17 | Chad Smith – The Battle Warrior

David Kalsow 0:00

Today's episode is brought to you by battle warrior brands battle warrior brands offers clothing for the warrior in all of us, go to the Chad M smith.com. To learn more on the show

Chad Smith 0:13

15 or 20 episodes in and I finally said, Okay, this is no BS I have to focus goes Hi.

David Kalsow 0:21

I'm David Kalsow. And you're listening to APC Presents where I showcase independent podcasters from Northeast Wisconsin. Today I've got Chad Smith on Mike Chad is a local entrepreneur dedicated to sharing his story to help people achieve a warrior life. He's the host of the podcast formerly called C's get degrees since we recorded this episode like six months ago, he went through a rebranding and is now the battle warrior podcast. Chad is absolutely honest about his story that brought him to where he is today. Over 600 days sober Chad believes everyone is capable of turning their life around. Buckle up for this one, folks. I'm pleased to present Chad Smith All right, well, for the record, can you introduce yourself say your name and where you're from?

Chad Smith 1:16

Alright guys, I'm V. Chad and Smith. I'm actually from Manasseh, which is a suburb of Appleton, but I currently live in Green Bay for two more months. So we are recording in may come August I will be in this beautiful town that we're currently in right now recording called Oh towners, the locals would say Oshkosh

David Kalsow 1:37

Hashcash but gosh, usuals Yeah, we've been actually recorded a few episodes from this very studio, we are in the venture project which are you are now becoming a part of even more so than you have before because you're moving down here you're growing your your personal business, but let's sort of talk about what what you do now.

Chad Smith 1:58

What I do now, besides my full time job. So that's just normal everyday stuff. So what I do now is I actually own and operate ch brands Ltd, I put the LTD on there because there's a million ways of saying ch brands. So Ltd means nothing guys it just local that add add on the business, but it means choose happiness, which means through the journey of my depression to the journey of my addictions, I want something that people can look at as more inspiration clarity. Um, say, okay, hey, this kid pretty much went through hell and back the best way of saying no, not so I don't want to be like him. But I want to use partially him for inspiration. So that's why I came with the CH plus. There's a little bit of family history of here. The true ch for me means I'm the only son connect the dots here family. My mom's the only daughter of four brothers and sisters. So like I'm the only boy in the family that didn't carry our Harmon last name. Oh, so to me, it's more of like a connection to my grandfather. So like, my grandfather didn't pass and I didn't watch him going through the process of depressions and drinking. I won't be clean right now. So yeah, is negative is it kind of like a sadness of the story? It's more of an inspiration for me because I know I'm the last true non Harmon Yeah, best way of saying it. So that's why I put the H in there.

David Kalsow 3:22

Cool. So it's got multiple layers of meaning. And it sounds like it's really, really personal to you. It's

Chad Smith 3:27

very, very personal because that's the last party we threw for him actually. Yeah, is where I had my mess up drinkin. And if you guys that's been through addictions or anything that's been through mental health issues or big depression issues, divorce issues, whatever labels you to catch that bottle. When you get in your front of the family, and you get the deer in the headlight look from your family. And then all of a sudden you get a family member mad at you for doing something stupid. It kind of cleans you up. So it was a long work in progress. But there was one tipping point that kind of said, boom like that. So that was the last official party with all of our family members actually, with my grandpa's so and then he passed away may see what's October, November, December, passed away three months later. So

David Kalsow 4:21

are you close to him? Or were you just sort of saw what he was going through? And you're like, I don't want to

Chad Smith 4:27

so we're never I love you type of family. Yeah, Grandma hug all the time. My mom's big hugger. My all my aunt and uncle's are all my answer huggers. But it was never the more you dig into fixing your root, and we're not going to go in that because you know what I'm going with that? Yep. The further along you go dig deep, you realize that a lot of that cold shoulder Ness, a lot of the quietness actually hides a lot more. So, what I wanted to do was learn as much That's as much about myself how to and here's the key with guys. When you're drunk all the time, and you're on meds all the time, and you're urine college trying to just chase your own personality or chase not being accepted, or whatever it is that's causing that darkness. When you take that away, you have to physically start from scratch and rebuild your life back up. And for me, now, it's who am I? How you go, where do you go? How do I really learn everything sober? That's the key. So how we're talking right now, there's gonna be a point in times where I'm going to be stuttering. There's been plenty times for my brain misfires, and your your smile and how you say that because you've been around me for what two years? Give or take? Yeah. So

David Kalsow 5:44

more so in the last year that we've actually had conversations and yeah, talked.

Chad Smith 5:49

So for me, I'm looking at how do I do simplistic so like, I break it down. Okay. How do I live my life? Simple, clean? Yeah. And then gradually work your way back up. In that process, what I've learned is I have addictive personality, like hardcore addicted person. Yeah.

David Kalsow 6:04

So whatever it is, you latch on to it with full force, basically.

Chad Smith 6:08

Yeah. And in the past, what tends to happen is I forgot the foundation first. Yeah. So like, I would do tournament fishing, growing up in high school, and I know we're kind of cycling home my stories here, but I did tournament fishing,

David Kalsow 6:23

and Christopher Nolan storytime telling Oh, man, it's like we're jumping storylines and happened through our currently in the high school era. Your big fisherman.

Chad Smith 6:33

Yeah. So I have tattoos. 100 fishing, guys, I those I love doing it. The reason why I have 12 year, 14 year old tattoos on my arms. And that add that up guys, I'm 35 years old, is I wanted to say if I'm sitting in an office complex, run my own business, being a salesman, whatever it is, I want to say, okay, I can roll my sleeves up. These are what make me happy. Yeah. Obviously, there's more now, but So back in the day, my my parents worked in the paper mill industry. So if anyone that's from the valley, true valley that didn't move in multiple generations, you understand paper mills was a huge part of the valley is

David Kalsow 7:11

essential to basically all business here. I mean, Kimberly and Clark is still one of the biggest companies in the area for international companies.

Chad Smith 7:19

Yeah. And what when my sister was in high school, I was in high school. I think the transition was current when they're cleaning up the river, but I think at the time, I think we caught it there was like, in the late 90s, but was there like 30 paper mills, give or take? And now what two,

David Kalsow 7:34

three at most, and they still smell horrible? Yeah.

Chad Smith 7:36

So I got raised up in a shift working family like my stuff that would always be on rotational shifts, my mom would be at a printing press company, but with my step that at that place what what a lot of people don't understand is a lot of these guys go fishing to get their escape. So they run away from the family just kind of decompress. Well with him. In his circle of influence there. He had five guys that were at the local standard that were winning. Top 10 all the time in the walleye industry. One that was in the Nationals. Yeah, one was a national tour and Pro, but if you break it down, we all got taught by one of two guys that are in efficient Hall of Fame in Chilton. So like to the guys that worked on my stuff that were from Chilton. Yeah. If anyone that understands fishing, and Chilton understands that there's a person's last name that started there. And then I went to Garrick, Keith, Tobias, those two were brother in law's in there, they're both in the fishing Hall of Fame. So that's why history there are so like, everyone kind of filtered from that. So it was a no brainer for me to jump in. Because I grew up watching Bassmaster on tnn guys, back in the day, we had different stations. It would always be you know, Bassmaster build dance, all that fun stuff just overlap. Yeah, TV shows. And that was my first love of competition. Like I played baseball, I played softball, whatever soccer I didn't even care

David Kalsow 9:06

but it was fishing that really brought out the competitiveness in oh man,

Chad Smith 9:09

airborne and the boats just completely going on stage going into towns with I mean, I was on the road. So I started at 13 I started kind of creeping up at 17 first championships at 1718 I hit the road so I went through high school yeah, I went to 16 tournaments, a trip to Canada and two championships at 18 years old.

David Kalsow 9:35

Nice dude.

Chad Smith 9:37

Yeah and second team of the year because I think we lost out for the last tournament

David Kalsow 9:42

for the for the people that don't really know the fishing industry or like what a fishing tournament looks like give them a quick lowdown of what what that would look like.

Chad Smith 9:50

Alright, so we have here locally, the bigger ones you have about 150 200 boats. You have about three flights that go outside about six o'clock you'll have first flight 637 o'clock so they break them up.

David Kalsow: 10:02">10:02

They don't have three boats launching, or 300 boats launching at once. So I

Chad Smith: 10:06">10:06

had takeoffs now, since we've been stable. You know, like, safety is a big thing now, because everyone has bigger boats. Usually it's a line and you kind of go out one by one, but it's a mess, man. You got like 120 bolts going out of the chute is what I call it. So go through the gauntlet, you take off you got bolt wake everywhere. All right. So like you hit the waves wrong and you're airborne. Like there's every year. Not this year yet.

David Kalsow: 10:33">10:33

Yeah, so half the battle of the fishing tournament is knowing how to drive a boat as well.

Chad Smith: 10:37">10:37

Yes, every year I've been airborne. Every year. I could tell you exactly in Sturgeon Bay. What Warner or boat dopt were mortars dropped, were definers drop almost dropped. And like I been pushed out in Small craft advisories for media coverage in Michigan, just because they wanted media coverage. I've been in waves this size of this room here we got foot waves or walls. So if you guys want to know why I'm limping, and understand why my back's messed up and why I'm lifting weights and doing yoga now. Take 10 years of tournament fishing and just jam it in there and what's the

David Kalsow: 11:14">11:14

vibe of those before launch her because like I'm assuming everyone like to get the championship. People have to be good good. Yeah, like to agree that is beyond like what you just find in Oshkosh doing like hey, it's a group while I

Chad Smith: 11:31">11:31

that's pretty much the same because a lot of the guys here intertwine. Okay, so that's, that's a key thing, because I've done being in the Midwest and local areas. We're not going to college yet, but I'm moving to different locations done fishing shows many different sections. The one thing that I notice between the states Minnesota is getting a lot better now because technology is getting up there and the trails are more open. But Wisconsin in this core area between Green Bay and Appleton had such an MSA studs. Like guys were awesome. Yeah. efficient, because like killing it. Yeah. Because in this circle from Green Bay to us, there's probably over 3 million worth of tournament winnings. Really, wow. Three mil. Yeah, like one guy alone, I know that one, a mil. And there's another one up in LA. So that one a mil that's from Appleton that moved up to La so are those

David Kalsow: 12:18">12:18

local tournaments that are given away that those were

Chad Smith: 12:21">12:21

the some of the championships that were at some of the bigger trails, it goes back like 20 plus years so like all these guys have been touring together. And so a lot of these guys will go on the smaller ones down here. And just get it's a prop up. So like they're bored, they just jump in and they're like, alright, God, you know, they don't care at this level, because there's they care about they don't, because sponsorships no media or whatever, right? So for them, it's more of hey, you know, I'm rusty. Let's just get in, make sure the bolts work and find my rods. Everything get back in the zone is what we're in sports is what we call it by No, like 2004 2005 I was in championships. I actually got sick at school, coughed up into four days off for a tournament in what, honey, I didn't know this. I was on TV. All of a sudden, the kids came back. They're like, bro, you're on TV. I'm like, Excuse me. My face blur on my face. And I remember blindly walking in and the sports director looked at me he looked at me, he goes, you're taking off for going fishing. I'm like, I'm sick. He's like, Bs. He's like you're taking off because the tournament's in town. I'm

David Kalsow: 13:26">13:26

like, maybe yes, you got me but it's still happening. Yeah, but like

Chad Smith: 13:30">13:30

I would we would go into Moline and I just remember these blainley Molina would give us a police escort to the bowl and yeah, pick up the boats. Cops would watch the bowl and and turn around give us a police escort back to the Wayans. You go in a Walmart parking lot to weigh in. And you're like rockstars because everyone comes in, and you have a T shirt on? And they're like, oh my god, oh my god, he has bought in the truck and whatever. And and I'm dead serious do like flock to you. And we would go into like Bay City, Michigan. And same thing you go into like a Yeah, Ponderosa or whatever. And all these waitresses see what you're pulling in. So obviously, they're gonna be a lot friendlier. So

David Kalsow: 14:09">14:09

what was your biggest weigh in? Oh, you remember?

Chad Smith: 14:15">14:15

I do not remember that one. All I know is I'm probably at 130 tournaments right now.

David Kalsow: 14:20">14:20

Oh, that you've participated in that. I've

Chad Smith: 14:23">14:23

been my other door man. And I mean, I'll do one. I'm officially retired is the best way or quote, If a family friend reaches out and says hey, man, me my brother getting in it. And it's 50 bucks. Okay, yeah, we'll do it. Yeah, high stakes and fun doing it and chillin with the boys after but about $25 hotels, where there's cracks in the toilet in the shower, where you can't lay on the bed. You have to be in your sleeping bag because obviously you're gonna get some crawling on you. But what I noticed is everything I'm in, even including going to college and get my Air cultural degree, even in that industry, I would always have the outliers. So I won't have the normal retail experience. It's like an air culture I would go hang around with the guys that would break national records. Yeah. So I would learn what they're doing. And

David Kalsow: 15:16">15:16

how do you break a national record for agriculture?

Chad Smith: 15:20">15:20

You there's

David Kalsow: 15:21">15:21

it's in largest pumpkin. I've seen

Chad Smith: 15:25">15:25

it these guys are rad like crazy rad. And I'm we're using the city term there but

David Kalsow: 15:30">15:30

what would it be the country term they're

Chad Smith: 15:32">15:32

crazy. The guys are dumping like five gallon buckets on the crops just to make sure it goes but it's there's a national competitions called National Corn Growers or national soybean growers. And they have a yearly competition.

David Kalsow: 15:46">15:46

Oh, interesting. I didn't even know I mean, anyone that you live in this world you'll realize that anyone will turn anything into a competition and growing there was

Chad Smith: 15:55">15:55

when I went score falls at Monash I was city boy obviously growing up but I had friends I had and I had relatives that were in the agriculture community. Yeah. So I always loved crawling in iron and obviously you guys know my backstory. You know, I love speed. Gasoline and having fun and now iron and diesel. Yeah, and it's just, you know, boys with toys. So I I'm like, You know what, I want to own a business. At 18 years old. I tried. You know, mowing lawn didn't do it. Try fishing tackle didn't do it. So like I was always doing something in my parents basement. little room to just creative stuff. Chad's try space. Yeah. In a tri level house. Yeah. Oh, yeah. So I would go into the room. I would pick up Van Halen, Pink Floyd, whatever it is. Yeah. And just go into town. But like, at Monash it is Monash is not known for agriculture students. Now they're not. So I was probably one of two in my whole 400 or 350. Class. Yeah, that went in egg. So I went to tech school. Got my two year degree found out what it's like for city boys to jump in with the country boys, right. And it wasn't like, words I can say on this podcast, or No, I think that describes it. Yeah, so I had a teacher that called actually dropped a bomb on the class and called them out saying, hey, this PR and I remember this to this day, and I'm not gonna word it how he exactly worded it. Yeah, cuz you're gonna bleep it out. He said, This kid's gonna do a lot more things in his life than you guys will ever do. Because he has no resistance. Yes, no years in his family. No voice in his head and whatever it is. He's like, he's coming in with a blank slate. He's gonna grab whatever works and run. Oh, boy today. take that for granted through all my 20s so transferred up to rue falls, whatever. Yeah, drank a lot. Drink a lot and

David Kalsow: 17:51">17:51

drink some more drinks. I mean, was that what were you working through at the time? Because if I ordered from what you've said, like you're doing what you love with fishing, you're pursuing a career that you have thought that you would love to do when and things like that. Why did why why did you keep drinking and

Chad Smith: 18:10">18:10

so what so I started drinking that 13 Hardcore like normal weekend thing. My first it's gonna sound bad my mom but it's if you guys grew up in the Fox Valley, you understand it for Wisconsin, Indiana, Wisconsin vibe. So don't get too jumpy on this it occurred and we're past that. A two years old I my first drink because my mom did not want to give me water. So she came here wine cooler to got me drunk. And my first beer for so. Yeah. So like every day weekend stuff. We had a family friend. They own the campground so I started drinking at 13 and then it rolled into college. Yeah, so like college. I was drinking. Two bottles of whiskey and week on top of drinking beer going out hanging out partying, whatever. So I was 205 pounds at my peak and I'm a 175 right now but poofy alcohol phase poofy belly, I look like you know, Marshmallow Man goes Brasseurs. But what it was was the limelight. There was a multiple things that occurred. I grew up in a paycheck to paycheck family. Yeah. So I got very pissed off when I see kids just costing that life because their parents were millionaires. So like, I was hanging around with a lot of the farmers from Minnesota, which are multiple generations on their family farm. And I had a kid that was 19 years old. Are you making 5060 grand a year? Yeah. So like he would go out? I think he said that one week he dropped 100 grand crepes in a truck and uh, you know, yeah, just whatever just stuff stuff.

David Kalsow: 19:39">19:39

Yeah. So access to capital is different from Yeah,

Chad Smith: 19:43">19:43

I was noticing the access capital of these guys. They didn't care so like I would go get student loans. Yeah, not thinking now and what that equates to having to pay later. Yeah, so like I would go by I think I bought eight guitars and like A year, a lot of whiskey,

David Kalsow: 20:02">20:02

that would be normal for some people. But when you're buying a tractor and going to school and everything else, yeah,

Chad Smith: 20:08">20:08

so my drinking was I couldn't do tournament fishing all the time because I was way in debt. Yeah. Even though I had a brand new boat, like every year, I had a brand new boat. Because I was on lawns pro stuff, I wasn't getting to a level that physically inside I wanted to get to. So I was taking it out with the whiskey thing. And in the other one is I wasn't accepted. Accepting acceptance will go on both sides here. Even though I was friends with them, I wasn't accepting how they got raised up, and vice versa. I wasn't accepting myself to being completely different. And I'm gonna say completely different, like, your own individual person,

David Kalsow: 20:45">20:45

right? Even though you're friends with them. You grew up in a different community, it's, you still don't feel like you fit in, necessarily. And

Chad Smith: 20:53">20:53

I was still fighting that order of city versus country. Yeah, like I didn't really like there's a continuous vibe, continuous message of that until I was about 30 years old. Yeah. And the guys that don't know me personally, I'm an amazing person to be around. I can be a little rough at times. But like the fighting skills of not like physical fighting, but like internal fighting. Yeah, is like flawless, fearless because I've been thrown to the waves and back. And it's that no BS attitude. So like, I'll treat you fairly, I'll be, you know, lovey dovey, whatever I need to do, but I'm gonna fight like no tomorrow to get to where I want to get even if it causes me to claim bankruptcy. If you know if it goes that route, you know, I mean, whatever it takes doing whatever it takes to get up there, learn the foundation, whatever. So continuously in college, so I was like partying all the time. I found my wife at the time on one and kind of just life went so fast that I love to referrals, went to Abbotsford for my first job, hated it. Went to Moses, he ran my own district for my seed company for C company I worked for actually built it up to a good for sheer standard to what I wanted. Yeah. rubbed with the wrong competition. Oh, I see. I just like to be instigator at times. And you're comedian? Of course you do. Yeah. So like, I would go to their babies that were doing the competitions and poke the bear. Ooh, Chad. And Mama Bear did not like me poking the bear. So one of the local agents got me fired. Because I poke the bear. Yeah, best way of saying it. So that pulled me out of North Central Wisconsin. I still have no friends to this day or whatever, but ended up getting hired back in Eau Claire. So we moved back to western Wisconsin. My journey there was awesome. I had a phenomenal boss. I had a inner city guy from Racine was my boss, big football player that used to play with Tony Romo. Cool. And he taught me a lot about St. So like, he didn't have a college degree at the time. But he was a store manager. So he's like, he goes, I know you can deal with people. I know you're in sales. He's like, but you and a few others can actually read. And people that are in sales. Get it? We're like, we can just chit chat, whatever you feel. It's like a read like you can read people coming in, you know if it's gonna be good or bad or whatever. And I've had that touch since about little. Yeah. And he goes, you're one of three. He goes, if I know there's a fraudulent customer coming in. He's like, I know you guys have enough sales built up toward you can take you can you know, if they come in and they do it? What's the best way say it? You sell a phone, you load their card up, you send it out? And if they have a cash back or whatever, like they come back and you have to return it. fraudulent charges. You're still stable enough in your sales to, though make 11 Pretty much yeah. So like me. And I'm not gonna say their names, but there's three guys. Yeah. And so you'd watch it all the time. And the thing with Eau Claire, it's beautiful area, but it's in between. So like, the drugs would come up from Madison, and Minneapolis, and they would Capitol Claire. So like all the sex trafficking drugs and all that because it's out of cops way, even though they're still there. So during that time, though, obviously, I was trying to get married, whatever. So I was fighting perception of my wife's dad at the time. I wasn't quite married yet. But he was a country boy or he was a farmer in the country of town of 800.

David Kalsow: 24:34">24:34

And a very different mindset than Menasha.

Chad Smith: 24:37">24:37

Yeah, see, I grew up where I didn't care what my neighbors did. Yeah, good or bad. It's just it is what it is and city where you don't have enough time to do it. In the country. They care what your neighbors do, and they care about their name. And right away when I was fighting with my issues in college, I watched him lose 100 grand on the farm, and I just lost my lead because that's my one of my passions growing up or it's like I wanted to farm I wanted to farm I want to farm so here I'm seeing a farm and seeing it go down in flames going down the drain and all of a sudden my emotion kicked in and I not gonna say what I just say it was not a good interaction. So I was fought that and he had the big perception of city boys don't know how to fire me, blah, blah. So me and him are just fighting back and forth and back and forth. And then you throw my student loans in there. And here we're trying to get married, whatever say about money, and my addictive personality found out what stock commodity trading was. So all of a sudden here i Hey, let's try this trade and try to beat the system. Well, the system won. And here I lost 800 $900 My wedding fun. Yeah. In a trade. But no, like, obviously. I'm

David Kalsow: 25:46">25:46

not too happy about that. I was sure. Yeah. But yeah, so you've you went back to the Claire, who were working were you working for your soon to be father in law that at that time?

Chad Smith: 25:56">25:56

No, she was she was from acid. So I was working for Verizon Wireless. Okay. If you're away from corporate it's a phenomenal company to work for. Like if you have a very good support, you know, where you're far away from Chicago. It's awesome. If you're near Chicago, get away it's it's there's good people behind the scenes, but there's our management that made sure that they were right. So like we were we were so far away in the district that you would only see them once a month, if not less. So like we would do our own thing and be a company but so I learned the sales of that I learned you know, retail sales, whatever it was, but

David Kalsow: 26:31">26:31

then he got into stocks and trading as well as he Yeah, and

Chad Smith: 26:35">26:35

I've always been a side hustler from day one. So like I was selling a variety I was selling seed so like corn seed all that right to local guys. So I still had a relationship with local guys all the farmers Yeah, yeah. So I would work go home say hi to the wife, whatever and just, you know, follow during the harvest whatever it was. And during that time, we got married, blah, blah, blah. She wanted to have a baby. I said she Yeah, she at the time she did I decided it was a big one sided thing. So like two and a half, three of the four years were married, she was always on clomid, getting surgeries and all that stuff. So I think she threw in like 40 grand worth of infertility stuff. Oh to try and yeah, so yeah, so all the guys that guys and girls that are in like I can give a whole speech on infertility and I

David Kalsow: 27:22">27:22

yeah cuz you I'm through part of it.

Chad Smith: 27:25">27:25

The wife cried in the bed the bathroom I lived through the buckets and buckets of fertility tests. I've been there done that and partially it was my fault so like with the divorce and stuff and we're at that moment now where I could say it but I took ownership of what occurred of the divorce obviously there were some effects on both sides that caused the split

David Kalsow: 27:48">27:48

divorces are messy and complicated. Yeah, no matter what. Let's just say she's

Chad Smith: 27:53">27:53

got her kids no good and I'm healthy enough with what occurred that it came like a train we'll just say that was so like Yeah, but yeah, she came got Prego or whatever behind my back while I was married and out the door she went but that's as far as that's a whole different topic for a whole different day. But yeah,

David Kalsow: 28:11">28:11

but again, through through it all there. You've had some big events and emotional things that you know, how does one deal with that? What was your and your method for dealing with it then? So

Chad Smith: 28:22">28:22

three weeks after that occurred, I moved back home and I started drinking hard.

David Kalsow: 28:26">28:26

I kind of assumed Yeah, if you what else do you lean on wouldn't do and what you've known before that you've done the deal with them hard emotional things. So

Chad Smith: 28:34">28:34

I can laugh at this now at the time, my mindset and this is when you're unhealthy mentally Yeah, my mindset goes, I'm losing all this weight because of stress. And the only two ways I knew how to gain it back as pizza and beer. Because you know, if you eat a lot you're gonna get a lot of weight if you drink beer a lot you're gonna gain a lot Oh boy. Yeah, I could not gain weight because I was still stressed out about all that stuff. There's a lot of positives about it because I got pulled out of that situation. So like she was telling Claire I was over here so I was healing on my own and hold different location. But yeah, for like so I'm year I'm 500 and I'm almost six months clean or a year and a half clean. Yeah, but up until like it was like two years after everything. I would slam six eight silos like the big cans

David Kalsow: 29:25">29:25

yeah go to bed and wake back up go to work and repeat the process over again

Chad Smith: 29:30">29:30

seven days a week and then got sick a beer tried to clean up had the shakes for like a month and a half said you know what? Screw it. I don't want beer so let's go to vaca school and at my peak with that I was 90 I remember this blatantly me and a girl had a date down at her place. Yes stuff occurred. We are PG here but I had a one not the full 175 out of one and when I when we woke up the next morning I think I'm maybe had half inch in there. She goes out to drinks, how much you have?

David Kalsow: 30:04">30:04

Yeah. Yeah.

Chad Smith: 30:06">30:06

So like that was a normal occurrence where I would Yeah, I would literally kill a half of those nine. Mm hmm. So that's what $25 A night just in Tito's? Yeah. What change then there is alcoholism on my grandpa's side

David Kalsow: 30:21">30:21

after but he was the was he the inspiration for it was the

Chad Smith: 30:25">30:25

inspiration to put the wedge in there to stop it because what happened was he had Parkinson's disease for like 10 years. But back in the early 90s, he had his brother passed away from cancer, but what caused it was alcoholism, got in his liver and ended up going in his colon, whatever it was. So it was it was a step by step thing that occurred. So he got very depressed off that. And he just buried himself and blainley I don't remember up to certain points because I seriously guys, I have a space in my mind. I do not remember because of certain reasons. Yeah, he would get to press on that. So my grandma would be like, hey, I want to go to why you be like, Oh, no, I can't I want to do this. Oh, no, I can't. So she just finally gave in and just let him do whatever. And throughout the years like he met because of his depression. Yeah. He mentally just drained her to nothing. And it's not like you guys, it's not like a vocal thing. It's just repeated patterns throughout the whole thing that eventually she's gonna be like out or whatever, you know, and just kind of break down. And when he passed away, all of a sudden, the light bulb went off in me like, because I cleaned up in November. He passed away in January. Come February, March, whatever it was. My grandma's started acting cool again. It sounds weird how I say it this way. Yeah. She was just like, I heard stories about her growing up but not seen it physically. Because I

David Kalsow: 31:45">31:45

there was a drain in her life. Yeah, so I was

Chad Smith: 31:49">31:49

loved. And she's this short five foot redhead. It's like she's not right now. But like firecracker that's just tell it like it is. And she just want to go to town or whatever. And she was at a party at us and my stuff that wanted me to get a drink or whatever. And I completely lost and I'm like, don't you you know, like, I tend to sweat when I get pissed. But all of a sudden, she's emotional. Yeah, she turned to me. She goes, Don't you ever touch alcohol again? And like, it was my aunt, my mom next to me. Like they both turned her. I looked her I'm like, Excuse me. She's like, don't you ever do it again? Okay, why? Well, the further you end dig, she had alcoholism at her side, too. Yeah. So for me now it's more of a journey to I did it because I didn't know his family thing. Like it was an everyday occurrence. But the biggest thing is I didn't accept who I was. Yeah, it's like I didn't know if I was different. Whatever. So I'm a rambunctious, hyperactive funny go lucky at times can be laid back and not serious and serious. I do have weaknesses. Like I can't I can plan but I can't plan but like you're human Chad. You're human. I'm a human crazy man that enjoys life and enjoys a good worship so it's yeah. A lot of miles underneath the shoes. Yeah, a lot of miles a lot of weird crazy stuff and not even get into like running away from grandpa's growing up or whatever. Like just

David Kalsow: 33:15">33:15

I think we've covered a lot of a lot of good parts of your story. But like let's let's bring it back around to the CH brands. So you've had a lot of you know, you've overcome depression you've you've overcome alcoholism, and Ben a year sober and like you're part of the CH apparel, Ltd. has been to like, inspire and encourage people right? Yep. So that they can hopefully come out of those

Chad Smith: 33:43">33:43

feeling excels ruts, yeah, feeling accepted with who they are. And moving on. Ch brands is a big umbrella. So with that we have we have the apparel we have the podcast which seeds good degrees. Yeah, that is my full story of being that rebel in college. Find an extraordinary life going through a lot of trash like we're just talking. I'm gonna say trash on that. It's just it is what it is. Yeah,

David Kalsow: 34:04">34:04

I think faith has been a big part of your journey too and mine as well. And I think it's okay to be like call it trash and say I was there but look where I am now. Oh, I think that's what the greatest part of any story is saying. I was here. I may not be in the perfect place now. But look how further along I am than I was back

Chad Smith: 34:25">34:25

then. You know, my journey. Well, where I go every Sunday besides down here now. Yeah, a different location. Everyone will admit in that place that they're broken. Everyone and even down here, like everyone will admit that they had a pass and everyone will met what is graces? And I'm not going to preach here because we're going to that's a preach for a whole different subject. But getting rebaptised Again, was probably one of my top things in my life by one of the nicest, most genuine coolest guy ever.

David Kalsow: 34:57">34:57

Who's honest about his story too. Oh, And he is a rock star. Yeah, we'll just say it that way. So yeah, you've added being a part of an awesome church family that has helped encourage you through all of it and be able to come alongside you and hey, we're broken to kind of thing I think is is awesome and saying I'm looking forward to seeing where ch brands goes in the future

Chad Smith: 35:19">35:19

be hitting the road. Yeah, podcasting speaking there's gonna be two books coming down the pipeline.

David Kalsow: 35:24">35:24

Yeah, we just had a text about those a little bit so we won't put any spoilers in because it was the literally the outline for it. So you're very early in the process,

Chad Smith: 35:34">35:34

but this was spoilers, guys. I am still single, but I have no time for relationships really busy behind so

David Kalsow: 35:41">35:41

yeah, you're gonna be moving down here to Oshkosh soon and from Green Bay, continuing to work that business and continuing to do podcasting which let's move into that now. And we'll take a quick break we'll be right back. Welcome to the Podcast Fast Class this is check in number five which means you should have just released episode number two sometime today. Which means you get a good old fashioned air horn from your buddy Dave didn't have the patience to find an air horn so you just get the budget fully version. But anyways, you're on your way to entering the giveaway to win some free gifts. I just made a video detailing how to officially sign up once you've released your three episodes. To watch it go to the Appleton Podcast Co-op COMM link in the notes back to the show Alright, so chat, let's talk about your podcasts specifically a C's get degrees we started heard a little bit of your story and that's all about but let's talk about what that podcast is as a whole Why Why did you come up with the name C's get degrees,

Chad Smith: 36:49">36:49

there's a story behind it. Okay, and the two guys that were involved with my podcasts are currently at the place that I'm at right now and it was pre titled. And what they wanted to do was they wanted me to record my funny stories from my past Yeah, all the few things that you would tip your wrist with and throw the throw the comedy in there and whenever we did some things but okay so high school had a 3.0 Yeah, cuz he didn't really have tried dude, he just load your stuff was shop class in high school. Yeah, college I was a 2.5 which is like a b b plus. The theory at college was C's got degrees just enough to get by kind of just enough to get by. I always side hustle in college, like my brain was always on how do I build a business? How I do? So like, they're like, hey, read this book, I'd be like, I really don't care. And it's not like it's just like people that know me kind of get it but I blatantly told teachers in every class is this going to help my business life? My personal life or whatever? If it's not just put me first see, because I will go through it clock me then clock me and clock me in. And and what it was is I went to school I transferred in with 65 credits and I remember this plane is de drank too much got kicked out, got back in. So I was sitting on a 0.08 My first semester and dug my way out the hole. So like 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 And you guys understand 2.0 o'clock. It's all C's on your on your report card. What I wanted to show everyone in the inspiration or listening in this C's get degrees is I wanted them to have fun with their life. I wanted all the stories all my guests. Obviously guys understand it's a faith based entrepreneurialship a lot of heavy entrepreneurs, somewhat fade somewhat not but it's faith base. Yeah.

David Kalsow: 38:39">38:39

But as you said, initially, it was just like, hey, Chad, share your stories, but now you've sort of transformed into into

Chad Smith: 38:45">38:45

a big, positive animal. And I'm gonna say big positive animal, the expectations what I have now, I put in the work, man. So like, I'm probably recorded at 90 episodes throughout, like voice on VoiceOver summits, all that stuff's behind mic time, probably about 8085 episodes on including whatever

David Kalsow: 39:06">39:06

on our ish each venue with your interviews and stuff, give or

Chad Smith: 39:10">39:10

take. Yeah, but yeah, so what I wanted to show the journey was, I wanted someone to say, okay, hey, you grew up average, grew up an average family, but you could still have an extraordinary life. So that's where the title of C's get degrees at going from average to extraordinary. Everyone I noticed even and I'm an eavesdropper, author, the book that kind of flipped a switch with that title was Robert Kiyosaki. Okay, and was it Rich Dad, Poor Dad, but he wrote a book saying the C's see students own the business, the A students work for the C students. And all of a sudden light bulb went off. Yeah, I'm like, because they're rebel and he, he had a whole book about but he's like, You guys are rubble enough to take risks, do whatever you need to do go against the small numbers. So like, we're ingrained with CS ad, right. I'm even gonna go online here. I know we're at Big Gonna stages where we're at recording right now in the studio. Yeah, the company that we're all under. I'm going online say give us three, four years with all the knowledge is around here. Either a we're gonna be helping a lot of people in the community. Yeah. Or be there's gonna be a lot of businesses coming out of here. Yeah, watch out. Yeah, it's I don't think we even all of us, you felt that when we walk in I know right away and I talk conversation with you about this. I'm like, nobody knows how powerful this is.

David Kalsow: 40:25">40:25

I mean, yeah, the power of community, getting the right people together on the bus and make an amazing, an even better project than if you just tried to do it by yourself. So there's, there's an aspect of don't try and do it by yourself.

Chad Smith: 40:41">40:41

No, no, hire people out or have someone better than you. But and in my, with this podcast, and just like everyone in this, I'm a word, this sentence how I'm going to the person that just wants to start in, guys just started. Don't overanalyze, just start it, learn the system, go through whatever it is your life. And, you know, even the guy that owns this place will admit it to he said, same thing, like your life is gonna change, like drastically, even if it's not for funding, you're gonna get experience in front of people, your clients, whatever it is that you're like, where did this come from? And to me at the beginning, I got about 15 or 20 episodes in and I think it occurred at like August, naturally, more December, December, when I finally said, Okay, this is no BS, I have to focus on this podcast. Yeah. And I went all in. That was the first level up. And the next level up is where I'm currently at right now. But once I committed to that and went through it, worldwide summits, author opportunities, people that publish people that are in the speaking industries, speaking engagements, yeah, I can go through and I look at this is this podcasts is a platform. And I, I personally don't look at, yes, we all care about subscribers and cells and all that stuff that that's the key to the podcast. If you change one person out of the whole fleet, of people that are on your podcast, yeah, you're I'm done. Like, yeah, that's 100%. Good. I don't like I care about my subscribers. I care about my listeners, guys, trust me. But what we learned in the past is, is it start? You're not? You don't care about the 99. You care about the one to help the 99. Yeah. And that's how I focused at this is, this is a gift that was given to me that just dropped on my lap. And there's days I do get a little fun and you know, rambunctious about it just to hear cocky at times. But I don't look at this as the same confidence and arrogance that I had when I was tournament vision. Yeah. Because to me, it's like, I know, this is gift. I know this is going to help people, right? I can't even poke the bear on this. Like it's too big to poke the bear,

David Kalsow: 42:51">42:51

right? The same hustle and persistence that you had before. But now the mindset has has changed.

Chad Smith: 42:58">42:58

I never thought in my life, that first why would be doing what I'm doing right now. Secondly, have all these people drop. Obviously, I'm part of some face group networked with a lot of things though. Having these amazing moments with customers recordings, all this stuff dropped on my lap. And especially there's one or two that are you know, design, big multibillion dollar companies like they just Here you go. And it goes so quick, that you don't even have time to analyze it. And you're just like, alright, we'll roll with it. Let's go. But the power of your network are helping people yeah, there's just it's tough to even explain it you get it but going from this to this to transforming this into now I found my niche in the faith based entrepreneurialship mental health addiction Avenue with heavy faith base stuff. Yes, sir. Swearing Yes, guys. I'm still imperfect. But I never thought in my life, I'll be tapping that market. Well, first of all, I've never thought in my life, I'd be talking about him. Till until Yeah, reborn. But here we are. I've been overly blessed. I mean, you just turn over like abundance is the word

David Kalsow: 44:16">44:16

is the is the church word for it. Yeah. Overly,

Chad Smith: 44:19">44:19

overly blessed with amazing people in my life that I'm just pursuing and keep going with it. It's probably gonna be the podcast is is my main driver. And in businesses, it's actually opposite. So like, you have a product and then your podcast is the product behind it. Yeah, I'm actually quite opposite, which is making me more fit for radio, voiceovers, whatever it is. So I didn't know I had a voice for this. And it may sound boring at times, but like it's pretty flat for like recording. So this is like a perfect radio voice.

David Kalsow: 44:50">44:50

Yeah, but you've interviewed a ton of people because you've tapped into the power of the internet and what events some of your favorite interviews that you've I would you even call them interviews. Would you call them just the conversation stories?

Chad Smith: 45:01">45:01

The one that blew my mind? Actually, I had multiple ones like one I'm a co host with for coffee show and me and you talked about it off. Yeah. off the mic here. Me and her always awesome. So like, her podcasts are amazing. Like she jumps on we have fun because we we put so much time together that we can have a blast. The one that just completely left me speechless for like 25 minutes and I couldn't even say a word was there was a girl in Vegas that went through a lot of I will just say she got raped a lot. Live Live very rough. But on the streets, I think it's like episode 46 I'm gonna leave her name off this one but amazing story. Like, I'm just sitting there on the other end with the mic recording going. I'm like,

David Kalsow: 45:44">45:44

How do I?

Chad Smith: 45:46">45:46

I can't even respond to that. Yeah. And I at the end, I'm like, I have nothing. She's like, what I'm like, I apologise I have nothing because what you just said, I'm not even a push it. Like I had to stop it at that time. Say okay, hey, let's just send it right now. Thanks for sharing. Yeah. And she ended up being number one bookseller on Amazon for like four weeks straight on, like five different categories. Like it blew up. Yeah. And then the one I'm editing right now. And it's been like a two week process just for time.

David Kalsow: 46:16">46:16

Show lining a book and doing everything. She

Chad Smith: 46:19">46:19

She's given me the good old fashioned Texas. Old school. Preach on. Oh, okay. And for all you guys that love a good butt weapon.

David Kalsow: 46:35">46:35

This is the episode for the this is

Chad Smith: 46:37">46:37

the episode of it. And throughout. It's like chat chat chat. So this is the one that the good old southern girls gonna come out and deliver a good microphone. But what happened to me and I'm only about 10 minutes into it. And yeah, we'll finish it today but double convicted

David Kalsow: 46:54">46:54

on the editing part. Yeah, it's, uh,

Chad Smith: 46:58">46:58

this one has to come out. Yeah. And I told her straight out, we're bypassing my rule, because usually I'm about eight weeks ahead on releases. Like, this one's coming out. Just because I want people to hear me get my butt kicked. So that's one of my favorites. Alright, awesome. My cue is if it's not going well, 10 minutes. So you'll see some short episodes. And here's the trick behind the scenes guys. Those are the ones that didn't really work out interview.

David Kalsow: 47:26">47:26

Hey, you know, and that's, I think making that call on the back end is be like, hey, if it just needs to be 10 minutes. This is the best part.

Chad Smith: 47:35">47:35

I look at it as my famous line in there's, hey, you provided all this value in 10 to 12 minutes. I'm just gonna end it. I don't want to stretch this out. And let's make amazing episode. Yeah. Which means I was positive on everything. Yeah, it's not working. But we still made an episode.

David Kalsow: 47:54">47:54

So yeah, not wasting their time and your multitude of other things. But work into that. But say you've you've tapped into the world, the internet there for your interviews, your conversations, your storytelling time. If someone wants to interview where where do people go to sort of get connected with online other people that want to be a guest on podcasts?

Chad Smith: 48:18">48:18

Yeah, so worldwide level. First of all, I'm network through the same group, broker or whatever the word is that they use for one of the guys here. So I'm network through that now. So I did get one or two guests off that night. The biggest one is find a guest be a guest. Collaboration podcast group that's on Facebook, right? Yeah. Okay. Another one is guests connection, guest collaboration, I think those are like two or three girls. So I did two posts on the three topics that I talked about. And I think I like 82 responses.

David Kalsow: 48:49">48:49

Because they have some like rules and stuff in there. Like, hey, don't just say I'm interested, give a reason for like, what you're, what you're looking for what topics what value you can bring to other people's podcasts and what they can bring to you. Yeah,

Chad Smith: 49:01">49:01

and the biggest, the biggest number one rule is you have to showcase them. And if, as a business owner, I if I'm going on podcast, I want to promote my business. It is it's fair thing to do.

David Kalsow: 49:14">49:14

I mean, it's a free platform. If you don't get a call to action for something then

Chad Smith: 49:19">49:19

you're there trying to sell your business pretty much so yeah, I'm on I'm on three Facebook groups when it comes to that stuff. I'm obviously networked with you guys. Really? Yeah. Appleton Podcast. Co-op. Yes. Finally gets

David Kalsow: 49:30">49:30

a mouthful. I understand. APC all called that.

Chad Smith: 49:35">49:35

But it's just like, the term everyday you're hustling. You're always looking into groups. I could still do better. I have six things or seven groups I want to be part of but you only have a certain amount of time for right so what I'll do is I'll go on Facebook, I'm intertwined with Kalindi. So it's not calendar guys. It's Kalindi spiritual end why? That's intertwined with my Gmail calendar, and send him a link and boom, boom, boom.

David Kalsow: 50:05">50:05

Yeah, so calendar is a tool that you can use to automatically check your calendar. And then someone else can basically just sign up for a time to record the podcast that fits with their schedule, but it already shows your entire calendar on there. Yeah, so it's an awesome tool to really streamline scheduling.

Chad Smith: 50:25">50:25

Yeah, and with the lack of sleep I'm getting, I'm actually going to stretch that Wednesday or Tuesday night, I will be part of a big pod 25 person, podcast mastermind class in Australia, Oh, sick. So I'm gonna jump on and be part of that I have no intention. Or honestly, I don't wanna say no intentions. I have no intention of what's gonna be like, We honestly have no idea. No expectations, no expectations, the owner of the thing, we not work through different thing, but it's just scheduled, whatever. So like, it took me six months to finally intertwine and say, Okay, I'm gonna do it. Plus here. So like, I'm, I live in bleed, and breathe, podcast. And now I'm looking at, like I said, level up to next level to the next level, you have to continuously be investing back in your podcast. Yeah. I did not make a dime off my podcasts. That's where the T shirts and stuff came in. So guys, you're not going to get rich right away with this. I think the one that's making money is currently not here for personal reasons. But you go through level. So like my first level is just getting accustomed to the foundation of it the next level. Now, which I hit the last couple of weeks, it's okay, how do you tweak your voice? What's the timing of it? How do I need to update my mics? How do I do backdrop sounding whatever. So like, instead of going to ground level, you're going to the next level to the next one to the next level. So

David Kalsow: 51:40">51:40

the podcasts and your knowledge grows with it. And you ran a really lean show for the first 89 episodes or whatever, just like your Apple headphones and your laptop or USB mic that you had before. And now you're like, Okay, it's working for me, though. I've you've proved that. As Aaron and other guys, other entrepreneurs, the minimum valuable product and people are listening. I'm sure now and so like, I think you're willing to put more back into it because you're saying like people are actually engaging,

Chad Smith: 52:14">52:14

engaging with Yeah, so I have a, I use my original laptop. Now I have a Mac system. Like I use, I bought a used one for like 200 bucks that was updated. And then I bought a lap, MacBook Pro older one just to do what we're doing now. So if like if I'm gonna be in the studios and stuff, you need something that's convertible, that's going to work so like all my editing is done on Apple. Audio use Audacity. Nice. Yeah, I'm going to probably end up going in Adobe, my next one is going to be Adobe down the road, but I'm not doing video stuff yet. So it's just not even this. So like a fee to come here every month. So I'm I threw the kitchen table at at my goals, my dreams. So like, I'm not afraid to go bankrupt. Making all the big windows stuff work. So like to speak in the writing the books that like just the ball of fun is the best way I'm gonna say it, I'm not afraid to be blow water with it either. That's just when you accept to your own message you have, you're willing to almost die for. So that's, that's the reason why I'm here. And I know the value of being around here is 100% Worth, in the long run, something that a lot of people never connect, not say never kind of experienced. But the opportunity here to be around people with the knowledge and everything is like a once in a lifetime thing, right? So it's worth any price your pain,

David Kalsow: 53:36">53:36

right? If you are all in a podcast is a great place to be because you got a studio and you get studio time with your membership there at the venture project. So you you can use this studio space, which thank you for letting me use your time for this show in particular, but I mean, you can single rent the studio out too,

Chad Smith: 53:53">53:53

so I'm gonna drop it No, because we're gonna pre recorded so if you guys want studio time, whatever you're down in Fox Valley, go visit WWW dot venture project oshkosh.com Go to the top where it says rental or whatever the tab is studio, drop down, hit rent, you're in here with us. So

David Kalsow: 54:12">54:12

yeah, so they have made it easy to schedule some some times for you and people outside that are not not members of the venture project here. So as we sort of wrap up here, what would what advice would you give to someone starting a podcast besides just just do it.

Chad Smith: 54:30">54:30

As simple as Nike slogan is it's actually pretty simple. Do not be afraid. And to be honest, the episodes that you're going to record that have the most value are going to have mess ups. Your mics aren't going to work. You're going to have guys in the background that's going to be trying to sand walls, dogs barking phones ringing whatever it is. Just edit it out. Just gotta understand hey, I'm gonna kick it out.

David Kalsow: 54:55">54:55

Yeah, but yeah, you can't get everything but your story and the the conversation. I think

Chad Smith: 55:01">55:01

the adversaries are Yeah, the adversary is going to block whatever he needs to do to make sure that star doesn't hit the hit the fan. And that's the best way of saying it because the amazing my most amazing episodes except for a few, actually, yeah. Had some sort of oops in it. And that's just the magic of podcast, magic radio, whatever it is. That's magic me improv. That's emotional on the ground. So guys, Don't overanalyze improv as much as you can improv. Yes, have a game plan, but improv because the magic is in that conversation and you cannot overanalyze that. I'm just letting it happen. Just let it go.

David Kalsow: 55:40">55:40

Well, awesome. Is there anything else you want to say about you about your story and anything that you think we missed?

Chad Smith: 55:47">55:47

Best way of saying it stay tuned, guys, because this roller coaster is gonna get wild what heavy crazy loopy whatever it is. There's gonna be a lot of amazing things coming down the pipeline for me a lot of moving parts a lot lot moving parts. I do have focus guys, so I can control my world in a good way. But by the time fall rolls around, you're gonna be seeing some amazing things coming out of this.

David Kalsow: 56:13">56:13

Awesome. Sounds like a fun roller coaster and I can't wait to see what happens. Thank you so much for joining me, Chad.

Chad Smith: 56:18">56:18

No problem thinking.

David Kalsow: 56:21">56:21

Man. I love Chad's story. It's such a crazy with a whole lot of hope. Chad's got a lot up the sleeves though right now. So go check out his website at D Chad M Smith to learn all that is up to you can also go follow interview with the battle warrior podcast wherever you're listening right now. I know there's a lot of C's get degrees in there, but it is now the battle warrior podcast. So are you going to take uncle Chad's advice and just do it by I mean start a podcast. We got you covered though. Head on over to Appleton Podcast Co-op COMM For community support and resources to start your own podcast if you do you could win some free gear but that time is running out as the giveaway does end on episode 20 of this first season. If you know anyone in Northeast Wisconsin who likes podcasts, share this show with them. If you've made it this far, please rate and review this show on pod chaser or go rent a rowboat take it out in the middle of Lake Buda more and when motor boaters inevitably yell at you yell your review right back. I'm David Kalsow, your neighborly podcast nerd and thanks for listening

Transcribed by https://otter.ai