This is episode 221 of the Homeowner Show. Doing a special episode this week. I'm excited for you guys to tune in and listen. We have a former guest that hasn't been with us for a while. We're going to get to hear her story. This is going to be a little bit— it's not like off topic, but it's going to be a good show. Excited for you guys to to join with us in this one. Tanya, welcome back to the studio.
Thanks, Craig. It's good to be back.
Yeah, we're excited to, uh, to get to chat. I'm gonna get the video all set up here because Kevin's not here to actually do my job for me. All right, we got, we got everybody on camera now. So, uh, why don't you introduce your guest that you, that you brought in studio with us? And who's, who's this, this dashing gentleman?
Yes, this handsome young man. Um, this is my brother Bobby. My baby brother.
I want everyone to notice that she didn't say, I'm the older sister. He's my baby brother. Language matters to the women in our lives. So your baby brother.
So my name is Bobby Foster. Yeah, I'm the baby brother. And we're just here to talk about our lives and Sunset Cowboy and everything else. Yeah.
And we want to get into all things Sunset Cowboy because this is a nonprofit that you guys have started to assist people who are dealing with mental health issues.
Yes, mental health issues as well as the underinsured. One of the things that I have found in my research, which was really baffling to me, is that Texas has the most uninsured people in the United States. You would think smaller states or states with less poverty, Louisiana, those type of states. No, it's Texas. It's right here where we live. And so, yes, mental health and the uninsured is really what is our focus in Sunset Cowboy.
Yeah. Do you know any of the numbers dealing with the uninsured in Texas? I mean, is this Is it a product of people working part-time, having multiple jobs, or is it, is it because there's so many like independent people in Texas that, you know, like are kind of trying to do their own thing?
I think it's a multitude of things. I know for me, from my experience, you know, a couple of years ago when I, when I really got sick, right, and my husband had to leave his, his job after 20 years to take care of me, we had to go on COBRA. And in COBRA, It was $1,800 a month.
And so for 2 years, I mean, that's someone's mortgage.
And I won't say that it was not easy to make those payments, you know, but what were the other choices? I was very, very sick at the time. And so what I, what I've kind of found is that it's a multitude of that. It's people who just simply cannot afford it.
You know, it's just too expensive, um, or part-time and the companies are not offering it to them, right? Um, and, and it's just It's— the numbers are staggering. And even on— even, you know, when you go on the marketplace and try to find it, you're still looking at, you know, for a family, over $1,000 a month, right, to have insurance. Let's not even talk about your prescriptions and your copays and that type of thing. Really, who really has that kind of money? Yeah, you know, it's just unbelievable to me.
And COBRA is— I mean, from what I understand, it's a good thing. Like, it's something that allows you to keep your insurance while you're in between jobs, right?
It's a higher premium, but it's like something that lets you keep your benefits till you can get into a new system?
Correct. And so you keep your same doctors, you know. And so when you're going through things like I was going through with, you know, my cancer diagnosis and my seizures and that type of thing, it was imperative that I kept the same doctors.
So it was just a sacrifice that, you know, we had to make, that we have to make this payment and we have to, you know, keep these same doctors. But to say that after losing my husband's salary on top of, and then, you know, taking that payment on, it was something that we had to really, you know, but there was really no choice. But not everybody has that. And so the numbers are staggering. And like I said, I think it's just a multitude of things that boils down to, are they gonna pay their bills? Are they gonna have health insurance?
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That has got to be one of the most difficult positions to be in, to know that like you have, you know, not just like physical medical issues, but if you have like mental medical issues that you need assistance with and you have no means by which, you know, I would imagine doctors who are wanting to help with mental issues have to be some of the more compassionate people. Absolutely. You know, but like, you know, they have to make a living too. And so like, it's got to be so difficult for them to have to work within this system, right? You know, and like, we all, we all know that, like, well, because I think a lot of people would say, well, why don't you just pay for it yourself? You
know, screw the insurance, just go find a doctor and just work out something with them. Well, like, that can be expensive too. That can be just as much as the insurance sometimes.
It doesn't work that way, unfortunately. I mean, it's, it's very expensive. And I think that's where, you know, we get, we get caught in these vicious cycles of staying— people staying sick because they just can't afford— they can't afford it. They can't afford to speak up about it. They can't afford to go get the help. They don't want to be judged. People don't want to talk about it. But ultimately, they can't get the help. And I'll tell you, when I—
Well, and there's, there's even like a difference between going to see a physician and then like, say you need medication.
You know, that medication is often subsidized by the insurance. That, like, if you need it and you don't have insurance, then you got to pay, you know, the full premium on that, which most people, I mean, can't afford. I would imagine, uh, most of those kind of meds are rather expensive.
Yeah, I mean, one of my— you know, when I was getting my treatment initially, it was, you know, like, with insurance it was $3,000 a treatment. So you're talking about $12,000 a month.
Just for me to try to stay alive.
I mean, that, you know, and that's what, and that's also what we're going after with Sunset Gubbo. You know, I think I just read an article with Mark Cuban. He's doing his own medication online.
Yeah. And where there's this medication that costs $9,000 for cancer patients, he's offering it for $47 on his, on his platform.
You know, and he's not letting insurance get involved in all of that stuff. You know, that's kind of like, you know, and being a philanthropist like that, you know, he's doing, he's changing the world because someone, someone's life can be saved for $47, you know. Yeah. And, uh, he's not letting insurance get involved, you know. That's kind of like the direction we're going, and more people need to build platforms like this to offset for the insurance that is, uh, you know, not being offered in Texas.
Well, and too, and I think until it hits you straight in the face, until it comes into your home, yeah, just don't think about it.
Yeah, that's other people's problem.
They should have planned better, or they should—
yeah, they should have saved more, you know. whatever the case may be.
And we also want to let family members know you need to look out for the warning signs. We saw signs, you know, with CJ that we could have done things a little differently. We could have, you know, maybe if there was— if Sunset Cowboy would have been involved, and you can get on there privately and click on a link, he could have been medicated at the time.
So that's what we hope to do is to change the path, of course, someone else's.
Yeah, let's Let's spend some time talking about CJ. Before we do that, I want to get a chance to hear a little bit of y'all's background because we were talking a little bit about that before the show. And Tanya, I've known about yours for a long time, but I was just hearing about yours, Bobby. It's really inspirational. I'd really love people to hear kind of where you're coming from because you are a person who literally has turned their life completely around.
Yeah. My sister always says I'm a walking miracle.
This one? You only have one sister? Okay. I just want to give credit where credit is due.
Yes. Tanya has always said that I'm a walking miracle. So 11/23/2013, I'd hit the end of my rope. I was 123 pounds. I was out there pretty bad. I was on drugs and alcohol.
123 pounds. I mean, you're not a little dude.
And I didn't really know what I was dealing with my whole life. I was suffering from addiction. You know, I'd, uh, in and out of jails, institutions. I think I've been to rehab like 7, 8 times. Family had, uh, wrote me off. Mother had wrote me off. You know, everything, stealing from them, and I was, uh, feeding an addiction I didn't know what I was dealing with.
When I finally realized, um, that I was dealing with the disease of alcoholism and I got smart about it and I, and I, I let go. One of the things, I grew up in a small East Texas town called Pointe, and we're not— never as men, we're not told to surrender. Or give up.
Or white-knuckle it and tough it out and, you know, dust off your jeans, put on your boots, and, you know, go. But, uh, when I finally surrendered and I finally worked, uh, you know, the program of Alcoholics Anonymous, and I let go— and I had— for me, I always say pain is a great motivator for change, right? When you get enough pain and you, you put your family through enough pain, you, you change. So, you know, I had— I was like, uh, like I said, I was like 120 pounds. She picked me up, her and her husband, and something changed in me. And then, you know, I knew I needed help. I knew it wasn't just bad circumstances. And, you know, she guided me through.
My sister helped me. I think I actually— so it was like 9 years ago I called her. I was in a toxic relationship with my wife who passed away. She passed away tragically. She burned to death in a car accident.
And this is my son's mother. And, um, you know, she was, uh, she was using drugs behind my back while I was still in sobriety. And she was using drugs, you know, and she had had my son. And then when it all came, you know, about, it was unbeknownst to me.
So I had left her and I called her. I said, you know, this is going on. She even came out there and, uh, Tanya came to Dallas and birthed my son. I got custody of my son and, uh, I said, look, I have, uh, I have a 2001 Chrysler 300 and $600, and I need to come to Houston. He's like, come on out here. And this is after I'd been sober for a while.
I think too, one of the things that we— why we are so close is the way we did grow up. I mean, we are figuring out those things, those generational curses, being born to a mother that was a teenager. My mom was 16 years old when she had me. She was in poverty. Our father was an alcoholic. He wasn't around. He was never there. when you grow up without a father, especially as a young man, I think Bobby had a lot of identity problems. He really didn't know who he was. My mom couldn't teach him how to be a man. She couldn't teach him how to be strong, stand up for himself. So all of those things encompass when
you're being molded as a child and you're figuring out, I mean, we're figuring out the generational trauma that we went through, why we made the decisions that we made. I think me being a young mother, Couldn't make those decisions. I had a child, but Bobby was kind of out there flailing in the world and saying, no one's watching me. No one's helping me. And so he turned to alcohol and drugs where that was never an option for me because I had a little baby looking at me. So our worlds were very different, but we grew up exactly the same.
And drugs and alcohol were my solution for a long time until they They stopped working. And then I started getting all these repercussions from them. But they just come to a point to where it was like I was missing Thanksgiving. I was doing things that I wasn't raised to do. And I was out there pretty bad.
I mean, I've kicked down doors and drug him out of apartments. And I wouldn't give up on him because it was not an option. Giving up on him was not an option.
Growing up, we were 2 small East Texas kids living at Granny's house, picking plum trees, Granddad had a picker out there. So, you know, that's our relationship is what brought us that close.
Yeah. There's this thing going on in our culture right now where there's a lot of people talking about fatherless households.
And like the impact of that on the culture and the society that we're living in. So much so that I am seeing this reactionary thing around it where you, you have some people out there right now talking about how, like, look, if your husband is cheating on you and there's a kid involved, it's, it's probably more worth your while to stay in that relationship just so that you can have a 2-parent household because of the outcome, the downstream effect of the kids later on. And which boggles my mind.
It's, it's unbelievable that people don't, don't understand the effect, and not just on the the young men, but as the women too. I mean, I had— our father has 8 children with, with 4 different women.
And, uh, never was involved in any of the children's lives on a, on a long-term basis, never paid child support.
You know, it wasn't like that back then where it is now, um, but the, the damage that it does to the children, um, is, is almost irreversible, you know, at times.
But this is what's interesting to me about it, is these, these people who are talking about this they, they have weighed in their minds, and I'm not saying they're making the right decision or making the right call. I don't know. But they are, they are saying the downstream effect is so heavy that it's worth the trauma of staying in a bad relationship with someone who's cheating on you than it is to, to leave them and create a single-parent household. You know, and like, that's, that's That should just tell us all so much about how much it affects kids to live in a fatherless household.
It's probably— I remember we were little and we would be at my grandmother's and it would be times where, you know, we'd be at my grandmother's because my mom couldn't keep the lights on or, you know, whatever. And we would just be like, we would be sitting there and saying, do you think our dad's looking at the same stars as us? Do you think he's thinking about— I mean, that is deep. Yeah, that is deep-seated stuff that even me at 48 years old, I still, you know, think about how that— the trauma of that. Like, your parents are supposed to be your safe place to fall, right? You know, and, and having children and not being married and then, you know, raising my
son now with my husband and seeing what a present father he is, right? I almost look at it and I'm almost like a little bit jealous, you know, a little bit like Man, you have the greatest dad. And I know that my son is going to turn out so differently than we did because that's the way God intended it.
You know, there's, there's no mistake about that. A child needs a mother and a father. And when you don't, either way, it affects them to their core for their entire life.
For sure. Yeah. And so we've talked about a little bit. I mean, like, I mean, you told me several times you were a mom at 16.
So like, tell us a little bit about your background then from there.
So, you know, my high school boyfriend, you know, things happen and conversations didn't happen. And so things happen. And so, you know, I got pregnant at 16 years old and, you know, everybody wanted, you know, give him up for adoption, you know, this and that and the other. And that just wasn't an option for me.
I'm the type of person, I made my bed, I'm going to lie in it. I wasn't afraid to work. I wasn't afraid to get out there. And so I had CJ a week before my 17th birthday. And his father was going to play college ball, and he had a full scholarship. And I never told him. Never told him about him. And I just knew it wasn't going to make a difference. It was just one of those things where you're stuck here, and I'm going.
Were you thinking, I'm not going to screw up his life? Is that what you—
Absolutely. Absolutely. I knew that we weren't in love or we weren't going to get married or anything like that. I just knew that he came from a situation where if he didn't take that scholarship and go play football, he was going to be stuck just like a lot of us were. And so, yeah.
Yeah, absolutely. And so I grinded it out and I worked and I took care of my child.
Yeah, yeah, he actually did. He came home about— CJ was about 9 years old. And, you know, around town, people were saying, oh, you know, Tonya, you know, she has this blonde-haired boy and he looks just like you. And he came and found me and he's like, is he my son? And I said, yeah, you know. And so CJ met his father when he was 9 years old.
And it was like looking in a mirror. I mean, if you looked at both of them, they're like twins, you know. And so probably maybe not the best decision, but when you're 16 years old, you make a lot of bad decisions when you're 16. Yeah, exactly.
And everything that I mean, we steer clear everything that our father, our biological father did, we made a note not to, not to do that. Okay, I want to impose that on our kids.
Yeah. And he wasn't ready to be a father. He didn't want to be a father. You know that. And so I didn't want to push that on him, um, at all. Um, and so I just said, well, you know, I'm going to take care of it myself.
And CJ was just bringing him home. He was just a bright spot, and I was just so excited. It was my first nephew, and he was just— you know, I took the job of being an uncle very seriously. It was a job that I did not take lightly. You know, in later years going, I would take him mudding and stuff like that, off-roading. And so CJ was a bright spot in our lives.
Oh, yeah. Yeah, it was, it was hard. But I mean, he was— there was just something so special about him. First of all, he was the cutest baby ever. And people would come up to me, do you know he's so cute? You know, yeah, I do. But you know what a handful he is as well.
But yeah, and I, and I looked at myself and I said, I'm actually repeating my mother's life right now. You know? And I was like, I've got to, I've got to turn that around.
Yeah. I mean, people don't think that there's anything to it, but there is something to— I mean, I think you used the phrase like generational curse earlier, but I mean, like, we often repeat what we see.
And curse, blessing, whatever you want to call it. But like, we will— there is a pattern to our behavior based off what we see in our environment. But there's also like this weird genetic thing where you can, without even knowing your parents, you are in some way programmed to sort of behave or act in the same way.
And it's a weird thing to—
And we tried to say growing up, it's like, we're gonna do different. Yeah.
That takes a lot of work though.
Oh, we're still working on it.
We always say DNA doesn't lie.
It's like, because some of the things that I inherently hated because of my father, they're so natural inside of me. I have to work really hard at it now.
Well, and so let's talk about this baby boy, because this is the whole reason we're here, right? Yeah.
I was in labor for 36 hours with CJ. I should have known then that it was going to be a tough road.
But I want— I never loved anything as much as I loved him. I mean, to know that, you know, God gave me this child, and yes, I was young, but I knew that I wanted to change, you know, the course of his life, and for him not to repeat the same things that I did. And so I think growing up without his father, and not knowing until he was 9 years old, having a young mother, he hated having such a young mother because his friends would be like, your mom's so pretty. Is your mom dating anyone? I mean, you know, when he got into high school, he hated it. But in a lot of, in a lot of, in a lot of ways, he loved it because we
really did kind of grow up together.
You know, he taught me so much and also made me go out there and make a life for him. So I kind of took that as a challenge to what everybody who said, oh, well, you're another teen mom, you're never going to be anything, you're just going to be stuck here. You know, I left East Texas and never looked back.
And really built a really good life for ourselves. And I had another child, you know, a couple years later. And it was just— my whole life was built around those boys. and raising them and trying to give them everything that we didn't have. And, you know, unfortunately, there were things that I tried to help him with that DNA, you know, is there.
You know, the mental struggles that he had with his identity, with not knowing his father, with his father not being around. And then, you know, by the time he met his father, It's a little strange to say, here, here's a 9-year-old child, he's yours, let's build a relationship.
He had never been a father either. And so, you know, you think you get them through those tough years, and you get them through school, and you get them through the girls, and high school, and, you know, all of those things. And, you know, to lose him the way that I lost him, you know, has been, you know, You always see it. You see it on TV. You see mothers losing children, and you think, how are they talking? How are they walking? How are they answering these questions? You never think that it's going to happen to you. You never think that you're going to get that phone call, that your child is no longer here. And you know me, Craig. It's been the
biggest thing that I've ever had to overcome in my life. It's been the most pain that I've ever had in my entire life.
I can't even describe the pain of losing a child to someone, especially when it's unexpected and especially when it's so tragic.
And when you think, man, they're 30 years old, they're on their way, you know, and got them through all the tough things. And it's, it's, uh, it's definitely why we're here today. It's definitely why we, we, um, are here talking about our nonprofit that we're starting about mental health and, and about the uninsured, you know. CJ was 26 days from having insurance at his new, at his new job.
So he was working in like a warehouse in, in College Station in the receiving department, and he was a receiving manager, and he had gotten a, you know, great opportunity, and he had been in the restaurant business for a long, long time, and he was trying to do something different, and one thing about him is he was charismatic. He had the biggest life personality, never met a stranger. And his, one of his customers said, you know what, I want to give you a job. I want to give you insurance. I want to, you know, and so, you know, he, he was, like I said, 26 days from doing that. But, you know, CJ was diagnosed with bipolar disorder young. And I always—
Right. He was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. And he really never I would always tell him, people can live with bipolar and have a really good life. You have to understand your illness. You have to respect it. You have to understand environment. You know, you have to understand that it's serious and you have to take your medication. And you know, when someone's 30 years old, you can't say, did you take your medication? Did you?
And it started young with CJ, like when he was 13 or 14. I remember coming on. I got the benefit of— just to backtrack on me and Tanya growing up— because our mom would be gone on jobs for months at a time. Yeah, you know, we would— we grew up together, so I was always living with Tonya and got the privilege of growing up with CJ. So, you know, that's one of the things I was thankful for.
Well, and, you know, I would try to get— I tried to get him counseling. I tried to put him through, you know, he wouldn't talk to counselors. You know, he wouldn't— he— to him, if he said, yes, I have bipolar, or yes, I need help, or yes, I'm struggling, it made him less of a man, you know.
So did he, did he not acknowledge that?
He, right before he passed away, one of the things, the last things that he said to me was, Mom, I'm tired, you know. I'm tired of fighting this. I do know that I need help. I, I do. I don't want to live like this anymore. This isn't who I am. You know, he battled his demons for sure, um, because someone you would talk to and he was sweetest, most wonderful person in the world. And then, you know, he would go and do things that you're just like, what? Where did this come from? You know, we battled, you know, I say that life with him was like a roller coaster, and I never knew when we were going to go down and when we were going to come up.
You know, but I felt like we were turning a corner. I felt like he really was tired because that's like Bobby said, you have to get to a point where you're tired of being in pain. Um, and, you know, um, I'm kind of a type of mom is that I love you, but I'm not— I'm gonna tell you, hey, you're doing wrong. Hey, I don't agree with this. Hey, I'm not okay with this. And that's kind of where we battled because he did not like me telling him, uh, that I don't agree, you know. But my thing is, is that you— I want you to treat people with kindness. I raised you, you know, different than this. And really, the illness was the downfall
for him because he initially, he died from a brain injury. He got on a motorcycle. He'd never been on a motorcycle before without a helmet, without proper gear, in a mania bipolar episode thinking, I'm 10-foot tall and bulletproof and I can get on this motorcycle. It's just like riding a bike, right? And no, it's not. And ultimately he wrecked that motorcycle.
That was the first time he rode it?
Off the lot, buying it off the lot. Um, and, and, you know, he had 80% of his body was road rash. I think he slung him about 600 feet.
Um, going about 55 miles an hour with no helmet.
Yeah. Um, I mean, I think most people in a car, they think about like going 55 miles an hour, that's no big deal. But like on a motorcycle?
He was on a tank top and flip-flops and no helmet.
Oh my gosh. White shoes too.
Yeah. Oh my gosh. No cover. Yeah.
So he was road rash from head to toe. And I actually held his hand on that day and he was in great pain.
And so coupled with the fact that, you know, he was in a mania state at the time, you know, and then, you know, going into the hospital, going into ICU, you know, went straight into ICU, you know, kept telling us, okay, he has a slight brain bleed, slight brain bleed.
It's going to work itself out. And we just listened to the doctors, right? Like, we believe the doctors. And then they rush him out, they rush him home and get him out of the hospital. And then 2 days later, he's like, Mom, I'm having hallucinations. I can't tell reality from— I can't tell if this is the doctors. I can't tell what's going on. I'm hallucinating. I don't know what's going on. So he goes back to the hospital, readmit him, um, starts having seizures, um, gets out of the hospital again.
Was this all in College Station?
All in College Station. Okay, 2 different hospitals. Uh, 3rd time he goes back, um, they— he's there for a few days again. You know, I'm asking him, did you give him an MRI? Did you get— you know, I'm asking all the questions, but again, I'm— he's 30 years old.
This gash in his head is Significant.
You could see it. He wasn't making sense. He wasn't talking, you know, talking right. He was very confused. Um, all he just kept saying is, I'm in a lot of pain. I'm in a lot of pain. Um, and the last time that they let him out was on a, was on a Wednesday. Um, and he passed away in his sleep that night. 30 years old.
And I assume there was like an autopsy?
Yes. And that, that was the, the hardest thing for, for us at that time. My brother and I were actually in Dallas at a— going to a funeral, and I got the phone call. And of course, you know, couldn't believe it because I just talked to him at 8:30 the night before.
And the autopsy, because of COVID and because of the time frame when he passed away, it took 7 months for us to find out. So, you know, he was in College Station, he had roommates, Um, you know, he initially, you know, because he had said that he was suicidal or having hallucinations, they thought initially that he had taken his life. And that's the first thing that the detective told me.
Why did they think he'd taken his life?
Because at the hospital he couldn't— he was trying to fight the doctors. He couldn't tell reality from what was going on. He was hallucinating.
And he was off his medication. We didn't know if he did We don't know if they had access to his history of bipolarism or whatever, right? But, and then they maybe used that against him because that's also, you know, we're talking about, you know, they use that against him to get him out, you know, you're unmedicated or—
Right. So he'd been diagnosed with bipolar?
Oh yeah, yeah, he was since he was young.
I mean, just really quick, I was looking this up while you guys were talking. From the National Institute of Health, it says about close to about 5% of Americans experience bipolar disorder.
You know, and like, that doesn't sound like a whole lot, you know, except for everybody that's paying a little bit north of 5% on their interest rates right now, right? You know, then it becomes a lot, right? But I mean, like, that's 5 out of every 5 people out of 100 that you meet, I mean, experience some sort of like bipolar, right, experience, right?
And, and I think, you know, initially, you know, when the detective told me that, I, I was like, No, there's, there's no way that he wouldn't— that he would do that. But at that time, I knew what kind of pain and confusion that he was in.
So I'm not this kind of person like, no, never, not my kid. You know, I'm a realist. But waiting 7 months to not know what happened to him, um, was torture. Yeah, absolute torture.
So what did they ultimately determine?
A brain hemorrhage? Yeah, it was an undiagnosed brain hemorrhage completely related to his motorcycle accident. Right, which could have been Could have been prevented, right, had they done an MRI.
Yes, had they kept him a little longer, had they done more extensive testing. Which brings us to, you know, where we are, you know, after losing him, we're like, what can we do?
And also could have been prevented if he would have been— had adequate access to his, his medication. He would— if he would have been on his meds, he wouldn't have had that mania and say, hey, I need to save gas and get on this motorcycle.
Yeah, we could have, we could have prevented ultimately the most expensive part of this, which was the accident.
You know, because he probably wouldn't have gone and done that.
Yeah, but he did— but he didn't have any medication because why?
Okay, because he was uninsured.
He was uninsured. Okay, too expensive. And, and I paid for many medications. Yeah, you know, but you know—
How much was that medication? Do you know?
The medication was— the one was, I think, like $300, $320, something like that.
For, for how— for how long?
Uh, I think it was 3 months.
It takes a couple weeks or months even to work in your system before, you know, it starts changing your brain chemistry to where you start getting out of that mania, right?
And again, this stigma of I have bipolar disorder, saying that and being okay with that— he was not okay with that. He was— he did not believe that he did. He just—
Oh, he didn't believe, right?
He did not believe that he did. And At the end, I think, you know, he was like, Mom, yeah, there's definitely something, right? I'm not sure. But the way he felt, you know, growing up and, you know, the stigma between saying, I need help, I have mental illness, you know, is exactly what we're talking about right here. He never wanted to say those words.
Yeah, that's a tough pill to swallow.
Like, I need help. There's something wrong with me. I mean, like, and maybe, maybe like we just need like better words than there's something wrong with me, right? You know, I don't know what they are.
I mean, I— you have no problem saying I'm sick, I have bronchitis, I have the flu. It's no different.
your brain is sick and you need— and it needs help. And, and there's plenty of people that live great lives with mental illness.
But they're medicated. They understand their triggers. They understand what they need to do and what they can't do and environments that they can't be around and those types of things.
And let's be frank. I mean, the people who have money that deal with this, legit money, they end up having specialists that help them deal with this through diet, through different kinds of therapies that aren't necessarily medication.
There's a multitude of things available to people.
It's just whether or not everyone can afford them.
And that's the thing is like, how do you make those things accessible to those that are actually struggling with these kinds of— because when you're struggling with these kind of things, you end up in a situation where you're typically not in a financial position to Right.
And you get stuck in this cycle, right, of good, bad, good, bad, right?
Because like, what are you gonna do? Like CJ trying to keep his lights on and trying to pay the bills, you know, it's like, you know what, he, you know, do I, do I, do I buy food, you know, and do I pay my light bill, right? Do I go get, you know, physical therapist help me with the exercise part of bipolarism, or, you know, the mental, or that part, you know, so it's, it's a hard pill to swallow.
It's a vicious cycle that is not just a problem, you know, in our family or other families. It's, it's, if you look, I mean, we're losing people to mental illness more than anything else, right? And no one wants to talk about it. No one wants to talk about it at all. And, and that's why we, you know, we came and we said, you know, we're gonna put my, my life savings, your life savings, and, and our world into, um, what Sunset Cowboy is going to be about is, is, is going to be where we're going to be able to have resources for people.
We already have a group of doctors that are going to say, okay, you can get— you can apply and we will give you a discounted MRI, or we will give you discounted counseling. We will help you. We already have a telemedicine person that's gonna— that's It's going to help us with getting medications at reduced rates. So we're trying to offer resources where there would be none. And even he couldn't get approved for Medicaid or anything like that because he made just a little bit too much money. So he was stuck, very, very much stuck.
The pain of losing CJ has motivated us to do this. Like I said, Pain is a great motivator for change. And, you know, it's, uh, we're spitballing ideas and, you know, part of my thing is, you know, uh, getting a bus and putting Sunset Cowboy on and giving people rides to MRIs, you know, through the donations and stuff. Uh, just in— just a little bit about CJ, you know, I, I want to say something to his— to add to his character. You know, he was letting a family live with him. He didn't have barely nothing. He was letting a full family live in his living room.
And, you know, that's because of the way Tanya raised him. One thing I can say, and I could— I'm going off topic a little bit to say that Tanya was always there for CJ. She always did everything. She was an amazing mother, and she loved her son dearly, you know. So he had a family that was homeless living there, and he was letting them stay there rent-free.
Yeah, to this date, I get Facebook messages, you know, your son helped me through high school. He, you know, I was shy, I was being bullied, and he He, you know, he helped me through it. I mean, the messages that I get from the goodness in him that I know that was in there, that I know. But when you're battling mental illness, that's what it is. It's a battle. It's an everyday battle. And I saw it. I saw it for many years. And I did try, you know, everything that I could. But ultimately, you know, people make their own decisions.
And, you know, I just— this past year, I've been spending a lot of time with people that have lost, you know, children, or especially children. It's a different type of loss when you lose a child. It's not natural.
It's not something that you're ever prepared for. And so the way grieving mothers get treated, you know, we're expected to just get up and move on, you know, and that's just not the way it works. As strong as I am, this has almost taken me out many, many times. But I look at my children, my family, my grandchildren, and the mothers and the people that I talked to this whole year that have, you know, said, hey, thank you for being so transparent about it. Thank you for talking about it. Thank you for being raw and honest. And I know a lot of judgment comes with that.
But if there's one person that I can help, You know, if the people that— there's going to be many, you know, after CJ, I know that. But if we can get them some assistance, even the families, you know, we were talking about earlier, I have great insurance, I pay a whole lot of money for it. But when I went to get grief insurance or grief counseling after CJ passed away, it was a 6 to 12 month waiting list.
There was no— I mean, unless I wanted to pay out of pocket. And that's what I wound up doing, is paying out of pocket. I had to get on medication. I couldn't function for a short time in order to get his services together. And I mean, when you lose somebody so tragically and so suddenly, it's trauma.
And I've been dealing with trauma. And the best way I know how to get out of the other end of this is to give back and help somebody else. And that's what we're hoping for. That's what we want people to know, the premises of Sunset Cowboy. And the way we came up with that is my son, he talked about sunsets all the time. He said he had made a Facebook post in 2018 and said, if I'm ever not here, just know that I loved you. If I say I loved you, I'll always love you and look for me in the sunset. So that was where we came up with it. And he was a cowboy. That's the one thing he loved, being a country boy. And so, you know, we want
people— there's a lot of nonprofits out there, right?
And they do great work. But you got to know what, what are you, what are you giving? What are they, you know, what are you giving your time or your money or your donations? What, what is going to come out of it? And for us, it's, it's going to be mental health and the uninsured. And we just hope that, you know, we can do this to honor him and the ones that are gonna come after him and the families. Because it just doesn't affect, you know, it affects the entire family. You know, I'm not the only one that lost CJ. My family lost him. He left us a daughter, you know, which those conversations are really
tough, you know, to have with her. Again, another fatherless child.
You know, so I just want to tell you, thank you for giving us the platform to talk about this and educate people on, you know, what we're trying to do. So when people say, okay, the holidays are coming up, or where do I want to help, you know, that they think about us and, you know, click on our website and try to, you know, see how they can get involved.
I think it affects everybody. I think everybody has somebody in their family that they know or that if had some type of mental illness or is struggling with getting, you know, insurance or, or something. And so, um, we're just, we're just hoping to make a difference.
Yeah, no, and I, I, you know, no thanks is needed here. I just appreciate you guys coming on and even, even talking about it because I, I think it's, I think it's such a difficult topic, uh, one, to talk about, and two, to make public. Yeah, in any, any kind of way because there's so much shame associated with it for so reason, even though it's like something that's obviously prevalent. Yeah, in, in our society.
And we knew that. We knew that, that being transparent about, um, uh, you know, our, our life and, and the thing, the struggles that we've gone through and, and, and the generational things that we're still going through and we'll still face, um, we know there's always judgment, right?
But, um, you know, we're put here to help each other. That's what God says to For sure. And that's what we're going to do.
And the ones that want to support will support, and the ones that want to judge can lay back and judge. They're always going to be there, right? And that's okay.
That's fine. Yeah. So that's not our focus. Our focus is, is the ones that are going to come after us. And, and if we can just give them a little bit of help, a little bit of hope, a little bit of resources.
you know, um, it's just, it's, it's going to give us some closure and to help us heal as well.
Definitely help us heal. And, you know, to have to— I was sitting there, you know, this was all, you know, it started, you know, me and Tonya, we were just talking. I was like, I had had a dream. I was like, how can I honor CJ? How can I honor and how can I help people to come after him? And I was going to start a clothing line. It was, you know, call it This Too Shall Pass. And, you know, I talked to Tonya about it and And, you know, she started thinking of ideas, and I had this dream that I wanted to honor him. And she started putting her thoughts in. When she puts her mind to something,
I mean, it's just— there's no stopping her, you know what I mean?
And she kind of don't take no for an answer.
And I've always kind of rode on her coattails, you know, and kind of followed her lead. And that's just the way this relationship works.
I mean, and I just want to say that I'm just so proud of my brother because, you know, So many people did write him off, and they had a right to. But overcoming the things, 20-year addiction and everything that he's went through, to be the man that he is now and the brother and the father and the husband that he is now is a testament to what we're trying to do. We're trying to show people that where you come from doesn't mean— you don't have to end up there.
You can make a difference. You can turn your life around if you want to. It's going to be really hard.
And it's going to take a lot of work. But I'm just so proud of him. And I'm just so honored that he's doing this, you know, with me, and that our family is involved in this and going to make a difference in honor of CJ and all those that have lost, you know, someone to the fact that they couldn't get the help that they needed. Right.
Yeah. You know, CJ has a brother and all this, Colton. You know, he's, he's, he's an amazing young man too. I mean, so, so young, 20, 26 years old, 27 years old, and he's already, he's working for Caterpillar. I mean, he's just, he's an amazing young man.
Yeah, I'm proud of both of my sons. You know, I wish that things would have turned out differently for CJ. Yeah, for sure. But every day, or when I get those messages of the kind of person that he was when he was not sick, it just makes me know that that's exactly what I should be doing. Everybody kind of thought, oh, Tonya lost her mind. She sold her house. She sold her business. She went underground for a year. It's not about that. When I did lose TJ, it changed my whole perspective on everything. I didn't really care about being a boss babe anymore and building and, you know, having this big business and all these employees.
What I did was, okay, I know how to build. What can I do to make a difference?
And my passion changed immediately, and the way I looked at the world changed immediately.
And, um, and I think, I think a lot of people might look at that and go like, well, like, why can't you just do both? And it's like, well, no, it's like, why, why would I pursue something I'm not interested in anymore?
Yeah, like that's not going to be helpful to my employees. That's not going to be helpful to the company.
You know, like I'm going to be disinterested.
And ultimately going to suffer because of it.
Well, you know, initially it took the wind out of my sails for sure, just as a mother, the amount of pain that I was in. You know, grief, that kind of profound grief causes physical pain.
You know, and I had to remove myself from, from that for a little while, and then pick myself up and say, okay, now what? Yeah, you know, and it was a very hard decision.
And I was very proud of what I built so much that, you know, somebody wanted to come and buy it, you know.
And I was, I was very proud of that. And it gave me a financial platform to be able to start something like this. And, and I just, I just, I just know that this is where and what I should be doing. That was for that time, and now this is this time.
And there's nothing wrong with that.
So, no, I was telling you earlier, like, my background with any of this is I remember in— it was 1999, I was a freshman in college. And you guys remember the Bonfire collapse?
So I was out there for that.
Yeah. And I lost a buddy in and, and, um, walked up on a couple of guys who had just fallen and broken their necks and died immediately. I found another buddy, his, his, uh, forearms had been snapped in half. Um, the scariest part about that whole thing was they turned the lights out after it happened because it was, it was being broadcast like closed-circuit TV across all of campus.
And so they turned all the lights off because they didn't want people to see what had happened. And so being out there for that was obviously like a very traumatic situation. And weeks and weeks afterward, my mom had been after me. She's like, you need to go talk to somebody. You need to go talk to somebody. You need to go talk to somebody. You need to go talk to somebody. And I was like, I don't want to.
I don't want to. And finally, just to get her to shut up, right? I was like, look, I'll go talk to somebody. There's a guy at my church. He's a counselor. I'll go talk to him. I've met him a couple of times. I wouldn't mind talking to him. And he said that he'll sit down with me.
She goes, great. So I go and I sit down with him, and within like 5 minutes of just sitting down and just doing like an initial meeting, he says to me, he goes, look, this is a really difficult thing that you've had to experience, and I'm really glad that you're here talking to me now because you can deal with this now. Or it will deal with you later.
And it will affect every relationship in your life, positively or negatively. You get to decide right now.
And I was like, yeah, that doesn't sound pleasant.
Like, I want to, I want to have like good relationships later on in my life. I want to have like a positive impact on my children. I don't want to be a negative influence on my children. And so like, I met with him every week for, man, I don't know how long. Um, and it was one of the best decisions I ever made.
Yeah, trauma will rear its ugly head if you don't deal with it. with it.
It is a dragon in the cave that is just looking to eat you, right?
And, and it was, that was one thing that I was sitting there and I, you know, I told my husband, I said, um, I'm hurting. Yeah, that was a real, real— and I said, I, I, I don't want to be in this type of pain anymore, you know? And he's like, well, what does that mean? What do you— and I'm like, I, I don't want to not be here. I still want to live, but I cannot be in this type of pain anymore. It's too painful. I don't know how to function with it. And even saying those words were really hard to the person that I'm most vulnerable to, that loves me the most. But he couldn't possibly understand the amount of pain that I was in, where
no one could understand the amount of pain that you were in because you're the one who saw that.
You know? And so I thought, I'm gonna sit here and tell him this, he's gonna put me in like a funny farm or something. And thank God he didn't. And he said, okay, thank you for telling me. Even someone that I've been with for years and is the love of my life, it was so hard for me to say, I'm hurting and I'm in pain and I'm not okay. And in that moment, I thought, this is how a lot of people feel.
So I can definitely understand that had I not said that out loud, I probably would've kept burying it. Because I'm taught to be a tough girl too. Yeah.
And there's a weird survivor's guilt.
That comes with that too, right? I mean, we're like, you're equally mad that it was them and then guilty that it wasn't you.
I remember when I was sick and I first got diagnosed with cancer 2 years ago, And I was going through treatments. And I told my son, your life is going to— your actions are going to kill me. It's going to break my heart. It's going to kill me. And ultimately, his actions took his life. I never thought his actions would take his life. I really thought it was going to hurt me.
I really thought I'm going to be the one hurting. And I'm going to be the one gone before he can get it right. I never thought— at 30 years old that I would lose him.
Never. And so, yeah, I have guilt. I have anger. I have regret. Every possible thing you could think of. The only thing that I know to do is to help others and honor him. That's the only thing that I know to do to heal. And hopefully, you know, that's what this is going to do for us and many others.
So if you guys take sort of like a 10,000-foot view and go like, okay, by the time we're done with this, and obviously this is something that you're probably not really ever done with, but when it arrives, when the plane lands, what do you guys hope that Sunset Cowboy will look like?
We right now are currently, we have hired a, really great storyteller to do a documentary on this and a couple other people in our lives that we've lost that were uninsured or mental health to tell their stories. We're going to go to Capitol Hill. We're going to rattle some cages. We're going to talk to governors and people that can help make those changes for insurance. And what I hope that it looks like in 5 or 10 years from now is that we have the conversation that is being talked about, being openly talked about. Mental health is not such a stigma.
And that anybody can go in and that we have the resources to get them the help that they need. That is ultimately the goal, is that everybody who clicks on our website and needs help, whether they need an extra night's stay at the hospital, whether they need that MRI, Whether they need that medication, whether they need that ride to the doctor or whatever it looks like, that we're able to provide that for them, that we have the funding and the backing to do that. And the only way that we can do that is go up against the big guys, right?
That's it. That's where we're headed. We're headed to Capitol Hill.
And this is such an uphill battle. And whenever, and when every door is closed in that family member's face when they're trying to help save their child or everything, we want them to say Sunset Cowboy. We want Sunset Cowboy to be readily available. We want to have the website all inclusive. We want them to be able to have access, just be like a household name.
Yeah. I think that is the beauty of operating a nonprofit because so many people have had the conversation of like, well, we need universal healthcare, we need this, that, and then the other. And one of the things that I've contested over the years is we don't have a government problem. We have a heart problem.
Where the churches and the people that actually genuinely care, that say that they care, actually need to step up and do the things that they are called to do.
And perform with their checkbooks, with their time, with all these things to actually give to the causes matter to them. And, and this is one that seems pretty simple because it affects people at home, right? You know, it affects their relationships, it affects, you know, people's ability to live normal lives. Um, and, and in y'all's case, I mean, that was, you know, you know, we lost a family member.
Um, so, and I, I imagine it will be easy for other people who have had similar situations to jump on board And, and, and, you know, say hurrah, let's, let's charge the hill.
We hope so, you know. Yeah, because we need it. We can't do it alone. Yeah, but dadgummit, we're gonna try.
Yeah, we are gonna try it. I like how you said the 10,000-foot view because we're going into it, you know, kind of narrow right now. We're just— it's going to open wide up, right? We're hoping that it's going to open wide up.
Just— Well, and the lady that's doing this documentary, God bless her, she doesn't take every, every every story. And she believes in this so much, and she's not afraid to rattle some cages.
And that's what we got to do.
And so I'm very thankful for that and the people that have already surrounded us. And I just hope that when people think about, okay, where am I going to put my time, or even if it's Christmas, where am I going to give $100 to, you know, $100 makes a difference.
You know, it could be, you know, someone getting that medication or getting that extra night's stay at the hospital or whatever it is that they need, or that mom that's falling apart getting that grief counseling. You know, if I didn't have the support system that I have, I don't know that I'd be sitting here talking to you right now as I am. But I know that I have a lot of people that love us and support us and are really rooting for us.
And are thankful that we are speaking up about it. You know, and, and, and we can relate to a lot. A lot of people can relate to what we've— we're going through.
I would imagine. Yeah, I mean, because I read the numbers to you from the, the NIH website, I imagine those are pretty low. Yeah, I mean, because I imagine a lot of it just goes unreported. Oh yeah, and undiagnosed.
So I mean, you— I mean, that's obviously true, right?
Yeah, yeah. So again, I mean, we just, we want to thank you for the opportunity And, um, you know, we're just going to keep plugging away.
So are we doing the clothing line? Is that going to be part of this? I was going to say that the hoodies are pretty snazzy.
So, so what we're doing is, um, you know, we'll, we're going to have hats, sweatshirts, t-shirts, you know, apparel that'll be on the website to click on. We can customize it. I know that, you know, I've been spending a lot of time with mothers that have lost their children and they just want something, you know, that has their child's name on it or remember, you know, their child or whatever, or anybody that they've lost. So, you know, there'll be, there'll be opportunities to purchase, you know, apparel, there'll be opportunities to volunteer for fundraising, there'll be opportunities if you just strictly just want to donate.
And that'll all be on the website. The website is, is, is, it's very, it's in process right now. It's going to be, you know, it's, it's, it's There's a lot of nuts and bolts to it. And so it's, it's www.sunsetcowboy.org. And that should be up around Thanksgiving. We should also have the first snippet of the documentary of the backstory of the mental health and insurance by Thanksgiving. That'll be up on the website too. Everybody can go and kind of take a look at that.
Do y'all have a name for that yet? The documentary?
Can you not announce it yet?
Do you know where it's going to be available?
It's going to be available everywhere. It's going to be available on Apple TV, Hulu, Netflix. What else? It's going to be available in a lot.
And also one of the ideas that I had, I really, you know, any kind of pro bull rider out there. I wanted to make Sunset Cowboy belt buckles to give away, to get the name out there and give a donation for that. If the bull rider wins, give them Sunset Cowboy. I know it'd have to be Low Circuit or Pro Rodeo or whatever, but just to get the name out there.
So if anybody knows anybody in the rodeo circuit, we'd appreciate the help.
I don't know if you— do you know my dad was PRCA?
I didn't. Really? I know he's really cool. He has a really cool mustache.
Wow. So, I mean, yeah. I mean, he wasn't a bull rider. He was a bulldogger.
Yeah. So, yeah, we just appreciate all the love and support that people have given us to to date.
Yeah, keep sending it because we need it. Um, we're still healing. We're approaching, um, you know, the 1-year anniversary of losing CJ. Um, and we were together when we got that phone call, and we'll be together on that day too. So, um, keep sending the love, you know, try to spread the word and just, you know, click on and try to see what we're doing.
Well, and, and, and you guys, you have the podcast coming out.
Yeah, yeah, I have my podcast coming out on December the 4th. That is the day that CJ went to heaven. And so I thought that would be fitting to start telling these stories of these women that I've been kind of sitting with and these families that I've been kind of talking to over the past year and the women and what we go through as families and what we overcome and what we can overcome as— It's when you think, gosh, I don't know how I could ever get through that, but you do. You find a way to get through. And so that's coming out on December 4th, and I'm really excited about that. And you told me a long time ago to do a podcast, so I've kind of been— that's been in the
I'm happy it's happening. I'm excited for it. I'll listen to it.
Yeah. So yeah, I mean, I'm not a grieving mother, but I'll come on the show.
It's not just about that. It's just about how we're here, how we're put here to help each other. Yeah, how can we help? You know, how can, how can I help you get through this? Yeah, even if it's not— even I just need to listen to somebody, listen to you. Yeah, you know, even if it's you right now, you know, putting, using your platform.
I will tell you that the struggle for me with something like that is you feel like telling anything about that feels like bragging, right? And you don't want to— you don't like that. You never want that to be the point. I mean, for me, it's, it's, it's from an overflow of what Christ has done for me, right? You know, and, and so like, that's, that's everything that I pour back into pretty much everything that I do. And like, you— I never want to brag about that because that's not why I do it, right? You know, it's like, it's very— to me, that's precious. And I, I— it's difficult to share it as like, this is what I do. And it— because to me, it feels like,
hey, look at me, I'm doing something really good, right? And it's like, no, this— but like, because this is, this is Fractional compared to what he's done for me. Oh yes, you know, absolutely. And and so like that that's why it's difficult for me. I'm I'm like I don't want to I want to say like I won't talk about it, but like it's like I don't like it, right? You know, I I think you understand.
Well, because you're like okay, am I the chosen one to talk about it? Right. You know, yeah. But somebody has to talk about it. They have to. So right.
Maybe probably should be my wife.
It's it's funny you said you know because she's always been— my sister's always been my biggest cheerleader. You know, I forget where I came from and how far I've come. And the life I live today is unexpected.
And my story is my strength. I share it with guys at work. They know. And, you know, I lead a team of 30 guys and, you know, they know I share my experience with them. You know, I leave with my heart on my sleeve. And, you know, she'll have to reel me down a few months. She'll be like, hey, you know, 9 years ago, look where you're at.
I mean, you have a brand new vehicle. You got an amazingly beautiful wife. Yeah, you know, your sons are living with you, everything. You live in a really nice house. I try not to put a price tag on everything because my mother does it. But, uh, you know, uh, but she has—
How much you pay for that?
Well, I think it— I think is if you, if you spend time looking at what you don't have, I mean, we can find that, right? We can find all the bad and, oh, and comparison is the thief of joy. And I always tell him, you know, Where you are, where you are right now, where you've come from, you're a walking, talking miracle. And that's all to God. Everything that— why we're even sitting here, being these 2 kids from East Texas doing this stuff, is all God. Not one time in this have I ever been mad at God. There's no way I would have gotten through this without God. So I get what you're saying. It feels a little—
Yeah, it feels like, ah. But it's the truth. It's our real life. And we always say nobody can get mad at you for telling the truth. They can, but—
Is Bobby doing the podcast with you?
He's going to be on there, right?
You come on? I was going to say, if you're not, you should just do your own.
He needs to tell his story.
Yeah. Well, I do speak in front of 40, 50 people at a time. I do give my experience, strength, and hope, what it was like, what happened, and what it's like now. Because, you know, the numbers— and I do know the numbers of people who recover from what I was doing— yeah, 17%.
And everybody that I grew up with, and I talked to them, and I had to get off Facebook because they're either dead or in jail.
And I was knocking on death's door. And for me to be living, it's just like a miracle every day. Like, I don't— I don't— I can't even imagine it, you know. But I stopped. I had to stop and take a real look at myself and look at my character defects. And the, the center of myself was I was selfish, self-centered, and egotistical and all that stuff. I had to work on myself, but not anymore.
So I'm going to pitch it to you right now, dude. You could have your own podcast called Recovered.
And it's just you and somebody else that's also recovered and just have a conversation like that. That would get lit up. I'm telling you that right now. It would work. It would work. And I'm not telling you that so you would be famous, but it's so therapeutic and valuable to just be able to sit down. And I think those are the best podcasts is when someone can sit down and have a conversation with someone that's actually a genuine conversation and people that have actually gone through the muck and the mire and then come out the other side. And they didn't come out the other side clean.
They just came out the other side and made it.
You know what, you know what keeps it going for me is, is when I sponsor guys, sponsor young guys that are, they're like, okay, I just want to stay sober. Yeah. Are you willing to do whatever it takes? Okay, call me once a day. Okay, 5 days goes by, on the 6th day, don't call me. Okay, you're not serious about this. Yeah. You know what I mean? It's like, do you really want— are you ready to change?
You know what I mean? And so when I'm sitting across from them, when they realize that their whole life they were being selfish, self-centered, and egotistical, and they realize that all their problems are their own making Right. You know, the light bulb goes off, and that's the beauty of everything. When the light bulb goes off and when you help someone.
It's— man, it could be— it could be powerful and inspirational.
I'm gonna write 2 podcasts.
You should. You should. But, like, I tell that to everybody because everybody has a legit story and a gift to share in conversation with somebody. Everybody has a story. Even if they're not having conversation with— they just, you know, their own life experience is worthwhile Documenting and telling.
Yeah, it is because someone needs to hear that.
And if it's not, then not everyone's valuable, and everyone's valuable.
Well, anything else about about this this project you guys are working on?
Nope, just stay tuned. Yeah, we're gonna be.
Do you have a name for the podcast?
Oh, okay. Is it the same as the documentary then? Is that like we're right? Okay, we're just leaving people in suspense.
Well, no, it's going to be coming out soon. We just were getting the final okay on the names and all that.
So do you guys have any social media stuff around what you guys are with the Sunset Cowboy yet?
Yeah, so we have the website up for Sunset Cowboy, which is sunsetcowboy.org. And so that's in the works right now. Of course, we're going to have— we have the Facebook page.
Okay, so people can go look for that.
Okay, exactly. And so So we just kind of wanted to— this was just kind of like, hey, we're coming out.
This is what we're doing.
This is why. This is the who, what, why, where.
I've been telling a few guys at work and I'm working on something and I'll get on my TikTok and say, I've got a few things coming out with Sunset Cowboy. And we were kind of like, this was kind of like the moment that we were going to embrace the world and just tell them.
Okay. Yeah, no, I dig it.
Well, I mean, any links you guys want to send us, we'll Send us, we'll link it up in the show notes and on the website and on social as well. I mean, we're happy to put it out there to as many people as we can.
No, I think we're good. Awesome.
I really appreciate you guys sitting down and letting me have this conversation. I really love getting to hear both your stories.
Yeah. So if you guys are listening to this, you've enjoyed the program so far. Click the like, subscribe, all the things you guys do to follow us. Share it, share it, share it, share it, because this is, this is an important one to get out there. Thank you guys for following, and we'll be with you every Tuesday. Thank you.
