Son of a Blitch
George Bowe Blitch has been a Wildlife Manager, 5th generation Texas Rancher, Professional Writer, Videographer, Photographer, Editor, Speaker, Brand Developer & Designer, Cartographer, Touring Musician, Teacher, Coach, Serial Entrepreneur, Finance Manager, and the owner of numerous businesses.
George has met some wildly interesting people in his lifetime, and this "Son of a Blitch” is sure to share some impactful stories, interviews, and messages that will be informative, educational, and highly entertaining!
Guests often include: #1 New York Times Best Selling Authors, Television Show Hosts, Leaders in the Outdoor Industry, International Touring Musicians, James Beard Award-Winning Chefs, Photographers, Filmmakers, Navy SEALS, Green Berets, Veterans and related Veteran Organizations, a Master BladeSmith, a Federal Judge, Professional Athletes, Business Leaders, Inventors, Survival & Wilderness Experts, Gunsmiths, Long Range Shooting Instructors, Actors, Publishers, Inventors, Cartel Fighting Game Wardens, other podcasters, and more!
"I've met some incredible people in my life, and I want to share their stories!" ~GB
Son of a Blitch
Ep. 112 - The Turtlebox Audio Story w/ Co-Founder, Will Bradley: How Four Friends Built an Outdoor Speaker Empire
The genesis of Turtlebox Audio is a quintessential entrepreneurial story, as explained by Co-Founder Will Bradley. Thirteen years ago, four friends were living together on an acre of land along Buffalo Bayou in Houston. They needed a speaker that could withstand their adventurous lifestyle—something waterproof, durable, and loud enough to hear over boat engines. When they couldn't find what they wanted on the market, they built it themselves in their garage.
This wasn't initially intended to be a business venture. It was simply four friends solving their own problem. What happened next follows a familiar entrepreneurial trajectory—friends started asking where they could buy one. The team built about 50 units by hand in their garage, selling them to their immediate network. After that initial success, they realized they might be onto something bigger. Taking the leap into mass production wasn't easy, requiring nearly four years of development before their official launch on Indiegogo in 2018—coincidentally, the same day Will's daughter was born.
The product line has since expanded beyond the Original Turtlebox (now in its third generation) to include the smaller, mountable Ranger and the powerful Grande with its 10-inch woofer. What sets Turtlebox apart from competitors is their unwavering focus on outdoor performance. As Will explained, "Turtlebox is an outdoor speaker. It's built with the outdoors in mind. We do our sound curves outside, and it's the best performing outdoor speaker on the market."
Central to the brand is their "Live Free" ethos, which actually predates the company itself. Originating from a men's Christian retreat that Will attended, the phrase was initially displayed on the back door of their shared home as a daily reminder to "shake off the fear of man" and pursue authentic living. This philosophy naturally extended to the brand, encouraging customers to break free from routine and judgement and embrace adventure and freedom.
The company's commitment to music extends beyond just building speakers. Their "Box Sessions" program invites artists to perform intimate concerts at their headquarters, creating content that's shared across their platforms. This initiative connects musicians with the Turtlebox community while supporting artists' careers. Perhaps most notably, Shane Smith and the Saints created the brand's anthem, "Live Free," which debuted at Red Rocks Amphitheater.
What makes the Turtlebox story particularly compelling is the dedication and persistence of its founders. For years, they maintained full-time corporate jobs while building the company from 9 PM to midnight. This side hustle eventually grew into the thriving business we see today, with passionate customers sharing incredible stories about the product's durability and exception audio quality.
Turtlebox Audio exemplifies how solving your own problem can lead to creating something that resonates with others. By focusing on quality, authenticity, and community, these four friends from Houston have built more than just a speaker company—they've created a lifestyle brand that embodies their "Live Free" philosophy.
Visit TurtleboxAudio.com to learn more!
IG: @turtleboxaudio
FB: @turtleboxaudio
To learn more about the Host, George Blitch, visit:
SonofaBlitch.com
IG: TheSonofaBlitch
Hey, will welcome to the podcast man. Thanks for joining me today.
Speaker 2:Hey man, great to be here. Been been too long coming. Glad to finally be on.
Speaker 1:Hey man, well, you're a busy man. Turtle Box Audio has been blowing up here. Been too long coming. Glad to finally be on. Hey man, well, you're a busy man. Turtlebox Audio has been blowing up I know you have just been super crazy busy, all sorts of great things, and I want to talk about all the great developments that have happened lately. It's been a big couple years here, but I kind of want to start from the very beginning. Man, why don't we kind of go to the origins of Turtlebox Audio? Maybe you kind of growing up in Houston, you know hometown here in the Bayou area. So I kind of wanted to you know kind of thread that needle there and we'll kind of talk about how this whole thing got started.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I'm a native Houstonian, grew up here in Houston. I've got three other partners. There's four of us started Turtle Box together and three of us are native Houstonians. One is a Dallas guy but we finally converted him over to Houston. He's been here 20 years so he's a native now as well. But yeah, we grew up. All three of us went to Second Baptist High School. We're all different years.
Speaker 2:Reagan is a couple years older than me and jonathan is, I think, four, four years younger than me, so I'm kind of in the middle. And then jeff uh is the oldest, uh, a couple years older than me, but he was, he's the dallas guy. So, uh, jeff is an a&m guy. I'm an old miss guy. Reagan's wake forest and jonathan's Baylor Quite the mix, yeah. But to answer your question directly, houston is where Turtle Box was founded. We are a Houston-based company. A lot of people think we're Austin had somebody think we were a Nashville company actually last week. But we're very, very proud Houstonians. So we started the company right here on Buffalo Bayou. We all lived together outside of college in our 20s and had about an acre on Buffalo Bayou and just would float it and do a lot of cool things on the bayou, and that's kind of where Turtle Box was born.
Speaker 1:Well, the development of it was basically you guys needed to have a nice waterproof speak. You could take it everywhere, it would be super loud, being able to use it in the outdoors, and kind of something that you guys started to kind of build together, I mean like 12, 13 years ago. Why don't you talk about that kind of first iteration and then how that kind of developed? Because then then you started making it for some friends and then you know, it kind of picked up pace. I mean it's a long process and obviously you guys had a lot of development going on. But walk me through a little bit of those early stages and what it was that you guys were trying to accomplish.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we've actually been in business a long time. Everybody's like man, you all came out of nowhere. Well, it's been it feels that way but it's been a long labor of love. We started about 13 years ago. The first Turtle Box was built. It was built in our garage, not meant to be a business by any means. We just needed something that was loud, waterproof. But, being in Houston, we spend a ton of time around saltwater right, it's only 30 minutes to the bay and an hour to the beach, and so not just waterproof, it needed something that could live up to the harsh environments of saltwater. And so, yeah, we built kind of the original one in our garage and started using it on. We had an old sailboat that we kept on Galveston Bay in Kima, started using it on our sailboat, using it in our canoes that we kept in the backyard and would float down Buffalo Bayou and we'd float it all the way from, like, west Houston all the way to downtown. Sometimes it was pretty fun and but, yeah, people want to start buying it Like man, where can I get one of those? And the original one was like very much a working prototype. Um, I mean on off switches was a chargeable unit, um and um, you know, had working lights and all all the things. I mean, it looked like a. It looked like a turtle box.
Speaker 2:And so a year after that, after people wanted to buy it, said, you know what, I think there's a real business here. Let's all go into business together. So after a couple of beers, we said, yeah, that seems like a good idea. And so we had no idea how hard it would be. We started building them in our garage, buying all different kind of parts and speakers and testing different batteries, and we came up with a prototype that we liked and a sound that we liked and built about 50 of them, sold them After that year realized, hey, there's a real business here, a real market. Let's figure out how to go mass market. And that took us about four years, and we launched mass market seven years ago, this past summer. So, yeah, just a little over seven years ago, and that was, I believe, in 2018. It was July of 2018.
Speaker 2:We launched on Indiegogo, which is kind of like a Kickstarter, and it was the day my daughter was born. So you know we had planned this big launch and my wife's giving birth that morning, on the day of the launch. I'm like, well, guys, I mean we can you know, we're not postponing the launch and we're not postponing having a baby, so let's just do it all at once. So we had had the baby, we had the. Literally, the launch was at the bottom of the hospital, in a restaurant below the hospital, and, uh, so I would, I would go back and forth and the guys were downstairs and we're, you know, blasting on Facebook and social and emailing our friends and stuff. And uh, yeah, it's been off to the races ever since we sold out of that initial launch and um, just um, yeah it's, it's been a wild ride ever since.
Speaker 1:So, wow, that's a crazy beginning story, man. The birth of the, the, the kiddo and the company on that same day. Well, that's since then you've had. You know, you kind of started out with the original. You're on Gen 3 of that, you know, and we'll kind of get into some of those features there too. You also have two other projects, products. You have the Ranger and the Grande, which kind of dropped, you know, last year, within the last 18 months, whatever that was, and then those things have just been blowing up, man, I mean, as soon as you put them out, you're selling them out. There are, you know, that was just incredible launches. You got Party Mode. That is something new in there. Why don't we go ahead and just kind of lay out maybe you know the three different products you guys have and tell me a little bit of the differentiations of those, and you know kind of what you'd say would be a good one for people to start with there maybe, yeah, good one for people to start with there, maybe.
Speaker 2:yeah, um, well, the, the gen 3, as you mentioned, is it's kind of our third iteration of the original turtle box. So, um, the original turtle box that we made in our garage was a six by nine and I mean I'll see it behind you, it, it, it. The dimensions were very similar. It was a six by nine waterproof speaker. The reason we went with that design is it was the most kind of speaker you could squeeze into that size of a portable package and we felt like that dimension is really the perfect size of, kind of we call it the perfect marriage of portability and sound. And so the original Turtle Box is really the go-to premier product. I mean, it's what the company was founded on. If you're new to Turtle Box, that's the product I would get and it's, yeah, the perfect marriage of portability and sound. It is super, super loud for its size, you know, and you can hear it over a boat engine. It's just a phenomenal product. And if you get, the best way to listen to a Turtle Box on any of our products is two linked and true left-right stereo. So that's always been super important to us. So that's always been super important to us. We all grew up with big sound hi-fi systems in our dorm rooms and when I was in seventh grade I got two 15-hour speakers with a record player and I had that in my room and just always grew up with good hi-fi sound, like I mean, think of like our dad's 70s rock, you know that type of stuff and so we wanted that same type of sound with our products. We wanted it to sound like an outdoor concert, and so the best is really like two original turtle boxes 30 feet apart and you 30 feet back kind of make a triangle, and that's really the way to listen to it. You'll hear the separation of channels the left channel, the right channel, and it's it's the way that the artist intended their music to be listened to. Um, you'll see a lot of speakers now where people like gather around the speaker, put the speaker in the middle, like that's just yeah, it's not, it's not correct, and and so that's still the best way.
Speaker 2:You alluded to party mode. We did come out with party mode this year. We really never wanted to do party mode. We kind of call it daisy chaining, which some other companies do. Yeah, but it gets away from the true left-right stereo, right. And so when we did come out with party mode, it was kind of listening to our customers. There was a lot of needs where they needed more than to think of, like a tailgate or a sandbar party where you've got multiple different boats or different tailgates or whatever it's usually for bigger events, right. That's where party mode comes in. That's why we added it, but we didn't want to lose that true left right stereo. So you still got a true left right stereo button, um, and then you've got party mode.
Speaker 2:Um, and the party mode is really it's. It's not the everyday use case, um, it's it's bigger events, it's more people, um, and it's it's. It's cool, it's really fun to have a bunch of different um uh speakers lined up. We had a, we sponsored a tail, uh, not a tailgate, a sandbar party this year, uh, in Galveston and man, it was so far, it was so fun. We had um, um big party barge and um had food and drinks and different boats. It was in a fishing tournament. Different boats would pull up and they'd pull out their turtle box and all be able to link, and so every boat had a turtle box going and we probably had about 10 boats out there all listening to the same song. I mean that's pretty fun and a really good use case for party mode. So anyway, but back to True Lift Right Stereo.
Speaker 2:We came out with two other products this year. We've been a one product company forever. We came out with a Ranger. It is the go anywhere, the most mountable turtle box out there. It's got magnets on the back. It can mount to a golf cart. We are coming out with a mounting plate that you can put on like a bicycle or something that's not metal, so you can mount that Ranger to anything. It's got a great handle that makes it super easy to carry or clip to anything, a backpack, for example. And then we came out with the Grande.
Speaker 2:Now, grande is my favorite product. We make it's overkill. You don't need it. So I'm going to tell you now you don't need to buy it. But if you hear it, you're going to want one. It's a big 10-inch woofer driver in a waterproof housing and it's still portable. But it's just under 20 pounds. So it takes some commitment to to carry it wherever you're going. I call it more of the base camp. You're going to take it from your truck to your campfire, but it's not something you're going to want to carry. You know, two or three hundred yards, um but um, man, they, they sound phenomenal it.
Speaker 2:I also think that two grandes can rock pretty much any boat. So the original turtle boxes we've done really well in the skiff community, duck boat community. But for bigger boats I mean you can put two Grandes. I've got a 25-foot East Cape Bay. It's a bay boat and we built little holders for four Grandes. I've never put four Grandes on it after listening to just two. It's just overkill. You don't need it. Two is plenty, plenty loud, easily hear it over a 400 horsepower Mercury and plus I like the stereo right, left right. So if you get over two you lose the stereo functionality. You end up just duplicating sound in party mode. So I still think two is the best way to listen to it, but two Grandes I mean it sounds so freaking good. But anyway, that's our product, or all of our products I should say. We went from a one-product company for six years to now three in our seventh year and yeah, I mean more to come. We've got probably a five year outlook on new, exciting things we're doing. So stay tuned, but yeah.
Speaker 1:Well it's. It's exciting, man. I mean. The sound is second to none. There is no other Marine grade portable speaker that touches this.
Speaker 1:That's something that I think there's so many different folks who have talked about even yourself being on a John boat and it flips over and it's still playing downstream when your buddy finds it. And there's different people who have gone through house fires. There's incredible stories about its durability.
Speaker 1:One of the things that I kind of wanted to touch upon was kind of like the ethos back of the company and like the live free, and it's something that you and you know, your roommates and founders there, you guys talked about, and it was something that was kind of a mindset and a way of life that I found. Not only that touches to my core and how I look at things too, and you know, and family and faith and so many different elements there, but also, I think your community really, uh, comes together, because it's something that's like, yeah, you guys got this product, but you have a way of life and there's a culture behind the company that I'd like for you to kind of talk about in that idea of live free, what that means to you, what that means to you know to your team and, uh, we'll kind of go in from there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, um, yeah, live free is our company motto. It it actually predates, um, turtle box. It comes from that time when we were living together on Buffalo Bayou. Um, I had attended a uh men's retreat through wild at heart. Uh, john Eldridge, um, he puts together these men's events, uh events, a few times a year. Anyway, it ended up being a very life-changing event. His passion is what he would call setting men's hearts free, and the verse it's a Christian retreat and it Live Free kind of has Christian roots and it comes from the verse shaking off the fear of man and really being who god and made you to be. And so, um, you know, pre-turtle box, we, we kind of lived up to that and after that retreat we came home and shared it with the guys. They were all fired up and we we had a sign we put on our back door we had made said live free. And we put it on the back door, kind of like you, if you're going out to a football game, you slap it before you run on the field. It was the same thing. We'd go to work and slap it. I'm like, all right, remember to live free today and not get bogged down by the fear of man in the world and all that stuff. And so that kind of worked its way into Turtle Box.
Speaker 2:When we came out Originally, you know, when we launched Mass Market, we're like, well, being a one-product company, we wanted to offer something to customers that was more than just, hey, go buy a Turtle Box. I mean, what are you going to talk about on social media or an email, for example, when you just have one product to sell? I'm like, well, we need something that's actually of value to give to our customers. And that was really where it's live free, that's what it needs to be. And so we want to encourage our customers to live free.
Speaker 2:If they're stuck at the office and a Turtle Box post comes up, we don't want to just be like, hey, buy a Turtle Box. We want it to inspire people to shake off the fear of man, shake off what the world is telling them to do, and go be and chase what God wants you to be. And a lot of times that can look like go finding adventure, but kind of shaking off the nine to five and like be inspired. And so that's kind of weaved its way into really everything that we do is kind of this live free motto and I think it means different things to different people. But yeah, I don't know if that helped kind of shed some light on it, but that's kind of where it came from.
Speaker 1:Well, I think it's a wonderful thing. I like how there is that ethos, man, that community. There's so much that comes around and you know, I see it too within all sorts of different realms with different ambassadors. I mean, obviously and you know, the fishing, the boating, the surfing community, but outdoors, the hunting, the duck. I mean there's so many different ways that you're connecting with people that are listening in an outdoor space. And I also really like the idea, too, where you guys have a you know a bit on your website that talks about listening responsibility and sometimes that stillness and being out in nature and the beauty God created is something that we just need to go ahead and tune into man. It fuels our soul and then there's sometimes where you need to crank up the good tunes and help to elevate that kind of feeling, and so I really like that you guys talk about that. If you just might want to touch base on the idea of why you guys have listener responsibility, yeah, well, I'm the wrong guy to ask.
Speaker 2:I'll go ahead and tell you that I like my, I like my music loud and uh, obnoxiously loud probably. And so, um, jonathan, my other partners, he just kind of like, no, we need to listen, I just want my music off. I was like all right. But no, it's acknowledging there's a healthy balance and we are. I should say that Turtle Box is an outdoor speaker. It's built with the outdoors in mind. We do our sound curves outside and it's the best performing outdoor speaker on the market. That's our mission and I truly believe that it is.
Speaker 2:We don't cut corners. All of our materials are built for the outdoors and specifically to hold up to the harshest environments. And you know, if you're buying something for your living room, I'd say go get a Bose or a Celnos or something that's built for the indoors, but if it's for the outdoors, there's nothing better than a turtle box. And so, um, we are specifically music for the outdoors. Um, but there are times like I'm thinking of, um, you know, fly fishing on a, on a beautiful mountain stream, like no, I think.
Speaker 2:I think, uh, some gangster rap in that scenario is probably going to ruin the environment, right, and maybe piss off some people if there's other people in listening range. And so I think it's listen responsibly is a way to enjoy beauty. That's part of living free is like encouraging people to get outside and be in nature and enjoy beauty. We believe God made things beautiful and made things to be enjoyed and, you know, I believe music adds to all that. But there are times where it's like being in the stillness and being in nature like turn it off and, you know, be quiet and listen, and so, yeah, it's kind of the harmony of both of those Right? So there's a time and place for music and there's a time to be still and it's time to listen.
Speaker 1:So it's time for silence, time for careless whisper.
Speaker 2:There's a balance you have to have, that's right the other two things I wanted to chat about.
Speaker 1:Um, well, a few things, but one of the ones that came to mind when you're talking about this is, like you guys have box concerts that you have had at your uh facility there here in houston. Tell me a little bit about the box concerts and then want to dive into chatting about the Live Free from Shane Smith and the Saints and how that came about?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, very cool. Yeah, these box sessions came through a desire to connect our customers and the artists, right, like we're the medium, in which way and through which the music is being played, but we really wanted to kind of connect the two and really support artists as well. We love music, we especially love live music, and we had a desire to really connect with artists. And that's actually hard to do. You've got the music industry is very interesting. You've got managers kind of the way professional athletes would have, and different people own different rights to songs and it's just a, you know, it's just an interesting business and but we really wanted to connect to the actual artists, right and and and help their business, help support them, whether it's an emerging artist or existing big artists, whatever. I mean, we just saw this need where we could add value to both artists and to our customers, and we were kind of in the middle and wanted to figure out how to do that better. And Box Sessions was kind of the immediate answer, think of like a tiny desk concert or something. It's kind of like that, but in our office here and we support it on the back end with help promoting the artist's music, and we have a whole music discovery platform now on our website that you all can check out. But yeah, we started hosting small concerts here in our office, usually three to five song track lists. They're shorter concerts, not a full two or three hour type deal, but quick 30 minute sessions. We usually have them during the day at lunch, have employees bring a few friends in, keep them small and then we record them and put them on YouTube, on our social channels, on our emails and so one. It's introducing our customer base to new music and artists that we like and music that we like, and then it's also using their platforms to help promote Turtle Box and our brand. So it kind of like you know, high tide lifts all ships. That's kind of the way we view music and it's been a really great thing. I mean, it's probably one of my favorite things that we do. A lot of great relationships have come out of it.
Speaker 2:I hope that our you know customers find value out of it. It kind of goes back to that live free. Like how do we add value to our customers? Like I don't want you to just sign up for our emails and all you're getting is, hey, go buy the new product or, hey, you know, buy another turtle box, like no, we need to continually add value to our customers and this is a way to do it. Like, hey, follow us and you'll hear really cool new artists that are coming through town and new songs that are coming out, um new playlists and uh all this stuff's up on our youtube. Now we've got enough uh content out there. I bet you could listen to two or three hours worth of music on YouTube of just live recorded stuff uh here in our studio, which is um pretty dang fun.
Speaker 1:So, um, yeah, I was gonna say it's a cool centerpiece within your, uh, within your facility there, man, I mean, and just that alone it's. It's a great environment, totally just like family, friends, man, it's a. It's quite the culture. If anybody ever gets a chance to come and see it in person, um, I didn't want to bring it back to also live free. The brand Anthem Shane Smith and the saints how did that come to be? And, uh, tell me a little bit about that. And everyone also has to go see that video. I'll put the links in below. That's a fun one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is probably one of the coolest things that's ever happened to Turtle Box. Yeah, shane came in a couple years ago. Two or three years ago. He was one of our first early box sessions. Got to meet him. He's just a phenomenal man, great family man. Got to know his wife as well. He's now a dad as well and he's a good businessman too. He's very business minded, he kind of gets business. He's grown their band.
Speaker 2:You know very grassroots, you know over the last eight years just battling out from different live you know live venues over the years and he's just got phenomenal, phenomenal music. One of the best live artists I've ever seen Just puts it on a great live show, gives it 110%. You know every show. I don't know how he still has a voice because he just gives it all he's got. But yeah, then we were in Colorado at another live music event and was having lunch with Shane and kind of kicking out, kicking around.
Speaker 2:The idea of a brand anthem is what we wanted to do, just one. We wanted to have our own song. That would be a brand anthem that we could really tie in some of the great creative pieces that we've put together over the years. We just have some amazing video and we kind of had this vision for this longer video that almost like a sound with the soundtrack, with the brand anthem, overlaying these beautiful pieces of video from different ambassadors and things that we've done over the years and kind of shared in the whole live free idea and motto that we talked about earlier. And he goes.
Speaker 2:Man, I've got this piece. I've been writing for like 10 years. I started writing years ago and I've never done anything with it and it sounds exactly like what you're talking about and it's like it reminded me from the movie Elf where he's like you know, pulls out his black book and has that great, I've got this idea. I've been jamming on. It reminded me of that scene from that movie. Yeah, it just started with an idea and he really liked what we were pitching and had something already in mind and it took about a year to write the song, start gathering content around the song. But, yeah, he wrote a brand anthem and it's called Live Free and he unveiled it at. Red Rocks played it for the first time last year. Man, that was cool. I mean one of the coolest things I've ever seen.
Speaker 2:You were there, right, I was there. I mean, one of the coolest things I've ever seen. You were there, right, I was there. What a venue. Yeah, it gave me chills just watching them play it and it was well-received by the audience. They all liked it. Everybody was clapping and it got a lot of love on social, a lot of love on Spotify and all that stuff. And so, yeah, if you haven't heard the song, go listen to it on Spotify or on YouTube.
Speaker 1:On your Turtle Box speakers. Of course that's the best way. Yeah, if you can, in left right stereo Exactly exactly. I was just kind of curious what are some go-to songs and artists that you really connect with and that you're jamming these days?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean Shane's obviously one. I'll tell you his. Before we shift into some other songs, I'll finish up on the Live Free song. He connected with the Live Free by like by the time you it's called, by the Time you See Me Running, you Know I'm Living Free and it's basically like you'll have seen the success, kind of like you've seen he's done life a little bit differently than the world would do it and maybe by the time you see him running you'll know he's living free.
Speaker 2:But it's all this like hard work you didn't see before, like you know, shaking off that fear man doing things just differently. Like when we launched Turtle Box, everybody's like what the heck are y'all doing? You're launching a speaker company and we all had full-time corporate jobs right, and like it wasn't all very well received. Now everybody's like, oh, dude, that's awesome. Y'all are crushing it. Well, we weren't always crushing it. It was very hard. You know, like I said, my daughter was born and we're doing, we're working hard midnight we had full-time jobs right, and then you doing turtle box till midnight, from nine to midnight, and also have kids and putting them to bed. I mean, it was those were really really hard years, um, and I, I think shane resonated with that. I think his career has been very similar, um, but now you see him running, now you see him playing at red rocks and um, but uh, I think he's alluding to you know those harder years when it when it when it wasn't easy, um, so shane's one that I really have a higher respect for.
Speaker 2:Um, there's some bigger names that uh, I haven't met but would love to meet one day steven wilson jr. I've really liked his stuff that's come out recently. Red clay strays has been one that I have a ton of respect for. Um just phenomenal to see the success they've had. And um, uh, there's a christian artist I like named jervis campbell, who's probably one of my absolute favorite over the last uh couple years. He's just an amazing artist. Um, yeah, I'm trying to think who else? Um nathaniel Raycliffe we love. Uh saw Ryan Bingham live here in Houston recently. He's I've seen him twice live in the last uh year. He's put on an amazing live show. Uh also got the chance to meet him. He's a really, really nice, um very, very kind guy. Um been surprised, been surprised by just what a great dude he is. So, yeah, those are the top of my playlist these days.
Speaker 1:That's a good list right there, man for sure. Well, you know, another thing, too that I wanted to make mention when we were talking about artists is the Artist Series. You guys have a lot of collaborations, a lot of partnerships. You've done, I know, you did some stuff with Mossy Oak, but there's also actual artists. Uh, there's one from crested butte, I think it kind of kicked it all off to where the turtle box is designed, with artists, uh, their art on it, and maybe is that, you know, something you can talk about. Is there any things that are coming up that you'd like to plug on that side of things?
Speaker 2:yeah, um, yeah, I don't even know how that came about. I think, uh, I wish I could remember who the first person was that actually painted on a box. Um, but, very intentionally, we we decided to kind of make the back of the turtle box a blank canvas. Um, I mean, if you look at it, we moved the logo all the way to the bottom. We lifted what I would call the back of the box, just a blank canvas.
Speaker 2:Artist is definitely one of the reasons. The other reason is just, you know, every customer is an artist. They want to decorate their stuff right, so you can put your own stickers on it, put your initials on it, whatever. We also laser engrave our boxes in-house and people want to customize their stuff, and so that's one reason that we kind of left that what we would call a blank canvas, and we do engage with really talented artists that will paint them. We'll do a one-of-one and we'll sometimes give that box away and then we'll laser engrave that art and sell that.
Speaker 2:If you want something that's a truly unique, limited edition turtle box, we do that semi-annually. We're trying to get it to maybe on a more quarterly basis, but we usually have an artist series box on our website that you can buy. That's seasonal and limited and we give money back to the artists. Um, sometimes we'll get a conservation partner involved where, uh, a piece of that proceeds goes to a conservation partner. So the artists and a conservation partner that they care about, um, you know benefits, so it's um, um. Anyway, it's just kind of a cool thing, that, a way to give back.
Speaker 1:Well, you guys give back in so many ways. There's a lot of different conservational partners that are listed there on your website. I've seen so many things you guys have done out for the different communities, uh, and I just really appreciate all you got going, all that you're sharing. You know this is it takes 12, 13 years sometimes to be an overnight success. People don't see that hard work that is put into it.
Speaker 1:But you know, being an entrepreneur myself, I know that, I see that and I recognize it and just wanted to say, you know, congratulations to all your success, you and your founders. I know, like Reagan said, the partnership's the hardest ship to sail. You guys are sailing it and in such a great way and, yes, continued. You know wishes and prayers for all the success and health for you know, your family, your business and everything, man.
Speaker 2:Cool man. Thanks so much for having me on. It's been a blast and, uh, don't be a stranger at the shop. Come by sometime and need to check out the next box session.
Speaker 1:So I definitely will. Well, thank you very much. And for everyone who wants to follow, you know your journey and turtle box. You go ahead and give us the socials and all the websites there real quick.
Speaker 2:Yeah, everything is just turtle box audio. Um at turtle box audio. So for Instagram, facebook, all the good stuff and the websites, turtle box audiocom.
Speaker 1:Cool man. We'll have all the links below. Everybody Check it out. And thanks again. We'll appreciate you, man.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but see it, take care.