Behind The Brand: Blue Alpha

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign. [00:00:08] Speaker B: Life, Liberty and Equip Podcast. I'm Greg Davis, founder of NeoMag and a firm believer that life is worth living boldly. Liberty should be used for good and we all have the calling to be equipped to pursue it. Every week we explore what it means to live with intention and carry the tools and mindset that prepare us for whatever comes. We'll dive into topics around the freedoms we cherish, the gear we trust, the skills that equip us, and today, other guys that we love. This is more than a podcast, it's a mission. Life, Liberty and equipped pursue it. We're coming to you live on the NeoMag, YouTube, Instagram and Facebook accounts and we'll be pulling your live comments right into the conversation. If you're listening to the recorded podcast, we go live every Wednesday at 1pm Eastern. We'd love to have you guys join us in real time. And don't forget to join the NeoMag Insiders club. It's free to join and gives you access to exclusive episodes, special discounts, behind the scenes content and more. Just over head over to thenag.com and sign up through the pop up on our site. And while you're here, please subscribe to the channel, follow us on social and leave us a review on the podcast. It really helps more people discover what we're doing and keeps this community growing. Also hosting with me today. There's a little bit of brains, a little bit of chaos and a whole lot of laughs. It's your hosts today, Nate and Michael. We had to give Tip the boot. [00:01:22] Speaker A: We kicked him out. [00:01:23] Speaker C: He's gone. [00:01:24] Speaker B: Sorry, Tip. [00:01:25] Speaker A: Bye, Tip. We love you. [00:01:27] Speaker B: It might still be in us and with the and with us on on the comments. Comments. [00:01:34] Speaker C: Somewhere in there he said Nate kicked him out. [00:01:36] Speaker A: That's right. [00:01:37] Speaker C: Because of his accent. [00:01:38] Speaker A: That's right. We don't like his accent anymore. Get him out of here. [00:01:41] Speaker C: All right, are we ready for this? [00:01:43] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:01:43] Speaker C: All right, guys, before we get our guests on the show today, we have some special announcement. This Black Friday. This Black Friday. Black Friday sales begin this Friday for our insiders. Keep an eye out for an email and text going out with a special offer. If you're not a part of the insiders, make sure you sign up today so you don't miss out. We will continue to offer it to insiders all month long. So this is a solid deal for the insiders. Number two, our first black multicam drop unlocks this Friday, guys. This is the product that we offer this time of year. Once it's gone. It's gone. And discounts will not apply to the custom shop items like the Black Multicam all this month. Here we go. All right, let's get to our guests. [00:02:28] Speaker A: I'm gonna add them to the stage and then I'm gonna introduce him. All right, guys. Today we're proud to spotlight a name that's become synonymous with quality, craftsmanship and reliability. Blue Alpha. They were founded in 2015 and based just south of Atlanta, Georgia. Blue Alpha specializes in producing high quality belts and accessories to designed for firearm carrying and everyday use. Their products are trusted by members of the outdoor shooting, law enforcement and military communities. People who demand gear that performs when it matters most. What sets Blue Alpha apart is their commitment to practical design and precision craftsmanship through their in house cut and sewing manufacturing process. Every product they make reflects their focus on durability, comfort and value. Here at NeoMag, we've been proud partners with Blue Alpha for many years, collaborating with them on many of our soft good products. Their attention to detail and dedication to excellence have made them not just a partner, but a true friends of the brand. Today we have Jesse Fry, Curt Sills and Stephen Sargent. What's going on everybody? [00:03:31] Speaker B: Sup guys? Hello, you guys all looking great today. [00:03:38] Speaker D: Can we get a copy of that after this show? [00:03:40] Speaker E: Yeah, I feel like. And we're going to be a disappointment after that. [00:03:46] Speaker A: Absolutely. [00:03:47] Speaker B: We have pumped you up. [00:03:48] Speaker A: That's what we're here for. [00:03:50] Speaker B: Now it's up to you guys to maintain. [00:03:54] Speaker A: We did that just for you. Never again though. Only once. [00:03:59] Speaker B: So we've known you guys. I've known you guys for first and for quite a while and then these guys. [00:04:04] Speaker D: Where did we first meet? That's a good question. [00:04:07] Speaker B: Yeah. So from my memory it was at a. I think it was a. We like shooting events. I think at like an NRA or shot show or something like that. [00:04:17] Speaker D: Indianapolis. [00:04:18] Speaker B: Indianapolis I think, I think it was. [00:04:20] Speaker D: Indianapolis, I think. [00:04:23] Speaker B: I think it was. John might have introduced us. John Patton, I think actually might have done the intro. Yeah, that would have been. I mean I think I just. That was probably 2016 or something. It was long time ago. I think we were. Yeah, we were both newly. Newly. We were nudes. Created. We were nudes. [00:04:45] Speaker C: Yeah, nudes. [00:04:46] Speaker A: Nudes. [00:04:47] Speaker D: Noobs. [00:04:50] Speaker A: I mean whatever. Whatever rolls, however, whatever floats your boat. Jesse. Whatever. [00:04:54] Speaker D: Whatever happens. [00:04:55] Speaker B: And I think technically I've actually known Steven longer. I don't know where he just went. [00:04:59] Speaker A: Steven's in and out. We don't know. [00:05:01] Speaker B: Where'd you go? [00:05:06] Speaker C: No, he's here and there. [00:05:08] Speaker A: Steven. [00:05:09] Speaker B: I can't hear him. Can you guys hear him? [00:05:11] Speaker D: You guys can't hear him now? [00:05:13] Speaker B: Nope. Oh, my gosh. [00:05:15] Speaker A: This is the worst. [00:05:15] Speaker B: We're having some audio issues. [00:05:19] Speaker A: I'm about to. [00:05:20] Speaker F: Hold on. [00:05:21] Speaker E: Steven, talk. [00:05:24] Speaker F: Okay. [00:05:25] Speaker E: Can you hear him? [00:05:26] Speaker B: No, we can't hear him. [00:05:27] Speaker A: Son of a gun. [00:05:29] Speaker B: All right, so there he is. [00:05:30] Speaker C: He's back. [00:05:33] Speaker B: Sorry. Nope, I still can't hear him. I can't hear him. Tip says they can hear him. [00:05:38] Speaker A: That's fun. [00:05:39] Speaker B: It's not weird at all. So I've actually. I think I actually known Steven even longer from his Instagram. And then we had met. We sat next to each other, I think at a. At a. He's probably telling me, and I can't hear him. It was that. It was at. John Patton used to do like a. Like a panel, and we were there at the same time. I have a picture somewhere. Stephen was wearing, like, very short salmon shorts. [00:06:07] Speaker E: I'll never forget. Yeah. And that was definitely him. [00:06:10] Speaker D: They probably sound Steven for sure. [00:06:12] Speaker B: They probably actually weren't all that short. It's just he's so tall that they look that short. [00:06:16] Speaker E: It's probably a little of both. [00:06:17] Speaker B: A little bit both. [00:06:18] Speaker C: But the best part is he's. He's on, but we can't hear him. So he has his whole team. [00:06:22] Speaker B: I think he's gone now. [00:06:23] Speaker E: Talking back. [00:06:24] Speaker B: He's. [00:06:25] Speaker D: He's coming back in. [00:06:26] Speaker F: Yeah. [00:06:26] Speaker E: I'll speak on his behalf. I'm comfortable doing that. [00:06:31] Speaker C: It's gonna be a fun show. [00:06:32] Speaker B: Probably more fun that way. [00:06:34] Speaker A: Hey, there he is. [00:06:37] Speaker F: Don't get a phone call while you're on this thing, apparently. [00:06:39] Speaker B: No. Yeah. [00:06:40] Speaker F: Even if you ignore it. [00:06:45] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:06:45] Speaker F: I didn't hear what you said, but yes, it's probably the answer. We've known each other for a long time. [00:06:49] Speaker B: Yeah. I was saying I have a picture of you, of you and I together somewhere. You're wearing very short salmon colored shorts. [00:06:55] Speaker F: That was nra. [00:06:58] Speaker B: Yeah, I think it was nra because John Patton used to do like a. Like a panel. [00:07:04] Speaker E: That's probably the Atlanta one. Maybe 2019. I think that was. [00:07:07] Speaker F: No, it wasn't 2019. [00:07:08] Speaker B: It's got to be earlier than that. Yeah. Was it? [00:07:11] Speaker A: Okay, All I'm saying is all shorts are short on Stephen. He's seven feet tall. [00:07:14] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:07:14] Speaker F: So, yeah. Yeah. [00:07:17] Speaker E: 612. [00:07:17] Speaker F: 612. [00:07:18] Speaker B: 6 12. All right. So, yeah, so we have a handful of questions here just to kind of get to know you guys first, for people who don't know you as well as we do, actually. There's a few things. I think we're going to learn some new things about you guys here. [00:07:33] Speaker C: Yeah, for sure. All right, guys, so the first one I'm going to start out with is where are each of you from and how did you end up in Georgia? [00:07:43] Speaker F: Yeah. [00:07:43] Speaker E: Okay, I'll start. I'm originally from near Grand Rapids, Michigan. So west Michigan. I'm a fellow northern guy. And historically, the people of Michigan and the people of Ohio do not get along, but we've managed to. To make do. [00:08:00] Speaker A: Michigan is a superior state. I will say that. [00:08:02] Speaker B: 100 you found guys your folks. [00:08:05] Speaker A: I'll say it. I don't care. [00:08:07] Speaker B: You found guys that could care less about. About college football. 100 that's the only thing that people actually care about. [00:08:13] Speaker E: Yeah, but. Yeah, I mean, this is something that me and Steven and Jesse all have in common, and you'll hear it in a second. But I ended up in Atlanta to work for Delta Airlines because I was an aircraft mechanic. And so all roads led to Delta Airlines. And that's kind of how we got to know each other. [00:08:40] Speaker B: Nice. So what did you guys kind of answer for you guys or do you guys want to have anything you want to know? [00:08:46] Speaker D: I mean, I can answer for myself, I suppose. [00:08:49] Speaker C: Sure. [00:08:50] Speaker D: So I'm originally from a small town called Port Orchard, Washington, which is near Seattle. And I originally came down here in 2005 to serve a mission for my church for two years. And then I moved back and then I moved back to Georgia again to marry my wife. And then I too got a job at Delta Airlines and worked there for nine and a half years. And yeah, that's where I'm at. [00:09:25] Speaker B: Nice. And Steven, were you a Delta guy? I don't remember. [00:09:28] Speaker F: Yes, I was. My origins were a little easier. I just started here. But yes, you know, Delta Airlines, talking to strangers on the Internet. And then, you know, here we are. And that's how me and Kurt met. [00:09:40] Speaker E: So, yeah, sometimes it pays to talk to strangers on the Internet. [00:09:44] Speaker F: Yeah. And then talking to Kurt, I met Jesse. And so, you know, luckily my job at Delta at the time required very little of me, so I just hung. [00:09:51] Speaker A: Out and spent time with them. You mean throwing bags into planes didn't require much work? [00:09:56] Speaker F: Well, so I originally started with that and then I went to be work at the fuel farm. So we were. I was working with the fuel farm and then the inoperative fuel gauges on the aircraft. Thankfully, Delta's maintenance is pretty good, so we don't have that many broken ones. So, you know, in my six hours of downtime, I would go hang out with them. [00:10:17] Speaker A: Nice. [00:10:17] Speaker D: We actually spent, I don't know, maybe more than 30 minutes talking about the MD11 crash this morning. [00:10:24] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:10:24] Speaker C: Oh, wow. [00:10:25] Speaker F: Yeah. [00:10:25] Speaker E: You guys see that? [00:10:26] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:10:26] Speaker F: That's crazy. Yeah. [00:10:27] Speaker A: A hundred percent terrifying, actually. [00:10:31] Speaker B: Yeah. So what's something that you guys enjoy doing when you're not at work? [00:10:40] Speaker E: So I am. I'm the nature nerd, I guess. I spend a lot of. I enjoy native habitats and trees and flowers and stuff like that. So I'm a. A bit strange in that sense. But when I'm not involved in the business and gun stuff, I'm doing nerd stuff, basically. [00:11:05] Speaker B: See like, like bird watching and. Well, yeah. [00:11:08] Speaker E: Yeah. [00:11:08] Speaker F: When you came down for the tour, you know, if you take a tour with me on the Property, takes about 15 minutes. Kurt's gonna give you the two hour one. Yeah. And show. [00:11:15] Speaker E: We're gonna look at all the mushrooms and flowers. [00:11:17] Speaker F: Yeah. [00:11:18] Speaker A: Well, it's fun though, because then, you know, all of the variety of. Of tree and all of its different variants on the property. [00:11:25] Speaker B: Yep. [00:11:26] Speaker E: Yeah, that's kind of where it started, was we bought some land and then I decided that I had to obsessively figure out what everything was. [00:11:33] Speaker B: So now you know which mushrooms to make Stephen eat for a good time. [00:11:38] Speaker D: Yeah, he's cooked. He's cooked us mushrooms before here at work. [00:11:43] Speaker B: That's the thing, I'm sure. [00:11:44] Speaker D: I think we ate like lion's mane here. [00:11:46] Speaker C: Oh, there you go. [00:11:48] Speaker A: Good for you. [00:11:50] Speaker B: Some morels. You guys got those down there? Nope, I'm out Like this too. [00:11:54] Speaker A: I'm out. [00:11:56] Speaker D: Oh, you still like mushrooms, huh? [00:11:58] Speaker A: No mushrooms? No, gross. Get out of here. [00:12:01] Speaker F: We talking about the. The mushroom thing. What do I like to do? [00:12:04] Speaker B: Yeah, what do you like to do besides mushrooms? Besides mushrooms, what do you like to do? [00:12:09] Speaker F: I'm a. Honestly, I really enjoy fishing. You know, we just move some on. [00:12:13] Speaker A: A. Oh, we're still here. We're still here. No camera just died. Hold on, we'll fix it. But you keep talking. [00:12:23] Speaker F: No, I really enjoy fishing. Just moved to a property that's got some water. So it's really nice just being able to walk down 20, 30 minutes, do some fishing, and then because I am right near the blue off property, getting back into hunting has been, you know, really nice. [00:12:35] Speaker A: So now when you're hunting, Stephen, are you bow hunting or are you gun hunting? [00:12:39] Speaker F: Oh, gun hunting. [00:12:40] Speaker A: Okay. [00:12:41] Speaker F: Some of the shots that you can take on the property are 3, 400 yards. [00:12:46] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:12:47] Speaker B: So that's a good size deer down there for Georgia. [00:12:51] Speaker F: Yeah, yeah. [00:12:52] Speaker B: Yeah. It's. [00:12:53] Speaker F: They're. They're. They're not the hardy ones that you'll find, you know, Midwest, up north, you know. [00:12:57] Speaker B: Right. [00:12:58] Speaker F: But yes, it's not terrible. [00:13:00] Speaker B: How about birds? Any birds out there? [00:13:01] Speaker A: Hunt. [00:13:03] Speaker F: Lots of turkey. [00:13:04] Speaker B: Okay. Yeah. [00:13:05] Speaker F: Lots of turkey out on the property. So. [00:13:08] Speaker B: Yeah, I actually. So when we were down there last summer, we did a little night vision fishing. That was the same. Same spot, right? [00:13:15] Speaker F: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we finally built a house out there and did all that, so. [00:13:20] Speaker B: That's awesome. Nice. [00:13:21] Speaker F: Yeah. Yeah, we're excited. [00:13:22] Speaker B: That's a cool spot. I didn't catch anything. I caught a lot of weeds. [00:13:25] Speaker C: I didn't catch anything. No. But the. The ride on the. The bike under Nods and then fishing under Nods was a blast. [00:13:32] Speaker B: That was a good time. [00:13:33] Speaker F: Yeah. I mean, yeah. It's called fishing, not catching, so. [00:13:36] Speaker B: Right. [00:13:39] Speaker A: Jesse, how about you? What do you. What do you like to do in your spare time? [00:13:43] Speaker D: So a lot of times I. I think I enjoy, like, just sitting around a fire mostly. I mean, that's one of my favorite things, is just going out to the farm. [00:13:52] Speaker E: He's an arsonist. That's what he's trying to tell. He goes out when he starts fires. [00:13:57] Speaker D: Cooking hamburgers and stuff like that. Hanging out with people. [00:14:00] Speaker F: I don't know. [00:14:02] Speaker B: Oh. [00:14:02] Speaker F: To be honest, his bigger thing, he likes movies. He might be close to, like a cinephile, like he is. He loves movies. [00:14:09] Speaker D: I do like movies. [00:14:10] Speaker B: It's true. [00:14:10] Speaker D: I. I'm. I'm frequently astonished at how little people have watched. [00:14:15] Speaker B: Yeah. If. If Tip were still here, you would be disgusting. You'd be so, like every. I can name them. I can quote the most famous movie lines and he'll be like, I have no idea what that is. [00:14:27] Speaker A: He's very sad. [00:14:28] Speaker B: He's the opposite. It's very. [00:14:29] Speaker D: It's very disappointing. My flux capacitor references don't go well at the high school here, apparently. [00:14:38] Speaker A: Well, that. So I hate to tell you, Jesse, that one does make sense. [00:14:41] Speaker B: That's a little. [00:14:42] Speaker A: That one tracks. [00:14:43] Speaker D: No, I don't think it. I don't think it does. It shouldn't track. There's a lot of really, really good stories and lessons learned from Back to the Future. Just saying. [00:14:54] Speaker A: I'm not arguing that it's not a fantastic movie and that everyone should see it. I'm just saying that it tracks that the Ivy acqu wouldn't know. [00:15:01] Speaker C: It should require. [00:15:02] Speaker B: So I just seen on the track of. Of of those movies, which one is your favorite? Of. [00:15:09] Speaker D: I mean, Back to the Future is my favorite. [00:15:10] Speaker B: Yeah, but, like, which one of that series? [00:15:13] Speaker D: Yeah, man, the first one's hard to beat. But I. I think if I was to order them and what I like the most, it'd be the first, third, and second. [00:15:21] Speaker F: Oh, really? [00:15:22] Speaker B: You're going third? [00:15:23] Speaker A: Yeah, I would say I'd go two. [00:15:25] Speaker B: I'm going two, one, three. [00:15:27] Speaker D: Although there is kind of a. An interesting thought about the third one, and that is, you know, they had two deloreans in the third movie, but they don't really show them together. Does that make sense? Yeah, like. And I don't know. [00:15:50] Speaker A: Why? [00:15:52] Speaker B: Well, I mean, he just showed up. [00:15:53] Speaker D: There in a DeLorean, and then. Yeah, that's back there in the DeLorean. [00:15:58] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:15:58] Speaker D: You think that they could have just, like, combined parts and made it work. [00:16:02] Speaker F: But. [00:16:05] Speaker E: Let'S get to an important topic, which is, of the three Ninja Turtle movies, why is Secret of the Use the best one? I mean, right, guys? [00:16:14] Speaker F: Oh, man. Right. [00:16:15] Speaker E: Just me. [00:16:17] Speaker D: I feel like you had to look that up. Yeah. [00:16:20] Speaker F: I'm not gonna say. I don't know if I could have told you there was three. Yeah. [00:16:24] Speaker A: The third one is garbage. Don't watch the third one. The third one is awesome. [00:16:27] Speaker E: They go back in time to Japan. [00:16:29] Speaker A: Yeah. And it's not good. It's really not that good. No, it's not the secret of the use the second one, Kurt. [00:16:35] Speaker E: Yeah, it is. [00:16:36] Speaker A: Yeah, that's the one that's not good. The second one's not good either. [00:16:40] Speaker E: They're arguably all not good, but they're important. [00:16:42] Speaker A: Excuse me. [00:16:43] Speaker B: Excuse me. [00:16:44] Speaker A: The first one is fantastic. Tib came into the comments, said he has better things to do. I respectfully disagree with you, Tip. You do not have better things to do than watch movies. [00:16:52] Speaker B: It's wrong. Yeah, I had to. [00:16:54] Speaker D: Movies are great. [00:16:55] Speaker B: I actually, like, I pulled rank. I said, as your boss, I need you to go watch all the James Bond movies because I'm a huge. I love the movies, which. [00:17:04] Speaker F: Okay, you're talking my language now. [00:17:08] Speaker D: Who is the best James Bond? [00:17:12] Speaker F: There's really only one answer, but you can go ahead. [00:17:15] Speaker B: I like Craig. He's my favorite of them all. [00:17:18] Speaker A: Steven. [00:17:19] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:17:20] Speaker A: Sean Connery. [00:17:21] Speaker F: Without. Without a doubt. [00:17:22] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:17:22] Speaker D: Yeah, Sean Connery. [00:17:23] Speaker B: I get it. [00:17:24] Speaker D: For Sean Connery. [00:17:25] Speaker B: I get it. I totally get it. [00:17:27] Speaker F: There's just something, like. [00:17:29] Speaker B: I get it. [00:17:30] Speaker F: What I really love about the older movies is just the, like, special effects and, like, the way they tried to do, like, it's just. I don't know why I love these older ones. It's just. Yeah, I mean, it's. [00:17:43] Speaker B: It's. [00:17:44] Speaker F: There's just something about them. The way they tried to do special effects and just everything about it. It's fantastic. [00:17:49] Speaker B: Yeah, they're all great. That's why I ordered him to watch them. But there's. I. The latest series, I just loved. I think the last. The last movie the series was. Was perfection. I loved. I loved it. [00:18:01] Speaker F: No, I did. I did like that one a lot. I think the. The first. I think Spectre was probably of the newer ones. That one was probably my favorite. [00:18:14] Speaker B: Yeah, that was really good. [00:18:16] Speaker D: Dan Steele and I watched Top Gun Maverick together. It was pretty cool. [00:18:20] Speaker B: That's a good movie. [00:18:21] Speaker D: That was a moment he and I share. [00:18:23] Speaker A: Yeah, that's a good moment to share. [00:18:25] Speaker F: Yeah, it is. It was great. [00:18:26] Speaker D: Great. [00:18:28] Speaker F: You know, up and up until Janet cried when Tom Cruise got shot down. You know, it was great. [00:18:35] Speaker D: She's like, did he really die? [00:18:36] Speaker F: I was like, I don't know. [00:18:37] Speaker A: I don't know. I'm also sitting here watching the movie with you, so I don't know what happened. Dan from North Coast Ethnol said that Brosnan is the best. And, Dan, I want you to leave the comments and just go away, because Pierce Brosnan should never have been James Bond and should just. Those movies should go away forever. [00:18:55] Speaker B: My least favorite. [00:18:58] Speaker C: That's funny. [00:18:58] Speaker A: All right, I guess it's my turn. [00:19:00] Speaker D: That one was done for the ladies. [00:19:01] Speaker E: That's all. [00:19:02] Speaker A: That's it. They're not good. [00:19:04] Speaker D: That's it. Yeah. [00:19:05] Speaker A: All right, so for each of you, what are your responsibilities within Blue Alpha at this time, and how have those responsibilities changed over time? [00:19:15] Speaker E: Tracy, you go first. Oh, gosh. [00:19:19] Speaker D: Love this. I would say that my responsibilities aren't well defined. It really depends on what's happening. So do you see this screen right here? This is. This is a little dumpster, and it says emotional support. Dumpster fire. It's fine. I'm fine. Everything's fine. I put out fires a lot, and they happen frequently, so it's a thing. But, I mean, I think my primary responsibilities lie in production and basically operations, I would say. So it kind of just depends. I'm all over the place and then nowhere sometimes. So it. I fall in line with whatever I feel like needs to be done. [00:20:15] Speaker B: So somebody has to. Has to be the one to hop around and jump in whatever dumpster needs to be jumped in. [00:20:21] Speaker D: So, yeah, literally last week, I was sewing BRB pouches. So right like, and training people on new things, stuff like that. [00:20:31] Speaker A: So I feel that. [00:20:33] Speaker B: Yep. I got somebody that can do everything. [00:20:36] Speaker D: Yeah. Except for marketing. I don't really like marketing. [00:20:40] Speaker A: Don't like being in front of a camera. [00:20:43] Speaker D: I don't like it. [00:20:44] Speaker B: No. I don't know. With that. With that face and that beard. [00:20:47] Speaker C: You were. [00:20:47] Speaker A: Say, you got the look now, dude. [00:20:49] Speaker C: You got the look. [00:20:49] Speaker D: Oh, boy. Yeah, well, it's not a big boy beard. That's why I have to kind of keep. Stay back here, you know? [00:20:55] Speaker B: You've lost weight. You got jacked. [00:20:57] Speaker D: Yeah, well, I'm not jacked, but I like to eat still, so it's a. It's a thing. Turns out, like, if you eat too many calories, you put it in the belly bank. [00:21:09] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:21:13] Speaker A: So, Stephen, what about you? [00:21:16] Speaker F: So I do a lot of the product development. The head product developer here, we have another guy, Chris, that works with me, and then I do a lot of the. The social media on camera. And if you want to pick a fight on Instagram, it'll probably be with me. [00:21:31] Speaker E: So, yeah, if you. [00:21:34] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:21:34] Speaker E: If you successfully upset someone on our Instagram account, it's Stephen. [00:21:41] Speaker D: What's funny is, like, her. And I will hear about it too, in person. [00:21:45] Speaker E: Yeah. [00:21:48] Speaker A: I just call Stephen out directly on Instagram normally if I'm coming into your comments, so. [00:21:53] Speaker F: Well, that's the thing. I run. I have mine. And then I also do the Balafa side. So I know if anything I can make it look like two people are mad at you. [00:22:04] Speaker A: Like, in the most recent removal of Tropic Multicam, I just called you directly out. So, you know. [00:22:10] Speaker F: I know, I know. That was. I mean, you hate to see it. You really do. [00:22:13] Speaker A: I just threw you into the bus. It's fine. [00:22:15] Speaker F: Well, you know, wait till you find out when Aaron's gonna be around the corner, too. [00:22:17] Speaker A: Don't do that to me. [00:22:19] Speaker F: I know. It's. [00:22:20] Speaker C: It's. [00:22:21] Speaker F: It's one of my favorites. [00:22:22] Speaker A: You and I have to talk about that. [00:22:24] Speaker F: However, it is one of the worst performers we have. [00:22:27] Speaker A: Not a surprise, unfortunately. [00:22:28] Speaker F: Yeah, I know it sucks. You hate to see it. Yeah. [00:22:31] Speaker A: Tip says you're mean. [00:22:32] Speaker E: Everyone loves the finer things in life. [00:22:34] Speaker A: That's true. [00:22:35] Speaker F: Yeah. Somehow Australian Multi Cam outperforms both of those. [00:22:37] Speaker A: Are you serious? [00:22:39] Speaker F: Yep. [00:22:39] Speaker A: That's super good. [00:22:40] Speaker F: At least from the last time I checked. It did. [00:22:42] Speaker A: That is not. That is truly unfortunate. [00:22:46] Speaker E: Truly. [00:22:47] Speaker D: But really, no one wants to really face the reality that black. So, like, if we only sold black things, like, you'd be fine. [00:22:54] Speaker F: We'd still be. [00:22:55] Speaker D: We'd still be selling like 70 of everything that we're selling. [00:22:59] Speaker A: That's true. [00:23:00] Speaker B: Yep. [00:23:01] Speaker A: It's accurate. [00:23:02] Speaker F: Your guess is what are the top three colors in order? [00:23:07] Speaker A: I would go black. [00:23:11] Speaker D: That's true. [00:23:12] Speaker F: Green. Black was a gimme. We told you. [00:23:15] Speaker A: Oh, no, I know. But black, Ranger green, you get one. And then gray for you. [00:23:21] Speaker F: Gray, man. Black Ranger Multicam. [00:23:25] Speaker E: Gray is. [00:23:28] Speaker F: Gray is holding on a little bit better than they read. [00:23:30] Speaker E: And gray is on your chin. [00:23:33] Speaker A: No, this is just straight white, Kurt. Just straight white, buddy. That's it. [00:23:37] Speaker B: Well, I feel like you guys set us up for that because I want two patches there. @ one point you told us that gray was like your third best moving. [00:23:44] Speaker A: That is actually what Patty told me. I will be honest. [00:23:49] Speaker F: Okay, so for webbing EDC belts. [00:23:51] Speaker B: Yes. [00:23:52] Speaker F: For battle belts and battle and like the accessory line of things. [00:23:56] Speaker E: No. [00:23:58] Speaker F: Yeah, no. [00:23:58] Speaker B: Well, you did. That's why I was so. I think Nate gets the win. Good job, buddy. [00:24:02] Speaker A: Thanks, bud. But Ranger Green is in the top three. [00:24:07] Speaker F: Ranger Green's number two. [00:24:08] Speaker A: Okay, I was right on that one. [00:24:10] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:24:10] Speaker F: I'm talking about battle belts and accessories and stuff like that, you know, I. [00:24:15] Speaker A: Mean, it doesn't surprise me with Ranger Green. I mean, I assume a lot of the departments are probably picking up Ranger Green from you guys, right? [00:24:20] Speaker F: Yeah, yeah. Greens. Greens, you know, the second biggest for law enforcement. [00:24:25] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:24:25] Speaker A: Makes sense. [00:24:26] Speaker B: How about you, Kurt? [00:24:29] Speaker E: So I deal with a lot of the social media and marketing as well, but I'm kind of. I'm doing more behind the scenes stuff since Stephen is, you know, so handsome. He is becoming our. Our main male model for videos and for photos. [00:24:48] Speaker D: So when we're gonna start coming out with underwear. Ranger panties. [00:24:55] Speaker E: But. But yeah, I. I would say, like, Jesse deals with a lot of the internal stuff and I deal with a lot of the external stuff. So I deal with, you know, how we are perceived overall, and that's marketing, customer service. But I also put a lot of work into trying to just be present on the Internet, answering questions on Reddit Facebook groups, trying to make it so that if. If anyone out there has questions or needs help about a Blue Alpha product or something related to us, that we make ourselves available and just try and make sure that our customers are served well wherever they are. So, yeah, it's kind of a strange thing to scroll Reddit a whole bunch and just show up in the comments as the official business account answering people's questions. But people love it when they can get their questions answered directly. [00:25:53] Speaker B: Yeah, I was going to ask you how you deal with the cesspool of Reddit. I've tried and I ran away and I. Yeah, but it's a scary place. But the thing is now when you Google questions and stuff like that, like, the Reddit threads are some of the first things that come up in search results, so it's becoming more and more important to do. I should probably hop back in there. [00:26:17] Speaker E: Yeah, or I'll make Michael do it. When people are complaining about the tall guy yelling at everyone and social media on Reddit, I have to go in there and make sure that, like, okay, so everything's okay. [00:26:30] Speaker C: Me and Steven will get along just fine then. Because I'm the one that's going to respond on NeoMag. And then there's going to be cleanup from the rest of the crew. [00:26:40] Speaker A: There are, there are stupid questions. [00:26:41] Speaker F: We don't have to put it out. We just start. [00:26:44] Speaker A: There are stupid questions I try to preemptively answer sometimes on YouTube. It's not from a official account, but there are some. I know where this is going to go. I'll just try and answer it before somebody else. [00:26:54] Speaker C: It's great. It's great. We, we had one that me and Nate were looking at this morning, and all we did was encourage a video. It was like, we'll do a video, you do a video, let's do data. And the guy was just like, just take the loss. [00:27:06] Speaker A: It's like, no, you're wrong. [00:27:07] Speaker F: All right. [00:27:08] Speaker A: You're not correct. [00:27:08] Speaker C: It's because you have your shirt tucked in concealed carrier. [00:27:11] Speaker E: That's wrong. [00:27:12] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [00:27:12] Speaker E: I mean, like, what, what you, like what you think is totally impossible is possible in the comments and questions and like, the stuff people say on the comments on Facebook ads and on our YouTube videos. [00:27:27] Speaker B: And it's just, it's amazing. It's just. Yeah, it's amazing the things that people think of to say. [00:27:35] Speaker E: Just like, but like, the, the good news is like, they still are the minority of people. Like, they're the most people are competent, oxygen breathing human beings who, you know, appreciate what we do and, you know, have some common sense, but, you know, customer service. And I said this to Stephen recently that like, you know, 2% of the people end up getting 80% of the effort and it's just the way it is. [00:28:03] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:28:03] Speaker F: Yeah. [00:28:04] Speaker A: The benefit of that 2% getting 80% of the effort, though, is that hopefully the rest of everyone else sees them getting the effort, especially if it's truly, you know, good effort. And they'll, they will spread that good news, even if they don't say it in a place you can see it, they'll spread that good news for you. So, I mean, it's just another form of advertising for you. [00:28:25] Speaker B: That's why, you know, if I, if I answer one of the trolls, I don't really care about actually answering the troll. I care about all the people that see that answer to that troll. I could care less about trying to convert this idiot, more about the smart people seeing this comment and going, oh. [00:28:40] Speaker E: And that's, you know, that's, that's standard, like debate stuff. Like even in like a public open forum debate, like you're not trying to convince the person you're debating against, you're trying to convince the audience that's watching the debate. [00:28:52] Speaker F: Right. [00:28:52] Speaker E: And Reddit is a place, one of the main places that happens. But you know, YouTube and Facebook are important places as well. And even just some of like the real passionate hobby groups on Facebook where people are, you know, they're, this group is based on some very niche thing and I try to, I get, you know, they call me in there, join the group and I started answering questions and helping people out. [00:29:15] Speaker B: That's cool because that is basically, that's a full time job, so. [00:29:19] Speaker C: Full time. [00:29:20] Speaker F: Yeah. [00:29:21] Speaker B: So you guys each have a family. What's been the most challenging part of running and being part of this, of this business and what's been one of the biggest blessings in that as well? [00:29:34] Speaker E: Yeah, I mean, obviously like running a business is, is challenging. And you know, you learn terms like work, life, balance, they become like something you think about a lot. And like you have, when you run a business, you have independence and the freedom to choose what you do and how you spend your time. And it can be a double edged sword because you can choose to stay home or do more stuff with the family or you can choose to go to work. And you know, back when I had a, an hourly job, you know, my boss was the person who decided when I had to be there and what I had to do. So anytime, you know, I had to go to work, it was, you know, it's my boss's fault. But now that I'm, I was his boss for like six years. Yes, he was. But now, but now if I'm making the decision, then, then it's my fault that I'm at work so much. But like, because you have the independence, like if you do your, if you do the right things and you're efficient, you have the ability to be flexible and have that freedom. And so that Is the. The main benefit is the ability to spend more time with family or have the ability to. Most of the time, not all the time. [00:30:55] Speaker F: Yeah. [00:30:56] Speaker E: And the freedom and, you know, independence that comes with that, and that's. That at our. At Blue Alpha, that kind of goes from the top down. So we have a unique structure in which all of our employees can come and go as they please, and they make their own hours. And, you know, the time clock is their boss, in a sense, is the time clock decides when they get paid and when they don't by punching in and punching out. So. So someone like Steven, he also can, you know, he's. He has that same flexibility. We just all have to make sure that we get our work done because we have a responsibility to each other to try and not let each other down. [00:31:37] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:31:40] Speaker F: Honestly, I think for me, the thing that's been the most challenging, I think it's, you know, it's, you know, as we get more into social media and everything else, my daughter knows that, like, you know, I. I'm on. She can see me on YouTube. She can see me on Instagram and stuff like that. And it's. At one point she asked me if I was a YouTuber, and I was like, absolutely not. [00:32:04] Speaker D: I just. [00:32:04] Speaker F: I just, you know, videos that I make get posted there. But just convincing them that it's just like, that's. That's not a life that you want, or at least not a life that I want for her is to be, you know, just constantly sucked in on social media. Even though I am involved a lot in it, it's just. And I think that's just that struggle of, you know, because she watches YouTube and stuff like that, and it's just, you know, she sees me on there and on Instagram and stuff like. Like, she doesn't have those accounts, but she can see me on there and stuff like that. And it's just, you know, finding that balance of, like, yes, I do this, but, like, that's not a goal I want you to strive for, you know. [00:32:44] Speaker A: Right. [00:32:44] Speaker F: So. But, yeah, that's just been the biggest one for me, my family for that, because, you know, me and my wife both work here, and so, you know, we're very immersed in Blue Alpha, you know, but it's just. Yeah, the social media aspect of things is the biggest thing for us. [00:33:01] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, it's hard. It's hard not to get. I mean, even. I'm not even involved directly in our social media beyond. You know, when Michael puts me in front of a camera or, you know, has my. My socials collaborate on a post, per se. But, like, it's hard not to get sucked in sometimes to that stuff. Like, it is difficult not to get sucked into it and get involved in that kind of stuff. So it. It's definitely. What's that? Oh, we're still here. [00:33:29] Speaker F: Your camera went out again. [00:33:31] Speaker B: We're frozen, so we're trying to get. [00:33:32] Speaker A: It to unfreeze anyways. I mean, but it's hard. It's really hard not to get sucked into that and. Because every once in a while, like, looks like we're back, Mike. [00:33:44] Speaker F: Yep. [00:33:45] Speaker A: You know, my son likes to watch YouTube videos and that kind of stuff at seven, you know, I mean, with us, but our stuff will pop up and like, oh, dad, you're in this video. I'm like, yeah, we don't want to watch it. [00:33:54] Speaker B: Like, and my kids see me in ads all the time. [00:33:56] Speaker A: Yeah, it's like, keep moving. [00:33:57] Speaker B: At this point. They just. They just. They've seen them all. [00:34:00] Speaker F: Honestly, one of the. One of the. One of the weirdest things is getting people like Ian, a former big tech, will. Will send me, you know, videos of, like, an ad. He's watching a video and it's like. And it's me on the thing, and I don't know why. That is still, like, the weirdest thing to me. Yeah. My friends all the way on the other side of the country is like, I'm watching an ad of you right now. And I was like, please don't. [00:34:24] Speaker C: That's when you travel too, I imagine, when you know your. Your company and those advertisements are being seen by the masses and having complete strangers come up to you like they know you based off of a video that they've seen on the interwebs. [00:34:37] Speaker F: Yeah, thankfully. Yeah, that's. That's happened a couple times. It's not, you know, we're not big enough where, you know, you're getting recognized everywhere. But that has happened a couple times. And it is. It is a very odd experience. It's, you know, it's a humbling experience. [00:34:48] Speaker A: Great. [00:34:49] Speaker F: You know that there's people out there that, you know, are watching our content and enjoy it. You know, it's never been a negative thing. It's a positive, but it's just like. It is a weird experience having a stranger be like, I know who you are. [00:35:01] Speaker B: It's pretty rare when it happens, but yeah, when it does, I. Can you just see it coming because it'll just. Somebody that I don't know, and they'll Just be staring at me. Yeah. Be kind of like that. [00:35:12] Speaker F: It's either like they're gonna. They're gonna say something. You're really tall. And I'm like, you are very observant individual. Or, you know, something like that. [00:35:21] Speaker C: He's waiting for the response. [00:35:22] Speaker F: Yeah. [00:35:24] Speaker B: Did you used to have some, like. Like, little business card things that's like, yes, I'm tall and. Or, yeah. Remember that? [00:35:30] Speaker F: Yeah. [00:35:30] Speaker B: Yeah, Those are funny. How about you, Jesse? You have anything you want to add to that? [00:35:38] Speaker D: I think the challenge that I have is knowing when to stop and go home because I have a tendency to, like, push the limits. I'm just kind of like, oh, I want to get this done. Let me get it done. And it's like, oh, man, it's like 7pm I probably should go home. [00:35:59] Speaker F: And Jesse is the worst of all of us when it comes to that. [00:36:04] Speaker D: So I've worked on it a lot more lately. I'm probably not as bad as I used to be, because there's not as. Frankly, there's not as much for me to do, which sometimes may sound like a bad thing, but for me, it's actually a good thing. A lot of the things that I've been doing over the years, like with what Steven's doing, and we have an engineer and even some management, it's good because it gets done and it doesn't involve me anymore. And I think the challenge I've had also is just removing myself from the operation as much as possible so that I can work on the business and not inside of it and becoming a cog inside the machine, because you can really get lost quick. But I would agree and echo the sentiments Kurt has about just being able to come and go when and where needed. My daughter is in her high school theater club, and she was in the wizard of Oz recently, and she was the Wicked Witch, and she did a really good job. It was impressive. And, you know, they did, like, two showings, but Jana and I went to both, so it was kind of fun. And I don't know that if I had different work life, if I would have that opportunity to do that. I know Kurt and I, for years didn't have weekends off. You know, it was hard to go to church. Lots of different things. So I would say a net positive overall. The. The bigger thing that I have to control now is myself and when to call it for the day. [00:37:59] Speaker F: His daughter was actually really good. That wasn't just a father's love saying that one. She actually was very impressive in that Play Awesome. [00:38:05] Speaker B: I could see her being really good. [00:38:09] Speaker D: She turned it up to a different level. I just was kind of like. I was floored. I think Steven was floored. Anyone that knew her was like, what? [00:38:17] Speaker F: Yeah, it was. It was impressive. [00:38:19] Speaker B: So that's awesome. It's cool to watch that stuff because it only happens once or twice. You know, just the season is very short, so it's important to be there for that stuff. [00:38:31] Speaker A: All right, a little different question. So the group of us have had some dinner at some amazing places in Vegas for the last few years. Between the steak that we had or the sushi place, which one would you go back to first? [00:38:47] Speaker F: I think the sushi place was the best. The quality and everything was fantastic. But, like, the steak, obviously, you're gonna leave Fuller. But even that. All that being said, I think I would do the sushi again. That place was just, hands down, probably one of the best sushi restaurants I've ever been to. [00:39:04] Speaker E: I'm going with. Was it Delmonico's? [00:39:08] Speaker F: I remember. [00:39:09] Speaker E: I think there was a creme brulee there. [00:39:10] Speaker F: That. [00:39:13] Speaker E: That's what I'm picturing, actually. [00:39:15] Speaker A: It's funny that the thing that you is not actually the meal, it's just the dessert is the thing that's bringing you back. Yeah, that's a very. [00:39:21] Speaker E: I'm a dessert guy. I can't help it. [00:39:23] Speaker A: If Tib was still here or if he's in the comments, he would agree with you. That's. He's a dessert first man. That's what he would prefer. [00:39:30] Speaker D: Oh, I remember that about tip. He would do that. [00:39:32] Speaker F: He would order dessert, I think dessert. John du Frain. [00:39:36] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:39:37] Speaker E: I love dessert, but dessert first people are insane. [00:39:45] Speaker B: Yeah, well, that tracks. [00:39:47] Speaker C: All right. [00:39:48] Speaker D: No, go ahead, Del Monaco for me. [00:39:51] Speaker B: So, no, this is actually a trick question. The answer is that. That. That street. The Chinese street food or whatever we want to. [00:40:00] Speaker D: Yeah, that's true. [00:40:01] Speaker F: Was it Chinese? No, it wasn't Chinese. [00:40:03] Speaker A: Thai food? [00:40:04] Speaker D: Was it Thai? [00:40:05] Speaker E: It's Thai. [00:40:06] Speaker F: I don't know. Yes. That place was fantastic. That host made that whole. [00:40:09] Speaker A: He. [00:40:09] Speaker B: That's why meal that was so fun. [00:40:11] Speaker D: Well, just to give it a little context, like, we went into this restaurant and, like, basically told the guy to bring us out something. [00:40:20] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:40:21] Speaker F: It was just like he brought the. [00:40:23] Speaker D: Same thing to all of us. [00:40:24] Speaker A: Yep. [00:40:24] Speaker F: It was just like, hey, man, what do you think is the best thing here? And he brought it out. Yeah. [00:40:28] Speaker E: Yeah. [00:40:29] Speaker B: We just totally put it in his hands. [00:40:31] Speaker E: Yeah. It ended with him wanting to get a group picture. [00:40:34] Speaker B: He took A picture with us. Yeah. [00:40:36] Speaker A: He was just so excited. [00:40:38] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:40:38] Speaker D: You guys, they have so good picture of us in there. [00:40:42] Speaker B: It was like short rib curry. And the funny part is Tib hates curry. Hates it with a burning passion. [00:40:51] Speaker A: Doesn't like it. No, no, not even slightly. [00:40:58] Speaker B: Which is totally fine because guess what? We're going back to all. [00:41:01] Speaker E: He has a chowder based diet and. [00:41:05] Speaker B: Well, here's the thing. We're going back to all three of those places this, this year. [00:41:10] Speaker E: Oh, man, we're gonna eat good. [00:41:12] Speaker F: I'm excited. [00:41:12] Speaker B: That's the only. That's the only thing to look forward to. Well, I'm looking forward to seeing you guys this year and eating. That's the only things I'm looking forward to. [00:41:18] Speaker A: Well, you guys enjoy it. You can FaceTime me from there, so it'll be fine. [00:41:22] Speaker C: All right, guys, I have another question for you. If you guys remember past years experiences. Yeah. What person from Neobag would be the least likely person you'd follow on a four wheeler? And why. [00:41:39] Speaker E: Oh man. So I believe that. So I think we're piling on tibs right now especially. [00:41:46] Speaker F: Yeah, that's. [00:41:48] Speaker D: This is an oddly specific question. [00:41:50] Speaker E: Yeah. [00:41:52] Speaker F: Can't defend himself. [00:41:53] Speaker A: There is. [00:41:54] Speaker E: Well, yeah, since he's on the ground, let's continue to stop. Yeah. So a couple, a year and a half, year and a half ago or so we had you guys, we hosted you guys at the Blue Alpha Farms. [00:42:07] Speaker F: Our, our property where we have our. [00:42:08] Speaker E: Gun range and we film our content there and we had like a social media shoot hangout. Mainly just a good excuse for all of us to hang out together. And Tibbs decided that, that the, the place we called the swamp was a great idea. [00:42:26] Speaker D: Okay. [00:42:26] Speaker E: Tibbs says he was following Nate. [00:42:28] Speaker B: Yeah, I think he was. He was actually following Nate. [00:42:31] Speaker A: Yeah, well, listen, listen, hold on. [00:42:33] Speaker E: And so Tibbs got left behind. [00:42:35] Speaker A: Okay, that's. Both of those things are accurate, but I just want to. I just want to qualify that. We went on a ride on the four wheelers and nobody that actually works at the farm made mention of the fact that there is a swamp. [00:42:53] Speaker E: If there was a cliff, would you drive off the cliff? Because he always told you there wasn't a cliff. [00:42:59] Speaker F: Listen, there's no marking. [00:43:01] Speaker A: There's no marking of the swamp. [00:43:03] Speaker F: All of a sudden the water is the marking. [00:43:06] Speaker A: You can't see it. There's grass. [00:43:08] Speaker B: Yeah, the four foot tall grass might have been there. [00:43:11] Speaker A: Yeah, well, the shiny stuff is under the grass when all the rest of the grass is also tall. And all of a sudden you fall into the. The swamp and I got out. [00:43:19] Speaker F: Now hold up now, hold up now. You didn't get stuck immediately. You decided to drive 400 yards once you were in the water. [00:43:25] Speaker C: Let's keep going forward. We're almost there. [00:43:27] Speaker E: He did make it out. [00:43:28] Speaker A: I got out. I don't know what the problem is. I made it out and then I, I got help. [00:43:34] Speaker B: It's the guy from Rhode island and couldn't get out. [00:43:36] Speaker E: So, you know, in case you guys come back again. The. We do have better tires, meteor tires on that ATV now. [00:43:44] Speaker F: So theoretically that we had to upgrade those because of y'. [00:43:51] Speaker A: I Also though I will say I do remember, I don't remember if it was Kurt, Jesse or Stephen. One of the three of you said, well, we've all gotten stuck there multiple times, so I didn't feel as bad after the fact. So. [00:44:02] Speaker E: Yeah, well, I mean, we're gonna call you an idiot, but we're, we're all wonderful idiots. [00:44:06] Speaker A: It's wonderful. [00:44:08] Speaker D: Was that the one where. [00:44:09] Speaker F: Yeah, you suck in trucks? [00:44:11] Speaker E: Oh my gosh. [00:44:11] Speaker D: We had, we had. How many vehicles did we have trying to pull. [00:44:16] Speaker E: No, that wasn't that. [00:44:17] Speaker A: No, that wasn't our occasion. No, we got. No, we didn't get anything else stuck for us. [00:44:23] Speaker E: Yeah. So for. Yeah. When Tibs was stuck. [00:44:26] Speaker D: Miserable experience. [00:44:27] Speaker E: When Tibs got stuck, that's when we. [00:44:32] Speaker F: Got sucked side by side. No. Who wasn't the sun. The side by sides. [00:44:36] Speaker E: But we got Tibs out by using a really, really long roll of. [00:44:41] Speaker F: Yeah. [00:44:41] Speaker E: Outdated, wrong color OD green belt webbing. [00:44:44] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:44:45] Speaker A: You guys sewed a toe strap? [00:44:46] Speaker B: Yes, I was. Go bring this up. I'll say the most impressive about the whole thing is you guys like went and made a custom toe strap strap for it. [00:44:55] Speaker A: I can't remember his name. Your guy that works down at the Blue Alpha Farm, help me out. Thank you, Brent. I just remember Brent getting his waiters and walking the 300 yard made toe strap that you had all the way out to Tibet in the waiters. And we hooked it up and dragged it right out. Once we got. Once we had that toe strap, it wasn't a big deal. [00:45:18] Speaker B: It was also 100 degrees. [00:45:20] Speaker C: Yeah, I was gonna say it was. [00:45:21] Speaker E: I remember I was dying. I had so much sweat pouring down my head. Oh. [00:45:26] Speaker A: I mean, I threw those shoes away. The shoes that I wore through the swamp, they're gone. They never left Georgia. They're in a landfill in Georgia somewhere. [00:45:33] Speaker B: Just left them in the bottom of the swamp. [00:45:35] Speaker E: But, you know, that's what we were together for. We were making memories. [00:45:39] Speaker A: It's actually one of my most fond memories. I'm not gonna lie. [00:45:42] Speaker E: My. [00:45:42] Speaker F: My favorite memory of that entire thing was when me, Ian, Kurt, were you with us when we did the drive by? [00:45:49] Speaker E: I was filming. [00:45:50] Speaker F: Ow. Yeah, when we did, we did the drive by shooting with the orbeez. [00:45:53] Speaker A: Ow. That's all I've got to say. [00:45:55] Speaker B: That was pretty funny, actually. [00:45:56] Speaker A: You chased me. [00:45:58] Speaker F: You chased me. [00:46:02] Speaker A: It was. Ian, all I'm saying is I was trying to drive the dirt bike and you were shooting me in the back. That was. It was quite disappointing. [00:46:09] Speaker C: That's funny. [00:46:12] Speaker E: It was a lot of fun. [00:46:13] Speaker B: Well, it was a good time and I want to come back and do that again. [00:46:16] Speaker A: It was great, great memories. [00:46:17] Speaker B: Actually, the. The picture that Michael is you that used. That he used in the email that we sent today about the podcast is. Is our. Is one of. [00:46:24] Speaker C: It's our picture. It's got Brent with his. He's holding his shirt up, flashing everybody. That's a good one. Appropriate for it. So Tibbs isn't here, but he's in the comments with us. So I've got another follow up question for you guys. So Blue Alpha has grown a lot since 2015. What's one thing each of you think has stayed the same since day one? And one thing that's changed the most. [00:46:50] Speaker E: I will say our like us prioritizing customer service and the customer experience. That is what inspired us to start Blue Alpha in the first place. I had bought an EDC belt and I was complaining to Jesse about the EDC belt that I bought. And it wasn't the belt itself that I was complaining about was the fact that that company charged, you know, in 2015, they charged $13 for USPS Priority shipping. And it came in like a giant empty box, just like loosely packed in there. There were no sizing exchanges. You know, there's some more I thought about. The more I was like, wow, this is like, it's crazy that this is like a. A major company that is very well regarded and this is how, you know the experience of buying a belt. So Jesse and I kind of thought through like, well, if we could, you know, curate the best customer experience for buying a belt, what would that look like? And that's kind of what we did from the beginning. You know, we had to learn how to make a belt, which, you know, took. Took a little bit and we figured it out. But, you know, we had free shipping and free sizing exchanges and, you know, responding to emails. When people email, like There's a lot of like the gun industry doesn't always try very hard with customer service because they don't always have to try very hard. They can kind of get away with it, it seems, especially when the demand is high for the products. And we've, you know, that's something that we've, we've prioritized and we've been pretty passionate about is making sure that, that the customers walk away being like this. The product's great, but the, the whole experience was great. And that helped us grow through word of mouth and still helps us grow through word of mouth now. And it's still like we, we have, you know, no plans to change any of that. Still a big deal for us. [00:48:43] Speaker F: I think one of the biggest ones for that I've seen since I've been here is that we try to price the items at a very fair rate. And I think, you know, us being a direct consumer really helps that we don't typically have third party vendors that require, you know, a markup and then whatever the price is. And so when you compare Blue Alpha products, typically speaking to a lot of the competitors out there, you will see that we are typically the more affordable one. And even when you're looking at some of like just belts, looking at some of the belts that what we charge for and you look at some of our competitors in the same price range, like the quality of the product is not there. We really like. And it's just, that's one of the things I think we, I really like the most about it is that, you know, we are a very, I believe, a very fair priced company. And then we're not, we're not charging the max amount that we think we could get for it, but it's, you know, we're getting what we need to cover our costs, make money, but also provide a very good quality product at a very fair price. [00:49:51] Speaker E: Yeah. And that, that price, like it's sometimes confusing for people because they think that the higher the price they pay for something like that is going to correlate with quality. And that is true a lot of the times, but we've been able to become very efficient at what we do. And because we're so efficient, we can provide a high quality product but at a price that is lower. And sometimes we have to convince people that like you're paying less, but you're not getting less. [00:50:19] Speaker F: Yeah, yeah. [00:50:22] Speaker B: It'S impressive. It's impressive being there. I've been there a number of times, just seeing the operation from start to finish. It, it's all right there, you guys. [00:50:33] Speaker E: Yeah, yeah. So like, to clarify for people who are listening who don't know Blue Alpha, like we make everything in house. So we control everything from the raw goods that we order to the cutting assembly. All of the manufacturing is all done in house. Shipping is done in house. You know, our customer service person sits 15ft away from a sewing machine and we sell on our website, which we control direct to the customer. And so everything from the raw goods all the way through manufacturing and then the follow up customer service is all done under one roof and we have full control over it and we've made it efficient and optimized because of that. It's a lot of work and it's a huge headache to control all of that stuff. But the end result is better for us and the customer. [00:51:25] Speaker F: Yeah, yeah. [00:51:27] Speaker D: I think one thing that's changed significantly too over the past few years is our capacity to develop new products. Steven has a lot to do with that and so does Chris, but so does Andrew and all these other people that are part of the machine. We've really built a team that is able to do quite a bit. And even recently we've had to throttle back the releases of new products mostly because it's strained our production capacity to some degree. So it's, it's a good problem. [00:52:03] Speaker F: I mean, we have three products that are ready to go. Like they're, they're done with prototyping. It's just, you know, finding a time to put that into production that's not going to throw a wrench into the flow that we have, especially coming up towards the end of the year with, you know, peak season coming in and stuff like that. Yeah, we've really just put our foot down for product development and it's been extremely nice. And a lot of it too is just coming from people say like, hey, I have product A, but I wish it did, you know, these extra things, you know, and it's, you know, and we can accommodate those, those items. [00:52:42] Speaker B: You know, it's great when you're, when your customer base gives you feedback and a lot of times they give you the ideas, they're like, oh, 100. Yeah, it's. [00:52:51] Speaker F: And that's the thing. And it's like customer feedback will almost, almost always drive what we're trying to do. Because if you're having a problem with it and that's the thing, like I wish people gave more feedback typically. And because I think, you know, if, if they have a problem with and they're like Ah, you know, this. [00:53:07] Speaker E: This. [00:53:07] Speaker F: This thing, it does something that I don't like. Well, like, let us know so that we can change it. Because I'm. You may not be the only one that's having that issue. And if it's a bigger issue, then, like, we're constantly trying to evolve our products, and if that's something that you're having an issue with, you're probably not the only one. And we would like to try and address it if we think that it's, you know, a noteworthy thing. [00:53:26] Speaker B: Right. [00:53:27] Speaker F: Not, you know, not something that's like, oh, I really. I hate the. The feel of this. Right. I don't know, because there's. There's some things you'll get where it's just like. Like, I can't do anything for you on that one. Right. [00:53:36] Speaker B: But, yeah, sometimes there's just things that's just how this has to. Has to work. [00:53:40] Speaker F: Yeah. This is the house. Has to be. But I mean. Yeah. [00:53:43] Speaker B: So that actually kind of segues into a question. I'm going to skip a question and go up to one is just, how do you guys test your products and make sure that they hold up to the demands that you guys want them to be able to hold up to? What's your process like? [00:53:58] Speaker F: So it'll start with us in house just trying out the proof of concept of the item and then us trying things out. And then we have a group of people that we trust greatly that will give us the feedback that we need. Be very critical of the item at the early stages, because that's when you need to be highly critical of it. You know, even if it's like, hey, man, like, I really like that this is a zipper, but if you hate that zipper, let me know. We can change that later on. But, you know, for. We pushed out a lot of law enforcement products recently, and so, you know, we have a really close group of law enforcement officers that we send things out to. To test. But even then, you know, if we have a product that we think that we think is good, that everybody else is like, psych. There's a. Like the. Our little Facebook page that we have. We'll reach out on there and be like, hey, I have five of these things. Who wants to try it out? And just getting honest feedback from customers who have no connection to us at all. Like, if they tell me it's an absolute crap product, it's not like it's gonna be like, well, that's my friend. Like, why are you saying that? You know, like, I. You Know, we want that feedback. So we tried to use the end user, who or whoever we are targeting for that product to be a lot of the testers, once we get it to a point where we're confident that it's one, it's not going to fail or do anything like that. But just give us that, you know, that daily use that they can give us that. You know, I'm not a cop, so I can't, I can't do half those things. But, you know, the people who are going to be riding in the vehicles, riding in the patrol cars, you know, out there doing different things, that the end user is who tests it for us. [00:55:35] Speaker B: So when you decide that something's good enough. [00:55:38] Speaker F: When. [00:55:39] Speaker B: Yeah, is there a certain thing or. [00:55:42] Speaker F: No, no, there is. There isn't like a timeline or a mark we have to hit. You know, it's like anything you learn over the years of, you know, that it's, you know, if it, if it's good for a week, that doesn't mean that it's good forever, you know, and so it's, you know, and a lot of the products that you see have been in development for over a year. And so it's just, you know, when you have multiple different products, it's just, you know, like, as they come back around to get ready, but we don't typically have a timeline of like, okay, they're going to test for exactly six months, and then we're going to do this. You know, I'll, you know, if it's, you know, if it's like, we'll hand out, you know, products to people to try out. And then I'll set a reminder on my phone like, hey, two months, reach out to them. But, you know, I'll reach out just to make sure there's no issues. But then they'll reach out on their own to let me know that, hey, I've been trying it for this long and it's. It's been great, you know, or, hey, I kind of wish it did this, you know. [00:56:39] Speaker B: So, yeah, I just, I get impatient sometimes. Like, if I'm excited about a product. No, 100%, I'm like, yeah, let's just launch this product. [00:56:48] Speaker F: And I mean, yeah, like, there's, there's a product that we're working on now that I'm super excited about, but it's just one of those, like, we could launch it right now as is, and it would be very successful. But, you know, we want it to be not like, next level, but I want you to how do I say this? I want you to really think when you. Like, when you get it, like, oh, okay. Like, there has been a lot of thought that's been put into this. And not just, you know, you made the. We made the base level thing, and it works, but, you know, just. And it's really the little details that will come out over time that will, I think, really make a product stand out. Yeah. [00:57:29] Speaker D: I think just to add to that a little bit, it's safe to say that even in product development, you just don't know what you don't know, and that's probably the hardest thing. I think one great thing about Steven and Chris and Kurt and I is we're open to changes in a lot of ways. Sometimes there's a feeling where somebody has developed something and they become married to it because I spent time working on it, and it's like, if you insult this thing, you insult me. And it's. I think one great thing about our team right now is I think everyone's kind of at the point where it's like, I don't know. I mean, we'll just have to see what that looks like, you know, or who knows, what actually will sell really well. Like, it. Like, we're not here to judge the consumer, per se, so we make sure that we release what the consumer wants, because that's who we work for. [00:58:39] Speaker F: I mean, the medical pouch was my design. And that one, I can't tell you, that was probably almost two years in development, from the initial one that we came out with to when we actually launched it. [00:58:52] Speaker A: Well, I was gonna say, I remember you showed us the. Your. One of your first. Well, I shouldn't say first prototypes. One of your prototypes. It would have been, like, three years ago at shot, Steven, when you brought us up to your room and showed it to us. [00:59:03] Speaker F: Yeah, I mean, it was. And that's the thing. Like, I. I thought it was good, but, you know, the people that I'm close with that I know will give me the feedback that's needed. That was like, hey, man, like, this sucked. And I was like, like, thank you, though. But honestly, because as a designer, I'm like, hey, I think this is good. That's why I sent it to you. And then when they're like, hey, man, this was a huge problem. And I was like, oh, yes. I can definitely see now from the scenario that you gave me of why that is. And also fighting the urge of, like, well, I'm making the product that's best for Blue Alpha in its Production versus making the product the best. You're saying because there's that balance is you don't want to a, you know, a super complicated product unless that's what it needs to be. But, you know, a lot. [00:59:51] Speaker A: We're still. [00:59:52] Speaker F: Hey, guys. Welcome to the Blue Alpha podcast. This is Stephen, Kurt and Jesse. Guys. [00:59:59] Speaker B: You guys still here? [01:00:01] Speaker F: You know, just like I said, just. I don't even know who I'm talking to now. I guess just you guys. [01:00:09] Speaker E: I think we're still live talking to an audience. Keep going, Steven. [01:00:13] Speaker D: This is now our podcast. [01:00:17] Speaker F: But yeah, I mean, it's just, you know, taking the feedback and what's real. I mean, like, for example, on the med pouch, the original Molle slot on top was just a laser cut hole. And I didn't want to add a sewing a sewn on piece because that's just an extra step. But after sending it out to some of the testers, they were having issues of that mouse Molle piece binding, specifically with the side pole where the Molle would lock up on each other when they were trying to pull it out. And so, you know, initially I made it for like, hey, this is gonna be way easy for us. That's. This is one less step we have to sew. But those items were pointed out. It was like, oh, yep, that's, you know, that makes complete sense. [01:00:57] Speaker E: Yeah. And. Yeah. Can we. Are you back, guys? [01:01:02] Speaker F: Yeah. [01:01:02] Speaker A: We could hear the whole time. Sorry about that. [01:01:04] Speaker F: I'm okay. [01:01:06] Speaker E: So we can't lie about all the things we said. [01:01:08] Speaker B: I heard you, but I, I think. [01:01:10] Speaker D: Generally speaking, though, just speaking to that a little more, I think just having an ounce of humility when it comes to product development is. Will really take your products a lot further. [01:01:21] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:01:21] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:01:22] Speaker D: And get closer to what, what needs. Like, if there's any real pride, like, in. In terms of, like. No, I think this is how we should do it because this is what I think. Like, that's going to be a problem, I think. [01:01:37] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:01:37] Speaker F: And it's also annoying when you send it to people and then you, you know, you talk with them months later and they were like, yeah, man, that thing sucked. And I was like, where were you to let me know that? [01:01:46] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:01:47] Speaker F: You didn't say any. If you don't say anything, I'm assuming that you're enjoying the product and you have no issues with it. Right? [01:01:52] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:01:52] Speaker F: But if you don't let me know there's a problem, then I can't fix it. [01:01:56] Speaker D: That's. [01:01:56] Speaker F: Honestly, sometimes some of the most annoying things is you send it out, you know, four or five months with someone and you're like, hey, man, how is it? And they're like, dude, it sucke. I moved on to something else. [01:02:05] Speaker C: I was like, thanks for the feedback. [01:02:07] Speaker F: What were you on that? [01:02:08] Speaker A: Yeah, well, I mean, even. Even on occasion, we'll have customers that'll have issues with. I mean, the OG NeoMag will have people that'll reach out in social media and be like, wow, I had this issue with it, so I just threw it in a bin. It's like, well, why didn't you reach out to us, let us know. We would have either tried to help you work through the issue or we would have issued a refund. Like, we would have helped you out. Like, we don't want to leave you guys in the lurch on it. And this is not even a. This is not even a tester. It's just a customer. But it's the same idea where it's like, we're not so married to the product that we think it's going to be right for everybody. So, like, just reach out. It's the same idea for your testers. Like, just tell us it didn't do what you wanted it to do so we can change it before it goes out. I mean, not a big deal. [01:02:51] Speaker E: Frustrating thing with the website getting like one and two star reviews from someone who never even emailed. And like, the problem was either like a misunderstanding on their part part or something that was like, totally solvable. And so then I'll have to, like, pull their email, send them an email, you know, kind of get an understanding what's going on. But it's just like, hey, like, we have a customer service email address. We have a phone number. You can call us. Yeah, try those. [01:03:18] Speaker F: I mean, we. We had an issue with that just recently on a handcuff pouch or a handcuff. I'm not gonna say pouch. It was a handcuff item because it turned out to be a giant miscommunication on what the problem was. But we, like, I talked to this dude for two hours trying to figure out what the issue was, and everything he was saying, he was using the correct terminology, but we turned out to be talking about the wrong product. So the first, you know, two hours of that conversation was basically wasted. But then, you know, once we figured out what the issue was, it was, you know, and this one was, you know, I'm not gonna. I'm not gonna blame the consumer on this one, but we had a picture that a set of Handcuffs was put in. Not like. So you have, like, the hinge and the chain version. It was put in where the hinge part is facing up and, like, you know, the loops are facing down. Really, it's designed to go the other way. But, you know, that caused some confusion for a customer, and they left a little comment. They were like, yo, this. Or their friend left a comment, was like, yo, this thing sucks. And it was just, you know. But once he reached out and we were able to, you know, finally figure out, once we were able to get on the same page of what actual product we were talking about, he fixed it, and he ended up actually buying one of the products afterwards. But it was just, you know, taking that time to figure out what, you know, what the issue was. [01:04:33] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. One of our first or one of our first standard things. This is a pretty easy question. One of the first things is asking for pictures. Just show us what your issue is. Because a lot of times, honestly, a lot of times the issue isn't even what they thought the issue was, if that makes any sense. [01:04:48] Speaker F: Yeah, I mean, there's been a couple times where I've even FaceTimed with customers to help walk them through issues that they've been having. And, you know, I remember one of the one kid I was helping out, and he was just like, I never thought that I would be sitting like that you guys would take the time to sit there and FaceTime me to help me, walk me through the issue that he was having. [01:05:06] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:05:06] Speaker F: And it was just. He was just, you know, he was. He was putting something together a little wrong, but he was just blown away that I was like, hey, man, this is my number. Just FaceTime me and we can figure this out. And, you know, sat there with him for 15 minutes and walked it through. And, you know, I feel like that made a lifelong customer after that, but it was, you know. [01:05:24] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. [01:05:25] Speaker A: Well, and that's one of the things that our customer service. I mean, none of us do it. None of the three of us do it. But, you know, our customer service has been fantastic, and we have earned customers simply because we respond well and we do our best to fix the problem as quickly as we can. I mean, now there's some people that are never going to be happy. [01:05:44] Speaker F: Right. [01:05:44] Speaker A: You can't always win. Right. Like, it's not. Like, even when you're doing your best, there's some people that just won't be happy regardless of what you do, and you can't always win those. But not having an ego around Your product and just being willing to help is 90% of the thing. And like you said, Stephen, while you're developing a product, have the same mindset. Right. [01:06:04] Speaker B: Be willing to scrap an idea. I have a project on my desk that I have completely scrapped and redone, I think four times now. And honestly, the first time was probably fine. It, it worked. It did what, what we wanted to do. But I looked at it and I'm like, no, I think you can do more. And I scrap it and redid it. [01:06:21] Speaker F: Yeah, yeah, we have, we have probably half dozen products like that. Yeah, you know, it is. [01:06:30] Speaker B: Yeah, it is. Exactly. And I would say, honestly, I think all of our products have been, have, have gone through that. It's just, it's part of. [01:06:36] Speaker F: It could even be something just as simple as like, hey, it does everything I want it to do, but I just, I don't love the way that it looks. [01:06:42] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:06:43] Speaker F: You know, and it's just like, I mean, it hits all the hits every checkbox that I wanted to check, but. [01:06:48] Speaker E: It'S just, that's how I feel about Stephen. [01:06:51] Speaker B: It's everything, but it's just the way it looks. [01:06:55] Speaker C: All right, well, since Stephen and Tibbs has been thrown under the bus today, I have another follow up question for you guys. So for each of you personally, what's been the most rewarding, rewarding moment at Blue Alpha so far or a project that really made you proud and not the 2, 2 year R D for the med pouch. [01:07:12] Speaker F: I staying on the med. The very first product I ever helped to develop was our tourniquet holder. And that, you know, taking, you know, and I've been a medic for 13 years in the army. So like, that was, you know, the first project I dealt with. It was really passionate. To me, it's a medical item, but developing that and we kind of really all started with, I had, you know, a very simple elastic tourniquet holder, but there's really only one way to use that. And so when we developed our tourniquet holder, we have, we initially we launched with three ways to mount it. There's actually a fourth way now with one of our drop mount adapters. But having that item that when your gear changes, whenever it change, like, you know, positions, gear, whatever it is that you can still find a way to use, use that product instead of like the one that I had, like once something changed, I had to go put it in the box of things that either are ACU colored or I don't use anymore. And so being able to just constantly Reuse a product and just getting your money out of it, you know what I'm saying? Like, tourniquet holders are easy. Like most people aren't. It's not like a magazine pouch where eventually it's going to get, you know, stretched out and consumed because of the elastic, but it's just, you know, so it's a really simple product. And that one, that product really should last you a lifetime. [01:08:35] Speaker E: Yeah. You solved one of your own problems, but you were also able to turn it into a product which is pretty cool. [01:08:40] Speaker F: Yeah. And that, that, that one's probably still to this day, the, the one I'm one of the most proud of because like I said, it was the first real big thing that I was involved with here. And you know, just taking the, the personal experience that I had and giving, you know, the consumer a way to not have that same experience was really nice. [01:08:59] Speaker B: Yeah. Cool. [01:09:00] Speaker D: I think the Battle Belt Light is. That might be one of the last products I really had a big hand in developing. [01:09:13] Speaker F: Maybe, I mean, you were, that was like, you were definitely the front runner in that entire thing for its development of it, but I wouldn't say you were. I don't know, it's hard to say. I feel like it was so long ago from when it was first made. [01:09:28] Speaker D: Yeah, I think that's probably one. I was really proud of it when it came out and I still am today. I think it's a very functional design and I also think it achieves some aesthetic that is hard to find or I could, I mean, especially if it's, find it. [01:09:47] Speaker F: Especially for a curve or Tegras based material. I think that's, you know, and obviously I'm, I'm biased, but I think that's probably one of the cleanest looking Tegrass or curve based belts on the market still. [01:09:58] Speaker B: I agree. That's a great belt. [01:10:00] Speaker F: That's my favorite. And we actually have, we actually have some upgrades I think that you guys will should see next year for that one to give it a little bit more versatility. So we're excited for that. [01:10:11] Speaker A: Let's see. Because the Battle Belt Light has been out for three years now, right? [01:10:14] Speaker B: Is that long? [01:10:15] Speaker A: Well, because I, I actually. Well, because I came down. Actually it was the first time that I met you guys in person, which was October of 2022. I came down for the Iraqi veteran 88. 88 weekend. That was my first time going to stay in Airbnb with all of you guys, actually. And Kurt, you pulled it out of the Rivian. You pulled the Your, I mean, I think it was the finished, but it was like your personal battle belt light and you hadn't released it yet, but you're like, hey, don't show anybody. But this is, this is, you know, being released or whatever. So that was October of 22 and I think you guys released it February of February 23rd. [01:10:57] Speaker F: Okay. [01:10:57] Speaker A: So it's February. So we're just shy of three years with the battle belt light. [01:11:01] Speaker C: Can we just say that the Rivian is a pretty sweet truck? [01:11:04] Speaker D: Yeah, it is a pretty sweet truck. [01:11:06] Speaker A: But yeah, I mean that was a very awesome project because I've got both, I've got both your original battle belt as well as a battle belt light. And it's. I mean the original is still a great belt. I actually still love that belt. It's one of my favorites. But the paddle belt light is still an awesome, awesome. [01:11:24] Speaker B: And I still have one of the pre C and D versions. It's actually the one that gets used in all of our ads. So I don't know if you guys want to send me in. [01:11:29] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah. You didn't pay for it, so. [01:11:35] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:11:36] Speaker F: What about you, Kurt? It's always nice just to see, especially as there's more belts coming out of what people are doing and just trying to constantly push the envelope just. And when you push the envelope, especially with different, different companies as they start kind of competing with each other in the same battle space, it's, it's, it's only going to end better for the consumer. [01:11:56] Speaker B: Yep. [01:11:57] Speaker F: Of just a more feature rich product and you know. [01:12:01] Speaker E: Yeah. [01:12:01] Speaker F: So. [01:12:03] Speaker E: Yeah, I would say one of the things I'm most proud of and I played a role in this, I would argue Jesse played an even bigger role in this. But, but just the fact that like when we're at the shop, you can look out and see a whole bunch of people and they all have jobs and they seem to like their jobs because they tend to stick around and like just seeing American manufacturing happen, seeing what, like what we've been able to accomplish kind of from nothing and seeing all of these people be nice to each other and collaborate with each other and, and like I feel like we've created a pretty cool place to work and I'm really proud of that. [01:12:48] Speaker B: I think it should be, it's. It's a really cool operation to see. Every time I just walk in there, I, I get the same vibe. It just, it's cool to see. [01:12:55] Speaker E: Yeah. [01:12:57] Speaker C: It'S clean. It is super clean. [01:13:00] Speaker B: Yeah. I appreciate that. [01:13:01] Speaker C: Wow. [01:13:01] Speaker E: No thanks to the three People on the screen. [01:13:05] Speaker C: We saw the R D table that was not a clean table. [01:13:10] Speaker F: Is not a clean thing. So. [01:13:11] Speaker E: Yeah, yeah, you want to make an omelet, you gotta break some eggs, right Stephen? [01:13:15] Speaker F: Yeah. [01:13:16] Speaker B: If you see a clean, you know, prototype area, you have to wonder if anything's actually getting done. [01:13:23] Speaker F: Yeah. [01:13:24] Speaker A: All right, so what is the biggest challenge that Blue Alpha is facing right now and how are you guys attacking that problem? [01:13:32] Speaker E: Yeah, I mean like I maybe balancing growth, like trying not to grow too fast but still trying to make sure that we're growing and you know, the, it's probably no secret that the firearms industry is gonna probably have some, some slow years ahead and already have had a little bit of some slow time. So trying to, to, to balance all of that because we've, we've all had the crazy years and then we've all, you know, seen, seen the changes. So the good news is we've, we've been around long enough where I feel like we're, we're pretty well experienced. We're not like complete noobs like we were for, you know, five, six years ago. And I think that will be all right. But yeah, trying to balance is going to be, I think that's going to be an interesting process for it. So trying to not grow out of our building but still keep growing like stuff like that. [01:14:40] Speaker F: Yeah, I mean there's a lot of things that like Jesse's done in the last and the other managers have done in the last year that have really set us up for success in the future and just getting out of the growing pains that were currently in just because we had to change a couple things but it was a, it was a necessity that you know, is going to help Blue Alpha grow. So short term pain now for long term growth. [01:15:04] Speaker D: Yeah, I think I can speak to a few of those things. So the main, the main thing that we've done this year is worked on basically software development which is, you know, just an internal software to allow us to track pretty much everything as it relates to production and sales and sales and auto generate work. The biggest question that we had going into 2025 was probably like what do we need to do and how much of it do we need to do and when do we need to do it? And it sounds silly but you know, that's easy to manage when you're managing, you know, 10 products or less. But you know, we're, we're into the thousands and like I think over 3 or 4000 SKUs now and ask me how we Manage it. It's a bit, it's, it's all a pretty intense project. So any company that I see that is making hundreds of different products, they for sure have something going on like that in the background. And it's, it's complex. So there wasn't a great off the shelf solution for us. So developing something made sense. [01:16:31] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. I can't imagine with as many, you know, products that then have sizes, that then have colors and just all the options. I can't imagine trying to keep all that. [01:16:43] Speaker D: But I think, I think also to speak to the space thing, I, I think we're probably gonna be able to stay where we're at for several more years. But it is something that we think about and I'm frequently looking at property and just what, what is our next move? I don't know. [01:17:00] Speaker E: If you had asked us in 2020 or 2021 whether we would still be in our space at the end of 2025, the answer felt like no. But we've been able to kind of optimize a whole bunch of stuff so that, you know, every square foot of our building is producing as much as possible. And here we are in 2025, still in our building. And I think currently with hope to be here, like Jesse said, for, for more. [01:17:28] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:17:30] Speaker B: Do you guys find yourself, you know, pruning products as, as well as bringing new ones in? [01:17:35] Speaker F: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I, I think that's just a necessity of, I mean, like, like, you know, like we were saying, but like the tropic and the arid, like they're great looking colors, but it's just, it's. They're not worth the effort anymore. [01:17:50] Speaker A: Sure. [01:17:50] Speaker F: For those, for just, for the, you know, the low sales numbers that are. And so if you can go, just go ahead and delete those out, that's either going to make room for something else to come into it or you're just giving yourself more capacity now. [01:18:02] Speaker C: Right. [01:18:02] Speaker B: Yeah, I guess I just wonder if moving forward, if that's it probably already is and has been part of that process of staying where you're at is just optimizing what you do have as being worth having and getting. [01:18:15] Speaker F: And that's the thing. I think for trimming products, you got to have enough time behind that product to see like, okay, this just isn't something that's going to take off. Like for example, the little GPS pouch we have for canines, that's just not something that's moving and it really hasn't moved at all. It's not there's no indicators that it's gonna tick up at all. So that one's on the chopping block that, you know, I don't even know if that one's gonna make it to 26. [01:18:45] Speaker B: Yeah. And that can be a painful thing to do. [01:18:48] Speaker A: We've, we've done it and it's had. [01:18:50] Speaker F: To print some products especially because that was one that was brought to us. Like, you guys should make this. There's not really something on the market for this. And we looked and there really wasn't a specific pouch for it. So we, we had relatively high hopes for it, but it just, it didn't work out. And you just gotta, you know, say like, well, you know, we gave it a shot and it just didn't work. But so it's time to. [01:19:10] Speaker E: Sometimes you. [01:19:11] Speaker F: Yeah. [01:19:11] Speaker E: You find the reason why there isn't a version of. [01:19:13] Speaker B: Right. Yeah, yeah. It doesn't exist for a reason. [01:19:16] Speaker A: Well, or I mean, in our case, some of the products we've trimmed, it's a market that's either inundated or the things that you thought set yours apart wasn't what the market wanted. [01:19:27] Speaker F: You know, that's, I mean that's like. Yeah, that's like our dog collars. You know, I'm saying just like basic dog collars, we are competing against chewy and every overseas made twelve dollar dog collar. That's out there. But because we're a U S produced, US Manufactured thing, our prices. Yeah, we, we can't compete with those. [01:19:48] Speaker B: Right. [01:19:48] Speaker F: On something that high volume of that simple of a product. And so that one will probably be going away here at some point. [01:19:55] Speaker A: Yes. [01:20:00] Speaker E: We don't have crystal balls. [01:20:04] Speaker B: Cool. [01:20:04] Speaker E: Now we don't have a crystal ball to kind of predict the future. And that's just the nature of business. You don't know what products are going to hit, how they're going to hit what colors, what sizes. I mean like when we started, Jesse and I, when we were making our first belts, I was so confident that coyote tan was going to be the best selling EDC belt color. It's like, you can wear it with, with jeans, but you can wear it with like khaki pants and shorts. I'm like, we'll probably sell more tan than black. So he made a big batch of tan and I was hilariously wrong. [01:20:38] Speaker A: Like, absolutely not. Black is going to sell better than anything ever. Always. I know. [01:20:45] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:20:46] Speaker A: Yep. [01:20:47] Speaker F: I mean, we've even really kind of realized that with some of our Leo side of things that we're only offering in black and green. Now, you know, there's. There's new products that we've launched this year that have a mu. Have a highly reduced color palette than some of our other ones just because of, you know, I can. I can grab 85 or 90% of the people with these two colors, you know, and you'll have some folks that are like, hey, man, I really want this, but it's got to be in this color. And it's like, it's not. [01:21:14] Speaker A: The market segment doesn't exist. I'm not going to make three of them because there's three people that want. [01:21:18] Speaker D: To order 25 of them. [01:21:19] Speaker F: Yeah, when we've started doing that, like, with, like, you know, the radio pouch, like, black and green cover most. But we've had some that are like, hey, can I get this in multicam or tan? It's like, man, if you order 10 of them, sure, yeah, I can make it for you. But, you know, other than that, it's not going to be a product that we stock. [01:21:33] Speaker A: Right. Which makes sense. I mean, if. If you can justify making it in bulk force, like, if somebody makes an order that justifies the time, no big deal. But, yeah, it's not a stocking product. Yeah, makes sense. [01:21:45] Speaker F: Yeah, 100%. [01:21:46] Speaker D: Yeah. Well, and I think that's kind of what the custom shop, and I think we kind of took this a little bit from you guys, is releasing. Essentially, the way it works is we have a custom color that will make or commit to making, and we'll take orders for it. We'll basically open the books for that product for a week, we'll say. But the whole time before that, hopefully we've been collecting emails for people that are interested in this color palette. And so that when it comes out, essentially people buy it, you know, and maybe we sell 50 of them or something, and all these people get kind of what they want for that. [01:22:31] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:22:33] Speaker A: Nice. [01:22:34] Speaker B: Very good. Well, I've got some quick fire questions. I think how I'm going to try to do this is I'm going to ask the question and then let's just answer them. Kurt, Jesse, Steven, in that order, as kind of quickly as you can. So you're not talking over each other yet. We're going to try to do this as quick as we can. All right, so you guys ready? All right, first question is, I don't know, if Blue Alpha had a mascot, what would it be? [01:23:00] Speaker E: A kitten? [01:23:04] Speaker F: Yes. [01:23:06] Speaker B: You guys got a kitten? [01:23:07] Speaker D: All right. Yeah. [01:23:09] Speaker B: All right. Pistol, rifle or shotgun? [01:23:13] Speaker E: Rifle. [01:23:14] Speaker F: Rifle. [01:23:15] Speaker B: Rifle? [01:23:15] Speaker C: Yes. [01:23:18] Speaker D: Pistols are Hard. [01:23:18] Speaker A: I like that. [01:23:20] Speaker E: I don't want to do things on hard mode. [01:23:23] Speaker F: If you shoot low left. We all know that. [01:23:29] Speaker B: Well, that's why you get a shotgun. [01:23:30] Speaker D: Before the pistol, too. [01:23:31] Speaker B: Yeah, that's why you get a shotgun. You just blast it down the hallway. Right? [01:23:33] Speaker C: Lame. Shoot him in the kneecap. [01:23:35] Speaker F: Not all of us are as skilled as you, Greg. [01:23:37] Speaker B: Just fire off two shots off your. [01:23:38] Speaker A: Off your balcony. [01:23:40] Speaker F: Classic reference. Nice. [01:23:43] Speaker B: If you could meet anyone past present, who would it be? [01:23:47] Speaker C: Sean Connery. [01:23:48] Speaker E: Yeah, yeah, the. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. [01:23:53] Speaker D: I don't know. [01:23:55] Speaker B: That's another bad answer. That's three. I asked for one. [01:23:58] Speaker C: Oh, gosh. [01:23:59] Speaker A: Four, actually, but that's fine. [01:24:01] Speaker B: That's true. Yeah. [01:24:01] Speaker C: Sorry. [01:24:03] Speaker D: Gosh, I don't know. That's a good question. Jesus. [01:24:07] Speaker F: Yep. [01:24:07] Speaker B: Oh, good answer. [01:24:09] Speaker E: That's. [01:24:10] Speaker F: That's. Yeah. Way to go, Ninja Turtles. You might want to make an extra donation today. [01:24:22] Speaker B: I was asked that question on. On the gun experiment. Now I'm sad that I didn't say. Jesus. I feel bad now. All right. What was the last song that you listened to? [01:24:33] Speaker F: This is a PG rated thing. [01:24:38] Speaker B: Probably. [01:24:38] Speaker D: Honestly, the A. Oh, sorry, go ahead. [01:24:40] Speaker E: No, yeah, something probably from the 80s or like a synth wave song or some sort of retro something. [01:24:50] Speaker D: Andrew made me listen to the AI version of Ludicrous. I can't. [01:24:56] Speaker F: I probably can't say, move female dog and get out of the way. [01:25:02] Speaker E: It's like, slow. [01:25:04] Speaker F: It's kind of funny. [01:25:05] Speaker D: It sounds like ludicrous. [01:25:07] Speaker B: Met. [01:25:08] Speaker F: Yeah, it's done like. Yeah, it's done in, like, style of like a 1950s or 60s. [01:25:15] Speaker C: Hilarious. [01:25:16] Speaker B: Nice. [01:25:16] Speaker A: Oh, it's like a. An R B or like. Yeah, yeah, I've heard those. They're great. [01:25:22] Speaker C: I love those, like, M M's. They got a couple of him. [01:25:24] Speaker A: Yeah, they're great. [01:25:25] Speaker E: Yeah. [01:25:26] Speaker C: All right, Favorite camo pattern. [01:25:30] Speaker E: Probably Woodland aid. [01:25:34] Speaker D: Black multicam. [01:25:35] Speaker A: Oh, okay. [01:25:37] Speaker B: Most hated camo pattern. [01:25:39] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:25:39] Speaker E: Sweat stain. [01:25:49] Speaker B: You guys. Most hated game of. [01:25:50] Speaker F: I would have to say. I would have to say. I won't say hated, but multicam is. I don't know. Like, I still wear it, obviously, but it's just. I don't know. Yeah. [01:26:01] Speaker E: Oh, was that one of the questions? Most hated. [01:26:04] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah, yeah. [01:26:05] Speaker E: Oh, I'm sorry, I thought you were saying multicam black was the most hated. [01:26:08] Speaker F: No, no, no. [01:26:10] Speaker E: Most hated. I don't know. Acu. [01:26:12] Speaker C: Yeah, there you go. [01:26:14] Speaker F: Yeah, but that's coming. Retro again, man. [01:26:16] Speaker E: I don't know. It's going to take a little while, I think. [01:26:19] Speaker D: I think multi cat. I'd have to go to multicam as my most hated as well. [01:26:24] Speaker F: I'm not gonna say hated, but it's just like, it's not something you see like ever. Everyone has it and I, you know, I have very eclectic tastes and so, you know, just, I like seeing something different. [01:26:35] Speaker A: Sure, yeah, fair enough. [01:26:37] Speaker C: It's getting some M81 Woodland. [01:26:40] Speaker B: I love them. All right, so I thought I'll give you guys a moment here. Is there anything that you guys want to tell people about? You got Black Friday coming up soon. Any new products coming up you want to tease? Maybe just anything you guys want to tell people about? [01:26:56] Speaker E: I'll. I'll hit us off with the social media plugs. So obviously we're on Instagram and Facebook, but I like, truly want to like to plug our YouTube channel. Our YouTube channel. We put a lot of work into it and I think it's, it's genuinely worth subscribing to, especially if you, you know, are a consumer of Blue up with stuff. But, but along with all of the product videos, there's usually some interesting and entertaining stuff and our videos are pretty short. So like, why not go subscribe to The Blue Alpha YouTube channel? [01:27:29] Speaker A: I love your videos. I enjoy them immensely. Especially when I can come and troll Steven in the comments. That's my favorite. [01:27:35] Speaker F: Yes. [01:27:35] Speaker E: Yeah. If anything, if anything, subscribe to the Blue Alpha YouTube channel to troll Stephen in the comments. [01:27:44] Speaker F: Right there. [01:27:44] Speaker A: I actually went back, I'm not gonna lie. I. I was, I can't remember why I did it, but the video you guys did with Modern Outdoor Adventure for the wrapped EDC belt you guys did. [01:27:58] Speaker E: Oh yeah, yeah. [01:27:59] Speaker A: The growing, the growing. The EDC belt in the peanut farm psychotic. That is, will always be my favorite favorite blue outfit. [01:28:11] Speaker F: The best part about that is that that was a complete one shot take. [01:28:15] Speaker A: Oh, I know, it's awesome. I mean, I think the favorite part, the favorite part is him jumping out of the tractor and the tractor just continuing like. [01:28:25] Speaker D: Yeah, I was on the other side of that. I think, I think I had to jump in the tractor or. [01:28:29] Speaker F: No, take my fame. I jumped in the tractor. [01:28:32] Speaker D: No, I'm not going to take your fame. But what I will say is I was like, holy crap, this is really dangerous. [01:28:39] Speaker F: Yeah, it was like, hey, don't slip when you jump into the tractor. We'll run over you. Yeah, there's no one in there. [01:28:45] Speaker A: And then him, him slipping and falling. I don't know if that was intentional, but it's the greatest video of all time. [01:28:50] Speaker F: Yeah, yeah, yeah. [01:28:51] Speaker D: His outtakes are really amazing too. [01:28:53] Speaker F: Yeah. [01:28:54] Speaker E: But yeah, follow our social media. It's like, not just boring informational stuff. There's a lot of psychotic stuff. Like on Friday, Stephen pretended to throw the kitten in the dumpster. [01:29:06] Speaker A: Yes, I like that one. That was a great one, Stephen. Well done on that one. [01:29:08] Speaker B: All for that. [01:29:12] Speaker D: Well, this is just stuff that happens all the time. [01:29:14] Speaker B: My favorite videos are the ones you guys show us that you. That you can't post. [01:29:18] Speaker A: Yeah, those are good ones. [01:29:21] Speaker F: That's just on the bank of. [01:29:22] Speaker E: Those exist. We're all gonna pretend they don't. [01:29:24] Speaker F: Yeah, exactly. [01:29:25] Speaker C: The hidden files. [01:29:27] Speaker E: I'm gonna. I'm gonna deny that they did. [01:29:29] Speaker A: I still want the bloopers from Steven trying to do the Tack Trap video. Those are the ones. I want those bloopers so bad because it's the funniest thing. [01:29:39] Speaker F: If I can't say bad words here. You don't want to hear. Trying to do that. [01:29:43] Speaker E: He, like, slam dunked one of those things into the ground and swarmed. [01:29:47] Speaker A: I think he did. I'm pretty sure that I. Because you guys showed it to us. It was great. It's the easiest product ever. [01:29:53] Speaker F: It's not even hard about that. [01:29:54] Speaker D: Yeah, that's funny. [01:29:59] Speaker F: It, like, it moves, but I'm like, I'm. I have too much PTSD from that. I'm not going to do it. Maybe I can try and. Maybe I can try and redeem myself next. Next film session. [01:30:11] Speaker A: Yeah, maybe so. [01:30:12] Speaker B: I think I'd like to see that when we come down there next. We need to. We need to do a video with you with Attack Trap or where we. [01:30:18] Speaker F: Do it for you or something. [01:30:19] Speaker E: The biggest problem, he's at his best when everyone's watching him. [01:30:23] Speaker F: The problem I think I had, if I remember the most, is I would, like, slap it open and it would go. Yep. Like, I always put. I put so much effort into, like, unhitting it. It would just bounce back and catch. And I was just so angry. [01:30:37] Speaker A: Greatest. Greatest thing. Greatest thing. [01:30:40] Speaker B: Freaking magnets. [01:30:41] Speaker D: That's awesome. [01:30:42] Speaker C: Magnets. [01:30:43] Speaker B: All right, guys. Well, thank you so much for hopping on today. I know you guys are all very busy, so to get all three of you guys at once is an honor and a privilege. So I. I also want to say I love you guys and we miss you, and I can't wait to see you guys in January. [01:31:00] Speaker A: Jesse, the beard is fantastic. I'm glad it's there. [01:31:02] Speaker B: It's great. [01:31:02] Speaker F: Oh, thank you. [01:31:03] Speaker B: You finally fit in with the whole host the scheme. [01:31:06] Speaker D: I. I had to join the Club. [01:31:07] Speaker E: You know, this is the thing. [01:31:09] Speaker B: You guys are heading into winter in Georgia, whatever that looks like. [01:31:11] Speaker A: Yeah, it's like a whole balmy 62 degrees in the winter in Georgia. [01:31:15] Speaker F: Now, hold up now. [01:31:16] Speaker A: Let's. [01:31:17] Speaker F: Let's. [01:31:17] Speaker E: You know, it's higher than that. [01:31:20] Speaker A: Oh, actually, you know what? That's. Another video is the. The Blue Alpha Hat video where Kurt's like, you need to act like it's colder, Steven. You're like, it's 62 degrees. How am I supposed to act like it's colder? [01:31:30] Speaker F: Work. It's great. It was actually cold that day. It was pretty miserable. [01:31:33] Speaker A: But it was a funny video all the same. [01:31:35] Speaker F: Enjoyed it. [01:31:36] Speaker C: Obviously, I got the heater on in the office for a reason up here. [01:31:39] Speaker B: Yeah, he's got a. Yeah, keep a lizard alive in that thing in that office. [01:31:42] Speaker D: I think next time we should. We should be the ones to interview you guys. Just saying. [01:31:46] Speaker B: All right, let's do it. Oh, yeah, and I. I also appreciate you guys taking over the podcast there while we. Sorry. [01:31:54] Speaker A: Sorry for the camera issues. [01:31:55] Speaker B: You guys did a great job filling that in. [01:31:57] Speaker F: Yeah. [01:31:58] Speaker E: When things go off the rails, that's when we're at our best. [01:32:01] Speaker D: I mean, we immediately took over. I don't think there's any, like, hesitation. [01:32:05] Speaker B: No, it just completely. [01:32:06] Speaker C: It's the Blue Alpha podcast. [01:32:07] Speaker B: Seamless. [01:32:08] Speaker E: We'd still be going. [01:32:12] Speaker D: We will be collecting royalties for those. That minute segment. [01:32:16] Speaker B: That sounds good. [01:32:18] Speaker F: We'll send you a bill. [01:32:19] Speaker B: Yeah, perfect. All right, guys. Yeah, let's close this up. [01:32:23] Speaker D: All right. [01:32:23] Speaker F: It. [01:32:27] Speaker B: Thanks for tuning in to Life, Liberty and equipped. If today's conversation challenged you, encouraged you, helped you, probably just entertained you, helped you pursue your mission. Share it with a friend, drop a comment and leave us a review. [01:32:38] Speaker A: Don't forget, we go live on the neomag, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram when it let it lets us. So be sure to subscribe and turn on notifications so you can be part of the next live show. [01:32:48] Speaker C: And you. If, if you're not already part of the NeoMag Insiders club, now's the time. Get early access to NeoMag gear, exclusive content and front row seats to everything we're building. Go to theneomag.com to sign up. [01:33:00] Speaker B: Until next time Live, boldly stand for Liberty. Stay equipped. We'll see you guys soon. [01:33:05] Speaker E: Bye.