Latest / Big Talk About Small Business / Ep. 34 - The Unseen Labor of Love Behind a Thriving Small Business - with Garrett Peters of Duncan & Stone Paper Co.

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Ep. 34 - The Unseen Labor of Love Behind a Thriving Small Business - with Garrett Peters of Duncan & Stone Paper Co. · Big Talk About Small Business

• 0:04
  Mark Zweig: Okay, everybody, welcome back to another episode of big talk about small business.
• 0:13
  Mark Zweig: I don't know what he's doing today.
• 0:16
  Mark Zweig: I don't know what he's on.
• 0:18
  Mark Zweig: Got me pumped up, bro.
• 0:19
  Mark Zweig: He just he's the guy's fired up and he's drinking Coke zero.
• 0:23
  Mark Zweig: So you don't even have any caffeine in that, eric.
• 0:26
  Mark Zweig: No, it was caffeine then, is it?
• 0:28
  Eric Howerton: Sure, yeah, it's got zero.
• 0:29
  Eric Howerton: Oh, it's got to be something good, something.
• 0:31
  Eric Howerton: You just learned that.
• 0:32
  Mark Zweig: And now you should try them.
• 0:33
  Mark Zweig: Maybe I will.
• 0:34
  Mark Zweig: I can't stand artificial sweetener, though I just I can't.
• 0:37
  Mark Zweig: I ate it.
• 0:38
  Mark Zweig: I absolutely hate it.
• 0:40
  Mark Zweig: But anyway, yeah, it's like one molecule away from rat poison.
• 0:44
  Mark Zweig: Did you know that?
• 0:44
  Mark Zweig: I did not know no way it is.
• 0:46
  Eric Howerton: Really yeah.
• 0:48
  Mark Zweig: It's almost identical in profile.
• 0:50
  Mark Zweig: That's why it tastes so good.
• 0:51
  Mark Zweig: Yeah, it does.
• 0:52
  Mark Zweig: They hook you.
• 0:53
  Eric Howerton: Yeah, cool, everybody likes a little rat poison.
• 0:56
  Mark Zweig: No, I saw this.
• 0:58
  Mark Zweig: I saw this article the other day, okay, online, and it was a 70 year old guy who has only consumed Coca-Cola for his entire life.
• 1:08
  Mark Zweig: He never had water.
• 1:10
  Mark Zweig: No way, that's what it said.
• 1:12
  Mark Zweig: How is he still alive, I know?
• 1:14
  Mark Zweig: But he said the doctors keep telling him to drink water, but he stopped going to.
• 1:18
  Mark Zweig: He drinks coaccus.
• 1:20
  Mark Zweig: That's your oven.
• 1:21
  Mark Zweig: That's your oven I love it.
• 1:23
  Eric Howerton: Okay, is it the fully-wetted like full sugar?
• 1:25
  Eric Howerton: I see you have teeth, that's so weird though.
• 1:30
  Mark Zweig: When I worked at Byche Office as a kid, we used to use Coca-Cola to clean tires.
• 1:34
  Mark Zweig: Yeah, because the acid before we had Armoral, we used Coke Anyway.
• 1:43
  Eric Howerton: Sponsor for Bill.
• 1:46
  Mark Zweig: Speaking of, did you remember in science class they would throw teeth at it and just see how long it was before they rotted away?
• 1:53
  Mark Zweig: Oh God, it was just terrible.
• 1:55
  Mark Zweig: Oh boy, anyway, that's a diversion.
• 1:58
  Mark Zweig: We've got a guest in the studio today, garrett Peters.
• 2:03
  Mark Zweig: Thank you for having me With me.
• 2:05
  Mark Zweig: Excited to be here.
• 2:06
  Mark Zweig: Duncan and Stone Paper Company.
• 2:09
  Mark Zweig: That's neat.
• 2:10
  Garrett Peters: Always wear my hat so people know who you're right.
• 2:13
  Garrett Peters: They have no idea what Duncan and Stone Paper Company is, but they see the hat, but it's a classy name and it's a good logo.
• 2:20
  Mark Zweig: Thank you, it is.
• 2:21
  Mark Zweig: I agree, I did a little reading.
• 2:26
  Mark Zweig: We like to discover our guests in the course of the show.
• 2:31
  Mark Zweig: It makes it a lot more fun and more interesting and more authentic yeah, more authentic, like our listeners, totally.
• 2:39
  Mark Zweig: Yeah, authentic.
• 2:40
  Mark Zweig: I like that word, thank you.
• 2:41
  Mark Zweig: It's a bit of a cliche today, but I still like it.
• 2:45
  Mark Zweig: I like him Genie.
• 2:48
  Mark Zweig: I like everything Eric does.
• 2:50
  Mark Zweig: Thanks, thanks, why he sees the best.
• 2:52
  Mark Zweig: Thanks, buddy.
• 2:53
  Mark Zweig: It's always fun being here with him and it's going to be fun being with Garrett too.
• 2:57
  Mark Zweig: I can tell yeah.
• 2:58
  Mark Zweig: So, garrett, before you tell us a little bit about yourself and Duncan and Stone Paper Company, I looked you guys up online and I saw was it your wife and her friend Were the ones who actually started the business.
• 3:15
  Mark Zweig: What's the story with that?
• 3:17
  Mark Zweig: That's a great question, man.
• 3:19
  Garrett Peters: But now you're the CEO, yeah, so a little background about me.
• 3:23
  Garrett Peters: So yeah, I got the title CEO somehow and we'll get to that at some point, I'm sure, but so Were they just trying to play?
• 3:31
  Mark Zweig: Yeah, okay, thank you, thank you, thank you, making you feel like you're okay.
• 3:33
  Mark Zweig: Yeah, yeah, basically, I'm sure you deal with it.
• 3:37
  Eric Howerton: I'm sure it's a big deal with Garrett, deal with everything that happened.
• 3:40
  Eric Howerton: Oh, yeah, for sure, we're sure, we're sure.
• 3:41
  Eric Howerton: Relations, you're the CEO.
• 3:42
  Eric Howerton: You're like, oh sweet.
• 3:43
  Eric Howerton: And then you're like, whoa, this is not a.
• 3:45
  Garrett Peters: CEO job.
• 3:46
  Garrett Peters: It's a bad job anyway, we have, I'm going to change my title.
• 3:51
  Mark Zweig: We have been there.
• 3:51
  Mark Zweig: After this, I'm definitely changing my title.
• 3:53
  Mark Zweig: You can't please anybody and you'll never get any positive.
• 3:55
  Mark Zweig: That's not a problem.
• 3:56
  Mark Zweig: It's nothing but problems, okay.
• 3:58
  Eric Howerton: And all the inslee when you went out with them.
• 4:01
  Eric Howerton: Yes, exactly.
• 4:02
  Eric Howerton: So tell us Enjoy running your own business.
• 4:04
  Eric Howerton: It's the first softball.
• 4:06
  Garrett Peters: So Stephanie is my wife.
• 4:08
  Garrett Peters: We just celebrated 15 years yesterday.
• 4:11
  Garrett Peters: 15 year anniversary.
• 4:12
  Garrett Peters: Well, you've made it longer, I made two of mine, so Just appears.
• 4:18
  Garrett Peters: So, that says a lot.
• 4:19
  Garrett Peters: Stephanie is, she's the best and she is a the epitome of a dreamer, visionary, like starter, entrepreneur.
• 4:28
  Garrett Peters: She's a real entrepreneur and early on in our marriage she had this vision that she wanted to figure out a way to get me out of my job so we could do our life together and kind of you know and have a life and have a life yeah.
• 4:47
  Eric Howerton: That's freedom.
• 4:47
  Garrett Peters: And it really was.
• 4:48
  Garrett Peters: It was probably in about 2015 or 16.
• 4:51
  Garrett Peters: And we sat down.
• 4:53
  Garrett Peters: We had we had two young kids at the time.
• 4:55
  Garrett Peters: We have three boys today and at the time she was like what do we want our life to look like?
• 5:02
  Garrett Peters: What do we want our every day to look like?
• 5:05
  Garrett Peters: I like Stephanie, she's amazing.
• 5:07
  Garrett Peters: I wish she was here.
• 5:08
  Garrett Peters: She will have to have her on at some point.
• 5:09
  Garrett Peters: But she was like let's define our why, what we want our kind of life to look like, and then we set down a path of how do we get there.
• 5:17
  Garrett Peters: And she was really on this, this journey of I want to get Garrett out of his like nine to five corporate job.
• 5:23
  Garrett Peters: What is fantastic, why she's the best one I know.
• 5:25
  Garrett Peters: She's really looking out for him.
• 5:27
  Garrett Peters: She was like, and she was like I'm going to get this is my goal, I'm going to get my.
• 5:32
  Garrett Peters: And I didn't.
• 5:33
  Garrett Peters: It wasn't that I hated my job.
• 5:33
  Garrett Peters: I worked for some great companies a harvest group for a really long shirt, and I worked with, you know, at North Star way back in the day with Claybone.
• 5:42
  Garrett Peters: I worked with Claybone, I worked with Clay and Rick and Henry and all these guys, amazing guys, and that's part of my journey is so Henry Ho.
• 5:48
  Garrett Peters: Where's Henry Ho?
• 5:49
  Garrett Peters: Yeah, yeah, I am Rick West Clayville, love man.
• 5:51
  Garrett Peters: Yeah, amazing men and and we can get to some of how they shaped my vision for, like, starting my own business.
• 5:57
  Garrett Peters: But basically back to your question, the original question.
• 6:01
  Garrett Peters: Stephanie and Sarah, her best friend, were dreaming of what could we do together.
• 6:07
  Garrett Peters: And then, and you know, fast forward to 2019.
• 6:10
  Garrett Peters: They started this idea of Duncan and Stone, of could we create a brand that sold journals, gift double items, cards, et cetera.
• 6:20
  Garrett Peters: I think there's an opportunity here.
• 6:23
  Garrett Peters: So we went all.
• 6:24
  Garrett Peters: We have four owners and four founders of the business.
• 6:26
  Garrett Peters: Sarah and Stephanie are kind of the front.
• 6:28
  Garrett Peters: You know the facing of the business and the kind of the vision of Duncan and Stone, and I came in early on and and and helped kind of start the business with them.
• 6:36
  Garrett Peters: And who's the other Rover man?
• 6:38
  Garrett Peters: His name's Garlin.
• 6:39
  Garrett Peters: He has a full-time job.
• 6:40
  Garrett Peters: He's just an owner, he doesn't work on it.
• 6:41
  Garrett Peters: He's a financial investor.
• 6:42
  Garrett Peters: He's kind of the finance yep investor and kind of he helps with some strategy and stuff like that and so, but not not really involved in the business.
• 6:51
  Mark Zweig: So what made you all want to go in that business?
• 6:53
  Mark Zweig: I mean, it just seems like that's a obviously a super mature market.
• 6:59
  Garrett Peters: Yeah, so the the background is Sarah was running an Etsy business on the side, so she's a stay-at-home mom.
• 7:05
  Garrett Peters: They also have three kids as well, and she is running an Etsy business creating cards and mutations like design.
• 7:15
  Garrett Peters: She's an amazing designer.
• 7:16
  Garrett Peters: She designs all our products now and and still does.
• 7:18
  Garrett Peters: She was running an Etsy business at the time and one of her one of her items was a set of pregnancy cards that she sold.
• 7:25
  Eric Howerton: Hold on, gary, yeah, yeah, mark's got to check in on his oh, that's on his car.
• 7:29
  Eric Howerton: Oh, god Damn right, let's pull him up.
• 7:31
  Eric Howerton: Is he really, though?
• 7:35
  Eric Howerton: Yeah, yeah.
• 7:39
  Mark Zweig: I am.
• 7:40
  Eric Howerton: I love that.
• 7:40
  Eric Howerton: I don't you I am.
• 7:41
  Eric Howerton: I'm sorry, bro, I won't do that again, don't be upset, don't be upset.
• 7:47
  Mark Zweig: If we buy my wife a new car, I think I'm going to take her car myself, are you yeah?
• 7:51
  Mark Zweig: Nice, that's nice, yeah.
• 7:53
  Eric Howerton: Sweet, well why she knew new car, then that's nice one.
• 7:56
  Mark Zweig: Because she likes performance.
• 7:57
  Mark Zweig: Oh wow, she's.
• 8:00
  Mark Zweig: Wow.
• 8:01
  Mark Zweig: I'm sure she does that was good bro.
• 8:03
  Mark Zweig: I like that it's not fast enough for her.
• 8:05
  Mark Zweig: I'm serious.
• 8:05
  Mark Zweig: She likes to go fast, all right, I like where the she's hiding.
• 8:10
  Eric Howerton: Okay, so interview has.
• 8:13
  Eric Howerton: So here's the deal I don't have to derail this.
• 8:15
  Mark Zweig: Go on, no, no, no, it's fine, I can, I can, I can, I can, I can talk.
• 8:18
  Mark Zweig: Thank you, you're right.
• 8:19
  Garrett Peters: Yeah, yeah, yeah, this is fine.
• 8:20
  Garrett Peters: We're here to talk.
• 8:21
  Garrett Peters: Oh, so what's funny is what here's.
• 8:24
  Garrett Peters: What's funny is Sarah was selling these items on Etsy and she had.
• 8:28
  Garrett Peters: She was packing up these cards at night.
• 8:31
  Garrett Peters: We were hanging out at their house as friends there's some of our best friends and we're like what is going on, Like your hand putting together these you know orders for people, and Stephanie and I are sitting here like there's got to be a better way to do this.
• 8:45
  Garrett Peters: Sure, and she's like it's getting to the point where she's working at night.
• 8:48
  Garrett Peters: She's making shoes, a pair of yeah, she's like really grinding on her business.
• 8:53
  Garrett Peters: And so we were just going there might be something here.
• 8:58
  Garrett Peters: You clearly have a market for this.
• 9:00
  Garrett Peters: And then we're also looking at other like items that we could create journals, keepsake items, giftable types of goods and we just went down a path in 2019 of going we kind of step back and said we don't want to just sell an item or two, Like we're just going to sell a couple items on Amazon or whatever it may be.
• 9:21
  Garrett Peters: What if we created a brand that kind of housed all these different types of items and we formed the business in 2019, Duncan and Stone.
• 9:29
  Garrett Peters: We had three items we started with and we launched in 2020 officially online.
• 9:35
  Garrett Peters: So our business is almost online today.
• 9:38
  Mark Zweig: Are you selling only from your own website or do you sell on any other?
• 9:41
  Garrett Peters: site.
• 9:42
  Garrett Peters: We sell on Amazon.
• 9:43
  Garrett Peters: Okay, we sell on Etsy and our website and those are the three primary channels.
• 9:48
  Garrett Peters: And early on, as a unknown brand, you know, at the time we made the decision, for better or worse, to launch on Amazon and so we set up the business that way, registered the brand, launched on Amazon as kind of our first big channel, and Amazon is still our biggest revenue channel today.
• 10:08
  Garrett Peters: So it's just keeps growing.
• 10:11
  Garrett Peters: It's just really growing.
• 10:12
  Garrett Peters: We've debated it.
• 10:15
  Garrett Peters: We've debated it.
• 10:16
  Garrett Peters: I mean honestly, I'm just not sure we said to get very sensitive juice.
• 10:21
  Garrett Peters: Hey, we could.
• 10:22
  Garrett Peters: I love to talk about this.
• 10:24
  Mark Zweig: I love to talk about this Stunch, stunch Walmart or Walmart.
• 10:28
  Mark Zweig: Really, I love Walmart, are you really?
• 10:29
  Mark Zweig: Oh, I am Big time.
• 10:31
  Mark Zweig: Yeah, do you?
• 10:32
  Garrett Peters: I mean, the business is yeah, to be honest with you, it's one of those things that I'm like we've had so many other things that we've been working on over the years that I'm kind of like is it really worth it for me to go through the hassle of doing that?
• 10:45
  Garrett Peters: Maybe it is.
• 10:45
  Garrett Peters: I mean, I'm sure there's an argument to be made that it is, but we just haven't.
• 10:49
  Mark Zweig: There are low company in our area.
• 10:51
  Mark Zweig: I know we love Walmart.
• 10:53
  Garrett Peters: That's big I am.
• 10:55
  Eric Howerton: Big fans yeah, yeah, yeah, but it does take effort and time right.
• 10:58
  Eric Howerton: Yeah, attention.
• 10:59
  Eric Howerton: Yeah, boy.
• 11:00
  Eric Howerton: It's kind of like when you know how and when do you do that?
• 11:04
  Mark Zweig: That's when Eric's business is.
• 11:05
  Mark Zweig: You know, was very instrumental in making Walmartcom viable.
• 11:09
  Mark Zweig: Yeah, yeah, we can talk about that.
• 11:10
  Mark Zweig: Yeah, we can go on that, yeah, we can get into that.
• 11:12
  Mark Zweig: So so Amazon, etsy and her own site, and it's hard driving traffic to your own site.
• 11:19
  Mark Zweig: Well it seemed like it is Got a great brand.
• 11:21
  Mark Zweig: I mean we have made you have.
• 11:23
  Mark Zweig: Yeah, I mean it's.
• 11:25
  Mark Zweig: I appreciate that.
• 11:26
  Mark Zweig: It's amazing You've only been in business since 2019.
• 11:29
  Garrett Peters: Yeah, yeah, and I think that that, early on, the reason we started with Amazon is to say, hey, we wanted to reach as many people as we could initially, right, so like, let's get our name out there.
• 11:39
  Garrett Peters: Now, I wish that we would have been smart enough or had the know how or partners to be like let's build a direct to consumer business through your website first.
• 11:49
  Garrett Peters: Yes, that would have been, that would have been amazing.
• 11:51
  Garrett Peters: We just didn't know what that was going to look like or how to do that the right way.
• 11:56
  Garrett Peters: And we make it expensive too.
• 11:58
  Garrett Peters: Yeah, like customer acquisition costs and how to do all that.
• 12:01
  Garrett Peters: But it's hard, you know, over the last couple of years in particular, we've really made a big shift to drive more traffic through our website, work on SEO type of things, email marketing, sms.
• 12:13
  Garrett Peters: We've always done ads, so Google ads, you know, facebook, Instagram ads.
• 12:18
  Mark Zweig: But I have a figure that out myself, the formula on that yeah, We've turned.
• 12:24
  Garrett Peters: I mean you guys could probably teach me a little.
• 12:26
  Garrett Peters: Well, I have worked with a lot of people that know how to do it, I mean.
• 12:29
  Garrett Peters: So that was one thing that we really did early on was we looked at what our team it was good at.
• 12:37
  Garrett Peters: Yeah, things like Sarah being the creative director, the kind of brand voice, me being just a guy that would get stuff done on the business, set up stuff.
• 12:46
  Garrett Peters: There was the marketing side customer acquisition, email marketing, google ads it was all that.
• 12:53
  Garrett Peters: We have an agency that does it now.
• 12:55
  Garrett Peters: Yeah, so for a long time, a local company called Vanquish Media Adam Adam Fight is his name shout out Adam.
• 13:02
  Garrett Peters: He's a great guy.
• 13:03
  Garrett Peters: He helped us get all that stuff set up early on.
• 13:07
  Garrett Peters: I think we just shifted everything to an agency that does our SEO, ads and email marketing.
• 13:13
  Garrett Peters: Okay, so they did it all together.
• 13:15
  Garrett Peters: He's still working with Adam.
• 13:17
  Garrett Peters: We don't work with Adam anymore.
• 13:18
  Garrett Peters: No, yeah, yeah, we moved on from him, but he was super helpful for us.
• 13:22
  Mark Zweig: So where's the business now?
• 13:23
  Mark Zweig: Like, how big are you guys?
• 13:25
  Mark Zweig: What are you?
• 13:25
  Mark Zweig: Where are you going with it?
• 13:28
  Garrett Peters: Yeah, I mean we did, you know, in 2020, we did about $300,000 in revenue.
• 13:35
  Garrett Peters: Okay, 2020, 2021, we about tripled and did not quite a million, but close to a million.
• 13:42
  Garrett Peters: Yeah, in 2022, we did a couple of million dollars in sales in 2022.
• 13:48
  Garrett Peters: And last year we did like three and a half.
• 13:50
  Garrett Peters: God love you.
• 13:51
  Garrett Peters: We did like three and a half million.
• 13:53
  Garrett Peters: Thank you, congratulations.
• 13:54
  Garrett Peters: That's fantastic, man.
• 13:55
  Garrett Peters: So at this point, I mean it's amazing, like the fact that our business keeps growing the way it does is just incredible with the small team of four and that's great.
• 14:06
  Garrett Peters: You know, we ran the business out of our house for multiple years and so we are so thankful for like where it's at.
• 14:12
  Garrett Peters: I mean, I think that there's a good chance we get hit $5 million this year in revenue.
• 14:16
  Garrett Peters: I think that's like when we're headed, oh, it's wonderful and I love it.
• 14:19
  Garrett Peters: That's fantastic.
• 14:20
  Garrett Peters: So last year we sold like 120,000 orders or something last year.
• 14:27
  Eric Howerton: Wow, that's insane.
• 14:28
  Eric Howerton: What's the ratio?
• 14:29
  Eric Howerton: So you said Amazon's Amazon stills.
• 14:31
  Eric Howerton: Is that like at 60%, yep?
• 14:33
  Garrett Peters: 60% is Amazon, but 20% is at sea and about 10% is our website.
• 14:37
  Garrett Peters: And then a little bit for wholesale.
• 14:40
  Garrett Peters: We have a wholesale business as well.
• 14:42
  Garrett Peters: Yeah, yeah.
• 14:42
  Garrett Peters: So we sell the stores city supply and Fayetteville, you know, white's, mercantile and Nashville, places like that, right Cool stores the hip, totally yeah.
• 14:51
  Mark Zweig: Yeah, so what's?
• 14:53
  Mark Zweig: Can I ask, like, what's the legal form of organization?
• 14:56
  Mark Zweig: Did you set it up as a corporation?
• 14:57
  Mark Zweig: Is it as a corporation?
• 14:58
  Mark Zweig: Yeah, okay, good.
• 14:59
  Garrett Peters: Yeah, that's the when we, when we were in 2019, when we were dreaming about this thing, my, my idea was, like I was coming into this, like I'm interested in trying to start something, Like my view was, I've been around great business owners, entrepreneurs Ross Cully, Bill Wakesman, Dan Arsberg, all these amazing men who are like starters and built, built these amazing businesses.
• 15:26
  Garrett Peters: Right, I was just always like I kind of want to do that.
• 15:29
  Garrett Peters: Yeah, there's something in me that wants to do that.
• 15:32
  Garrett Peters: Sure, I had we get it.
• 15:33
  Garrett Peters: You know, you guys, I'm speaking to the crowd.
• 15:36
  Garrett Peters: Yeah, we totally understand, Like.
• 15:38
  Garrett Peters: So.
• 15:38
  Garrett Peters: So when I was like, hey, we're going to sell Prompti Keepsake journals I didn't even know what that meant.
• 15:44
  Garrett Peters: It wasn't like that meaningful for me at the time was like I don't really care what it is.
• 15:50
  Mark Zweig: That's a huge passion for that.
• 15:52
  Garrett Peters: But I'm just want to see if we can create something Like what, what would that look like?
• 15:55
  Garrett Peters: And I was just always like intrigued by that.
• 15:58
  Garrett Peters: And so, you know, when we started, I was like, let's just figure out how to start a business together, yeah, and?
• 16:05
  Garrett Peters: And so back to your question.
• 16:06
  Garrett Peters: There were some of our best friends and actually, when I got feedback from mentors of mine, they were all kind of like I don't know if you should do that.
• 16:16
  Garrett Peters: Right, proceed with caution.
• 16:18
  Garrett Peters: You know what I'm saying Proceed with caution.
• 16:19
  Garrett Peters: And I was real hesitant about it, honestly, because I was.
• 16:22
  Garrett Peters: What I didn't want to do was like ruin a friendship, a deep friendship that we have just to start a business, right.
• 16:28
  Garrett Peters: And so we spent a lot of time really like wrestling through what it looks like, what does an ownership look like, what does roles look like, what is the vision of where we're going, before we even had a product.
• 16:40
  Garrett Peters: Good, and just the feedback I got was like set it up the right way, yeah, don't just willy nilly, thank you, do something.
• 16:49
  Garrett Peters: Exit plan Get, get with the lawyer, yeah, set the bylaws, set the corporation up, all the other things, all the stuff.
• 16:55
  Garrett Peters: And my team Shareholder, yeah, yeah, shareholder, all the stuff, and I was like I didn't know about any of that and they're all like this seems like a lot of work, like doing all this stuff and it was.
• 17:05
  Garrett Peters: It was kind of cumbersome, but I was like we need to have this in place.
• 17:08
  Garrett Peters: Yes, because in a few years, let's just say it's like this thing blows up and now somebody's like hey, you know, I'm having some like tension here, you know.
• 17:17
  Garrett Peters: So, anyway, we set it up as an escort Excellent, early on.
• 17:21
  Garrett Peters: So glad.
• 17:22
  Mark Zweig: Yeah, we just talked about that last week, I guess, or week before last where everybody, just they go to their attorneys, they go well, you need an LLC, and they set up an LLC and then they've got an LLC operating agreement that requires everyone to agree on everything yeah, with no buyback provisions, no valuation methodology yeah, and it blows up damn near every single time.
• 17:44
  Mark Zweig: I do.
• 17:44
  Mark Zweig: Yeah, it's like you know.
• 17:46
  Mark Zweig: I think we were saying it's like lawyers or a dentist has given away Mary Janes or something so they can rip your feelings out.
• 17:54
  Mark Zweig: I mean, it's just the worst possible thing you could do.
• 18:00
  Mark Zweig: I think there's something to be said about setting it up the right way, you know, obviously there is, I mean, and so it's worked out well.
• 18:06
  Mark Zweig: You guys are all still together, we are yeah, we've had some.
• 18:10
  Garrett Peters: We've had some, you know, obviously, challenges along the way.
• 18:13
  Garrett Peters: Sure, sure, relationally, I think that I was more so concerned about what our friendship relationship was going to look like versus Stephanie and I, like our marriage was we had done some things together.
• 18:25
  Garrett Peters: We worked well together, like oh, was that concerned about it?
• 18:28
  Garrett Peters: But sure, I think that one of the things that that we really struggle with the first few years was how overwhelming it could be, like we talked about this all the time.
• 18:41
  Mark Zweig: You're successful, Well it was.
• 18:43
  Garrett Peters: It was like you know, it can become yeah, exactly, it's like it.
• 18:47
  Garrett Peters: Just it can become overwhelming, like we're talking about it every time.
• 18:51
  Garrett Peters: Every time we're hanging out with them, it's like talking about the business.
• 18:53
  Garrett Peters: What do we got to do?
• 18:54
  Garrett Peters: And so we had to eventually draw just some more clear boundaries around.
• 19:00
  Garrett Peters: Let's talk about the business throughout the day.
• 19:03
  Garrett Peters: If there's a need to do something at night, we can, but let's just be friends at night.
• 19:06
  Garrett Peters: Yeah, you know so.
• 19:07
  Garrett Peters: Yeah, these are our business.
• 19:10
  Garrett Peters: My business partners are some of our best friends.
• 19:12
  Garrett Peters: Like we literally are taking vacations with them and doing stuff like that.
• 19:15
  Eric Howerton: So Awesome, yeah, that's great If you can, if you can keep that intact and have a successful business.
• 19:20
  Eric Howerton: Yeah, I mean, it's funny in business like it's just nothing, but problems are either good or bad.
• 19:24
  Eric Howerton: Yeah, you know, but don't, don't expect it's not going to always be a problem.
• 19:29
  Eric Howerton: Yeah, because the business starts going down and you have that type of stress and your friendship, but a big growl is like Mark was saying.
• 19:36
  Mark Zweig: Yeah, well, that's a different stress, but it's a stress.
• 19:40
  Garrett Peters: I'll tell you the.
• 19:41
  Garrett Peters: So I was running the business when we started the business in 2020, let's say, we launched in, you know, february 2020, right, it's like the world was shutting down.
• 19:49
  Garrett Peters: It was a wild season.
• 19:51
  Garrett Peters: That's exactly what it was.
• 19:52
  Garrett Peters: Our kids were at home where we just launched.
• 19:55
  Garrett Peters: Well, we get to the end of that year, first of 2021.
• 19:59
  Garrett Peters: And I was so stressed like we are, you know I'm we're fulfilling orders out of our garage and we're following up with customers after the holidays.
• 20:12
  Garrett Peters: We're like all this stuff is going on.
• 20:14
  Garrett Peters: I have a full-time job working for someone else, and I walked into our kitchen one day first of the year in 2021.
• 20:23
  Garrett Peters: And I was super stressed.
• 20:25
  Garrett Peters: I'm like I don't know what to do and Stephanie looked at me.
• 20:29
  Garrett Peters: She was at me.
• 20:30
  Garrett Peters: She was like you need to quit your job, which I was not expecting that to happen at all.
• 20:35
  Garrett Peters: I was like what are you talking about?
• 20:37
  Garrett Peters: I just wanted to talk about the stress of it.
• 20:40
  Garrett Peters: I'm like how is it?
• 20:41
  Garrett Peters: I'm not ready to do that.
• 20:42
  Garrett Peters: And she goes no, I'm looking at our numbers for the year.
• 20:45
  Garrett Peters: Like we had a great.
• 20:47
  Garrett Peters: We had a great holiday.
• 20:48
  Garrett Peters: You know we're.
• 20:49
  Garrett Peters: We're continuing to see momentum on every day we're getting more and more orders.
• 20:52
  Garrett Peters: I'm like she's like we can do this.
• 20:54
  Garrett Peters: You need to quit your job.
• 20:55
  Garrett Peters: Like she's thinking in her mind this my dream could be coming true of my husband can now work for like her own business and we can, you know, build our life this way.
• 21:09
  Garrett Peters: And I was like I don't think that's a good idea.
• 21:12
  Garrett Peters: Like we're not making money on the business, right, you can't keep up your six figure, yeah, and I'm like, yeah, and I'm like we have a, we have a, I have a great job.
• 21:21
  Garrett Peters: You know all this stuff.
• 21:22
  Garrett Peters: And I was like Stephanie, we don't make any money.
• 21:26
  Garrett Peters: We don't make the money.
• 21:27
  Garrett Peters: Don't let us get in the way.
• 21:31
  Eric Howerton: We don't.
• 21:32
  Eric Howerton: You should be spending four times what you make Exactly.
• 21:35
  Eric Howerton: It doesn't matter.
• 21:36
  Eric Howerton: Don't let that yeah.
• 21:39
  Garrett Peters: And so what's?
• 21:40
  Garrett Peters: What's funny is, don't let that stop you.
• 21:42
  Garrett Peters: I was like, how are we going to live?
• 21:44
  Garrett Peters: We have three kids at the house, like what are we doing?
• 21:47
  Garrett Peters: And um, and so, anyway, we, I said, I'll take, I'll take the rest of the day.
• 21:52
  Garrett Peters: I literally took the rest of the day off, called a couple of my good friends, met with some people.
• 21:56
  Garrett Peters: We met as a team that night, as an ownership team, and basically I told them either I have to completely stop working on this side, hustle business and or or I'm like go all in on it, like those are the options.
• 22:11
  Garrett Peters: And everyone basically unanimously said we need you to do that, we need you to help, like move, like do the business.
• 22:18
  Garrett Peters: No one else on our team was wanting to do that and so I was like, sweet, I get to run the business now.
• 22:24
  Garrett Peters: Okay, well, that set me on 2021 was a complete disaster.
• 22:31
  Garrett Peters: Yeah, oh, just the worst left my job in January to 21.
• 22:39
  Eric Howerton: So let's talk real quick on that.
• 22:40
  Eric Howerton: Yeah, that decision.
• 22:41
  Eric Howerton: Yeah, like you met with your team, mm.
• 22:43
  Eric Howerton: Hmm, unanimous that you should come in and do that.
• 22:45
  Eric Howerton: How soon did you make the decision the next day?
• 22:48
  Eric Howerton: So I want to point something out.
• 22:49
  Eric Howerton: I think it's so important Decisiveness.
• 22:52
  Mark Zweig: Amen, brother, decisiveness and action, and as side and act.
• 22:57
  Eric Howerton: It is actually I've been to kind of study, restudy a little bit, just from different materials it is the antidote and the killer to passivity.
• 23:10
  Eric Howerton: Yes, passivity is what kills about every person and every business, and it's the leaning leg of non-productivity and freaking.
• 23:21
  Eric Howerton: Yeah right, all the nastiness of humanity.
• 23:23
  Eric Howerton: Decisiveness, though I will love that fact.
• 23:25
  Eric Howerton: Yep, so you don't have to do a gosh.
• 23:29
  Eric Howerton: Dang freaking market analysis to the side if you should quit or not.
• 23:31
  Eric Howerton: Well, I know, either go shit or get off the pot, yeah.
• 23:34
  Eric Howerton: Go fake or go go for it or not.
• 23:36
  Eric Howerton: That's really good, right.
• 23:37
  Eric Howerton: Get in or get out of my face, yeah.
• 23:40
  Mark Zweig: Yeah, exactly.
• 23:41
  Eric Howerton: Like it's, it's a big deal.
• 23:44
  Eric Howerton: I think that I don't know.
• 23:45
  Eric Howerton: I mean, you'll probably look at that decision and probably that's probably why you make makes you a good CEO too.
• 23:51
  Eric Howerton: Yeah, being, yeah, totally.
• 23:53
  Garrett Peters: Well, I think that for me it was a.
• 23:55
  Garrett Peters: It was a really simple equation because I said I'm going to give this a year, like what?
• 24:02
  Garrett Peters: It was risky in a lot in some ways, but we had already been selling product, we'd already been like the business was going Right.
• 24:08
  Garrett Peters: That's the reason I I, so we started.
• 24:09
  Garrett Peters: It was like, hey, let's see if this could work and then let's go all in.
• 24:14
  Garrett Peters: And so I said I told Stephanie, I was like let's take a year, like if, for whatever reason, it just doesn't grow like we think it should, or could we go back Then?
• 24:22
  Garrett Peters: I'll go back, I'll call some of my friends and get a job somewhere else.
• 24:25
  Eric Howerton: Sure, I mean how hard is that?
• 24:27
  Eric Howerton: That's another thing.
• 24:28
  Eric Howerton: Confidence, decisiveness, confidence I mean those are big things that I don't think.
• 24:33
  Eric Howerton: That I think, when we think about the people listening, you're so true.
• 24:35
  Eric Howerton: So many people out there that went, yes, what you wanted, your wife wanted, but they don't have the confidence or the decisiveness to make that call.
• 24:45
  Eric Howerton: And the reality is is that when time came in, duty called, you made the decision to step up, which is another thing.
• 24:52
  Eric Howerton: You went into uncharted territory for yourself, yeah, which requires confidence.
• 24:57
  Mark Zweig: You know, I grant long and biojail us a quote recently from Bezos that was something to the effect of, like you'll never have enough information to make a decision.
• 25:08
  Mark Zweig: No, that's okay, and if you had 40% of the information, you're lucky.
• 25:13
  Mark Zweig: You know, but if you make a bad decision, the whole key is you make a new decision quickly.
• 25:19
  Mark Zweig: Yeah, all right, but it's always cheaper than not making a decision and not acting good.
• 25:25
  Mark Zweig: Yeah, it's really good.
• 25:25
  Mark Zweig: It's so true, because it's always cheaper than not, absolutely.
• 25:30
  Eric Howerton: Yeah, one of the good quotes is like the worst decision is not making one.
• 25:34
  Mark Zweig: Yeah, yeah that's good, that's really good.
• 25:36
  Mark Zweig: This is why and again, I'm a big fan of formal education.
• 25:40
  Mark Zweig: Okay, I got my MBA.
• 25:41
  Mark Zweig: I used every single bit of what I learned.
• 25:45
  Mark Zweig: However, that said, I do think that it encourages analysis paralysis to a certain extent.
• 25:55
  Mark Zweig: All right, because you always think, well, I need more information.
• 25:58
  Mark Zweig: Everything's a data driven decision.
• 26:01
  Mark Zweig: It's a big cliche.
• 26:02
  Mark Zweig: Okay, you'll never have all the data.
• 26:04
  Mark Zweig: You won't.
• 26:05
  Mark Zweig: You got to go on gut feeling.
• 26:07
  Mark Zweig: It's growing, you do.
• 26:08
  Mark Zweig: All right, we're going, let's do this.
• 26:09
  Mark Zweig: Go, go, go, go, go, it's going.
• 26:12
  Mark Zweig: Go for it.
• 26:12
  Mark Zweig: Yeah, but let me see.
• 26:13
  Mark Zweig: But if I project out our growth in a straight line, what will the bottom line be?
• 26:18
  Mark Zweig: And will that replace my full salary and all the benefits I get?
• 26:21
  Mark Zweig: No, it's not going to for a while.
• 26:24
  Mark Zweig: Yeah, okay, yeah, probably.
• 26:26
  Garrett Peters: Yeah.
• 26:27
  Mark Zweig: Well, what's about it?
• 26:28
  Mark Zweig: Howdy you know?
• 26:29
  Mark Zweig: We got credit cards, honey.
• 26:30
  Mark Zweig: We got credit cards and a card, all on general mode.
• 26:35
  Mark Zweig: Yes, yes, we got credit cards, we got credit cards.
• 26:39
  Mark Zweig: That's it, that's it, that's our time.
• 26:41
  Eric Howerton: I've always called credit cards before we're retired, right, it's.
• 26:44
  Eric Howerton: You know, I get it up front.
• 26:46
  Eric Howerton: It's my retirement up front.
• 26:47
  Eric Howerton: That's hilarious.
• 26:48
  Eric Howerton: Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank it.
• 26:52
  Garrett Peters: That's so funny.
• 26:53
  Mark Zweig: But you did it, you survived.
• 26:55
  Mark Zweig: Yeah, that one's going straight on.
• 26:56
  Garrett Peters: But here's what's funny, though is like when I left and we talked we mentioned this earlier, maybe before we started was I had a couple of things happen, like in 2021.
• 27:07
  Garrett Peters: I was so wired around my schedule, the tasks, the you know the goals, the corporate kind of environment that I came from.
• 27:21
  Garrett Peters: I spent a lot of time working with Walmart and Sam's, you know buyers and merchandising and stuff, and if you said you got to get, if it says you're going to hit a certain date, you better hit the date, oh, you're dead, you're not in the store, yeah, it doesn't matter.
• 27:33
  Garrett Peters: So, like there's deadlines and you have to meet those things.
• 27:37
  Garrett Peters: Well, I'm coming into our business now as the CEO, head wrangler of Duncan and Stone and I'm like guys, what are we going to do?
• 27:45
  Garrett Peters: Like we got to hit these deadlines, we got to do this, we got to do that.
• 27:48
  Garrett Peters: And Sarah and Stephanie were looking at me like whoa, bro, you need to settle down.
• 27:54
  Garrett Peters: They're staying at home.
• 27:55
  Garrett Peters: Moms, our youngest kids are still at the house.
• 27:58
  Garrett Peters: They're like this is a true side business for me.
• 28:01
  Garrett Peters: Like I don't have the time for you to be a psychopath with like the intensity You're breaking.
• 28:07
  Mark Zweig: I can't wait till people hear this, okay.
• 28:11
  Garrett Peters: I mean, I was just.
• 28:12
  Garrett Peters: I was a maniac because in my mind I'm like I I just had this thing of we got to get this done.
• 28:18
  Garrett Peters: We got to figure this out.
• 28:20
  Garrett Peters: We got to grow, we got to build this thing, we got to do this Everything that I'm reading stuff about in e-commerce businesses.
• 28:28
  Garrett Peters: I didn't.
• 28:29
  Garrett Peters: I don't know what to do.
• 28:30
  Garrett Peters: I'm not an expert, but I know what they're telling me to do and so dang it.
• 28:34
  Garrett Peters: We got to do those things, yeah, and?
• 28:36
  Garrett Peters: And my team is like dude, you're freaking, doing too much and pushing people to the heart.
• 28:42
  Garrett Peters: So we had a lot of conversations and I was super stressed.
• 28:46
  Garrett Peters: I'm like we're not, we're not getting anything done.
• 28:48
  Garrett Peters: You know, I just was, my wheels were spinning and I'm now like a entrepreneur quote, quote, unquote, whatever that means, and I don't know what the heck is going on.
• 28:57
  Garrett Peters: And it was just, it was the worst.
• 29:00
  Garrett Peters: It's like, literally by the end of that year, I was like being a business owner sounds amazing.
• 29:08
  Garrett Peters: Working for my business sucks.
• 29:10
  Garrett Peters: This is not sustainable for me.
• 29:13
  Garrett Peters: Because I was grinding, I was just doing everything.
• 29:17
  Garrett Peters: I was doing.
• 29:17
  Garrett Peters: Fulfillment I was doing.
• 29:19
  Garrett Peters: You name it, you name it, it was coming through.
• 29:21
  Garrett Peters: That's what you do when you're small though.
• 29:23
  Garrett Peters: Yeah and I think I've heard you guys talk about that before you go on here is like that's just.
• 29:27
  Garrett Peters: That was the life stage that we were in, you know, the first year or two of our business, right?
• 29:31
  Garrett Peters: It's like, yeah, gotta figure it out, right?
• 29:33
  Garrett Peters: The reality, though, for me was how much just relational damage that was causing within our team, within my friends, just within my own mental state of like this is overwhelming.
• 29:48
  Garrett Peters: I remember, specifically leaving a meeting that we all had, and it was toward the end of the year, and here's what was going on.
• 29:56
  Garrett Peters: We were celebrating the growth, because we were growing, like I said, we'd like tripled the first, the second year, or something in revenue.
• 30:02
  Garrett Peters: We were.
• 30:05
  Garrett Peters: We were celebrating as a team.
• 30:06
  Garrett Peters: Our team was like, oh man, we've had, we're having a great year, yay.
• 30:09
  Garrett Peters: And I was looking at this like I'm just busted my butt to get this growth and I don't feel very excited about this.
• 30:20
  Garrett Peters: I'm like so we did $900,000?
• 30:24
  Garrett Peters: Like that's nothing it did, but you tell me what's that?
• 30:28
  Mark Zweig: You're like wall rower.
• 30:29
  Mark Zweig: Yeah, I'm like what?
• 30:32
  Mark Zweig: That's nothing.
• 30:32
  Mark Zweig: I'm like what are we doing?
• 30:33
  Mark Zweig: We're coming from nothing.
• 30:34
  Mark Zweig: That's pretty damn impressive, I know, yeah, sure.
• 30:38
  Garrett Peters: But I'm just thinking about the.
• 30:40
  Garrett Peters: You know we're well.
• 30:42
  Garrett Peters: Another person on our team is like well, let's start talking about what taxes we're going to pay this year and all these other things.
• 30:46
  Garrett Peters: I'm like, well, how are we talking about this?
• 30:49
  Garrett Peters: I've just killed myself for the year and now I'm about to go pay a bunch of taxes.
• 30:53
  Garrett Peters: Like what the heck?
• 30:54
  Garrett Peters: This business sucks.
• 30:54
  Garrett Peters: I don't want to do this.
• 30:56
  Garrett Peters: You know it'll get past that.
• 30:57
  Garrett Peters: It really it began to like clearly there were significant issues and things we needed to change moving forward if we were going to scale Duncan and Stone, and it really helped clarify heading into 2022, like what we needed to do differently and how I needed to change kind of my perspective as well.
• 31:20
  Garrett Peters: You know, through that it was tough.
• 31:22
  Eric Howerton: I think when you're talking about that, I mean I can relate to that and as you're a CEO, you know business owner leading other people.
• 31:33
  Eric Howerton: So you got to have a team that's grateful about the work that they've done, which is a fantastic culture.
• 31:39
  Eric Howerton: Yeah, which is one of the most is my opinion, the most important thing of a company and organization is to have a culture that is grateful and passionate about what they're doing.
• 31:50
  Eric Howerton: Yeah, you know, and they're growing and they're developing, but then you have this CEO that it's not good enough.
• 31:59
  Eric Howerton: Yeah, you know, and, but I think that's true, but there, I think there's like what it seems like you learn was like there was this, there's this balance, there's just there's this way to check yourself, mm-hmm, because, as in that leadership position here, I Know I've checked myself a million times, I've been like where I've been, like wigging out in the way I'm thinking, but having the ability to stop Yep, and get objective and grateful and thankful, yes, people, you got the progress you may.
• 32:28
  Eric Howerton: Yes, resting in that, yeah, that's good, you know, you know work.
• 32:32
  Garrett Peters: Yeah, we had to have.
• 32:33
  Garrett Peters: Oh, it's so good, that's really good.
• 32:34
  Garrett Peters: And I think that the I Just had to step back and like yeah, and just talk to our team very transparently to say, hey, when you celebrate, even publicly or with friends, like, hey, our businesses triple this year, yay, I Hear that as like you're taking the credit for this thing that's been built, but I feel like I've basically been the one building that.
• 33:02
  Garrett Peters: Not say that doesn't necessarily mean that that's rational, right?
• 33:06
  Garrett Peters: You know I'm saying sure, like hey, I know that we've been cuz takes, takes Sarah, for example, who's our creative director and the brains behind the brand.
• 33:14
  Garrett Peters: She's also going.
• 33:18
  Garrett Peters: I feel like I've created, I've been the one that's been grinding to build this business.
• 33:21
  Garrett Peters: Sure, working at nights, when I don't really want to work full-time on the business and now I do so it was like just really setting down, sitting down as a team, to say, hey, this is how I feel about this.
• 33:34
  Garrett Peters: I know this probably isn't accurate, but like I still feel this way.
• 33:37
  Garrett Peters: It's like, okay, thank you for sharing that.
• 33:40
  Garrett Peters: Like let's talk about, can just you?
• 33:42
  Garrett Peters: Let's get to the bottom of that and maybe make some adjustments Can.
• 33:45
  Eric Howerton: I oh sorry, can you?
• 33:49
  Eric Howerton: You can do it both again.
• 33:50
  Eric Howerton: Hey, I'm you, go first, eric.
• 33:52
  Eric Howerton: So this means a lot to me, mm-hmm, because, like my experience when we got, when we build white spider up and we sold, you know, people would come and say how does it feel to sell your bait right as a, as a founder of that company, I Can legitimately say like it did not feel that way, like I had at some point early on, like probably the first two years it was my baby, you know, and I was just so driven by that, yeah.
• 34:26
  Eric Howerton: But I came to a point where I had, like, by the time we had sold that company at, was so far away from being my identity and I was literally, I believed in this brand and what this entity and this identity of this company was, which was encompassing Everyone.
• 34:42
  Eric Howerton: Like it's an organization.
• 34:44
  Eric Howerton: Yeah, it was an organization.
• 34:45
  Eric Howerton: Like it, right, like, and so there was no piece of me that went away with that or that went along with that.
• 34:51
  Eric Howerton: It was Like it, but on the flip side of it, it was really come.
• 34:55
  Eric Howerton: It's been really confusing to ever really Feel like that I contributed.
• 35:01
  Eric Howerton: If you talked to my wife, like he might have had a problem of recognizing that I was actually even valuable to the company.
• 35:07
  Eric Howerton: Of course you're in the spark plug, yeah, but I could.
• 35:10
  Eric Howerton: I cannot relate yet like mentally, like I had, I had, I Guess I had what would you call it?
• 35:17
  Eric Howerton: You had, you know, I had humbled my Myself over and over and over and over again to such a, to such a level that I didn't even know what my contribution to the company was.
• 35:27
  Eric Howerton: Wow, and while we're rebuilding it, grow in and so yeah, I think that's a barrier.
• 35:31
  Mark Zweig: That's a big problem with a lot of companies.
• 35:33
  Mark Zweig: Who that sell is the buyers don't really appreciate what the founder did over.
• 35:41
  Mark Zweig: Okay, my brother can talk a lot about that.
• 35:44
  Mark Zweig: You know he's been involved in buying hundred.
• 35:46
  Mark Zweig: That's what agency's WPP?
• 35:48
  Mark Zweig: Yeah, it was the the chairman of the health care and specialized communication companies for them, but anyway, and his buddy is you know.
• 35:58
  Mark Zweig: Oh, what are the two big ad agencies?
• 36:01
  Mark Zweig: Piblises, omnicon?
• 36:04
  Mark Zweig: No, the one that they had J Walter Thompson is Fred, yes, the CEO of that.
• 36:08
  Mark Zweig: He's always talking about you know that.
• 36:11
  Mark Zweig: But anyway, I wanted to go back and ask you or make a comment.
• 36:16
  Mark Zweig: Well, I think you know what you pointed out was One reason why companies need to grow is because you're not gonna be good at everything.
• 36:27
  Mark Zweig: You can't do everything, and if you commit to a growth vision, Not only can everybody else get closer to what they do best, but you can, you know, and you can get, you can Offload, start off loading.
• 36:41
  Mark Zweig: Some of the things that you don't like is yeah, you're aren't as good at you and I think that's a really big deal.
• 36:47
  Mark Zweig: That that you know, people need to understand.
• 36:51
  Mark Zweig: Sometimes, I think a small business center Thanks.
• 36:54
  Mark Zweig: Well, I can't grow because I'm doing all I can do right now, and if I grow, that makes it worse.
• 36:59
  Mark Zweig: Yeah, you see what I mean, but in reality it could go the other way.
• 37:04
  Mark Zweig: It could make it a lot better for you, sure yeah, because you can.
• 37:09
  Eric Howerton: if you're smart about it, you can isolate yourself out of the things that you don't enjoy.
• 37:13
  Garrett Peters: exactly like, really just good, yeah, yeah yeah, yeah, a friend of mine who's who has been a mentor of mine as well over the years.
• 37:21
  Garrett Peters: His name's Mike Harvey.
• 37:22
  Garrett Peters: He's a guy that works at harvest group, one of the key leaders at heart risk here locally and been there for a long time.
• 37:27
  Garrett Peters: Amazing man and Don't know it's.
• 37:31
  Garrett Peters: He'd follow him on LinkedIn because he writes almost every day about some sort of you know Kind of life or business thing.
• 37:37
  Garrett Peters: Very, very insightful guy.
• 37:38
  Garrett Peters: I met with him recently and he was like hearing some of the story of our, of our business and just kind of my journey, and he said something that was really interesting and he basically equated it to you have been in the trenches and developed the grit.
• 37:58
  Garrett Peters: Like those first few years of building the business was you guys just developing real resiliency and grit and just the backbone of this thing, like you were gonna make it happen and thankfully it's like we were working hard.
• 38:17
  Garrett Peters: But also there's luck involved.
• 38:20
  Garrett Peters: There's things that just happen outside of our control for us to continue to grow.
• 38:25
  Garrett Peters: And what he was describing is most people don't see all that.
• 38:31
  Garrett Peters: Most people see the small two, three percent that you show on social media or you're posting about.
• 38:38
  Garrett Peters: Yay, like you grew and you keep doubling.
• 38:41
  Garrett Peters: Yay, business is awesome, but they don't see the grind.
• 38:46
  Mark Zweig: Oh, yeah, of course.
• 38:46
  Mark Zweig: Yeah, the overnight success that happened took 30 years.
• 38:50
  Garrett Peters: And it really struck for me because the point he was making was like most people don't push through that, there's this.
• 38:59
  Garrett Peters: It's hard to do that, to continue, even when you're struggling the first year or two.
• 39:04
  Mark Zweig: You know, it's really interesting because I you know, Eric and I are owners in this motorcycle manufacturing business and I mean, I'm involved with it on a daily basis.
• 39:14
  Mark Zweig: It's like a really big time commitment for me.
• 39:16
  Mark Zweig: But in any case, we talk a lot about failures in the industry.
• 39:21
  Mark Zweig: Several electric motorcycle makers have failed recently.
• 39:25
  Mark Zweig: They all have this one thing in common, though it's like they blew through $77 million worth of capital.
• 39:32
  Mark Zweig: You know our 120,.
• 39:34
  Mark Zweig: It's like, yeah, when you have too much capital, it's a bad thing, because you don't force yourself to have the discipline to do what you really need to do to build the system.
• 39:48
  Mark Zweig: So the thing is actually gonna work because you have no resources whatsoever, and if you can push through that, okay, then you set the stage to have a successful company later that actually functions as a business.
• 40:03
  Mark Zweig: These other people just burn through cash.
• 40:06
  Mark Zweig: They ever develop that discipline, and then it all blows in.
• 40:09
  Mark Zweig: It's like, oh, it failed, of course.
• 40:11
  Mark Zweig: Okay, wow, like a lot of the, it's not a blessing.
• 40:15
  Eric Howerton: They have a lot of money.
• 40:16
  Eric Howerton: They have a very successful business.
• 40:18
  Eric Howerton: Yes, they don't do well, it's true, a lot of them.
• 40:21
  Eric Howerton: Or when you win the friggin' lottery and you blow up your money because you don't have the wisdom in the discipline yes, that's good.
• 40:28
  Mark Zweig: Yeah, if you can push through that with no resources, like you're saying, and do an every job and get yourself past that, you set the stage with a platform that's good.
• 40:41
  Mark Zweig: Now the potential is far greater.
• 40:43
  Mark Zweig: I mean because if you look at where you are right now, it's a three and a half million dollar business.
• 40:47
  Mark Zweig: You know what.
• 40:48
  Mark Zweig: It's not that hard to visualize.
• 40:50
  Mark Zweig: You can get a $35 million business.
• 40:51
  Mark Zweig: Yeah, that'd be nice.
• 40:52
  Mark Zweig: And then what's that?
• 40:53
  Mark Zweig: That'd be nice yeah.
• 40:55
  Eric Howerton: Might have a CF Roll.
• 40:56
  Eric Howerton: What is CF Roll, I'm gonna ask?
• 40:57
  Eric Howerton: Definitely need to be out of the business.
• 41:00
  Mark Zweig: And we're gonna do that.
• 41:01
  Mark Zweig: And then what's that company worth?
• 41:03
  Mark Zweig: Okay, and then what are your options?
• 41:05
  Mark Zweig: I know, yeah, yeah.
• 41:07
  Garrett Peters: Well, I think there's something about, like, I love meeting with people locally, or they wanna start something, or they're working on this side business or whatever.
• 41:18
  Garrett Peters: I love that, I love the early, I love ideas, I love that early stage.
• 41:22
  Garrett Peters: But what I tell them is I'll ask them questions about their life.
• 41:26
  Garrett Peters: Hey, what does your life look like?
• 41:29
  Garrett Peters: What do you do at nights?
• 41:31
  Garrett Peters: Right, are you watching shows, mm-hmm?
• 41:33
  Garrett Peters: Are you just binging and chilling?
• 41:35
  Garrett Peters: Well, if you are, if you are, then there's just no way you're gonna put in the time and energy necessary to grow something if you're truly passionate about it.
• 41:46
  Garrett Peters: Wait a minute.
• 41:47
  Mark Zweig: I can work from six till nine pm, and then I can turn on my house, then you can yeah, hey, yeah, maybe that's fine, do both.
• 41:55
  Eric Howerton: Yeah that nine to the 11, you're only TPS.
• 41:58
  Mark Zweig: Yeah, if you're already working and you eat that in there too.
• 42:00
  Mark Zweig: Yeah, if you're lucky.
• 42:03
  Garrett Peters: Well, I think that, and that's just.
• 42:06
  Garrett Peters: It's different.
• 42:07
  Garrett Peters: Not everybody needs to go start a business.
• 42:09
  Garrett Peters: No, nobody needs to do it.
• 42:09
  Garrett Peters: That's not right for everybody, it's like it's not right for everybody.
• 42:12
  Mark Zweig: The supportive spouse is a really big part of it.
• 42:14
  Mark Zweig: Yes, parents who support you is a big part of it.
• 42:18
  Mark Zweig: Yep, I mean, I think you're right.
• 42:19
  Mark Zweig: There's a lot of factors and you really need to understand, like, what kind of a life Wiring?
• 42:24
  Mark Zweig: How much are you willing to sacrifice?
• 42:26
  Mark Zweig: Are you willing to get rid of your $70,000 test?
• 42:29
  Mark Zweig: Yes, buy a $5,000 piece of crap car?
• 42:32
  Mark Zweig: Yeah, if you need to.
• 42:33
  Mark Zweig: You know what I mean.
• 42:34
  Mark Zweig: It's what it all comes down to, like how much are you willing to give it?
• 42:38
  Mark Zweig: Do you have the support system of some people that care about you?
• 42:42
  Mark Zweig: Yeah, yeah, I, I, yeah, you're right, though that's start asking those questions.
• 42:48
  Eric Howerton: Yeah, that can be a lot of reason.
• 42:49
  Eric Howerton: Like all these startups that go out and raise capital they don't have in.
• 42:53
  Eric Howerton: They never make a sacrifice.
• 42:55
  Eric Howerton: They don't have a support system with just 100% financial support they do.
• 43:00
  Eric Howerton: Yeah, or even mentor support of people that are the investors.
• 43:04
  Eric Howerton: Like that's kind of not what you really need as an entrepreneur.
• 43:07
  Eric Howerton: Yeah, right, the one that's running stuff.
• 43:08
  Eric Howerton: Yeah, as always, going to your investor group to only get advice there and support.
• 43:13
  Eric Howerton: Like they, because they they hear if they sense your weakness.
• 43:16
  Eric Howerton: Yeah.
• 43:17
  Mark Zweig: They're going to have a different idea for your business.
• 43:19
  Mark Zweig: Yeah.
• 43:19
  Eric Howerton: Oh, what do you mean?
• 43:20
  Eric Howerton: You're?
• 43:20
  Eric Howerton: What do you mean?
• 43:22
  Eric Howerton: You haven't been sleeping for three days.
• 43:23
  Mark Zweig: You've got to be careful about asking them.
• 43:26
  Mark Zweig: Yeah, that sounds terrible, by the way.
• 43:27
  Mark Zweig: Well, yeah, you're right, man, you're really right about that.
• 43:32
  Eric Howerton: Smell that weakness.
• 43:33
  Eric Howerton: Yeah, they do.
• 43:33
  Eric Howerton: Mm-hmm, yeah they don't.
• 43:35
  Mark Zweig: Yeah, they do.
• 43:35
  Mark Zweig: That's why it's good not to bring them in and tell them you're done, got it All right.
• 43:39
  Mark Zweig: Well, you avoid outside investors like the play yeah, so you absolutely can't help it.
• 43:46
  Mark Zweig: And then, if you do, you got to get people who are really going to actually be helpful to your business.
• 43:51
  Mark Zweig: Yeah, yeah.
• 43:52
  Eric Howerton: Obviously another time to get investors.
• 43:54
  Eric Howerton: If you're, if you're, if you knowingly are prepared to play that game, mm-hmm yeah, like if you go in with it with the right mindset, right yeah, you can be really successful as well.
• 44:04
  Eric Howerton: You know what I'm saying?
• 44:05
  Eric Howerton: This is what this money is, and this is my role with this and that's what my duty is for them.
• 44:11
  Mark Zweig: Yeah, right, well, good, outside investors can be very helpful.
• 44:14
  Mark Zweig: But you're right, because you do have a duty to them Absolutely.
• 44:18
  Mark Zweig: And just because their money's entirely at risk doesn't mean you can be cavalier with it, yeah, or feel like it's not your responsibility.
• 44:26
  Mark Zweig: Yeah, to make that a good investment for them, hell yeah, that's your job.
• 44:30
  Eric Howerton: That is your job and you owe them that If I pay you, if I give you a hundred thousand dollars, yeah, and I'm expecting you to make money for me, that's a high responsibility.
• 44:39
  Eric Howerton: And if you're going around like, oh, I don't have any risk in this, yeah, it ain't gonna work well man.
• 44:45
  Mark Zweig: No, that's going to end ugly.
• 44:47
  Eric Howerton: Yeah, and that's what a lot of them do.
• 44:49
  Mark Zweig: I know I can't understand that.
• 44:51
  Mark Zweig: I it, just it's not in my makeup.
• 44:53
  Mark Zweig: I feel the responsibility to perform.
• 44:58
  Eric Howerton: Just like you.
• 44:58
  Eric Howerton: Well, especially with your friends.
• 45:01
  Eric Howerton: Yeah, you got your wife involved.
• 45:03
  Eric Howerton: Oh, yeah, a lot of people.
• 45:04
  Eric Howerton: We have family.
• 45:04
  Garrett Peters: Well, you're a family business, family income now.
• 45:07
  Mark Zweig: That's 100%.
• 45:07
  Mark Zweig: It does.
• 45:08
  Mark Zweig: It depends, yeah, stress, I don't know, I don't know.
• 45:10
  Garrett Peters: I don't know.
• 45:10
  Garrett Peters: You guys are stressed out now.
• 45:14
  Garrett Peters: Yeah, I'm stressed out now.
• 45:15
  Garrett Peters: Well, no, I think there's the reality of that is something we talk about as a team.
• 45:21
  Garrett Peters: Multiple times throughout the year, we sit down and we'll have a couple off sites to talk through vision where we go in the next year.
• 45:30
  Garrett Peters: Where are we like?
• 45:32
  Garrett Peters: Yeah, we usually go through a handful of specific questions every time just to make sure we're on the same page, because and it's changed a little bit over the years, for sure, but generally where we are going in the same direction.
• 45:44
  Garrett Peters: But the point being, like, if someone on our team is, like, let's have an exit, like let's just sell this Now, well, we need to talk about that.
• 45:55
  Garrett Peters: We need to like, do you want to do that?
• 45:57
  Garrett Peters: Like, what is that going to look like?
• 45:59
  Garrett Peters: And so, but what we found is the way I think about it now is we're trying to build an asset, like we're trying to build something that's sustainable.
• 46:10
  Mark Zweig: You're thinking like an entrepreneur.
• 46:11
  Mark Zweig: Now, that's not just what money you make from it.
• 46:14
  Mark Zweig: Yeah, it's like.
• 46:15
  Garrett Peters: I want to build something that is a desirable, sustainable thing.
• 46:20
  Garrett Peters: If somebody wants to buy us, then like that would be awesome one day, but at the same time, we're also like finally like enjoy running a business.
• 46:29
  Garrett Peters: Right, you're just.
• 46:30
  Mark Zweig: It's so like I don't want to get rid of this thing Way too early.
• 46:32
  Mark Zweig: This is amazing yeah way too early, You're yeah.
• 46:35
  Eric Howerton: Yeah, keep going.
• 46:36
  Eric Howerton: I think really was in comparison.
• 46:39
  Eric Howerton: Yes, I think so.
• 46:41
  Eric Howerton: I mean to have goal settings, visual discussions like listen, make sure they're all in alignment.
• 46:46
  Mark Zweig: Wow.
• 46:49
  Eric Howerton: You know what I was.
• 46:49
  Eric Howerton: You know?
• 46:50
  Eric Howerton: First one I'd be like I don't give a shit what you think, Mark, this is the right way to do it, and you would have been like I hate you, I hate you.
• 46:58
  Eric Howerton: What are you talking about?
• 47:00
  Mark Zweig: Well, listen that we got along we, other than the fact that Eric wants black and chrome on everything.
• 47:05
  Mark Zweig: There's really no, there's no other disagreement.
• 47:09
  Mark Zweig: I just there's no highlights, though you use that your graphic design.
• 47:13
  Mark Zweig: Well, yeah, okay, you know what I mean.
• 47:16
  Mark Zweig: That's the only thing.
• 47:17
  Mark Zweig: I, because she's younger, you know, he said product at the nine layers, that's hilarious.
• 47:24
  Eric Howerton: Yeah, bronze, that's the difference.
• 47:25
  Eric Howerton: That's the difference.
• 47:26
  Eric Howerton: Freaking reggae's machines.
• 47:27
  Eric Howerton: I can see that.
• 47:28
  Eric Howerton: Your dog, your fauna, what I love, that that's what I grew up in.
• 47:32
  Eric Howerton: That's amazing.
• 47:33
  Eric Howerton: That's a veteran using time in the world.
• 47:34
  Eric Howerton: Oh man, that's the best.
• 47:36
  Eric Howerton: I mean, who else?
• 47:37
  Eric Howerton: I'm forgetting somebody, I'm sure.
• 47:39
  Garrett Peters: Sound garden Yep Allison Chains what?
• 47:43
  Eric Howerton: Thank you.
• 47:43
  Eric Howerton: Yes, thank you, that's my favorite name.
• 47:45
  Eric Howerton: Yes, dude, have you?
• 47:48
  Eric Howerton: Allison Chains came to the amp a couple of years ago.
• 47:51
  Eric Howerton: I didn't go.
• 47:51
  Eric Howerton: Yeah, you know, of course Lane's not around.
• 47:53
  Eric Howerton: Yeah Right, I went there with zero expectation.
• 47:57
  Eric Howerton: I was like my boy Lane's gone, I'm just gonna go because it's a change.
• 48:00
  Eric Howerton: You know what's the guitar player's name?
• 48:04
  Eric Howerton: I can't remember his name.
• 48:05
  Eric Howerton: Anyway, I knew he was still doing it.
• 48:06
  Mark Zweig: Anyway, I'm gonna go.
• 48:07
  Mark Zweig: It's a foreign language.
• 48:08
  Mark Zweig: I don't even know what song Allison Chains did.
• 48:10
  Eric Howerton: Well, because you young guys carry on.
• 48:12
  Eric Howerton: I got into that show and, dude, it was freaking fantastic, was it?
• 48:18
  Garrett Peters: They played Slutch Factory.
• 48:19
  Garrett Peters: I mean Mark's like amazing.
• 48:23
  Mark Zweig: Slutch Factory.
• 48:24
  Mark Zweig: You know what I'm saying.
• 48:25
  Mark Zweig: That's like in South Fand though you know what I'm saying when we have the sewage treatment play.
• 48:29
  Mark Zweig: No, I don't know.
• 48:30
  Mark Zweig: I don't know what that is, can we?
• 48:32
  Mark Zweig: You guys are too much.
• 48:33
  Eric Howerton: Yeah, I wanna, let's look, because we won't be more probably get close to time.
• 48:38
  Eric Howerton: So show us show everyone.
• 48:40
  Garrett Peters: Listen, we sell all sorts of stuff.
• 48:41
  Garrett Peters: When we started the business, we sold.
• 48:45
  Garrett Peters: This is one of our early items.
• 48:46
  Garrett Peters: This is like a childhood keepsake book, so it's called Dear Son, it's a Can I see what?
• 48:52
  Garrett Peters: Yeah, you can look around.
• 48:52
  Garrett Peters: Look around at them.
• 48:53
  Garrett Peters: This is a newer item.
• 48:54
  Garrett Peters: It's like a baby's first year, baby's first year.
• 48:56
  Garrett Peters: So our brand is really built on bringing families together, capturing memories, all of that sort of thing.
• 49:04
  Garrett Peters: So you sort of organize this.
• 49:06
  Garrett Peters: Where people can put so many of your looking things Is like a birth to 18 years old childhood keepsake.
• 49:11
  Garrett Peters: Nice Is a first year, baby's first year book.
• 49:14
  Garrett Peters: You and I have got to talk about it.
• 49:16
  Garrett Peters: It's fantastic, okay, sweet, I love it.
• 49:18
  Eric Howerton: We're gonna make let's see how the ends.
• 49:20
  Garrett Peters: So yes, yeah.
• 49:23
  Garrett Peters: Jillian.
• 49:23
  Garrett Peters: But here's the deal After when we launched, we kept getting more.
• 49:27
  Garrett Peters: This is one of our most popular items.
• 49:28
  Garrett Peters: That's a legacy journal right there.
• 49:30
  Garrett Peters: That's like a family keepsake family or a life story keepsake book.
• 49:37
  Garrett Peters: So you know, what we found was like customers were giving us all sorts of great feedback Like I really want, like can you guys do one for our engagement, for our anniversaries, all this stuff.
• 49:50
  Mark Zweig: They're giving you all the ideas the customers were just giving us feedback, sure.
• 49:55
  Garrett Peters: And so now, and we've been, yeah, customer feedback, customer feedback.
• 49:58
  Mark Zweig: Yeah, look at this one Problem answer.
• 50:01
  Mark Zweig: I can say that's worth $1 million.
• 50:04
  Mark Zweig: I mean $100 billion.
• 50:09
  Garrett Peters: And so now what started is like you know, my what's funny man is like we have I have some of my good friends.
• 50:15
  Garrett Peters: Some of my friends are like are you still selling, like baby books and stuff like that?
• 50:19
  Garrett Peters: I'm like, yes, yes, we do sell, we do, yeah, I do sell a lot of baby books, you know so.
• 50:26
  Garrett Peters: But we sell all sorts of stuff now.
• 50:28
  Garrett Peters: We have reading journals, we have travel journals, we have recipe books, all sorts of Well, they're Keep your articles.
• 50:34
  Garrett Peters: Thank you, enduring, enduring, and I can take literally zero credit for the way all this looks.
• 50:41
  Garrett Peters: Our team is amazing.
• 50:42
  Garrett Peters: Like Sarah and Stephanie, it's very tasty the way that they built all of our products were like we want something that's timeless.
• 50:50
  Garrett Peters: It is, I mean, very well done, beautiful quality, something that you would want to sit out and people to look at.
• 50:55
  Eric Howerton: And also like that's just very nice.
• 50:57
  Eric Howerton: It's a cool thing, like for the bait, I mean for all of it.
• 51:00
  Eric Howerton: You look at it and it's identifiable as that capsule.
• 51:03
  Eric Howerton: Yeah yeah, like you're a kid you see that light out and then you grow up, you know you got your house and you come you know, there's all the things that you actually want.
• 51:14
  Mark Zweig: Yeah, exactly, you know what I mean, cause all the rest of it is well Meaningless.
• 51:19
  Garrett Peters: Art art, art.
• 51:20
  Garrett Peters: Our design team is phenomenal.
• 51:24
  Eric Howerton: It is meaningless.
• 51:25
  Garrett Peters: It is though.
• 51:27
  Eric Howerton: I mean it's everything is meaningless.
• 51:28
  Eric Howerton: It's.
• 51:29
  Eric Howerton: Yeah, this is like.
• 51:30
  Mark Zweig: The one thing I'm gonna like is like I saw him and saw my house about that fire.
• 51:35
  Garrett Peters: I'm gonna grab this.
• 51:36
  Garrett Peters: You better keep your duck and stone.
• 51:38
  Mark Zweig: Okay, I'm giving my duck and stone back.
• 51:40
  Mark Zweig: The rest of it, that's it.
• 51:41
  Mark Zweig: That's it, but I'll run through fire, I will risk my life.
• 51:44
  Eric Howerton: I need that sort of feedback on our last class You're gonna take.
• 51:48
  Eric Howerton: We're gonna give you a clip of this.
• 51:49
  Eric Howerton: Yeah, and just say I would risk my life for a duck and stone memory book.
• 51:55
  Eric Howerton: Yes, I will run through fire and floods, let's go.
• 51:58
  Mark Zweig: Yeah, I don't need my mom's area.
• 52:01
  Mark Zweig: Hey, I don't need my mom's 30 year old couch.
• 52:04
  Mark Zweig: I don't need her bed upright.
• 52:06
  Mark Zweig: Let's do that stuff Wall, nut, piano, where we're gonna wanna remember what your kids were doing when they were.
• 52:11
  Mark Zweig: But I do want this.
• 52:12
  Mark Zweig: Exactly, okay, exactly.
• 52:14
  Mark Zweig: My phone all the photos I took from him got lost.
• 52:17
  Mark Zweig: That's the best.
• 52:18
  Mark Zweig: They have the cloud back then, okay.
• 52:21
  Garrett Peters: That's the best like yeah Brand, you know, video we could ever do is what you just said.
• 52:27
  Garrett Peters: What?
• 52:28
  Eric Howerton: you said Thank you for that.
• 52:28
  Eric Howerton: Yeah, really, Really, I'm not sponsored by so many.
• 52:31
  Mark Zweig: I like to hey Talks for 47.5% ownership yeah, so funny, so funny.
• 52:40
  Mark Zweig: And a 7% royalty Rolteo, I feel like it's like Shark Tank.
• 52:44
  Mark Zweig: I know that's the way these guys are.
• 52:46
  Mark Zweig: Are you, mr Wonderful?
• 52:47
  Mark Zweig: No, no, no, I'm not.
• 52:49
  Mark Zweig: I'm not, it should be.
• 52:50
  Mark Zweig: I do like that guy though, actually, even though you would be that, kevin, even though people give him a hard time, he might really mark you.
• 52:58
  Eric Howerton: He'd be like he makes a lot of sense and the work is like I tell you what.
• 53:01
  Eric Howerton: I'm not ready to give you equity, or to give you percentage to get equity, but I will make you a forever lifetime royalty of two and a half percent.
• 53:11
  Eric Howerton: Yes, what is?
• 53:12
  Mark Zweig: that like it's insane.
• 53:14
  Mark Zweig: It's like where did you get that valuation number?
• 53:16
  Mark Zweig: That's my favorite one.
• 53:17
  Mark Zweig: Funny, where did you get that?
• 53:19
  Mark Zweig: Where did you fill up with that valuation?
• 53:21
  Mark Zweig: Yeah, like, how do you suck?
• 53:24
  Eric Howerton: But however I will.
• 53:25
  Eric Howerton: It's worth $1 million, yeah.
• 53:28
  Mark Zweig: Yeah, well, it's been great having you here.
• 53:31
  Mark Zweig: We could talk all day.
• 53:32
  Mark Zweig: Yeah, we could Cause it's really been fun and you seem like a really solid guy.
• 53:36
  Mark Zweig: You got a great company.
• 53:38
  Mark Zweig: Thank you, and again, this is exactly the kind of company and person we like to have on the show here, absolutely man, and it's been a pleasure.
• 53:47
  Garrett Peters: Thank you, guys.
• 53:48
  Garrett Peters: I love what you're putting out there.
• 53:49
  Eric Howerton: You laid out today that you can do it and maybe you shouldn't do it right?
• 53:54
  Eric Howerton: Yeah, some really nice little points, man, and congrats on your success.
• 53:57
  Eric Howerton: Thank you, man, appreciate it.
• 53:59
  Eric Howerton: I think you have a great team of people that you can leave listeners with that are thinking about starting.
• 54:06
  Garrett Peters: If I could leave you with one thing, it's just try it.
• 54:09
  Garrett Peters: Just try it.
• 54:10
  Garrett Peters: If you're thinking about it.
• 54:11
  Garrett Peters: I mean, I love hearing stories of people that said you know what I'm gonna see?
• 54:19
  Garrett Peters: If this works, let's try something.
• 54:21
  Garrett Peters: And if it fails, it fails.
• 54:23
  Garrett Peters: That doesn't define you.
• 54:24
  Garrett Peters: It could be something, though, like when we started our business for five years we'd be selling hundreds of thousands of orders.
• 54:31
  Garrett Peters: Yeah, you know, that wasn't on our radar, but we had the gumption to go let's try something and see if there is a possibility of something here, and with wisdom.
• 54:43
  Garrett Peters: You know, I didn't quit my job day one when we had this idea.
• 54:46
  Garrett Peters: Right, exactly, I was like, hey, let's see if this could work.
• 54:50
  Garrett Peters: You saw if you got some traction, and then from there so I think that you said it earlier of like the decisiveness, you know, if you have something you wanna pursue and you feel strongly about it, make a decision to do something, do it Go do it.
• 55:07
  Mark Zweig: So I just thought of a new product my startup journal.
• 55:10
  Mark Zweig: Oh listen, my startup journal, don't you?
• 55:15
  Eric Howerton: think that would be good, it would be really good.
• 55:17
  Eric Howerton: I would spend the time that actually rotted it Well by testing it.
• 55:21
  Eric Howerton: You got now cocky, almost my startup journal.
• 55:24
  Mark Zweig: They are journal, but no, I mean I thought that was fantastic, that could be cool.
• 55:28
  Mark Zweig: Well, could you put coals in there?
• 55:29
  Mark Zweig: You're all like, yeah, mm.
• 55:32
  Garrett Peters: Yep, another idea we expect a full.
• 55:34
  Garrett Peters: We can do a partnership, we could do a co-branding Ooh, co-branding.
• 55:40
  Mark Zweig: Well, we could sponsor big talk about small business and then people who sign up for the get a discount, trying to get a startup journal In royalties, and then we get 12.5.
• 55:53
  Mark Zweig: 12.5, 12% of every sale.
• 55:56
  Mark Zweig: No, all right.
• 55:58
  Mark Zweig: Thanks, guys, and Garrett, it's been great having you here, and unfortunately we're out of time, and so we will see you all next week.
• 56:08
  Mark Zweig: Until then, this has been another episode of Big Talk About Small Business.
• 56:16
  Mark Zweig: And look up Duncan and Stone.
• 56:19
  Mark Zweig: Give it a search, check them out online and buy their products.
• 56:24
  Garrett Peters: Please do All right, appreciate it.
• 56:26
  Garrett Peters: Thank you guys, thank you, thank you, thank you.
• 56:35
  Speaker 4: Thanks for tuning into this episode of Big Talk About Small Business and ask questions about upcoming shows.