest.

That's right. It's 2 great brands living on the chest there.

Go together.

So, man, what a cool day. Tell us, well, one, let everybody know who you are.

So my name is Ben Blankenship. I'm a fleet account manager for Barr's Performance Diesel. I also do a lot of the marketing and networking for him, and but I'm also an advocate to, in my community here in Montgomery County, to help people find sobriety, to help people find joy and happiness and overcome whatever struggles they may be going through. lived pretty extensive life. I've been arrested probably over 48 times. I've been to prison 3 times. And if you will say I found myself on my last trip, and I pretty much dedicated my life to making a difference in my community because of all that I took away before I went. And so it really means

something to me to get out there and just be active in our community. You know, for one, I was there. I've walked those shoes. Yeah, I've been there to where, you know, you just, you just don't know where to go. You don't know what to do. You don't know who to turn to. And I just really want to let people know that there's people to turn to, that we're here, that I'll meet you where you're at. And that we do have places that you can find sobriety, really great facilities. One of my best friends, Chris Follett, he owns Interfaith Disciple House here in Conroe.

Okay.

And then one of his best friends and mentors owns Oak Ridge Disciple House. out by Austin. Both of these facilities are— they're not ran by the government. They're run off of simply donations from people that believe in helping people find sobriety. And both of the men's hard work, Josh Harris and Chris Follett, they do a lot of hard work to keep those places. But really, God does all of it. He knows that, you know, each and every single one of us, he knows the very details of our lives, and he knows what we need. And he makes it available to these guys because they dedicate their life to it, just like I have.

Yeah, he's gonna provide for it because they're doing the work that they need to be doing and providing.

He wants to bring— he wants people to, um, as, as, you know, believers in Christ, he, he wants us to reach out to the, to the one. I was that one.

Yeah.

Uh, to bring them closer to him because that's where you find peace and joy. Uh, you can't— there's no other feeling on, on this planet or in this universe rather than Christ's love where you feel that.

Amen.

And whenever you— obviously, whenever you're addicted to something, you put a blocker in between that. And you do it because you were probably hurt at one given point in time. And so, by just letting people know that, hey, man, I've been there. I've walked that road.

Yeah.

You know, paved it, if you will say, for a long time. And I know how to get out of it. And that you're not alone.

Yeah.

It made milestones in my life. And I know that it makes milestones in in their lives. And by just getting out and just letting people know, hey man, like, you know, whatever it is you're going through, like, how can we help?

Yeah.

I mean, and really it boils down to them of when they're ready, but just letting them know that we're there. Because for the longest time, you know, I didn't know how. And it was because my sister sent me a book while I was in prison. She— so I tell people that reading saved my life. And without doing that, If I wouldn't— I had been in prison for about a year and a half, and I've been writing my sister and asking her to send me some pictures and send me, you know, tell me what's going on with my nieces and nephews.

Yeah.

And she finally wrote me a letter, and she didn't tell me anything about my nieces and nephews, and she didn't send me not one picture. Mind you, she's an outstanding writer, and she's a great photographer. And I was really mad that I didn't get what I wanted. And I'd been arrested, I had been incarcerated for a year and a half at at this given point in time. And I realized later on in my journey that I was mad that I didn't get what I wanted because I was still an addict.

Right.

Even though I had been sober for a year and a half, I was still thinking as an addict. And so she wrote me this letter and she said, hey, I read this book and I really feel like you could learn a lot from it. I learned a lot from it. And this was my thought process. She's not an addict. What did she learn from it?

Right.

Still thinking as an addict.

Right.

Still mad that I didn't get a picture, and I still didn't— she didn't tell me anything about my nieces and nephews. And so I wrote her a letter back, and I kind of told her off, and I— but I never sent that letter. My dad always taught me, you know, don't be rude to the females, females period, but especially the ones in your family, because they're the ones that are going to be there for you at the end of the day. And so I never sent that letter. And so she told me she was gonna send me the book, and about a month and a half later the book showed up. And I was like, okay, well, what is this message? I know my sister doesn't do anything without a good cause.

And so I wrote her a letter and I said, hey, I got the book. I'm gonna read it and I'm gonna do everything that I can to get something out of it. I'll give you an update. And so I read the first time and I didn't get anything out of it. Took me about 4 or 5 days to read it. I was a slow reader at the time, and then one of my buddies, he was like, what's up with that book? Because it was really making you mad as you were reading it. I was like, you read it, you tell me. And so I gave it to him, and I sat in my bunk in

prison for about 4 nights, and it was really, really bugging me. Excuse my French, but I was pissed off.

Sure.

And not only did I just read a book that took me 4 or 5 days and didn't get anything out of it, But I knew I didn't get the message that my sister was sending. And so when he got done reading it, I said, hey, let me get that book back from you. And I got it back and I read it from my sister's shoes. And I asked myself, and I slowed down a little bit and read it a little bit slower, and I asked myself, what did my sister have to deal with as she had 4 little brothers that were addicts? And forgive me, but my mom was— she had a prescription pill problem.

Sure.

And she never had an addiction. I was like, what did she learn? Like, so as I'm reading this book, it starts talking about this, these, this new concept that I, I heard of, but I wasn't really aware of this thing. It was called boundaries. And at this given point in my life, I was like, it really pointed out to me that boundaries were okay to be set.

Yeah.

Well, as an addict my whole life, you don't have boundaries, you know what I mean? Whatever goes, you know what I mean? Like, it's flow through life and, you know, whatever happens that day happens.

Whatever it takes.

Right. You know, you just got through the day. And so I started, you know, learning about these boundaries and I started realizing— so there was a relationship between my sister and my mother that really bugged me all my life and it was that my sister started having new kids. She had kids and she had to protect her little kids from her little brothers and from her mom. And so Christmas and Thanksgiving she would say, hey, you know, Mom, if you're you're going to take your pills, you can't come over. You know what I mean? And I got that at a younger age, but I didn't get it. You know what I mean? And so as I'm reading this book and I'm starting to learn about these boundaries and I'm thinking about this

relationship between my sister and my mom, and I realized that my sister really raised some outstanding human beings. They're young adults now and they're married and have great jobs and they're outstanding people.

Yeah.

And I don't say that because they're my family. I'm saying because they really are.

Yeah.

And I was like, wow, she did that, you know what I mean? And I realized that my entire life— because I got introduced to weed at 10 years old, and from that point on, like, drugs were drugs. Like, this is what we do. Like, everybody has addictions. This is normal to me.

Yeah.

And I realized as I was reading that my whole life was not normal. And I was like— and then I asked myself, I was like, you know, Ben, if you were to have kids, and I don't have any, I'd love to have one or two, hopefully sooner than later. I'm not getting any younger. But I asked myself, you know, Ben, if you were to have kids, would you have been able to make that same tough decision that your sister made to protect your own kids from your mom or from your brother, you know, from their uncle or from their grandma? Would you have been able to do that?

Yeah.

And I don't know that I would have been able to make that tough decision. And in that moment, I gained such a respect respect for my sister for what she did and that tough decision that she had to make that it literally changed my life.

Wow.

At that given point in time, I had been incarcerated for a year and a half. And like I said, I've been incarcerated 48 times.

Yeah.

And every time I went, I said, oh, you know, stay sober when you get out. And it never worked for me.

Right.

And that given moment in time, I was like, okay, what are you actually going to do to stay out of prison? And I was like, okay, Everybody, we all learn from each other. We all follow somebody. Somebody had this great idea and we follow it and say, okay, well, I can follow that example. I was like, well, who do I have as an example? How did they live their life that they didn't go to prison? And I was like, my sister.

Yeah.

She's never been to prison. She's never been in trouble. Her husband's never been in trouble. And guess what they don't have?

Yeah.

They don't have addictions. And right then and there, that's when I said, okay, I'm done. Yeah, I'm— I have to be done, or else I can just accept the fact that, you know, prison will be my life. And that wasn't something that I—

How long ago was that?

I stepped out of prison, um, August 19th of 2020. So here in about 22 days will be 3 years for me.

That's awesome. Congratulations.

Thank you very much. I just celebrated 5 years of being— I say 120% sober because I don't, I don't do anything anymore. There's no gray area for me. Yeah, I realized.

Do you remember the name of the book?

Yes, absolutely. It's Codependent No More.

Codependent No More. Was that— do you think that was your sister sort of trying to explain to you her relationship with you?

I really feel like it was definitely a God thing because there was a long time that my sister wouldn't even answer the phone to me. And I'd wake up, I'd be sober. Well, I woke up sober, I thought. You know what I mean? And I'd call my sister and I'd blow up her phone and she wouldn't answer. Because she had to protect herself and her family. Like, why am I gonna— why is she gonna answer the phone? Ben just needs something, you know what I mean? Well, it's not her responsibility. I'm an adult, right? I mean, and so there was a long time that she didn't speak to me.

Yeah.

And that tough love in itself, once I got into prison, you know, I was really kicking myself going, man, if you would have just been sober, like, you wouldn't have been asking your sister for a letter of what happened through graduations and marriages and, you know, nephews going off on missions and all the stuff that you missed. Like, you did that to yourself, bro. And so I really feel like once she finally felt like— and let me say this, that my sister's always been like a second mom to me. She had a lot to do with raising us, and so she loves us dearly.

Yeah.

And I know it was tough for her to separate herself and to not answer that phone. I know that was tough. And so I really felt like she was just inspired by God that, you know what, I think Ben might be ready. And like she said in the letter, this was a book that she read, that she learned from.

Yeah.

And like I said, when I first got it, I thought to myself, like, what did she learn? Like, she doesn't have an addiction. No, but everybody has struggles. And in the book, yes, it speaks about people having addictions, but codependency, when I first heard the word, I was like, What does codependent mean? I didn't even know the definition. And as I started to read the book, and if you read it in the beginning, Melody Beattie that writes it, she said, I looked up the word codependent and there was no definition for it. So now I'm thinking like, well, how's she gonna write the book? You know what I mean? And what it is, is that we rely on trauma bonds. We rely

on the toxicity. We rely on the chaos because that's the way we're programmed.

Right.

Right.

We're programmed to think to ourselves that I have to have this chaos in my life because that's the way it's always been. As you grow up with a family that's full of addictions, chaos is normal to you. It's— and you crave it. You know, you don't realize it. And so learning to set healthy boundaries for myself was the first thing that I realized that it was okay. It was okay to tell your mom, hey, Mom, look, I love you. But I can love you from over here, right? I don't have to have you in my life. And for my sister, she didn't. She had kids that she needed to raise that didn't need to be exposed to addiction, right, like her little brother was.

Yeah, because have to and want to are 2 different things.

Yes.

You know, it's not because she didn't want her mom. She just knew that it wasn't safe for her kids, and that was more important than her want.

Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. So the tough decisions that she had to make You know, it really— she's been such an inspiration to me my entire life. But she— I, when I tell people, you know, I credit my life being saved to her sending me a book and praying for me and just being there when she finally could, because she couldn't for the longest time. She could have done anything in the world and it wouldn't work because I didn't want it.

Yeah. How's your relationship now?

Oh, it's— man, she's one of my best friends. You know, before she wouldn't answer the phone. Now I have the codes to all of her house if I need to borrow her car. Of course, she's got a beautiful pool in her backyard, and, and her husband is, is the same. They, they welcome me in their home, and—

That's fantastic, man.

It's supposed to be.

Yeah.

So, yeah, so, um, so tell me about the bags that I— you guys were talking about in the other room.

So the bags, uh, so I've, uh, like I was saying, like, I made it a point when I came home to to do what I can to— I mean, so I was, I was a drug dealer, right? And I affected a lot of lives, uh, for— in a bad way. When I realized that I did that and I prayed and asked for repentance, uh, you know, I asked— I really, I repented for things in the past, but I was like, you know, God, like, I'm really sorry. Like, I know I affected a lot of your kids' lives.

Yeah.

Because I thought to myself, if somebody was to sell dope to my kid, like, it'd be a problem.

Yeah.

I mean, I was like, oh no. These are his kids. Yeah, I mean, he might be mad, you know. So I really, really like asked for forgiveness and was like— and in that prayer, I remember something just told me. I said, Heavenly Father, please give me an opportunity to change some of those lives when I come home. And he has answered that prayer abundantly, uh, very abundantly. Uh, so I always, you know, use the saying, you know, praying hands and walking feet. Yeah, pray for what you want, get up and go make it happen. Yeah, the Lord will make it He'll make a way.

Yeah.

Any places people in my life— I mean, to have, you know, Sheriff Wesley Doolittle show up today and another friend of mine that's an officer from Harris County. And, you know, those guys, they follow my story and they applaud me now, you know. And so these bags came about, uh, just kind of how I've placed myself in the community. My friend Armando, um, we went to do a podcast and he was like, hey man, this is something I'm starting. And somebody made him mad about the way they were talking about the homeless. He called me like a week before this and he was like, man, this dude made me mad. He was talking about these homeless people and he's a vet and like you shouldn't be talking about him like that.

Right.

I was like, what are you gonna do about it? He was like, that's a great question. He's like, let's give him something, you know what I mean? I was like, let me know what you want to do, you know. So I want to go do a podcast with him. He's like, hey man, I put together some of these bags that I'm gonna give out to the homeless. I was like, man, that's, that's a great idea. And they had really put together a really cool, neat care package. And when I left there, you know, I was like, what do I want if I was homeless? What do I want? And I've been, as an addict, you know, I've been in a place where you haven't had a shower in 3 or 4 days.

Yeah.

And, you know, you're just dirty and you just don't feel right. And that's where a lot of these people are. That's how they got there. And I was like, you know, I want a clean shirt. I want some socks. And I want to brush my teeth, you know, with some soap. And, and so I went and added a few things. Matter of fact, I called Buster and I said, hey man, I'm fixing to go to Walmart and I'm either fixing to pay for this or you are. But what I was paying for, he was like, no, you go ahead, I got you, you know. And, and he always backs me on stuff like that and I love him for that. And, uh, so

we just get out. And so really Armando inspired me to start it and, uh, you know, I just added my own little things to it. And, uh, so I just I keep a few in my truck, and whenever I'm driving down the road and I see somebody that could use help and just— Yeah, yeah, I listened to a book not too long ago. I can't remember the name of it right now, but it talks about this pastor that he was in LA, and he becomes like this advocate in the town for the gang members that come out of just county jail, and he— and the thing that he continues to repeat is meet them where they're at because that's what Christ does.

Right.

He doesn't— he's been through it. There's nothing on this planet or in this universe that Christ hasn't experienced, or he hasn't seen it done by one of his sons or his daughters. And he has this very special way of meeting us right where we're at and giving us what we need, you know what I mean? And so that bag is that. It's, you know, hey, we meet them where they're at. You know, we all go through struggles. We all go through things that we need to overcome, and just by simply giving somebody a pair of socks and toothbrush and, you know, a fresh t-shirt. And it— all of a sudden they feel clean.

Yeah, you know what I mean?

All of a sudden they feel like they're somebody. Clean.

I mean, yeah.

And hopefully by planting those seeds that these guys will be like, man, I can actually feel that way. Because everything is a feeling. It's how you feel. Yeah, you know, your thoughts are actually not facts. It's how you feel. And so that's our way of just getting out in our community and saying, hey, we care, you know what I mean? And as I meet these guys, I call them my spiritual siblings because that's what they are. I'll give them a card and just kind of share my story with them and say, hey, you know, when you're ready, give me a call. Amen.

Yeah. Have you ever heard of the ministry Seven More?

No, I haven't.

No. So it's here like in Montgomery County, right?

Yeah.

So it's kind of a prison ministry, but the whole concept is, you know, like when Jesus is asked like, how many times should I forgive? It's like always 70 times 7, and so it's Seven More. Like, it's always 7 more.

I like that.

Yeah. And so what they do is they, they, they take a group down and cheer on those that are getting out of prison.

Okay.

You know, and so like they have that positive affirmation of getting out rather than being there alone.

Talk about meeting where they're at. Exactly.

Yeah. I mean, catch them, you know, it's like, that's where the fish are. Let's go, let's go get them. And then, you know, and they're there to provide them with resources and, and different things like that because it— and you know this better than anybody probably, It's hard when you get out. Like, you don't, you don't have stuff.

Yeah.

You know, you don't have anybody typically. And it's like they're there to love on them.

Wow.

Give them—

I mean, I'd love to know more about that.

Yeah, no, it's super, super cool group. My, uh, my wife works with them.

Okay.

You probably know them.

Yeah. Yeah.

Um, but there's, but there's lots of, there's lots of cool groups out there doing stuff like that. And it's cool to hear that you're, you're doing that, man. I, I think a lot of people don't realize how important socks are to homeless people.

Yeah.

I mean, like, can you imagine? I mean, like, most people don't realize, like, they've been on like the same pair of socks for like a week probably.

Yeah.

And like feet are blistery and just dirty and they don't have anything else.

You know, there's a reason why Jesus washed feet. Yeah. And it's real talk. Like, you know, uh, you know, just so the feet— your feet is what connects you to the, to the universe, to the world. And so I'm glad you brought that up, that, you know, having clean socks.

Yeah.

I mean, and cleanliness is next to godliness.

Yeah.

Uh, so yeah, each one of these people that I've been able to meet, uh, that's the first thing to do. Kick the shoes off, put on some fresh socks.

Yeah.

You know, slap some deodorant on and, uh, you know, change their shirt. And it's, it's, it's, it's beautiful to, to see the happiness and the joy that they experience just for that moment.

Yeah.

This is— every time I drive away, it's, it's almost all I can do to not just go back to my shop balling. And, uh, it's really cool You know, the people that have surrounded me and supported this is just absolutely amazing. And I really hope that this takes off. And so I'm actually— I have had this thing that I've called MBK, and it stands for My Brother's Keeper.

Okay.

And it started between me and my brothers. My brother Daniel, him and I, we missed each other for about almost 10 years because I would be incarcerated. I'll get out, he'll go in.

Oh wow.

Or I'd be in my addiction and we have a level of respect for each other that, you know, I remember him showing up one time when I was leaving and he was sober and I was not. And he showed up and he's like, hey, what's up? I said, I don't know what you're doing here, bro, but I'm leaving. Yeah, I mean, I don't want to give that to you. And so we've always tried to be our brother's keeper. But me and Daniel, we've done a lot of time with each other even though we weren't incarcerated. And by being my brother's keeper, we're just there for each other. No matter what, he always put money on my books and I put

money on his books and made sure that phone's on and make sure we get letters. And so it just kind of carried out. Um, when I came home this time, uh, my brother Davis was, was stuck in his addiction. And Davis has a love for, for BMX and motocross that it was just, you know, next to God and motocross. I don't know, this is a tough race. And so I come home and he bought this dirt bike and And, uh, it was a really cool dirt bike. I still have it, but it was super ugly. It was kind of a junker.

Yeah.

And, uh, so something had gone wrong with it, and he was like, man, I'm gonna take it over to J&M Racing and, uh, and have them redo it. And I was like, you know what, let's take it to our buddy. He's a family friend of ours, Michael Peric. And I said, let's have him rebuild it, you know. And he's like— I just said, let's have him fix it, you know. So I knew what I was gonna do the whole time, right? So we drop it off, and I'm like, hey man, I just need you to fix that valve or whatever it is. And And I go drop Davis off and I call Mike and I said, hey bro, I said, we're going to rebuild that whole bike.

Wow.

What are you talking about? I said, we're going to make it a factory ride. He goes, what are we doing? You know, and so Davis's best friend was a guy named Kyle Bennett, which was the first American Olympian BMX rider ever inducted into the Olympics. And he had passed away, I believe, in 2012. And him and Davis were best friends, and, and, uh, it really took a toll on Davis. to have his best friend, uh, you know, go before he did, especially at such a young age.

Yeah.

And so we got permission from Kyle's mom, uh, to take the, the license or the number plate that's in the museum and replicate it. And so what we did is we did a Kyle Bennett tribute bike for Davis.

Wow.

So we put the rock star and the angel wings graphics, and on the license, on the number plate, of course, we put Kyle's number 88. Um, and then it had some little lettering and it had, uh, GHP, which is Greg Hill Products, uh, Pro BMX rider from, you know, late '80s.

Yeah.

And I said, I want to change that to MBK. So I, I gave this bike to my brother on, on Christmas Eve of 2020, and we surprised him with it. And after that, we left and, and we were driving down the road and he was like, man, why'd you do that? I reminded him, I said, Davis, you're a champion. I said, you, you're a champion rider. You've rode on a professional level, and your love for the sport, that's all you think about, and you don't really have time to do anything else besides that and your addiction. Well, now you have a perfect bike, so all you got to do is just go get gas money.

Yeah.

And go ride. And I know what kind of level you want to ride on, so When you want to do that, you're going to have to put away your addiction, and I'm here to help you do that. Yeah, I mean, unfortunately, Davis wasn't able to do that. He, uh, he had some health issues, and he stayed in his addiction, and we lost him last year. Sorry to hear that. That's okay. Uh, you know, I know he's in a better place, and I know him and Kyle are together. Uh, matter of fact, we buried him right next to Kyle. I'm sure they're pretty stoked about that. Uh, but so that's something that it— now that it's It's something that's branded. It's something that we're going to start a movement. So we're just going to sell some

t-shirts and hats and some hoodies and some little apparel and stuff like that.

I'd be down for 10.

And what it is, is really, uh, it's not about selling the t-shirt or hat. It's about taking this money and buying books to take back in. So I got the opportunity to go up to the Gulf Coast Trade Center, which is a juvenile detention center up in New Waverly. There's no fences around this place, and it's a trade center. They teach these young men trades. Yeah, such as woodshop and welding and shop and, and a few other things, uh, so that when these young men get out of juvenile, they have a trade. They have, you know what I mean? Because I've been arrested and let go how many times, and I've never had that training.

And so I got the opportunity to take them, uh, one of the books, uh, Mentor the Kid and the CEO. Buster bought me a case of them. And but I'll take this money and, and I'll continue to do what I know I'm supposed to do.

Mm-hmm.

Buy books, uh, get out there, be able to speak. You know, frees up time for me to, you know, go out there and just be active.

Yeah.

And at the same time, and really what it is is just letting people know they're not alone. And so we're going to actually turn this into, you know, MSK, My Sister's Keeper. Yeah. You know, we can, we can go all kinds of different ways for that, but it's a badge of honor to say that because there's nobody on planet Earth that is exempt from struggling from addiction.

Absolutely.

whether you have had addiction or you just have a family member that has addiction. And so by wearing this, it's a reminder that, hey, we made it through today. Yeah, that I support somebody that has got sober. I'm supporting somebody that I want to get sober. And it's a reminder that, hey, you're not alone. You know, it's a badge of honor to say, hey, you know, this is what we're doing.

That's awesome.

And I really hope that, you know, I'm going to start it right here in my community. And I really hope that it goes worldwide and just lets people know that when they see MVK or MSK or, you know, however we letter that, that they know what it is. You know what I mean? That they know that they're not alone, that that's somebody they can go talk to.

Yeah, man, that's really cool. My oldest and best friend is serving 25 years right now for trafficking methamphetamines. And His name is Michael Payton, uh, one of the best guys I've ever met.

He's one of my best friends.

Really?

Yeah. So, um, yeah, he's serving 23 years in federal.

Yeah, man.

Yeah, he's one of my best friends. He's my brother's best friend, as a matter of fact.

No way.

Yeah.

So I've known him since he was 10.

Payday.

Yeah, Payday.

Yeah, me and him, we, uh, yeah, we did a lot of crazy things together, man.

That's crazy. Uh, yeah, so, um, I just baptized his son. Um, uh, last Sunday.

Wow.

Yeah. And, um, yeah, we, we baptized him. We brought him to camp, and I emailed Mike about it, and, and we were talking about it. And, um, it just is a beautiful moment because, uh—

That's beautiful to me.

Um, because we're, um, even though we're far removed, still just the best of friends, you know. And, and probably, uh, the man the man that I know, that knows the most of the Bible that I've ever seen from my life, 100%, that just gets lost in addiction.

I can't wait for you to email him and say, hey, guess what, who I just talked to?

Yeah, bro, that would be—

He's gonna be like, are you serious? Yeah, we follow each other. Daniel talks to him all the time.

That's amazing. Yeah, that's really, really cool.

I really can't wait for him to come home because you talk about somebody that knows the Bible back and forth and just is a— he's one of the most intelligent people. I used to tell him, you're entirely too stupid to Tyler's too smart to be this stupid. But, uh, he— I can't wait for him to, uh— I hope that they pass that law. We'll bring him home. We pray for him every day.

Amen.

What's, what's the law that's—

So, uh, in federal prison, uh, you have to do like 85% of your time or something like that.

Okay.

And so they're trying to get that because that's ridiculous, you know. It really is. I mean, granted, you messed up, but you need the rest of your life, you know what I mean? And we know payday's, uh, Details of his situation, and, and he doesn't belong. I mean, Payday was a dummy. Yeah, there's no two ways about that. But does he deserve to spend the rest of his life in prison? No, not by any means. He's learned his lesson.

How long has he been in now?

5 years?

Yeah, at least.

Yeah, I think 5 to 7.

Okay. Yeah, let's talk about small world, man, right? That's crazy.

That's funny, I wasn't going to bring it up. I really felt the Lord was like, maybe bring this up.

So I'm glad that you do. That's something that— so one of the books that my sister sent me was Rising Strong by Brené Brown, and one of the chapters in there is strength and vulnerability.

Yeah.

And so people always reach out to me and they're like, man, you're— by you sharing your story, like, you've changed my life. I get messages almost every day. Yeah. And they're like, I could never share my story like that. I'm like, First of all, that's where you're gonna find your strength. Secondly, the person that hears it, that's where they're gonna find their strength, right? By hearing your story, saying, hey, I, I've been there.

Yeah.

And being vulnerable is literally a superpower to get out there. And of course, you don't want to, you know, I don't know Payday, he, you know, first of all, he can't whoop me. Sure.

But at least not from in there.

There's certain things that you don't, you know, you don't want to just, you know, put it out there and, you know, say something about somebody else that it's none of your business to say. But no, I'm sure Payday, if we reach one person, he's all about it.

Yeah. Amen. Amen. Yeah. No, he's always about, hey, tell my story, talk to people about it. Because when you talk about addiction, like you said, you talk about almost every life has been touched by addiction.

Yes.

You know, um, a lot of times people get addicted to things and they have no idea. Um, and not even like even really bad things, just bad gods, and you end up worshiping those things and, and those turn into the worst things and takes you down this, uh, this rabbit hole, you know. Uh, and it's— and what we try to, try to do is talk about the indicators of what addiction looks like and, um, what's, what's, uh What's taking your joy? What's taking your peace? What's pulling you away from your family or from your community? And usually it's addiction.

Yes. So I tell people, um, everybody—

Pull that thing back, they can't hear you.

Uh, everybody has an addiction, uh, of some sort, of some way. And I say it to people like this, and when I say everyone has an addiction That if you have a beautiful wife, you're probably addicted to her, right? Right.

Yeah.

Some, you know, uh, sort of fashion, uh, you know, if you love fishing, you might be addicted to fishing, right?

Yeah.

Uh, so you have your, your healthy addictions.

Yeah.

But if you're doing too much of anything, yeah, per se, if you have a beautiful wife and you're fishing too much, you might want to figure that out because she might kick you out. And you got to balance everything.

Yeah.

And then so you have your, your healthy addictions. One of my healthy addictions, and I tell people I had all these unhealthy addictions, um, from the time I was 10 years old. I've had plenty of them, all of them, uh, and one of the things that, that I was able to do for myself is find these healthy addictions. Yeah. So setting boundaries for yourself and saying, okay, hanging out with people that do drugs and going to the dope house and selling drugs and all that stuff, I can't do that anymore. That's a boundary that I— and I call it, this is my not okay basket over here. And I put all those things in that not okay basket that are not okay for me

anymore. And one of the hardest things to put in there is people. Um, and it's tough. Per se, my mom. I would have had to put mom in there. Hey, Mama, I love you, but if, if I had kids, like, Mom, I can't be around you.

Yeah.

Now that I'm sober, I thank God my mom's not here on earth anymore.

Yeah.

And she's not struggling from that anymore. But I would have had to put my mom in that basket. And in that basket, you can't ever go over there. You can't ever. You can wave at it from a distance and tell people you love them and you miss them and, hey, I miss fishing and whatever it is that was unhealthy for you.

Yeah.

And then you have this basket over here that this is my okay basket. So what are the things that are healthy for you? For me, it's the gym. I go to the gym 5 times, at least 5 days out of the week.

Yeah.

A lot of times 6. I go to church, I go to work, I surround myself with good people, I read, I pray, and these are my healthy addictions. And so I replaced all my— and that's what you're going to do, you're going to replace one addiction with another. So just replacing that time with something that is healthy for you, you can overcome anything. And that's how simple— and I say it's simple, it was simple for me. Was it simple to get to that point? No, I went through prison 3 times to finally figure that out.

Yeah.

But it is that simple to overcome whatever it is that you're struggling with. And, and, but then I tell people, hey, if the 12 steps work for you, by all means, dadgum, do them 12 steps.

Yeah.

Because they work for you. They don't work for me. It's just, I mean, I'm sorry, I'm lazy. It's just too much for me. I mean, and, uh, but yeah, man, it's, it's just a matter of, you know, replacing your time with something that's healthy. But as far as addiction goes, Everybody has one. Yeah, yeah, it doesn't matter what it is— baseball cards, right? Whatever, you know, Nintendo, Facebook, whatever.

Yeah, everybody's got something.

Everybody's got something.

Yeah, man, man, it's been so good to talk to you.

Yeah, you guys too, man. I appreciate it.

Absolute pleasure.

Yeah, no, you're out here to support me.

No, I want—

and I want to keep talking to you, but I know they're going to kick us out in like 10 minutes.

Okay, yeah, yeah, I think my boss is ready to go eat a steak. So I appreciate y'all.

That's a good boss.

Yeah, he's a great boss, great guy, great friend.

Well, man, is, is there anything, is there anything else coming up on the, on the near horizon that you want people to know about?

I do want to, uh, mention something. So something that I've, I've realized that I'm good at is creating energy. And so a friend of mine that owns, uh, The Table at Medley, uh, downtown Conroe, it's a food truck place.

Yeah, it's great.

And it's a music venue. And, uh, he comes over to me and we just were talking about, you know, how to do you know, cross-promoting. And as my job working for Barsch, we're always just looking for opportunities to just let people know who we are because we're here to serve in this community.

Yeah.

And so he was talking to me and I was like, hey man, I was like, let's create some energy over your place. And I said, let's open up the stage, let's do open stage acoustic open mic, let's pick a day. And he was like, well, Sundays. I was like, yeah, great, after church. Yeah, nobody's got— a lot of people, they don't have family to go eat lunch with.

Yeah.

Well, now we will have all the local music artists— well, and any music artist, if you just want to showcase, if you want to, you know, you've got talent, you, you think that you have talent, come show up, you know what I mean? And, uh, and so I told him, I said, don't involve any money, because when you involve money, it takes the energy out of it. And so my friend Brent— I'm, I'm sorry, um, my friend Jason Lee, uh, comes walking through the door 30 minutes later, and he's a music artist from the Kimbroughs, uh, and I tell him about it and, uh, he's like, uh, well, that's a great idea. He was like,

man, as a musician, he said, you know, if I want to hear one of my buddies play, like, I gotta hire them, you know what I mean? Because we're all working on the same day, right?

Yeah.

I mean, he's like, this would give us an opportunity to just sit and play and play our, you know, tell our stories and play songs and vibe off of each other. And, and so yeah, every Sunday from here on out, you know, show up at the Table of Medley You know, come hungry, enjoy some good energy, some good music.

And yeah, and there's— I mean, it's a decent stage back up in there, man. Like, it's kind of deceptive. Most people don't know it's sitting back there. So it's a good little venue.

It's directly behind Sonic there.

Yeah, and great food.

Yeah, the food trucks are— so I walked up the other day and I said, hey, which—

what are you—

he said barbecue and tacos.

Yeah, yeah.

I'm like, you're trying to get every girl here, aren't you? So yeah. So that's something new. We'll start that August 6th.

Awesome. Well, come check it out, man.

Yeah.

And if you're listening, go see. I mean, live music, local live music.

Yes, local live music. If you know somebody from anywhere, invite them.

Come play.

Awesome, bro.

We're going to wrap it up. Riz, if you could hit the bump music for me. Guys, thank you so much for tuning into this live episode in this incredible house to talk to some incredible people. If you have not yet, hit the subscribe button. Give us a thumbs up. All the love, Sean. Thank you so much for my pleasure for guest hosting, man.

Yeah, my pleasure.

We Kevin's just fired.

Yeah, Kevin. It was nice. I loved your mustache, but I'm I'm here now, baby.

Yeah.

All right, guys. Thank you. We'll see you next time.

Man, so crazy. You know, like small world, man. Leave a.

There's your microphone.