Sean Beaver: Veteran, Entrepreneur on a Mission to Bring Communities Together/Great American Kites and Events

 SPEAKERS

Brandy Von Holten, Sean Beaver, transcribed by Rhiannon Niemeier

 Brandy Von Holten  00:12

Welcome back to Big Boss Mare with Brandy Von Holten. Today I have a very special guest. His name is Sean Beaver. I saw his company on Facebook because of one of my good friends. Her name is Robin Balke, She shared some shared something on Facebook and then I was able to find out about Sean. Well then, whenever I called and spoke to this man, if you could ever make Brandy Von Holten, like my energy and all of my excitement, if you could turn me into a six foot something bald headed man with a beard, then here he is. Like minds gravitate towards each other. Whenever we find people that are like us that are like minded. Sean man, I've had a couple of conversations with him on the phone, and I'm just like, oh my gosh, we're going to be best friends. So, Sean has a wife named Stephany. They have a business called The Great American Kites and Events. Okay, so first of all, let's tell them all about The Great American Kites. Sean's a little bit older than me, not very much. What makes a gentleman who you used to be active-duty Army, actually went to Iraq, what made you want to become a kite man, but first of all explain these kites?

 

Sean Beaver 01:52

So, Great American Kites is a community engagement business. We are in the business of bringing people communities, businesses, and organizations together through the whimsical nature of kites. The kites that we fly just happened to be the largest kite you'll ever see in your life. They're household size kites. Think Macy's Day Parade size structures. They're massive.

 

Brandy Von Holten  02:15

So like the size of a semi truck with a trailer.

 

Sean Beaver 02:19

Yeah, we actually have one kite you could probably put five city buses inside of, they're huge. We also have, I hate to use the word own because it's probably the wrong term, we're stewards of what's called the mega flag. It's a former Guinness Book of World Record holder. It's a giant flag that's so large, it gets anchored to a dump truck filled with gravel and weighs about 600 and some odd pounds. It's just a massive piece of kite engineering. It’s a giant memorial to the US flag. It's a giant flag. It's what we call a pillow style kite. We don't get to fly it a lot, but, but it's a beautiful piece. So, Great American Kites gets hired by organizations to bring people, communities, and other organizations together through these kite shows that we do. It is absolutely a wonderful time. My kids grew up flying kites with us. We fell in love with this whole experience, and we somehow diverted from the hobbyist kite flyer to a full-time business primarily because the demand for what we do, community after community festivals, events, balloon festivals, music festivals, it is absolutely been a whirlwind ride for the last 15 years, probably the last seven of which have been throttling Great American Kites. Last week, we were in Page, Arizona for seven days and had a great time. On a typical year, we'll do 30 to 40 events in seven or eight states. In short, basically, organizations or companies hire us, or festivals, event organizers, chambers of commerce, community organizations, those kinds of things. They want to bring their community out. I said to somebody last week in Arizona that the kids have one job and you know what that one job is? It's to have fun and be a kid. I think that's fine. But what we see right now is more kids than ever coming from, broken homes, tough times, substance abuse in their homes, increased suicide, depression, anxiety. There's just a host of different reasons why it's really good and healthy for kids to get outside and have outdoor free play. We just happen to excite that process by having great big giant, really cool kites.

 

Brandy Von Holten  04:33

You told me that people can see your kites from how many miles away?

 

Sean Beaver 04:38

It depends on how wide open the landscape is. I might have a little tough time here. Depends on how high we could get them up. I mean, miles. They're large, think about a 747 on the horizon and how big that plane is. We have kites that big. Yeah, a long way.

 

Brandy Von Holten  04:55

Let's talk about your logo. You did it in red, white, and blue, and it's all about the Great American Kites. I love that you are very Americana. I mean, here you are, you're a veteran.

 

Sean Beaver 05:09

We are. When we started thinking about ways to memorialize our pride in country, and our appreciation for this great country that we live in, and the freedoms that we all sort of take for granted. I know that because I've had to go to Iraq and fight for those freedoms, right, I've had to go out and really put freedom and my life on the line against various campaigns and was honored to do that. I wanted to find a way to say thank you to this great country, so what better way to do that then memorializing the name of our company, Great American Kites. We truly view ourselves as great Americans and the red, white and blue being a way to honor Betsy Ross's great work with the flag. We carry that today, we stand when the national anthem comes up, and honor the flag, and everybody that is a part of making this great country great. Early on, we always wanted to have the Great American Kite Festival, which would be a festival made up of some of the biggest kite fliers in the world, and that's still one of our long term goals. We are so busy weekend after weekend after weekend. In non-pandemic years, you know, a lot of these events have been put on hold and sort of shelved, but we are 30-40 deep out of a 52 week year. We probably can play ball with about 32 of those weekends, from about mid-March to mid-October, and there are probably Saturdays and Sunday events. So, we have about 65 potential days a year that we could have capacity for events. We're encouraged that, coming out of the pandemic, we're starting to see an uptick. I think we have 14 events already booked for this year, [Brandy: People are ready to get out] which is more than double than what it was last year.

 

Brandy Von Holten  06:49

Last year was such a trying time. I'm going to explain to you, whenever you book these events, it's like you're trying to get maximum amount of people there. Well, we are not set up for maximum amount of people because some of these events have what had 20 to 30,000 people.

 

Sean Beaver 07:11

Yeah, last weekend, we probably had 3500 people that came on a PGA golf course.

 

Brandy Von Holten  07:17

I think I put a zero on that. Have you ever had one that had a ridiculous amount like 10,000 people?

 

Sean Beaver 07:23

Well, Flights of Fancy, which is our flagship event, just up in Lee's Summit, Missouri, has roughly 35,000 kids that come out to that. It's a free event to the public, it's totally subsidized by the corporate sponsors that get behind that, and that committee does a great job of driving that. In the case of your facility here it's going to be a little different because you have a little different model, and we do private events like this. It's good to partner with you guys.

 

Brandy Von Holten  07:53

This podcast is about finding motivation. It's about business. It's about becoming a survivor. It doesn't have to be just for women. I've had several other guys that are on here because motivation is motivation. I tell everybody, I'm not a bra burner. I'm not one of those people that's like boo on guys. I'm like, no, I love guys, and I love smart guys that are doing cool stuff. What we're going to do is, to cover the expense plus a little bit more because I had to rent porta potties, we have a few other expenses with this, is I'm going to partner with nine businesses. Just nine. It doesn't have to be a business; it could be a family. They are going to get 100 tickets, and you have to have a ticket to come onto our property. That's going to be 900 people. We've had right at that number before when we had our largest wedding, we had a national horse competition, and we had this country music singer come out named Leroy Van Dyke. We had three events going on and you couldn't even tell that we had that many people here because they were in different groups. With the kites, we're putting you in the largest pasture that we have. You're going to be able to get the same view from wherever you're at, they're going to be able to be spread out. We picked a weekend, and right now we are July 3 with a rain day of July 4. Independence Day, I'm getting chill bumps I want to like jump through this microphone and just be like “AHH,” because then you are a veteran who owns a company that's called Great American Kites, and you have partnered with my husband and I, two, hardworking people coming together to bring back a family farm that's 115 years old. Then, we want to share our farm with you, an American company like, literally right now, if my shirt got ripped off, there'd be an American flag underneath it. I just want to fly our American flag and be like, I am proud to be an American. I feel like we have hiccups happening left and right all around us. I'm not the happiest person about the way some things are going, but I can make families stronger by providing these events. I'm going to end up charging those nine companies or those nine businesses. A lot of small businesses can't afford a large event, but they can afford $500, and I'm going to give them 100 tickets. If it's a business, they could sell the tickets, they could give them to their best clients, they could give them to their family.

 

Sean Beaver 11:06

If you're bringing, let's say 100 guests, and it's $5 a ticket. If they don't take $5 in value, I don't think you can go get a burger for that.

 

Brandy Von Holten  11:16

Actually, after all expenses and everything, it should be a wash for us. We're going to do so much work and do so much to make zero. I mean, the marketing side of this for me is 900 People are going to know that I exist. So I'm taking July 4 weekend, and for me, I'm going to do a lot of work. But then those people are going to be like, I didn't know we could camp here. I didn't know you had cabins. I didn't know you wrote children's books. I didn't know you had a podcast.

 

Sean Beaver 11:53

Truth be told, until I came today. I didn't know some of this stuff existed. This is my first time here. I would encourage your listeners to get out and come out and see the facility. I think what you guys offer is great, and it's neat to see. I appreciate all the kind words about who we are, what we do, how we work, and what we bring communities in terms of benefits. I think you guys do the same thing and your own sort of sprinkle of uniqueness out here is neat, and it's a hidden gem. Come out and see it.

 

Brandy Von Holten  12:21

I know COVID was really rough on a lot of people, but our business was set up for you to get outside. Our campsites are 25 foot apart. A lot of people figured out that we were here, and now, the fact that my husband and I live on site. Then he's like a man's man when it comes to fixing things, do you know how many clients come out here by themselves that are women, then do you know how much that means to me that they feel safe?

 

Sean Beaver 12:52

 I think it's a testament to him and you both, but I would say for the folks that visit here, that are coming out, it's just a way to get out. I'm glad you brought up COVID, because the reality is, what we do, it's weird to be talking about kites on a podcast. Better yet. I'd love to show you. [Brandy: oh yes, you're a video guy.] Yeah, but it's beyond that. These events, despite all of the COVID lockdowns, are outdoors will have an ample opportunity to be socially distance. So if that concerns you, I would excite you to really consider coming out. What better place than nearly 50 plus acres, I mean, you have absolute space to get out and enjoy a company picnic or private picnic, if you want to do that. Get a picnic basket, get a blanket, just enjoy yourself. You don't have to be in next to 10,000 people. That's not the vision of your event. I applaud that, I think it's neat. A lot of the events that have canceled I think, not just with what we do, but I think some of the bigger and larger especially outdoor events have hastily canceled, I think rooted in ignorance more than anything. A lot of these events should be still going on. I don't care if it's a tractor pull or whatever it may be. There are so many of those events that have so much space, they are outdoors. It's more deadly to go, if you're being honest, to the grocery store to go shopping, or go to get gas. I can't wait until we get out of this pandemic and get back to life as usual. But you have an absolutely beautiful place here. You really do.

 

Brandy Von Holten  14:27

I just ran for our local health board. [Sean: I know that, congratulations by the way.] I won that thing. There were 10 candidates. In the history of Pettis County they have never had something that was ran for that had that many candidates, and for me to come out on top and I there was a span. People believe in the message that you just said because it's the message that I just said like yes, I want to keep people safe. Let's just talk about bathrooms because it’s going to happen, especially when you're outside and you might be eating or drinking something. We have our guest shower house that has six toilets, six showers, and we have four sinks. This weekend we are not booking a wedding. So our wedding venue has wheelchair accessible bathrooms and there are three in there. That thing's heated and air conditioned, it will be air conditioned for the July 4 event, we will not turn the heat on, that would just be ridiculous. I've also brought in Hanks Portable Toilets. The guy that owns Hanks is Jeff, he bought a business that was established. Jeff has helped me come up with even more porta potties than what I actually needed. A porta potty is actually really nice whenever they're clean. This guy was the one that we called when we first opened up here. I've never been so excited to have a porta potty until you don't have a bathroom and you're trying to build this ranch.

 

Sean Beaver 16:03

Oh, should have a porta potty podcast. That'd be cool.

 

Brandy Von Holten  16:05

Porta Potty podcast. We could talk about it, we could just call it “Shh It Happens” Okay, there we go. Haha. So anyways, we're taking every precaution, and that's why I had to limit this. It would be so much easier to market it on your part as boom, we're going to have this event, and everybody come. We're going to be like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I'm actually going to get some really cool tickets passed and done because they have to have a ticket and not, oh, here, I've got a ticket and I brought my three kids. No, that would be four tickets. I have to do crowd management. I want to do a really cool event, but then at the end of the day, we know our limitations. Let’s talk about Stephany. Okay, so tell me how amazing Stephany is and what she does, because this is a two person operation, but you hire a bunch of people,

 

Sean Beaver 17:07

It depends on the size of the event; we'll have some assistance in terms of what we would call our crew. We bring about 8,000 pounds of nylon, a whole host of kites, different sizes, different shapes. We have a Ram 3500, we'll tow a 20 foot trailer with us, and that brings all of our assets out there. I'll take care of a lot of the field part of the show, so the large guides, getting the anchor set up, getting the kites flown and making sure that field operation is safe. Then Stephany will take care of the retail sales part of it, or some of the kite making. A lot of times we'll do free kids kite making kits. They can come and use a simple 8 x 10 piece of paper or whatever and color and decorate it, then put that on some thread, again, for really small kids. Some of these you can do indoors, so we'll do some of those. We'll just give those out at the event, We will have those at your event. We'll also have, if they want to get a kite, we have everything from $3 Kites to different toys and wands, they can spend as much as they want. You're talking to a guy that spends $5,000 on a kite. I don't think anybody's going to come out and do that. We certainly have kites that, if people want to get into some entry level and some nicer kites, we have you know, $10 to $30 price points.

 

Brandy Von Holten  18:26

They're going have all sorts of kites here, and as soon as people are here, they're going to be like, “I want to fly a kite!”

 

Sean Beaver 18:32

That's part of what we looked at this morning. The field area has to have an area that we can fly what we do safely. We want the kids to look but not touch, because these kites are bigger than the building we're in right now. There's a lot going on with those. Anytime you're dealing with a kite that can pull 2, 3, even 4,000 pounds, there's a safety consideration. But we also want to have an area for the kids to fly, what I would call the public area, so they can come out and run and frolic and do all those kinds of things too. So, that'll happen as well. I think between the two we'll have a good show.

 

Brandy Von Holten  19:04

Can I put dibs in on a unicorn?

 

Sean Beaver 19:10

I figured we're on the Von Holten Ranch, so we'll probably have horses and unicorns. We have multiple horses, and sometimes we'll fly just horses. I don't know if we'll have a cow in by then.

 

Brandy Von Holten  19:23

Doo you have a Ninja Turtle?

 

Sean Beaver 19:24

We do not have a Ninja Turtle. That's a good one. Anytime you get into those copyrighted brands it gets a little bit difficult.

 

Brandy Von Holten  19:29

So these horses though, these things are massive. Actually, I was meaning like the little kid area. Surely you'd let me fly a kite in the little kid area too.

 

Sean Beaver 19:43

We'll let you do that, I'll bring you out on the field, you can sit underneath. In fact, I should have brought a horse today just to show you how big they are. The plan is that we'll have, I think we're 11 to 4 that day, so we will just battle the winds and the weather no matter what's going on. Somebody asked yesterday about what happens if it rains. If it's if it's a little shower, that's going to happen for a little bit, it will be like a baseball game and have a rain delay, we can do that and fight our way through it and mess with it then. It's all just going to depend on what Mother Nature shares with us that day and what the directions of the wind. We should have South wind’s, so for the field that you're going to have should work out ideal. And we do private events like this, company events, we did a big event for Honeywell last year just for their employees and their families. It reminds me a little bit about what you're trying to do here, in limiting the amount of people. Even though a lot of people saw the show, they stopped, they wanted to come in, it was a private event. Hopefully, you'll get some businesses that want to partake in the 100 tickets, and they'll do their part to sponsor and support not only what we're doing, but really what you guys are doing here and bringing awareness to the ranch.

 

Brandy Von Holten  20:53

I know that even if another actual town does this, they're not going to be able to provide the intimate side that we're wanting. I'm wanting to have a food vendor here and have kettle corn, I've hired a face painter, and then the ability to actually be able to camp. They could do this crazy cool event then they could camp. Other places are not going to be able to do that. Some of the families around here are so large, it gives them the opportunity to have a family reunion. So that's what I'm trying to do. I'm always looking for these little pockets. I want to make it affordable $5 per person is ridiculous. See, that's me trying to give. I give to get. Well, I don't give to get, but you get whenever you give. You have to give without expecting to get. I want people to see that our wedding venue exists. It's kind of like kids going to school, like yes, they're going to get an education, but now you don't have to pay for daycare. So that's what I'm trying to do, is create this event, support some local people, but then I do want to show our place off because booking a one day wedding with us is life changing. That’s huge for us.

 

Sean Beaver 22:25

Or family building. Oh, yeah. Think about the direction you take people after that.

 

Brandy Von Holten  22:30

I used to be a schoolteacher and I love teaching. A lot of people you hear them whining, and I'm like no, like I really felt like I was helping the world. [Sean: Where did you teah?] I started in Odessa because they have such a great mentor person. [Sean: Odessa, Texas?] No, Odessa, Missouri. I am from Texas. Let me back up for Sean and for anybody else that's here. [Sean: Are you from West Texas?] I’m from South Texas. [Sean: Down by the Mexico border.] Yes, I was south of Beaumont down there. I was born in Texas, and then we moved to a little bit more northern Texas, it's called DeKalb. Well, DeKalb is right beside Texarkana, that’s the state line between Texas and Arkansas. I stayed there for a while until like eighth grade and then we moved to Arkansas. Then I was in Arkansas from eighth grade through two of my college degrees. Then I moved to Missouri because I tried to go to the Olympics as a heavyweight fighter. So, I moved here, I moved to this state with enough money for one month worth of rent and two weeks’ worth of food and fuel with no family and I didn't know anybody. I just wanted to train with a specific instructor who I actually did a podcast with, her name is Terry Gautreaux. I moved here for her.

 

Sean Beaver 23:54

 She was a ray of light for you at that time.

 

Brandy Von Holten  23:56

She was the answer. She's a great instructor. I mean, she is just so motivational. Then I met my husband a few months after I moved here, and I stayed here. Now my husband, his journey, he was born in Missouri, and he lived in Missouri his whole life, and he always wanted to own the family farm, but his father and his aunt never would really sell it to him. When he was 40 he asked one more time and they said yes, so we bought a family farm. We bought it on December 27, 2013, so at the end of 2013. No one had lived here since 1979. It was dead. I mean the family farm was dead. The buildings were collapsing, and they never got rid of anything. There were tires, there were water heaters.

 

Sean Beaver 24:56

No one would know it now. I walked through that wedding venue an hour ago, and it is nothing short of artistry what he has done to bring that thing to life. You walk in and you can see the rustic look and the décor. What a neat place to get married.

 

Brandy Von Holten  25:13

With my husband, a lot of people think you have to go to college. My husband did go to college, he didn't graduate, he needed a couple of classes. But man, blue collar America, I love my construction worker. You are going to get to hear this a little bit later, after we've done this interview, because I only post one a week. But he is here before we go to Minnesota. We're going to Minnesota. We're leaving today, and we're coming back tomorrow. It is going to be awful. My ankles are going to be swollen from being in a vehicle too long. I told you my husband is this great construction guy, but he is not a big fan of a lot of people. Our place is smaller, and we love our clients because they're like minded and they're not riff raffy, they’re just good people. He's wanting to get this CNC. It's this machine that will cut out all these pieces of wood, and then he'll be able to ship it to people and they'll be able to build with him. But he won't have to have all these people around him, he'll be able to make one video. It's just another American based, blue collar, love our country kind of business, but then it's going to help people. We say it's going to be big construction ideas made through small projects.

 

Sean Beaver 26:49

So here is your next trivia question. What does CNC stand for? [Brandy: Nope, don’t know, no.] I think it stands for computerized numerical control.

 

Brandy Von Holten  26:57

Yes. Okay. So somebody posted that on there. My husband says CNC so much.

 

Sean Beaver 27:03

It is a CNC, I don't know what that means. But that's okay. It's probably like a lot of things.

 

Brandy Von Holten  27:08

I know that it cuts all the wood out for you, instead of him having to cut them out by hand. It is going to be great, because all the pieces will be a uniform. It would really suck if they were trying to put something together and one piece is too fat, or too little. We needed to have quality control.

 

Sean Beaver 27:25

Yeah, it'll be all the same. It's like Legos. He's going to be like the IKEA of subscription construction boxes.

 

Brandy Von Holten  27:32

Hey, so you have a degree from K-State. You’re a K-State guy, and it was in social science.

 

Sean Beaver 27:41

I started in construction management and shifted. When I got out of the military, I was in Fort Riley. It's a stone's throw to K-State. Actually, I started taking classes while I was active duty, because the army pays a lot and I highly encourage young men and women that are looking for a calling in life, especially out of high school. It's a great avenue to go through if you don't really know what you want to do. I didn't know, so I did and wanted to see the world. I was from Kansas City and all of a sudden, my view of the world was Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, and then Fort Riley, Kansas. I was never more than two hours away from mom, she used to literally bring cookies to the barracks. I was like mom, go home.

 

Brandy Von Holten 28:24

Oh, and you know, all those other guys were like, “Yeah, I loved it. Tell her to bring me some cookies, man.”

 

Sean Beaver 28:30

Actually, when I was deployed in Iraq, she sent like 19 dozen cookies from all her friends that came over and from the high school that I went to. I went to Hickman Mills High School in Kansas City. So, all the moms of us that had deployed sent over all these cookies, and it was the best. It was cool to really see that. So, I grew up kind of South Kansas City and probably wasn't meant to make anything of myself. I found my way to the army and then found my way to K-State. Long story short, I have two kids and we live in Polo, Missouri. We’re just off highway 13, in Caldwell County. Our businesses is licensed in Missouri and in Caldwell County, and we travel all over America flying kites for communities and for events and festivals and private organizations. It is just an absolute wonder to do and you know, what struck me about you, and by the way, this my first podcast. I hope I'm doing well. [Brandy: You're doing great.] I'm a neophyte at best.

 

Brandy Von Holten  29:22

I've had to get on to him a couple of times. I've had to put my finger in the air and go left and right with it, because he'll start tapping, he talks with his hands, and he'll start tapping on the table. I'm like stop doing that, but I'm trying to do that behind the scenes for you.

 

Sean Beaver 29:35

On my first call with you, you were inspiring, your energy was, your super, super infectious. I always like to surround myself with people that are making things happen with life. Wherever their journey is taking them. You are certainly the first competitive fighter that I've ever met.

 

Brandy Von Holten  29:54

And then I'm a chubby female. Hey!

 

Sean Beaver  29:58

What you've done with this for facility that you're that you're trying to grow economically in this county, in this area, it's such a unique blend. Your passion for politics and for making a difference. By the way, if no one's told you that, you're a ray of light for me, your inspiration is just absolutely awesome. Don't stop, I think I told you that on the phone, do not stop. I don't care what anybody says. It's ruthless, but it's people like you that I think make a difference. At the end of your life, you’ll be able to count on one hand, the people that inspire you, and you're a source of inspiration for me. I know you don't fly kites, but that's okay. You're making a difference. My dad used to say all the time, at the end of your life, if you can just make a difference, that's really all you can do. I think you embody that. What you guys have done here to a dead family farm, that by the way, for your listeners, you would not notice. You have to come out here, take it for yourself. It is amazing what you guys have done.

 

Brandy Von Holten  30:52

My nose is tingling, you have my nose tingling,

 

Sean Beaver 30:55

It’s massively important that you hear me say that because the world needs more people like you that are making a difference, that are making things happen that bring positivity. I saw some of this through your campaigning too, and how you campaigned, I think is equally as important to what you're campaigning for. If people throw stones, I'm not really into that. [Brandy: I just blocked them.] No, not at all, you are uplifting here to the to the folks that you are running against, and maybe you had different views on things, but you absolutely embodied that view difference for what it was. Those are important political qualities that we need more of at the local level, at the state level, and the federal level. If more people did that, I think we would unite this country in ways that we need and. By the way, it's going to be exciting to follow your journey politically too, because I think you can make a big difference in a lot of things that you touch.

 

Brandy Von Holten  31:51

With my husband and I, we don't have children and our business is beginning to pick up. I’m so close to getting an employee. Like, to an actual assistant that can take some of the some of the responsibilities.

 

Sean Beaver 32:14

You should get an intern.

 

Brandy Von Holten  32:16

We've had several, we have one that's returning. I can't believe she's going to return because we work them.

 

Sean Beaver 32:24

That says a lot about you guys. Give good academic deliverables and milestones. Make the internship meaningful.

 

Brandy Von Holten  32:29

Oh, yeah, they are always doing some crazy stuff. Every day they don't know what they're going to do. But,  I just feel like my husband and I, we were not happy with the direction our country's going, we're not happy, and we love this country. He and I said, well, which one of us? It's really hard, I wish it was David. I love what I'm doing, because of the time commitment, but then time is one of the love languages. I love our country, so I'm going to give my time, 100% going to give my time. But David and I –

 

Sean Beaver 33:09

What are the other love languages?

 

Brandy Von Holten  33:11

Okay, acts of service, which that right there, I'm like, David, will you make me a cup of coffee, will you feed the horses this morning, like I love. [Sean: Do the dishes and the laundry.] No, we make Liam do that. Liam's our 15-year-old boy that comes. [Sean: So, acts of service.] Acts of service, gifts, spending money, then I know that there's touch, then there are words of affection. My husband loves words. I'm his biggest cheerleader. Like, “I'm so proud of you!” A lot of people like to buy people something, which is fine. Then acts of service is how I like to be loved.

 

Sean Beaver 33:57

Well, good for you. Well, I’ll have to keep that in mind and do an act of service here.

 

Brandy Von Holten  34:01

Oh, you're already doing an act of service by the way your business is set up. I like oddities, you're an oddity, if you don't know that. I love oddity, and you know how many people, if they would just stick to what they're doing… Whenever we first opened this ranch, we were hosting events for so many different associations, and then I would have to send part of the money towards them. I was having to find out what their rules were, I had to find their judges. I was really having to play their game. Well, now I'm like, no here's the way I would like to do an association. [Sean: and stick to your principles.] Our stuff is growing, it is growing like crazy. I did a podcast interview with a lady named Bailey, and she owns multiple businesses. A coffee shop, clothing store, cattle, her dad builds fence. I mean, they pick up turkeys. They even have a turkey hauling business, which is needed around here. She was talking about in her clothing store, they used to buy things because they thought other customers might like it, then it would never sell because she wasn't excited about it. She's like, the more that we can stay true to ourselves, the better. I love having just odd things to do.  There's another guy in two towns away. He makes 18 different types of brats. Okay, so we bought these brats, dill pickle brat, my husband's like, I am not eating a dill pickle brat. Then he ate it, and he's like, “Oh my God, that's good.” They also have some weird stuff. They have pumpkin pie brats, they have a gummy bear brat, and I'm like gross, but I'm going to try it one time. So earlier, there was something you had asked where all I taught. Okay, Odessa, I was there. Then I went to Independence at a middle school called Nalin, and that that school right there, I really felt like I made a difference because it used to be in Kansas City, Then it went to Independence, and it was rough. It was rough. Those kids love me because of me being kind of from some rough stock originally.

 

Sean Beaver 36:25

You probably fit in well there.

 

Brandy Von Holten  36:26

I did. With all the fighting, they love me. Then independence put me in Truman High School, which I taught high school science there. I loved it. I got to teach microbiology, I taught evolution, I taught botany, I brought kangaroos in. We did so much fun stuff there. [Sean: I bet you have some of your students that come back to you.] Oh my gosh, all the time.

 

Sean Beaver 36:57

I always thought that would be cool about being a teacher. Being able to see somebody 10-15 years later that made something, and they found some nugget in you and your experience with them. They go on and they come back to tell you.

 

Brandy Von Holten  37:11

I taught for 11 years, and I loved every place that I taught at a while. Even the students that were rough. I don't remember the rough stuff. Sometimes I'm just like, oh, they took this wrong. Even the ones that had like a bad experience with me, because like I'm not over here saying, “Oh, it was all perfect,” because it wasn't, I'm not a perfect person. I don't have a bad thing to say about any student. Whenever we came here, I taught for one year in Sedalia in the middle school. I really liked it, I like this town. It took me a little while to be embraced in our area, because I have to be here. I wasn't able to get out and about, but I've been going and doing a lot of speeches and marketing and stuff. Now people know me.  With this election I feel so loved, I feel so embraced. I feel known. Then I'm hated by some. That's okay, I don't have enough time for the hated people. Because the love people are so overwhelming.

 

Sean Beaver 38:19

That's all you can do. Don't worry about the people that don't believe in what you're doing. All you can do is stay true to what you think is right. I think the way you do it matters. That's one of the things that stuck out to me, and listening to some of your campaigns and how uplifting you are. How you would joint venture in a podcast with an opponent, if you will, it's hard even calling them opponent, because you were very complimentary to them and their platform and their capabilities and how your constituents would be lucky to have either one of you. What a neutral position to really embody and you just stated, “Hey, this is my message, I'm not going to spend my time talking about what their message is wrong and why.” You felt this more about what I believe in. If that is what works for you great vote for me. If it doesn't, that's fine, vote for somebody else. That's just such a classy move. Honestly, I get a run from politicians that don't do that. It's not good for me.

 

Brandy Von Holten  39:08

So the podcast that he's referring to his name is John, his last name is Sulanovof, and he's Russian, do you know that he got to oh, he's a great guy. What I love about him is he's young, and he is going to make a difference. He is so scared of communism, and he does not want it to happen here. He has seen some ugly of the world. [Sean: And in such a short amount of time.] I know. I mean he's so educated in the ugly of the world that he wants to keep that from happening.

 

Sean Beaver 39:51

It will be interesting to see how far you take politics in your world, and sort of where you go not only where you're at now, but where you go in the future. It will be so fun to follow your journey.

 

Brandy Von Holten  40:00

You know, John invited me to his Russian church, and I was translated. I used to do all that fighting, and I told them, I feel like it's time to fight for your rights. You should have seen those older Russian men, they loved me. As soon as I was like, “Hey, you can fight with your vote. Put the people in power that you that are going to stand up for you.” Okay, you said something privately earlier about how you'd went to a Marketing Boot Camp. Tell me what you learned in that.

 

Sean Beaver 40:41

So, if I if I took anything away because I think we were talking in the context of flyers and some of the content that you would drive either to Facebook or social media. In the spirit of that, we went through Missouri has some of the schools that we do, and I don't know, have you ever done 1 Million Cups?

 

Brandy Von Holten  41:01

Oh, I have done 1 Million Cups everywhere. I did it in Sedalia two times because they had like a reunion for us. And then I went to Springfield, and I went to maybe Columbia.

 

Sean Beaver 41:12

So we did 1 Million Cups first in in St. Joe, then we were invited to Kansas City to do it at the big one.

 

Brandy Von Holten 41:18

You got invited to Kansas City? I'm so jealous,

 

Sean Beaver 41:22

It was in front of 400 people, it was a big deal. Again, talking about kites and who we are and what we do. Then we went to Lawrence, and then got invited back to St. Joe to do an update, a three-minute update, or whatever it was. So we did that. Anyways, we did a boot camp that was kind of themed around that whole experience. In that boot camp, what I learned, if I summarize, the whole thing is that video content is king, video over text-based content. People don't want to read a big narrative and hit page down and keep going down through your feed. So, you have to be quick. You have to be effective, and you have to be gone, in terms of your content. Be quick, be brilliant and be gone.

 

Brandy Von Holten  42:03

Be quick, be brilliant, and be gone. I am writing that down.

 

Sean Beaver 42:07

We are lucky because our video and the kites that we fly are very colorful, very family friendly. We tend to do a lot of video. If you haven't followed us on Facebook, please do that. Great American Kites on Instagram. I think we're on Tik Tok, and we are on Facebook, of course. We've done a wildly successful job marketing our business primarily through those avenues. In fact, we don't have a website, which is ironic, we don't sell products online. That's not what we do.

 

Brandy Von Holten  42:32

I would have thought that you would have had a website just for your event dates.

 

Sean Beaver 42:38

We're living proof that all you need is a social media platform. We do have one in development. I actually hired a company out of Oklahoma to kind of help us with that process. We probably missed the mark on COVID because we didn't have an e-commerce site. We don't have an Amazon or an eBay or anything like that because we're an events company. If we stay true to the religion, sort of our business model, we are in the business of going out to a field and bringing 1000s of people out there and putting a smile on their face. We're in the amazing memory business, right.

 

Brandy Von Holten  43:10

The amazing memory business.

 

Sean Beaver 43:13

So how do you do that on a website, we would be with every other e-commerce site. No offense, we kind of wanted to run the other way. The last time I checked, there's no one else lugging 9,000 pounds of nylon out in the heat of the summer, in the middle of July, up a field of bugs and all the stuff that comes with it and putting in the work. That's really what the kids want to do. I want to get the kids off their smartphone, off their gaming console, the Xbox, whatever it is, off the couch and get them out with their family on a piece of grass, on a meadow not far from here. Having amazing memories, taking photos and selfies, really enjoying themselves. That's really what we do, we bring communities, people, and kids together through these kites.

 

Brandy Von Holten  43:59

I think this is the moment for an Amen. I'm going to talk about a website for just a second because for our business, what I have found is sometimes things cost, but you have kites. Okay, we have a wedding barn, I'm teaching subscription businesses about horsemanship, we have mounted archery, then we have camping. I use my websites because it's a stationary place, and a lot of our clients are older. My older clients are here all the time, but they like to be able to find something in one spot instead of having to dig. Some of them don't even do Facebook. A lot of my clients don't do Facebook, but yours, it just takes one person to book you, then all of those people get to see it.

 

Sean Beaver 44:55

We'll create an event page typically and do some video promotion and boost that. That's really what brings people out. I mean, ultimately, most events that hire us want to be able to come out and see a lot of people. Attendance is sort of the yardstick of success in terms of the event. If you don't have a lot of people come out, it's usually not a good event. Anything we can do to help complement that and help our event partners drive attendance. We're doing the High Plains Music Festival when he gets in Kansas, western Kansas, kind of on the Oklahoma, Colorado border. It's our fourth or fifth year doing it and they have a great country lineup. A lot of artists that come out there, it's awesome. But then during the day, they have the kites during day where the parking lot is in the evening for the concert. We provide the daytime entertainment and then the nighttime is a great country, western themed concert. I mean, I've seen Cassie Joy out there, Bri Bagwell, Logan Mize, and other good up and coming artists We enjoy these kinds of events. Then the next event we do is a hot air balloon festival, then the next thing that we do is a private event at Von Holten Ranch. We’ll be doing the city of Kearney for the Jesse James 150. We're doing the city of Lathrop this year, we'll be in Iowa in three weeks, North Liberty, Iowa, then Marion, Iowa, the same weekend, one on a Saturday, one on a Sunday. In that case, our customers, the city parks and recreation department, their whole goal is to bring the community to the parks. That's ultimately what they want to do. They have to have entertainment at the parks, and what better way to magnetize a family entertainment, than kites. That's who we are and what we do. Our company is all about engaging, families. I always say it takes on a young, youth feel. It is truly for the young, and the young at heart. I'm almost a 50-year-old man, and I absolutely enjoy it, just like I was seven years old again. It brings me back to a simpler time. I consider myself a steward of our business. I'm sure eventually will hand this off to somebody else. I don't want to see our kites sit in bags; I want to see them in the air. I want to see kids out running, families enjoying them, taking photos. We said last year we fly kites so you look up. No matter what life's throwing at you, no matter what is keeping you down. [Brandy: Oh, that’s a shirt!] We fly kites, you look up, your vibe is your tribe. That's what we do. It's all about it. I think that's the awesomeness about it. My wife and I get to go all around the country and meet different people and see different businesses. The unique business that you guys have here is just another example as to why we wake up and do what we do. It's hard work it. It took a lot of money and investments, and a lot of blood, sweat and tears, working multiple jobs sometimes, and putting a lot of things on the line. If you would go back in time with my wife, she would say, “You didn't just buy another frickin kite here. What are you doing?” I used to make that promise that someday these kites are going to take us all over the country, and we will be invited to do this because no one else in America has a show kite display like we do and, and we wanted to be able to share that with communities. That's why we'll be out here in July.

 

Brandy Von Holten  48:12

 A lot of times I meet people that they never push, go, they never push play on their life because they're like, I'm this, I'm that. For example –

 

Sean Beaver 48:29

It’s the IQ want to thing, have you ever heard that?

 

Brandy Von Holten  48:30

The IQ want to? No, I haven’t heard that.

 

Sean Beaver 48:31

Most people have an IQ greater than my IQ, that are very capable people. It's not a question if they're smart enough if their IQ is there, right? It's a question if the want to, is there. Do they wake up every morning and want to do xyz? Will the relentless pursuit achieve whatever pursuit they have. I don't care if they sell candle wax. Everybody's smart enough to do just about anything. the thing that separates those that are average in life versus those that truly excel, are simple little building blocks of determination of get up a little earlier. Successful people do the things that non successful people don't want to do. And what are those things? Same things that successful people have to do, we just do it because we see the outcome we see the goal we see the long ball, right. And I think that's ultimately what separates people. They have the IQ, they just don't have the want to.

 

Brandy Von Holten  49:31

Wow, that right there, I love it.

 

Sean Beaver 49:34

It’s a sprinkle of wisdom here.

 

Brandy Von Holten  49:34

love it. I love it.

 

Sean Beaver 49:37

Porta Potty Podcast coming next week.

 

Brandy Von Holten  49:38

Oh my gosh. I'm going to have to bring Jeff on here now, just so he can be like –

 

Sean Beaver 49:43

I would listen to it. Let's see about porta potties. I'm sure there's a lot of world there.

 

Brandy Von Holten  49:48

I’ve had two friends that have had that business before. They make events like yours happen. Could you imagine your event without bathrooms? I mean, it'd be awful.

 

Sean Beaver 49:58

I've seen 100 of those things with lines. You do River Fest for 70,000 people, and porta potty management's a big part of the planning process.

 

Brandy Von Holten  50:07

These podcasts take on such little, jets of Bing Bing Bing, like, what are we going to talk about? We talked about porta potties, it's so important. Our bathroom has gotten us good five-star reviews like “She has the good toilet paper.” That's important. [Sean: Especially for ladies.]  Oh, yeah, most definitely. Hey, I would like to drive home the importance for people to be who you are. I mean, like, here I am. I am not even five foot seven, but I’m going to say five foot seven because if you think it'll happen, it will. So I'm right underneath there and I am squishy in the middle. Who cares? Do you know how many people are just like, “Oh, I need to lose weight. People are going to make fun of me.” I'm over here like ooh, yeah, people do make fun of me. People have said things, but who cares.

 

Sean Beaver 51:11

Just grow three more inches, you'll be fine.

 

Brandy Von Holten  51:12

 I just need to get as tall as you.

 

Sean Beaver 51:15

My wife said something a long time ago, and it always stuck with me. My wife went paleo after a lot of health issues, not because she really wanted to lose the weight. In fact, I think if she was here to say the same thing, it wasn't about that. She cut a lot of weight through that process, because she was trying to identify the foods that gave her food allergies, and she had a food allergy test. It came back that she was allergic to some things that she would have never dreamed she was allergic to, things that you thought were healthy. I think mushrooms were one and she just got real about that. It absolutely has changed her life in the last 10 years, and she shed a lot of pounds. She's made wellness and yoga, an important part of her daily routine. She didn't focus on weight loss. That's just kind of riding with it. She just focused on health and wellness through that journey. I know you're really committed to that too and trying to get aggressive towards that too. I think that's awesome.

 

Brandy Von Holten  52:15

You know what I needed help.

 

Sean Beaver 52:19

You have an accountability coach, too, right?

 

Brandy Von Holten  52:21

 Yeah, and I actually become a lot of other people's accountability coach. I had issues with stress whenever we first came here. Like if I weighed 230 pounds, I could rule the world at 230 pounds. When we started here, I was at 265. Then I had gotten all the way up to 324. Okay, 324. That's not a number that's a beautiful number to say as a female. It crushes women. Now I'm down to 309. I'm just like, oh, Lord, come on, let the first number be a two, let the first number be a two. I know that I had to go back to working out three days a week because I had neglected myself and just went full force business. A lot of businesspeople do that, they go full force business. What it does is it destroys them, then they can't do the business because they hurt themselves. This year, I have been trying a company, one's a husband and wife and one's a lady. They do meal prepping. Then the working out consistently three days a week has helped me out so much. [Sean: You have a beautiful venue to work out.] Oh, I drive into town because whenever it's just myself, I will put something else in front of myself. I pay for these in advance, and then it helps me to know that somebody is there waiting on me. I had to do that. So is there anything with the business that you have had to be like, Okay, I have to take care of myself. You're pretty fit, so do you work out? What do you do?

 

Sean Beaver 54:14

I don't as much as I should. I go to the Excelsior springs gym, and my son just finished his high school career as a basketball athlete. As a professional athlete, that kid works out sometimes two times a day and is an ROTC cadet at UMKC now, so we're excited that he got there. He got a full scholarship through that process. We are watching him, but he and I go to the gym a lot. Not as much as I should. But I also kite board which we haven't really talked about kite boarding, but it's like riding on the water. It's like windsurfing. In the summer months, that's where I'll get a lot more of my exercise, depending on our schedule. I get my 10,000 steps in a day on a field no matter where I'm at. it's been great but I am inspired more by my wife, I think. What I attribute a lot of my health to would be how we cook and eat, and you know she's really hooked on, I make a cocoa avocado banana smoothie. If you haven't had it sounds really weird but.

 

Brandy Von Holten 55:15

No, it sounds amazing. So, coconut, avocado, and banana?

 

Sean Beaver 55:21

Yeah, it has bananas, it's made with coconut milk. You can either put honey or pure maple syrup in it, we'll use both and it's one of our favorites. We'll use that for breakfast or lunch, or something like that. We came home last night she had lamb chops. She's really cognizant about what we eat and what we put in our bodies. and the vegetables, and then our caloric intake. It's not really counted, it's more what are the portions and what are we eating, and I think that matters a lot. She is the absolute rock in our family with that. Steph if you're listening this thank you, don't stop, because it's awesome to come home and have that. She really makes it a priority, how we shop is important, what we shop for. You tend to stay on the outer rows of the supermarket, really the processed food, she tries to stay away from anything processed. She drinks a lot of water. My Achilles heel is always soda. I just love soda and it's not even that I love it, I would tell you it's an addiction, the caffeine is truly there. I can fiend for caffeine through coffee or through a Dr. Pepper. I would love to kick that to the curb. That's my next development opportunity

 

Brandy Von Holten  56:34

Everybody in the world knows that I love my husband. If there was one thing I could change it would be his eating habits.

 

Sean Beaver 56:45

That’s so weird because he could hula hoop a cheerio. He can turn sideways and you can't even see him.

 

Brandy Von Holten  56:49

A long time ago we tried to –

 

Sean Beaver 56:54

That was a compliment by the way, he is razor thin.

 

Brandy Von Holten  56:56

Yeah, we went through an adoption process. We were going to adopt a couple of boys and they made us do blood work. We actually failed because of my husband. Not because of me, because his blood was so fat. [Sean: his LDL and HDL?] Everything was horrible. I got smiley faces. He got pamphlets, and we need to see you again. They couldn't even centrifuge his blood and get the fat out of it. I am fat fit, and He's skinny fat. But that's the only thing, I wish my husband did eat a little bit better because he loves some Casey’s breakfast pizza, and he loves Pepsi.

 

Sean Beaver 57:40

So I did this last year because I'll be turning 50 this month, they have a coronary calcium score, it’s a heart scan. It's equivalent to going into the airport and standing in front of the screener. It's about like that, but you're laying down. It takes longer to end process and get out of the parking lot than it does to do it. Maybe 45 seconds. In that, they spit out a cardiac report card and how healthy you are through the three-dimensional imaging of your heart. I’m sure there is a doctor out there that's saying I'm doing this all wrong. I got a score that said hey, you're on a zero to 10 score, you're a 3 risk or a 4 risk or 8 risk or whatever, and 10s the worst in the case of St. Joe where I went and got mine. The lady said they get people and we tell them to stay where you're at, do not move, we're getting the cardiologist. They are a walking time bomb. They mail you the results and a doctor calls you if there is an issue, and I got my results, it was like a zero out of 10. I made a commitment to, every year, get that for the 30 bucks or 35.

 

Brandy Von Holten 58:49

Right, being proactive is better than reactive.

 

Sean Beaver 58:53

DMX just died from a massive heart attack this year at 50 years old. DMX just passed away this last year.

 

Brandy Von Holten  59:00

No, I loved DMX! I mean, what a weird thing for me to say on the farm, but with that finding background I had to have that boom, you know.

 

Sean Beaver 59:07

But the risk factors we know is LDL and HDL cholesterol, get your blood work done and take your biometric screening. When you have those health factors, make it a priority to do better. I'm as guilty as anybody else, so my wife had talked me into it last year, to doing that. I'm glad I did. I mean, none of this has anything to do with kites, but I want to fly kites for a long time. I mean, life's not a dress rehearsal, you don't get these days back. So you have to finish with your fun meter on high.

 

Brandy Von Holten  59:3

It is not a dress rehearsal.

 

Sean Beaver 59:39

Right, you want to finish with your fun meter on high doing what you love to do, with the people you love to do it with, and the kind of people in the companies you want to work with. I think that's something that we all take for granted. Every time I learned about a celebrity or somebody else that had their whole life in front of them, in my mind, and they just dropped dead, you realize they didn't go to the doctor. They get up and go exercise or whatever that may be. It’s a reminder that we all need to do that. So thank you for bringing awareness to that.

 

Brandy Von Holten  1:00:09

Well, in November, I was like, something has to be wrong with me. I am so fluffy right now, so I went to the doctor, and then I went to the doctor again because they didn't find anything the first time. They were just like, your blood work, and your stuff, they said if we had to put this with someone, it would be a 25 year old man. Not because of testosterone levels, but because of how healthy I am. But then my waist circumference, that cannot be good to have that because all of my organs are there in it. I love that your wife, is she still paleo? [Sean: Yes, we had lamb chops last night for dinner.] Wow. So, paleo, there's books out there for it, it's just clean. It's the way that we used to eat before, it's a lot of nuts and berries and vegetables and it takes out all the crap

 

Sean Beaver 1:01:06

It takes out the processed food, it takes out the high fructose corn syrup, it's a truly a natural diet for her. and it's not this massive departure. We obviously eat a lot of red meat and things like that. A lot of it's just how you prepare things and how you portion things, how you make that a priority throughout the day. She is the yardstick in our family for that being successful. I have a lot of room to catch up to her. She's done a great job, and I wish she was here. You will have to have her on a future podcast. She struggled a little bit with her weight, but that wasn't really the genesis for her. I think what really motivated her to do it is there was a time when I had to take her to the hospital. She was just having these intense pains and, I mean gut wrenching pains. [Brandy: Was it her gallbladder?] No, she just had certain food allergies. Through that journey, through all the internal medicine folks that she would meet, it took a little bit of detective work to do it. I think that was what pushed her over the ledge and saying, “Hey, I need to watch this, and I'm no longer going to eat this, I'm no longer going to eat that, and no fried foods or anything like that.” How she cooks is important and what she's cooking to. I mean, she probably dropped 45 pounds, or 40 pounds. I may be doing that wrong. I don't know. She dropped five pounds and she looked amazing. I don't know what the number was, it doesn't matter. She had to get a whole new wardrobe. It's exciting for me to see her healthy and fit, not necessarily the weight. I don't correlate weight with my wife no matter what she looked like. But it was awesome to see her journey through that. I didn't realize the gifts she was going to give me through the process. It's focused me to get healthier too without even realizing it. I slip and I know I have a lot of work to do. I'll admit that on the air right now. I still do, but because there's some times she's like, “I wish I could eat like you.” I have a constitution for it, I process it differently. But for her, she has true allergies. I find myself being more sensitive to that.

 

Brandy Von Holten  1:03:08

Well and I'm so proud of my husband, he has now started taking vitamin D with me because we take vitamin D every day. He's beginning to drink at least water with meals because he was my big Pepsi guy, then he started taking something for his knees. He's had several knee surgeries because he used to ride motorcycles. [Sean: Motocross?] It was hare scrambles. He rode a KTM, and that's what our horses name is, KTM. We're doing so many things right now to prepare for being older. I'm trying to work out and eat healthier. We bought something to put up hay so we don't have to pick it. We were picking each bale of hay up four times by the time we counted it. Now, it just has to be picked up once. So that's going to help all of our joints and everything. We want to do what we're doing for a long time, and it sounds like you do too.

 

Sean Beaver  1:04:08

We do, and one of the things my wife just commented, she's like, I could not have done these two hot days in page Arizona two years ago in my condition. It's through her lifestyle changes that she's like, it was easier. She used to have a lot of back pain. She used to have a lot of headaches and things like that. Her body was telling her with all these signs, hey, stop doing something. It was a journey to figure it out. She did great, she was out there big time, and she still has a lot of IBS issues and things like that, that she fights with. It's hard. I would never had a real full appreciation until you fall in love with somebody that has those kind of journeys and you just try to be empathetic to it and figure it out.

 

Brandy Von Holten  1:04:51

Oh my gosh, my husband fell in love with someone. You know what? I had a barrel racer friend called Hot Mess Express. Okay, I call it like high functioning ADHD that never got medicated. That's what I kind of describe it as.

 

Sean Beaver  1:05:09

It’s weird how your memory works, and how your attention works with certain things. Then you start thinking about how you ate the day before and how that's affecting your brain fog and things like that. I mean, I have the weirdest memory I can remember my phone number from grade school, and a house I haven't lived in for decades, and yet, I can't remember the person I met yesterday's first name. It’s the recall stuff, the short-term stuff. I don't know. It's crazy.

 

Brandy Von Holten  1:05:34

Well I hope everyone enjoyed. So, Big Boss Mare, I bring all sorts of people. Look at how much insight and motivation you were able to get from this podcast. It's just listening to these people that are out there slaying all day, and they have pure intentions. You get one life and you don't have to do things. [Sean: It’s not a dress rehearsal.] It's not a dress rehearsal. No, you get to choose where you spend your time, where you spend your money, do quality things with quality people. So Sean, and you're not going to forget his last name, it’s Beaver. Okay, I know you had a hard life with that name.

 

Sean Beaver  1:06:22

Oh, yeah, I'm just that my first name wasn't Harry.

 

 

Brandy Von Holten 1:06:23

Oh, God. You went there. You went there.

 

Sean Beaver  1:06:27

it's been great. Actually,  it's been a fun name. We have three beaver kites, on is 90 foot, the first generation beaver that we had custom made. We have two mid-sized beavers, they're about 60 feet, then we have Miss Beaver and Mr. Beaver. It’s a whole family, I’ll have bring those out here.

 

Brandy Von Holten  1:06:47

So my father and his employees, we used to be rice farmers back in the day. You would not expect this. They were able to get water out of like the Red River, so they did rice. I had to help fill up levy bags and stuff. Well, one time there was a momma beaver that died, and there's a baby beaver. So we brought the beaver in and I had a pet beaver for a while.

 

Sean Beaver  1:07:16

 I've heard people that will do this. And thry like, come in the house. They're domesticated.

 

Brandy Von Holten  1:07:21

Well, this one lived for about four or five months after that and ended up having a heat stroke. But I got to bottle feed a beaver. That tail, if you ever get the opportunity to touch one, don't be touching some wild beavers tail, but like some domesticated one, their tail is freaking thick. I don't know what I thought, but that thing is hard and thicker than what you'd ever think it's gonna agree

 

Sean Beaver  1:07:54

They are. I don't have a pet beaver. But you know, I do have three. I have three of them but they're nylon and you fly them  feet in the air.

 

Brandy Von Holten  1:08:04

So if they ever wanted to get in touch with you, it's Great American Kites, and then what does your logo look like? So they'll know it’s right.

 

 

Sean Beaver  1:08:13

It is a red, white, and blue round logo that I have to give my wife credit because she had a friend that did marketing and branding, here's a picture of it.

 

Brandy Von Holten  1:08:25

Okay, so the top half is red, the bottom half is blue, and there is a kite in the middle of it that's red, white and blue. So it's Great American Kites and Events, and his name is Sean, then his wife is Stephany and Stephany. They're out of polo. So man, if you have an event, and you want to book them or something, most definitely do it.

 

Sean Beaver  1:08:55

I think for your listeners, if they want to follow us, we post about our events, and we'll put them out there. People always message hey, when's your next event? We tend to post those, we don't like to post the whole year, we'll post them usually within 30 days of the event happening. If it's your event we're trying to promote, well, you're a little different, because you don't want the whole world coming here. But we try to give you all the attention from all of our followers and all the folks that like our page. We do a lot of that within 30 days of that event coming. When we have a lot of events, we'll have those a week or two apart, so we're going try to sandwich, we don't want one event competing for the other.

 

Brandy Von Holten  1:09:29

Well, you know, what I have found with people, is if they think that there's another option, it could be something small, like, “Oh, green beans on sale at Walmart,” it feels like and they'll cancel on that first event. We'll get it at the next one. Well see, stuff like that has made it to where I've had to cancel events because they thought that they always had that next option. I agree 100% with your marketing on that. Okay, well guys, here we go. Thank you for tuning into Big Boss Mare, and y'all have a wonderful day