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Ep. 8 - Finding the Need and Fulfilling It · Big Talk About Small Business

• 0:04
  SPEAKER_02: Hey everybody, we're back for another episode of Big Talk About Small Business.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm here with my partner and friend Eric Howerton.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_02: How are you doing today?
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_02: I'm doing great, Mark.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_02: It's good to be here.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_02: It is.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_02: It's good to be out of the rain.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_02: It's a nasty day out there.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_02: It's been been cloudy for two weeks straight.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_02: So ready for that sunshine.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_02: Me too.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_02: We'll make the sun shine in here because that's right.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_02: We've got a great guest today, and Rolf Wilken.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_02: Rolf is a friend of mine, and Rolf is one of the most entrepreneurial people I know here in our area.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_02: He um he's the founder and owner of Eureka Pizza, which is a multi-store chain, no franchises, owns them all.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_02: And he is also It's been legendary.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_02: It's legendary pizza business in Northwest Arkansas, no doubt.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_02: He does things like offer to give away a thousand pizzas if we beat Alabama or whatever that was.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_02: We're gonna beat those sucker soon.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, what a safe bet, though.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I mean but anyway.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_03: He was nervous a couple years ago.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_02: He got I think you got in the Wall Street Journal on that one.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_02: We did.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_02: We got an ESPN.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_03: No, it's yeah, it was fun.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_03: From that from that uh from that contest.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_02: And he didn't have to pay anything.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_02: Dude, beautiful.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_02: That's called Earn Media.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_02: It isn't media.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_02: My favorite newspaper.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_02: Rol Rolf is a master of stuff like that.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_02: And um anyway, his new venture is uh pop up drink through, which is a whole new concept that we'll get into in a minute.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_02: But um But Rolf, let uh tell everybody a little bit about yourself.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_02: How did you get started in business?
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_02: What was it that uh that got you into entrepreneurship in the first place?
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_03: Well, Mark and Eric, it's awesome to be here.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_03: A lot of people accuse me of uh being a big talker, so I like big talk.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_03: Well, that's good.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_03: There we go.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_03: You know, I think I grew up hungry, right?
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_03: So uh my family, we weren't destitute of poor, but you know, uh it just seemed like we couldn't do some things.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_03: I said, man, I want to be able to do a lot of things.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_03: And I think like a lot of folks, you go into college not knowing the heck what you want.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_03: I think I wanted to be an engineer, I didn't know at all what that was.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_03: And that certainly wasn't for me.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_03: Oh no, that would have been that would have been horrible, right?
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_03: And I just fell into an entrepreneurial bunch like, you know, in my fraternity, really in college.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_03: And they were always just thinking of ways to make money because they were broke too.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_03: And I quickly realized, man, a job was no fun and and it was you know limit limited income.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_03: So it seemed like being an entrepreneur was a way to go forward.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_03: So we started a Greek phone book that I like to say that's a predecessor to Facebook, right?
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_03: That's how you found that special person, you know, riding the bus to class was the Greek directory, and then we started a coupon book.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_03: And this was in Bat Rouge, and it was very competitive.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_03: This is all the all in college when you're doing this.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_03: All in college in the 80s, the late 80s, uh-huh.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_03: Then I came up to Fable in 1988 to visit my brother, and uh, went straight to the student library and I checked out all the old uh student newspapers on microfish, and I said, wow, there's a lot of people that advertise the students, and yet there's no coupon book and there's no Greek directory.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_03: And I said, Man, I like the odds of being here better than just tripping over competitors in Baton Rouge.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_03: Plus, you know, Fable's a nice town, right?
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's a cool place.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_03: Less humid, uh, you know, nice place, fresher air.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_03: So yeah, I came up here in '88 with 500 bucks in my pocket in a borrowed car.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_03: Nice.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_03: And I traded an ad with Sweezer Properties.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_03: Uh-huh.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_03: And I I I learned to use the word we a lot.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_03: So I said, we are doing this.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_03: We need a summer sales office.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_03: And they said, well, we don't want to buy an ad, but we'll trade an apartment for the summer because I have lots of empty apartments.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_03: And I said, deal.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_03: So I had this two-bedroom town home.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_03: I think it was the nicest apartment I ever had.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_03: And I just went around and cold called.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_03: Uh-huh.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_03: And man said, I try to stress to everybody.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_03: Just get off your butt and do something.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_03: That's right.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_03: And still, it's yeah, I was talking to a software salesman the other day, my rep for my point of sale software.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_03: He's a cold caller.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_03: This guy's from Boston, he lives in Boston.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_03: He knows like every restaurant in Northwest Arkansas.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_03: And he walks into everybody.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_03: And who does that anymore?
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_03: Not many.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_03: Nope.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_03: So yeah, I cold called and I got the uh I got these publications off the ground.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_03: Ended up graduating from college while I commuted between Fable and Baton Rouge, which is like eight or nine-hour drive.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, it is.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_03: And I had the speeding tickets to well, I like to say there were citations for safely driving at a high rate of speed, is uh another way to look at a speeding ticket, right?
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_03: So would you go to school and uh during the week and come back on the weekends to sell, or you know, mainly it was selling in the summer and at Christmas break.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_03: So it worked out great to be a a college student, you know, elsewhere.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_03: And so yeah, I ended up graduated.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_03: I came back and I was going to be this uh magnate of college publishing, and I branched out foolishly to Jonesboro and to uh your Arkansas stuff.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_03: Well, long drive from here.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_03: I'd leave two o'clock in the morning, and you'd get there like at 8 39, and you were too exhausted to sell.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_03: You can't get there from here.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_03: You can't get there, you still can't get there from the airbox.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_03: No good way to get there.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_02: Well, this is hard.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_03: It's too lane, I guess.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_03: So I know there was towns well.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_03: So it was in Conway, what I call Conway Cash.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_03: It was Indian Gold back before there were the Red Wolves in uh Jonesboro.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_03: And then the Wonder Bucks down there at Arkansas Tech in Russellville.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_03: And and then uh I don't know, it was kind of a solitary business.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_03: You know, I had an early Mac that was in this big foam Mac pack case that had a big strap on it with like built into the little screen.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and so then I had a early inkjet printer back when they were a thousand dollars, and you were like, wow.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_03: No kidding.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_03: It could have been a$5,000 Apple laser rider, and this did the same thing, you know, at a fraction of the cost.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_03: So I'd go up and set up like in the student union and I would lay out my ads on my little Mac, and then I stumbled into the pizza business in Fayetteville.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_03: I went in to sell an ad to King Pizza, and they're like, we don't need an ad, we're shutting it down, and I encouraged them, like to be an encourager.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_03: They ought to keep going, right?
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_03: You're kidding me.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_03: You're next to the largest university in the state and you're shutting a pizza business down.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_02: Did JBA still own it at that time?
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_03: Well, he didn't out.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_03: Nathan Combs owned it.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, and he was running it very remotely, and as we all know, that's a tough way to run a business.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_03: Yep.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_03: Yep.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_03: And so I think the starting price was 40,000 and he quickly came down to 10.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_03: I offered him seven, and we did the cut the baby right down the middle at 8,500.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_03: And uh I was in the pizza business.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_03: Wow.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_03: Where'd you get the 8,500, Ralph?
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_03: Well, the key is, you know, a lot of people to a bank, right?
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_03: And banks, they don't provide money, they're they provide liquidity, right?
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_03: So if you have money, like real estate, they'll loan you money, but you gotta get it from someone who loves you, quite frankly.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_03: I always tell startup uh young people.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_03: And so luckily, you know, I had a dad that loved me and he agreed to sign a$5,000 loan at the Bank of Fayetteville.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_03: And uh they believed in me and they believed in an out-of-state guy's signature from uh Slidell, Louisiana.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_03: And you had the$3,500?
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_03: I had a had a$3,500, I'm sure I stretched and scrimped and probably didn't pay a bill or two.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_03: And um, man, I I found some old pizza magazines.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_03: I kind of came up the name Eureka Pizza, I asked a girl about colors for simulating hung stimulating hunger, and it turned out that teal blue and uh like a warm orange were tops.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_03: And so I said, I'm gonna use both and worked on recipes I called the American Institute of Baking.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, go get all hungry, right?
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna be really hungry.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_03: That's right, double hungry, I like that.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_03: But yeah, so I got a lot of advice from a guy, Tom Lehman, at the American Institute of Baking in Manhattan, Kansas.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_03: Uh-huh.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_03: You know, on our 25th anniversary, he wrote me a nice letter and he said, You know, Rolf, you are my first successful coaching client.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_03: And every afternoon in the spring of 92, the phone would ring out like it's Roth.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_03: And you would ask question after question after question.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_03: Well, you're an inquisitive guy.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and a lot of people I always tell my kids the only stupid question, right, is the one you don't ask.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_03: That's right.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_03: And you know, pizza dough is tough, yeast.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_03: You know, it's a living organism, and you know, it's uh time and temperature, and I think barometric pressure, it's it's a tricky thing.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_03: And uh I was really baffled by it.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_03: But man, Tom, he was really uh leading expert on on dough and pizza dough, and and guy taught me right.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_03: I ended up going to one of his seminars, and that's when I met a fellow from Texas who was really successful promoting pizza.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_03: And so I quickly uh Did he teach you how to make a lot of dough in the pizza?
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_03: He did, he did, yeah.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_03: Tom taught me how to make literal dough, and then uh uh Ed taught me how to make figurative dough, but he was doing buy one get too free down in Temple, Texas.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_03: And so I quickly hung out with him and made sure I kept a drink in our hands uh while we're up in Manhattan, which is a great college town if you're ever looking for a fun little place.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_03: And then I finagled my way into going to his shop in Temple and hanging out for a couple days, and I drove back to Fayetteville and I spent the summer scheming on how to kind of re-image uh Eureka pizza and focus on carryout.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_03: And so I needed, you know, to class the place up and I always said Ralph would just like buy one, get five free.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_03: And six free.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I mean, it's hard to keep track, right?
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_03: So any yeah, and you were always on the radio and so we switched to that concept in August of 92, and uh our sales literally tripled when we did the buy one, get two free.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_03: And it just went through the roof.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_03: Wow.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_03: People were excited and there were lines, and like, man, we're on to something here.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_02: Students like cheap food.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, let's face it, and pizza they love.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_03: So that's uh yeah, that's really my story in a nutshell.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_03: We've opened, you know, many stores.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_03: We've shut a few down, but man, so 31 years now, and uh stores.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_03: We have eight.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_03: Uh-huh.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_03: And so uh just in northwest Arkansas, you're eating?
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, we're in northwest Arkansas and and and in Fort Smith.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_03: But that really is probably the pop-up.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_03: So you're Pete's been great.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_03: You know, so I've got a lovely wife who I met 24 years ago today.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_03: What are the odds of a guy from Arkansas meeting a girl from New Zealand in Fayetteville?
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_03: You were lucky.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_03: I'm lucky, man.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_03: And uh my daughter just graduated from Fayetteville High uh last night.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_03: Awesome.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_03: And I got a 20-year-old son in uh computer science at the University of Arkansas, and then uh got a very tall, strong, handsome son, Max, who's uh 17 and he's a junior at Fayetteville High.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_03: And so yeah, I've been blessed beyond belief, but I kept thinking, you know, what are my assets, right?
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_03: And I think a lot of people have these moments, maybe kind of I don't know if it's a midlife crisis, but you know, you kind of have these moments in your life and you say, Man, I've done well in some regards, but I'd like more.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_03: And then I think I really started seeing Eureka Pizza, it really maybe wasn't the monetary asset that I that I longed for, but talk about the the the skills, the scars, uh, the life's lessons you've learned.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_03: And one of my favorite author, uh Robert Ringer, he always called it a screw you, screw university, and that's where you really learn.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_03: And he goes, You get your master's degree for screw you, you really got something.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_03: Yep.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_03: Well and I think I've learned a lot at screw you.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_02: What I always liked about you is you do everything, okay?
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_02: Like you said before, um, if you want to learn about a business, go in and paint the bathroom.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_02: I I remember, but you know, I was on campus here like a year or two ago, and and you know, Rolf's out there giving pizzas away on campus out of their location.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_02: You know, you drive, you deliver pizzas sometimes.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_03: You really gotta do it also.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_03: So we've been on campus for three years.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_03: We're a contractor for Chartwells.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_03: And so we get a big line of people going up to the um Bruffcom.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_03: Now it's 1020 food hall.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_03: It's like a food court.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_03: Well, they wanted us on campus really for late night food, but also to take some pressure off.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_03: And they said you really ought to just be out there talking it up.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_03: Well, that's hard to delegate, right?
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_03: A lot of people don't have that.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_03: So guess what?
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_03: That's what you did.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_03: I'll do it.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_03: And I've learned, man, it's just better to push yourself and not be scared of doing something.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_03: But yeah, I really believe you need to learn everything.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_03: And then you, of course, you need to learn to delegate after that.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_03: I've seen, and it's been, you know, my challenge and a lot of entrepreneurs' challenges, you know, you you can't let go.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_03: But yeah, um, but I do believe you do something and then you you delegate and move on.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_01: Well, campaigning, right?
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I mean, you're you're the greatest campaigner of the company.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_01: It's so hard to find anybody else that will campaign.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_03: Don't you love it, Eric?
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_03: When somebody says I need to hire like a salesman or a chief salesperson, I'm like, dude, you're the chief salesperson.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_03: I don't care who you are, what the business is.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_03: You better.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you can hire other salespeople, but yeah, if if you're a wallflower and you can't get on an elevator and tell strangers about your business, yeah.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_02: You know, tough.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_02: What we used to say about Bruff before they had other operations in there like Starbucks and and Eureka Pizza and and uh Slim Chickens, um, it we'd say Bruff going in and Rough coming out.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_02: Um but uh anyway, they I guess they finally decided to get rid of that and they had the Bruffalo River.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_02: That was like the sewage anyway.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_02: Well they've stepped it up, they do a great job now, and it's uh They've got indoor plumbing in Arkansas now, everything.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_02: Um But so yeah, when you s when you talk about some of the assets you have, aside from your your businesses and your and your cars and your house and your kids and your wife and all that, this guy's got the best dog I've ever seen in my life.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_02: How dog you got it?
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_03: It does exactly what he tells it to do.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_03: I know it's training.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_03: We sent 30, this is ten years ago off to a 30-day boot camp and grave.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_03: I tell you, Eric, I highly recommend you take the dog and uh what's the name of this this?
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_03: This is American Cadine, a neat guy Nick from California.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_03: And man, this dog was dry.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_03: I I thought I was a dog trainer and and I I couldn't handle it.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_03: And then Lulu came back just an angel and walked her for years without a leash.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_03: And uh what kind of dog is it?
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_03: She's just a boxer mixed from the pound.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, never seen anything like it.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_02: He Ralph says he goes, think about it.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_02: He goes, Would you pay 350 bucks a year to have a perfect dog?
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, Absolutely.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_02: Because you will spend so much less than that.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_02: My dogs do$350 worth of damn it.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's okay.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's you know I highly recommend professional dog training.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_03: So yeah, so it's think about when our assets are between our ears, right?
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_03: That's what it is.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_03: And that's our that's our biggest problem, that's our biggest liability, right?
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, we all see the world differently, and we all, you know, my mother-in-law used to say it's their own reality, and for years it drove me freaking nuts.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, there is no individual reality.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_03: There is.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_03: Everybody, you know, with this one reality, and boy, I was wrong.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_03: It is so, you know, everybody's reality.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_03: And everyone's different.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_03: And yeah, there's some you know uh non-negotiables, right?
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_03: Like gravity, like you drop something, you know, that's that's reality, a car wreck, you know, that's a a shared reality.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_03: But but for the most part, our experiences are so different in what we how we perceive the world.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_03: And so I just decided to say, hey, this is my asset, what can I do?
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_03: And then I thought, well, what is the challenge of the pizza business?
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_03: It's really it's it's hyper competitive, and I'm one of what 15 guys maybe.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_03: And I've made a you know a nice live, nice life, no complaints for sure.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_03: But I'm like, well, what would I do if I could start over?
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_03: And that's when I studied the science of category creation.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_03: That really you want to create a new category.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_03: That's how you that's how you crush the world.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_03: You know, Apple basically created the smartphone category.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_03: Sure.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_03: And they really weren't the very first, right?
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_03: They weren't, but they created the category.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_03: It was sort of a smartphone, sort of not, but yeah, you see the category and go back to Apple's easy you know, love is you know, like the smartwatch, right?
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_03: They created that category.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_03: You know, the if you study it, uh Reese and Trout were really big on that.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_03: Uh these authors, Jack Reese and Al Trout.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_03: And a lot of the they're they're dead and their stuff is old, and so a lot of people won't listen to it.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_03: But when they talk about you can always create a new category, and that's when I said, you know, boy, coffee's intriguing, soft drinks are intriguing, but how can you make sense of it?
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_03: And I don't want to be one of 15 coffee shops.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, we've got so many.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_03: I don't want to have 15 soda shops, and that's when you know I hit upon, you know, what if it was all the drinks?
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_03: And so I used to not take branding very seriously.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_03: I've always been a salesman at heart, right?
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_03: I I could sell you vacuum cleaner if I had to, I'm sure.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_03: But with branding, you we don't really have the time to listen to a sales pitch anymore, right?
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_03: It it's all branding and it's it's gotten more powerful, and I just ignored it.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_03: You know, Eureka Pizza's been sloppily branded, but I decided with pop-up, man, we're gonna go first class with branding.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_02: I you say that, but I mean I think you really established a brand.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, you did have a a different look.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_02: You you were super um aggressive on all types of advertising.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_02: You did some things differently from other people, which made it memorable.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_02: I think you had more of a brand than you think.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I'm I'm I'm sure you're right.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_03: But then maybe that helped me.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_01: But you didn't really str strategically think about that because no I didn't.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_03: It was always you'd go to a seminar and they'd just say brands are waste of money.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_03: It's like the Goodyear blimp.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you really want to s have that thing fly over you.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_03: Is are they really selling any tires?
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_03: It's like, is the local Goodyear dealer going, oh crap, the blimps in town, I need to order more tires?
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_03: And I think the answer is probably they're not ordering more tires, right?
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_02: But that's but one idea of branding, obviously.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_02: And so, but you have studied this, and this has been a big part of the planning that's leading up to pop-up.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so a three-year process.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_03: So I said, Man, you get to do over life, right?
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_03: You don't get that very often.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_03: So what would you do differently, right?
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_03: And I think a lot of us say things, but then we don't do it.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_03: I said, Well, heck, I'm gonna hire professionals, expensive professionals, and I'm gonna get professional architecture and branding.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_03: And that's hard for me to do because I'm an early mad guy, you know, I know enough about a few things that I can say, hey, I can pick colors, I can pick fonts.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_03: But you hired Verden Studios.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_03: Mm-hmm.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_03: And uh they uh here local?
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, they're here local.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_03: And it would it was a long process.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_03: But they did a great job, but really they came up with the drink-through word.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_03: And when they unveiled that to me, it was like the aha moment.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_03: I said, That is great.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_03: We built that's a category right there.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_03: And so we use it generically.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_03: So Reza Trial, uh, these authors, they have a funny thing.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_03: They said once you create a category, you almost want to encourage other people to join your category, which is usually, you know, like pizza guys and hairdressers, we're we're catty.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_03: We drive by and we see, you know, yeah, Domino's box and your neighbor's recycling thing, you literally for a moment think, okay, how could I kill them and get away with it, right?
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_03: Because we think of it as a zero-sum game.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_02: And a lot of people think that way.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_02: And I I understand that.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_02: I was like that when I was younger.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not like that.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I've been there.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_02: I've been there.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_01: The guys whenever we used to get that angry and just eat you drive off anger for weeks.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_03: Well, as you know, Eric, it's uh Well, it it's better not to, and that's when if you create the category and you're the first, you there's a a lot of advantages.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_03: So we decided how are we going to take all the drinks and and and create the drink to category?
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_03: And so that's what we've done.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_03: Uh we've leased land for the first time.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_03: That was an interesting experience.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_03: And then building a 700 square foot building took a year, uh, just some post-pandemic product supply crunches.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_03: And yeah, you know, it took a while, but you know, I think God had my back because I think our brand development, you know, we needed this time.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_03: But I set up a full lab.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_03: Did you ever come see a mark?
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_03: No, I never did.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's kind of it fell apart quickly after it.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_03: In my building, I've got like some extra space and and a room was pretty small, like uh maybe 250 square feet, which was like the front of house of pop-up.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_03: So it was a perfect mock-up.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_03: So for two years, you know, we had a soda fountain, an espresso machine, a frozen drink machine, and all the inventory.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_03: And we're able to do, you know, motion studies and pacing and see how I was like, her blanks.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, we did some serious stuff.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_03: I gained a few pounds, um, a lot of uh delicious drinks.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_03: Uh-huh.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_03: And that was fun.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_02: Um I love the photos you show.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_02: I see like this beautiful green or blue drink with like the beads of condensation.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_02: I bet the kids are doing it.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, man.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, the kids.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_02: Oh my god, I want one of those.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_03: So, where's this thing at?
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_03: So we're at 2001 Southwest Regional Airport and Bright in Bentonville.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_03: So you're coming up from down south, you take a rainbow curve, and we're about a mile and a half down.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_03: Uh heading east.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_03: There's a very busy McDonald's, Slim Chickens, and and a Walmart.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_03: And uh so luckily we're at a light, because man, that's the key.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_03: You gotta be on the light.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_03: And then they just extended Bright to the north and it opened a week ago on uh today, on Friday.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_03: Wow.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_03: So we're excited about that.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_03: Um so just so we build this building and put a simple website up, but really showing the brand.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_03: You know, it's kind of radiate positivity.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_03: We've got a culture and a creed.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_03: We call our crew the cast, and our customers are guests, and so we were nervous because in pizza, in any fast food restaurant, you'll hear it's very hard to hire people, and it's absolutely true.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_03: Then with pop-up, the applications came pouring in.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_03: And we did something funny.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_03: We said, we want a one-minute video why you want to be a pop-up barista.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_03: And after watching like two of these, I said, I can't do this.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_03: It's like a teenager in their bedroom.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_03: But then we kept the requirement.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_03: And not all of them did it for sure.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_03: But in our position was if you do it, you almost are gonna get hired automatically because you we want a people person.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_03: So we realized that Eureka Pizza, we spent 80% of our time prepping and cleaning.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_03: I said, How can I flip that?
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_03: I want 20% of my time prepping and cleaning.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_03: I want 80% of my time with my staff loving my customers, I guess.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_03: That's awesome.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_03: And we hired those kids.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_03: They're primarily kids, a lot of high schoolers, a lot of young young adults in college, and a few uh older people are the ones that you know came in.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_03: We had lots of training, a lot of fun, and uh, we couldn't have done better.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_03: These are just awesome.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_03: The people they're committed, they they couldn't believe, first of all, we were startup.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_03: When they heard that, they couldn't even believe it.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_03: They thought we were like that just happened to be in Benville finally.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, right.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I love about what you're saying, Rolf, and Mark, you'll appreciate this customer or guest service, right?
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_01: Uh that attention to the people the people that are actually exchanging their hard-earned dollar for your service and your product, and that you have that as the top top pillar.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_01: And how you hire the people that that you come came in, because you can't it's hard to train that.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_01: Like you how do you train attitude?
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_01: You can't be hired out.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_01: We've all been there, right?
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, bam.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_03: You would hire attitude.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and train for skill.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_03: It's true.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_03: You can't, and you know, honestly, it's true.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_03: The first thing I told him, you can go to come and go get basically the same thing.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_03: So, what are we doing different?
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_03: What are we doing different?
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_03: Experience.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you don't have experience.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_02: Don't look at you in the eyes, don't smile.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: I'll ask what do you want.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_01: I had somebody ask me the other day, what do you want?
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_01: I was about to buy I'm like, man.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_01: I know.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_01: This is the worst thing I've ever experienced.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_01: What do I want?
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_01: What do you want?
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_03: You haven't come through much as a customer, but we can't do anything in my life.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_02: No.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_02: But that would be the store, right?
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_02: If you could get that but you know, the if you're a young person, you know, and I was lucky I worked for some great entrepreneurs when I was young.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_02: Like this guy, Don Humphreys from West Memphis, is a own a chain of bike shops.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_02: How they're doing now down in West Memphis, you know.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_02: He's dead now.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_02: But anyway, we weren't in West Memphis, we were in St.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_02: Louis.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_02: But the opportunity for somebody young to work for a guy like Rolf and see how they're doing things.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_02: See, I mean, I think that's invaluable.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_03: You know, it might be.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_03: We do have a connection and they see you.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_03: My wife was like, when she was like, they just love you.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_03: And I said, Well, them, they're just the coolest kids.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_03: That's great.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_03: And they've got to be because you love them.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, not sitting around going, Oh shit, you can't hire anybody good.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_02: These young people won't work.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_02: It's that's all I hear out of people is this stereotyping, which is terrible.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_02: You know, every generation says that about the generation that follows.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_02: I do.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_02: You don't do that, you know.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_02: You're positive on your people.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I'm a Tom Sawyer.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_03: I'm a Tom Sawyer guy.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_03: So what I like to do, I I I go and start painting the fence and they pitch in and you know, they even say we've never had a boss that actually, you know, did anything.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_03: Like, well, the boss says let me want you to think, but I'm in there cleaning the toilet, I'm restocking the ice bins, you know, I'm I'm picking trash up off the floor, I'm mopping the floor, and you just setting a good example and teaching them how.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_03: And after a month, oh my gosh, it's oh, I was in it yesterday.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_03: I just couldn't believe it.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_03: It was just all on autopilot, and they're just so enthusiastic.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_03: They're dealing with our with our guests, they're happy and excited.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_03: But you know, uh, we went through the company on Saturday.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, I think we're doing great.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_03: So we come through and I realize what we're selling.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_03: It is the experience, right?
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_03: It's a great drink for sure.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_03: And so, you know, so our pop-up is we're a drink through.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_03: So we've taken uh energy drinks, iced teas, both brands of soda.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_03: So if you're a soda fan, you don't have to go, oh crap, Sonic doesn't have mountain deal.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_03: Nobody does that.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_03: Right?
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_03: You got it all together and you get it.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_03: I've had people that think it's illegal.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_03: I've had so many smart people go, how'd you do that?
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_03: That has to be illegal.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_03: Like it's not illegal.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_03: No one has to just ask, you just you can still it up.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_03: They bring it to you.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_03: Fantastic.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_03: Then you tell them that, don't you?
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_01: Wait a minute.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_01: So you can get you can get a Coke and a Pepsi at the same place.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_01: It's ingenious.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_03: No, it's nobody's done that.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_03: Then the best tip I got, so Frank Sharon, this guy is a legend in landscaping.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_03: He's the dean of landscaping.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_03: He did all landscaping.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_03: He shows up, never met him.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_03: Great guy, great guy.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_03: Big, tall guy, and he loves sodas.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_03: Like, oh, sodas, I love sodas.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_03: And he goes, You're gonna turn the machines up, right?
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, what are you talking about?
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_03: Well, you gotta turn the machines up.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_03: So, you know, that's what happens in soda.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_03: You it's called the brixing of it.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_03: You just add more syrup to the drink.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_03: So it's a richer Dr.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_03: Pepper, it's a richer, you know, Coca-Cola.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_03: And I hadn't even thought about that.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_03: So it's a better drink.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_03: So I talked to my coach friend, and he goes, Our biggest problem is people turning down the machine to save money.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_03: And that's primarily why we test.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_03: I said, Well, I want to have, you know, I think I'm selling a commodity, right?
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_03: Yep.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_03: Cup of Cokes are as commoditized as you get.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_03: My place.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I'm gonna have the best Coke ever.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_03: And so we turned up every machine 10%, and I have people rave.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_03: Like, I don't, we have all the fun added, but I have a lot of people look, I just come because it's the best Dr.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_03: Pepper I've ever had.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_03: So it's so that's been fun.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_03: And it's been fun taking a business at every turn, it's like, how can we make it better for the guests?
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_03: Well, it's awful easy in another business when it's more price-oriented, is like, hey, can we make it pretty darn good, but how can we save a little money here?
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_03: So we pop up, just sit there for tax.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_03: So that's what we've done with these drinks, and but it it is fun just having a happy person take your order.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_03: We got the music playing, you come and you see them buzzing around like crazy.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_03: We've done intensive study on tips.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_03: So there's a professor out of Cornell and a guy out of a university, I think in Ohio, that are the worldwide leading experts on tips.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_03: And Eric, if you ever can't sleep one night, pull this stuff up and just read academic papers on tipping.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_03: And the conclusions are pretty simple, like what you'd think, right?
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_03: It's building rapport, it's all these things.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_03: But yeah, we study in depth, and everything we could take, we did.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_03: Like, you know, wearing red is typically 20% more in tips.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_03: So guess what?
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_03: Our staff wears red.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_03: Wow.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_03: Um Starbucks only recently uh they only recently had a tip.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_03: You could tip on the on a card.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_03: This was like weeks ago press.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_03: Months ago.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_03: They know.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_03: Can you believe that?
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_03: It's unbelievable.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_03: Unbelievable.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_03: And people want to tip.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_03: That's the thing Sonic said when they made it easy to tip on a card, they said our customers were demanding it.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_03: And more than their employees were.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_02: And all their workers, then you can get a completely different level of work.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_02: Because they can make some money.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_02: Man, it changes everything.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_01: And they they'll stick around too.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_01: The retention's skyrocket.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_01: Because I mean, if you're making good money somewhere, you don't want to.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think I lost anybody a pop-up.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, they they look really incredible.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so then we made it easy with our handhelds that when you tap the card study show, you tip more.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_03: So, you know, we've made that easy, and so it's just a fun.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_03: And then there also another thing, you need to be worthy of the tip.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_03: So that's why you want to work publicly.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_03: So we tried to open it up as much as possible where you could see what we're doing.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_03: So you say, okay, you you tip before you see that, but you come through, oh my gosh, these kids are working hard.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_03: Then you're like, I I'm glad I tipped.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_03: And then when you come back through again, often hours later, which is crazy in this business, you feel good about tipping again.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_02: Well, well, Seven Brew does that.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_02: They're their people are are outside.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_02: They've been really good at place.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_02: I think they're a good model in that sense, too.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_02: No, they've been great.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_01: But they don't sell everything that you do.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_01: So what's this I mean, so what's the do you have a skilled plan?
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I mean, what's your next ambitions?
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_01: Are you gonna take this, replicate it?
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_03: You know, absolutely.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_03: So that's why it took me three years.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_03: This has all been built around replication, Eric.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_03: Good.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_03: So uh everything we've done is around replication.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_03: And so, like that 80-20, we're suddenly we're 20% cleaning and prep, 80% you know, doing uh doing with our guests, you know, that's been built to replicate, and you know, we had to support that with software and and with systems to make that possible.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_03: And so we try to prep as little as possible because we want to be able to buy it and we'll we'll spend more money in order to make it easy for a barista so they can do what they do best.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_03: And we hire these, you know, the the the the baristas that love people and they don't want to follow 18-page thing on how to make you know something that they want to just be with people.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_01: So are you gonna are you planning on franchising it out or are you gonna Yeah, it's all built to be franchised.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_03: So we've tried to build great margins in so we continue to pay people more than the industry average, and and plus we have the tip component, and then plus we have room for a franchisee can do great.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_03: Um so it's gonna take an expensive location, but you know, uh Verdon designed a great building for me.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_03: It was stick built and it was painful.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_03: Uh I have had a a company design a modular build, uh, and that's what we're looking at probably doing in the future, where we can build it quickly and uh bring it on site like a two pieces.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_01: You talked about in the beginning about you leased the the dirt basically, right?
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_01: But you come in and so you want to make it modular where you can go out and lease dirt and then stick your put your building on there, have you up in an operational as fast as you can.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_03: You know, in in months and you know, let's say three or four months instead of twelve or eighteen months.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_03: Now I don't think you could just yank it off and move on if you didn't like it.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_03: And and what I think I think the industry is going that you'd have to do it.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, too much site, too much site preparation.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_03: Too much side work, and you really need, you know, this started on the West Coast, and it was they call it the party in the parking lot.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_03: They just set up in a parking lot.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_03: Well, you really need a full fast food pad now.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_03: You know, we we leased a half acre.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_03: Uh so that's and now with cell phone data, you know, everybody's tracked on their cell phone, so you can do look-alikes.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_03: You can see, let's say, uh you have Starbucks or a McDonald's or a Sonic, and you can find exactly like where their customers are, where they go before and after, which is kind of interesting.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_03: And then you can look find look-alike sites.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_03: And so it's all it's never been easier to find a great site, but it's expensive.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_03: And that's why leasing land makes sense, because let's say you have a two million dollar site, you lease for$5,000 a month.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_03: Well, you can build three restaurants for every one you own.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_03: And so most of these things, and you'll see, you know, virtually every Walgreens is on lease land, you know, every Starbucks is on lease land.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that's why they do that, right?
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_01: Because I mean they're just they're not Trump.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_03: Where do you make your money?
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_03: Are you and you see these cap rates in real estate now with interest rates going up?
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_03: You'll see like a Starbucks deal for like a five percent cap rate.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_03: Well, that's prime interest rate is what, eight percent, right?
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_03: So it's not a good one.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_03: It's a tough one.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_03: Um and you can see why why would they want to be in the real estate business when they can make you know these great uh earnings from you know selling drinks?
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_02: It has been though a a classic wealth building strategy for a lot of people that have businesses like this.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_02: It's just you pay for it over time.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_02: Even if you don't make a lot of money, if I got 20 of them, I end up with 20 sites.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_02: The wealth tilting three mil on owning the real estate or estate.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_02: It has been.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_02: But you make a lot of sense.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_02: Are you is there any concern that the modular concept won't be allowed due to local zoning buildings?
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_02: That's a great question.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_02: Man, that's something that's a tough one.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_03: Badenville.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and yeah, you say that they weren't trailer.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_03: Well, they wouldn't uh they wouldn't allow the color red really on our bill, it could only be 20% of our building.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_03: And and get this, and I quote, because red is a color that doesn't exist in nature.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm like, well, you know, the sunset.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_03: I just Your City Cardinal?
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_03: The beautiful cardinal and the Azalea, and then you'd want to get Shakespeare in the Rose.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_03: Uh it is funny.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_03: Benville's a very, uh, very hard city to do and get anything done.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_03: But uh their modular building people are very familiar with, okay, you want brick baby, we'll give you brick.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_03: So they're just able to put the f the finishes on that yeah, other cities, cities want.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_03: But going back to that real estate comment, definitely for listeners here and viewers, I mean, at the end of the day, man, you got a restaurant.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_03: You know, it's true that you use restaurants at what 10 cents on the dollar if you're lucky.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_03: Sure.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_03: And I think your wealth is your real estate.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_03: But if you do have a hot concept, the way you grow is through through leasing the property.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, through operation.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and you can you can do it so much faster.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_01: It's about speed.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_01: But it is capital.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_03: But it is difficult because normally you you own the land and then you get a loan to build your building.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_03: Well, if you don't own the land, that's very hard to achieve.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_03: So you do have to be more clever about, you know, I I just put cash into this.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_03: And and you know, I'm I don't have the ability to do that from multiple locations, and most people wouldn't have that.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_03: But it it is different, but uh it is shocking.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, what do they say?
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_03: What 80%, 90% of the cars on the road are finance or leased.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_03: And so when you see the guy drive by the big car and you go, you're jealous of him, I always tell my wife, man, they're making eight-year payments on the thing.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_03: They don't have that thing, right?
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_03: And once you realize that, it just changes your view of society that it's just not as, you know, it's it's well, it's not as what it seems.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_02: And the other thing is you can find developers who will build a pop-up for somebody in its entirety.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_02: You know, if they got a modular building and a site, they'll provide all that you can wall.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_02: They know they can get the money.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_02: You put nothing into it as a franchise owner, you get exactly what you want.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_02: That's exactly how it works.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_02: And and that's how it's done.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_01: Everybody's taking their own risk in a certain pocket of this, right?
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, exactly.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_01: And they're and everybody kind of benefits in their own way.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_03: It gets people doing what they do best, that's right.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_03: See, what is that?
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_03: Uh you do what you do best and let others do the rest.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_03: That's yeah.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_03: That took me a long time to I I I heard that it's kind of a throwaway term, but once you really realize that, it's kind of a game changer.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I just love this concept.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_02: I can see that it's inherent, it it should be profitable.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_02: You know, if you look at a restaurant, one of the things they make the most money on is the drinks.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_02: Let's face it.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, if I go to a pizza restaurant and I pay ten bucks for a pizza and they then I pay three bucks for my drink.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_02: Which one's got more cost in it as a percentage of the revenue?
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, we we yeah, our margins are great.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_03: It is a big capital investment.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_03: And uh, you know, that's that's the play.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_03: But I love the idea.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_03: But really, in building the experience, and it really fits my personality, right?
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_03: I I think just I've always been a positive thinker.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_03: Yep.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_03: And it's been fun creating this brand.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_03: And and then, you know, I I've dealt with tight margins my whole career.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_03: Sure.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_03: And so it is fun suddenly having good margins, and then you you can you can give back, like we've already had get this after a month.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_03: We have 4,800 people in our loyalty program.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_03: Can you imagine 4,800?
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_03: That's it.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_03: And so now we can have a great loyalty program.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_03: We have a 10%.
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_03: So you come in and buy a$5 drink, you get 50 cents credit that you can spend immediately or let it roll.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_03: And you wouldn't believe people love letting it roll.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_03: Sure.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_03: And my joke is you can pay your kids you know tuition on their pop-up points, right?
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_03: But they'll come in and say, Man, we got a lady with 400 points already.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_03: She spent$400 at pop-up.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_03: That's it.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_03: We're like, would you like to use your points?
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_03: You got$40 in a month to buy a drink.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_03: No, that's fine.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_03: That's fine.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_03: In a month.
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_03: Wow.
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_03: Anyway, so it's fun to be able to do those things, which you know, when you're on super low prices, like you, you know, Walmart doesn't have a rewards program, right?
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_03: Because they have everyday low pricing.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_03: So it it is kind of fun to give back to the customer and and I and customers want you to do well, actually.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_03: That's what's another fun thing is I think a lot of people think it's adversarial, and customers is just like that zero sum game, like when you see the I never thought like that, but I think you're right.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's common like you see a hair dresser, they see somebody coming, I didn't cut your hair, oh my gosh, I'm gonna be bankrupt next week.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_03: And the world doesn't work that way for sure.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_03: But it's easy to to fall into that poverty mindset, which I think is very destructive.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_01: What I love about it is I think that the market, macro market, has changed as far as our the the c customers, consumers these days and how they're thinking.
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, the value of their time and experience is just as important, maybe even more important than just the dollar itself, right?
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_01: Right, Eric, you said it.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_01: They value, yeah, that their time is more valuable than money.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_01: And and then to go to somewhere that's that's resembling and reflecting their their reality of life, right?
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_01: And so I mean, being able to do that is just I mean like I watched my conflict.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Mark.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_01: I appreciate that.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I mean, I watched my daughters, right?
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_01: They're 15, 16, 17 year olds, and the way that they make decisions is completely different than what we did when we were young, or at least was when I was, is more I was more dollar conscious.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_01: But they will go without buying other things just so that they can have that experience and and you know, do something that they actually believe in and that they like being there.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_01: You know?
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_01: And I mean I I so I think you're hitting on the head.
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, we we've seen that and then it's interesting, like women really don't like convenience stores and no, think about what's happened to the convenience store.
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_03: It's gotten so much better, right?
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_03: And they're big and and and beautiful and and take pride in their bathrooms.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_03: But observe one, you know?
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_03: CD people.
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you now locally w women really don't seem to use locally to go to the restaurant.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_03: They will figure out a way not to.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, that's true.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_03: When you're on a trip, they're gonna do that, they wouldn't do whatever they get.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, exactly.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_03: And you know, often that could be a fast food restaurant too, but it is interesting.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_03: So our customer base at pop-up is is overwhelmingly female.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_03: And that's you know, it's interesting, pretty upscale, and then and prices and a concern, and you really get we get mainly compliments that I can't believe how cheap everything is, which of course we we you know we weren't sure how people would feel.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_03: Um so you're mainly a drive-thru.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_03: I just uh make sure we're we're drink through.
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_03: So we have a double a double drive-thru.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_03: Uh through no, we do have a pop-in window.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_03: Use the line, and it is interesting.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_03: Uh what does that mean?
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_03: Like you can walk up to it.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_03: Walking, we got a couple picnic tables and it's uh kind of a nice uh environment.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_03: Uh it faces west.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_03: So hopefully it'll be warm soon, right?
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_03: We get some sunshine.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_03: That that's been busy, but it is interesting if they feel the line is too slow, and and I I feel like our line moves too fast because we're fast.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_03: And uh I think sometimes we're almost too fast.
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_03: And and I think people they don't mind the Chick-fil-A line because they get to to do their what's their favorite thing to do, right?
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_03: Is to play on their phone.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, right.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_02: And that's why it was fast.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_02: They are fast, they're two and a half times faster than the normal, you know, line.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_03: So but we have noticed if they'll suddenly come to the pop-in window.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_03: So let's say you have two lanes and you have one lane closed, right?
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_03: As soon as you do that, I'm like, it's not it's not gonna slow anything down because then they park their car and come to the pop-in window.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_03: So uh, but luckily, you know, we we've been staffed adequately and a few binds, you know, after church, all my kids go to church.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_03: That's another thing, hiring these great kids.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_03: And so uh we get into a bind like, you know, right after church, because you know, most of my employees, and that's when I'm I'm a Wednesday church guy, so I'm I'm a Sunday pop-up guy because you know we have that bind of just hiring all these kids that are churchgoers, and so we get into a bind.
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_03: But anyway, um it is kind of interesting, the flows, but and the popping window can be hard to manage.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_03: So we're we're learning those things too.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, we wish we had a door there now.
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_03: In Benville, I think it's the windiest town in America.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_03: I feel like I'm in Kansas, we get this howling winds right through our window from due west, and we're facing due west that window.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_01: All the the foothills don't exist there, right?
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's just flatter.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's flat.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, coming straight west from Oklahoma.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_03: We have our stickers that we stick on the cup with each order, and we have them all lined up and like, my gosh, if these weren't sticky, this would be they'd be gone.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_03: This would be gone.
• 38:54
  SPEAKER_02: What so I'm curious, you were so innovative with your marketing with Eureka pizza, with your, you know, give a thousand pizzas away if the Razorbacks beat Alabama and all that stuff.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_02: What are your plans?
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_02: What outrageous PR stuff.
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's been a lesson for me.
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_03: Well, my study of branding, you know, I'm a salesman, right?
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_03: Uh I'm just a salesman.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_03: I could I want to sell something.
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_03: Well, when you say you're better, what's the first thing you think?
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_03: You think, well, you're not.
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_03: Or you're not.
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_03: And then you then you waste your time.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_03: You quit listening to me, and now you're thinking of all the ways that this product isn't better.
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_03: And so that's really a fundamental mistake I've made my whole career.
• 39:31
  SPEAKER_03: So you never say you're better.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_03: So we never say we're better.
• 39:34
  SPEAKER_03: We just say we're pop-up.
• 39:35
  SPEAKER_03: We have an iced tea.
• 39:36
  SPEAKER_03: Well, not gonna say it's the best iced tea ever.
• 39:38
  SPEAKER_03: You are ice, that we have that chewable ice that everybody loves, which is awesome because sonic ice.
• 39:43
  SPEAKER_03: Some people call it sonic ice and they call it we call it nugget ice.
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_02: It's there like is there plastic embedded in that stuff?
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it lasts so long.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_02: You can like get one of those drinks and like sits out in the sun for five hours and actually.
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_03: So this was ice.
• 39:56
  SPEAKER_03: This one's remarkable.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know.
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_03: You would think it's a more expensive machine that wears out because it forms the ice and grinds it and compresses it.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_03: So it's a lot more things going on why it's but you know what it is?
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_03: It does melt slower.
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_03: It's counterintuitive.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_03: And so it's really a game changer for coffee.
• 40:11
  SPEAKER_03: And so we weren't sure of that because we said we got to have this ice, but you don't hear any coffee place doing it.
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_03: So we were scared.
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_03: And so luckily you can buy sonic ice.
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_03: So we bought a lot of their ice and we tested with coffee.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_03: We're like, oh my gosh, this is working.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_03: And then you know, we had to go and do a deep dive.
• 40:27
  SPEAKER_03: Ice coffee drink.
• 40:28
  SPEAKER_03: Ice coffee drink, and that's Starbucks, anybody, that's 80%.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_03: That's almost out of business.
• 40:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's all about, yeah.
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_03: So when we dove into it, we found a coffee shop in LA a couple years ago, they did an April Fool's stunt where they said we're getting rid of these nugget ice machines.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_03: People went crazy.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_03: And that's like, oh my gosh, this is a benefit for coffee.
• 40:47
  SPEAKER_03: So it's pretty cool, but yeah, people love the ice, but we never say it's the best ice, we say our ice is nice and just leave it at that.
• 40:53
  SPEAKER_03: So that's one of my changes.
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_03: Uh so really we think the very Instagrammable building, so that's what we tried to do.
• 40:59
  SPEAKER_03: We have an Instagram throne, one of those big red chairs that uh is the site of a lot of pictures.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, it's fun.
• 41:05
  SPEAKER_03: And so, really, we're just trying to draw people in that it's fun.
• 41:08
  SPEAKER_03: We do a lot of sampling, we give away free drinks, we don't really do any discounts, which is hard for me, but we do free, but not discounts.
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_03: And it's it has been good.
• 41:17
  SPEAKER_03: Uh you're all discounting, right?
• 41:21
  SPEAKER_03: I just have all these people that love me but but won't come in unless it's a sale, right?
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_03: And we all, you know, that's a sale slope.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_02: Once we break down go back, pull yourself back out of it.
• 41:30
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, that's always been one of my complaints with my students is when they work with area businesses, the first thing they want to do is discount.
• 41:37
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, dudes, if you figure out how many more you have to sell at that price to make what you would have made, selling one at its regular price, you might rethink that.
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so we like differentiate ourselves.
• 41:50
  SPEAKER_03: So for instance, we have uh really the only guys doing an energy shot.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_03: So we we worked with a company in central Arkansas.
• 41:56
  SPEAKER_03: We developed our own energy drink called Rev, and it's spectacular, and then we have a frozen version.
• 42:01
  SPEAKER_03: Um, that in anything, right?
• 42:04
  SPEAKER_03: Well, the energy shot UCans, we have three energy products we get.
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_03: We get uh our uh our carbonate rev that we serve on tap, so it's kind of neat.
• 42:12
  SPEAKER_03: So instead of serving little cans, can you imagine what that that costs, expense, and and the waste involved?
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_03: And one thing we were not really thinking people wanted to hear that it was on tap, that it was a can.
• 42:23
  SPEAKER_03: And then as we're touring our staff around, we hired them.
• 42:25
  SPEAKER_03: We you know, we told them it's on tap and we don't have to throw away cans, and they were just like, oh my gosh, why doesn't everybody do this?
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_01: Because they love sustainability?
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_03: So each container of Rev Up, it's 489 cans of often, whatever red brand it is.
• 42:39
  SPEAKER_03: And so uh and we were able the old speaker.
• 42:43
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, they put too much uh caramel color in these drinks, so they're really dark and kind of no fun.
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_03: And so we took all the caramel color off and made it fun so we can add all the all the fun tirani flavors.
• 42:53
  SPEAKER_03: And then we realized if you look on a can, it says lightly carbonated, and that's pretty common.
• 42:58
  SPEAKER_03: And then with our taps system, it's extra carbonated.
• 43:00
  SPEAKER_03: So that was interesting.
• 43:01
  SPEAKER_03: The first thing customers says, Oh my gosh, this thing stays fizzy the whole time.
• 43:04
  SPEAKER_03: And then you realize that's half the benefit of an energy drink.
• 43:07
  SPEAKER_03: You have the taurine, which is an amino acid, you've got caffeine, a lot of it, and then you've got B vitamins, but then that zippy carbonation is like really another component.
• 43:16
  SPEAKER_03: So and then you search, nobody's ever positioned an energy drink to be extracarbonated.
• 43:21
  SPEAKER_03: So we have the world's first extra carbonated energy drink.
• 43:24
  SPEAKER_02: He is so innovative.
• 43:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you see what I mean?
• 43:26
  SPEAKER_02: But the thing about Rolf, and I think all of us will agree.
• 43:31
  SPEAKER_02: Anyone who's really gonna be successful at something has to be freaking obsessed with it.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_03: We are obsessed.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_03: So my energy shot.
• 43:39
  SPEAKER_03: So that's the next one.
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_03: So that's we've distilled it down to one ounce is 80 milligrams of caffeine, your B vitamins, and tartarine.
• 43:46
  SPEAKER_03: So that's basically an eight ounce energy drink.
• 43:48
  SPEAKER_03: Uh huh.
• 43:48
  SPEAKER_03: And so you could add that.
• 43:49
  SPEAKER_03: And when I tell people a caffeinated sprite, you wouldn't believe the smiles I get.
• 43:53
  SPEAKER_02: So that's a good dark then.
• 43:57
  SPEAKER_02: Does it ruin the sprite light?
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_02: Light.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 44:01
  SPEAKER_03: We get little old ladies that come in and get energy shots in their drinks.
• 44:03
  SPEAKER_03: You wouldn't believe everything is a game changer.
• 44:05
  SPEAKER_03: Rolf, I've never had an energy shot.
• 44:07
  SPEAKER_03: I should, you know, I actually have my car, I might give you a bottle.
• 44:11
  SPEAKER_03: It is so popular and it's fun.
• 44:13
  SPEAKER_03: And you can so I drink green tea.
• 44:15
  SPEAKER_03: In the afternoon, you'll add I'll add a shot of uh energy to it.
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_03: Uh-huh.
• 44:19
  SPEAKER_03: I was worried you drink the pot of coffee in the morning and no more.
• 44:21
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 44:22
  SPEAKER_03: And now, man, the afternoon caffeine, I love it beyond belief.
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_03: And and then when it's time to go to bed, it does not affect me, but it is a game changer.
• 44:30
  SPEAKER_03: I can see the popularity of energy drinks.
• 44:32
  SPEAKER_03: And uh I find, you know, Rev Up is awesome, but man, just popping it into, and I love sparkling water.
• 44:38
  SPEAKER_03: They say you might be uh they always say the guy that likes gin or sparkling water is a psychopath.
• 44:42
  SPEAKER_03: And uh I do have kind of taste buds like that.
• 44:46
  SPEAKER_03: So I drink the claim sparkling water.
• 44:48
  SPEAKER_01: No, I I was going through a six pack of bubbly a few months ago, and I was on it for like a year of six pack of bubbly a night.
• 44:55
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, and it's and I was like, I gotta get I gotta kind of tone this down a little bit.
• 44:59
  SPEAKER_01: It's good stuff.
• 44:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, man.
• 45:00
  SPEAKER_02: Ours is extra carbonated pop-up, Eric, so you have to come back.
• 45:03
  SPEAKER_02: I've come check that out.
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_02: It's just the innovation at every single corner.
• 45:07
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, this is what entrepreneurship is all about.
• 45:10
  SPEAKER_01: Well, what I like with you know on the innovation, too.
• 45:12
  SPEAKER_01: What I notice that you do a lot just from this conversation is like you find these little micro gaps.
• 45:19
  SPEAKER_01: Differentiators, yeah.
• 45:20
  SPEAKER_01: You know, and I mean you might stumble upon them, which it sounds like we've stumbled on every single one.
• 45:25
  SPEAKER_01: But you but you recognize it and then you go get, right?
• 45:28
  SPEAKER_01: And you don't waste time.
• 45:30
  SPEAKER_01: You don't you don't have to like I know you did a lot of strategy with the branding and you took your time with that, that's different, but with these little gaps, like you're on them, and you just start developing it out and it becomes a product, and you can kind of test and see how people are receiving it, and you just keep going.
• 45:43
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, we did a thing uh last Tuesday with Zeta Tao Alpha sorority.
• 45:48
  SPEAKER_03: So uh one of the members had helped me out previously kind of as an intern, and she got us in on a coffee gig in October for Chicken Finger Friday when they do these uh kind of fun things.
• 45:57
  SPEAKER_03: We brought our drinks and they said, Can you come back for finals?
• 46:00
  SPEAKER_03: And I said, Well, it's kind of hard to travel with this stuff, but let me bring coffee drinks and energy drinks for 250 girls.
• 46:06
  SPEAKER_03: So we show up and we've got our energy drink, and then we have the soft top, uh pop top soft cream that we can put on top of the energy drink, which is really fun.
• 46:14
  SPEAKER_03: And with that sippy lid, you get that nice cream and the energy drink, and then we brought our our level up energy shot.
• 46:20
  SPEAKER_03: And so you wouldn't believe I swear, 80% wanted the energy shot.
• 46:26
  SPEAKER_03: And I had two of my barises with me, and I told them this was Tuesday of finals, I said, Well, if we add that to this, it it basically equals three energy drinks or Red Bulls, which in your drink.
• 46:37
  SPEAKER_03: And Lindy's was gonna elbow me and said, Don't say that, Rolf.
• 46:41
  SPEAKER_03: That's gonna scare them off.
• 46:42
  SPEAKER_03: And then, you know, I couldn't resist, so I kept saying it.
• 46:45
  SPEAKER_03: Then I realized it was a benefit, and that's what every one of them wanted it.
• 46:48
  SPEAKER_03: And that's when we came back and said, We're gonna start really pushing this energy shot.
• 46:52
  SPEAKER_03: And uh, so we started Wild Wednesday, where you can get a free extra espr espresso shot or a free extra energy shot in any big drink.
• 46:58
  SPEAKER_03: So we call it Largest Bigs, and you wouldn't believe the popularity that we're mowing through that energy shot.
• 47:04
  SPEAKER_02: Somebody is a nomenclature um sizing system that makes sense.
• 47:10
  SPEAKER_03: I know it's always angered me.
• 47:12
  SPEAKER_03: Have you ever been to the green my uh what they said, the jolly green giant?
• 47:15
  SPEAKER_03: What the heck is that, right?
• 47:17
  SPEAKER_03: I don't even know what it is, and I'm in the coffee business.
• 47:19
  SPEAKER_02: I it's just it's so annoying.
• 47:21
  SPEAKER_02: I've got to think for a minute now.
• 47:22
  SPEAKER_02: What's the medium called again?
• 47:24
  SPEAKER_02: Uh grande?
• 47:27
  SPEAKER_02: What is it?
• 47:30
  SPEAKER_01: And venti.
• 47:31
  SPEAKER_01: Vente.
• 47:32
  SPEAKER_01: There's one uh that's bigger than Venti now.
• 47:35
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know if you're gonna be able to do it.
• 47:36
  SPEAKER_03: My daughter told me what's annoying big, I can understand.
• 47:40
  SPEAKER_03: You know, I've I know you're tight, Mark.
• 47:42
  SPEAKER_03: So they say 80% comply, and they always say the word, and then people like you like I want a medium.
• 47:49
  SPEAKER_03: And they know you're one of those guys.
• 47:51
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, but I'm one of those guys too, so I'd mum with that.
• 47:53
  SPEAKER_02: So you got what are the sizes?
• 47:55
  SPEAKER_02: You got big, that's the biggest, right?
• 47:56
  SPEAKER_02: And the medium.
• 47:57
  SPEAKER_02: Medium, okay.
• 47:58
  SPEAKER_02: Small.
• 47:59
  SPEAKER_02: Oh my god.
• 48:00
  SPEAKER_01: I can do it.
• 48:02
  SPEAKER_02: I can go and order now without without feeling like I'm stupid.
• 48:07
  SPEAKER_02: Well, yeah, and be and getting pissed off about how stupid you are.
• 48:11
  SPEAKER_02: The judgment of the barista back there.
• 48:14
  SPEAKER_03: You know, that the industry has had judgy baristas.
• 48:17
  SPEAKER_03: That's one thing we've we've really worked at.
• 48:19
  SPEAKER_03: And you know, barista actually means bartender in Italian.
• 48:21
  SPEAKER_03: So I mean, come on, you take the funnest word, and it's become kind of a scold, right?
• 48:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 48:26
  SPEAKER_02: And not really a fun person, but we had one at the Starbucks on campus right next to your Eureka pizza.
• 48:33
  SPEAKER_02: He was so judgy and it was so awful.
• 48:36
  SPEAKER_02: And I I got there where I just didn't, if that guy was in there, I did not want to go in there.
• 48:40
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 48:40
  SPEAKER_03: Man, that place really inspired me.
• 48:42
  SPEAKER_03: So we'd been next to Starbucks for three years, and we'd watch in the morning customers of lineup, primarily females, yeah, with their phones looking at their drinks they were gonna order.
• 48:51
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 48:52
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm like, I want to be in this business, right?
• 48:54
  SPEAKER_03: And so now a pop-up, it's the same thing.
• 48:56
  SPEAKER_03: And so we just released our secret menu, right?
• 48:58
  SPEAKER_03: Of all our secret drinks, and man, part of my staff fought with me, said, No, we gotta dribble it out.
• 49:04
  SPEAKER_03: I said, How can you dribble it out?
• 49:05
  SPEAKER_03: You just gotta do it.
• 49:06
  SPEAKER_03: And then I just put out, we don't even make an announcement, and they're just like they're ordering all these weird drinks, Rolf.
• 49:12
  SPEAKER_03: It's all off the secret menu.
• 49:13
  SPEAKER_03: Then they're like, everybody's got the phone in their car at the secret menu scrolling through and deciding what they're gonna order.
• 49:19
  SPEAKER_03: It's just so fun to see this immediately kind of happening.
• 49:24
  SPEAKER_02: We're gonna say that we knew this guy.
• 49:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, man.
• 49:27
  SPEAKER_02: Right?
• 49:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and when he's when he gets big, he has to come back to big talk about small business.
• 49:32
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 49:32
  SPEAKER_02: And then share on his Instagram.
• 49:34
  SPEAKER_02: It'll be big talk about big business by then.
• 49:37
  SPEAKER_03: Man, well, it'll be here as a tree.
• 49:38
  SPEAKER_03: You guys are awesome.
• 49:40
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, and I know the listeners and viewers are the best there are.
• 49:42
  SPEAKER_03: And and I do just what a world we live in.
• 49:45
  SPEAKER_03: Zig Ziggler called it dashboard university.
• 49:47
  SPEAKER_03: If you're not listening to a success tape in your car on your commute, you're nuts.
• 49:51
  SPEAKER_03: Yep, I agree.
• 49:51
  SPEAKER_03: And and that's my thing.
• 49:52
  SPEAKER_03: You know, now I live in Fayetteville, so driving to Bettonville every day.
• 49:55
  SPEAKER_03: Man, it's an audiobook or a podcast.
• 49:57
  SPEAKER_01: That's great, man.
• 49:58
  SPEAKER_01: And just keep I I do the same thing.
• 49:59
  SPEAKER_01: I drive it in my head all the time.
• 50:00
  SPEAKER_01: I've actually been listening to Zig Ziggler again.
• 50:03
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah, two at the top.
• 50:06
  SPEAKER_01: That's it.
• 50:07
  SPEAKER_01: That's the one that I'm listening to, actually.
• 50:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I've listened to that over and over again.
• 50:11
  SPEAKER_01: You know, the one I'll always listen to over again is uh uh Think and Grow Rich.
• 50:16
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, but my dad made us all read that book when we were kids.
• 50:19
  SPEAKER_02: Genius.
• 50:19
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, my dog.
• 50:20
  SPEAKER_02: Added Excellence by John Gardner.
• 50:22
  SPEAKER_02: Those were the two.
• 50:23
  SPEAKER_02: Thinking Emoleon Hill.
• 50:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, dude.
• 50:26
  SPEAKER_01: It's a couple of I actually got I I have it written down.
• 50:28
  SPEAKER_01: I created a life book that has those principles of formula for success, the seven basic fears.
• 50:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I did it.
• 50:36
  SPEAKER_01: You did it all though.
• 50:37
  SPEAKER_01: Well, yeah, but you know what's crazy?
• 50:40
  SPEAKER_01: Here's what's crazy.
• 50:41
  SPEAKER_01: I did it two years before we sold our company, and we sold for exactly what I wrote down that I wanted to roll it.
• 50:48
  SPEAKER_01: I tell you, I love it.
• 50:49
  SPEAKER_01: You know, and then it I mean it was it was amazing on how it all worked out.
• 50:53
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, absolutely amazing.
• 50:54
  SPEAKER_02: It doesn't you it's not gonna work out unless you can visualize it in your mind.
• 50:58
  SPEAKER_02: No, you have to believe it.
• 51:00
  SPEAKER_02: You you gotta believe, you know, and it's like everybody's you know, if you you can sit around and be depressed about a million different things, but everywhere I go and every single day I see a new opportunity.
• 51:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 51:13
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 51:13
  SPEAKER_02: My problem is which ones do I want to go after?
• 51:16
  SPEAKER_02: That's it.
• 51:17
  SPEAKER_02: There's just so many out there.
• 51:19
  SPEAKER_02: Your problem is time.
• 51:20
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, but every time I shed something I don't want to do, five good things fill up the time.
• 51:26
  SPEAKER_03: What a better way to see life.
• 51:27
  SPEAKER_03: You know, in other words, it's for you guys who want something simple.
• 51:30
  SPEAKER_03: It's basically a pamphlet.
• 51:32
  SPEAKER_03: It's uh uh thoughts are things by James Allen.
• 51:34
  SPEAKER_03: Have you ever seen Google that's a free ebook?
• 51:36
  SPEAKER_03: This guy lived a hundred and plus years ago.
• 51:38
  SPEAKER_03: But just as you know, thoughts are things that the that's how we manifest things, and it's you you think it's kind of wooy and foo-foo stuff, but you know, Papa began with the idea.
• 51:46
  SPEAKER_03: I said, I know a lot from the pizza business.
• 51:48
  SPEAKER_03: It seems like I should be in another direction.
• 51:50
  SPEAKER_03: What do I do?
• 51:51
  SPEAKER_03: And then when I left yesterday, oh my gosh, I was going to my high school daughter's graduation, so I just felt like a million dollars.
• 51:57
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 51:57
  SPEAKER_03: And I leave and I have to carefully pick through my drive-thru was totally packed, and they're whizzing through.
• 52:03
  SPEAKER_03: It's like a four-minute trip through.
• 52:04
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, this is unbelievable.
• 52:06
  SPEAKER_03: All these kids are just happy as clams, they're making these perfect drinks, and they're correcting each other and they're wiping each cup carefully, all is taught.
• 52:12
  SPEAKER_03: So you have thoughts of things, man.
• 52:14
  SPEAKER_01: It all starts here between the years.
• 52:16
  SPEAKER_01: No, Rolf, what I like about what you're saying too is like as advanced as our world continues to get, the opportunities are exp are really actually magnified.
• 52:25
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you know, but it can be a little intimidating.
• 52:29
  SPEAKER_01: But I love reading history and entrepreneurial history.
• 52:31
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I got Cornelius Vanderbilt to to Walden to all of 'em, right?
• 52:36
  SPEAKER_01: And the best book I've ever read in my life is American Entrepreneur, and there's specific authors, I can't remember which ones, I'll have to bring that up at some point.
• 52:44
  SPEAKER_01: But it goes through the history of American entrepreneurism and the in the that that that storyline through all of entrepreneurs have taken that risk.
• 52:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 52:54
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it defines what an entrepreneur is, which I love it.
• 52:56
  SPEAKER_01: You know, that the entrepreneur has to take that risk.
• 52:59
  SPEAKER_01: But that that same common thread of people uh basically the the the fallbacks that they come through and that they the way they overcome, but they all have to believe in what they're doing.
• 53:12
  SPEAKER_01: And so as advanced as things get, and what you're doing is exactly yeah, but you believe in what you're doing, you got the vision, you go for it, right?
• 53:21
  SPEAKER_01: And you and you continue to inspire the generation younger than us, which I would love to if we can have a little bit more conversation about that, because I think what you said earlier was was so apparently uh I mean successful, and that we have to remind ourselves is that when we were young, we just wanted somebody to help uh to be an apprentice to.
• 53:44
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I'm saying?
• 53:45
  SPEAKER_01: Like when you're when you're in your teens and and you're looking at a world that's as complex as it is today, sure, but you can have somebody that can that can help teach you because you don't want to ask, right?
• 53:58
  SPEAKER_01: You don't know where to get it, but you get inspired.
• 54:00
  SPEAKER_01: And so these young folks are watching you come in, right?
• 54:03
  SPEAKER_01: And they're guiding them in ways and they that gives them the confidence, just like what I needed when I was younger.
• 54:08
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 54:09
  SPEAKER_02: I needed somebody to to lean on.
• 54:11
  SPEAKER_02: That's what I love about teaching.
• 54:13
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 54:13
  SPEAKER_02: You need to do it every day.
• 54:15
  SPEAKER_02: I I I it to me, it's the best job I ever had, not from the money I make, uh, of course, but the the the reward of the relationships and then seeing what these people do over time.
• 54:27
  SPEAKER_01: And it'll never Mark, I got folks that work for me at White Spider, for me, but for the company, that you have been their professor, right?
• 54:36
  SPEAKER_01: And they come in and they know Mark and they have so much appreciation because you you you you've you satisfied a longing that they need and they haven't like we had when we were young.
• 54:46
  SPEAKER_01: We don't forget our mentors from when you're young, do we?
• 54:49
  SPEAKER_01: One of the professors that helped us out the most.
• 54:51
  SPEAKER_02: I I just heard from a from one of my professors, I was TA in his class at the worked for him 43, 44 years ago.
• 54:59
  SPEAKER_02: Sent me an email last night telling me how much he loved my book and it was.
• 55:04
  SPEAKER_02: How that makes you know you feel like you did this.
• 55:06
  SPEAKER_02: It really was great.
• 55:06
  SPEAKER_02: But but yeah, I I there's there's so much um opportunity out there.
• 55:12
  SPEAKER_02: We all need mentors.
• 55:13
  SPEAKER_02: I did think it was interesting that Rolf said one of his motivators when he was young is they had stuff, but they didn't have everything they wanted.
• 55:22
  SPEAKER_02: That's the way I grew up.
• 55:23
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 55:24
  SPEAKER_02: My dad, you can't afford that.
• 55:25
  SPEAKER_02: We can't go to dinner.
• 55:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 55:27
  SPEAKER_02: And let's go to dinner after church.
• 55:28
  SPEAKER_02: I can't afford that.
• 55:29
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 55:29
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I mean, I just remember them going out to buy a new Nova in 1969.
• 55:34
  SPEAKER_02: My mom was gonna get a six-cylinder with a three on the column, and they instead strung for a Malibu with a 307 V8 and power glide, and that was like a big deal, okay?
• 55:45
  SPEAKER_02: We're gonna spend the extra 150, 200 bucks.
• 55:49
  SPEAKER_02: You know what I mean?
• 55:49
  SPEAKER_02: I thought to myself, I don't want to live like that.
• 55:52
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, they never had any debt.
• 55:55
  SPEAKER_02: You know, we had everything we needed, but like we didn't go out to eat, we didn't go on big vacations, we didn't do any of that.
• 56:01
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 56:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 56:02
  SPEAKER_02: And and it and it is a motivator, you know, I think for a lot of us, it's just feeling like we want to transcend whatever it is, you know, that we came from.
• 56:13
  SPEAKER_02: We respect that, we appreciate that.
• 56:15
  SPEAKER_02: I think one of the biggest problems today for people like us is we have a certain affluence, and how do you imbue that quality in your children when basically they do get everything they want?
• 56:30
  SPEAKER_02: We do go out to eat all the time.
• 56:32
  SPEAKER_02: You know, my my 12-year-old's like, I'm going, my friend's going to Florida.
• 56:36
  SPEAKER_02: Can I go with her?
• 56:37
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, the grandma calls me and it's like, yeah, you know, I gotta buy a plane ticket for, you know, just that never would have happened in my household in a million years.
• 56:47
  SPEAKER_03: You know, you know, it's funny watching our kids.
• 56:49
  SPEAKER_03: So I've got a 529 for each plant each kid.
• 56:51
  SPEAKER_03: That's kind of pretty common.
• 56:53
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 56:53
  SPEAKER_03: And I just said, Look, I don't even want to micromanage it.
• 56:55
  SPEAKER_03: This is like basically your money, and just deal with it.
• 56:58
  SPEAKER_03: And yeah, they've been so amazing.
• 57:00
  SPEAKER_03: That's good that you did that.
• 57:01
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 57:02
  SPEAKER_03: I never did that.
• 57:02
  SPEAKER_03: And then my daughter is just, she's really wanted to travel.
• 57:06
  SPEAKER_03: She I want to go to Vermont, I want to go here.
• 57:07
  SPEAKER_03: And then she looked at the dollars and she said, Man, I'm going to Arkansas.
• 57:10
  SPEAKER_03: It was just like not even a consideration.
• 57:12
  SPEAKER_03: So she made it.
• 57:13
  SPEAKER_03: No, it is possible.
• 57:14
  SPEAKER_03: But my youngest son, he's dead, he's definitely got a different attitude about life and money.
• 57:18
  SPEAKER_02: And um somehow my two older girls, they developed it all on their own.
• 57:23
  SPEAKER_02: And I have, you know, they're they are completely independent and both very, very good with their money.
• 57:29
  SPEAKER_02: But I do worry about it with the younger ones.
• 57:32
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I tell you, my staff at pop-up, they're all capitalists.
• 57:35
  SPEAKER_03: And they're all reading the tipping tips and they're working on it, and they're they they want to get tipped and they want to provide good service.
• 57:41
  SPEAKER_03: Just they want money, and yet they seem to they drive nicer cars than me, right?
• 57:45
  SPEAKER_02: I know.
• 57:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 57:46
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, I got a student, I just saw him the other day in his G-Wagon.
• 57:48
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, I just bought my wife a one-year-old Audi Q5.
• 57:54
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it's probably like a third of the cost of that G Wagon.
• 57:58
  SPEAKER_02: But uh, but anyway, um, so yeah, just out of curiosity, how much money can these baristas make at pop-up?
• 58:06
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm not gonna hold you to it.
• 58:07
  SPEAKER_03: So so right now we're you know, we're overstaffed, which is kind of weird.
• 58:10
  SPEAKER_03: We think with summer coming very soon and heat coming, we're gonna be glad we did.
• 58:14
  SPEAKER_03: And and we've decided, which is not I've decided this is an experiment.
• 58:17
  SPEAKER_03: Sure.
• 58:17
  SPEAKER_03: And so instead of being the uh the ruthless uh restaurateur that I've been for my whole life, I'm like, let's just let's just kind of pan out.
• 58:24
  SPEAKER_03: We're kind of trimming labor, but we're not cutting.
• 58:26
  SPEAKER_03: So they make two, you know, we start at$12 an hour, which is an hour a dollar over the Arkansas minimum.
• 58:31
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 58:31
  SPEAKER_03: And then uh I think it's pretty much five dollars an hour right now, but I think as we normalize labor, it's gonna get close to the$10 an hour range.
• 58:37
  SPEAKER_03: The tip pool.
• 58:39
  SPEAKER_01: I said in addition to the$12.
• 58:40
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's so it's a daily tip pool, and it's paid through their paycheck.
• 58:43
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 58:44
  SPEAKER_03: And so uh so$17 an hour basically.
• 58:47
  SPEAKER_03: That's what they're making right now.
• 58:48
  SPEAKER_03: And uh and they can do better.
• 58:50
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, they can do better.
• 58:51
  SPEAKER_03: And so they they love it.
• 58:52
  SPEAKER_03: So when you say pool, you mean you aggregate all the tips to the day.
• 58:55
  SPEAKER_03: So you don't, you know, if you're there at 5 30 in the morning or 10 o'clock at night, you're still in that it's a daily pool.
• 59:00
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 59:00
  SPEAKER_03: And then yeah, we thought it would be an all-ca uh credit business, card business, uh, but we're getting a surprising amount of cash, which is we weren't set up for that, so we're having to add some cash drawers and be better cash managers.
• 59:11
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, but we actually make a tip deposit every day, so the cash tips get deposited in and then our software, we use toast, uh, and we have a lot of integrations with toast has been pretty cool.
• 59:20
  SPEAKER_03: But so yeah, it just goes on their check, and so it's all taxed.
• 59:24
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, but it's a very simple, so they don't go alone with cash, like in some places, uh, but then they make good money and they love their job.
• 59:30
  SPEAKER_03: So it's perfect.
• 59:31
  SPEAKER_02: God love you, buddy.
• 59:32
  SPEAKER_02: I'm so proud of you, and I'm so well thank you.
• 59:34
  SPEAKER_03: It's been fun for sure.
• 59:35
  SPEAKER_01: And I uh it's been fun to talk to you guys.
• 59:38
  SPEAKER_01: I've been definitely inspired through the combo.
• 59:40
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, like I what I'll appreciate too is is that you're trying new things that you did not do in your previous entrepreneurial journey, which I think's cool because I'm I'm kind of doing the same thing on some of the things I'm doing.
• 59:52
  SPEAKER_01: I just um it gives me gives me more confidence about what I'm thinking in my brain too.
• 59:57
  SPEAKER_02: It's really funny you say that.
• 59:58
  SPEAKER_02: I just had a conversation with my HVAC guy the other day.
• 1:00:02
  SPEAKER_02: He sold his company like five years ago.
• 1:00:05
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, and he had a non-compete that he had to let were out.
• 1:00:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:00:08
  SPEAKER_02: Well, as soon as that was over, he started up again.
• 1:00:10
  SPEAKER_02: He's already bigger than he was the first time.
• 1:00:12
  SPEAKER_02: And he said having that second opportunity to not make the same mistakes I made has been like pivotal.
• 1:00:20
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it's like building the same house twice.
• 1:00:23
  SPEAKER_02: You just said pivotal.
• 1:00:25
  SPEAKER_02: You just no, you didn't I I it's pivotal, it's not the same thing as pivoting, okay?
• 1:00:31
  SPEAKER_02: It's almost preventorial, too, with pivotal.
• 1:00:33
  SPEAKER_02: Oh god, you guys did not use the same single cliche that I'm aware of.
• 1:00:37
  SPEAKER_02: We have not, have we?
• 1:00:38
  SPEAKER_02: Oh boy, that is something.
• 1:00:40
  SPEAKER_02: Your comment with pivotals going into blueprint bills, but just FYI.
• 1:00:44
  SPEAKER_02: But then again, I'm here with real entrepreneurs and not coffee shop.
• 1:00:48
  SPEAKER_03: I will make a quick comment about that.
• 1:00:50
  SPEAKER_03: You know, when you just young kids, they all think it's like a shark tank like capital raise.
• 1:00:55
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, it doesn't really work that way.
• 1:00:57
  SPEAKER_03: And then they want to throw buzzwords out everywhere.
• 1:00:59
  SPEAKER_03: And yeah, you're right.
• 1:01:00
  SPEAKER_01: I haven't used a buzzword, I don't think anybody knows.
• 1:01:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's probably I was gonna actually ask the question.
• 1:01:05
  SPEAKER_01: It's like, so how many spreadsheets and how many pitch decks have you presented and gone round for investors to start this?
• 1:01:11
  SPEAKER_01: Not a one.
• 1:01:12
  SPEAKER_02: No, I look I'm I'm actually creating one right now for a business that I'm involved with, but it's not the same thing as a startup.
• 1:01:20
  SPEAKER_02: It's an 11-year-old company, okay?
• 1:01:23
  SPEAKER_02: It's a it's a it it's it's got a proven stage growth thing.
• 1:01:27
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 1:01:27
  SPEAKER_02: It's got a proven model.
• 1:01:28
  SPEAKER_02: It grows by 25% and it makes a modest profit, not a not a great profit.
• 1:01:35
  SPEAKER_02: That's a totally different thing.
• 1:01:36
  SPEAKER_02: Then you're in the driver's seat as opposed to here's my idea, you give me all the money.
• 1:01:41
  SPEAKER_02: What's your business then?
• 1:01:43
  SPEAKER_02: That's that's been my thing.
• 1:01:45
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 1:01:45
  SPEAKER_02: They're gonna tell you how to do everything.
• 1:01:47
  SPEAKER_02: If they're giving you all the money, forget your vision.
• 1:01:50
  SPEAKER_02: You're not gonna be able to implement it.
• 1:01:51
  SPEAKER_02: You'll be working for the man right away.
• 1:01:54
  SPEAKER_02: The golden rule comes true.
• 1:01:55
  SPEAKER_02: They own the business.
• 1:01:57
  SPEAKER_02: That's right.
• 1:01:57
  SPEAKER_02: He or she who has the golden rules.
• 1:01:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's right.
• 1:02:00
  SPEAKER_02: That's a good one.
• 1:02:00
  SPEAKER_02: But um, anyway, well, listen, guys, it's been great talking today.
• 1:02:05
  SPEAKER_02: Awesome.
• 1:02:06
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you so much for the invitation.
• 1:02:08
  SPEAKER_02: This has been awesome.
• 1:02:08
  SPEAKER_02: Let's do it again.
• 1:02:09
  SPEAKER_02: Rolf can come back.
• 1:02:10
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, as a host.
• 1:02:11
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I'm going to check in.
• 1:02:14
  SPEAKER_02: Boom.
• 1:02:14
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 1:02:15
  SPEAKER_02: All right.
• 1:02:15
  SPEAKER_02: Well, thanks everybody, and we'll see you on the next episode.
• 1:02:18
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 1:02:19
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 1:02:26
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for tuning in to this episode of Big Talk About Small Business.
• 1:02:29
  SPEAKER_00: If you have any questions or ideas for upcoming shows, be sure to head over to our website, www.bigtalkaboutsmallbusiness.com, and click on the Ask the Host button for the chance to have your questions answered on the show.
• 1:02:43
  SPEAKER_00: Stay connected with us on LinkedIn at Big Talk About Small Business.
• 1:02:47
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