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The Dog Tag Diva Show- Tru Defenders inc. & C.R.E · Military Broadcast Radio | MBR Talk

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Just a little little Little Rock and roll.
1:22
Good evening everyone and happy Tuesday, Happy holidays, Happy
1:27
Hanukkah to those who celebrate and Merry Christmas to those
1:31
coming up. I have two wonderful guests with
1:33
me on this evening and I've got Justin Lee from True Defenders
1:38
and Frank Mancho from Crowns ready to eat.
1:44
Welcome everyone, to the show. Thank you for coming on the
1:47
show, gentlemen. Thank.
1:48
You. Oh, we're getting some feedback
1:54
from someone right now. So, Justin, since you.
1:58
Are on one of these right now? Justin, go ahead and introduce
2:02
yourself and tell us about yourself a little bit.
2:06
Well, my name is Justin Lee. I'm the president and founder of
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True Defenders Incorporated. We actually are.
2:13
Our main goal anyway, is to provide food, clothing and
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shelter to any veterans in need, whether they're homeless,
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whether they're not homeless. It doesn't matter, you know, if
2:24
they're in need. That's what we're here for.
2:28
And I feel like getting the word out there is going to be a good
2:32
opportunity because these veterans that are in need should
2:36
be listened to and it should be heard.
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Well, thank you very much. This this mission of true
2:43
Defenders is extremely important and I'm going to throw your logo
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up right now so that people can see a True Defenders 1 soldier
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at a time. So tell everyone where are you
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based out of? So we're based out of Hudson, FL
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and but we serve the whole West Central Florida area that
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includes the Tampa Bay area and we try to get, we're going to,
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we plan on expanding to and that's that's where all the the
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help from our sponsors and partners and our donations come
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in to make that happen. And so when did the idea of true
3:27
defenders come into play? So the idea actually came into
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play after with after many years of just riding down the street,
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first of all, and you see these veterans on the side of the road
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holding up signs, needing food, needing clothing, needing
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shelter. That right there breaks your
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heart because you know someone like me being in the military
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and serving alongside my brothers and sisters.
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It's hard to see some, your brother or your sister that you
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serve this country with on the side of the road, needing help,
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needing food, needing clothing, needing shelter or whatever.
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That right there should get somebody's attention.
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And when did when did the company's the foundation start?
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So the foundation started in November, which was last month.
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Actually, we were official as of November 2023.
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Congratulations. Outstanding.
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That's excellent. That must not have been an easy
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task for you to to get this up and running.
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Did you do it by yourself? Did you have help?
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Or you started out alone and you kind of amassed your your, your,
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you know, your your peeps to help you out.
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So we actually started me and me and my wife actually started
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this together and we grew it from family to volunteers to
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people who actually support the cause 100%.
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And people have come on board from all different directions
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and all different spectrums to make this happen.
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That's outstanding. I just, I just love that, you
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know, do it as a family, grassroots, getting things off
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the ground. One of the things that we were
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talking about. And this may really surprise
5:26
people, but veterans do wind up homeless.
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And you know that when you get out of the military, your job in
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the military may not translate into a civilian job.
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Or maybe you have to get out of the military because of a
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medical issue or personal issues.
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And you had planned on a career and now you have, you
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unexpectedly have to get out. And that is one of the reasons
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that can lead to homeless in addition to, you know, just like
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civilians, we, you know, substance abuse and domestic
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violence, financial problems, there's all sorts of things that
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leads to that. But I don't think that people
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know the level of the problem of veteran homelessness in this
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country. What numbers did you did?
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You used to. We were talking earlier that you
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had a number for the state of homeless veterans.
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Right, so the in the in the whole nation of the United
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States, homeless veterans take up 7% and that rounds out about
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to 2279 homeless veterans as of today.
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And something else that we were talking about earlier that I
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found out myself a couple years ago is that homeless female
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veterans is actually the fastest rising population of homeless in
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the country. Faster than their male veteran
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counterparts and faster than their female civilian
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counterparts, which I found astounding.
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Like, I just couldn't believe it.
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And as a woman serving currently in the Navy Reserves, I did not
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know that this was even a problem.
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So it really kind of opened my eyes to some of the
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conversations that maybe we need to be having while we're still
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in the military to kind of prevent some of these things
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from happening. You know?
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And I'm sure you're, you know, you're aware too because you've
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been working hard to get this company, you know, this
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foundation off the ground to support this.
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But you know, women veterans tend to be single mothers as
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well. So now we have a whole another,
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you know, logistical issue that we kind of have to address in
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terms of now we have kids who need to get to school and who
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need immunizations to get to school and how do we get mom and
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children healthcare. So we're kind of, you know,
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creating this, you know, we need to create this awareness in the
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community of some of the struggles that we that we're
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facing in this country today. So what has your experience been
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in Florida in terms of their resources to help homeless
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veterans? So we Florida is actually a
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retirement state and they really support their military here.
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So being being in a in a nonprofit that supports
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veterans, it really we get a lot of support from the state and
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like you said you know women is a big part of the homeless
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spectrum. And that's because over time we
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got a lot more women in EU, in the in the military than we used
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to back in the day. So with even women getting out
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of the military, not having nowhere to go or any idea or any
9:00
plan, you know because when the military boots you out, when
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they boot you out, when they do that they you don't you don't
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draw income right away when you hit the streets in the civilian
9:13
world and whatever you you know you're basically living with
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whatever you saved up while you was in the service.
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So you know enough you don't have a plan.
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When you get out the military, then you're stuck and that's
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where a lot of veterans end up. Now when you so we were, as we
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were you know, talking earlier before the show began, you said
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that you had to get medically discharged, but you weren't, you
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know, preparing for you had planned on a a long career in
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the Army. Do you feel that you got enough
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resources to kind of set you off on the right foot when you got
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out of the service? So when I got out the service it
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was I really didn't have a game plan when I got out.
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I really didn't have a plan as to what I was going to do when I
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got out. But I did have support luckily
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from family at the time and I did have money saved up, you
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know, before getting discharged. And a lot of times when you get
10:16
discharged from the military, they they will give you about 30
10:23
to 60 days I believe, before they completely boot you out.
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So you have that time period to at least back then, I had that
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time period to decide what I wanted to do and the resources
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that I needed to establish myself when I got into the
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civilian world. And if you could give any advice
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to anyone now who may be, you know, preparing to get out of
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the military, what kind? What advice would you give to
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them? I will tell them to plan to, you
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know, have have a place. First of all, have a place to
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go. You know, if you, whether that's
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your whether it's your parents or your family members or your
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wife, wherever you going to go, just make sure you have a place
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to go and make sure you save your money, because they will.
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They're still paying you in the military before they boot you
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out, so you're still getting paid, but save your money, save
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what you can and and prevent yourself from being in that
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situation. I think that's well, well said
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advice. Now, in terms of true defenders,
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how many people are do you have on your team right now?
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We actually have about 12 total on our team and that's that
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includes our board members and our volunteers that's helping us
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out and getting us where we need to go.
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And are you looking for more board members or do you need
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more volunteers right now? We're always looking for
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volunteers. I mean anybody who who has the
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the, the mission and and the goal in their heart to help a
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veteran, we're always looking for a volunteer to help.
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And that's you know, that's that's, I mean I believe any
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organization should be that way. You know, don't.
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Don't kick out your volunteers. I see my my, my producer has
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pulled up your website as well. So we're seeing some of the the
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website as well of what True Defenders has to offer.
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Now let me ask you another question.
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What, if any, veteran advocacy, outreach, local politicians have
12:39
you connected with or are you that you are working to connect
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with? Well, we're not really working
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with any politicians or or anything like that.
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We are working with the There is a local mayor that we're working
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with and there is a organization.
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There's a his name is Brian Smith, he's actually the
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director of the VFW for our area.
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So we're actually working with him as well.
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But as far as major politicians, no, we haven't gotten that far
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yet. That's a tough nut to crack.
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I I moved down here from New Jersey a year and a half ago and
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I spent a lot of time trying to advocate on behalf of homeless
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veterans as well. And I found I knew people who
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knew some politicians and like their assistants, and I still
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had a hard time having any kind of, you know, conversation.
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And you know, and I get it, you know, everybody wants a piece of
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them and this is, you know, my cause, my 'cause, you know, it's
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so it's hard. But I think it's important that
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we are listening to our, you know, local constituents and
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we're just, you know, somebody needs to have our back and hear,
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hear our voice. You know.
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And as we were, you know, mentioning earlier that I asked
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about the state of homeless veterans in New Jersey and they
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gave me a number and I said, well, OK, how many men versus
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women? And they said, well, we don't
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know. Why does that make a difference?
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And it's because it makes a big difference.
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You can't take women with children and put them in a
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shelter with men. It's got to be safe.
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And, you know, I I heard a story of a woman who went, was put in
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a shelter where there was a gentleman there who was a sex
14:28
offender. So it matters it.
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Does. Definitely matters.
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And I think that, you know, it's hard to get numbers right
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because a lot of times veterans, you know, we tend to you know
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hide or we we're asking for help maybe we don't want to ask for
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help. So we're in places where we
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don't want to you know people don't know that we are homeless.
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So I think part of the what we need to do is really have
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accurate numbers state by state. So we know that we can really
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have a true idea of how big the problem is.
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And then we can start, you know, going to our local politicians
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and saying, hey, these are the numbers, this is, you know, how
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can we allocate funds for X number of resources that we
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need. Let's be honest, Florida's a big
15:17
state. It is.
15:18
It is a big state and you know, donations, donations really
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help, you know, because you know where every everything that we
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spend on a veteran is from a donation, either from our own
15:32
pocket or donations. And you know any, any help that
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we can get means a lot, you know?
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And that's why we ask. You know, we, you know, we ask
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for donations because we need them, not because we're going to
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spend it, You know, for anything more, You know, every dime goes
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to a veteran. That's what I keep telling them.
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Every dime, every penny goes to a veteran.
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And that's what we try to do. And how can people donate to
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true defenders? Well, they can do it on the
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website www.truedefenders.org that's there's two links on
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there. There's one on the front page
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and one on the last page if you decide you want to donate.
16:15
And again, like I said, anything helps, you know, 'cause this is
16:19
what we run off of. And do you have any fundraising
16:23
events coming up or are you in the works of planning some
16:27
things for to raise funds for this amazing foundation?
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Yeah, we're actually in the in the works right now of a
16:35
fundraiser, an event coming up in mid January.
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That's what we're looking at. That's that's excellent.
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I'm going to pop up the needs here for True Defenders, so
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we've got the website uptheretruedefenders.org.
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I'm going to put my glasses on so I can.
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I can see. So we need supplies like locks,
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bicycle locks, sleeping bags, socks.
17:00
That's such a military thing. We need socks.
17:02
We always need socks and underwear.
17:04
Men's, men's and women's casual clothing, Coffee, blanket,
17:09
warmers, napkins. Just, you know, hygiene
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products, office items, just general day-to-day things that
17:16
you would think about needing in your day-to-day life.
17:19
And just even, you know, hygiene, you know, just basic
17:22
hygiene items. You know when I was deployed,
17:27
you know, a lot of us have been deployed.
17:29
I mean, nothing feels better than like that first time you
17:32
come back from deployment and you just take a real shower and
17:35
you're not in your wearing your shower shoes in the shower and
17:38
you're not in the port John and sweating your ass off to
17:47
brushing your teeth, your teeth being cleaned.
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So just all those basic hygiene needs just make make you feel so
17:53
much better when you've got just you just feel refreshed and
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taken care of, right? And ultimately at the end of the
18:00
day, we're talking about the men and women who have served this
18:03
great nation to to help and support them.
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I see a question pop up. Is there criteria on what vets
18:13
qualify like a VA rating? Do you need anything to qualify
18:17
for help or true defenders, or just need to be in Tampa Bay
18:19
area? Well, as far as qualification,
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no, I mean the only thing we ask for when we help a veteran is
18:28
their identification ID form 214 or your VA card.
18:33
You know, just something to prove that you are a veteran
18:35
because you know, we do. We've had people in the past
18:39
claim to be a veteran, to get something and they wasn't a
18:42
veteran turned out. So that's all we asked for as
18:45
far. As far as far as qualification
18:47
goes, we don't care about your discharge or your personal life,
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you know, just show us that you are a veteran and that's all
18:56
that's all we need. You know, we help every veteran
18:58
regardless, so. And I think that's, I think
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that's fair. You know, stolen valor is a real
19:05
thing. My, my husband is acutely aware
19:09
of. You know, I went to Camp Lejeune
19:11
a couple years ago for a training evolution with the
19:15
Marines and I brought him home AT shirt that said hardcore
19:20
Marine Corps. And he will not wear it because
19:22
he feels like it's stolen valor. I'm like, that's not stolen
19:25
valor, but he's just very in tune to.
19:28
He's like you. I am your spouse and you third.
19:31
But I don't want people to confuse me in any way, shape or
19:34
form with being a veteran. And I, you know, I'm here to
19:36
support you. And it's sitting in his drawer.
19:43
So what is next? Where are you hoping to take
19:46
true defenders in the come in 2024?
19:50
You did that, You did the hard part, You got it up and running.
19:52
You're doing these great things. What's next?
19:55
What's the vision for 20? Four, our vision for 24, you
19:58
know is to one, we want to expand to cover the rest of
20:04
Florida that we have not covered.
20:06
I know there's many veterans out there that we haven't come
20:09
across yet, whether they. Decide to step up and ask for
20:15
help or not. You know there's still plenty
20:16
out there and so we want to cover the rest of the state.
20:20
We want to expand our ability to shelter veterans.
20:26
We're looking into different buildings to house veterans into
20:33
the for shelter. So we're that's that's where
20:37
we're at right now as far as expansion.
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Excellent. Love it.
20:43
Just keep on trucking. Just keep on trucking like we do
20:46
in the military, right? Adapt and overcome.
20:48
That's. Right.
20:50
Well, Justin, thank you so much for coming on tonight and
20:53
sharing your story and your mission of true defenders.
20:56
Truedefenders.org. Their website is in the chat.
21:00
Their business number is in the chat, and if you are in the
21:04
Tampa Bay area, you can reach out the true Defenders for help.
21:08
And if you know there are homeless veterans in your area,
21:10
take a page out of Justin Lee's book here and start your own
21:15
grassroots efforts to support veterans and work with your
21:19
local advocacy groups. Because one day at a time, we're
21:22
going to help each other out. Our brothers and sisters in
21:24
arms, We are here for each other.
21:27
Justin, thank you so much for sharing your time and your story
21:30
with us tonight. No problem.
21:32
Thank you for having me on. You're very welcome.
21:35
And now I want to bring to the stage Speaking of Marines.
21:44
Here Hi. Frank, how are?
21:46
You doing good. Thanks for having me on the
21:48
show. I appreciate it.
21:50
No, Happy to have you on. I was not surprised when I went
21:54
on the website to find out the crayons.
21:55
The crayons were sold out. Yes, our crayons are sold out.
22:00
It's been an amazing year, literally Black Friday, you know
22:06
Cyber Monday, we ended up selling out completely.
22:08
My manufacturers able to put in another 650 units and literally
22:14
in like a matter of two days we sold out of those 650 units and
22:18
shipped those starting on December 11th.
22:20
And those are out. But we've got a lot of other
22:22
things on the product. You know on a page we we just
22:25
launched a coffee series so you know we can go into that and and
22:29
everything else. But it's it's been an amazing
22:31
ride. And what better way to bring a
22:33
joke to reality than create the world's first colorful chocolate
22:36
crayon, right? I listen.
22:39
I love it. I think it's fantastic.
22:42
I don't know. And I've I've been in the Navy
22:44
for 13 years. I've trained with the Army and
22:47
the Air Force and the Marines. I love my Marines, but bless
22:51
their hearts, like I don't know anyone who was trained with
22:54
Marines that does not have a story about like, a Marine doing
22:57
something stupid. Well, hey, you know, marine
23:01
muscles are required. Intelligence is not essential.
23:04
So we do some weird, stupid, outlandish things, you know?
23:07
But we are the best of the best, so why not?
23:11
Mostly now I like that acronym. The one that I know is my ass
23:15
rides and Navy equipment well. We do because the Navy created
23:19
Uber, and if without them, Uber wouldn't exist, so we do.
23:25
I know someone like, you know you are an Uber driver.
23:28
And I'm like, fair, it's totally.
23:31
Fair. So tell us about how Crowns
23:36
Ready to eat came to fruition. So quick synopsis was in 2017 or
23:44
2016, I decided to My kids were older.
23:47
They were growing up, but I started decided to start my own
23:49
woodworking business and that led me into creating the props
23:55
for my son's halftime show for the high school marching band.
23:59
He then started dating the high school color guard captain.
24:03
So that led into me making a giant picture frame for them,
24:06
the kids to jump in and out of. And I knew because of my art
24:10
background in high school that the only best way to do a
24:13
printed paper on wood was to actually use a medium that was
24:17
going to be consistent in colors.
24:18
And what better way than crayons.
24:21
So I bought a bunch of crayons the same color, like four or
24:23
five different colors, started coloring this large 4 foot by 6
24:27
foot picture frame, and I put a crayon in my mouth and I started
24:31
nailing on it. So mind you, I was never caught
24:34
a crayon either. When I was in, I was 95 to O2.
24:38
We were just the traditional devil dogs, leathernecks, ground
24:41
pounders, grunts, all that, everything else.
24:43
So the crayon eater thing was new.
24:44
I saw the means, I saw the interaction of people on social
24:48
media eating real crayons and whenever I put the crayon on my
24:51
mouth to start a null and I don't know, like maybe there's
24:53
something that's Crayon Eater nonsense.
24:55
So I ended up started researching, couldn't find
25:00
anything. And then I realized that there's
25:02
a potential chance with chocolate.
25:04
When I worked at O'Reilly Auto Parts I became a store manager
25:09
and the outgoing store manager was leaving to move to Kentucky
25:12
and I was taking over and one of the team members, her name is
25:15
Cassandra Gordon brought in these amazing peanut butter
25:19
truffles, homemade reesey cups that if I could ever if she
25:23
could make them for me every day, all day, it would be great.
25:26
I never never put up Diamond to Reesey a cup ever again but
25:31
found out at that time that she went to school to be a pastry
25:33
chef for a few semesters. Well, Fast forward two years
25:38
later, I get this idea. I need somebody that does
25:42
chocolate. The menthol Rolodex kicked in
25:44
and was like, hey, let's call Cassandra.
25:47
Lo and behold, 2 weeks later she presented me with a video of the
25:50
first CRE and that was born in September of 2017.
25:54
And we took the whole year and finally, you know, worked it
25:58
out, got the good vibrant colors and now we are here six years
26:02
later. I think it's hilarious.
26:04
I love it. And my other guest before was
26:08
like, he's like, I thought you were joking when you told me
26:11
he's like and then I looked it up and you're like, no, you're I
26:13
was like, yeah, he's there. I was like, that's a business.
26:16
Yes, it is. Now what did you do when you
26:20
were in the Marines? The only job that really
26:23
mattered in the Marines, in the infantry.
26:26
Nice kicking in doors, blowing things up, you know.
26:33
Yeah, you know, things like that.
26:37
So when I deployed to Afghanistan in 2015, they sent
26:41
us down to Fort Jackson, SC, for, you know, our combat
26:45
training. And I'm not even going to lie, I
26:47
had so much fun running around the woods shooting shit, blowing
26:51
shit up. I'm like, can I just do this?
26:52
I don't want to be a nurse. Can I just stay on here with
26:55
these guys? Exactly.
26:57
It's always a fun time being out there, you know, making things
27:00
happen. And you know, I wasn't only just
27:03
infantry, you know, during my time, I did 7 1/2 years.
27:05
I had started out of security forces, you know, guarded the
27:09
nuclear Subs in Washington on Puget Sound.
27:12
And after, you know, part way through my career, I ended up
27:15
becoming a rifle range coach and coach and recruits on the rifle
27:17
and then went back into the infantry.
27:19
So there's a lot of other things that I did in there.
27:21
But you know, mostly it's every Marine's a basic Rifleman.
27:25
So yay, we get to have fun. Where was your favorite place
27:28
that you traveled to? Let's see.
27:44
Favorite place to travel to? I would have to say California,
27:48
because after I got out of the Marine Corps, I moved back to
27:51
Ohio. 10 years later, I moved back to California.
27:54
The weather's great, but the price of everything is
27:56
unbelievable. The weather's great and honestly
27:59
I'd have to say that it would, it would have to have been, you
28:01
know, just every single place that I've been that's like right
28:05
now for me, you know, I'm, I'm out traveling.
28:07
So it it's being able to explore different places and see
28:10
different things it it's what you make of it.
28:12
So I would say every single place of it was, you know, a
28:15
pretty, you know, one way shape or form.
28:18
It was a great experience. Now, do you have, in terms of
28:22
your business, so you have multiple products, you've got
28:25
sweatshirts, you've got mugs, T-shirts, the coins, the coins
28:29
are really cool. I might not actually have to buy
28:31
one of the coins. So now do you do they all,
28:35
they're all made in different places and then you sell them on
28:38
the website. Like, how does it work?
28:39
Like, I'm so not busy savvy. Like, I'm very.
28:41
I'm so intrigued. So we are basically an overall
28:45
e-commerce space. One thing that I've done this
28:49
year is worked on a lot of other places that would be willing to
28:52
retail and wholesale our products so people can actually
28:56
physically, if they're in an area, go pick things up.
28:58
But so we have our our crayons, our stickers, our decals, our
29:03
patches are in one facility, our apparel was made by another
29:07
vendor and our coffee and our coins are made by another
29:12
vendor. And right now a lot of our
29:15
products do ship out of multiple different locations and somebody
29:18
places the order, everybody gets notified, the order goes
29:22
through, gets filled, tracking number gets put in, it's it's
29:25
it's an automated type system to where everything is handled.
29:30
So our goal is you know once we get big enough, you know just
29:35
like you know Amazon and you know a lot of these places they
29:39
started out in the small, you know, space, started out in the
29:41
building, started in a garage and things of that nature.
29:44
Same thing with us. Yes, we're six years old.
29:46
Yes, we've only been doing 2 years nation, not even 2 years
29:50
Nationwide shipping because we launched last October to
29:53
Nationwide ship. But you know we we eventually
29:56
will get to where everything's in one warehouse so everything
29:59
shows up at once. But you do what you got to do
30:02
when you're starting a business out and be able to make sure you
30:06
can put out a, you know, good put out your brand.
30:09
Yeah, a good quality product. And you mentioned coffee too.
30:12
I mean, what military person doesn't?
30:13
You know, we we all need coffee and need to survive.
30:17
Ours isn't just your average coffee, so let me let me rewind
30:21
you back to this the fact of the company.
30:23
So yes, we started out as crayons ready to eat.
30:26
Yes, our website currently is Crayons Ready to Eat, but we are
30:30
in the process of rebranding to become what's called.
30:34
Our company is Mill Treats MILTREATS.
30:39
And what we are doing with that is eventually that's going to be
30:43
the main website. It's going to be the main point
30:44
of contact. We brought the crayons to
30:46
reality. We're telling the story about
30:48
the crayon eater. We've launched a coffee.
30:51
We took the image of back in World War 2 of the guy in green
30:55
fatigues with the helmet with the canteen cup.
30:57
It says have a nice cup of shut the fuck up.
31:00
We launched AK Cup series. We're only doing K cups.
31:04
Well, I can't say that we're only doing pods.
31:08
OK? So we're doing pods that are
31:11
individual 1 cup and it is a cup of shut the fuck up.
31:16
OK, So we brought that to reality and we're telling the
31:20
story of, you know, why coffee is pertinent in the military,
31:24
why it's a big app, you know, ordeal all the way back to Civil
31:27
War times. Next year we're going to be
31:29
launching a dog tag shaped chocolate bar.
31:31
We're going to be launching A fragmentation grenade Coco bomb.
31:35
Once the branches of service give us, you know copyright
31:39
usages, we're going to try to release various different items
31:43
in the military and each item is going to have the history and
31:46
the story behind each item. So we're able to connect the
31:49
military with non military and get that history and the story
31:52
facts so that. Makes sense.
31:56
I really like that idea because I'm such a big believer and we
32:00
need to know our history and where we come from in order to
32:03
move forward and keeping people connected to the history and
32:08
tradition of the military and the people who who have served
32:12
this country. You know, I went to, I got an
32:15
amazing opportunity to go attend the commissioning of a destroyer
32:20
in Key West in May. And when you talk about history,
32:24
you know there's a lot of pomp and circumstance and ceremony in
32:26
the Navy, which is amazing. But when you think about the
32:30
people who came before you, like we stand on the shoulders of
32:33
giants and it's, it's incumbent upon us, I feel, to honor those
32:38
who came before us and tell that story and tell our story to, you
32:45
know, the people, the civilians that we meet.
32:46
I feel as though we're, we're losing a bit of, you know,
32:50
connectedness in this country right now.
32:52
And I feel that it's, you know, that's kind of the key is
32:56
keeping us connected as Americans and those who serve
32:59
and telling our story and propelling us forward and, you
33:03
know, in a positive manner. Yeah, exactly.
33:07
And that's why we're doing what we're doing.
33:09
You know, we also changed it up on our website.
33:12
We we issue what's called an or. We don't issue what we could
33:16
issue. When people purchase something,
33:17
they get issued it. So on our website, you can
33:20
purchase an E gift coin. It's exactly what an E gift card
33:24
is, but ours is called an E gift coin.
33:26
It looks like the coin. And we're telling the story
33:29
about the challenge coin next year and we've seen that we've
33:33
had a lot of return customers because one thing that we've
33:37
done is we haven't just put out a novelty product.
33:39
We haven't been based off of the Cran eater joke or the you know,
33:43
have a nice cup of shut the fuck up.
33:45
We made sure everything is a quality product.
33:47
Our chocolate crayons are made of a high quality Belgian white
33:50
chocolate. Our coffee is scored at an 86.
33:54
It's made of a high quality specialty roasted coffee out of
33:58
Seguin, TX from a Navy veteran that you know he roasted
34:03
Mesquite wood. It's a high quality chocolate,
34:05
it doesn't mess with your stomach, doesn't have all the
34:07
extra junk in it or anything else and everything we do is
34:10
going to be high end quality. So we want to make sure that you
34:13
know and we keep returning customers.
34:15
So we're going to be launching A loyalty program and everybody is
34:20
going to be end up getting issued ration stamps and we're
34:23
going to tell the story through those with why ration stamps
34:27
were used back in the day. That's really cool.
34:31
That is definitely something that if you had didn't pay
34:33
attention to in history class in high school, you would not
34:36
probably even remember I remember it, but I'm sure
34:41
there's a lot of people that do not.
34:44
And that whole time period, the, you know, the the World War Two
34:48
generation is just, you know, I volunteer with Honor Flight.
34:53
And meeting those, the people who served from that time period
34:57
is so special. And my mother actually has
35:01
letters written home from my uncle who served in the Army
35:04
during World War 2. And it was just kind of so cool
35:08
to see him like, feel like, yeah, MacArthur's, you know,
35:10
burning across Europe and like this.
35:13
OK, why all this? Exactly And and that's something
35:17
that you know we we're trying to do is we're figuring you know
35:23
through what we're doing is we're able to bridge that gap
35:26
with what you doing. Thank you for your.
35:28
Attention, brother. Same to you, Joel.
35:31
You know, and it's just one of those things is that, you know,
35:34
we we finally found doing something that nobody's done
35:38
before figuring out a way how can we bridge that gap or that
35:43
connection and that history and the the, you know, everything to
35:47
inform people why and how things are utilized in the military
35:51
within limits, you know, of of regulations of the military.
35:54
But, you know, we want to make sure that, you know, we're
35:57
bringing people to understand what the military is and what
36:00
the military does and the things that we have and why we use them
36:03
and why they're a key part, you know, in what we do.
36:08
And so do you miss being in the Marines?
36:12
I miss the clowns in it. I don't miss the circus.
36:16
Let's just put it to you that way.
36:18
I think that's fair. I I like the analogy.
36:25
Yeah, I I I went to, I've been to Camp Lejeune twice.
36:29
I never have a bad time. When I'm down there, I enjoy
36:32
Camp Lejeune and people think I'm crazy and I'm like, but it's
36:35
it's so pretty up there and it's still the South.
36:37
And I like Marines because they're, you know, they're a
36:41
little they're my piece. Yeah, exactly.
36:46
You know, and as long as it was prior to what, 1988 you need to
36:50
drink the water, you'll be OK. Yeah, I when I was going out
36:54
this last time, I had so many people tell me don't drink the
36:56
water. I'm like, that was years ago, It
36:59
was old. We don't have to worry about
37:01
that anymore, like. Exactly.
37:03
You ain't got to worry. That's years ago.
37:05
But yeah, you'll be fine. Everybody knows about it.
37:08
That's The funny thing, everybody.
37:09
Even if you're a civilian, it has come across your social
37:12
media ads. It has come across your news,
37:15
It's come across everything. So everybody knows about the
37:17
Luzon water. Exactly.
37:20
I just had to lay up. The very first time I went out
37:22
there was 2019. I was going to Fleet Marine
37:26
Force, like doing two weeks of training with the Marines.
37:29
And it's a course for officers, but it's taught by enlisted
37:33
Marines. And it's the first day of class
37:35
and he's like, good morning, everyone.
37:37
Yeah, I'm, you know, major whom, you know, I forgot him.
37:40
Remember his rank, you know, so and so we're going to be talking
37:43
about a lot of shit these next couple weeks.
37:45
Don't fucking worry about it because you know, blah, blah,
37:48
blah. And then, like in another
37:50
conversation it was Timmy Taliban and Johnny Jihad.
37:53
I'm like, oh, OK, this is OK. These are my kind of people.
37:58
Exactly. You know, and and The thing is
38:00
is, granted, every branch is their own.
38:04
But you put a bunch of us in a room, we're going to get along,
38:08
or we're going to argue, or we're going to fight, or we're
38:10
going to have fun. Either way, something exciting
38:12
is going to happen out of it. And that well, I recently heard
38:17
that they are rebuilding Ton Tavern in Philadelphia.
38:21
They are. Their goal is is and for the
38:24
250th anniversary to have it finished and open and trust me,
38:30
I will be there. So all you're going to do is go
38:34
to theton.ithinkitstheton.org and it has all the information
38:40
on there. You can.
38:41
They got different ways that you can donate to help make it
38:43
happen. Buy a brick, buy this, buy that
38:45
and everything else. So I I am looking forward to
38:48
them rebuilding Ton Tavern. Well, I'm, I'm from the
38:51
Philadelphia area. I was born and raised in South
38:53
Jersey, right side, right outside of Philadelphia.
38:56
I spent many, many, many years and a lot of time in
38:58
Philadelphia. So Philadelphia's near and dear
39:01
to my heart, and when I read that, I was like, oh Lord,
39:04
Marines descending upon Philadelphia.
39:09
If any city can handle it, it's Philadelphia.
39:13
I hope so, because it's it's going to become a, you know, a
39:17
good old bunker situation if it don't.
39:22
So a TikTok Snack eater asks, wait, can I use existing ration
39:26
stamps? If you have some of the old
39:32
rash, OK that is a great. So you know what If somebody
39:38
physically still has some ration stamps from back in the day and
39:44
they send it to us, I will figure out a way to get even if
39:50
I issue them an E gift coin, I will do it.
39:52
I would love to be able to own an original set, so there's a
39:56
chance there, but. There's you're saying there's a
40:00
chance? There is a chance.
40:02
Anything's a chance. That is awesome.
40:05
So what? So talk about your partner now
40:07
that makes it the the chocolate for you.
40:10
How like do you guys have like talk about recipes or changing
40:13
things up or the chocolate is the chocolate and that's what
40:17
you that's how it is. So Cassandra now she basically
40:22
is our R&D person now. She works on different things,
40:25
different ideas that we come up with to do the, the weight and
40:28
the amount of chocolate and stuff like that.
40:30
So we had moved out of my home kitchen and out of the facility
40:35
and we actually have a manufacturing facility that
40:38
produces them for us out of Tulsa, OK.
40:41
So we work on the R&D or you know we'll talk with them and
40:45
she'll oversee that and we have them produce it and it gets
40:49
packaged up, we get custom packaging, it goes to our
40:51
distribution facility and product gets sent out.
40:55
So we have went from my home kitchen back in the day to now
41:00
we are in mass production FDA requirement in a facility to be
41:05
able to produce everything we got to do.
41:08
That's awesome. I give you a lot of credit for
41:12
starting your own business. My husband keeps telling me you
41:14
should start your own business. I'm like, I am terrified.
41:17
I'm starting my own business. Don't.
41:20
What you're doing right now is a business.
41:22
OK? You can make it a business.
41:23
You can turn it into a business. I'll give you a prime example.
41:26
Look at Richard Kaufman. If you don't know who he is,
41:29
he's an amazing individual. He runs the I forget what the
41:32
name of the podcast is now, but look him up.
41:34
He's got, he does really well on it.
41:36
But there is a program out there that can help you get over that
41:40
fear. So they helped us within our
41:43
business when we were coming out of the pandemic.
41:47
We wanted to take this to the next level and it was now what
41:52
do we have to do? So we started crowdfunding.
41:54
We started making finding out information, but I was still
41:58
learning business and one of the best organizations that I got
42:02
intertwined with is called Warrior Rising.
42:05
Warrior Rising is a nonprofit organization that helps
42:09
veterans, their spouses, and their children start, grow, and
42:13
scale their businesses 100% free.
42:16
In the midst of that I got to, I took out how to do a 5 paragraph
42:20
order, you know, train, map, all these things, how to apply it to
42:23
my business which was a game changer for me.
42:26
OK Then we went through and learned how to do, you know get
42:30
a pitch deck and learn how to do other things through their vet
42:33
to CEO program. So you've got the Warrior
42:35
Academy which is a 40 module program that you can basically
42:39
go at your own pace, greatest thing ever.
42:41
Then you go to their vet to CEO program from there.
42:44
Then you submit your business plan and your pitch and they you
42:47
got a chance to go to their business shower, business
42:49
shower. They send 10 to 12 people and
42:52
you go up there, you get a free suit, laptop, tons of mentoring
42:55
from people that's grown, scaled their businesses, 7 figure
42:59
business owners and everything. And you get a chance to pitch
43:02
your business for a $20,000 grant.
43:05
And I lost on a technicality when I went to the one in June
43:09
of 21 in Napa, CA, to a guy by the name of Luke Simoner.
43:13
That created an e-learning platform for the blind.
43:16
So you can't compete for that. Chocolate crayons.
43:20
Come on. But they were a major pivotal
43:23
point and they're one of the main reasons why we did not
43:26
become a statistic of COVID and have to shut our business down.
43:29
Wow, that's amazing. I've never heard of that Warrior
43:33
Rising. I put it in the comments for
43:35
anybody else listening. Who is interested in when this
43:39
pops up on Spotify and Audible and all the other platforms that
43:43
it's out there? I will certainly look look into
43:47
that as soon as I finish War College.
43:48
If War College doesn't kill me first.
43:51
Yeah, and and The thing is about Warrior Rising.
43:53
With the Warrior Academy you go at your own pace so you can take
43:56
a year, two years, whatever you want to do.
43:58
But it spells it out plain simple.
44:00
It breaks it down for us Barney style.
44:02
And then you go to the vet to CEO program which is an 8 week
44:06
interaction, you know ordeal and then you get a chance to submit
44:10
to become a part of the business shower and we get connected with
44:13
a lot of people and through Warrior Rising, I have made
44:15
connections with grunt style. We're going to be in 20 of their
44:18
stores. I'm going to be in a club grunt
44:19
style. We're going to be in 19 a Black
44:22
Rifle corporate stores next year.
44:24
We're going to, we just did a collaboration with the Diesel
44:27
brothers AKA Sparks Motors. So we're doing that
44:31
collaboration and it's all been you know having the right
44:33
people, making the right connections, networking.
44:36
If you're not networking, you're not working your network is your
44:39
network. Remember that and just get out
44:43
there and connect with people. Yeah, I I love it that this was
44:47
really, really awesome. So before we forget we saw the
44:52
website, are there other social media sites where we can find
44:55
crowns ready to eat mill trees? You go to any social media
45:00
platform. We are on Facebook, LinkedIn,
45:04
Instagram, TikTok, X, we're we just we just created a Pinterest
45:09
page. So we're getting ready to launch
45:10
a Pinterest page. So you know, yeah, we're we're
45:14
out on everything and everything that we can do to be able to get
45:17
the word out there and you know, get the amazing stories of each
45:21
item we do out into the hands of of the general public and
45:24
everything and and see we can make it happen so.
45:28
One final question, Frank. What motivates and inspires you?
45:34
What motivates and inspires me? The fact that I get to wake up
45:38
every day and seek a new challenge whenever that day
45:41
comes. That I love it.
45:45
Well, Frank, thank you so much for coming on the show tonight
45:48
and sharing your story. I love it.
45:52
I love the concept. I can't wait to see where you go
45:54
next. It is amazing all these
45:57
collaborations that you have and sharing the mission and vision
46:01
of networking and supporting and helping each other.
46:05
It's the only way we can make it happen and thank you for the
46:08
opportunity to be here. You're very welcome.
46:10
Come back on again, let us know how things are going.
46:13
I appreciate it. And I just want to wish everyone
46:32
Happy Holidays, Happy New Year. And for the dog tag Diva, I want
46:37
to remind you to greet each day with purpose, passion and
46:41
tenacity and be kind to each other.
46:44
That's the show for today everyone.
46:46
Thanks for listening. We'll be back next week with an
46:49
all new show. And remember, you can listen to
46:51
us again and again. The podcast of this.
46:54
Radio show is available right after we go off.
46:57
The air tonight anywhere that you can get your podcast
47:01
episodes thank.