Bringing Patriotism Back: Chris White from Freedom Hard

Chris Albert 00:00:00 (link to this point)

What's going on, everybody? Welcome to this edition of the Warrior Soul podcast. This is Chris Albert. I'm super excited today. I've been listening to Waylon Jennings all morning.

It's been awesome. Anyways, today's episode contains two of my favorite subjects. We've got patriotism, and we've got veteran entrepreneurship. So we have Chris White from Freedom Hard coming on today. He's one of my marine brothers.

Came into entrepreneurship after he got out of the Marine Corps, and he wanted to create a brand that was centered around unapologetic patriotism. And if you check out his website, he's got this really awesome video, super patriotic video. He does really funny videos. Lots of humor in there. Really great guy too.

Awesome beard as well. And so we'll get into some good conversations today about good old America. And, you know, all humor aside, guys, I mean, we're in a time right now where people seem to be afraid to be patriotic. And, I know a lot of the people who listen to this podcast aren't afraid to be patriotic, but it seems like it's few and far between. And loving America if if loving America is wrong, I don't wanna be right, guys.

I do not want to be right here because we do live in the greatest country in the world. I can do things like sit here, record this podcast, see what's on my mind, and I don't have to worry about anybody coming to my door and trying to kill me. And if they do, they're in for a little bit of a surprise. Yeah. Anyways, so Chris White's coming on today, and it's gonna be an awesome show.

Just a note from our sponsor, F Bomb Nutrition, a really great product put out by awesome people. These guys are doing their best to support the troops. They're sending packs of their f bombs out to stationed troops around the world right now as we speak. They wanted to do this. They they asked me to try and search out units that were deployed.

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So check them out. And with that, let's get started with the show.

Chris Albert 00:03:21 (link to this point)

This is Chris Albert, and I'm here to remind you of one thing. Someday, you're going to die. Now that's not some morbid statement or scary idea. It's solid fact. Your time here on this earth is limited.

And we need to be reminded of this as much as possible for one simple reason, to live your best life while you can. This is the Warrior Soul Podcast.

Chris Albert 00:04:00 (link to this point)

What is going on everybody? Welcome to the Warrior Soul podcast. I am here today with Chris White from Freedom Hard. How you doing today, Chris?

Chris White 00:04:12 (link to this point)

Good, man. Thanks for having me. Appreciate it.

Chris Albert 00:04:14 (link to this point)

Yeah. No problem, man. So let's start right off with this. Tell us a little bit about Freedom Hard and brand you've been putting out there.

Chris White 00:04:23 (link to this point)

Yeah. So last year, February 28 was whenever I decided to go ahead and create the brand Freedom Hard, and when I created the brand, I basically came up with the name and then, you know, went through a couple of iterations of what what it was not, because it was either secured by a social media platform or a tagline was already taken. So after about four or five tries, figured out Freedom Hard was kind of like nonexistent from the domain standpoints, the taglines, all that good stuff, and so I created that, secured the sites, but I didn't really do much about it. I didn't do much with it for a few weeks. Most of that time was I was trying to figure out what a logo could and should be, So your typical trial and error, go through the motions of figuring out what not to do, what what not to be about, what what you don't want to be perceived as, was kind of my thought process as I was trying to create the brand.

And so fast forward not too far after that, maybe a couple months really, and I I quickly got up to like thirty five, forty thousand followers on Facebook, and then I thought, okay, now's a good time to go ahead and incorporate. So I think it was June fifth last year is whenever I actually incorporated to to become an actual company.

Chris Albert 00:05:39 (link to this point)

Nice. Nice. So what was the big reason behind it? Like, what gave you the the entrepreneurial itch there? What what why why'd you do it in the first place?

Chris White 00:05:48 (link to this point)

Yeah. So 2016 came to a crashing halt for me. November 17, I was, you know, stabbed in the back by my business partner, which was six weeks before I was supposed to get married, and so December 30 was when I was supposed to get married, 2016, and thirty hours before then, my fiance at the time decided to leave with her two kids thirty hours before the wedding. So I ran away to Mexico on a one way ticket, spent just under two weeks there, came back, spent six weeks day drinking all the alcohol from the wedding that I purchased that never took place, and about six weeks of going through all the alcohol in my garage, I got a message from one of my buddies whose name was also Chris said, I think you should get into marketing and so not really knowing what that meant or what, you know, how to take that and run with it. I sat on it for about three or four days and then three or four days later I created Freedom Hard.

Chris Albert 00:06:45 (link to this point)

For those who can't see us on video right now, my mouth is wide open. Holy fuck. What Jesus Christ, dude. I I mean, like, you had that happen and then literally spent, like, like, I guess I can't finish the sentence right now. That's fucking crazy.

Chris White 00:07:04 (link to this point)

Yeah. It's really crazy. It it was a huge, huge thing whenever this whole thing happened as well. In fact, it was such a big deal that, you know, the majority of people over the first couple of days didn't believe me, but it didn't take long after because when I had to put the announcement out there, I had to inform a 138 people that were, you know, RSVP'd to the wedding, you know, not to show up, and a lot of these were already literally in the air coming from all corners of The United States whenever they were trying to come to the, you know, the wedding and stuff, and eight hours before the rehearsal dinner, which was supposed to take place at my house, I've got I've got my groomsmen, you know, messaging me literally saying, is it okay if I bring a date tonight? What should I wear?

What should I not bring? And all this stuff, and I'm like, she literally just took everything out of the house and left, and nobody nobody believed me, and then they showed up and they're like, holy shit, she really is gone. So, yeah, you fast forward, got a I retreated a bit to Mexico. I went to Cancun for a bit, and then came back and created Freedom Hard after I drank all the alcohol from that wedding that never took place.

Chris Albert 00:08:14 (link to this point)

So was there a moment where you said, alright. I'm I'm I'm, you know, in alcoholic oblivion right now. I need to get the hell out of this. I gotta stop doing this and I gotta put put everything back together. Like, was there a single moment or was it just kind of a thing that added up where your buddy just said, hey, try this online marketing thing and and and go ahead and something snapped inside of you?

Chris White 00:08:34 (link to this point)

Well, it's it's it's mostly the latter. It's mostly when the other Chris said, you know, you know, quit day drinking all the all the alcohol basically and get out there and fucking do something. Put your head out of your ass essentially. And so, yeah, I was drinking my misery away or whatever. Had my tail tucked between my legs because I went through some pretty tough shit to to, you know, at the end of twenty sixteen and then the beginning of Jan of twenty seventeen as well.

And so basically he sent that message to me and I thought, okay, well, you know, what does what does that mean? What does it not mean? How should I go about doing that? And then it took about three or four days basically to process it and then poof, I created Freedom Hard and it's kind of taken off like a rocket, I guess.

Chris Albert 00:09:15 (link to this point)

That's pretty crazy. I I mean, I got a kind of a similar story. I I got a divorce. I was living out of my car and then got into online training, and I became personal training from there. And then, you know, in that comeback, I came up with Warrior Soul and started my brand that way.

But it's just funny because like all these things seem to be started by immense pain, and sometimes you need to get that immense pain in order to create something pretty cool. So so where'd you take it from there? What was your first step?

Chris White 00:09:47 (link to this point)

So I just started creating, like, these funny memes and and just putting patriotic posts onto social media. You know, the whole brand stands for using humor as a platform to display patriotism. So for most people to understand why, you most people just see the humor and they're like, oh, it's funny. Well, there's a reason why it's funny, and then it's it's not just you laugh, but humor is therapeutic. It's a coping mechanism that anybody can find some kind of relief in whether it lasts five minutes or a day's worth of humor, it doesn't really matter, because if I can take your mind off of whatever reason you're struggling with, whether it's post traumatic stress, you know, issues, marital issues, isolation, you know, drug overdose, whatever, like whatever the issue is, if I can get you to not think about that and laugh for at least five minutes, then at least your mind is in a better place for at least that, that duration, and if I can do it that also leads to patriotism, then to me that's like the, that's the holy grail.

It's the ultimate win win. So so a lot of the stuff that I incorporated into like the content, if you will, was very much doing stuff to make people laugh, but also doing it in a humorous way to where it's displaying patriotism. So I'll go out and make funny videos where I have this kind of thing where it's like me versus my HOA, right, where they're always like trying to they're always trying to like put some shackles on me saying don't don't keep going doing everything to the extreme and I'm going out there rock rocking like a red, white, and blue speedo popping red white and blue smoke grenades in an HOA where it's like a really really nice neighborhood. You're not supposed to be doing this, and then I'm shooting off fireworks at odd odd hours of of the year, you know, nowhere near fourth of July or New Year's or anything like that, and it's like a it's like a grand finale display too. It's not like something you'd see in the backyard of like a of a family home or something like this.

Something you go pay $20 to go to a concert and see and everything, and so, you know, I take it over to over the top and it's it's humorous. It's funny, but it's also all about showing patriotism as well.

Chris Albert 00:11:42 (link to this point)

What state are you in?

Chris White 00:11:44 (link to this point)

Texas.

Chris Albert 00:11:45 (link to this point)

Oh, nice. Well, I mean fireworks and everything like that. Texas is pretty cool.

New England where I'm from, I live in California now, but New England, you shoot off fireworks. Every cop in the city comes to your house and they Oh, yeah. Down. It's pretty crazy.

Chris White 00:11:59 (link to this point)

Yeah. I'm very familiar with my one of my good friends that I was actually stationed within the the Marines. I go see him every now and then when I would go to the Boston and the Massachusetts, Vermont area and stuff.

Chris Albert 00:12:08 (link to this point)

Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. So, man, as far as this because comedy is an art form, like and it's one of the hardest art forms.

It's really hard to make people laugh. Where do you come up with your ideas?

Chris White 00:12:24 (link to this point)

Here I'll take a little bit long way to give you the answer to that question, and so it's really crazy. So then I have if if you were to lay out like, I don't know, my my best five to eight videos or whatever, the ones that do the best are the ones that I thought of after like four whiskey drinks, and I just said, okay, I'm doing it, and then I just I just go do it, like no thought process, and I just go right into it. I just grab the camera and go, and just there's no planning, there's no coordination, there's no script, there's like nothing. Those are the ones that do so much better than than the rest of them. The ones that I put the most planning in, and that I spend a lot of money, and I say, okay, you're gonna be in charge of this, and I have like this whole team of support, they don't do anywhere near as good, and so taking that into consideration, I've now thought, okay, each time I come up with these like ideas, you know, in an hour from now, I might just be dreaming something and watching TV or doing some kind of, you know, surfing the Internet and all.

That's probably gonna be the one that I need to deal within the next hour, and it's gonna be the best one as opposed to taking time and choreographing, you know, who's who's gonna be responsible for what. And if it takes me like a few weeks to do it, it doesn't seem to be as as successful as the others. But in terms of my ideas, I mean, I really get them just from just about anywhere. Sometimes people tell me ideas, but for the most part, it's just ad hoc, you know, just out of out of nowhere shooting at the hip basically.

Chris Albert 00:13:57 (link to this point)

It's funny how that happens. I mean, like in in jiu-jitsu, they they say, you know, the the magic happens in the space between the moves. And I think so many people because I coach business business students as well. And, you know, I see so many people who get themselves so wrapped up in things because they take themselves too seriously, and they take that process too seriously. And, you know, sometimes the best ideas are just happening when you're, you know, drinking a beer or having a whiskey or just chilling.

And you come up with them and you just put them out there. The reality is it just takes balls to do it.

Chris White 00:14:34 (link to this point)

Yeah. It it pretty much does. You just gotta get out of your comfort zone and just go make it happen at the end of the day. I mean, I had I specifically remember last year coming up with the video idea of of imitating the party in The USA video done by Miley Cyrus. So I've got a whole bunch of veterans and we imitated it.

So was a picture to picture, a screen for screenshot. Every time that she and her crew was doing something, we were imitating it in a very funny patriotic way on our side, and that was supposed to be launched, you know, July 3, right before July 4, and it took so much planning to do that because, you know, it was like a three minute video and like we had to choreograph everything and I needed a team that came from all over and we had to wear certain things and we had find the locations. There was a night scene, there was a day a daytime scene, and so I did that and it took, you know, when I had the idea, you fast forward and it was about six, seven weeks before July 3 to launch it, and while it did very good, I knew that I needed another idea for another video to kind of like float us in that six, seven week duration, and just out of nowhere, just sitting at the bar, I thought, okay, I'll have this video where I get an HOA letter that says people don't appreciate me, you know, having The US flag or rocking the red, white and blue so much, and so I'm just gonna go make a funny video washing my truck, and I did that one, and it it did like four times as better just off, you know, shooting ad hoc basically.

Four times as better as the one that I put so much effort into, so it was it was crazy how that whole thing and it got stolen a few times and then it got like, you know, nine, ten million views or something like that.

Chris Albert 00:16:05 (link to this point)

That's pretty awesome. That's pretty awesome. Yeah. It's almost like a badge of honor when your video gets stolen and reposted. It's like Oh, yeah.

That means people liked it. People really liked it. Really serious question here. So you are you have your video up there on the Freedom Hard website, and, like, you're waking up, you're getting out of bed. How hard were you squeezing your abs during that seat?

Chris White 00:16:30 (link to this point)

Not that that wasn't that one, I wasn't really squeezing my abs on that one. The next the next day on that video so that's my actual Freedom Hard song. Right? The next the next day was was the the fourth Houston Silkies hike that was taking place, and so I'm usually in pretty good shape whenever the Silkies hikes are taking place, especially the ones that I'm, you know, coordinating here in the state of Texas or whatever, but actually actually a year before then, my abs were even better. But now it's I wasn't I wasn't really flexing on that day, but there's there's other days where I have to flex just because I have this crazy obsession with eating donuts all the time.

Chris Albert 00:17:06 (link to this point)

They're so good.

Chris White 00:17:07 (link to this point)

I know.

Chris Albert 00:17:09 (link to this point)

Yeah. I get these. They're like sea salt caramel donuts. They're gluten free, but I'm a gluten free pussy. But, I get the gluten free ones and I eat like four of them in a day.

It's pretty good.

Chris White 00:17:21 (link to this point)

Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Chris Albert 00:17:24 (link to this point)

So a really important aspect of Freedom Hard is that you donate from each sale to various charities. And and so what charities are you working with right now?

Chris White 00:17:36 (link to this point)

Yeah. So let me give you a little bit more texture going into that question. So the Freedom Hard is a brand. It's it's not gonna be a product. Right?

And it's always gonna be like that. Yes. We do sell products, but we will never ever be known as a product or a grouping of products. So it will always be a brand, and so, you know, when I first when I first launched Freedom Hard products, I always had to find something very unique about it. Right?

So pillar number one is doing is doing things very differently, and pillar number two is through partnerships in terms of like how the business model is set up for Freedom Hard, and so I always knew whenever it was time to launch coffee, which is a big deal for me, I knew I needed to be something very, very you know. It's a very saturated market. You know, there's Black Rifle, there's Counter Strike, there's all these come and take it. There's these guys have been out there for doing it for years and they're they're they're huge pioneers in what they've done. Like, no one will ever catch up to Black Rifle, for example, and I'm not trying to, to be honest with you, but I knew that in order to me for me to penetrate that market and stand a fighting chance, I really need to do something different.

So I basically came up with the idea that, you know, I don't necessarily like just the concept of me going to a veteran owned organization or a VSO, and they say a percentage of our proceeds is donated to a nonprofit that helps support veterans in need or something like that. So my my immediate question is, well, which which nonprofit? Which veterans? What's the vetting process look like? How much of the person there's too many questions that are left unanswered for something that's very cookie cutter like for that, and so it's like, is it beneficial?

Sure. I mean, there's there's some legitimate concerns in terms of the gray area that that goes within that message, and I thought, well, how can I make it more transparent, but also empower the consumer? So when I launched the business model for the coffee, I always thought, okay, for every one bag of coffee that you purchase as the consumer on freedomhard.com, you have the selection of which nonprofit you want to have $1 per bag of coffee be donated to, and so that allows you to select which nonprofit, not me. I just total of up every three, four months basically and make those donations on the behalf of the consumers choice, and so the cool part about it is that it's it's a cool business model, consumers like that, but it also empowers the nonprofits to help me market the product as well, because you're based on these donations. Get out there and help me to make myself six people in one and go push the product essentially.

So I'm starting to make make make something very similar like that across all products as opposed to just coffee because at the end of day, lot of a lot of the profits that, you know, Freedom Hard makes is going back to nonprofits at the end of the day. So so, know, a lot of those nonprofits that we work with, we've got Operation Phantom Support. There's Florida for Warriors, we've got the Warrior Suicide Prevention Foundation, which is a coalition of multiple nonprofits, and my nonprofit as well as part of that as the Veterans Suicide Prevention Project. There is also there's a couple more. They're all listed basically on they're all listed on the freedomhard.com website, actually.

Chris Albert 00:20:39 (link to this point)

Nice. Nice. That's a really cool model. Just offering people a choice as to how they can donate because we hear all the time just about different organizations and things like that. And you really it really helps to know where your money's going to and how it's being used and that all these organizations have been properly vetted.

So you're you're in the product side of things and and you've got t shirts, you've got coffee, you've got gear. When you were thinking about your t shirt line, because I'm I'm in the t shirt business myself, I know how hard it could be just coming up with ideas. What, you know, what gave you the inspiration to give you the to to create the designs? I saw I saw the big green weenie shirt. I really like that one.

Chris White 00:21:22 (link to this point)

Yeah. It's because you're jar head. That's why you like it. Yeah. Well, it's it's it the answer to it really comes down to a timeline perspective, and so literally what happened was when I created the actual business model, and I kind of the original business model I label a hybrid between affiliate marketing and royalties.

So essentially what happened was by the time I hit like 35,000 whatever followers, I had these organizations reach out to me and say, Chris, we've watched you climb from zero followers to 30,000 in less than two months. We've never seen anyone do something like this. Is it okay if I send you my hat for an example, that my company makes and you wear it in one of your videos? And I think, okay, I don't know. Let me see let me see your hat.

Send it to me. They would send me the hat, and I would say, this is actually a pretty quality hat. Like, they've gone through those lessons learned best is to produce something quality related, and I thought, no, I'm not gonna wear your hat, but if you put my logo on your hat, and then I will wear it, and then we'll split the profits fifty fifty because I know what I'm good at. That's why you're reaching out to me. I'm good at marketing.

I'm good at branding. You're good at, you know, production inventory, that kind of side of the business basically, and so over time, I started to build these partnerships with these these vendors essentially that produce different types of items, and so when it was time to do shirts, there was an organization out of Florida who kind of already came up with their ideas on different ideas for shirts and designs and stuff like that. So most of time, we would just have a conference call and they would say, well, you know, what if we had this kind of idea? Or Chris, do you what are your thoughts about this? And so it was just kind of like two way communication at the end of the when the whole thing got started, and you fast forward till now when everything's kind of becoming centralized and no longer, and I guess, outsourcing the affiliate portion of everything as I kinda do everything in house.

I have a team of people that I'm very fortunate to have around me now where everybody gets to chime in and saying, you know, Chris, what if we had this kind of idea? Chris, what if we did something like this? And for the most part, there, you know, you know, I just hired Bobby Henlein basically. He's he's now my chief marketing officer. He's got a ton of ideas for Freedom Hard and I'm loving every single one of them basically.

And so until we look, man, you don't even have to ask me. Just do it. Just take it and run with it.

Chris Albert 00:23:39 (link to this point)

That's awesome. That's awesome. That's a really important aspect of business is finding a team, finding people that you can work with and and being able to have somebody around like that that can allow you to to essentially duplicate your efforts and and and, you know, specialize in a certain aspect to the business. You know, it's it's so important. Really important question here.

And I think, you know, as you know, most of the people listening to this are veterans and a lot of the guys out there are dealing with their own issues. So, you know, we talked about at the beginning of the show your experience in dealing with what happened to you with your with your ex wife and and or not your ex wife, your ex fiance. And in dealing with that that kind of personal tragedy, what's your biggest piece of advice for those guys out there who might be suffering with their own kind of personal tragedy going on? Whose whose life might be falling apart? Who who is looking for that next step?

Chris White 00:24:36 (link to this point)

Yeah. So I'm gonna attack this very important question from a couple of vantage points basically, and so and my first answer is is probably this, 99.999% of all problems that are happening around the world right now have already been conquered by someone somewhere. There's hardly any new type of problems that are going to be thrown in anyone's face nowadays. Meaning someone somewhere has already conquered it. So how do we find out how someone somewhere conquered it by networking?

If you think that you're only gonna be if you think that you're struggling for some type of situation or even a multiple multiple situations by yourself, it's because you're not letting somebody else help you at the end of the day. Whether that's pride or it's ignorance or whatever the case may be, without the ability to get out there and network, you're gonna be in a very dark place for a very long time and you're probably not gonna find yourself in a position to climb out of it the longer you stay in there, and so by networking you're gonna figure out who's out there to lend a helping hand and also who might be needing a helping hand. You might think that the world's falling down on you, but guess what? You're probably still in a position to help somebody else out, and so for veterans we take a lot of pride in the ability to help somebody, and we have a lot of pride in ourselves that we are the last people to go and ask for help. We don't want to share our troubles with somebody else, so if you get out there and network, you might find yourself in a position to where all that you're gonna need is to hear someone else needs a helping hand, and you could probably help them out for whatever reason, and that's probably enough to climb yourself out of that dark hole that you're probably already in anyway.

And then the other the other raise the the other way that I would answer this question is that humor, you know, find a way to use humor as a coping mechanism even if it doesn't lead to patriotism. You know, the two biggest components of what Freedom Hard is about is humor and patriotism, but humor is more important than patriotism at the end of the day because humor can actually be used to save lives.

Chris Albert 00:26:46 (link to this point)

Absolutely. Absolutely. I definitely definitely agree with the humor and and the patriotism. Speaking of patriotism, you know, we're at a a place in our country where, you know, again, we have a lot of veterans. They're heading off to college.

They're they're they're coming out of the service. They're heading off to the the modern college campus, and patriotism on the modern college campus seems to be almost like a taboo. And do you think our country is becoming less patriotic or do you think that the media is just focusing on the non patriotic aspects of our society?

Chris White 00:27:29 (link to this point)

It's both.

Chris Albert 00:27:30 (link to this point)

Both.

Chris White 00:27:30 (link to this point)

It's both. It's definitely both. I don't know how balanced the scales are, but I can assure you that it is is in fact both. Patriotism is dying in the country, and and I don't know what percentage of this is is the real reason why, but a major reason for this is because it's being excluded and frowned upon in our education system. It's it's not something that is the norm now because we have shifted gears in a in a massive paradigm shift for things to stand for the opposite of what patriotism is all about, and it's it's the politically correct liberal agenda, all that all that crazy nonsense stuff that you see what's happening in schools.

And even if you take out, you know, liberalism and stuff like that, it's it's the politically correct crap that's what's being shoved into the school system, which which as a byproduct of that, you're seeing less and less patriotism, less and less constitutionalists, people that support, know, the constitution, that support first responders, law enforcement, military, all that stuff that we were kind of that we grew up to appreciate, especially whenever we stood on those yellow footprints, know, so it's it's that, but it's also the media as well, and so they they both go hand in hand as the reason why you're seeing patriotism possibly on its last two last leg essentially, unless, you know, there's organizations that are out there that are willing to team up and and combat this, you know, from the tip of the spear, you know, we have to change things completely and I'm hoping that we can start to address where these fires are actually being started within the education system because the longer we prolong ourselves and not correcting it in the education system, the more we're going to weed ourselves out of of doing what we love to do, which is, you know, wave that American flag, you know, high in the sky.

Chris Albert 00:29:19 (link to this point)

Yeah, I'm actually, you know, it's funny because I hit out in the in the higher education system for a long time after I got out just maximize my GI Bill, went to grad school, did all that stuff. But I'm finding more and more that I feel like a liberal arts education is becoming worth less and less. And it's, you know, it's becoming less relevant for life. It's becoming less relevant to finding a profession, and it's becoming less relevant to reality because of all these things we're we're seeing out there. And, you know, I really appreciate when someone like yourself comes out and and does something like this and tries to change it from the other end because I think it's it's truly entrepreneurs who are the doers in this country.

And I feel like, you know, being able to spread a message and and to let people know that The United States Of America does exist and that it is an ideal that we intend to hold up and that we do intend to express ourselves and we're not gonna be bullied into silence. I really, really do appreciate that big time.

Chris White 00:30:27 (link to this point)

Yeah. So this is another reason why as as I'll be I'll be singing this tune until my last breath as it pertains to my responsibilities within Freedom Hard. It's a brand, and I'm always gonna be saying it's a brand as opposed to products. So if at the end of the day, if you fast forward ten, twenty, thirty, forty years, whatever, and I had the choice to say, Chris, does this look like success for Freedom Hard or does this look like success for Freedom Hard? If those two options were become a $100,000,000 plus company or be the company that was inspirational to bring back patriotism, 99 times out of a 100, I'm gonna tell you I want to be known as the company that brought back patriotism and I will sacrifice all the the bells and whistles that could potentially come from labeling a $100,000,000 company as success.

By all means, it's it's more important for you to be patriotic than to buy my products.

Chris Albert 00:31:19 (link to this point)

Absolutely. Absolutely. That's awesome. Any, you know, as far as advice for veterans who are seeking to to, you know, maybe shoot their own videos or or get into the entrepreneurial space, what's your advice for them?

Chris White 00:31:36 (link to this point)

Well, you know, becoming an entrepreneur is very difficult. I mean, it's extremely difficult because it really forces you to always be pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone before one day you're gonna look around, you're gonna think, holy shit, most of my days now, I'm living outside of my comfort zone, which I'm now labeling my comfort zone. So you're you're you become your become something very different, and you're used to being something very, different as well. So if you can find a way to push yourself out of your comfort zone, by all means, go ahead and do it. If you're thinking about becoming an entrepreneur, and you're not one now, my suggestion would be to do a couple of things.

Let's see how resistant you are to change. So put yourself into a situation without taking on the responsibility as a as a realistic entrepreneur and owning a company and trying to do something like that. Go do something that you're very fearful at first. If you're afraid of heights, go skydive. If you are afraid of drowning, go scuba diving.

If you're afraid of, you know, doing something on a huge scale, find a way to go out there and do it, and and maybe try to do two different types of things like that, because you're always going to be forced doing stuff that you're very fearful fearful of doing, and and until you can step outside of your comfort zone and say that you have experience doing like stuff like that, becoming an entrepreneur is not for you. Do something before trying to own a company and see if you are at least capable of stepping outside of your comfort zone to conquer your fears.

Chris Albert 00:33:11 (link to this point)

What's been the scariest moment for you so far?

Chris White 00:33:15 (link to this point)

Well, the the entire shift of becoming an entrepreneur, there was one time not too long ago where I was making a lot of money working in corporate America like I used to. I was making well over 6 figures as a very successful senior manager executive working in oil and gas. Like I'm saying, working in corporate America, and I sacrificed everything. I've turned over my entire 401(k). I sold my second house.

I've now leased out my primary house. I've I've invested literally everything I can into what I believe in, is freedom hard, and I'm fortunate enough to have my team around me as well. So it's it was it was very much it was very much scary for me to say, you know what, fuck it. I'm in. I'm just gonna do it.

And so I sacrificed pretty much everything I could. I literally liquidated just about every single asset I possibly could to get to the position that I'm in right now and I'm nowhere close to making what I was, you know, when I was working in oil and gas as senior manager and executive and having a department of 41 people underneath me, like, I'm nowhere near that, but I believe in this because of what I hear people who support me say, and they say they believe in it as well. And so that's basically what was enough for me to say, okay, I'm completely stepping outside of my comfort zone. I'm taking the risk, and I'm gonna bank on on myself and and the team I've got with me.

Chris Albert 00:34:35 (link to this point)

If you could do anything over again from the time you stepped on the yellow footprints till now, what would that be?

Chris White 00:34:45 (link to this point)

That's a good question. I would have started Freedom Hard at least one year before when I did. Why? I started at least one year before. I I could have done a whole lot more had I started it, yeah, around a year before, but what's it's crazy how how things work, and of course everything is is twenty twenty in hindsight, but and and I needed my fiance at the time to leave me for me to finally push myself into a position to say I'm doing this, but if if something before could have happened to where I could have created Freedom Hard anywhere from like eleven to fourteen months before, the the amount of opportunities that would have found themselves in my lap would have been astronomical and and obviously I would be at least one year further than I am right now having this conversation, and so, yeah, if if I could have, you know, just, you know, rubbed a lamp and a genie comes out and says, y'all grant you one wish, would have said, yeah, give me, you know, let me let me rewind and start Freedom Hard one year before I when I actually incorporated.

Chris Albert 00:35:49 (link to this point)

Where do you see Freedom Hard five years from now?

Chris White 00:35:54 (link to this point)

Franchises. In five years from now, I want at least 20 franchise stores that franchisees basically that are that are out there. In the next thirty days or so, I'll be opening up my first store in Killeen, Texas right outside of Fort Hood, and the plan is to do something very, very similar outside of Fort Bragg in North Carolina, and then the third store is probably gonna be what ends up being the actual proof of concept for a realistic franchise somewhere in Florida, and then, you know, you fast forward maybe and maybe that takes about two, two and a half years to accommodate those three locations going up. Another two and a half years from there, we should be opening up quite a few more franchises. So anywhere between probably ten and twenty franchise stores opening up, if not more than that, within five years from now would be that's that's back to back grand slams as far as I'm concerned.

Chris Albert 00:36:44 (link to this point)

That's awesome. And, you know, with with franchises, I was there a particular reason why you chose that route rather than continuing with direct to consumer or anything like that?

Chris White 00:36:56 (link to this point)

Well, there's a lot of people that have expressed interest in doing stuff like this. And and even if that wasn't the case, the what what's happening is that up until well, even even at this exact second, I'm still mostly an online guy. Like, most people go to well, everybody goes to purchase Freedom Hard stuff. They go to freedomhard.com, or they go to Facebook, and they get the they get the the brand awareness, and they can understand what the brand is all about, but and and everything that's being sold in terms of, like, the products, it's all from freedomhard.com, but I'm now launching Freedom Hard patriotic whiskey. You can't sell whiskey online, so it has to be done through retail stores.

So it's now forcing me to go through this major evolution of being like an online presence brand to where I'm now gonna be set up, not just I'll still have that, of course, and I'm still gonna grow it as much as I can, but, you know, for me to launch the whiskey, for an example, I have to do it through stores basically, and so we're testing it out through the guinea pig stage in Killeen, but my whole concept is, you know, when I opened up these stores, wanted to be known like a Freedom Hard lounge, right? So I sell I sell coffee enough to to invite you to come in, but also appreciative enough to where you stay independent of if you're buying products or not, but there should be like a cigar lounge and whiskey lounge where you can come talk patriotisms, talk war stories, do whatever you want to do to support red, white and blue. But here's a good environment for you to come shoot the shit with some of your fellow patriots, smoke some cigars, drink whiskey, chug some coffee, do some stuff like that, you know.

Chris Albert 00:38:33 (link to this point)

Shit, I'd want to hang out there. That sounds like fun.

Chris White 00:38:36 (link to this point)

You wouldn't, right? I might just move into one of the retail stores.

Chris Albert 00:38:40 (link to this point)

That's awesome. That's awesome. You gotta get you gotta get yourself out to Vegas. I picture like, get, like, a cigar lounge, the bar, get a little club going on there. I think they got a patriotic club out there.

They got the Marine Corps they got a Marine Corps bar out there. I didn't I

Chris White 00:38:55 (link to this point)

I've never been to Vegas. I still haven't been.

Chris Albert 00:38:57 (link to this point)

Oh, I just got back, man. If you ever go, let me know. I I got a bunch of deals. Bunch of deals, like cheap hotels, that kind of stuff. Pretty cool.

Perfect.

Chris White 00:39:05 (link to this point)

Perfect.

Chris Albert 00:39:06 (link to this point)

But cool, man. Well, dude, it's one, like, you have an amazing story. I I just couldn't imagine having, like, something like that happen to me and then a few, you know, a few weeks later, it's being like, I'm gonna do this and and that's pretty cool. I I've got a similar story, but it took me kinda years to pull my head out of my own ass. So, you know, I think I think that's, you know, that's pretty awesome.

One, I wanna thank you for coming on. Two, how can people find you? Is that at freedomhard.com?

Chris White 00:39:41 (link to this point)

Yeah. Freedomhard.com is the domain. You know, anything that you wanna, you know, get exposed to, that's that's the probably the best source, but all those social media platforms as well. So Freedom Hard on Facebook is probably the main one, and then we're also on Instagram. And then, well, I also have specific products that I created Facebook and Instagram accounts for as well.

So there's Freedom Hard Cigars, there's Freedom Hard Patriotic Whiskey Facebook pages, and also Instagram accounts as well.

Chris Albert 00:40:09 (link to this point)

Awesome. We'll we'll definitely get those up on the show notes. Is there anything you wanna end off with for the audience? Like I said, we got a lot a lot of veterans out there, a lot of Marine Corps veterans out there. Any any bit you wanna finish off with?

Chris White 00:40:25 (link to this point)

Sure. You know what? I wouldn't have done any of this had it not been for the Marine Corps. Not not any of this. Nothing that we talked about ever.

In fact, I wouldn't even have met my ex fiance had it wouldn't been for the Marine Corps, like none of this would be possible had I not did my time and stood on those yellow footprints, and so it's kind of funny how you look back and say not necessarily everything happens for a reason, you know, don't know if it's that cliche ish or not, but you know, when I really started to step out of my comfort zone way before I even I may have not even said the word entrepreneur at this age of my life to be honest with you, but the very first signs of me stepping out of my comfort zone were when I stood on those yellow footprints and really changed my life for the beginning of the rest of my life, which was the next four years obviously serving in the Marine. So, you know, take pride in everything that you did in the military, whether you got to do everything that you wanted to or didn't. You know, I didn't really do everything that I wanted to. Was pretty basic marine or whatever, but at least it got me the experience that I needed to start to step outside of my comfort zone, which I can credit a whole lot of my success to now.

You know, I would never have earned my my undergrad or my graduate degree had I not joined the marines. In fact, was on record numerous times in high school saying I'm never fucking going to college, fuck that, and so all of a sudden I grew up real quick and you know, I have nothing but the military experience to credit for those kind of cool things, and like I said earlier, for anyone who might be interested in becoming an entrepreneur, go test the waters with something that literally scares the shit out of you right now and go do it two or three different times. Just do it, You know, think of the very first thing that scares the shit out of you and go out there and try to fucking conquer that fear. And if you can do that two or three different times, then guess what? I'm not really a betting man, but I'd be willing to bet you're going to be pretty successful as an entrepreneur.

Chris Albert 00:42:13 (link to this point)

Absolutely. Absolutely. And that's great advice for not only the veterans out there, but for those, like, 18 and 19 year old privates, PFCs, and Lance Corporals who are sitting there hating life or thinking they're hating life right now, who don't realize that they've got life by the fucking balls right now. Any one of us would trade our fucking left nut to be any one of you. So shut the fuck up, do your time, and then fucking get out, alright?

Chris White 00:42:39 (link to this point)

Yeah, it's so true. Life is so easy in the military. You don't you don't have to do much of anything, so just do what you're told, and and and life is so much better after that. You know how many times I wish I could go back and just live that life again? Like, they were it was so easy.

Like, there's really to screw up, you had to be on like some kind of idea that, okay, I'm really gonna fuck something up today. Like, no matter what, I'm going to fuck something up. And I mean, that's that's basically what it took for you to really screw things up in the military. I mean, they've got it. They've got, like, pretty easy.

Chris Albert 00:43:07 (link to this point)

Yeah. Yeah. They don't they don't even realize it. That's the thing.

Chris White 00:43:11 (link to this point)

Yeah.

Chris Albert 00:43:11 (link to this point)

Well, Chris, dude, number one, great name. Love the name Chris. I think it's awesome. Two, thank you for coming on. I'm gonna put a few of your videos on the show notes too.

I think people need to see you in a set of Speedos. And, you know, as far as everything goes, man, thank you for your service. Thank you for everything you're doing as far as bringing awareness to patriotism and and increasing patriotism. Thank you for providing the greatest gift of all, which is humor.

Chris White 00:43:41 (link to this point)

Yeah, man. I appreciate you. Thank you for having me on the show. Like I said, Freedom Hard is a brand. It's all about using humor as a platform to display patriotism, and I I honestly couldn't care less if anyone's buying Freedom Hard stuff, but at least it can get you a new set of lenses to think of a new way to use humor to as a coping mechanism for whatever necessary reason you need in your life, but also to show patriotism at the end of the day.

Chris Albert 00:44:05 (link to this point)

100%. And for all of you out there, thank you for listening. And if you're out there and wondering what you're gonna do with your life, number one, freedom hard. Number two, get out there and live your best life while you can.