Intro: [00:00:07] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Atlanta. It’s time for Charitable Georgia. Brought to you by B’s Charitable Pursuits and Resources. We put the fun in fund raising. For more information, go to B’s Charitable Pursuits. Dot com. That’s B’s Charitable Pursuits dot com. Now here’s your host, Brian Pruett.

Brian Pruett: [00:00:45] Good, fabulous Friday morning. It’s another fabulous Friday and we were off last week for the holiday weekend. I had to take my wife at a time because it was our wedding anniversary. So if I didn’t take her, I was in trouble. So. And I know, Stone, you had a wedding. Right?

Stone Payton: [00:00:57] I did. We got them married off. Now they’re down in Puerto Rico. It’s kind of one of those hippie dippy weddings that this one is my hippie dippy child. And they’re there at some place where they, you know, do the yoga and the whole bit. But she was happy. And that’s all that matters to me.

Brian Pruett: [00:01:11] So now both of them are married off, is that correct?

Stone Payton: [00:01:12] Oh, yeah. I got two of them off the payroll over the last six months. I got such a raise.

Brian Pruett: [00:01:16] There you go. And we also want to wish everybody a happy National Donuts Day. There’s some donuts out front, and I don’t know who brought those, but I’m trying to make my girlish figure a little better, so I didn’t take any. So, all right. Like I said, we’ve got three fabulous guests this morning. If you have not listened to Charitable Georgia before, this show is all about positivity and positive things happening in the community. And all three of my guests do something positive within the community. And so we’re going to start this morning with Ms. Kathy Springer from Springer Senior Solutions. Kathy, welcome.

Kathy Springer: [00:01:48] Thank you for having me. How are you?

Brian Pruett: [00:01:49] I’m great. So we’ll get into Springer Senior Solutions in just a minute. But you shared with me, I guess, a few weeks ago your story. And so if you don’t mind, just share your story, why you are passionate and what you’re doing, and then we’ll talk about your business.

Kathy Springer: [00:02:05] So since I was a little girl, I kind of knew I had a big thing that I was supposed to do in the world. I kept feeling like service was my passion because I always had jobs in the service industry and I just always loved making people laugh and making people happy. And I love to connect people. So in September of 2013, I’ve been in the insurance industry for 26 years this August, and I was sitting at my desk and I said, All right, God, I’m ready. Where do you want me? With my hands together? And it was from September of the beginning of September. By September 23rd, I walked away from my job and I was making very good money, but I just couldn’t do it anymore. And people were like, Well, who does that? I’m like a woman of faith. I mean, that was really my first time. I put my hands in the air and said, God guide me. And I listened. By February 14th, I ended up in Georgia knowing not one person he obviously knew. My name is Kathy, so I can talk to anybody basically. But you would never know. I was shy up until fourth grade.

Brian Pruett: [00:03:02] You’re the second Chatty Kathy that we’ve had on.

Kathy Springer: [00:03:04] But anyway, I ended up in Georgia. I got connected to do Medicare. I love helping people. I love helping seniors. There’s so much confusion and I clear that. And you have to have patience with them. And believe it or not, I am from New York, but I do have patience. And I think my patience was gained more here because you kind of have to be more patient in Georgia. Anybody that’s not from here knows what I’m talking about. We’re a little fast paced up in New York. But anyway, so I go to people’s houses. I help them with their options, and then I’m there person afterwards to guide them in what direction to go next or service them for any issues that come up, you know, in the future.

Brian Pruett: [00:03:45] I think it’s awesome, especially that you’re working with seniors because that is one, I guess, group that’s always seemed to forgotten about. Yeah. You know, these days. And it’s it’s good to know that there’s other folks out there who are continuing to look after for them. Can you share exactly what you’re doing with them with the Medicare and how that works?

Kathy Springer: [00:04:04] So yeah, Medicare Open enrollment starts October 15th through December 7th. So anybody that’s on Medicare is allowed to make a change if they’re into something that they’re not happy with or there’s changes coming up with their prescriptions, I sit with them, go over the changes, make sure that their prescriptions are covered properly at a lower cost if they’re entitled to certain things like Medicaid, extra help to help offset those costs. I get them connected to those resources if they need help in their homes, if they need food, if they need, you know, bug control or whatever. I mean, if I have to pay attention not just for the Medicare, I have to look at the big picture and see they need somebody like I’m dealing with a situation right now. One of the clients, I think she’s depressed and I know she needs resources. So I’m trying to gather my resources to connect her to the right people to get in there and help her out. So it’s beyond just Medicare. Medicare just gets me in the door.

Brian Pruett: [00:04:56] So other than your your passion for helping people that you talked about, why is it specifically seniors that you’re passionate about?

Kathy Springer: [00:05:03] Well, like you said, I mean, they’re they get left behind. You know what I mean? Like, people everybody gets older and they’re and their parents are older. And it’s not like to us, they’re a burden, but they’re just left by their selves. And there’s people that don’t have anybody. So I want to be that person for them to get them. Like I’ve been to people’s houses where they don’t have anybody, they don’t have family or nobody. And I’m like, Hey, you need to go to the senior center and meet some people and, you know, there’s somebody out there that needs to know you not because you don’t want to go and you’re afraid somebody needs to meet you. There’s a reason for that. So I just. I just. I don’t know. I just it’s in my heart.

Brian Pruett: [00:05:37] Are you able to work all over the state of Georgia or just Georgia? Or where are you licensed to work for?

Kathy Springer: [00:05:43] Well, I am. Yes, all of Georgia. But I’m New York. All the states surrounding Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Oregon. I got like 12 states that I and that’s just because people connected me, like, hey, my mom lives in Oregon and and she needs your help. And the only way to help her, I can have a conversation. But if she wanted me to be her agent, I’d have to be licensed in that state. So then I would get the license and you just pay for the license. But wherever I’m needed, I can help anybody.

Brian Pruett: [00:06:12] So I’m curious. I’ve been told, though, all those commercials you see about Medicare, that those are actually not supposed to be running. Is that true?

Kathy Springer: [00:06:19] Well, they get around it. I’m sure they have curveballs that get them in there. But, I mean, I had a client yesterday call me. She said, oh, Humana, Somebody called me and I go, Oh, what’s the phone number? And I called the number and it was on Unlisted. And he’s representing himself as a Humana person, but he’s not. He was just trying to get her to change to him. And I’m like, They do that all the time. I don’t know how they get away with it. And I tell my clients all the time, I love what I do. I love helping you, but I’m not that powerful to stop those phone calls or those commercials. So just know that you’re always going to be in the best plan suited for you because you dealt with me. And I’ve always made sure my clients know I’m your person. If somebody calls and you don’t hear my name, don’t don’t talk to them and you can do the best you can with that. But it doesn’t always work. And then they’re calling me and I have to rechange them back to the plan they had because somebody moved them.

Brian Pruett: [00:07:08] And it’s sad that there’s people out there taking advantage of people. And it’s you know, it’s frustrating coming more and more every day of not just seniors, but a lot of people being taken advantage of different ways. So you and I met networking out in the Paulding County area. You know, you’re doing that way. You also do the Acworth connections. You’ve started coming a little bit to Cartersville. Um, other than your passion for seniors and helping others, why is it important for you to be part of the community?

Kathy Springer: [00:07:30] So we bought a home in Hyrum and I when I moved to Georgia. Initially I was in Smyrna, but I didn’t know anybody, as I mentioned. And honestly, it took me till just last March. I started networking and I should have been doing it all along because not only do you meet great people to connect with in business, I’ve met some great friends and friendship matters to me. And and I’m you know, I’m very passionate about friendships and connecting people like that. Just moved here. They don’t know anybody. Well, guess what? You need to go to this networking and meet these people. So now I’m like this advocate for networking. I think it’s the most amazing thing in the world that they ever came up with.

Brian Pruett: [00:08:05] I’ve mentioned before Stone several times, almost practically, everybody’s been on my show. I’ve met one way of networking or another and heard their story. So that’s that’s why I’m not having trouble filling content for this show. Um, but, um, you. Can you share maybe a testimonial? The positivity of networking, a story that’s benefited you, but also somebody how you’ve been, somebody else.

Kathy Springer: [00:08:33] That’s kind of on the spot, but I guess just becoming friends with people that I hadn’t I would not have met if I didn’t network and getting them connected to maybe somebody that they needed help with, like real estate or financial services. And it’s just benefits in all aspects. I really can’t pinpoint anything in particular, but meeting great friendships, I have got really great friendships from it and I’m so blessed for that that I give that to God for sure because he’s the reason I did it so Right.

Brian Pruett: [00:09:03] Well, I know you love giving back, too, because you’ve come out and supported the trivia nights that I’m doing monthly. And you like having fun, obviously. So, yes, if somebody is listening and wants to learn more about your services and or know somebody who needs your services, how can people get Ahold of you?

Kathy Springer: [00:09:19] Okay. My phone number is (770) 823-0125. And my email is Kathy at Springer Senior Solutions.com and you can go to my website at WWw Springer Senior solutions.com.

Brian Pruett: [00:09:32] You got to give your tagline.

Kathy Springer: [00:09:34] Oh don’t make an assumption when you need resolution. Call Kathy from Springer Senior Solutions.

Brian Pruett: [00:09:38] There you go. There you go. All right. Well, thanks for sharing a little bit of your story. Don’t go away. Because we’re not really done with it yet. But they’ve got two other guests that I’d like for you to listen to. And these guys have actually never met in person. We’ve talked a lot through Facebook. I’ve been introduced from different people. But my next guest, Ken Merritt, thanks for being here this morning, Ken.

Ken Merritt: [00:09:59] Thanks for having me.

Brian Pruett: [00:10:00] You are doing things. You are a Christian, but you want to do uplifting movies. And you’ve got one that’s about finished, right?

Ken Merritt: [00:10:11] It’s pretty much finished. And every time we think it’s finished, then something else happens. You know, they kind of say the rule is it’s you’re not finished writing until the editing is done. While I did write it with some help with from my son, we kind of co-wrote it together. It it’s evolving. You know, I think George Lucas said it best. He said that movies are never done. They’re just abandoned. And I can see that when you when you do this is my first full feature film. I came to the party late and moved here about five years ago and like Kathy just was making was making decent money as a business owner of a commercial cleaning business. But he I just kept thinking about film and story. I kind of majored in it back at Carson-newman College back in 91 was when I graduated, but I got married and and she she wasn’t willing to to go that starving artist route with me and move to that small market and work for nothing until you can finally make it. And and then the industry changed. It went from more of a analog to digital and you know, back then it’s not like today where you can film something on your camera or edit on your laptop. It was more involved in that. And I thought, well, you know, it’s, you know, beyond me now. I’ll just we had children, we got settled in life, we got bills.

Ken Merritt: [00:11:50] And then when I started to to finally get comfortable with material things and and grounded with the family, then there was a divorce. So that was very, very painful and unsettling, as you can imagine. And and that’s very expensive, too. So. So it’s like, you know, building and losing and then rebuilding again. And, you know, who’s got time to chase some crazy dream, right? I mean, I’m too busy trying to survive. And it was not it was not a divorce that was very amicable. You know, a lot of people that went through the process or whatever said, oh, it’ll get better, you know, you know, it it never did. And so between child support, alimony, child support interest, which I’m still paying now, even though the kids are grown and gone, it’s just, you know, just survival. But started the business. The business did well. I like to clean. I like just good, honest work. Even though I have a college degree, I ended up scrubbing toilets and emptying trash cans. And then but but I took a little bit of pride in the fact that I did own the business. But still, it’s, you know, it’s not, you know, a glamor occupation, but it is definitely a need. And the God bless me. I raised, I became from the smallest franchise owner in the in the market, the Knoxville market. It covered all the way to north Georgia, Chattanooga, up to the Tri-Cities and halfway out to to Nashville to become the largest franchise owner in the state.

Ken Merritt: [00:13:40] And it’s just. I’ve learned how to work and not say no. And every time they had a new account for me, they knew that, Hey, can will take it, You know, he’ll take anything. Yeah. It’s, you know, now we’re out of Knoxville. It’s an industrial, you know, three shifts, seven days a week. But yeah, give it to Ken. But I needed it. I mean, because of the because of the divorce and all the expenses and everything else. That was my only way out of the whole is just working, work my way out, you know, and just stay busy and, and keep from getting too depressed because there were a lot of problems with the divorce. And she she had put the children, you know, against me out of some power play and struggle. And they were my life during the marriage. And so after the marriage, you know, I couldn’t see them for a long time. And so I thought, I’m either going to lose myself in the bars or in my life or start a business where there’s always something to do. And I just sank myself in the business. And and and finally, you know, made it to where I could remarry again and and have a life and a family. But I was never able to have children again. And and I guess my call and I’m probably talking way too much.

Brian Pruett: [00:15:06] No, that’s good backstory. Go ahead.

Ken Merritt: [00:15:08] If you you know, I guess I’m an interview dream. But if you need to ask me a question, just throw something at me. But. Maya, my son. I was separated from my children. All three children for for about ten years. And because they lived with her, you know, she I didn’t even know if they could she would read they would read the letters or anything. I mean, it was that bad. And I just did some cyber sleuthing and tried to find out what social sites they were on. And I was already blocked on most of that. But I left a message on whatever I could see him on. One was on Instagram, one was on Twitter, one was on Facebook. And I just said, you know, I’m your dad. Here’s my number. I love you. I’ll always be your dad. And I’ll always I’m always thinking about you. And nothing happened. And then about two years after I left that message, my son finally got out of out of the house, out of school, high school. And he called me and he said, This is Gabe. And I’m thinking, as in my son Gabe, I know exactly where I was on the interstate, what time of the day it was, and I had to pull over just to breathe. I hadn’t talked to him in ten years.

Ken Merritt: [00:16:33] Wow. And I didn’t know where that conversation was going to go. It started off slow, awkward, but then eventually, I mean, we’re very close now. And he he no sooner than he came into my life, he was going to be leaving. He had a desire to go to LA, to be an actor, to work in film. So but during that six months before he left, we we made it. We made good time and made up for some lost time and and grew to have a bond there. And I asked him, I said, Son, can I take a road trip with you? Can I go out there with you? I’m happy for you. But I mean, and when we would talk, I said, Where are you going to work? Where are you going to live? Well, okay. What’s your plan? He and he was going to go to the Groundlings School of Improv there, and a lot of, you know, Saturday Night Live actors and whatnot got their start there. They have auditions there a lot. And he thought maybe the comedy would be a niche that he could start in and move out outside from there. And I said, okay, that sounds like a decent plan, but. Who am I to stop you from? From chasing your dream? And I’ll wish you the best. And. But if I could ride out there with you and have that that bond.

Ken Merritt: [00:18:04] He couldn’t tell his mom and that that I would ride out there with him. She would be very upset that, A, he was with me or B, she didn’t he didn’t ask her to go. So a lot of our dealings were still in secret, even long, long after the divorce. And his two siblings still really haven’t come around. And but I’m much healthier today because of him coming around and and it and it kind of lit a fuze in me because like I said I keep thinking about film and stories and I’d watch movies and I’d talk about them. But and I’ve been told that if you get something in your mind long enough, you need to do something about it. And and so, like Kathy said, if one thing that I could do, all things aside, not not worrying about logistics and what makes sense, just what would I love to do? And the answer was be a filmmaker. Now, I didn’t know how to get started in that at 50 years old, you know, and and it doesn’t doesn’t make sense. And I was living in Knoxville. I didn’t tell a lot of people about why I was moving to Georgia. Part of it was to be closer to family. I’m originally from Warner Robins, Georgia, and I’ve still got family there.

Ken Merritt: [00:19:30] They’re getting my mom’s getting older. Step dad has Type two diabetes and a lot of episodes, so it would be good to to get closer. But the reason that I knew that I didn’t really share with with everybody else is I knew there was a lot of filming going on in Atlanta area and I didn’t know exactly where to start. I didn’t really want a degree. I’ve already got a degree. I just wanted to learn how to make movies. And so when I moved down to Canton, I didn’t know how many more times I’d have to go back to Knoxville because I still had the business. I still have it now, and I hired a manager, some some guy that had been with me for years and since he was like 16 and he was like married and and graduated from college and, and he loved the cleaning business. And and I said, Brad, I’m going to try this absentee ownership. And I don’t know how it’s going to go, but I believe you’re up for the task. But it can kind of give me the capital, you know, as I as I chase this crazy dream. And so that was about five years ago. I started off going to Georgia Film Academy because it looked easy.

Ken Merritt: [00:20:45] I mean, it didn’t require any transcripts or, you know, applications, approvals, anything like that. And and then it just kind of gave you a just a shotgun approach to to to the world of film. And then I started figuring out that I’m attracted to the creative side of it writing, directing, producing, producing. You’re going to have to do just probably like Gary does. It’s you just put on that hat and, and, and, you know, nobody else is going to, you know, tell your story if they, if they don’t hear you or see you doing something and you know, nobody’s waiting around to hear your script and read it and offer you a blank check to to produce it, you know, I didn’t have any faith in that process. I mean, there’s there’s Oscar winning writers that are out of work. Okay. And you’re you’re trying to get into a party that you’re not invited to. And and basically so it’s but with the with the idea of now cameras and equipment are becoming a lot lot less expensive. You know you can you can do things and that may look comparable to what you see on Netflix for just a fraction of the budget. So I’ve probably taken up too much time. No, no, there’s more to say. I just have to shut up.

Brian Pruett: [00:22:18] Sure about the movie, if you don’t mind. Okay.

Ken Merritt: [00:22:20] Um. Jesse’s gift is. Is is the project we’re most proud of. I’ve done several shorts and it then. Then when this. This idea of the feature came about, I had written a short story called Jesse’s Gift. And it was while I was in screenwriting class and they said the, the we were going to get to pitch it before some professionals in a panel, which is a real Hollywood process. And then if if you’re if yours gets selected, then the production class. Across the hallway will make the film. So I thought, okay, so I’ve got free labor here a chance. And I thought, what am I going to do? So I laid it all out on the table. I have a brother that’s a musician. He writes his own stuff, and he’s he’s been frustrated with his career. He lived in Nashville for a while and tried to bang it out there and just couldn’t never could get his break. And he’s he’s even older than I am. And so I came up with the idea that the popular movies at that time were were music dramas like Star Is Born and Bohemian Rhapsody. And so I felt like there was a market for that, you know. And so I came up with a short met a long story short, met a guy on a set I was doing boom operator for.

Ken Merritt: [00:23:46] And we got to talking and I said, You know, I’ve got some ideas if you want to ever hear about them. He said, Yeah, give me a call. He gave me his card. I called him after the shoot was over with, and he he answered the phone. And I mean, he actually seemed interested. It kind of blew me away. I was very nervous about making the call. I have reached out to producers or distributors before and never heard anything back. And I don’t know, I guess I was kind of expecting the same. But, you know, you just keep on trying and and out of all the things that I had shown him, he liked the idea of Jessie’s Girl because it involved a musician. He felt like he’s probably got somewhat of a following already in music and that might help generate, you know, attraction and buzz with the movie. So it got greenlit into a feature film from a 30 minute film. And he he had a grip truck. He has a company called Indie Gear Solutions. And, and and he said, I’ll tell you what I really want to. I’ve been wanting to make a movie that looks like it stands against all the others, but on a fraction of the budget, try out, you know, this package, this rental equipment and and.

Ken Merritt: [00:25:10] Now, you know, you don’t even have to pay me. It’ll just be off the back end of any profits if that happens. So, I mean, that was that was a deal. And and then I quickly found out that a feature length film. Is is a beast. It’s some people say, oh, you’ve done shorts. Just put some shorts together and it doesn’t really happen that way. And I got way over ambitious about the first type of a feature that I ever did because it was involved a lot of locations, a lot of characters, a lot of music, a lot of concerts. And I was doing this right, right in the tail end of Covid, trying to get a concert together, a group of gathering together during Covid. Right. And so now I’m after this, I’m on my way to Johnson City because that big crowd that we were looking for in in the movie that we never did get, he’s he’s gotten a gig at this Blue Plum festival in Johnson City, Tennessee, where there’s average about 10 to 13,000 people. And so we are done with the movie. But we’re not I mean, we’re going to go up there. We’re going to get some footage and do some inserts of some crowd shots and and hopefully that’ll be the last shoot we ever do.

Brian Pruett: [00:26:35] So that’s the majority of it was shot here in Georgia, correct?

Ken Merritt: [00:26:39] It’s yeah, just about all of it was shot in Canton, Woodstock area. It does involve Jesse fallen on hard times by his own doing, his own decisions, his addictions, his habits. And and when his daughter it shows the genealogy of the alcoholism from the grandfather to the to the granddaughter. And when when his daughter tries to commit suicide and goes into the hospital in a rehab, he leaves, he goes homeless, lives off the grid. His wife had already died some time before this, before the movie starts. We show that through flashback. And so he’s homeless in Atlanta. So we do we we are in some real homeless camps. Tent city in. Yeah. And we’ve even gotten accused of trying to exploit that and everything even though we go in with food and and we’d have some tracks there too on the table and and permission before we even run the camera. But it so it it those are those are in Atlanta. But then when kind of like the prodigal son and the father doesn’t really know if Jesse’s even alive or not. He’s been off the grid for for a few years and but he’s he’s dying. He gets stage four cancer and cirrhosis from drinking. And he sends his younger brother to try to see if he can find him.

Ken Merritt: [00:28:08] So he goes down to Atlanta and we show that at the beginning. And then he finds him, brings him back to Timber City, which is Canton. And and then that’s that’s where the fun and the challenge is, you know, take off and he resumes his mantle as a world class songwriter, singer, performer. So yeah, that’s that’s where it’s at. You’re going to see a lot of landmarks that that we all know from the gazebo in downtown Canton. The murals around to one of the concerts was inside of the church I attend, which is Woodstock City Church, which doesn’t look like a church when you’re on the inside. And so. So, yeah, it’s. We haven’t had the premiere yet. We haven’t scheduled any of that just yet. We’re proceeding with a little bit of caution. You know, you only get one chance to make a premiere, and we want to know exactly how we want to do it. But I definitely think we’ve talked about downtown Canton and the historic theater there or, you know, just go. And then after that, going into the markets and maybe maybe instead of first release theaters, maybe go into some of the the historical theaters of the markets like Marietta and Macon and Savannah, you know, that kind of thing.

Brian Pruett: [00:29:38] Awesome. So most of the people that have worked on your film, are they mostly local folks?

Ken Merritt: [00:29:42] They are. And they’re they’re non SAG, which SAG is a is is the union for actors in Georgia. And if you if you go with a if you go with an actor that’s part of the union, then your whole film becomes union. It’s it’s more of a logistical nightmare, you know, just the paperwork and all involved and then the cost. So we wanted to try to do this with, with, with actors that frankly don’t have as much experience. But when the producer saw the level of acting in the short, he he felt like they could they could pull it off in the feature as well. And so and then my brother, who plays Jesse, really hasn’t. He’s not an actor, he’s a musician, and he can perform on stage and you give him a guitar and a microphone. But my my screenwriting teacher said, she said, he might surprise you. You know, just give him a shot. Because what you do have is that realism of these songs are coming out of this person. And, you know, we signed him up for an online acting course because he does live in Knoxville. And while we were while we were writing the feature and everything and his acting just got better and better. And he he became Jesse. And I think I think even when the camera’s not rolling, his, you know, his wardrobe has changed. Now it’s he’s got some tattoos now. It’s really kind of and before that, he was total teetotaler. You know, I mean, here in the movie, he’s he’s either got a drink or a cigaret you know and you know trying to get that that hard voice of whiskey and pain, you know, the kind of thing and he he really just. Um, it’s. It’s taken over. So we don’t know where. Where the old Mickey is. We call him Mickey. His name’s Michael Merritt.

Brian Pruett: [00:31:50] So awesome. So we were talking before we got on air. You? We have a mutual friend, Allie Parker, who’s been doing your makeup for the film, and she’s been very vulnerable and sharing her story, very inspirational. I hope to have her on at some point. But, you know, met her dad. But he’s the photographer, the Cartersville Tribune paper, so. That’s right. Yeah. So. Wow. It’s pretty cool, you guys, the local feel and the local people working with you. If somebody’s listening to you and thinking about having the same passion and dream you have as far as trying to write a film or anything like that, what kind of advice can you give them?

Ken Merritt: [00:32:23] Well, you know, it’s just so cliche to say, just do it, do something and but get started. You know, that first step is the most scary. But sometimes, you know, it’s like that verse that says his word is a light unto our path and a lamp unto our feet. If you’re in the dark and you’re shining a light before your path, you’ll see as far as that light will go, but never more until you take the next step and the light will go forward with you. So I kind of liken it when you even if you don’t know all the answers, take that step. If you feel if you really believe in it, it’s your passion because regret’s a very powerful negative force and nobody wants that at the end of their life. And I and I may not make it in film, you know, be the next whatever, but I we’ve got a movie and a movie forever, right? And we’re still talking about Wizard of Oz and Citizen Kane. And, you know, Godfather, it’s because now we may not be talking about Jesse’s gift, but still, the point is it’s forever. And it’s a huge accomplishment. And I’m very excited about it.

Brian Pruett: [00:33:39] If people want to follow and be able to learn about when the premiere might be, how can people follow this and then learn and where to go see it.

Ken Merritt: [00:33:46] Right. We we’ve got a website off the Rails Productions, dot info, and then you get the pop up box for the newsletter that comes on there. There’s a Facebook page with Jesse’s gift. And we’ll be we’ll be spreading the word even more so once we get the premiere date established.

Brian Pruett: [00:34:10] Awesome. Well, I know you’ve been busy with this project, but why? I mean, you’re obviously very, very passionate about what you’re doing, but why is it important for you to be part of the community?

Ken Merritt: [00:34:17] Well, you know, we moved to to Canada. I didn’t know anything about Canton. And actually we actually wanted to be a little closer into Atlanta, still north north end, because I didn’t want to have to drive through Atlanta to get back to Knoxville and not knowing how many times I’d have to go back. But we initially wanted closer in and just the cost and the budget. So we kept moving further out. And now I think Camden’s about as far out as you can go north and still be in the metro, But it’s grown on me. It really has. I like I love the outdoors and I love that about Knoxville with the Smokies and the Big South Fork and all that nearby. Canton has a lot of that because 45 minutes you’re in the mountains and but I can be on a dirt path walking within 5 or 10 minutes from my house. So. So it’s beautiful. We got the got the water and the and the mountains and the foothills. But, but the people, you know, it just and I always love that about Georgia because I’m from from here. But then I left and went to Appalachian State on a wrestling scholarship with the the real wrestling, as Gary says, the ones that you got to you know, it doesn’t we didn’t have the big crowds at our matches. Right and then and then I it just I miss Georgia. It’s like Lewis Grizzard once said, if I ever get back to Georgia, I’m gonna nail my feet to the ground. I don’t see myself leaving now. Times I felt like I wanted to move closer into Atlanta because you’re closer to the film network stuff. And when you’re getting people on a low budget, it’s easier for them to come out and film with you than all the way out to Canton. But I’m going to have to think long and hard about it because I’ve really gotten attached to the community. And I think the longer I’m here, the the more it’s got a hold on me and I might not ever be able to leave. Right, Right.

Brian Pruett: [00:36:22] Oh, that’s awesome. So, Ken, thank you for sharing your story. And we’re going to now move over to a gentleman. I don’t know how this next guest sleeps, Stone because everything that I know about him, you’re up like 24 hours. I guess we actually met through actually email introduction for a mutual. A friend, Jacob Woodard, introduced us, but also have people who network with me. Joel Lapp. Everybody keeps saying, you need to meet Gary Lamb. So Gary, welcome to the show.

Gary Lamb: [00:36:47] Oh, I’m glad to be here. I’m pumped. So it took us about four times to make this work.

Brian Pruett: [00:36:51] Exactly. Exactly. So I’m glad we were able to do this. You I mean, I don’t know where to start. You’ve got Action Church. You’ve got a wrestling promotion, you’ve got an MMA league, you’ve got Black Sheep Project, your own podcast, your events business. So just share your story. How did you get involved in all this?

Gary Lamb: [00:37:07] Yeah, I mean, I guess I’m a serial entrepreneur and it’s easy from looking from the outside to think he’s got his hands in a bunch of stuff, but I really, really don’t. At the end of the day, I’m in the event business. Everything I do is centered around events. I’m all about creating community. And so that’s just kind of what happens. I got started in it because I moved here probably about 18 or 19 years ago, and I started a church and the church grew really quick and probably one of the largest churches in the county now. And I like to say about five years in that my talent far exceeded my character. And so as the church grew, my ego ego grew bigger. I lost everything. So I lost church, lost my family, lost my marriage, lost my name, ended up on the front page of the paper and and had to come to some conclusions in life. I had to decide was I going to move away, which is what a bunch of people kind of told me to do, move away and get a fresh start. But sounds weird. I’m a pastor, but I’m not the most spiritual person I really felt led to be in Canton. This is where I wanted to be My then, well, my wife, who is now my ex wife, stayed in the area and I wasn’t leaving my children. And so I just decided to pick myself up by the balls and stay in the area and rebuild my reputation. And so that was at 33. I’m 47 now. So that was 14, 15 years ago. And so I was done with ministry.

Gary Lamb: [00:38:26] I was never doing ministry again. And now because of what I’ve been through in life, I deal with a lot of pastors leaving ministry that have effed up their lives, screwed up their life, or just said f ministry altogether because ministry sucks. At the end of the day and we’re leaving it. And you kind of go into this abyss of not knowing what to do and you’ve built your life around pastoring and you don’t realize how that transitions into secular jobs and providing for your family, which is the way men are wired. We’re wired to protect and we’re wired to provide. So immediately you feel like you have to provide. And so I went through that that period. Lucky for me, I can sell ice to an Eskimo. So I went into sales and I did really, really well, but it was lacking to me. And so I had kind of built my previous church on big events. We ran about 12, 1500 people in a movie theater. So I was used to setting up and tearing down every Sunday, putting on a big event every Sunday. And so it was an event in itself every week. And so really what happened is my current wife and I went to Jeep Fest and we were walking around Jeep Fest and I was watching people, tens of thousands of people. Form community. And I saw community at a Jeep festival that I never saw in the church. And I saw people doing life together that I never saw in the church. And I saw people having a good time and rallying around a cause and enjoying life.

Gary Lamb: [00:39:46] And at that time, I was really into barbecue at the time, kind of when I lost everything about three houses down from the house that I was living in at the time. I was leaving one day to go and they had this old smoker sitting out at the end of the road for the trash company to pick up. I went and asked him if I could have it. As you can imagine, as he shared, I lost everything. I wasn’t sleeping. And so I started barbecuing on this smoker. And I would just stay up all hours of the night just tending to that fire. And it sounds really cheesy and really effing stupid, but it kind of saved my life just having something. And so as we were walking around this festival, my wife and I had been together about a year and a half at that time, and I said, I’m going to do this around barbecue. And she looked at me and said, What do you mean? I said, I’m going to put on a barbecue and craft beer festival and I’m going to do it in Canton. And we put on barbecue and brews about six months later and we shut downtown Canton down. I mean, probably 18,000 people showed up. It was insanity. It was we were not prepared and we didn’t know what we were doing. And it was way too many people. And food trucks ran out of food. And I remember we went through almost 150 kegs of beer in about 7.5 hours. We ran out of beer with 30 minutes to go. And it was just kind.

Ken Merritt: [00:40:56] Of your miracle.

Gary Lamb: [00:40:59] No, I didn’t. I don’t have those kind of skills. And so word spread because of that festival and other cities started asking us to bring barbecue and brews there. And so we brought it to LJ and we brought it to Cartersville. And then it kind of grew past that, where people were like, Well, can you do something besides barbecue? And so we started doing other festivals and then we started doing concerts and I just got in the promotion business. And then it’s what I do operate really good in chaos, he said. It sounds kind of basic, but you just got to do it. We just stepped out and we did it and it just evolved into other things. My son at the time was seven years old and he got really into wrestling and so I took him to this old high school gym and we watched wrestling. And it was the most. I. It was the most fucking horrible thing I’d ever seen. Excuse my language. I don’t know if a lot of cussing here or not, but.

Brian Pruett: [00:41:48] Fcc doesn’t.

Gary Lamb: [00:41:49] Listen. Well, that’s fine. Anybody that follows me in my network, all my Facebook knows it’s going to happen. It was horrible. It was the worst thing ever I’d ever seen in my life. And my son loved it. And I came home and told Christine, my wife, I said, I can’t take him to this wrestling thing. I will blow my brains out if I have to go to this every month. And she said, So what are you going to do? I said, Well, I’m going to start a wrestling promotion. It can’t be that hard. These idiots do it. And so we started a wrestling promotion and it just took off and it grew. And I didn’t even know there was awards for wrestling. And we won promotion of the year and promoter of the year. The first four years we broke the Georgia State record. We were the first independent show to have over a thousand people in attendance, and it just kind of took off. So we were in the event business and then Covid happened and that’s a shitty thing to be in, is the event business. And so Covid happened and no one wanted to do events and suddenly about 30 days later my mortgage was due. And so I just decided to give a middle finger to everything and said, We’re doing events and I don’t care if they take us to jail or not.

Gary Lamb: [00:42:46] And so I have a 30,000 square foot building. I have an old grocery store in Canton that the church I pastor meets in, and I’ll get to the church here in a minute. And so we just started running events out of there. We didn’t advertise them. We called it Black Sheep Underground. And you found out through word of mouth. And we did concerts and we ran dance nights and we drew thousands of people to those events. And we probably helped spread Covid all over Cherokee County, or that’s what we were accused of anyway. And but we didn’t care, man. We ran those events all the time and they grew and they grew and they grew. And the church I was pastoring at the time, we never shut down. We refused to shut down. And so we kept meeting. When the Georgia’s shut down, we kept meeting and people kept coming. And so it grew and the events grew. And I met the people at the middle. And Erdogan, I don’t know if you’re familiar with the Mill and Etowah. The mill is a is a 600,000 square foot redevelopment of an old cotton mill. And right about the time that Governor Kemp opened up Georgia, they came to me and said, Hey, do you think you could put a concert on here? We’d like to draw about 500 people and just let people know, Let’s get back to living.

Gary Lamb: [00:43:53] We’ll keep them socially distanced, we’ll keep them separated. And I said, Oh yeah, we’ll run a show here. And so I put a band together during that time called The Guardians of the Jukebox, which is a big 80s tribute band. We had a connection with the rock band Fozzy, Chris Jericho’s the professional wrestler. He’s a singer of the band Fozzy. But when Jericho’s wrestling and he’s on TV, the rest of the band formed this 80s band. And so we put them at the mill and we didn’t draw 500 people. We drew about 5000 people that night and people lost their minds. City of Canton lost their mind. Sponsors of the mill lost their mind. They were not real happy and we had a blast. And we just kind of set the standard. And cities knew that if you wanted to put on events, a lot of event companies went out of business during that time and we didn’t. We thrived. We made more money during Covid than we made, not during Covid. So when everything opened back up, we were about your only option if you wanted to do events. And so we specialize in what we call vendor events, large scale festivals and like I said, barbecue and bruises, our bread and butter. But we do about four of those a year. But we also do downtown alive in downtown Canton.

Gary Lamb: [00:44:55] We do the Ball Ground Rocks Festival. We’re fixing to host one in Monroe, fixing to host one in Augusta, fixing to host one barbecue brews and bacon. We’re fixing to do in Macon with the Macon Bacon baseball team inside their baseball stadium. And so we do probably about 30, what we call large scale events a year. And so large scale means they draw thousands of people. Along with that, we run 12 wrestling shows every month or excuse me, a year, once a month. And then in January we started a fight league, a MMA, Muay Thai, just a fight league. It is what it is. It’s sanctioned through the athletic commission. Um, a lot of hoops you got to jump through in Georgia. Very strict. The commission is. And so you got to float a lot of money to do it up until the time. And so because of that, we’re compared to Tennessee where it’s a lot easier to do. There’s not a lot of promotions here in Georgia. There’s 1 or 2. And so we held our first fight January 14th, I believe, and had about 950 people there. We held our second show May 6th and we had to cap it at about 1300, considering our occupancy loads, about 850. So at about 1300 people, we cut it off and we’re gearing up for August 19th. We’re running four of those shows.

Gary Lamb: [00:46:10] We can’t run those monthly. They’re too much work. And so we’re running those. And a matter of fact, tickets went on sale for our August 19th show yesterday, and we sold out of front row most of our tables, half a second row in about two hours. And so we’ve hit a nerve. And but they’re more than events. We create community. And so that’s what we do. And we create things that allow people to escape the reality that most people think their life sucks. They go to a job to work for someone they don’t like to make money to spend on things. They don’t need to impress people they don’t like. And so most people. Are just in the most people don’t have the balls to step out and say, at 50 years old, I’m going to start making movies. Most people don’t say at 29 years old, I’m going to move from New York to Atlanta and start over. And so most people, they do, man, because society has told us, school has taught us, the world has taught us that you go to school, you get in debt, you go to a job, you retire from that job when you’re 70 and maybe for five years, the last five years of your life, you get to work. You get to live on Social Security and enjoy life and called the rat race.

Gary Lamb: [00:47:18] It’s called the rat race. Right. And so I take pride in the fact that we put on events that for a couple of hours, people get to escape reality and they don’t get to think about the fact that the car payments due or the house payments due or that their marriage is not good, or that their teenagers don’t respect them or that they don’t respect themselves. And so that’s what we do. We really stress community in all of our events. And so it’s not a wrestling show, it’s community. I mean, it sounds really stupid, but if you came a couple of months, you would see that month after month it’s people. It’s like a family reunion. People start waiting in line for wrestling tickets at noon. They start tailgating in our parking lot at 1:00, fight night. They get there and they arrive and it’s they’re seeing people they haven’t seen and they’re the riches are in the niches. And they’re there. They’re gathered around these small activities that maybe mainstream doesn’t like, but they’re getting to be around people that they like. Wrestling, to me, is one of the weirdest, stupidest, oddest things I’ve ever done in my life. But you know what? To those people that are into it, they feel the same way and they’ve been judged by everybody. So they come there and now they’re suddenly around 5 or 600 people that are into the same thing they’re in, and they get to be normal.

Gary Lamb: [00:48:22] And our festivals, they create community. Probably 90% of our festivals are held in downtown areas. So we go to areas, we bring community there, we bring thousands of people. Our Cartersville event that we just had had about 17,000 people throughout the day had about a month ago. So 17,000 people come to downtown Cartersville and they support the businesses and they support the restaurants and they support that economy and they support the hotels and community happens. And it’s interesting to show up and see people show up with a shirt from 2016 or 2015 and they come and they find you and they remember, man, they’ve come every year and it’s crazy. We’re spoiled and we’re lucky in my family. I tell my kids all the time, You take for granted that we’re going 4 or 5 vacations a year. You take for granted that you turn 16 and I was able to get you a car. For a lot of people, this is their vacation. They plan their vacation around being able to come out for a day or their hard earned money and a lot of disposable income is not out there. And so it’s not something we take lightly. So we try to create community. So so I do that. And on top of that, I do pastor a church called Action Church.

Brian Pruett: [00:49:25] And I love the name, by the way.

Gary Lamb: [00:49:27] Yeah. When I lost my other church, I was done and I said I was never doing ministry again. I deserved to lose it. I mean, I should have lost it. I was done with church. Never was done with God, never got bitter at God. It was my fault, you know, I was the one who couldn’t keep my pecker in my pants. So, you know, so it is what it is. And but I never went through that angry stage. I never went through that mad stage. But I did get turned off by the church. I got turned off by the business of the church. I got turned off by budgets and staffing and HR and elders telling you what you can and can’t do. And so I had a group of people asked me to start another church. That’s normal. When you leave a church that big, even if you leave on bad terms, there’s people that still thankfully, there’s still people that love you and believe in you. Not many, not many of the church. About 1500. I had 13 people approach me so asked me to start another church. And so I set some criteria for them. I said we would never start a church until the church I had lost found a new pastor. They took a long time to find a pastor. I like to think that I’m irreplaceable.

Gary Lamb: [00:50:26] That’s really not the truth. Because the next pastor is growing the church about five times bigger than it was when I was there. But they wanted to make sure they had the right guy. I said I wanted to have a job that was paying my bills. I was never going to take a salary from the church because I was never going to have anybody accused me of getting back in ministry for money. And so 11 years in, I don’t take a salary from that church at all. And I said to people, I have to ask me to do it. I’m not just going to say we’re starting a church. So I had this group of people come to me, 13 people, and I said, Yeah, here’s the deal. We’ll start a church. I said, I’m never taking a salary. We’re going to move to the poorest part of town. And so we did. So we moved to exit 16 off of in downtown Canton off 575, which is a very it’s the poorer part of our town. It’s the Spanish speaking part of our town. We leased about 5000ft² of the old IGA grocery store and we started the church. And I said, Here’s the deal. We’re not doing small groups, we’re not doing ministries, we’re not doing youth groups, we’re not doing any of this stuff.

Gary Lamb: [00:51:18] We’re going to gather together on Sundays and we’re going to celebrate, and then we’re going to serve our community. We’re going to live out our damn name, and we’re going to take action in the community. And that’s what we’re going to do. And so what we have done from day one is we run one of the largest food pantries in the county. We run the only the only emergency warming shelter in the county. And so when temperatures drop below 32 degrees, our building turns into the warming shelter for those that don’t have a place to go, that don’t have. Of a place to stay. Maybe they do have a home. But believe it or not, there’s people with homes in this community, especially the more northern you get that don’t have heat but don’t even have running water. And so they can come to the building and stay. So we’ve run the warming shelter now for that. Up until Covid, we ran a very large clothing closet, Salvation Army, right before Covid moved in right next door to us. They do that. So we allowed them to do that. We have addiction meetings. We don’t run any of them. They’re not church related because again, we do Sunday morning and that is it. Aa or Na meets in our building at least three nights a week.

Gary Lamb: [00:52:17] For years we ran the 24 hour room, meaning from Christmas morning to New Year’s morning we had an AA meeting every hour on the hour for seven straight days, and we just serve our community. Bethesda Community Clinic uses our parking lot every Monday morning to set up for their free clinic. We have 32,000ft² now. And so we have a building, we call it the Action Building. We don’t call it a church building. The church just meets in the action building on Sunday morning. And it’s just a hub for ministry that we don’t do. I mean, but we’ve got the building. If you’ve got the ministry, come operate out of there. My deal with the church now is I don’t take a salary, but I use the building for whatever I want to use it for. So it’s my I call it my 32,000 square foot playground. And it’s got hundreds of thousands of dollars in sound equipment and lighting equipment and video equipment. So we run wrestling out of there. We run our MMA show out of there, We run concerts there. We’ve had national touring bands. Fozzy Matter of fact, Fozzy funny. Fozzy was in at center stage in Atlanta last night, but their two previous Atlanta dates before that were in our building. They keep all of their stuff in our building.

Gary Lamb: [00:53:20] We’ve run country concerts out of there. Tomorrow night we have a dance night with a 90s DJ coming in for a fundraiser for one of the Cherokee Bruins that had a semi-pro football team that has wife has cancer. And so there’s always something going on there. There’s always something happening there. And then on Sunday morning, there’s a church service and the church is just a building, so we don’t really care where they meet. We’re in danger of losing that building. It’s been for sale now for years. We know and probably the next four years. What has saved us is we’re in a shopping center and Family Dollar 25 years ago had the greatest real estate lawyers in the world. And so they’ve got about four years left on their lease. And so no one’s buying the building for the rentals. They’re buying it to tear it down. But you cannot break the family dollar contract. So we got about four years. We’ll figure out what’s next after that. But but I do I just start things. I have a brand personal brand called the Black Sheep Project and find that on Facebook. It’s a clothing line. I have a podcast. A matter of fact, I’ve recorded about 8 or 9 episodes of the podcast and haven’t launched any of the podcasts. I’ve put soundbites up on Facebook and TikTok as we’ve been building up to it.

Gary Lamb: [00:54:25] And then I run Revival Events Group. Like I said, that we run probably 30 to 40 large events a year, and whenever I get a wild hair, my ass will start something else new because I get bored very easily. And so that’s just what I do. And man, I enjoy life. I live life by my own rules and don’t really care if anybody likes it or not. I don’t care if the church likes it or the unchurched likes it. I don’t really care. It’s the most freeing thing in the world to live life by your own rules and to know you’re responsible for your own income and you don’t have to follow what everyone else says. And so I stayed in this area and someone told me one time, I think it’s the most meaningful thing that I’ve ever been told me. They said they said I outlived my past and that was cool to me. And but I still run into people that want to bring that up and I don’t live there. It was 14 years ago. If you knew if you knew Gary 14 years ago, you don’t know Gary now. You think I’m arrogant, cocky now, you should have seen me 14 years ago. This is common, humble. Gary. So that’s my story in a nutshell.

Brian Pruett: [00:55:18] Well, difference between cocky and confidence. And I think you’re confident. Yeah, so.

Gary Lamb: [00:55:23] I’m cocky, too. Let’s not fool.

Brian Pruett: [00:55:24] Ourselves. Are you tired yet, Stone?

Stone Payton: [00:55:27] No, but I thoroughly enjoyed listening to all of these conversations.

Brian Pruett: [00:55:32] The the wrestling thing, I’m a huge wrestling fan, grew up not the not the current type of wrestling, you know, But, you know, you got one of my favorite guys in Jake the Snake Roberts has been coming around. Yeah, that’s just pretty cool. Yeah.

Gary Lamb: [00:55:44] So when I started this, I went to we have a guy that goes to our church named Rich Ward. Rich Ward is the guitar player for the band Fozzy. He’s also the founder of the Guardians of the Jukebox. And because he had grown up and been in the band with Chris Jericho for so long, I said, Man, I want to start this wrestling promotion. And he told me, he said, You need to meet this kid named Dylan. And Dylan was a video guy that does all the video editing for DDP Yoga, which is Diamond Dallas Page is yoga thing out in Smyrna. And he goes, Man, he wants to wrestle. He’s always wanted to put on a wrestling promotion. He’s the best production and video guy you’ve ever met. So I met Dylan, brought him on as a partner. I put up all the money. Dylan does all the work, and I’m through. Dylan, We’ve met Dallas. We’ve met Buff Bagwell. Buff Bagwell was at our show last night. We met Jake the Snake Roberts. We met Scott Hall. Um, Cody Rhodes last independent wrestling appearance ever was at Southern Honor, which is the promotion I own. Before AAUW started, they owned no footage. So Chris Jericho and Kenny Omega did a run in at one of our shows where they could get footage for the first pay per view for. Because they didn’t own any of the footage. New Japan owns it all. And so it’s just it goes back to community and it goes back to connection.

Gary Lamb: [00:56:49] You talked about connection earlier. Connection is probably the most valuable currency there is in the world. You talked about networking. And so just through knowing Rich, I got introduced to Dylan who got us introduced to some of the biggest names in wrestling, and the promotion is taken off. Your average independent wrestling promotion in Georgia runs about 70 to 80 people, and we probably averaged between 5 and 600 people a show. And but it’s great. Our building is just made for it. I mean, with the screens and the lights and the smoke and the parking. And I love when newcomers pull into our parking lot because it looks like a shithole. It’s an old crappy shopping center. But then you walk into our building and it is it truly is amazing. It’s truly amazing when the lights are out and we painted everything black. Black covers a multitude of sins is what I say. It covers all the nastiness in the building. And so the focal point is the stage with the haze and the lights and the moving lights and, you know, two and they’re probably 40 foot wide screens and the rampway coming down and it just has that old school WCW feel to it and it’s really resonating. I know more about wrestling now than I ever wanted to know in my life. And so it’s it’s interesting and it’s definitely a niche thing and it’s the only thing I’ve ever done where if you tell 100 people about it, only one person is into it, but that one person is into it and they know a hundred other people that are into it.

Gary Lamb: [00:58:10] We have people that drive down to our show every month from Missouri, drive down from Virginia. We have people flying from Canada because people that are into this independent wrestling thing are into this independent wrestling thing, and they’ve always been kind of the nerdy outcast thing. And then we created something that was kind of cool and they want to be part of it. And so I enjoy it and I don’t do much with it now. I promote it. I’m a promoter. My wife calls me the redneck P.T. Barnum. And so that’s what I do. I just promote I operate really good in chaos, and I know how to draw crowds and I’m not good at much of anything else. We had a couple of college interns that wanted to follow me around and learn from me, and I’m like, You can follow me around, but I don’t. Excuse me. I don’t know what to tell you. I don’t know what I’m doing. I just do it. And, you know, I’m sure a systems person would tell you I have a system and they would figure it out. But in my mind, I just operate in chaos. I remember back when I was at my previous church, about two years in, I got this awesome idea.

Gary Lamb: [00:59:05] I said, You know, we’re going to do we’re going to drop 100,000 eggs from a helicopter for Easter Egg. And we did at Bowling Park and we shut down 575 about four miles in both directions. And riots broke out. And it was crazy. And it was the biggest cluster ever in the city of Cannon was going to arrest me for inciting a riot the night before Easter. And but we drew a lot of people and it was freaking fun. And I had a blast and dude had a heart attack and died in the middle of it. And man, it was crazy. I still see people wearing shirts as I survived the Easter Egg drop. They’ll find him at Goodwill and stuff, so it’s always my favorite thing. So I’ve just been in big events forever and I don’t know why. I have an amazing I call it my tribe and I have an amazing tribe of people who buy into my craziness. And do they buy into what I want to do? Because I’m convinced, again, people want to be part of something bigger than themselves. And I give them that opportunity to be something bigger because we’re not going to do anything small if doing something small. And so we’re going to launch it quick. We’re not going to stretch it out forever. And my tribe is amazing and they step up and there’s no idea that I could ever do that.

Gary Lamb: [01:00:00] They’re they’re not just on board because they know I’m going to make it happen. And it may elevate Fight league is the current thing. I mean we started that this year and man, we’re breaking records in Georgia and it’s been very profitable and it’s been a blast. And that’s a whole nother world that has opened up to me. But again, it looks like I do a lot of different things. I don’t. I just do events. And so the skeletons and the bones are all the same. The skin’s a little bit different on each and every one of them, and so it works out well. My wife owns a t shirt company. She started that t shirt company. She traveled about 32 weeks out of the year before Covid. We looked at our figures and we’re spending about six, six figures a year on t shirts for our events. So I just told her to start a t shirt company to to provide for us. Now, I can’t even get her to make t shirts for me. It’s grown so much. She’s so busy doing everybody else’s t shirts. So we’ve been blessed, but we’re just not afraid to do shit. We just step out and do it. And if it fails, it fails. And I’ve done plenty of that’s failed. So we just ignore that and don’t brag about that in the stories and keep on going. Right?

Brian Pruett: [01:00:53] So we’re similar in ways I’ve been told I can sell ice to Eskimos. So nice to hear somebody else can do that as well. We should maybe talk about how we can do that together. An ice business? Yes.

Ken Merritt: [01:01:02] I just need to find the Eskimos that need it.

Brian Pruett: [01:01:04] Right? Right. Alaska. That’s melting up there. But I also. I actually do the smaller events. I like doing the community stuff as well. Right now I specialize in doing community trivia events where I’m rotating charities in Bartow County. I do want to talk to you because I have an idea for I’d like to see about possibly doing something as a wrestling show for a certain non profit.

Gary Lamb: [01:01:24] So you live in Bartow, then?

Brian Pruett: [01:01:25] I live actually in the Kennesaw Acworth line, but I do most of my stuff in Bartow.

Gary Lamb: [01:01:28] How’d you end up in Woodstock? Doing a podcast?

Brian Pruett: [01:01:30] This man right here.

Gary Lamb: [01:01:31] Gotcha.

Brian Pruett: [01:01:32] We we have the same things, both nonprofits. And that’s the passion of helping people like everybody else. And it just came. One thing led to another, and here we are.

Gary Lamb: [01:01:39] Yeah. I love Cartersville, man. Cartersville Cars was our biggest festival. Yes. That’s awesome. Like Cartersville does it right. And Cartersville, a lot of cities do a lot of events and it minimizes them, Cartersville says. We do two events a year. I do both of them. We’ve been there seven years now. They don’t question anything we do. I get to do whatever how I want to do it. And man, they give us the keys to downtown and we blow the doors off that place every year. And there’s so much potential if they can ever figure out high density housing in downtown, they’ll rival Woodstock. Yeah, but the high density housing is not there to keep the town going right now.

Brian Pruett: [01:02:12] No, it’s it’s just amazing, though, that it is amazing with certain areas open up. I see this every month. So I’ve been averaging 60 to 70 people a month for the trivia, which is kind of cool that we meet at Saint Angelo’s there at Lake Point. I also do some business expos for charities. And my biggest event coming up, for those of you interested, is a locker room chat. I’ve got seven former NFL football players, a former Major League Baseball player, former professional soccer player and a rodeo guy coming. And we’re raising money for all in all ministries, who is a run by a gentleman who has an incredible story. He was on here a few weeks ago telling it named Kevin Harris. And anyway, he’s building and wants to build a rehab facility for men with addictions because of his experience. And so that’s my biggest event. But I look forward to maybe you and I talking and doing some other other. So other than why you shared that, just give me a why is important for you to be part of the community than providing for the community.

Gary Lamb: [01:03:12] Because we weren’t created to do life alone. And so. Not to get super biblical and get super spiritual, but God created everything. He created the heavens and the earth and he created the birds and the animals, and he created the days and the night. And then he created man. And he looked at man and man was alone. He said, It’s not good for man to be alone. And I get that. It’s easy to say he made a helpmate for him, but I also think he made community for him. Him. I joke that the Lone Ranger, his effing name is the Lone Ranger. If anybody was built to do Life alone, had Tonto. And so we’re not made to do life alone. And I think that these things right here, these phones have minimized and devalued what the word friend means, and they’ve devalued what connection means and they’ve devalued what community means. And so I get that we’re moving more and more and more virtual and we’re moving more and more away from face to face. But there’s just something powerful about face to face community and being active in the community. And I’m just not wired to live in a community that I’m not making an impact in. And I have went to war with my city. Me and Canton have went to war during Covid. We threw doubt. I gave them both it two middle fingers to both of them and did what I wanted to do. And I threw down with the council.

Gary Lamb: [01:04:20] I threw down with the police. I threw down with the mayor. But at the end of the day, they also knew when the shit hit the fan and they needed somebody, I would be there for them. And that’s important to me. You ain’t got to like me. I just want you to know I’m there for you. Even if I don’t like you, I’m going to be there for you. And we’ve mended fences since then a little bit. I’ve tried a little bit, but not too hard. But. But a community is just important to me. I can’t. I don’t know. I’m just not wired to live in an area or be part of an area where life is not happening and communities not happening. And I do think lack of connection is the number one thing that I don’t care if it’s suicide, depression, whatever it is. I think if you take it back to the root issue, it’s always going to go back to lack of connection. Now, obviously, I’m not a psychiatrist. I’m not trained in any of that, but I’ve been around long enough to know connection is just vital. I know when I lost everything and I was living in someone’s basement and hiding because, you know, for about I joke that I hid for 29 days. So because on day 30, Fedex came to the door of the place where I was staying and my ex wife had sent me a Fedex package with all the bills, and I realized that my mortgage didn’t give a shit, that I had had an affair and the power company didn’t give a shit that I had an affair and the car payment didn’t give a shit that I had an affair and the bills were still due.

Gary Lamb: [01:05:32] And so I realized I had to go in there and shave my face and go out and start something. And I went and started a business at that time too. And but when I got back around people, that’s when I began to, to feel alive again and feel connection again. And it’s funny because I’m an introvert. I know you probably find that very surprising. I am a huge introvert. You put me on the stage in front of 5000 people and I’m great. You put me in a room of five people and man, I’m quiet. I don’t I don’t like two way conversations. I want to I like one way conversations where I’m the one giving the conversation. And so I my wife jokes and says, I put on festivals That way I don’t have to be part of the festival. I don’t I don’t I don’t want to go hang out and chill and do that kind of stuff. But just being around people energized me again. And there’s just power in connection. I think we saw that during Covid. I God, I don’t want to be controversial here. People died of Covid. But I also think. So many of them died from isolation. And I know my wife’s grandmother died not of cancer, but once she had cancer, her grandfather had Covid and he was in the hospital.

Gary Lamb: [01:06:36] And three weeks later, I mean, of being isolated, I knew enough people at the hospital where I allowed them. They allowed me in. I mean, I remember like something out of it. I had to suit up and go in there and and he was done like just not being around people. And I again, I don’t want to minimize Covid. Please don’t misunderstand me, but I do. I think isolation was a huge factor in that during that time was, you know, people are sick and they’re sicker than they’ve ever been and now they can’t be around their family. And, I don’t know, man connections, just powerful. And I think we’re seeing it now. He talked about I can’t remember the name of the event he talked about he’s going to. But, you know, for about a year, events were dying and festivals were dying, and now they’re thriving again. And people want to be around people because there’s energy in people. There’s energy in this room today because there’s five of us sitting here that we would not get if we were all on our computers. We could have done this from our computers. Today, technology’s there and and the people listening would have known no difference. You know what I mean? But there’s energy and feeding off each other here. And so it’s important for me to create community and be part of the community that I’m in.

Brian Pruett: [01:07:36] You talk about festivals, so like I said, this past Monday was my anniversary, so I took my wife to Decatur, Alabama for the hot air balloon festival. And it was slammed, Right. You know, because you’re right. I mean, I still there’s there’s still people today who are still suffering from the lack of. Being able to meet with people from from Covid. So. All right. Before we wrap this up and again, I appreciate you all coming and sharing this. I got one more question I’m going to ask the three of you. I always like to end this show with you guys, sharing a quote, a word, a nugget, some positivity for people to listen and take today and the rest of 2023 and beyond with. So, Kathy, you start, please.

Kathy Springer: [01:08:12] One thing that I’ve always said to my son, I do have a child. He’s 34 years old. I said, you can do whatever you want if you put your mind to it. And I said it to him all the time, every day. And he strived by that. And I said it to everybody. Like, don’t ever say you can’t do something. That word can’t is not in my vocabulary. I just said it now, but I don’t use it in any way, shape or form, so. All right.

Gary Lamb: [01:08:35] She’s 29 with a 34 year old man.

Kathy Springer: [01:08:37] I say the same thing. I’m like, wait a minute. How did you turn 34? I’m 34.

Gary Lamb: [01:08:40] Exist where her math.

Brian Pruett: [01:08:41] Doesn’t add up there somehow I know that there’s things you.

Gary Lamb: [01:08:44] Can do. Anything.

Brian Pruett: [01:08:45] Exactly. Ken, what you got?

Ken Merritt: [01:08:47] Well, I’m going to give you two quotes, if you don’t mind. I think it must have been somebody like Zig Ziglar or Tony Robbins. It said you get where you want in life by helping enough other people get what they want. Zig Ziglar So if you if you don’t know which way to go, go help somebody, go help somebody like Gary or Kathy or somebody like you that are doing something good for somebody that matters. And then another another thing that got me through a lot because I had a lot of fear working through divorce and then the accusations that that she put upon me and to the point where I was sitting in front of a 12 man jury and didn’t know whether my life was going to change drastically when they came back in and gave the. So it was. And you made.

Gary Lamb: [01:09:35] Her real mad.

Ken Merritt: [01:09:36] I yeah. And it’s like the the tear jerker of the week. It’s like my life has been a movie because this doesn’t happen to normal people. But it happened. I know a guy.

Gary Lamb: [01:09:45] That makes movies.

Speaker7: [01:09:48] Yeah, you should make a movie about it. Let’s do an email introduction.

Ken Merritt: [01:09:50] You know what? You know, some people say that I’ve got a lot to say in that regard, but you got to dig up some some harmful stuff. Maybe I need to get away from it a little bit longer before I start going back to it, if that makes sense. But but the other thing that I saw a quote in one of my motivational books or devotional books, it said, courage is not the absence of fear, but moving on through the face of it. And it it I was validated in being afraid, but not in in Paralyzation. Moving on. It’s okay to be afraid. But if. But don’t let it stop you. To keep moving. Keep, keep, keep moving through it. And that’s. That’s. I’ve used that verse so many or that quote so many times.

Brian Pruett: [01:10:39] Awesome. Gary.

Gary Lamb: [01:10:41] Uh, the one message I always tell everyone, because there’s not a day that goes by, I don’t have someone reaching out to me who wants to step out and follow their dreams. And I always I want them to understand this. You’re going to fail. But failure is not fatal and that’s huge to me. I think that was the biggest thing when I felt I don’t looking back now, I don’t even know that I failed. I mean, but by the world standards, when I failed. At first I thought it was fatal. And then this amazing thing happened. I went to bed and the sun came up the next morning. And like I told you, on day 30, the bills came and I was still alive. And I ventured back out from the basement and the sun was shining. And I drove across the street because it was on 20 where I was staying. Actually, I live in the neighborhood now. I was able to buy a home in the neighborhood now that I was living in someone’s basement, homeless, you know, 14 years ago. And I drove across the street and went to Chick fil A and Chick fil A tasted like Chick fil A, and life went on.

Gary Lamb: [01:11:36] And so failure sucks, but it’s not fatal. And I think too many people are afraid to step out. They live in fear again, not to be, you know, the Bible. There’s 365 times the Bible says, do not fear. I always say it’s one for every day of the year. And we failure. The fear of failure just keeps people from doing, You’re going to fail. I have done shit that did not work, but it’s not fatal. If you can screw it up. I’ve screwed it up, man. I mean, like. Bankruptcy. Marriage. Kids. My word. Everything. I keep screwing up all the time. So, I mean, like, you know, I just kind of wears a badge of honor now, and I just want people to go in with the expectations. I’m going I’m going to screw it up. And so but we’re going to pick our pieces up and move on. So that’s my big thing, is you’re going to fail and failure is not fatal. So don’t allow it to be fatal.

Brian Pruett: [01:12:29] It doesn’t define you. And as John Maxwell book talks about fail forward. Yeah, you know, it’s awesome. So the one thing I like to do too, I think that we’ve gotten away from and I’m sure this a few weeks ago is just the simple. Thank you. So, Kathy, thank you for what you do for the seniors. Ken, thank you for sharing and providing an example of following your passion and your dreams. And Gary, thank you for what you do for the community. Oh, thanks for having me.

Gary Lamb: [01:12:50] Thanks for.

Kathy Springer: [01:12:51] Having us.

Brian Pruett: [01:12:51] So everybody out there listening, let’s remember, let’s be positive. Let’s be charitable.