When The Rug Gets Pulled: Finding Myself After Monster Jam

For nearly 15 years, my life ran on horsepower, chaos, and adrenaline. Monster Jam was more than a job—it was who I was. The smell of fuel, the roar of the crowd, the grind of the road- it shaped me, pushed me, and gave me an identity. But when COVID-19 shut the world down, the rug got ripped out from under me. Overnight, the thing I loved most was gone, and with it came a silence I wasn’t ready for.

I didn’t just lose work; I lost a piece of myself. No more airports every week, no more chasing that adrenaline fix, no more waking up in a new city to live out my dream. Instead, I was staring down the same four walls, the same streets, the same small town faces. The life I had built for almost 15 years stopped in a blink, and I was left asking: who am I without all of that?

Finding a “new me” wasn’t easy. It meant picking up the pieces, figuring out how to make ends meet in a small town where opportunities don’t exactly land on your doorstep. It meant staring down the fear of starting over. And it meant turning to something I had built years earlier as a “someday plan” - my clothing line, Vixen Industries.

What started as a side hustle suddenly became my full-time grind. It was born as an outlet, something to keep me moving when the day came to step away from monster trucks. But 2020 didn’t give me a choice. It shoved me into it headfirst.

I found fire in the hustle. The sink or swim. I poured my heart into it. Vixen went from “something on the side” to the vehicle that gave me freedom, the ability to raise my kids as a stay-at-home mom, while still having my own thing. A business that let me leave town regularly to travel with my husband and his monster truck, while bringing our soon-to-be kids along for the ride. A business that let me take my kid to the doctor without begging a boss for time off, or hop on a plane back to Kansas or Minnesota at the drop of a hat to see family.

That’s the beauty of it, it gave me back control, when so much had been taken away.

And from all of that? BUILT ROWDY was born.

This brand is more than shirts and hats. It’s about resilience. It’s about getting knocked flat on your ass, dusting yourself off, and pressing forward anyway. It’s about redefining yourself when life throws you a giant WTF your way.

BUILT ROWDY is the reminder that no matter how many times the world shuts down on you, your vision, your grit, and your heart can’t be silenced. You just have to keep moving, keep hustling, and keep raising hell- because life doesn’t stop, and neither should you.