speaker-1 (00:00.174)
All right, this is a good volume

Yeah, these mics work really well. They're not even like a special brand or anything either. They just work.

Hopefully it doesn't, they should stop it from picking up all that stuff out there.

Oh yeah, know when I was in the Navy we had these voice activated microphones when we flying the helicopters because it would pick up all the excess noise and so you had to have it like right there. Yeah, and so when you're it wouldn't pick up any, it wouldn't pick the helicopter up unless you started talking.

put it on your mouth.

speaker-0 (00:31.874)
We'll see if it picks that stuff up.

But of course, would pick you up, they'd do this and everything. It was great.

Alright, I'm gonna try to do like an intro. Sure. Because I didn't do that with the last one I recorded. So I send these to my guy Trevor and Trevor adds the intro and edits them up and all that stuff. But I'm just gonna do something, I'm just gonna ring it. Alright folks, Brotherhood Beyond Business podcast. I got Mark Caldwell here and we're gonna learn all about Mark. So I'm not gonna do a big fancy intro because I'm gonna ask questions. That's how we're gonna get to know you because I like to consider myself a conversationalist.

I do the conversation bit myself too.

Yeah, we'll get into it. and and and that's how I like to do these like just as casual as I can I got my questions right here, but we'll dive into it man. So Let's I got a really good first question, but I want to wait on that So tell me just tell me about you mark like where are you from? What and I know you and I have talked about a lot of this already But where you from? All right got you in the area all that stuff

speaker-1 (01:29.134)
Well, I grew up in Alabama, Montgomery, Alabama. Graduated high school and I'd seen folks around there that had graduated high school and I knew that the route that they were going was probably the same route I was gonna go, so I had to do something different. Joined the military, the Navy specifically, and I did my four and a half, five years in the Navy, got out into college, decided, hey, I need to be a Marine.

thought you were a Marine, I was about ask you that. thought you went in the Marine. Okay, so that was there.

Yeah, so I went in the Marine Corps. That's another story in itself. And I know you don't have a ton of time on here, but it's a good story. So remind me later and I'll tell you that one. And long story short, I went in the Marine Corps. Was only gonna do a few years. Allison, I don't wanna say convinced me to stay in, but I thought she wanted me to get out. But it turned out she really liked the lifestyle even. So we stayed the Marine Corps and then,

It was the last probably six or eight years that I was in. My oldest daughter, Brielle. Brielle, Marlee, and Chris. So Brielle, just the way things landed, she ended up going to three high schools. And so Marlee, the way things landed, had never gone to the same school twice until we got here. It was her ninth grade year. And so she looked at me with those big baby blue eyes and she was like, daddy, how many high schools am going to have to go to?

You have three kids, two daughters.

speaker-0 (02:44.449)
Okay.

speaker-0 (02:58.318)
man. answer your question correctly. getcha.

the way I ended up staying here with some big baby blue eyes and I dropped my retirement paperwork. But of course, you you have to have an exit strategy when you retire because although I'm old, I still feel young.

Always. Always. I'm saying way, man.

And so I didn't want to stop working, so we ended up opening a restaurant. That was my exit strategy. Brita Shack, Surf City, just had her five year anniversary. And so we were weighing our options before we decided to open the restaurant. It was either going to be Florida, maybe here.

Preachers, right? Alison, tell me about it.

speaker-1 (03:43.542)
Texas, we were trying to go to the places that were better for retirement, for vets. we kept saying, we're going to have to find a new church because the one here is fantastic. Yeah. And at that time, I was doing the run club. And I said, well, we're going to have to find a new run club, which is a story in itself because I didn't enjoy running until we moved here. And then they asked me to take the run club over.

For innovation,

speaker-0 (04:11.022)
didn't know you were in charge of that.

Yeah, it was funny because you remember that bar, Hopsoul, used to be on the corner over here years ago and said they were... to Yes. And it's, I think Deli Darling is there now, I think. So it's been like four or five different things since then. But there was only like 10 or 15 of us doing the Run Club. And this guy, one of the owners of Salty Turtle, he came in one night and he was like, hey,

to Walmart.

speaker-1 (04:40.11)
I was coming here and every Tuesday night you guys are running would you mind coming over our new bar that we're getting ready to open and I was like, you know, that's maybe we could split it 50-50 and He said that's great. When do you want to start and I'm like whenever you tell me and he goes well we open on December something like this 2018 ish and

And then I saw him again and he was like, we're open. If you guys want to come start running and then he, the very first thing he, and he hooked me in really, really fast. goes, I'll give away free shirts. If, if you know, you have some sort of rubric. And so we made it like a three, if you come to three rounds, you get a free shirt. Okay. And, that long.

That makes everybody feel a part of something. They heard something just by being there.

It grew from like 10 or 15 people to...

It's pretty big now. I mean it's a thing like it's a real it's the run club I would say in my from an outsider's perspective

speaker-1 (05:40.046)
You know what's funny is if I went over there right now because when we open the restaurant I handed it off to a friend. I'm like hey I'm gonna do this and so we can kind of step back a little bit and I Haven't been back so a lot of the new folks over there I mean the folks are there if I walked in there right now They probably wouldn't know me from Adam except for the folks that are running it. I think there's a few of them that still but it's To answer your question in a roundabout way the church

Yeah.

speaker-1 (06:07.074)
the run club and then we're like you know what let's just open a business and it has been nothing but good to us here.

So open a business. love that dude because that's how I think it's like alright, how can I Create this opportunity because I don't want to lean on anybody else for this Even though there's you know some days you think you know It'd be nice to leave work at work whenever I go home, right? But we kind of it kind of comes with it. So you and Allison want to open a business But together or even really separately you've never owned a business before never started a business

Well, Allison's had some at home businesses, which were great. For the Marine Corps, was perfect because she could take those businesses wherever we went. And so, you you'd always tell your, guys that worked for you or worked with you, like they would always complain about not having either enough money or my wife can't bring her job with us. And I'd always tell them, hey, tell them to go into teaching or nursing, because that transfers everywhere with the military. And then,

Yeah, she's in

speaker-1 (07:11.822)
I hate that the business she's in right now, I hate that she got into it so late because that would have been a very good one to transition to for anybody.

Yeah, she does well, right? Just from what I see,

Well, I mean, and it's not even the money thing. It's just your health and happiness. It kind of heals you from the inside out.

Plexus. I'm telling you man, it has changed. I look at my friends that are my age, I'm not gonna say anything about them because I don't wanna think one thing or the other, but I'm 54 years old. And my 54 year old counterparts, I don't do anything outrageous. I can't run anymore because of my knees. All I can do is lift and take the supplements that we do, and it balances all my blood sugars and all my gut health, and I just, I can't imagine not doing it.

because I still sort of remember what I used to feel like because I felt so good for so long now. It's almost hard to remember what bad felt like until, like every once in a while we'll run out of, you know, one or two of the supplements and you're like, my gosh, I think I'm coming down with something. And it's like, no, that's what you used to feel like, dummy. So I say all that to say, I wish she would have found out about, I think they opened in like 2008, Plexus did.

speaker-0 (08:32.322)
Okay.

2009 maybe We're in command of staff college in Alabama I want to say that was 2016 okay, yeah, so and I kind of begrudgingly started doing it because you know She's done a couple of things I wanted to support my wife, but I just I felt I'm a Marine mm-hmm. I'm you know And I've beaten my own chest

When did she get into it?

speaker-0 (08:56.01)
Yeah? I would do that too.

And then I took some of the stuff that she was, I took some of the supplements and I just figured there'd be like regular supplements. You know, you'd, you'd take this, that over the counter and sometimes more times than not, you just don't feel them.

because you're told it's gonna be a good thing,

Yeah, and

She has, she dove so deep into all the stuff that, um, to the cellular level, because just because we healed our son, which is a very long story. Um, and I'm not sure he wants me to talk about this or not. So I'll leave it at that, but she's, she dove, she did a deep dive probably 15 years ago. Um,

speaker-1 (09:43.638)
into how to heal the gut. so with that knowledge and finding this business, it's funny how she even started the business. One of her friends was like, hey, you need to take this stuff. You need to take this stuff. And she was like, nope, nope, I know more than you do. Her story is hilarious, actually. And then so we had this different doctor that we use in Alabama.

Now right you tell me the doc use now because she's mentioned him before but he's in Alabama where you guys are from

Mm-hmm. and so what his practice is is it's basically a homeopathic if you want homeopathic if you want the old-school Modern medicine. Mm-hmm side. He'll give you that too But she was like, hey Hey, dr. Strickland. I was about to call him Johnny because his name's Johnny. Hey Johnny Can you tell me what's wrong with these supplements so I can get this girl off my back? And and he came back he was like actually

there's absolutely nothing wrong with these. Actually, they're pretty fantastic. And Allison was like, you know, cause she wanted to be able to get back to the, get back to the, her name's Randy. She wanted to get back to Randy and be like, Yeah. And so she came back and I remember she was miffed. She was like, gosh, dang it. I'm like, what? She was like, there's nothing wrong with these supplements. I'm like, well, let's take them, you know? And, but when I said let's take them, it wasn't like,

Here's why these aren't.

speaker-1 (11:04.054)
lets me take him because there's nothing wrong with

Yeah, I'm good. got it.

I'm I'm good with this. And then she started feeling a ton better.

And she was like, you really need to try these, Mark, because remember all that training from a marathon training I was doing in Arizona? I'm like, yeah. She goes, I feel way better now than I have in a long time. She's literally just getting better. We've been doing it since 2016, and it's funny because they'll come out with new products, and she's like, my gosh, I feel better from this thing. So for me, I think it's gonna be a lifelong journey with her business.

And like I said, it's not necessarily about the money with that. It's just, I feel so much better taking them. don't, if we made a nickel from it, I'd be happy. So, so yeah, she's been able to take those. So like I said, I wish she would have been able to take that with us back in the early days, because I can't imagine feeling like this back in 2008 till now. Cause I didn't even know I was feeling bad until I wasn't. Like, holy cow. Cause

speaker-0 (11:53.314)
Be good, yeah.

speaker-0 (12:07.18)
Yeah, yeah.

speaker-0 (12:11.726)
Yeah. I think it's interesting to talk about sometimes once you kind of hit, I'm kind of bringing it back to business stuff too, but I mean it matters in health too. Cause when you talk about forgetting how you used to feel, like you can remember, but you don't remember as strong, right? Cause you haven't physically felt it.

first day of school. You know you remember the first day of school. Oh yeah that was pretty cool.

So there's this, I'm gonna end up getting off topic here, like with my second location, I have a lot of feelings surrounding when I had a second location and a lot of things I could have done better and all that. But I remember how great it felt to close it and just focus on one location. And I told myself I was always gonna remember that pain of what I was dealing with at the time with the second location.

so that I could appreciate the way that I feel now or the way things are now more. No matter how hard things get, I no longer have twice as much stress. You know what mean? But it is getting, it's getting more difficult to be mindful of that.

Did you know that we were going to open a second location of Breda Shack at one point? Yeah, in the beginning we actually contracted for two. And we were on the fence because the second location was supposed to be in Leland.

speaker-0 (13:33.23)
I don't know if I knew that.

speaker-0 (13:44.398)
That's a little distance. That could be.

We picked that location because that was the fastest growing town in North Carolina for the longest time.

100 % Probably still is it not still I mean it probably is still

and

I had just gotten out, my business partner Joe, was recently out and it was like, what do you want to do first? want to do Surf City or Leland? And we deliberated over it for a while and what it boiled down to was he's still doing contract work and he was like, you know, it'd probably be easier for me and I'm like, it'd be easier for me because I live like five minutes away.

speaker-0 (14:20.856)
Does he live close to the Sarf said area?

He did for a while. He lived in the neighborhoods of Holly Ridge when we opened. I think he lives in the summer house now. But it just made sense for us to open this one first. And I'm so glad we did because after we opened this one, what we thought it was going to be like is not exactly what it turns out to be.

Okay.

speaker-0 (14:39.788)
I'm with ya, I'm with ya,

So the pains of starting up are real. you can mentally prepare yourself for a thousand things, but it's that one thousand and one that you just don't account for. it's like, holy cow, I didn't know my body could work a hundred hours a week.

I don't know if I can keep doing it, right? It's like, or do it again to start a second one. I think we're at three or four.

And I think that was the. Yeah, so. Five months into it and.

That freshness of the first day of school was still right there. And the pain that we were going through, the similar, the pain that I think you had with your second location and so that I think we're very similar. I just didn't, we didn't pull the trigger, but the pain was so fresh. and like I said, we've only been open for five years. You've been open for what? Holy cow. So you already had a little bit under your belt.

speaker-0 (15:22.626)
Yeah.

speaker-0 (15:34.808)
12th over gonna be 13 in May

speaker-0 (15:39.662)
Yeah, I was entirely optimistic and I was confident and cocky and all that stuff. I still could have done it fine. It just would have taken more time, as you talk about the thousand hours, than I was willing to invest with three younger kids.

I'm not saying I would

speaker-1 (15:53.292)
Yeah, and that's a big piece of it too. Family takes a huge toll on.

on your soul because

I think you could have put that more accurately. On your soul is the way to put it.

I don't know, I'm sure you're very similar to me because I have to, I'm a provider. At the base root level of Mark, I'm just a provider and that's not just money and a house or whatever it is, it's me. And I know I was taken away from my family. That first year we opened, probably the best year of our lives, worst year of our lives.

Yeah.

speaker-1 (16:33.978)
It's like, wow, I own a thing now. And I've always had this, it's funny, my dad used to carry this book in the house. It was called Reader's Digest or something. know, this was before phones and yeah, and you know, just laying around the house and I remember flipping through it one day and I saw this little statue that, you know, they have these little things that they sell and there's this little statue in the back of this Reader's Digest. I can't believe I just remember this.

remember years, digest. I remember. They were like this. Yeah.

speaker-1 (17:00.162)
And there's a picture of this guy and he's chiseling himself out of a mold. And at the bottom of it, it says, self-made man. And I've always wanted to get those and I've always not wanted to spend the 100, 200, 300 bucks to, you know, cause it's just going to be me seeing it. Cause it's going to be on my desk and nobody sees. And it's just this guy chiseling himself out of stone and it says, you know, self-made man. And that stuck with me cause I was like, you know, I'm doing this. I've done this. I did this. did. And I know it sounds like a me, me, me scenario, but.

Yeah.

speaker-0 (17:29.838)
No, that's just what you think about. You think about the actions that you take to chisel yourself into where you are now. sometimes it's fun just to sit and talk with people about it that have done things like that to reflect on it and to be appreciative of it. When you guys decided to open a business, because in the conversation we were just having it kind of sounded like we decided to open a business and we did it. But so you decided to stay here and that was, so you decided to stay here, then you decided to open a business?

Mm-hmm.

speaker-0 (17:57.718)
Or was there an opportunity to open a business and that contributed to you staying here?

Did you guys have any thoughts about owning a business together as a husband and wife? I mean, you a business partner.

Yeah, I think the answer, and this is gonna sound contradictory because there's gonna be yes to all of it. Yes, that we thought about it before we wanted to stay here. Yes, we thought about it moving away. It was a...

think it depends on the day of the week.

Yeah, yeah. I think that's a real answer.

speaker-1 (18:31.694)
It's a record. I'm trying to recall exactly when, but I knew that I didn't want to leave the area and I knew that the jobs that I felt that were on par with my skill set were 45 minutes away at the base. And I'd just been driving 45 minutes one way for three and a half years and I didn't want to do it again. And so I was trying to figure out, is there something I could do around here?

Yeah.

speaker-1 (19:01.642)
And it was funny because Breedershack and Hampstead was the one we used to go to all the time. And I remember walking there the very first time and it had a pretty good vibe in there. It's got a little beach music playing. It was different then than it is now.

Highway 55 and then Andy's before that when I was in high school.

really? And so I remember going in there and I'm like, this is a pretty cool vibe. Cause I like the food. just, we'd lived in Arizona for a few years. So we were very in touch with our Mexican heritage. I don't even want to call it Tex-Mex. was, I mean, it was legitimate. Everything, half the places we go to in Yuma. mean, you had to point because, and it's a fantastic food down there. So we,

Yeah.

speaker-1 (19:52.43)
We developed, it's funny, we moved from Yuma to Alabama for school and the amount of Mexican food that you find in Yuma is just everywhere. It's just like, you you turn your head and there's another one. And when you go to Alabama, you have to seek it out and it's Mo's and there's nothing wrong with Mo's. It's just not what I was used to in Arizona. I didn't even realize I developed a palette for it because I was like, man, I could have breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Push it, yeah.

speaker-0 (20:09.784)
Yeah.

speaker-1 (20:20.914)
and so Alice and I make this sausage and egg dish for breakfast for us. call it a breakfast burritos. so I didn't realize that I'd missed it so much. And so I think that was what kind of one of the other things that drew me to it because man, this food is so good. It's I think it's a North Carolina spin on Mexican food.

Yeah, coastal. Yeah because of the beach vibe and all that. It's a good point.

Yeah, and so the music, the food, was like, man, I could open something like this. I'll never forget it. It was the first day we walked in there. like, I could see myself opening something like this. because I

That's a mindset. Not everybody thinks like that. I think like that in a lot of places.

It's funny, before I joined the Marine Corps, I was literally still in college and I was trying to open something because I was working at Kinko's, I was assistant manager at Kinko's if you remember those places. It's like I think I want to open my own business because I had a couple of buddies that were...

speaker-0 (21:21.39)
So you had been thinking about that for a while.

I was thinking about it. Yeah. And there was this place called, oh gosh dang it, Hopps Microbrewery. Okay. And so it was a steakhouse and a microbrewery and I'd never seen something, you know, was back in the 90s. it was just.

Yeah, that was a novel idea in the night. At least around here, right?

Yeah, you're looking behind the glass and you can see the they're brewing beer back there. Holy cow, they're brewing beer and then had the best Jamaican jerk steak. I'll never forget it. A mouthwatering just thinking about it. And so I tried to go down that road of I literally was looking to open Hopf's Marker Brewing. My buddy Matt told me he had a friend that was he was an investor and I'll make this quick. I'm tangent now.

I we're good on time.

speaker-1 (22:09.806)
And I think he opened like malls. Oh, that kind of money. Okay. And he introduced us and he was like, that sounds like a great idea. Just let me know what you need for capital. And I was like, here it is. And so, know, 20, what is that? 25, 26, 27 year old me. I didn't know what I didn't know, you know, and internet wasn't.

the prevalent thing back then. so I could, yeah, and so you couldn't just go, let me do some research real quick. Hey chat, GPT, bam. Or just hey Google box, know. Let me get some answers. And you just couldn't do that. You had to go to the library, you had to ask questions, you had to find a guy that knew a guy. so I started calling around. So the only thing I knew to do was call because I was in sales. And the only thing I knew to do was call. So I called.

different.

speaker-1 (23:08.054)
I called Hopps corporate headquarters or whatever. I didn't know the difference between privately owned anything and corporately owned something. And I was like, hey, I've got this great idea, this great location. I've seen it in Jacksonville, Florida, but they don't have it here in Tallahassee, Florida. And they were like, yeah, we could talk to our travel team about possibly opening one and you could potentially be a manager there. And I'm like, wait, what? I can't just open one myself.

They weren't willing to franchise.

They don't franchise. So a lot of corporately owned places like Chipotle for instance, they don't franchise. They used to.

I didn't know Chipotle didn't, I mean I guess I've never heard of a franchise owner of Chipotle.

Yeah, a lot of a lot of these businesses that are big used to be franchises in the beginning mm-hmm and I think that's what a lot of folks probably they don't start out doing I think they see the money and The money just grows and all of a somebody offs you 20 30 40 50 million dollars that you never had that kind of money in your life. Yeah Yeah, here. I take take the burrito shack. Yeah I just I'm not saying that's what he's gonna do, but I mean It's tempting

speaker-0 (24:12.622)
Yeah.

And so that's what happened with, I mean I'm taking a stab and a guess, I have no idea. I'm sure that's probably what happened with Chipotle. That's probably what happened with Hop's Microbrewery. And so that kind of deflated me once I found out that I couldn't do it.

Why the draw to like restaurant?

It wasn't even a draw to restaurant. just... I saw that... It made me feel good when I went into HOT. Because it was something different. Like, wow, I could see that's a very niche market at the time I drank beer. I don't drink beer anymore, but at the time I drank beer, I'm like, that is fantastic. They bring me this flight of beer. What's a flight of beer? I could try all their beers and... And I could have an amazing steak. This would kill.

or service.

speaker-1 (25:01.714)
And I didn't know anything about having a bar attached to the place because that's just extra gravy money. so I want to say the way it made me feel coupled with the money aspect is what drew it to me. then once I got deflated, I trying to figure out what else I wanted to do. And so at that point, I think we had Brielle shortly thereafter.

and I switched from Kinkos to working for child support enforcement. don't know if you. I left Kinkos. It wasn't really, it sounds more interesting than it was. It was more depressing than anything else. But the only reason I left, because I actually took a pay cut going from Kinkos to child support, but I had to do something different because Kinkos at that, they were open 24 seven.

I didn't know that. was interesting.

speaker-0 (25:43.278)
can see that too.

speaker-1 (25:57.922)
They sent me over to the branch that was right across the street from Florida State because a manager just left and

College kids coming there with a paper do it midnight or something or then

and everything in between, businesses, which was cool. So it gave you a reason to be. But the only problem was who you're gonna have work in the midnight shift that's gonna be responsible. And so it's hard right across the street from university to find a grown up to work the midnight shift. And so what we ended up doing, we would have the best we could get working from midnight to eight.

Evil, right? mean...

speaker-0 (26:24.728)
Yeah.

speaker-1 (26:36.558)
inevitably if there was a party or a concert I'd get a call and so I'd leave the store sometimes around 5, 6, 7 at night and I'd get the call about 11, 45 to 12, 15, hey Joe's not coming in.

You were filling in.

speaker-0 (26:54.352)
That's a little taste of business ownership right there.

Honestly, that's what pushed me away from Kinko's because I would literally wake up in the morning before Brielle woke up and I'd be gone all day. And then when I come home, I might have 30 minutes to an hour with her and we'd put her down for the night. And so I'd see my kid maybe 30 minutes a day on a good day. And that was Monday through Saturday. I would always get called in on Sunday.

Yeah, that would've been a idea.

And I was like, something's gotta give. I gotta be with my family. This is not what life is about. Yeah, I'm making way more, I probably making twice as much money in college. And then I got the job of child support. And it was a Monday through Friday, all the holidays, all the weekends. And that seemed appealing. And then...

I think that's when the service aspect started coming back. Not because of child support, but the folks I was working with were all retired military guys. it was funny because they were telling me all their stories and I would share a story with them. And it wouldn't be a Kinko's story or a child support enforcement story. be when I was in the Navy. And we did this thing, or we pulled into Singapore, or we, you know, it was in this helicopter crash. And it was, you know, all these great stories are coming around.

speaker-0 (28:10.284)
Yeah.

speaker-1 (28:21.698)
The new guy would come in and the military guy that we had hired, you know, months ago, like, hey, I know this dude from, you know, this other life that I had. This is Mark. Let him tell you the story about, and he would pick a military story. And I think that's when it started to percolate. I'm like, man, I really think I missed this. And I didn't think I would. Yeah. Cause I got out with purpose. And when I say purpose, mean, I didn't want to be in. cause you know, you just, when you're young,

You have this idea of what life's gonna be like, and the Navy was not what I thought it was gonna be like, you know? granted, probably one of better jobs I've ever had.

I mean it's still valuable, everything's valuable experience, right? Everything teaches us something, but I feel like I've been through many swings of life's not what I thought it was gonna be like over the last, probably since I was like 33 is when all of that, a lot of that stuff started happening for me. Before that, I don't know, I just thought I knew everything all the time. I didn't care what anybody else thought.

It's funny, I try to give little kid bits to my kids' friends because they're old enough to kind of receive it now. But some of them aren't because some of Chris's friends are 17 and I know I can talk to them.

Yeah, yeah

speaker-1 (29:37.356)
And I know they understand what I'm saying, I don't know if they're hearing me.

If the intended point is being received. I experienced it yet.

Yeah, sometimes you gotta, cause they have an exception. Yeah, cause sometimes instead of attacking it head on, like, Hey, this is what the, this is what your solution should look like. You have to go, okay, I know I want to get in here or get her there, but let me tell you about this or this and then kind of make it a, so they go, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But you know, I mean, it's not like I don't want to invest in these kids cause I do. Cause like you, used to do a lot of coaching and once you invest in a kid and you see them succeed it.

Yeah.

speaker-0 (30:16.75)
That's rewarding. Yeah.

It's, yeah, you feel it right there. Yeah. And you know, you never let go of all that stuff, but I like to share my experiences. But when I start glazing over, cause sometimes, you know, I, my kids tell me, when you give us, give us those lectures, dad, there. And it's funny. mean, I come by it, honestly, my dad, lucky man, my dad, same thing to me when I was growing up, he'd give me those lectures and I that they were, you look back in retrospect and you're like, Holy crap. are life changing moments. I should have.

I'm not licking, I'm trying to help.

speaker-0 (30:46.072)
valuable lessons that I wish I would have recalled on those earlier and used those to my advantage.

Should have taken that advice.

speaker-1 (30:52.77)
house would have been paid off, you know. I'm a learn it the hard way kind of guy.

I had to learn everything myself.

Now I pay people for that expertise. That's like I have a business mentor, right? I have somebody write my own fitness programming and I went to school for it.

Yep.

speaker-1 (31:06.158)
Isn't it funny your parents give you all these wisdom nuggets and and people along the way and you just can't hear them until The guy that you're paying the girl that you're paying. You know like holy crap. I've heard this before but yes, you're right

Probably, yeah, I probably took way too long. Like when my dad, my dad and my mom got divorced when I was probably still in elementary school. Maybe it was middle school. And so he was, my dad was always present. My dad was great to me. But he wasn't living with us. So it wasn't, I don't know that we had quite as many of those opportunities. But now, I mean even coming up.

Done.

speaker-0 (31:44.718)
We'd have some of those talks, but not a ton. But now I fully appreciate calling my dad and just talking to him. Now I also have my stepdad who, I don't know that he always provided a lot of like wisdom on purpose. He probably did a lot on accident. Biggest thing I learned from him was he, didn't, this is my stepfather, right? Like, you know, I'm always, I was a teenager, you're not my dad, and all this stupid shit.

at the drop of a hat, he would do anything for me. if I, cause of course I moved once a year for many years, right? Every time a lease was up or whatever. He was always the first guy to show up with a trailer and a truck and like help me move. If I need help doing something at breakaway, he'd come lay on the ground, get under a sink and help me fix the plumbing or whatever it might be. Like he, or at my house or whatever it was, always, he would do anything for me in that regard, like supporting me. That was my stepdad.

And now with my dad, my dad's always lived about two hours away, and he would do that too, except for he was two hours away. But now I'll call my dad and we'll just talk for like an hour, just back and forth about stuff and things that are happening in life. And I feel like I absorbed that much more now than I ever did before.

I think it's a lot of times it has, we're slowing down and so we slow down enough to kind of take in some of the experiences we had and see them for what they were. I think it's funny because...

Yeah

speaker-1 (33:17.23)
I can speak from the man perspective. A lot of the men that are in a man's life, by and large, not saying bad things don't happen, but by and large, a lot of the folks that are in most people's lives are trying to steer them in the right direction. They're trying to do stuff for them. And we're so blind with our own egos or self-observe, whatever it was. I was too.

I'm to it. Definitely less now, but...

I feel like I'll listen a lot more these days. I still have a little bit of my old self stuck in there that I could do this myself and that I don't need anybody to help me. Like for crying out loud, I was out in my backyard the other day for seven, eight hours straight. And Allison's texted me, she's like, cause I was, I was chopping down trees and trying to clear the Cause I'm like, I don't want to wait. I want a path that goes all the way back to the marsh. I want to write.

And so my neighbor's like, I got a chainsaw. I'm like, I'm coming over. That's what took his chainsaw. I mean, I got cuts all over my fingers from trying to, anyway. So I'm still stubborn in that aspect, but I usually stop and listen more than I used to. I don't want to say it's age or experience. I just think it's stopping to.

What do Ferris Bueller say if you don't stop and look around? You'll miss it. Stop and look around a little bit more. And when I look around more, I'm like, somebody's trying to give me a nugget of information. Should I take this? And so I'll listen to them. But I think that's the biggest thing for me these days is I actually listen to people.

speaker-1 (34:59.68)
When I'm out and about but it's funny because we're in a different season of our lives right now where I used to be out all the time everywhere I could walk into any place here in surf city. I don't know ten people and We've I'm not saying we're drawn back. It's just

speaker-1 (35:18.624)
Our goal was to have a homestead. And you probably know this story. I wanted it so bad and now I'm right there and all I want to do is work on my property, work on my property and make it the thing.

Yeah.

That's part of a baby.

speaker-0 (35:35.451)
There's a sense of purpose with it,

I think I sort of... Yeah, because I mean, we've got the burrito shack and I've got purpose with burrito shack. And I'm not going to say it just runs itself because it does need a lot of steerage. But it runs pretty well on its own between myself and my business partner. I mean, that was a huge blessing.

A of people struggle, a lot of people I think get into business for that reason, especially with restaurants and things. Or a franchise model. And they're like, alright, I'm gonna open this and I'm be completely hands off, everything's gonna be great. Now you guys, you said you're not completely hands off, but you've accomplished that. Pretty Essentially, right? I I mean, you do have a business partner and I think, is he there more often? So, like day to day?

Yes, yes and no. he's a... See, we had different roles. When we were opening the business, the guy we're franchised from encouraged us to make sure we had our established roles. And Joe was doing contract work and he said, hey, how about I do the admin stuff? Cause it's a whole lot easier for me. And then you do all the operational stuff. And at that point we didn't know our elbows from our rear end.

Neither one of us had done restaurants before. And so we just, and we opened during COVID. And so all the folks that would normally do the prep and the pre, the pre-workup stuff to opening, they were all at home. And they were getting paid more by the government. What any restaurant could pay them. And I mean, you just do the math, the basic economics. Why would I come and do all this work when they're, and make this much money when these guys.

speaker-1 (37:24.078)
They're gonna let me sit around the house and pay me more. And so, I don't blame them, but that was something we didn't take into our calculus. my gosh.

Took a while to open.

I if you think from start to because I just remembered

About a long time. Yeah, there was a, um, I was leaving names out of it because, uh, we were, we were contracted to open at another location and we were supposed to open like September. I'm sorry. They were going to hand us the keys to September, 2018. And I remember it was, or maybe October. Yeah, I think it was October, 2018. And I remember it was September, 2018. We were like,

Yeah.

speaker-0 (37:55.083)
Okay.

speaker-1 (38:06.936)
places just grass still. What the heck? And so it wasn't any fault of ours. We already had our loan and everything was pre-approved. Because we did the loan route instead of just coming up with 300 grand.

yeah

speaker-1 (38:29.142)
It was very deflating because it set us back about a year and a half.

It's a long time when you went over to business.

Yeah, and so that was gonna be my exit strategy and I was gonna kind of work here and there. Honestly, it was a blessing in disguise because if we would have opened when I thought we were gonna open, I would have had probably, it would have been that much more difficult in our marriage because we ended up having to work more in the restaurant in the beginning than what we ever thought. And the way it stood.

Yeah.

speaker-1 (39:01.902)
I ended up having a double work, a double dip, I guess, if you say. I would go to work in the morning, because we opened in January five years ago. So we literally just had our Yep. And from January to June, I would literally go to work in the Marine Corps. I would get off, I'd have my shirt in the car, and I would stop at the little.

little seven day store on the way off the base and get some food to eat. And I would get to the parking lot, change, change my shirt and run into the restaurant and working till close Monday through Sunday. Friday and then Saturday and Sunday. I would just work from open to close. And I did that for almost six months, which was tough to say the least, it was, it was tough. I'll just leave it at that. And,

COVID as well.

speaker-1 (40:00.824)
But I count it as a blessing because I only had to do it for six months as opposed to a year or two or whatever. Whatever that number is going to be. Because...

We thought, like you said, we were going to be open it and we have all these people that were going to work for us and of course they were all going to be fantastic employees. And it's funny, you offered me a piece of advice that you probably don't even remember offering me and it still rings in my head like to this day, hire slow and fire fast. You said that to me and I still remember it and I was literally walking out the door and you were asking me questions about it.

Yeah.

speaker-0 (40:31.115)
yeah.

speaker-1 (40:39.566)
And you're like, if I could say anything, and you said that, and I was like, that's a great idea.

Learn that lesson. It's a hard lesson to do with a smaller, or it's a hard thing to enact with a smaller business, because we don't, it means we were back in it usually.

And it was very, honestly, it was very difficult to do when we were trying to open because we thought we were going to have a whole lot of applicants and we didn't. So we literally had to hire just about every single person that applied. Because we were just during COVID and of course you had this gigantic question mark, is this going to work? And you question yourself, you doubt yourself all the time. then COVID was over.

Yeah, less, yeah, yeah.

speaker-1 (41:17.89)
We were still in there working a boatload of hours and we had this, I don't want to say come to Jesus meeting, it was just a, how about we pay our guys more and we take a little bit less and see how that works. And then we ended up hiring. Yeah, it does, it attracts different people and then you start to realize once you get a good person in there, you're like, that person is not working as well as I thought they were.

offering more like in the job post as well.

speaker-0 (41:47.19)
the people that were already there or somebody who, yeah.

Yeah, and then so it's not like we slowly weeded them out because we didn't they weeded themselves out because a lot of people are naturally competitive and the people that are being outworked a couple of things one of two things usually happen they either up their game and they try to hang with the person that's out working them or they just quit and start complaining and then everything goes to crap and So we've only had a couple of folks that could I'm gonna keep up and a lot of folks just

They can't handle the culture.

speaker-1 (42:17.368)
quit or gave us reasons to say, man, you should probably go somewhere else. so now we're able to hire slow and fire fast. And I think we find the right mix of people. Of course, somebody's going to slip through the cracks and pull the wool over our eyes. But I think by and large, we've got a pretty fantastic staff.

That's a great feeling to have, a security blanket.

And it's not like we see out of aisle and everything either. But having that pushback is exactly what you need because if I'm so mono focused on something or Joe's so focused on something, sometimes we can't open up the aperture and see because we're not looking at the whole picture. the folks that are down there in the trenches every day are seeing the whole picture and they'll go, you know, this doesn't work. You're like, holy cow. And so I'm so grateful that we're taking less money.

This is going to happen in

speaker-1 (43:18.062)
because the restaurant's doing fantastic and we've got the right people in place. And so to go back to your original question, he's doing a lot more of the admin stuff right now. And since I'm not doing all the operational stuff all the time anymore, it's kind of like a give and take. In the beginning, I was probably doing more hands on stuff than he was. And now he's probably doing a little bit more hands on stuff than I am. And so it's a good equilibrium.

Do I feel guilty sometimes? I do. He knows it. At least I think he knows it. If he ever says, hey man, can you help me with, I'm like, Johnny on spot and I'm running over there to go help.

That's important, man. That's a good culture builder.

So, and it's funny because he and I worked together in the Marine Corps for years. so I've known him probably 15 years now. Yeah. Yeah. And we deployed to Afghanistan together. So I know him, know him. And so, you know, that's your battle buddy. I can count on that guy for anything under the sun with my life. You know what I mean? Yeah. So it's different to have a business partner like that.

Yeah.

speaker-1 (44:30.7)
I could blindly go in and trust him with the money or could trust or he can trust me with the ordering or you know what mean? And it just, it makes...

I do know, think I can relate heavily, although he's not my business partner. Salas has been working with me since 2013, before we opened in 2013, but he worked with me somewhere else before that. So I mean, we've known each other almost as long now. From working together, yeah. And I would trust him with anything.

Yeah. Just. That's a, that's a good. Yeah. And that's a, that's the kind of thing you don't ever want to lose. Cause I know it's not like I won't open a business with somebody else because I probably would, but I would literally.

speaker-1 (45:11.478)
I'd run it by Joe. He'd be like, hey man, I was thinking about doing this, what do you think? And then I'd say, do you want to do it? And if he says no, I'd be okay. And I would ask him, not even permission, but like, hey, would you mind if I did something with this? Because I don't know, I feel like I, once you develop something with another guy, it's just one of those.

when you know how to

speaker-1 (45:38.926)
I don't know, I think it's an unspoken thing that I can't put into words.

I don't know that we would be that good at putting it into words. Wouldn't be that good at putting it into words, but I think the best word is probably just trust. Because we don't like freely give that out.

I'm not out.

speaker-1 (45:49.804)
Yeah, I think it is. Now, yet would I open something else? 100%. But it had to be the right thing.

Yeah, that's an interesting answer because there's patience there and an interesting thought process because I think it's easy when you have an entrepreneurial mindset to be overly opportunistic. At least on my, I have been, I mean, if the opportunity is there, I'm like, oh, I'm not anymore as much. Yeah.

Yeah. I will say this. Once we got it running, I think it was like three years into it, I was ready to open 25. Yeah. just like that. Yeah. Cause you know, I self made me and asked my kids, anybody asked my kids this, they'll, they'll, they'll, tell you the, they'll finish it for you. If somebody else can do it, my kids all, I can too.

feel like I can do this.

speaker-1 (46:42.634)
And so I've been banging that drum my entire life and I've tried to, you know, things to say to your kids whether or not they hear you, they hear it. so if you said it to my kid, pick one of my kids and go, hey, if somebody else can do it, they'll go, you've been talking to my dad. And then you'll go, and they'll go, I can do it too.

Yeah.

speaker-0 (47:06.19)
That would make you proud though. hear your kid repeat something, you say that's a big deal.

Yeah, so I mean, that's the mantra that I've always, I've had ever since reading that Reader's Digest. That's only, and, but now, I think the reason I wanted to open so many things was one, because I got this entrepreneurial mindset, and yes, I can do it and I can be successful. Why do I want to do it? Is the question. Do I want to do it because I've just got this burning desire to give something to the community that,

There's a gap missing here that I feel like I could fill with the money. And if it's money, then I think the wealth question comes into play. That's exactly what my point was going to be. What is wealth? To you, wealth might be something different than it is to me. It's all about money. You could probably snatch anybody off the street and they're like, you got to have a million dollars.

What do mean when you say wealth?

speaker-0 (47:59.95)
almost equated to success.

speaker-1 (48:06.136)
Like that's not wealth, man, that's just having a million dollars. so for me, wealth is being able to successfully pay every bill that I have, have a good family life, trust in God, and know that I've got everything that I need to make my family happy. To me, that's wealthy. So if somebody asks, do you think you're wealthy? Absolutely, think I'm wealthy.

Would that have been a different answer 20 years ago?

Absolutely, because I would need to have a Lambo and I need to have all these things.

I've got a paid off Jeep. It's a 2015. We've got a truck that we're working off and...

Yeah. Yeah.

speaker-1 (48:51.01)
I don't have any complaints whatsoever. Could I wear super nice clothes all the time? could.

mean, y'all were able to go get that truck there, right? And then your wife drives it. For me, that's a good feeling. Like we bought Melody a new, she has a Jeep, not a Wrangler, but that Grand Cherokee. It had a third row seat for, our kids are still young, but she had a minivan before that. So she wanted to feel cool again and not like she was driving a minivan. That minivan was amazing, amazing. I pretty much went and picked it out and bought it.

That's good feeling. I would say that contributes to having wealth, or the feeling of having wealth.

That's in my mind, because 20 years ago that wouldn't have been wealth to me. To me right now, that's wealth.

is that going back to being a provider, I think, has a lot to do with it.

speaker-1 (49:44.257)
Yes.

Can I successfully do what I need to do? And can I do a bunch of the stuff that I want to do? Yes. I mean, am I gonna jump up and, hey, let's go to Italy for the weekend? No. No, that's a different level of obscene money. And that's kind of way I look at it now. That's just obscene money. I don't necessarily strive to do that. Would I like to have my house paid off? Absolutely. I think my next level of wealth is house paid off.

Yeah.

And I think my version of what Wealthy looks like is going to be... If you ask me that question again, hopefully in eight years, that's my goal.

Yeah, well mean that was going to be one of the questions I had on here was with the kids grown, how was your, I mean we really just dove into it. was the definition of success looked different now than it did when they were little.

speaker-1 (50:38.656)
It does. And it's funny because my definition of success this year looks different than it did last year.

Recognizing that is important though. There's a skill to that or there's value in that.

And so right now Brielle's getting married and right now success to me is paying off her wedding and walking her down the aisle and you know welcoming Logan into our family and I failed at convincing him to take our last name but...

Just try hard man. had a realization the other day that my daughter's not gonna have my last day one day and I was like, no.

I to.

speaker-1 (51:16.91)
We're literally just having that conversation. Last night she goes, Brielle's last name is not gonna be Caldwell. I'm having a hard time with this. And I'm like, why are you having a hard time? You changed your name. I should have a harder time than you are. She's like, but she's just been Brielle Caldwell. That's my rubric of success this year is getting the wedding paid off and our land, getting it developed, that's great. That'd be great.

Yeah.

speaker-0 (51:33.454)
Yeah.

speaker-1 (51:46.35)
you know, a garden area and some chickens and yeah. For those of you don't know, we just moved into a house on Halloween, so we're working. It's fresh. It's very fresh. So yeah, I mean, that's my definition of success this year. Next year, I'll probably have a different version of what I'm looking to do now.

Yeah.

speaker-1 (52:10.87)
I know we do have one business possibility percolating it, like I shared it with you before. I'm trying to keep it under wraps right now, but I would 100 % open up something else this year if opportunity, the right opportunity presented itself. And I am looking at one specific one.

I an idea for that I gotta tell you about by the way. It's a franchise but it's really cool.

Okay.

And so it's funny, one of my buddies, he actually does podcasts also, and he does franchising. And I was supposed to do a podcast with him, but some family issues came up and I had to fly to Alabama, so we couldn't do his podcast. But he hit me up the other day and he goes, hey man, have ever thought about doing this kind of franchise? And I kind of forgot about the beginning of what a franchise would look like. I'm like, oh, that's...

Starting one, mean?

speaker-1 (53:01.342)
And I said, that sounds kind of neat, or buying into another one. And it sounded great, and I told him what I shared with you. And goes, check out this company. I just started working with them. And so the first thing I do now as a business guy or an entrepreneur, I go to look to see how much am I going to have to pay the franchise for in monthly percentages, and then how much am I going to have to pay in marketing.

Okay.

speaker-1 (53:30.734)
It was a lot more than what I'm currently doing. And so I'm like, no, I can't do that. And so I'm so glad our franchise, I'm not gonna say I won't do it again, but I probably would.

than your current franchise you're a part of. That's what you mean. Correct. Okay.

Percentages that we end up paying in royalties now versus what we would have to pay with that other franchise or night and day. Well, not night and day, but just a lot. Just more, And cuts into whatever your profits are going to be. And then it largely scales the version of either how much you're going to make or how much you're going to have to work at that place in order to make the amount of money that you want to, you know what I mean?

and new pricing on it.

speaker-0 (54:12.94)
or how fast you can get people in position to run it for you.

Right, and so I'm very grateful that we did the burrito shack route just for the business aspect because it taught me how to run a business. I don't feel like I need the help anymore. I feel like I just opened my own business and I know how to do it. With, you know, some growing pains here and there.

I think six months to do what you guys did is probably not very long. And you were good to go for the most part after all those hours for six months straight. Which I'm not saying that wasn't hard or terribly stressful. Well, let's say you only did it for a year, right? That's still impressive.

It was probably eight or nine months.

speaker-0 (54:57.582)
And you should be mindful of that and appreciate that you guys, and you guys did it together too as a husband and wife and you stayed together. That's a big deal. There's not a lot of people with our current society that can work through that, fight through it and still stick together. What do you...

If you could pick one thing, which we never can, but if you could pick one thing that is the reason why it took you a year or less of owning a restaurant, near Burrito Shack, to get to where you are now or where you were about a year after, is it, like what is it? I mean, you kind of told, you talked about raising the pay, which is,

you

speaker-0 (55:44.334)
Which is a challenging business move but a very smart business move because we have great people there I would argue the most valuable asset in your business Mm-hmm, but what is that the one main thing that led to you you guys gonna do what you did for a year and then be able to step back a little bit Because other think about other business owners and how long they have to stay entrenched in the day today

That's a complicated question. I think the best answer I could probably give you, if I had to narrow it down to one word, would be empowerment. And so, a lot of the skills that we learned in the Marine Corps, and I think that's what makes us a little bit different than most business owners, is because in the Marine Corps,

Yes.

speaker-1 (56:34.678)
They teach you, all right, you know how to do your job, we're gonna do an exercise and bang, you're dead. Is your subordinate gonna be able to do your job? So you literally have to train your subordinate, train their subordinate, train their subordinate. You gotta be able to do my job, you gotta be able to do my job. And so we kinda took, I don't wanna say we took that approach, but we sorta did. And so once we realized...

I can't do all the ordering and all the cooking and all the cutting and all the serving and all the like, okay, we need to make sure that we have somebody that's able to do that. We have to have somebody that's able to do that. And what we've found was the more that we empowered people and gave them more responsibility.

the better they performed. Not everybody's like that, but most people don't want a mindless job because if I just went to work every day and I was just like, you know, I've got this knocked out.

as opposed to I've got a new challenge every day.

And maybe I'm just speaking for myself or people like me or people like us. They're looking for challenges, they're looking for responsibility. And so we found that, and I think it's probably the folks that we hire are similar in thought process and mindset, or we're instilling that in them, or we hire so many people that have that same thought process.

speaker-1 (58:02.362)
and it rubs off on the few folks that we have that don't think like that. And so you're kind of learning, they're learning, teaching, growing. We had, for instance, we had this one kid, I won't say his name, he started working for us when he was 16 years old, very first job, quiet as a mouse. I mean, just couldn't even, had a hard time talking across the glass. was just, what did you say? What did you say? And by the time he left and went off to college, he was probably the loudest, most boisterous.

Everybody wanted to work with him. Hard work ethic. it's funny because we laugh at it. Like, you remember when he started and it was just like this? We can attribute it to a lot of different things because there was a whole lot of factors happening in his life. But I know at least a sliver that had to do with us and how we did things. I'm not saying it was 100 % us, but even if it was 10 % of us, I think that group of folks that we would hire that are similar to us.

coaches and courages helps grow that younger staff that doesn't think like that. So I think giving the staff the ability to do the stuff that you would want them to do while you're not there, do the right thing when nobody's we used to sit, I mean, when we let go it was very tough.

to make a decision.

speaker-1 (59:26.712)
They're not Marines. so we'd literally pull up the cameras and sit there and watch the cameras. they doing this? they doing that? Yep. Yep. They sure are doing that.

It just makes it a whole lot easier mentally, knowing that you can trust the folks that you're putting in positions of authority and power. Is it a hundred percent right fit? is this person that I'm sticking in this spot, the stereotypical, you know, pick the position? Probably not. Is he making, or is she making things happen the way that we want them to happen? Absolutely.

Therefore that person gets that and so is it sometimes it's completely out of the norm of what you would think a line shift leader or assistant manager or man or general manager would would be but mm-hmm Sometimes they bring a certain skill set to the table that you just can't overlook and you don't want to lose those things and so I say all that to say you

Yeah.

it's different from how you might do it even though they can follow the system but it could be

speaker-1 (01:00:29.102)
So we've given them as much responsibility as we possibly can I feel like and I think that's the answer to what you're

Yeah, it sounds like you really learned how to Take a sit and S. Opus and standard operating procedure. Mm-hmm. Well, we call I call an SOP or system and and I'm sure Bredo Shack supplied a lot of those they do all of their trial and error, right? Like they learn good systems for implementing this and then you follow it But it also sounds like from the military you learned very well how to delegate and then but also

Me too.

speaker-0 (01:01:06.796)
Like delegate, not abdicate. So you wouldn't just say here, here's the system, read it, let me know if you have any questions, right? There's a process to training and building them into it so they can effectively own it on their own and then make, at least if they're not a manager, make some sort of surface level decisions on their own through the empowerment that you talk about. But the big thing that I took from everything you just said is it sounds like you've built a very specific kind of culture there, you and your business partner.

have built a very specific culture there. You could say of performance, but I don't know if that's the right word, because it's not like they're playing on a football team or something. It's not finance or a sales job or a corporate job, but more of just here's the standard that we set, and either you're as, I think maybe as empathetically as possible, you're gonna come up to that standard, or it's just not a good fit.

Well, I will tell you this. If you go to most other restaurants, there's no knock on them. Most restaurants, when you go into their kitchen or their back areas, they're not the same as what ours is. And we didn't want to have your standard kitchen where people are yelling at each other and it's just like a salty sailor atmosphere.

Our folks know we love them. mean, we literally try to love them as best we can, give as much help as we can, and then give them as much responsibility as they can. we're like, hey, here's the rope. Tell the owner if you need it, I'm gonna come help you. But if you keep asking me the same question, I'm gonna ask you why can't you do this on your own? And then it usually leads to something else. And that's usually when they go, holy cow, I can do this.

I don't have to keep asking questions, because inevitably in the beginning you're going to hire somewhere between a 16 and a 24 year old and

speaker-1 (01:03:12.136)
Every once in a while, you'll find that person that's out of that age range that's looking for that career. we found a few of them that are looking for that career. And they work out really well. Some of them don't. But once you get them to that point where they can think for themselves, I think it's not like I'm trying to keep every single employee that comes in there to work for us.

entry level work

speaker-1 (01:03:42.03)
I'm realistic enough to know not every single one of them are gonna stay. And I don't want them to stay because I want them to grow, I them to get better, I want them to... It's kind of like if you coach a Little League football team. You want these guys to... You know they're not gonna be on your team next year. Yeah. Or they're gonna move and they're gonna be... But you want to see that kid succeed and I think that's what we try to do is try to help them understand that we want to see you succeed. And if that means me writing you a reference to go to college, to go to...

Yeah.

speaker-1 (01:04:10.914)
this next bigger job, if you give me a reason to write that reference, I'm gonna do it. And I'm gonna write you something that's out of this world and I've established whatever reputation the community has for me and whatever reputation my business partner has for in the community, whatever that weight carries is the reference that you're gonna get. And so if you're asking me, I'm gonna give you that reference regardless.

My goal is to help them understand that we love them and we're going to give them enough responsibility and they have a tendency to not want to let you down. think they know we care. We do these monthly team meetings.

Yep. That's the, know you care for sure.

speaker-1 (01:05:00.224)
And we found this game, this board game called Throw Throw Burrito, something, I think that's name of it. And it comes with these little squishy, squidgy burritos. And so I got the game set, and Joe got the game set, and what we used to do, because we'd name the employee of the month at the end of the meeting. So what we'd do at the beginning of the meeting, everybody would be sitting in tables. And so we'd go set one burrito on each one of the tables. And then...

horses burritos.

speaker-1 (01:05:27.438)
The rule, like the unspoken rule was whoever got employee of the month, like, and they went, employee of the month is Joe. Whoever was closest to that burrito, pick the burrito up and throw him at Joe. So it was, instead everybody kind of got a kick out of doing something like that, because they got to hit somebody with something. It's not like you're hurting them. It's just a little squishy. And it was a little stupid stuff like that. Buy your guys coffee, go buy them donuts. You know, do something for them that...

Yeah.

speaker-1 (01:05:56.238)
They're not asking for it. It's kind of like getting ready to say this out loud and I haven't been doing it as much. Your wife didn't ask for flowers. Just go get her some flowers. Go get something that you know is going to make her feel like, all right. Yeah. And so I think your employees are the same way. If you treat, no, don't treat them like your wife, but you know, just show them that you care. And then all of sudden they start caring. By and large, they start caring. Now, 16, 17 year olds, maybe not so much.

Show them that you were thinking about them.

speaker-1 (01:06:25.806)
But you do reach them on a certain level. If they're around all the other folks going, holy cow, know, Joe went and bought me coffee, bought the whole shift coffee the other day. I've never had a job where people do that before. then 16, 17 year olds are like, really? They don't do that at every job you go to? No. And so it's fun to kind of be able to do that stuff to kind of help people grow and find themselves. And if that means

Yeah.

speaker-1 (01:06:55.47)
they have enough confidence to go apply for a job that's making twice what they're making at the restaurant, I'll help you do it, you know. So I think that's a piece of what you're looking for.

Always.

speaker-0 (01:07:07.65)
Yeah, think that's it. I mean, think that's the culture that you're driving, like it's a culture where the boss actually cares. That's a big deal. That's very important to people who work for you too. Sometimes, the interesting parallel with the wife is that I think, don't know, maybe this just me, but as a man, sometimes it's easier to remember to do those things for your employees than it is for your wife. Which is a bad thing. Not because my wife is number one. It's almost like because you have a financial...

I it's not

speaker-0 (01:07:35.892)
obligation almost to do it for your employees that it's more upfront sometimes and that takes up some of that space.

And it's funny because, you know, it's not that I ever forget that my wife's a smoke show because she's hottie mc-tottie and...

I want to do everything I can for her. I see her every single day, all the time. I don't think I neglect her. Sometimes I feel like, holy crap, like yesterday I went gave her big hug. I'm like, she's like, everything okay? I'm like, yeah, we've been in the same house the whole time today. We didn't do anything because it was just nasty outside. And I just feel like, it's not like I was ignoring you. just didn't.

Yeah.

speaker-1 (01:08:19.714)
Like you were sitting on both ends of the couch and one of us is surfing while the game's on and so I know I know I don't

would always treat her the same way I would treat some of employees. But I mean, it's the same thing from her in reverse. I'm right there every single day. not that we take each other for granted, but I'm sure we probably do.

I I'm sure Melody and I do, especially when you're raising kids or growing kids.

So guys, don't forget your wives.

I do I appreciate your time. That's appreciate it. We'll do it again then we can get more into the land and stuff like that like absolutely potential

speaker-1 (01:08:58.017)
Absolutely, thank you for having me.

speaker-1 (01:09:05.037)
steps. I'm down for whatever.

I actually got to do a virtual podcast with Trevor now. I got Pete Trevor.