Stay Modern With Murray
Welcome to the Stay Modern with Murray Podcast, your go-to source for the latest trends and insider tips in the homebuilding industry. Each episode, we delve into the dynamic realms of design and construction, providing valuable insights that can elevate your understanding and approach to building and renovating homes.
But we don’t stop there! We go beyond mere construction topics to engage with influential figures such as business owners, CEOs, entrepreneurs, and community leaders. These conversations highlight the experiences and expertise of those who are making significant impacts in their respective fields. Here, you will discover not only innovative ideas and practices within homebuilding but also inspirational stories that showcase leadership and creativity in action.
Whether you're a homeowner, a potential builder, or simply interested in the housing industry, our podcast will offer a wealth of knowledge and inspiration. Join us as we explore the intersection of home construction and the vibrant discussions that can help shape the future of your projects. Tune in to enrich your understanding and spark new ideas in homebuilding, design, and business leadership!
Please tune in to hear from industry experts, non-profits, and local business leaders shaping our world. Visit our website at www.murraycustomhomes.com/podcast for more information and to catch the latest episodes. Subscribe today and stay modern with Murray!
Stay Modern With Murray
How One Veteran is Making a Unique Difference for Heroes
Dive deep into the inspiring story of Jason Steiner, a former Marine and the visionary behind Herostock, an innovative nonprofit that brings together the music community and veterans. Struggling with the transition out of military life himself, Jason recognized the significant gap in support for veterans returning to civilian life. His vision to create a gathering space for veterans evolved into Hero Stock, a festival that not only celebrates music but also highlights the resources available to heroes and their families.
In this engaging episode, we explore the challenges and triumphs Jason faced as he transformed his passion for music into a powerful platform for change. Learn about the emotional connections forged between artists and veterans, the importance of community, and the extraordinary talents of veteran musicians showcased at Hero Stock events. With plans to expand further, you'll discover how this initiative cultivates healing and camaraderie while raising awareness for veteran support services.
Join us for an uplifting conversation that illustrates the profound impact of music on community building and the importance of honoring those who serve. Don’t miss your chance to get involved! Visit HeroStock's website for how you can support this noble cause, participate in future events, and listen to the newly launched Hero Stock Nation podcast that brings more awareness to this vital movement.
Hey everybody, thank you for joining us on this episode of Stay Modern with Murray Today. I'm your host pinch hitting for Matt Murray, matthew Taylor. Today we are joined in the Murray studio speaking with the founder and president of Hero Stock, mr Jason Steiner. Everybody give it up for Jason. What's up my man, my man's? Uh. Hero Stock is a unique organization that honors veterans, active military first responders and gold star families. So we're going to dive right into this, jason. For our audience that don't know who you are, man, tell us a little bit about your backstory personally, where you're from and what branch of the service you served in.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I grew up in Northwest Kansas. I was born and raised here until fifth grade and around the Lincoln area and raised here until fifth grade and around the Lincoln area. I joined the Marine Corps in 1996 and actually they sent me to the to bootcamp on Mother's Day of 1996. They came down to pick me up. So yeah, my mom was real happy, I bet. So yeah, we I jumped into the Marine Corps. I served my four years. The first two years I was a amph about it, I bet. So yeah, I jumped into the Marine Corps. I served my four years. The first two years I was an amphibious assault vehicle driver, so we basically went from ship to shore. We could go on land and sea. We were troop carriers, did that for the first two years and then I got moved up to the battalion PMI. So I was a primary marksmanship instructor for our battalion and we trained 1100 Marines and Navy corpsmen on rifle and pistol.
Speaker 1:So insane that's. You know anymore. You start thinking about what it can build you into the man that you are today, Right Like going back, looking at some of those, some of those memories and things that you had to go through. I don't think you're probably sitting here, at least in this office, doing what you're doing today without that background, you know.
Speaker 2:Oh, a hundred percent. A hundred percent, I mean it, it, it, uh, you know the with the Marine Corps and military in general. It it teaches you to. You know, find your passion, do what you want to do and and create that drive and you.
Speaker 1:You just go and travels, right Like you, to see different parts of the country. That I mean yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, and, and I was with only doing the four years, and and then being the marksmanship instructor, I only got to do one deployment. So I got to see Okinawa, japan, uh, for four and a half months, and then we went up to mainland Japan for a month and a half and drained up there. You know, I'd have never been to Japan without the Marine Corps, right.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:How do you know Matt Murray? So we actually met through my business. When I got out of the Marine Corps I transitioned into flooring and I do wood floors, tile, that kind of stuff. Matt had fired up his business of building houses and we ran across each other. I don't remember how we found each other I think it was at a trade show, honestly, and we got to talking and so I did his floors for I don't know two or three years, something like that, worked for the company for about six months, wow, as one of the supervisors job site supervisors and then I went back to doing my own thing and you know everybody's, you're always looking for the next thing and that kind of stuff. And so we kind of parted ways and but I've stayed in contact with Matt. You know, even after we've we've went our separate ways and stuff.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, he kind of briefed me this morning when he had asked me to pinch it. He's like, dude, this is like one of those podcasts that I want to do. He's like so you make sure you do this shit, right? I was like, all right, man, I got you bro, I got you, cause usually you know like things will come up and whatever you're, you're the face of the company. You have to be in these certain different places. This is when he was been talking to me and Shannon about it all week. He's like I'm looking forward to seeing Jason again and so, yeah, man, I'm sorry he can't be here. I back to the flooring aspect of it. I'm sure back in the day, matt's told us stories and I've told Shannon I was like, dude, he could write a book with like how he got from A to B, kind of break down, like what kind of condition Murray Enterprises was at that time. Was he running out of an apartment? Did you guys have an office? I mean?
Speaker 2:you know, when I was working for him he was, um, he was working out of an office in his house. When we first started out, um, and then they built the house out on 112th and had the shop that was separated, that he had the upstairs of the shop. Yeah, buddy, they were working out.
Speaker 2:I've heard good stories about that place Right right, um, you know, and and uh, he was really just kind of starting to build it. You know he already had the roofing side going, but he was trying to build houses and that kind of thing and and he was green into that side of it. And uh, it was fun watching him just in the time that I worked for him, how much he had grown and that kind of stuff. So, um, and then now to come into this and see your guys' shop now and you know where you guys are sitting now, is pretty awesome.
Speaker 1:Just in the two years I've been here, man, I mean, the podcast alone has grown because of Shannon and Matt and what they do and you know being willing to kind of put yourself out there a little bit too. People want to know that stuff, man. They want to hear the back story of how you got from A to B, right right. I'm pretty proud of it, dude. So you moved to Nebraska or you moved away from Nebraska after the Marine Corps? Yeah, Is that what you were saying?
Speaker 2:No, Well, we moved back here after the Marine Corps. I got married in 97, actually 98. So right after yeah, I was still in, got it. So I was two years in met a girl out in California, got married. We've been married now for 27 years. Congrats, got it we.
Speaker 2:We got back here and found out that Claire was pregnant at the time, you know, as we were driving back and and, uh, I was going to go to college, use my GI bill, I wanted to be an auto body tech. And uh, when we found out she was pregnant, I was like, man, I can't, like, I've got to work, I've got to pay bills, you know, we've got to buy a crib, we've got to buy diapers, that kind of stuff. So that kind of got pushed to the wayside. And and, uh, I, I officially started my own company January 1st of 2001. So I've been running for 24 years now. That's amazing and uh, lots of ups and downs, lots of goods and bads. But uh, um, you know we're, we're kind of starting to transition out of the flooring side of it and doing this more full time. Right now my whole board, including myself, is a volunteer. Yeah, so I run my business at 40 or 50 hours a week and then turn around and do 40 or 50 hours a week on Hero Stock.
Speaker 1:Hero Stock dude. I'm fired up to hear more about that. So we did not Woodstock, obviously, but I went out and it was in Iowa, something in Iowa that resembles Woodstock, but they had like Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, they had 98 Degrees, they had Mark McGrath from the Smash Mouth I think it's Smash Mouth or whatever but it was complete 90s era type of festival and I'm sitting there backstage because I was doing a podcast at the time. So, like Bone Thugs was why I was there. I was like I got to meet these dudes. Got to meet these dudes. I'm like if they're not high out of their mind and I can at least get an acknowledgement, I'll be happy, right, but dude, it ended up being like I'm a big fan of different types of different eras of music and different genres because it brings so many different people together.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:You know, it doesn't matter if you're 70 years old or if you're seven years old. My wife, my daughter, myself, we can listen to the same type of music, as long as it's good music, sure. So talk more about Hero Stock. I want to know. We were talking off air. But is it just rock? Is it rock and country? What are you guys thinking for that?
Speaker 2:So we started out with just country and I'm going to be honest, this really started out as a night for just veterans to hang out. That's all it was going to be. It was a one night, one off, never to happen again. We had a buddy that had a shop Southeast Lincoln and he's like, yeah, come on out, use our shop. We lined up Pete Butler he's a singer out of Western Nebraska, does old time country and then we lined up the Sheila Greenland band and it was literally just a night to hang out and we started, as the event kind of started and we're kind of rolling through it, I found out we had 12 nonprofits there and I'd been in the nonprofit world at this time for three years, three and a half years, and I didn't know them. I knew three of the 12.
Speaker 2:And I was like, if I'm this engrossed in the nonprofit world for veterans and I only know three of these, what does your regular veteran know? Right, you know somebody that's just transitioned out, somebody that hasn't been involved with the Marine Corps League or the Legion or something like that, and that was kind of really where this started. And you know, we ran the first show. Everybody had a great time we had cornhole tournament going on. We had food trucks out there, uh, gave away like 75 prizes and that kind of just gave stuff away and uh. And so after the show my phone blew up for like five days and I had people just going man, you have to do this again. Like you have to do this again. And I was like, well, let's see, here I got a senior in high school, I run my own business.
Speaker 1:Like.
Speaker 2:I've got all the time.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I was still a presidential advisor for another nonprofit at the time and and I was like, yeah, because I got all this time, let's go ahead and start something else. So we, I grabbed a couple of the people that helped me set it up and I said, hey, let's turn it into a nonprofit. And so we filed paperwork in March. We got it back in May of 2023. And we started just pounding stuff out and we got, we went out to Round the Ben's steakhouse Love that place, great place. And I don't know if you know about the ballroom in the back. No, so behind the, behind the restaurant, if you go back to the bathrooms, there's two doors and you can look through. There. There's this huge ballroom. It's 10,000 square foot. What, yeah?
Speaker 1:Dude, I thought it was just a testicle festival place.
Speaker 2:Right, right, right, okay. No, it's got this huge ballroom in the back, so we rented that, and then we got the outside area too, so we had 20,000 square feet we were working with and that first year of Hero Stock because originally it was Vet Stock the first year of Hero Stock we had six different bands that we put on stage. Wow, and all but one of them was veteran. Good, and it was our headliner, dylan Bloom. He's not a veteran, huge supporter, but we started finding all of these veteran and first responder singers and bands and, dude, there is some amazing talent out there. Oh yeah, man. So you know, as we started working through that one, I've already got everybody booked. Well then, I'm like finding all these different people and I'm like, god, we need to have them on, we need to do this, we, um. But I started doing podcasts and just going on other podcasts and, uh, the first one I did was two drunk dudes in a gun room Name got me, the name got me.
Speaker 2:Yes. So yeah, we, I sat down with him and I did the first podcast and then I was sending out emails and texts and everything to all these different podcasts. I'm like, hey, would you be interested? And I got a lot of people send back. You know, no, we're not really interested in that. And blah, blah, blah. And well, after about 45 episodes I started getting hit up by these podcasts that I'd reached out to. Hey, man, we saw you and we'd really like to have you on our podcast and I'm like, hmm, yeah, kind of come back around, didn't it?
Speaker 1:I'm that guy that's like nah, hell with you.
Speaker 2:So I'm? I'm sitting probably between, I don't know, 85, 89, 90. I don't even know anymore.
Speaker 2:Good for you man, you Google me on YouTube and it's like just a stream of podcasts that I've done Good. But last year, you know, we grew really fast. We had a thousand people show up to our first Hero Stock event. Man, we had 16 different states that came into it. We had 48 nonprofits out there, you know. So it was really kind of amazing how big it was. We went from 100 people and 12 nonprofits to 1,000 people and you know, 48 nonprofits, jeez man. So you know, we've been invited now to 30, 32 different states to put this on the same show, the same show. Just wow, they went in their own states, you know. So we took a leap of faith last year. We jumped outside the state and we went down to Rolla, missouri, put on a show down there. We had four or five bands that we put on stage down there. We had about 15 nonprofits because nobody knew what we were Right.
Speaker 1:Right Starting over? Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we were starting over every time and we went to Lebanon, tennessee, it did the same thing down there and same deal. You know, we had a couple hundred people that showed up to it, but the people that went, they were like you have to come back and I'm like it's really expensive, it's out of town, it's out of state, yeah, yeah. So we, uh, you know, we had our final show here, um, in September, and, uh, country drive golf course jumped in. We had another venue set up and it was a guy's farm. He texts me two months before the event and he goes bro, you can't do it out here, why? And I'm like what he goes? Yeah, the insurance guy. So there's no way. Like we can't allow this because we're trying to build this business and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Speaker 2:I was sick man, I was like this is on all of our advertising. I've talked to them on all these podcasts. Like now we're, now we have to change it on the fly. Yeah, man and uh. So we reached out to country drive golf course and they do the country line drive festival every year and they're like yeah, you know, come on out. We don't really know what you are, but sure, come on out, Love to have you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:And you know. So they, they rented us a space out there and we were actually in the driving range and then they've got a really nice pavilion building there that we were using. And the more we talked to them and they got to understand exactly what Hero Stock was. They're like we love this. We want to make this Hero Stock's home. We want this to be your home base every year, no way. So they've jumped in, they've helped us kind of grow it. They're going to start, you know, once we get our, our um posters done, they're going to start like pushing out our information on their pages and that kind of stuff advertising for us, um, you know, and and really trying to grow what we're doing. But last year out out there for our final event, we had seven bands we put on stage for country night and we had five bands we put, or four bands we put, on stage for rock night.
Speaker 1:So two separate nights. Two separate nights. No dude, I can't imagine the different personality. It was crazy. Yeah, you were talking about rock. I mean, are we talking classic rock? We talking metal.
Speaker 2:We talking a mesh of everything, or Uh. So rock night this year was kind of a mesh of everything. Um, we had anyone else out of Omaha it's, that's actually my daughter's band. Um, they do some. It's more kind of like a Paramore type sound. I love Paramore, dude and and dude, you know you'd love my daughter's voice then Anywhere else. So she did that.
Speaker 2:They opened up for us. We flew a group in from Pennsylvania called Die Tired and they're kind of that same genre of not the real heavy but not the classic. Then we had oh geez, who else did we have? And anyone, oh, shannon book. Uh, shannon book came up from Texas. Um, he's a singer, songwriter, 17 year uh, navy Corpsman on. Served most of his time on the green side with the Marines. I love that. He was in Fallujah, um, one of the main battles of Fall Ramadi, that kind of stuff. So he saw a lot of stuff, got medically retired out and then started his music and really has grown that. So he came up. He was actually our opener because his band ended up not being able to come, so he just came up and did it himself.
Speaker 2:And then we had the American Hitmen that came in from Utah and originally the American Hitmen were all Marines that served together in a unit and was deployed, I think, two or three times. And uh, you know, since then they've kind of broke up a little bit and there's one original singer left and he's the original guy that started the band Good man. Um, so, yeah, we had that. And then, uh, you know, country night and and um, go go back to your question. Here it was, it was kind of a this year, it was kind of the same type of music until you got to American Hitman and they were a little bit harder, yeah, um, but everybody else kind of just gelled, you know, flowed from one to the next. Um, then we jump into country night and I have so many country singers and I'm a country guy personally, same, yeah, and I was like, who do I book? So I just kept booking people.
Speaker 1:So I had seven bands on country night Going from where you started to being able to pick and choose for dude. I'm proud of you, man, Keep going, Sorry.
Speaker 2:So we had Kimberly Meyer come in. She's actually from Norfolk, nebraska. She's a base commander still serving in the Army National Guard and she serves up in South Dakota, so she came in tore it up. We had Derek Stoner come in from Nashville. He's a 20-year Special Forces operator and dude is probably some of the best vocals you'll ever hear in your life. Um, we had derrick thompson, which is there thompson okay, yeah, yeah, so he's in yeah, he's a local guy here, or nebraska kid.
Speaker 2:Um, super good, dude.
Speaker 2:He came in, um. Then we had geez, who was our other one. We had Joel and Christy, the Winchester band on stage. We had Scotty Hastings was our headliner.
Speaker 2:He's actually a combat veteran, shot 10 times in Afghanistan. I didn't know that. Yeah, he took bullets from his left thigh to his right shoulder, just climbed right up his body. He's got a hell of a story. Before he, before he joined the military, he was actually going to he was. He was playing minor league ball, he was trying to make the majors and and baseball and he decided he wanted to serve his country and so he signed up, spent a very short stint in the military because he got sent over to I think it was Afghanistan. That's where he was shot Was clearing an area, coming around a corner and a guy had a gun pulls it up and just right up his body Actually got shot 11 times.
Speaker 2:One went into the weapon that he had slung across his chest. Oh my God. So we always make fun that he's shot more times than 50 Cent. Yeah, but super good, dude. Man, he's now signed artist with Nashville, with Black River Entertainment out of Nashville, he's starting his own tour this year, so he's really really growing quick, super good dude. But we had so much talent. It was so cool to see how much talent was out there. And then you know, even after that the last year, like we're still finding these groups that are coming in and I'm like, why are these people not known? You know it's so hard now, like for musicians to get their stuff out because, yeah, there's social media, but if you're not on that algorithm, nobody ever sees your stuff. It's flooded dude.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So you know we're, we're, we're kind of a multifaceted type of deal. What we're doing, you know we're, we're Give them a chance to see. Hey, there's a motorcycle group If you like motorcycles. If you like hunting and fishing, we've got four or five different groups. If you need equine therapy, we have equine therapy with horses.
Speaker 2:There's all this different stuff that's available for you, and most of it's for free or very low charge. And then you get the paid side of it, the for-profit side of and and it's counseling services, it's drug and alcohol addiction stuff. Um, you know so there's a lot of different avenues that that is available for our heroes that a lot of people don't know about. Yeah, so we've kind of become the hub when everybody comes to where we're at. Holy crap, Look at all this stuff that's available. You know so it's been super cool to be that connection point for our heroes to know what's available. Yeah, man, you know so. And then you flip the other side of that and we bring in all these amazing bands and singers and we're growing their brand.
Speaker 2:We're putting their name in front of people that never would have known who they were Right Um you know. So we've had a lot of fun doing that and going from the going into the nonprofit side of things.
Speaker 1:I mean, what kind of hoops do people not realize you had to jump through, because this was just kind of spun on you and you were like, all right, well, let's do it then. You know, I mean, what did you have to do? What did you not know was coming?
Speaker 2:Um, honestly, from the nonprofit side of it there's really not much. That I didn't know because I I was a founder of another nonprofit before this. Um, you know I was one of four guys that was the founders of the Nebraska Warriors hockey program, really, yeah. So it's a disabled hockey program here, uses sports and adaptive sports for PTSD, anxiety, that kind of stuff. I was one of the founding members of that.
Speaker 2:So I kind of had an idea, going into the nonprofit stuff, of what we're going to look at. You know what we have to have, how we've got to do stuff. You know the biggest part, or probably the biggest struggle that we have as a nonprofit is raising funds. Yeah, you know, especially with the climate right now of the country, people just don't want to open up their pockets. And you know, last year we were down on donations.
Speaker 2:We went into our final event actually negative. We didn't have enough money to cover it and by the back end of it we actually covered it. But it was pretty stressful going in knowing that we were negative and you know it's. How are you going to make this money to get this done? Yeah, but we've had some great sponsors. You know Barry Law has been an amazing sponsor for us. We've had First Interstate Bank, we've got Lankfeld Overhead Doors and Windows. We've got the Corporal Dagan Page Foundation that jumped in. They're one of our sponsors and if you don't know them so they're a gold star family. Corporal Page was one of the ones that were killed, one of the 13 that were killed in the withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Speaker 2:This recent one yeah at Abbey Gate what a mess, you know. And he played hockey up in Omaha and so I got to know the Dagan Page family through the hockey side of it and then they saw what we were doing, with what we're doing, and they've also come over and helped us.
Speaker 1:But just an amazing group that we, that we work with quite frequently. What is gold star family? I mean help me out here.
Speaker 2:So a gold star family, they? The definition of it is somebody that loses a military service member in the line of duty overseas, got it? They've now changed it a little bit to if you were serving in the military and you die, um, you can be a gold star family, but originally it was somebody that was killed on the line of duty.
Speaker 1:Got it and so you're talking about your sponsors and everybody that's kind of helped you get to to where you are now. I mean, when you go out to these, to different States now, because you know hero stock is now a traveling act essentially. I mean when you go out to these to different States now, because you know hero stock is now a traveling act essentially, I mean, are you, are you hitting up local businesses and local musicians and artists, or are you taking everybody with you that you brought from here?
Speaker 2:So we found out it's really, really hard to go out of state.
Speaker 2:I can't imagine, jason, you know cause, you're, we're, you know Rolla was six hours away, so it was multiple trips down there, you know, driving down and back. So you'd, you know, have a night in a hotel. That came out of my pocket, the gas money came out of my pocket, the mileage on the truck came out of my pocket, you know, and you're, you're pitching to these people and they're like, why are we going to give you money when you live in Nebraska? Yeah, and you're just coming down here for this show and it's like, but you don't understand what we're doing. You, like, you've got to go to the event. You have to see, you have to understand it. Well, we're not going to give her money until we see the show, you know. So we'd put together Rala and we were supposed to have boots on ground down there and have somebody helping us try to get funding and that kind of stuff Going into that event. We had about a thousand dollars worth of sponsorships. That's not much on an $11,000 show, you know. So we, we and, and they kept saying, oh, you're going to see three to 5,000 people come through. We've advertised this and they did. They did a great job advertising it the day we were there doing it got there that morning to the fairgrounds it's raining, starts raining at like eight o'clock in the morning.
Speaker 2:Our show starts at two. Rains all the way up to about 1230. And then the sun comes out and if you've ever been in Missouri and the sun comes out after a rain, it's about 100% humidity. At that point it was 100 and at one point it was 113 degrees heat index and we ended up having about 350 people show up. So we went in the hole about 10 grand and it was like, okay, well, that was a rough run, we've got Nashville coming up, it'll be better. Had two guys on the ground down there, boots on the ground and nobody did any advertising for us. No, so we got down there and I went on the news local news for Nashville the morning of the event and we had about 350 people show up there on a $22,000 event.
Speaker 2:Man, man, jeez, dude. So you know it was. We've learned a lot, a lot of don'ts, but we've reworked the going out of town thing. This year we're kind of pulling back. We're focused just on Ashland right now. Want to grow that get a bigger name. But we've, you know, we've been talking to the Mohegan Sun Casinos out of Connecticut. They want us to come up in November. We just found out that November 15th, I believe it is we're actually supposed to be in New York City to receive an award for the best veteran event of the year. Incredible man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, congrats, dude.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So there's a lot of really cool stuff, but a lot of it we're just still like stumbling through and trying to grow and trying to make this the best event that we can and impact as many people as we can. Yeah, so when is the one up here in Ashland? So the one in Ashland is August 22nd, 23rd. Okay, we'll be there. Man Sweet. Yeah, we've got eight bands. We'll have four bands Rock Night, four bands Country Night.
Speaker 2:We're bringing in some bigger names this year and you know we've got a shout-out right now to a band that everybody knows. I don't care if you're a country fan or not. I'm not going to throw the name out, all right, all right, all right. If you're a country fan or not, I'm not going to throw the name out, all right, all right. But you know, if they come in, everybody will know this band. So I'm super excited about that. Our rock night we've got three bands right now signed that are amazing. It's going to be a great night. We've been working a lot. I think we've sent out 155 emails for nonprofits and for-profits to come in. We're waiting on people to sign contracts and get those back to us. So we're excited to see how many nonprofits we get out there to show what's really available for our heroes.
Speaker 1:How can somebody get involved, man? How can? I mean, we're not. I'm going to hold you for a few more minutes, so don't get up and leave after this. But how can somebody get a hold of you? How can somebody get involved? How can? If somebody wants to reach out and sponsor something for you, how do they do that?
Speaker 2:Sure, sure, the best way is probably through our website, wwwherostockorg. You could reach out to me personally, jasonherostock at gmailcom. I'll give my phone number. I really don't care, like I'm, I'm an open book. People can call me anytime. You know, my cell is 402-304-7059. That's probably email or text is probably the best way to get ahold of me personally.
Speaker 2:But but yeah, I mean, we're on all social media platforms. We're, you know, twitter, x, whatever it is now, threads. You've got Facebook, you've got Instagram, youtube, and we did just launch our own podcast, launched January 9th, our first episode. So we do have that going on too. So you're going to see a lot of different veteran and first responder singers and bands. Come on. You're going to see um nonprofits and for-profits that work in our our veterans community or heroes community, um, and then we've actually got some special guests. So we've I've worked with Santa Corky.
Speaker 2:He's a Tik TOK sensation 2.3 million followers. He's like, yeah, man, I'll come on, I'll come hang out on your podcast. I'm like cool. So we got people like that that want to jump on with us too. So we're going to, you know, bring some of those people in and talk about how their impact in the heroes community as well. So what's the podcast called? It's the hero stock nation podcast. Love it, man. I'll start listening.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we've, we've just dropped. Last night we dropped our fourth episode. Here we go yeah, it's, it's a. It's been a lot of fun man and it's for me. I know all these people, but a lot of people don't know who they are. You know our, our episode that just dropped last night. His name's Matthew Jones. He's veteran out of Beatrice Nebraska and he's played music for years but never really did it on stage, and so we brought him up to one of our smoke offs last year, cause we do other events outside of our main event. Um, and he was on the stage for us. He was like I loved it. Now I want to do it all the time. Got the bug? Yeah, you got the bug.
Speaker 2:So you know, and that's another way that we raise funds we do events outside of our main event. So last year we put on a smoke off, we brought in professional and backyard smokers to smoke meat and we paired up with Concator Brewing last year downtown, downtown Lincoln, and blocked an area off and put a stage in. We had three bands that came in or three singers that came in and we we had them smoke, this meetup, and then we sold the plates of food for a free will donation towards Kuro stock. I think we raised 2,800 bucks. Wow, man, something like that. Yeah, and it was a good time. It was more fun than anything.
Speaker 2:We put on a golf tournament last year out at Country Drive Golf Course and then we did a smoke-off up in Omaha with Nebraska Brewing Company, a veteran-owned brewery up there, and I think that one. We cleared about 4,500 bucks. So it grew, you know. And so this year we're we're coming back May. May 3rd, we have a smoke off with corn coast brewing, veteran owned brewery here in Lincoln, down off like 14th and Yankee Hill, and we're hoping to see between 700 to 1,000 people show up to that. We're going to have a couple different bands, we might have a car show going on, a cornhole tournament, and we're hoping to have between 20 and 25 smokers. Oh good, yeah, so it's going to be huge. And then we have May 31st.
Speaker 2:We have a golf tournament at Country Drive Golf Course and we've decided this year we're going to make it a fun tournament. It's not going to be a serious tournament, not competitive, no, and you're still going to have the competitive, because military is always competitive with everything. But you're going to be teeing off from a shitter Dude. That'll be awesome Because we've got a sponsor, john Henry's. That's a plumber A plumbing I do. That'll be awesome. And then July 19th we've got another golf tournament in Kearney. So we're kind of pushing west a little bit, trying to grow this out to the state. I've got a buddy that owns a course out there, buffalo Ridge Golf Course. So we're going to host our tournament out there on July 19th. And then August 9th we'll do our last smoke off at Nebraska Brewing.
Speaker 1:And you've got a heavy summer coming. Oh dude.
Speaker 2:And that's just the tip of the iceberg. You go onto our website and you look and see what our schedule is right now and it's just, it just keeps filling. You know we keep getting people. Hey, we want you to come do this craft show. We want you to. You know, whitetails Unlimited wants to start working with us and doing some stuff with us. And um Monday night I got back from NAMM, the North American Music Merchant Show, and I flew out to California for five days. I was out there for to try to promote Hero Stock and we talked to Monster Cables and we talked to, you know, gibson Guitars and we talked to, like, all these huge manufacturers trying to get sponsorship with the music side of it, and we actually, I think, landed a couple of them, good man. So, yeah, yeah, I'm super excited.
Speaker 1:Good, before I get you out of here, man, they can go to your website. They can see what's coming, they can check out the podcast. They can hit you up on a text or email Knowing everything that you know. Now a piece of advice that you would give young Jason, just kind of getting into this, I mean even before going into the court.
Speaker 2:You know, knowing what you know now, what's a piece of advice you'd give your younger self? Dude, you know, I would definitely not talk myself out of going to the core. Yeah, that was the greatest experience of my life. Probably the thing that I would really strive to tell myself would be find a purpose. I struggled really hard with the transition out because my purpose was my family and my job and that was all I focused on. I had nothing outside of that. Finding a purpose, finding a meaning, how to give back to help people, has really changed my outlook on a lot of things.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Dude, I can't thank you enough for coming in and I know you've got a lot of things going right now and a piece of advice I got is remember this who am I? I'm just a nobody, but take it in, you know what I'm saying. Like you're, you're going and you're doing a shit ton, dude, and it's going to go by so fast. Next thing you know you're going to be sitting here being like all right, well, now it's time to podcast and recap my entire life. Like, take it in, dude, you're doing such good things in the community, and not just for the veterans, man. You're giving people something to strive for. You know, these golf tournaments are bigger than just going out and messing around with a bunch of veterans, it's. It's giving these vets something to look forward to as well, man. So hats off to you, jason. Oh, thanks, brother, you got it All right.
Speaker 1:Everybody. Check out the new podcast man. Go out and get yourself some smoke meat and go hit the golf courses with Jason Steiner. Jason, thank you for joining us on this episode of Stay Modern with Murray. Please follow us on your favorite podcast platforms. For now, stay modern with Murray, and we'll see you next time.
