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"We didn’t set out to build a factory. We just wanted to get clothes into stores—and do it the right way." In this episode, Joey and Drew sit down with Josh Mejia, co-founder of Sublimation House, a trusted U.S. manufacturing partner of Few Will Hunt. Josh shares how a marketing agency, a children’s clothing brand, and one $30,000 mistake led him to take on the broken apparel industry—and change it from the inside.
They talk about the hard truths of entrepreneurship, the burnout no one sees, and the importance of building for people, not just profits. Josh opens up about his shift from tech to the trades, the power of owning your supply chain, and the servant mindset that keeps him going. Watch this episode if you want to understand what it really takes to build something that lasts—and help others win while you’re at it.
Creators and Guests
Host
Drew Beech
Drew Beech is an entrepreneur and cofounder of Few Will Hunt. He spent several years in the sales and marketing industry, grossing over several million dollars in sales. But his love for the entrepreneurial journey and desire to escape the rate race started with his personal training business in college. Today, Drew leads the Few Will Hunt community alongside his cousin and cofounder, Joey in their mission to restore the dignity of hard work through the highest-quality American-made apparel.
What is The Few Will Hunt Show?
The official podcast of Few Will Hunt, the world’s largest community of hard workers and 100% Made in the USA apparel brand. We’re on a mission to restore the dignity of hard work and help others live The Rules of The Few to strengthen ourselves and strengthen society. No entitlement or excuses are allowed here.
What's going on, Eagles? Welcome to the Fuel Hunt Show. I'm Joey. Today, I am joined by one of the few and one of our trusted manufacturing partners here at Fuel Hunt, Josh Mihiha. How are you?
Speaker 2:Good, man.
Speaker 1:Did I butchered or no? No. You got You
Speaker 2:got it? Okay. Good. You got
Speaker 1:it? Good. Should mention, that today you're stuck with just me. Drew's holding down the fort, over there. So it's, me and Josh, we're gonna kick it today.
Speaker 1:It was great to have you, man.
Speaker 2:Man, I appreciate you having me. Yeah. Definitely.
Speaker 1:This isn't your first visit to HQ
Speaker 2:today. Second. Second. Second. Second.
Speaker 2:It's a little bit of a journey from Vegas. Yeah. You know? Yep. But now with with the new facility out in Long Island, it made it easier.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Next time maybe I'll cut the drive in half and I'll meet you a little further up. It's a long drive. How long did take you drive?
Speaker 2:It wasn't bad. It's like two and a half hours.
Speaker 1:No. It's not too bad.
Speaker 2:Yeah. No. It's not terrible at all.
Speaker 1:Yeah. I feel like I have a couple friends that live in Long Island, I feel like once you get out of Long Island, then it's like the traffic's a little easier.
Speaker 2:It's usually the tip, right? It's like right there when you have to go through the city, like that tail end of the city Yeah. To get on the bridge. Sure. That's really where you get hit the I
Speaker 1:gotcha, I gotcha, I gotcha. Well, we're glad to have you here today, man. I appreciate it. You're the owner of the sublimation house, right? Yes.
Speaker 1:So one of our trusted manufacturing partners here, Fuel Hunt. Also, dad. Yes. Entrepreneur for a long time. Not just No.
Speaker 1:Not just sub house.
Speaker 2:No. For like a long time.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Then you mentioned new facilities, so you have a new facility out in Long Island as well. Correct. So not only have you been at it for a while, but you're doing a lot.
Speaker 2:So Yeah. So it it doesn't feel like a lot. It does and it doesn't. Right? Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know, my wife and I, we talk about it, and especially with this new facility, we she's like, are you sure you wanna do this? Mhmm. Right? Because obviously it's on the other side of the country.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:And, you know, a lot of lot of thought went into it before I pulled the trigger. And the main focus was, is it taking me off the mission?
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:Right? So as you guys kinda know a little bit, you know, our mission is not only to bring back domestic apparel manufacturing
Speaker 1:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:But provide true value and partnership with brands. Yep. You know, the the brand space has been fucked for quite some time. For sure. As I know you've experienced and plenty of our customers experience Yep.
Speaker 2:Where they get sold a dream and that's not what they get. Exactly. You know? And so our journey started there as as how we got into this space with us being a brand. Yep.
Speaker 2:So we solved our own need by becoming our own supplier.
Speaker 1:I do wanna get into that a little bit. One one of the things that you mentioned, right, that's super interesting. When it came to acquiring, opening this new facility, a lot of thought, a lot of planning went into it. I feel like entrepreneurship is kind of a double edged sword, right? Like, there's times when that's required
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And then there's times where it's like, it, we're gonna try this and see how this happens. It's like how this works out. %. There's like, small and big moments, like, throughout your journey just like that.
Speaker 2:And it's experience, really. The only way you know which direction to take. Right? Whether it's let's just fucking jump into it, because I do that all the time too. They'll be like, hey, can you make this?
Speaker 2:I'll look at it and be like, I've never made that shit before. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I got you. Got
Speaker 2:you. We'll make it, right? Yeah. And then there's times where it's like this and it's like, no, let me take a breath because this could make or break the boat. Exactly.
Speaker 2:You know, sink or sink or swim. Exactly. And so it's like, is this aligned and taking that extra thought process and ensuring that it aligns with the vision and it's gonna help and not hurt. Now granted, is there a setback in the beginning? Of course.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Right? You know, this is a facility that's been operating for quite some time since 1976. Yeah. Wow. And they have a great team and everything in place,
Speaker 1:but Yes.
Speaker 2:They're also stuck in the twenty years ago. Exactly. Right? There's no online presence. There's no social media.
Speaker 2:There's no real website. There's no real systems and processes in place. So yeah. Is it a few steps back to get them caught up and bring them into this new age or per se the sub house culture?
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:Right? Yes. So there's gonna be extra work, but once we get over that hump, in my estimation, hopefully the next twelve months, then it's gonna be a massive impact and asset to our an organize our organization.
Speaker 1:Yeah. For sure. For sure. It's crazy how that works because there's like positives. There's pluses and minuses.
Speaker 1:You know, the world's positive and negative, but I try not to use the negative word, right? There's pluses and minuses, right? Like, a facility that's been operating that long, they know what they're doing, the systems are right, but it sounds like maybe a little bit behind the times, that, and you have a different culture probably at SubHouse than they have. So you have to kind of install that culture.
Speaker 2:100%.
Speaker 1:From what I know of you, and this is why one of the reasons I believe we work so well together, is that you're very family oriented even when it comes to business. Like, everybody likes to focus on the team aspect of it. Like, you're gonna you're gonna cut it or you're out of here. And for some reason or for some in some instances, that's true in business. Mhmm.
Speaker 1:But, really, it's community and family driven. That's the way it should be. You know?
Speaker 2:I believe in in the old school. Even though I'm still younger myself, I I still believe in the old way of business, know. People lost sight that business is not about making money.
Speaker 1:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:You know, if you go back, back, back thousands of years, it was trade. I got cows, you got chickens, I'll give you milk, you give me
Speaker 1:You got a problem, I got a problem, let's work together to solve our problems. That's what it
Speaker 2:is. And so when you take it back to that root, which is what we try ourselves to to handle as best as possible, is you're coming to me for a problem Yep. And it's my job to create that solution. And if I can create it in house, beautiful. But if I can't Yeah.
Speaker 2:I refer people out all the time.
Speaker 1:For sure.
Speaker 2:And you'd be surprised the amount of referrals we get Yeah. From people that have never done business with us. Yeah. And it's because they've called us, they've emailed us, they texted us, and we told them, hey, we don't do that, but here's this person or here's this company. Yep.
Speaker 2:Reach out to them, and then someone asked them about something, they're like And
Speaker 1:then they bring it back.
Speaker 2:I got somebody.
Speaker 1:We we've like, that is literal and it's one of the reasons Fuel Hunt exists. It's literally falling apart. Like, that type of fabric, community fabric is because that's what it is. Right? Like, when you're in a bonded community with people, whether it's family or people that are like minded or have the same vision, we want to help each other.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 1:We want each other to We wanna see each other win. You know what I mean? That's one of the things that your first visit here to HQ, that's one of the things that, stood out to me. I just could feel in your energy that you were a servant, basically. And it kind of it it matches my energy.
Speaker 1:Like, I could see it and feel it from you that you were here to serve.
Speaker 2:%.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean? And, again, I think that's one of the reasons that
Speaker 2:we we work so well Yeah. Because it's it's weird because it's selfless and selfish at the same time.
Speaker 1:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:Because funny enough, oddly enough, I get purpose from helping others.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:But I'm also helping at the same time, right? Yeah, of course. But I'm being selfish because it makes also me feel good.
Speaker 1:Yeah. It's about the the cycle though. Like, what that's going to create or what that's going to make you do is help more people. So the circle that it's creating is one of value. Yes.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean? Not one of extraction. You know what I mean? One of addition, of value. So, yeah, I mean, that's this is, like, all the stuff that we talk literally why Fuel Hunt was You were talking about brands earlier, and, like, I've got this thing, like, I don't I will use the word brand because, you know, that's what we are.
Speaker 1:Like, you can talk nuts and bolts. Yeah. Like, it But I'm always talking community. Like, that's how I refer to us. We're bond.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Like, I believe what we've done is we've transcended brand, and we've moved into a bond because we're operating, like we were talking before the show, back in that old school. Exactly. We're like, look, we're all here. We all got problems.
Speaker 1:Everybody. We got problems, and we're gonna help each other solve them. Exactly. You know?
Speaker 2:Exactly. That's key. That's key is like community, you know, and taking it back to that foundation is what makes everything better. Know? It's not about me or you, it's about us.
Speaker 2:Yep. You know? It's hard obviously because you said, you know, everybody has problems. Right? We all know that.
Speaker 2:Everybody, everybody. Whether you have a dollar or you have a hundred million dollars, everybody's got problems.
Speaker 1:Everybody's got them.
Speaker 2:There are different types of problems. It could be this, it could be that. And so us trying to be conscious or selfish in the fact that my problems are more important than yours is the problem. Yeah. And it's taking a step back and being like, alright, you got that, I got this, how do we put it together
Speaker 1:How do
Speaker 2:we work and fix it.
Speaker 1:Yep, exactly. We've lost sight of the fact that we're all more similar than we are different. And at our cores, I believe we all wanna help each other. But what we've done is we've, like, let some outside influences come in, convince us that we're not as alike as we are, and convince us that we need other solutions other than each other.
Speaker 2:That's an interesting take. I mean, I could I could I could understand it to a certain point because don't get me wrong. There still are bad guys out there. Oh, yeah. For sure.
Speaker 2:There really is. There really is, you know, a lot of people out there that still know what they're doing and continue to take advantage or continue to, you know, take take take and not give. Yep. You know? But yes, the majority of people Yeah.
Speaker 2:Have good in them. Yeah. Majority of people want to help or want to be a part of the problem. Excuse me, the solution and not the problem.
Speaker 1:And not the problem. And even the even the bad guys, right? Now there's just some straight up evil people, like we're talking about guys that are borderline bad. I feel like inherently inside of them, they know right from wrong, and they just had poor examples growing up. They didn't have, like, maybe they didn't have somebody that stood on a pedestal or a platform or somebody that was influential in their life that said, Hey, look, the way to do this is to help others.
Speaker 1:The way to do this is to give first, not take. You know what I mean?
Speaker 2:It's possible. Again, we could probably go back and forth multiple times with the devil advocate, but there's a story that I remember reading from a while ago on these two brothers that grew up in the same household. One became an attorney, one became an alcoholic. They asked them both the same question. Why did you become an attorney?
Speaker 2:They both gave the same answer. Because my father was an alcoholic. The other one, Why did you become an alcoholic? It's because my father was an alcoholic. So, you know, the circumstances could be the same, but the outcome changes based on the work you're willing to put.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and the ownership.
Speaker 2:And the ownership.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the ownership. Yeah, yeah. Do you believe that you are a product of your circumstances or a product of your work? You know what I mean? Exactly.
Speaker 1:A little earlier you mentioned that it's not just about building things here. Like we have that shared mission, right? Yes. Where we want to restore American manufacturing. You mentioned that, but you also mentioned, you know, service to community.
Speaker 1:So, like, not just building products, but building people. And that's the way, like, I always explain it. You know what I mean? Yes, like, we're going to build stuff here, but what that does is builds people.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 1:The more people we can build, the more communities we can build, the stronger our cities, the stronger our And it's just, it's a ripple effect.
Speaker 2:It is.
Speaker 1:You know? It's a
Speaker 2:ripple effect. Know? At at my core, I'm trying to change my generational tree. You know? We I don't come from nothing.
Speaker 2:I come from a very, you know, difficult place in in in life and family and all that bad stuff, you know, and and my mission is to change my family tree for for, you know, and Ed Mylett's word, be the one in my family, you know. And and so that's my mission, but within that mission, because I feel that God has called me to a higher purpose. Yep. It's not just for me, but it's for people around me. Yeah.
Speaker 2:So the goal that I have sounds crazy because it's massive, but it's massive, but it's because I want the people under me to be able to fit their dreams within my goal as well. Yes. You know? The only way to do that yes. It's an umbrella.
Speaker 2:It's to scale it to that level. Mhmm. You know? And and for me, like, I forget the guy's name, but he's one of Apple's top executives and, you know, he was interviewed a few years back and they asked him like, what's your greatest accomplishment? And his greatest accomplishment was that there's a zip code in Northern California at the cheapest house is $20,000,000.
Speaker 2:It's a community of 100 homes Mhmm. And 90 of those homes are owned by Apple employees. Yeah. And that's his I'm like, and I'm like, man.
Speaker 1:That is That's it right there.
Speaker 2:Beat. I'm like, that is it, bro. Is It is. I'm like to say that, like that speaks more volumes than anything. You could talk as much shit as you want about Apple and Google and all this, but the truth is is, man, they do make an impact.
Speaker 2:Right? Now Of course. The if you put your dollars in the right place, you know, granted, some of these people don't. But building something big is the true, in my opinion, the true way of impacting community
Speaker 1:Oh, absolutely.
Speaker 2:And really doing what you can do. Right? Not putting it into a donate like, you know, we like to help out our local teams. You know, we do sportswear and things of that sort. Sure.
Speaker 2:Sure. So we like to help out with donating uniforms and letting kids get active and make sure they're feeling good while they're playing football or basketball or things of that sort. You know, small things right now, but as we grow, you know, bigger things.
Speaker 1:Well, that's one of the things, honestly, like, that's one of the things that, you know, I struggled with too, like, Labeling them as small things, but in reality they're not. They're small compared to the vision, but they're so important to do now and impactful. You know, you're helping a team. Right? Yeah.
Speaker 1:Like, it's it's 20 kids on the t ball team or You're like, oh, well, this is small. Want my own zip code with homes in there. Exactly. Everybody itself has
Speaker 2:to. Exactly.
Speaker 1:But, like, one precedes the other.
Speaker 2:True.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean? Like, that needs to be done, you
Speaker 2:know, and so And I lose sight of that at time, at at most times,
Speaker 1:to be But I'm saying, I I I do the same thing too. I'm like, we'll do something, and we're like, man, like, I wanna do that at a hundred x.
Speaker 2:Right? I feel like I'm not doing anything. Exactly. You know? No.
Speaker 2:Exactly. Same.
Speaker 1:Even, you know, even some of our people, I'm like, man, like, you know, I want to, you know, our athletes and things like that, I'm like, man, like, I wanna do it big for them.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Like, I wanna fly them here, fly them there. But right now, this is what we can do. Exactly. And it frustrates me sometimes. I feel you.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean? Because I have that big vision too.
Speaker 2:Yep. You know
Speaker 1:what I mean? But they're important because, like, one precedes the other.
Speaker 2:Exactly. You know what mean? Yeah. Baby steps, even though we don't wanna take them, they're they're necessary. You know that?
Speaker 2:The mastering the mundane.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know, it's important that boring stuff, people forget, you know, especially when you're trying to build something. That's the that's the difference maker. Mhmm. That's the difference maker. It ain't
Speaker 1:it ain't all sexy. No.
Speaker 2:No. Most of it is not.
Speaker 1:Yeah. No. The bricks and the and the like, laying the bricks, like, you know, slapping the water on and laying the brick like, the unsexy stuff over and over and over again. Over. And you're like, man, like, I'm not even done one wall yet.
Speaker 1:I gotta do, like, three more.
Speaker 2:You know what
Speaker 1:I mean? Over and over again. I think that's that's Honestly, I think that's why a lot of entrepreneurs quit. We were talking about, before the show, you know, about, the the mundane and, like, the unsexy stuff. And I think a lot of people get into entrepreneurship and they're expecting that it's gonna be like all flash and bang and like it's it's just gonna be lovely.
Speaker 2:It's the
Speaker 1:new culture. Really.
Speaker 2:Yeah. It's I mean, it's the new culture that's been trying to preach. I would say probably over the last fifteen, twenty years, but more so hard over the last ten years. You know that drop shipping Yep. And work from home and be your own boss.
Speaker 2:And the thing is is people don't realize this. Being at the top is the shittiest position you could be in. Like it's it really is, know?
Speaker 1:You're
Speaker 2:you're Like if you want success, you know, and and all you're worried about is money, be an entrepreneur. Yeah. You know, become a huge asset like at Apple, like at Google, like but there's millions of those companies that you could be just a VP or high up manager, make your $23,000,000 a year Yeah. But you get to go home every night and not have You
Speaker 1:get to yeah. You get to
Speaker 2:sleep. Exactly.
Speaker 1:Like, can sleep at You know?
Speaker 2:You know
Speaker 1:what I mean? Yeah. The I We did a show on entrepreneurship. This is Dan will probably keep me honest, man. Maybe, like I'm not putting you on the spot, Dan.
Speaker 1:I was just saying that. Probably, like, maybe, like, first twenty five episodes or something like that. And one of the things I realized over the years is everyone looks to entrepreneurship as a solution. They don't like their boss, so they want to be their own boss. They want more time.
Speaker 1:But the reality of it is entrepreneurship is the biggest problem that you will ever introduce into your life. So if you're not doing it for the right reasons to really serve others, serve many, like when you boil it all down, like we say build community, this stuff, really what we're doing is we're of service. I said earlier, I picked that energy up from you. Yeah. If you're not doing it for the right reasons, bro, you ain't gonna last.
Speaker 2:You're not. You're gonna quit. You are.
Speaker 1:Because it's
Speaker 2:Bro, it's it's the highest level of competitive sport, quote unquote Yep. In the world. There's no other sport that matches entrepreneurship. Yep. Right?
Speaker 2:Because there's so many unknown variables that you have no control over Mhmm. And you still have to figure it out.
Speaker 1:And you still have to
Speaker 2:figure it out. Know, Tim Grover talks about that. One of my favorite authors and people of all time. Yeah. You know and he talks about that he's like entrepreneur like NBA NFL yes that's high.
Speaker 1:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:But the highest form of athleticism quote unquote or or or competitive is business. Yeah. Like it cause it's just so many variables. There's you don't know who your enemy is. You don't know how to don't.
Speaker 1:And you know what? The thing is like and you know, it's to the same degree somewhat in sports too. Like, you know, there's the weather and all this other stuff that is unforeseen sometimes. But in entrepreneurship, there are so many variables, and so many of them are just unforeseen. They're in your blind spots,
Speaker 2:bro. You don't know till you know.
Speaker 1:You don't know. And one of the biggest ways to get hurt in life, but especially in business, is to not know. Yeah. So you've already you've quoted a couple stories, a couple books, authors, things like that. You're a reader.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I'm a reader. I believe, like, you gotta find out. Like, you wanna do anything, right, be the best at anything, build something great, the first step is find out. It's self education. You gotta read.
Speaker 1:Yes. You gotta read. You don't know you will get hurt. %. Like, that's just what it that's just what
Speaker 2:it always be learning. Like you'll never know everything. Never. Yeah. That's the that's the key thing.
Speaker 2:Know, people sometimes think like, oh, I'll read this book or I'll watch this podcast or I'll buy this course and then I'm good. Like they they you look at it like college.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Right? But this world is not like college.
Speaker 1:Too dynamic.
Speaker 2:It's too dynamic. It's evolving sometimes by the minute, sometimes by the hour, sometimes by the week, depending on your niche, how aggressive. You know, a great example I like to use is, look at the stock market, right?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Right in this second it could be here and then literally the next second it's there. Yep. And the same thing goes for business. Today the city of Philadelphia could be like you could have that sign up. Tomorrow they dropped an order in, they didn't email nobody, that sign can't be up $10,000 fine.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:Woah. What do you mean? Hold up. I you gave me the permit. Yeah.
Speaker 2:It changed, but you didn't tell me. Oh, it's your job to look on
Speaker 1:the website. On the website. Yeah. And it's like And I'm like, what? I'm trying to solve 400 other problems an hour.
Speaker 1:Yes. Like, do you know? The city ordinances? No. That I'm checking out a quarter per If
Speaker 2:if at all. If that. Yeah. And so it's crazy. It's crazy.
Speaker 2:But, yeah, man. We I love what I do. Yeah. You know, I enjoy it. Yes.
Speaker 2:There's perks like the family. Yeah. You know, my kids come to work practically every day. Yep. I get to take my kids, my son mostly because my my wife handles my oldest.
Speaker 2:Yeah. My oldest, she's she's seven. She does competitive cheer. Uh-huh. And they she's already travel and all that good stuff.
Speaker 2:But my son, I get to take him to football practice, his football games. Now he's starting hockey. Yep. You know? And so it that you know, that's growing up, that was my big thing.
Speaker 2:I was like, I wanna be involved in my kid's life. And thankfully, we're blessed enough. We've never had a day of baby of day care, you know, of or anything. And and that's, you know, they're always the plus. They're all the plus like that.
Speaker 1:Yep. Yeah. That was the other thing that stuck out to me when you visited HQ the first time. Brought your family.
Speaker 2:Yeah. They were
Speaker 1:with You know, not just your wife, but you brought your kids too.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I was like, this is this is a guy that I I'm I'm probably gonna get the love. I can tell it, like, right now because I'm the same way. Like, you know, my girls are off school. They're here with me. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Like Tim, Tim said there's a NordicTrack, empty NordicTrack box over there with a front cut out of it. Tim set that up as a fort for them.
Speaker 2:Nice.
Speaker 1:For when they're here, we're, like, they'll help carry, like, bag and tag and put like stickers on Yeah. Know, bag size stickers on bags and stuff. Like, I want them here with me. I want to spend time with them. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Like, I want that freedom of, know, what I call relationship. But, you know, family. I was I don't know if you know, but I was in tech previously before Fuel Hunt.
Speaker 2:No. So I
Speaker 1:was building software and
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:Stuff like that. And I was doing really well, man.
Speaker 2:Nice.
Speaker 1:But, like, when 2020 came around, and my second daughter was one, I was home. You know what I mean? So I was home with my daughter at one, Cecilia, my youngest, and, like, seeing all the things I missed when my oldest was one.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Because our kids were in daycare at two months. You know what I mean? My wife's an attorney. You know, I was a tech executive. Two months old, they were in there.
Speaker 1:And I started realizing, I'm like fuck man. Like, I miss so much, and like, this isn't what I want.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So, like, honestly, now I'm willing to bleed every day to make sure that I can be there with them, and they can come here with me, and I wanted something different. Yeah. You know? And that was a big driver for Fuel Hunt was already going at that point.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But it was a big driver for me walking away from my previous life, and just, like, literally walking into the fire.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I was just saying to uncertainty.
Speaker 1:Oh, a ton food. In a time where It's scary. Was very un uncertain. You know what I mean? Like everything was That's
Speaker 2:mad respect too, man. Because once you have a family, it's it makes it a hundred times harder to do that. You know? Me, I've been an entrepreneur my entire life, literally since I was a kid, but even as an adult, like, I've I've I've always been on my own. So Yeah.
Speaker 2:My family started while I was building, you know. So I I I say it's easier like that. Right? Because again, once you have that family and you have to leave that stability of a job Yeah. To jump into uncertainty
Speaker 1:No. It is.
Speaker 2:Especially as a father Yes. I mean, no no shade to the mom. Obviously, the mother still has her part, but as a father Yeah. You're like, you're the protector. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I gotta take care of my girls. Gotta take care of my my family. You know? And so not knowing whether or not you can, like, daddy, I I want that toy. Yep.
Speaker 2:Or daddy, I wanna go to this concert. Or or I wanna buy those shoes. Yeah. And it's like, fuck. I can't right now.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Or not knowing if I will be able to. Yeah. You know? And that uncertainty to leave certainty to go into that's that that's a whole another level.
Speaker 1:You know? They've been the hardest moments. And I've I've tried to cause like another thing a lot of people don't know is like in the beginning, again, people look to entrepreneurship for a solution.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:What they don't realize is the average entrepreneur earns far less than an entrepreneur. Yes. Or some or even like a consultant or somebody. Oh, everybody. Far less.
Speaker 2:Far less.
Speaker 1:So like, you know, making that move, you're hitting hit me in my feels, Like, making that move from like, can have whatever you want to like, hey, for a couple years now, the best thing you're gonna get is my time.
Speaker 2:If you're lucky. Yeah. If you're lucky, You know? And thankfully in this day and age, technology has allowed you to advance quicker than it was before. Right?
Speaker 2:For sure. But there's still a time, like Yeah. Because people even think it's money and it's not because you could be on day one and I can give you a hundred million dollars and I promise you you'll lose every single penny of it. There's a balance between needing funding and needing experience. On day one you might need only 10 to maybe $15 no matter what niche you're going into.
Speaker 2:Yep. And that's gonna be enough to get you started. Any more than that, you're gonna end up thrown away because you don't know what to do. Even me at this level, you hand me a hundred million right now, bro, I won't know what the fuck to do. I'm it's not I'm not at that level yet.
Speaker 1:There's a famous there's a famous saying that if you took all of the wealth in the world, all of the money in the world, and you divided it equally amongst everybody, in a matter of months, all of the money, all of the wealth would be back in the same hands.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah. Oh, that too.
Speaker 1:Because of what you just said, skill and experience. Right? Like, it's not and look, we've we've paid, as I'm sure, you know, Real Business Owners, Trevor from Real Business Owners, shout out, he calls it the dummy tax.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah.
Speaker 1:We call it a tuition payment.
Speaker 2:I call it a tuition Yeah.
Speaker 1:We've we've paid our tuition payments, and we continue to pay our tuition payments. You know what I mean? Like, but that's what you need to do to get that experience.
Speaker 2:Correct.
Speaker 1:So that then you can is what you build is precious. I don't like comparing it, you know, the the the the common comparison is like it's your baby, right? Yeah. I feel like it's, like, a little different.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Know
Speaker 1:what mean? But what you build is is precious, and, like, you need to know how to hold it and nurture it, much like a child, right? Yeah. And the only way that you can do that is with experience. Right?
Speaker 1:You you mean you gotta, like, mess up a whole lot, until you figure it out. Then when you figure it out, then you're ready for
Speaker 2:Correct.
Speaker 1:You know, that next level. And you
Speaker 2:can buy experience, but it's you can't. Oh, you can.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2:But it's by hiring that that executive, hiring that person that's been there before because now what they're doing is bringing in that information like, hey, don't turn right there. That's that's a dead end. We gotta go left. Yep. But no, right looks good.
Speaker 2:Go left.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:Alright. You know, and and there is shortcuts like that, but in the beginning, you if especially if you're gonna if you want to be the leader of your team, of your ship, you know, the captain of your ship, you have to learn it yourself. Yeah. You have to learn it yourself.
Speaker 1:Yeah. I you know, the the whole coaching mentor space, like, you know, that's it's crazy now. Like, everybody's a some kinda coach. Everybody's some kinda mentor. And it's it's an it's it's unfortunate because it's kinda, like, bastardized that space because there is so much power in having the right person as a mentor in your corner.
Speaker 2:Hundred
Speaker 1:And, you know, we have that with Bee, with Bedros. And, you know, even with him, like, he's showed us lessons and he's spoken lessons into us, but he's smart enough to know that we gotta learn some damn lessons, You know? And, he has so much of what he's given us has been instrumental in us getting to where we are, but he has never stolen our problems. And he's done it for a reason. Because he knows the more problems he steals from us, the more success he he inevitably He
Speaker 2:cripples you. Yeah. From us. Yeah.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, it's it's it's that, like, fine fine balance. You you mentioned that you you've been an entrepreneur since you were young. I don't know how much of, like, your early days you wanna get into, but, like, I'm interested in it, like, what life was like growing up, where
Speaker 2:For sure.
Speaker 1:What first brought you what was your first hustle? Because, like, when we were young Yeah. Like, I got a candy store hustle.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I've I've had it all. I had a candy store hustle.
Speaker 1:But, like, you know, in the beginning, it's more of a hustle than, than a than entrepreneurship. It's, like, a little less I mean,
Speaker 2:it it it it's it's so my yeah. My journey started so young k. That, like I I know I was destined for this world, right? And so it's for mine, it started in elementary school and I had a friend of mine that sat next to me at lunch and my grandma used to live with us on and off growing up and we I was born in New York, but I moved everywhere, lived in Chicago where my brother was born, lived in Miami, lived in North Carolina, but we primarily grew up in the Los Angeles area.
Speaker 1:Gotcha.
Speaker 2:But in elementary school, I was in Florida, and my grandma used to live with us on and off, and she she used to make us lunches to to bring into to school. Uh-huh. And so I would bring my lunches, and my my friend next to me used to buy his lunch at school. Yeah. But he liked my lunch.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And so I was like, well, give me your lunch money, and I'll give you the lunch. He's like, done. So I'd give it to him, but I wouldn't eat. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I'd keep the money. Yeah. I'd pocket it. And so I'd get home starving. And so I'd get home and this happened for like, I wanna say it was like two weeks.
Speaker 2:Yep. And one day my mom opened my backpack and found like $15. This is in the nineties.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Right? Yeah. Very she's like, what is money? No. Was in love it.
Speaker 2:She sees it. She's like, what is all this money? I I was like, oh, I've been selling my lunches. She's like, what do you mean? She's like, I sell my the kid next to me buys his lunch.
Speaker 2:I would give him my lunch. He'd give me the money.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:And I would just keep she's like, that's why you come home so hungry? And I was like, yeah. I'm not spending the money. I want the money. I'll eat when I get home.
Speaker 2:And so that was literally the start of of of my hustle. And since then, it's evolved into all kinds of things, candy bars. Yep. There was a donut shop down the street from my house that would sell me a dozen donuts for a dollar 75. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I'd sell them for 50¢ Yeah. Yep. I'd flip the donuts. Yeah. You know, flip good things that weren't supposed to be flipped, know as well unfortunately, you know.
Speaker 2:I had my know, yeah growing up in, in the Los Angeles area, but just always been with the mindset of making my own way I guess, you know, wanted things to this day as sad as it sounds. I remember the first time we got like designer shoes, right? It was we were in North Carolina. I think I was 10, nine or 10. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And he he my brother was a year old. I mean, we went to the mall. And back then, they were designer shoes, know, but Yeah. We got a pair of and ones.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:When this is when and ones were and ones. Like, they were they were considered the Nikes and stuff during this time. Yep. And obviously it still wasn't Nike, but it was it was and ones, you know, and that was the first time and I was like, bro, I need more of this in my life. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I was like, this is what I want. Like, we we dip we did we ditched the Payless and we got these M1s, and I was like, yeah, buddy. What's up? And I love that feeling.
Speaker 1:Yeah. The Payless shoes, man. Like, dude, they're uncomfortable. They smelled after a lobber. Like, out of the Payless products, man.
Speaker 1:Like, you know?
Speaker 2:Yeah, man. We had those Shacks, man. We had the you know? And so that feeling was kind of ingrained in me. Like, I was like, man, I I want more of that.
Speaker 2:And if I can't get it from my home, I'm gonna get it myself. I'm gonna figure out how make it myself.
Speaker 1:I mean, what what you're describing is really like ownership. Like, you're just like, hey, look, like, this is what I got now, and I want different, and I realize I'm the vehicle that gets between those two places. You know I mean? Exactly. I put the gas in, I control the steering wheel, I mash on the gas, no matter what has happened to me, no matter who's in my life now saying I can't do it, like it's just total ownership.
Speaker 2:No, total ownership, total ownership. And so young, like I said, always hustling. I'm a mechanic by trade. So I started working on cars young in my life.
Speaker 1:You saying that.
Speaker 2:I used to work on cars after high school after high school. There was a gas station on the corner down the street from my high school that had a shop. Yep. I'd go work on cars there. And so and I I thought that was gonna be my world was the car world because I I love cars.
Speaker 2:Love love cars. Still to this day, I love cars, and I can't wait to start building my collection at some point. Yeah. But but right now, we're just focused on the build. Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know? And, but I love cars. And so my first business
Speaker 1:Before like, you're passing over something that's really important, man, and it's delayed gratification.
Speaker 2:Oh, %.
Speaker 1:Like, as an entrepreneur, it's one of those things that, bro, like, you have to be able to delay gratification. If you listen, I don't think Hormozi was the the original source of it. Mhmm. I've I've meant to to dig deep to find who it was, but he's said it recently that people that build great things, especially great things that impact others, they have three things in common. The first one is they can delay gratification.
Speaker 1:The second one is they think they can do much more than the average person could. And then the third one is they think that they can do much less than the average person could. So they actually have a piece of them that thinks they're better than others, and a piece of them that thinks that they're much worse than others, much less than others.
Speaker 2:That's funny.
Speaker 1:And they can delay gratification. And as I've looked around at people, I see that. You know, I see that, like, people in my circle now that are high achievers that I aspire to be, I see that in them. I see that they can delay gratification. They love cars, but they're driving a hoopty right now.
Speaker 2:It ain't a hoopty, bud. It's Yeah. It ain't the one I want.
Speaker 1:Ain't the one you want. They think that they're better. Like, they they have a special gift that other people don't have, but at the same time, they have, like, a crushing sense of, like, I am less than others.
Speaker 2:That's funny.
Speaker 1:You know what mean?
Speaker 2:Yeah. And that's funny or or or eye opening because I I believe I feel that those three qualities are ingrained in me at the same time because, like you said, since growing up I've always known like I'm destined for more like I've known it and there's certain people that say it but don't live to it but like I've felt it since I was a kid. I'm like I am destined for something big. Like I know it and and you know and I know I know it's it's been proven time and time again you know. Unfortunately there's been multiple times where I should not be on this earth you know but God's been like nope not yet.
Speaker 2:I got I got plans
Speaker 1:for Pulled back in.
Speaker 2:Oh, pulled me back in multiple times. And the first one was I was in a pretty bad motorcycle accident, where I've had 14 reconstructive surgeries, should have definitely not been here, but it was necessary. And believe it or not, to this day, I believe that it was the best thing that happened to me, because he stopped me in my tracks. He's like, you're going down the wrong path. I was not listening.
Speaker 2:And he said, alright, fire. And he smacked me. He's like, alright. Here you go.
Speaker 1:God send signs. They're always there. Right? If you have the level of awareness and you're listening, you will see them and you will correct course. Correct.
Speaker 1:Right? Sometimes, man. You know what I mean? And I can I'm hard headed like that sometimes, especially when I was younger. You probably were too.
Speaker 1:And sometimes, the signs aren't enough, and the smacks gotta come in. It has to. The smacks gotta come in. It has come in. You know
Speaker 2:what is. And I'm glad it came in early because it it did give me what I needed to kinda like wake up and kind of tone back, you know. My brother and I didn't have the best relationship growing up, you know, and now we have an amazing relationship thankfully, you know, and it's it's, you know, it's it all things, I believe, happen for a reason, you know, and sometimes we go down the wrong path thinking it's the wrong path, but it's the right path to get you to where you need to be. Yeah.
Speaker 1:It's a course, It
Speaker 2:is. You know? Because, for example, the accident happened and then technically in my opinion, that's where my life started. Because I had to move in with my parents in North Carolina at that time. We were still living in LA.
Speaker 2:And that's where I started my first business. That's why my phone number is a 919 number. Yeah. I haven't changed my number since I started my first business because I've just met so many people Yeah. Over the years and they know they could still reach me on that same number.
Speaker 2:Sure. Sure. But I I used to work so I I I went in by working with a partner in an auto repair shop. And so what we did was I worked for about a year and a half straight about eighteen nineteen hours a day saved up 60 k. So I worked overnight on the railroad as a mechanic.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And then I'd so I'd work from 8PM to 06:30 in the morning At seven, I'd go home, sleep, I'd wake up at 11AM, and then go into the shop and work from, like, 11:30 or twelve to 07:30 hustle, man. And then go back to the to the to the to the train, you know, and start working on the trains at night. And, man, it was hard, but during that age, I mean, that's when you do it. And so but I had the hunger.
Speaker 2:I was like, I I'm going to build something. And we built I mean, we we built a decent shop. Like, we went from being one bay inside of another shop. Yeah. Like subleasing.
Speaker 2:Mhmm. To six bays and four technicians in like two years.
Speaker 1:That's what I
Speaker 2:was talking A little, you know, and so it was like we were hustling, right? And I saw you and I was like, this is great. Unfortunately, things didn't work out well, so I had to get out. Yeah. And I was in limbo for a little bit and I was helping a friend of mine with his, he had a Time Warner contracting company, Cox, Time Warner, Spectrum, you know, cable.
Speaker 2:Yeah, cable. And so I was I was doing that and right before my accident happened, my first mentor, she's a doctor of chiropractic. Mhmm. And she took me on. She saw as a matter of fact, we just recently had a conversation.
Speaker 2:She just called me like Okay. Literally two weeks ago and we were catching up and and because she was coming to Vegas and I was telling her and telling about the new facility. She's like, man, I knew you were gonna do something big. Yeah. This and the second.
Speaker 2:Because she was pretty much one of the first peep people to see it in me. Yep. Because she sent me out to this chiropractic business school. Yeah. Paid like $30,000 for me to go through all this training and all this stuff.
Speaker 2:And two weeks later is when my accident happened. And I was four months in the hospital and all that. She and it was just like I I felt so bad, and she was like, don't worry about it.
Speaker 1:That says something that says something about her too.
Speaker 2:She viewed me like another son. Yeah. She viewed me like her son.
Speaker 1:An average an average person with just average qualities would say, I can't believe you did that to me, Josh. Yeah. You know, you I we I just did this for you, and then you went and think and she was like, no. Don't worry about it.
Speaker 2:She was.
Speaker 1:She saw yeah. She saw what was inside. Yeah.
Speaker 2:So she hit me up when I was during that limbo between the shop, and she's like, hey. How far is Charlton, South Carolina from? It's like a three hour drive. She's like, can you meet me there in June? I'm going down for a convention.
Speaker 2:I need your help with something. I'm like, yeah. Of course. I'm there. What do you so she's like, what do I was like, what do you need?
Speaker 2:She's like, just meet me there. I was like, god. I'll be there. So June, I drove down there and, it was a medical convention. Mhmm.
Speaker 2:And in day one, we did 60,000 in sales. And I'm like, is this shit legal? Like, what what are we like, woah.
Speaker 1:What are we doing here?
Speaker 2:What's what's what's the she's like, this is what I got going on. And I'm like, so we went to dinner last
Speaker 1:Like, tell me more.
Speaker 2:Yes. So we went to dinner last night. She told me about it. Right? So it's in the d m a DME space, durable medical equipment where we were producing orthopedic braces Yep.
Speaker 2:That we sell to these distributors.
Speaker 1:In there. Yep.
Speaker 2:Yep. And so stupid money. And she's like, I I know the product, but you know me. I don't know business. I don't know sales.
Speaker 2:I need you to come in and handle my shit. I'll keep creating, you handle operations and sales Yep. And let's do it. And I'm like, done. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Let's do it. So we started growing that, and we were killing it to this day. The largest p single PO I've ever closed was through that company
Speaker 1:Nice.
Speaker 2:To Cardinal Health. And so we kept doing that, boom boom.
Speaker 1:You know what's interesting, man? Like, as I see through your journey, and, again, it's something that lines up with me, you I I see you as a visionary. Yeah. But you're also an operator. Yes.
Speaker 1:And that's kinda like how I that's kinda how I roll too. Now, I'm most effective in the visionary spot. Same. But I can operate. Same.
Speaker 1:Now, when I'm operating, my visionary stuff gets in the way sometimes. Yes. But, like, I can do both. And throughout my career, even prior to Fuel Hunt, like, I was doing the same thing. I was kinda, like, switching back and forth, visionary operator visionary operator.
Speaker 1:It's interesting to kinda hear that from you too.
Speaker 2:You know
Speaker 1:what I mean? Because right now I would see, like, at the sub house, definitely you're in that visionary role. Like, you're not behind the sewing machine. No. You probably could be.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Oh, I know how to use every piece of equipment. Yeah. Yeah. You could
Speaker 1:be, but you're in that visionary role now. Well, like here, when you're talking about the medic you know, this company, it's like, Well, I'm gonna switch back to the operator role. Your friend, she was in that visionary spot. I'm gonna create what to do. You're gonna make it happen.
Speaker 1:We're gonna do this. Yeah. Interesting, man. Very interesting.
Speaker 2:And that's how I got to Vegas. So in in in 2014 between January and April, I flew to Vegas Nine times from North Carolina.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Because all these medical conventions and shit and all they're there. I mean, there's a convention there every day. As a matter of I just learned there was a pizza convention in there last night. No. I'm dead serious.
Speaker 2:It's literally for pizza shops, mom and pop pizza shops on the latest doughs and the latest ovens and the latest bricks and the like
Speaker 1:Convention for everything.
Speaker 2:Convention for everything and they all come to That's spot. Right?
Speaker 1:That's the
Speaker 2:spot. So I I I told my brother and my mom one day, I'm like, guys, I'm moving to Vegas. What's up? You guys wanna come? They said, fuck it.
Speaker 2:Let's do it. Yeah. And so we packed up, drove to Vegas Yeah. And and settled down. Now granted, we had as I said, we grew up in LA.
Speaker 2:We had a cousin in Vegas that we used to visit back and forth when we grew up in LA. So we knew a little bit, but we've we've always been there like for a weekend or two or something like nothing crazy, but still it was like new territory. Right? Straight cross country. We were like, you know, we'll do it.
Speaker 2:And so that's how I got to Vegas. Got to Vegas, you know, still with the medical and, you know, things weren't going. I've always been a minority at that point throughout my whole entrepreneur career. I was always the the minority, lower percentage, lower things
Speaker 1:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:But higher execution. Yeah. And I was like, you know what? It's time for me to kind of figure out my shit. Like, I wanna I wanna I wanna be the leader leader.
Speaker 2:Right? Yeah. So things weren't working out. I said, you know what? I'm gonna I'm gonna step away from this Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I'm gonna do my own thing. And so I started my first solo business, which was Vape Society Distro. Okay. Which was a we were a vape distribution company Alright. Where we made handmade premium coils.
Speaker 2:This was obviously in the wild wild west days of of vape and it was
Speaker 1:No regulation.
Speaker 2:And we were killing it. Yeah. We were killing it. I mean, we were traveling up and down. We were having fun.
Speaker 2:It was my brother. We had my best friend from high school there that moved out from Cali Yeah. To live with us. My cousin that was out there. We were just we were having fun and making money, and it was just it was awesome.
Speaker 2:It was freaking great. And then 2016 came and big farm Big Tobacco was not happy.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Because in 2015, the reports came out and the vape industry had taken $54,000,000,000 from Big And Big Tobacco goes, FDA bro, what's up? Like, we pay you all this money every year Yep. And these guys don't do shit, go bust some balls. Like, what's up? And so they came out with these outlandish regulations that started that took place in August of twenty sixteen Yep.
Speaker 2:And pretty much crippled the entire vape world. At that point, it was all mom and pop. All the vape world was mom and pop. Usually, was, you know, as whether it was stores or the brands, it was all families. It was all families.
Speaker 2:Yep. And most of it, again, wild wild west. Nobody knew business. Nobody knew this. Everybody was spending money.
Speaker 2:So when they came in, now it's like you need attorneys, you need science reports, you need this, you need that, you need to submit paperwork to FDA. We had the know how thankfully from the medical side on my end on how to do it and we submit it. As a matter of fact, our licenses just expired. Yeah. I think it was like maybe two, three years ago, they had they just expired because you had to pay like $25 Oh, yeah.
Speaker 2:Per license, and if you had like multiple products, you're talking about tens of thousands of dollars at a lot of so it It
Speaker 1:just chokes everybody.
Speaker 2:Our business in like five It was like crazy and we were scrambling. Was like, oh shit. So we started briefly our marketing agency called Cup Studios, which stands for contents under pressure studios. Okay. Because we were under fucking pressure.
Speaker 2:I like that. We were under pressure, boy. We were like, shit. We got a we went from making stupid money to like not even a tenth of it.
Speaker 1:What are we gonna do next?
Speaker 2:Overnight and we were like, alright. I was like, shit. What do we do? We have access to these vendors on ordering business cards, brochures, banners for really good pricing. I was like, my brother knows photoshop and content and like pictures and videos Yep.
Speaker 2:And how to build websites. And I'm like, alright. We'll start selling marketing services. I got this. Right?
Speaker 2:We'll kill it. We'll we'll we'll we'll revamp. Give me two months. We'll be back.
Speaker 1:We'll be back.
Speaker 2:We'll be back. Yeah. Boy. Bro, no bullshit. I went door to door to almost every single business in Vegas.
Speaker 2:Yep. Door to door. Door like, got out my car, was stopped at a plaza, knocked, dropped off cards. Like, hey. I got the best deals for you.
Speaker 2:I was giving away product. Yep. Crickets. I may I mean, crickets. And then here comes one of the major mistakes in that time.
Speaker 2:Again, we were just trying to make rent, trying to figure shit out.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:Right? And there was one restaurant group, not group, just a restaurant that I was that was like giving us a little bit of like back and forth. I'm like, alright. I'm a close this.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:They wanted menus, but they wanted these nice unique menus that nobody had and everything. And so I started find hitting up suppliers, finding suppliers. I found the supplier that does the menus for, like, the restaurants on the strip. Yep. And I went to go visit him, and it was crazy to this day.
Speaker 2:I mean, I was it was like a thousand dollar a menu, and these and they needed 200 menus. And I'm like, a thousand dollars a menu for them, I'm like what are we doing and this wholesale. Yeah. Right and I'm like dude I can't sell a thousand dollar menu with the 200, I'm like you're tripping, I'm like this is crazy, I'm like nah, so everything was either the fold up paper or the laminated, so I I came up with this stupid crazy idea. Alright.
Speaker 2:I'm like, dude, look. They were a a Marisco spot. Right? So like a seafood. I was like, look.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna get you these menus. We're gonna make them custom size.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Right? The custom paper, custom size, we're gonna and we're gonna create a custom bamboo spiral bound. Yeah. So it's not gonna be normal. Right?
Speaker 2:They were like, bro, this is great. Now guys do Now you guys do Right? Bro, I undersold the fuck out of this job, bro. I they all tell me about I I was like, oh, yeah. I figured this out.
Speaker 2:This is gonna take fucking bro, I had myself, my wife, who was my girlfriend at the time in the in the kitchen. I got sick.
Speaker 1:Had How how do we make a bamboo binder?
Speaker 2:Bro, it was it was wow. We had to hand freaking Yeah. Lace these shits, bro. It was I I think I sold the job for like $3 because our rent was like bro, we had to our rent was like 1,700 or 2,000 and we needed to pay it. And so I was like, you know what, $3 for 200 menus, that job should have easily been 15.
Speaker 1:I was good
Speaker 2:at Easy.
Speaker 1:How'd you turn out that many menus then?
Speaker 2:Bro, we we did it. We did the work. Bro, we did the work. Bro, I ordered in like 20 laminators from Amazon. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I ordered in these these sheets and these special cutters. I went to from Joann Fabrics and Hobby Lobby to because the other part was August. I couldn't figure out a way to custom make the holes for this special paper. Yeah. Because it was either for eight and a half by eleven or eleven by seventeen.
Speaker 2:Yeah. There was no
Speaker 1:Yeah. Is a full craft
Speaker 2:Bro, on, custom. They probably still have the menus because they
Speaker 1:were Did they love the menu?
Speaker 2:Oh, bro. They loved them. They loved them. They loved which was great. But bro, it was crazy.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So, yeah, contents under pressure did not work. Yeah. It did not work, bro. We it was we learned some things.
Speaker 2:Well, we learned some things. Learned some things. It was great. And then from there, so I went back to my roots. I went to the dealership world to kind of figure out my life while we were you know, what we were gonna do My wife and I ended up getting pregnant with our oldest at that time Mhmm.
Speaker 2:And so she's like, you gotta like, we gotta do something like,
Speaker 1:Time to figure
Speaker 2:it out. Time to figure out. Was like, Let me go get a job. Yep. While I figure out my next move.
Speaker 2:Like, I don't know what it's gonna be. And, unfortunately, that time, family crisis came into play with, my mother-in-law.
Speaker 1:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:And they had a children's clothing brand. Yep. It's been around since 02/2008. And the business was like in limbo. At that time, it was doing decent.
Speaker 2:It was doing like 607 hundred thousand a year, but we couldn't like she was completely out of the picture kind of like she couldn't handle it. Yep. And my wife called me one day, she's like, babe, you you gotta come take over. Yeah. You got I'm like I'm like, well, take over what?
Speaker 1:It's, like, almost everything up until that point, like, kinda built you for that. Yes. Not necessarily maybe that you had, like, the exact skills necessary. No. But you had the skill that you knew you were gonna figure it the fuck out.
Speaker 2:%.
Speaker 1:You know
Speaker 2:what mean? Bro, before I took over, I didn't even know how to open Photoshop.
Speaker 1:And even going back, like, even when you were like, alright, look, let me take a break. I'm gonna go back to the dealership. I'm gonna, you know, get some income coming in so I can figure things out. Like, you're going back through your Rolodex of skills. And you're like, okay, look, like, I was hustling my lunches.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean? Then mechanic, then this and that. Devices, like, you can now you have a Rolodex of skill. Yeah. You know?
Speaker 1:And that's the thing. Like, I think people wish for less problems, but really what they should be doing is they should be working for more skills.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:You know what I'm saying?
Speaker 2:%.
Speaker 1:So so your wife says, look, gotta you gotta step
Speaker 2:in here. Gotta step in You gotta and it's funny you mentioned that because I'm gonna tie back to what you just mentioned on the Rolodexa skill in a in a minute on this journey. But yeah. So she tells me, you gotta come take over. Like, we can't afford to lose the family business.
Speaker 2:Like, this is all my mom and dad have. Like, do you Mhmm. You gotta come in. And I was like, fuck it. I'm like, I know business.
Speaker 2:I don't know shit about clothes. I don't know shit about little girls clothes at that. Right? Didn't grow It's
Speaker 1:pajamas.
Speaker 2:Right? Yeah. It's pajamas. I didn't we didn't grow up with the girls or anything, and we grew up in Los Angeles. Our brand Target brand at at still to this day is upper class New Yorkers.
Speaker 2:Right? And and and camp and sleep away camp. I'm like, know nothing about it, but I'm like, you know what? I know business.
Speaker 1:So the, like, the avatar like, the the customer The customer avatar. Like, this person that you've never you've never dealt with. I've never even met one. Where's the sleepaway camp coming now?
Speaker 2:So sleepaway camp, we're a big sleepaway camp brand. So our brand is heavy in the sleepaway camp. We are
Speaker 1:So custom custom clothing for the
Speaker 2:Not just custom clothing, but mostly the brand. So they buy they first, they love our fabric, they love our fit, and they love the longevity. I mean, we have we get emails from from parents that are like, I need to order another three pairs because I can't get these off of them and I need to wash them because they
Speaker 1:stink. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So please set, you know, and so they're like, what size do I need to get this and that. They we got parents that their pants, they've had them so long that the size washes out of the tag Yep.
Speaker 2:And the pant is still brand Yeah.
Speaker 1:I don't know what size is Yes.
Speaker 2:But but they love and they grew out of
Speaker 1:shout out the the brand? Yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean, the brand's Penelope Wildberry. We have a few stores here in the Philly area that carry our product. Been And
Speaker 1:do DTC online too? Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Okay. We've a website where we do DTC.
Speaker 1:So we a little bit of a jump there. So you step in, you're like, don't know shit about any of
Speaker 2:No, no,
Speaker 1:And you don't even So it's one thing to not know the what I'll call the the tech the the abilities of or the technical skills. Right? I think. But you also don't even know who you're selling to. Like, you don't even know that person.
Speaker 1:No. So it's not like you can come in and be effective with the marketing on day one and move the needle. Bro. And it's not like you can go in and be like, well, me sit behind the sewing machine.
Speaker 2:Correct.
Speaker 1:At the like, even have
Speaker 2:that yet. So at that so we didn't even have that yet. So not not back to the avatar. Bro, before this, I thought that all that sleep away camp was just in the movies.
Speaker 1:Bro, it wasn't a real thing.
Speaker 2:Bro, when she's when they started explaining it to me, I'm like, wait a minute. This is real? Like, I remember parent trap, and I remember camp this and camp that movie.
Speaker 1:Dude, I'll be honest with you, man. Like, growing up, there was a I think a show on, Nickelodeon or something, man. I don't know because I didn't have cable Yeah. Growing up. Like, we didn't have cable.
Speaker 1:We just had the antenna. I didn't get cable till I was in college. Right? So, like, I saw the stuff in my friend's houses. Yeah.
Speaker 1:But there was, like, a camp like that, where, like, basically, your kids would go away for the summer, and, like, that's it. Like, you send your kid away. Yeah. And I I remember thinking to myself, I'm like, dude, this can't be real. Like, what parents would send their kids away?
Speaker 1:The only kids I knew that got sent away when I was growing up
Speaker 2:Were the bad ones.
Speaker 1:Were the bad ones.
Speaker 2:Yeah. You went to Juvie or some kind of, you know Where you went to? Boarding school.
Speaker 1:Boarding school or something. Like, I'm like, these kids seem like well adjusted. They're having fun. They're in canoes. Jet
Speaker 2:skiing, canoes. Right? So, like Like,
Speaker 1:this can't be real.
Speaker 2:I same, bro. Before that, I was like I'm like, this is only in movies. Like, I would love that, but I'm like, this can't exist in real life. I'm like, it's just movie based.
Speaker 1:So you find out that that's
Speaker 2:I find out that it's a real thing. And I'm like, what the fuck? I'm like, this is crazy. And I'm learning this and I'm learning that. I'm learning bro, some of these camps for tuition for six weeks is $14.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Massage.
Speaker 2:That's not including the clothes, the bunks, the nothing.
Speaker 1:That's more than the tuition for my entire elementary school Yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm like I'm like what is going on right? So I'm like, yes, so I know nothing. Okay. I know nothing right? But the second I get in here, I find and I see our biggest gap or biggest hole, our biggest ship sinker
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Is our production, right?
Speaker 1:So where is that? So at that time the production was Outsourced. All outsourced.
Speaker 2:Pretty much.
Speaker 1:Not on
Speaker 2:Pretty not domestic? Well, some Some a few domestic partners
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:But some most of the the fabrics and stuff from overseas
Speaker 1:Gotcha.
Speaker 2:Gotcha. And stuff. And so it was
Speaker 1:like Some mixed bag.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Mixed bag. Of the printing we would do in house. Some of it we wouldn't. What was the
Speaker 1:so what was the why was production an issue? Was it unreliable turns?
Speaker 2:Unreliable turns, unreliable fabric, unreliable timelines as far Quality and timeline. Quality and times. Our stores wanted the product and we couldn't get it to them. Yeah. Like it was sometimes six, eight weeks Yeah.
Speaker 2:To get them an order and at this time we're not doing crazy volume either. Yep. Excuse me. Which is also why it was part of the problem is we couldn't find it. And my last straw was we got a shipment of fabric in that was $30,000 and it was cut upside down.
Speaker 2:And they go, order again, we'll give you a discount. Like, order again and you'll give me a discount. Fix this Yeah.
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:I said fuck this. Was that I'm figuring it out. Is that, offshore? Yes.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Bro, it's wild, actually. It's wild. It's wild. Mean, you know, the community knows that, like, when we first started Fuel Hunt we're new to this, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:When we first started Fuel Hunt, we weren't a % American made, right? So we were doing some stuff overseas.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:We stayed out of China, pretty much.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But we were in The Middle East. You know what I mean? And I will never forget, like, our first couple forays into making product in The Middle East. Bro, it was wild.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man.
Speaker 1:It was wild. I I don't know what I really expected, but, like, I had to download WhatsApp fine.
Speaker 2:Like Yeah.
Speaker 1:You know, oh, we keep what's apps? I download WhatsApp, whatever. And, like, I get on, like, video chat
Speaker 2:Yeah. On the
Speaker 1:WhatsApp with this dude over there. And I'm like, what is going on here? I'm like, something
Speaker 2:ain't out.
Speaker 1:I'm like, something ain't right. Like, I'm about to wire this dude, like, $5. Right, which is
Speaker 2:And it looks like he's in a cave.
Speaker 1:A massive amount of money for us at that point, And I'm like, this ain't this ain't this ain't right. Like, there's, like, shit all over the place, like, it's not cleanly, like, this dude does not look like he knows what he's doing. I'm like, something's wrong here. Like, dude, it's the Wild West. And then, like, as we got deeper into it, we always wanted to be American made for, you know, reasons that our community
Speaker 2:knows, right?
Speaker 1:In the beginning, we did what we had to do to cut our teeth. Yeah. You know what I mean? But what it made like, I started to quickly realize that, like, the money we were spending had ripple effects over there, and I didn't like the ripple effects from what I was seeing. Right?
Speaker 1:Then I started to go deeper into it. And me, like, one thing about me is I'm super curious.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Like, that's, like, one of my superpowers, like, curiosity. So then I started to go down the rabbit hole, and I'm like, like, I can actually be working with people in certain regions in other countries where that region is known for forced labor, like, basically slavery.
Speaker 2:Not basically, actual slavery.
Speaker 1:Sex trafficking. Like, you know Child labor. Child labor. Drugs.
Speaker 2:There are child labor that help around, like, job. Like, real Yes. Like, real. Real. And
Speaker 1:I started going down there, and I was down that rabbit hole, and I was like, this has to stop. And that's when we started making, like, a a plan to get back to The States. You know what I mean? Because I was like, this this cannot be, man. Yeah.
Speaker 1:This cannot be. So so I understand.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:So when you're telling me $30,000 comes in, it's cut wrong, and they're like, oh, order again and we'll give you a discount. I get it. Yeah. We've been there.
Speaker 2:Unfortunately, most brands most brands understand it. And, you know, I was told that can't be done. You can't do it. I'm like, bro, bullshit. I'll figure this shit Now don't get me wrong.
Speaker 2:At that time, I did not know I was building a factory. I was just solving
Speaker 1:a You're just
Speaker 2:trying to do it. I was just literally trying to get our clothes to our stores. Yep. Right? That's it.
Speaker 2:I didn't know I was building this factory. I didn't have a vision of bringing back apparel manufacturing, stay side, none of that. And so that started late twenty eighteen, early '20 '19, and we started blah blah blah, and I just looked up and I'm like, wow. Like, look at this equipment. We were still tiny as shit at that time, but still, was like, we got this How did happen?
Speaker 1:Like, you you say, okay, look, we need to take more control of this. Yeah. Not just the experience, but the quality. And that was a big thing for us too. So it was our the ripple effect that we were having in the world.
Speaker 1:Yep. Like that impact, right? Because Drew and I swore to ourselves. We were like, look, if we're going to start this business, we're gonna make sure this business aligns with the impact that we wanna have in the world. Right?
Speaker 1:So there was that. We had to take control of that. But then we were taking control of, the quality and then the experience our community members would have. Right? Where did that shift happen?
Speaker 1:Were you like you looked around for vendors and you were just like, look, I'm fucking I'm just buying a sewing machine.
Speaker 2:Yeah. No. So it it it started so in Vegas to begin with, it's not a huge apparel zone. Right? There's not there's really not much.
Speaker 2:Like, you're
Speaker 1:You're not far from it, though.
Speaker 2:LA. I mean, it's still four hours. You know? And but there's there's yeah. You got your print shops, screen print, your embroidery, shit like that, your vinyl.
Speaker 2:Cut and sew. Right? But cut and sew and sublimation doesn't really exist.
Speaker 1:Right? Especially sublimation.
Speaker 2:Especially sublimation. So I'm like, I was trying to work things, work things with LA, with the transit, the shipping, the this, and then minimums, right?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:At this time, so our the we had our I guess problem slash not problem is one of our the popularity of our product is that we come up with crazy designs and we have a wide catalog. So every every three months, we drop a new catalog.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:And it's usually 20 to 30 brand new designs of just and they're all hand drawn, crazy, graphics, this, fun, wild, Penelope Wildberry, you know.
Speaker 1:All over seamless prints.
Speaker 2:Yes, all over seamless prints but the thing is is we didn't know what would sell so we were always a made to order brand type deal.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So it's not like we can go in there and order 50 pieces of each style each design because now we're bringing in a hundred thousand dollars worth of merchandise that we don't even know if it's gonna sell. Yeah. Yeah. So the problem we would run into with with suppliers and vendors we were trying to find is they always required a high minimum Yep. Of one design or one size.
Speaker 2:And it was just like, bro, it's not possible. Like, I can't I could take the orders and I'll give it to you, but sometimes that style is gonna have 10 pieces. Yeah. Or that design is gonna have 50 pieces. Or hey, if this design really hits, you'll get 300 pieces of that style, but I still need these other 15 of this other one.
Speaker 2:They'll be like, we'll do that, but we won't do this. Right? So I'm like, alright. Fuck it. And, man, to be honest, I can't give you the exact details because it all happens so fast.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And it besides the only thing I could tell you is is on my side, really. Like, really. It all happened so fast and all the pieces started to fall in line so quickly that it was like I said, it's almost meant to be that this was my niche. Right?
Speaker 2:Well, backtracking a little bit, my wife and I's first date that we went on was I told her I told her two big things. Right? I told her, one, I want three kids Yeah. Which have we have our three kids
Speaker 1:on
Speaker 2:our first date, and two, that I'm gonna build a massive empire. Yeah. And she's like, okay. And what? And I was like, I don't know but I'm gonna build it.
Speaker 2:She's like alright. She thought it was gonna be cars and I thought it might have been cars too but when this happened, bro I fell in love with this industry so quick and it kind of connected all of my attributes and beams kind of into one, that when I built when I looked up and I saw what I built factory wise, I'm like, this is it. This is what I plan on being in for the rest of my life.
Speaker 1:Yeah. It's it's so crazy because you can, I feel like as hard charging entrepreneurs, we rarely step back? Because there's problems of the day to solve, right? So you rarely step back. Even as a visionary, right?
Speaker 1:Yeah. Like, your job as a visionary is to look is to look up and out.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Right? Not down and in. No. But, like, even as a visionary, you're not looking back. No.
Speaker 1:Right? So we rarely do it. But when you step back, and I have the same thing here, when I step back, I can see, like, pieces of all of my life's experiences here. Yes. And it's wild.
Speaker 1:It's wild. It's it is
Speaker 2:so It just it just connects. Just like it could becomes like a little puzzle that just boom. I know. And it comes together, I'm gonna talk a little bit more on that puzzle.
Speaker 1:That's why, like, for me, like, that that that was, you know, one of the moments where, you know, I you know, grew up Catholic and
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You know, all that stuff, but that was one of the moments where I, like, surrendered. Was like, this ain't my plan. No. Like, I know what I need to do in this moment. Like, I know the plan for the day.
Speaker 1:I know, you know, as a visionary, I know the plan for the year, you know, like, five, ten, whatever. But, like, in the grand scheme of things, this ain't my plan. Like, I just need to do the work, and then the puzzle pieces will start to connect. Hundred because there's something bigger than me. You know what I mean?
Speaker 1:It's shaping them and pulling them together. %.
Speaker 2:You know what mean?
Speaker 1:It's it's wild.
Speaker 2:It is. When you have that epiphany, it's like It is.
Speaker 1:Holy shit.
Speaker 2:It is. It's crazy. And I've had them a few times, and we're gonna get close to the and so I so I said I can't pinpoint how it happened, but I put up an ad in the Spanish newspaper for sewers. I put up because I could I was like, how do I find these? Like, how do I find sewers?
Speaker 2:What machines do I need? I don't even know what the machines are called. I'm like, look. Well, I got blessed with Andres, which is my production manager still with me to this day.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:He I I found him. He found me Through the ad? Through the ad. Found him, he came along with two of his people that, again, Abelino and Pedro, another our our our trio of, of just foundational sub house, you know, And I still we got videos and content still of them from back then and there in that day in that little corner with three little machines and stuff. And well, I got blessed.
Speaker 1:Did you at that point, did you know how to sew at that point? No. Okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Yeah. No.
Speaker 1:So you're so that's another thing. Like, we're talking about surrender. I was talking about, like surrendering to my high power. Right. But like, this is another type of another type.
Speaker 1:You bring these dudes in and you're like, okay, you've you've been through enough where you can read people, you can understand people. So you're like, okay, like, can probably trust these dude.
Speaker 2:I don't even know what
Speaker 1:to You're just you're just like, okay, look, you you're gonna be in your corner, you're gonna be running these machines, and I'm just gonna surrender and trust you.
Speaker 2:Literally, it's like you trying to go in the Operating Room and knowing if that heart surgeon is doing what he's supposed to. Yeah. That looks right? I don't know. He might come out with two livers.
Speaker 2:Look. But just look. Yeah. Say, I'm like, look. I don't know what this is supposed to look like.
Speaker 2:It looks right. Look. Just bring me the final product. Let me let me, you know, let me see. And, well, I said, got blessed, man.
Speaker 2:I got blessed with Andres and Abelino and Pedro earlier feel
Speaker 1:the same way about you at this point?
Speaker 2:I'm sure they do. I'm sure they do. Andres has expressed it multiple times. You know, he's he's said it that for sure, you know, I've been the best leader that he's had in his life, and I feel the same way. You know, I'm I'm very blessed and fortunate with our team, our culture, you know.
Speaker 2:But, yeah, I brought him in. I got lucky, you know, and then for a quick stint, like, I got unlucky because he ended up having to move to Florida Mhmm. With his wife to go be with family. He's like, I'm leaving. I'm like, what do you mean you're leaving?
Speaker 2:What's up? How far
Speaker 1:how far
Speaker 2:in To Miami. From Vegas to Miami.
Speaker 1:Saying how far into
Speaker 2:Oh, was early. It was like pretty much after year one. Oh. Like early. Right?
Speaker 1:And I'm like So you're just settling in and you're like, okay.
Speaker 2:Stop Yeah. We're like, we're yeah. And I'm like, oh. I'm like, alright, bro. I mean, I you gotta do what you gotta do.
Speaker 2:I get it. Blah blah blah.
Speaker 1:And thankfully The other two guys from the power trio are still
Speaker 2:with Okay. Yep. We're still there. And thankfully, didn't last long, but I told him, I was like, look, bro. If you come back
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You have a place here. Yeah. So if you ever come back and he calls me a few months later, hey. I'm coming back. Dude, when do you wanna start?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Come on, when do you want to start? Right. I was like come on, come on home, come on.
Speaker 1:Yeah. And
Speaker 2:so this was late twenty nineteen and again from when we started our factory to then we doubled our sales. Yeah. Doubled. Because we were able to just produce, get it out. Produce, get it out.
Speaker 2:Check quality, make sure was You're able
Speaker 1:to do smaller runs, experiment.
Speaker 2:You're able to
Speaker 1:do things. You're basically the things that, the problems that you solved for yourself at that time, you are now helping people like us solve those same problems.
Speaker 2:Correct. And that's kinda how the vision came into play, So I'm like looking up in 2019, and I'm like, bro, we're running three days a week, we're running half shifts.
Speaker 1:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:Like our bandwidth is wide and I'm like, this shit's just sitting here. Yeah. Like, why don't we start helping others? Yeah. Right?
Speaker 2:So I started reaching out
Speaker 1:all the way back to the beginning of the show. So I
Speaker 2:started reaching out Instagram DMs, this and that, but at the
Speaker 1:same Same thing, like you were knocking on doors, man.
Speaker 2:But I'm reaching out as the brand.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Oh, it's been helpful a
Speaker 2:So people are like, wait a minute, are you a factory? Because I'd get traction, they'd be like, oh yes, you're domestic and you Yes. Oh, me look cute.
Speaker 1:We don't need pajamas. Yeah, they're
Speaker 2:like, you're a little girl's brand, what do you what do you mean? I'm like, well, technically we're both.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And they're like, and so kinda they kinda like, it kinda turned them off. Yep. And then finally one day it clicked on me, I'm like
Speaker 1:You hear you you're going through the Rolodex Yes. Skill and you go back to the cup stays, dude. Yes.
Speaker 2:Content's under pressure. I'm like, I'm like, it clicks, I'm like, I gotta separate the two. Yeah. Right? And so that's where the sublimation house was born.
Speaker 1:Ah, I got you.
Speaker 2:Late twenty nineteen, early '20 '20, sublimation house was born and I'm like, I gotta separate the two Yep. Because this is the only way I could reach out as a factory and not as a brand.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:Right? And so I started reaching out early twenty nineteen late twenty nineteen, early '20 '20 Yeah. Pandemic hits. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Right?
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah. I'm like, fuck.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:I'm like like literally Mhmm. Crying into so at that time besides the brand, we also ran a pretty successful trade show in New York three times a year Mhmm. Because we for the children's space. So we for retail buyers. Not only just our brand, but we'd have Steve Madden, Flowers by Zoe, all the major kids But you were mad.
Speaker 2:But we ran the trade show. Ah, okay. We put on the trade show. It was called the NYC kids That's pretty smart, man. Yeah.
Speaker 2:That's very smart. So because there used to be a show. Is that?
Speaker 1:So your mother-in-law was doing that previously before you stepped oh, okay. So this this was a new.
Speaker 2:This was new. This was always new. This was all new. She had an idea of it. She's the one that because there were there used to be a trade show.
Speaker 2:Yep. But they took it away. And so the stores and the buyers were had a need Yeah. To find all these brands together to go over their collections. So we're like, fuck it.
Speaker 2:I'll figure it out. I've never ran a trade show before, but I was like, we'll figure this shit out. Was
Speaker 1:like, yeah.
Speaker 2:And sure enough, I mean, it was great. Great money, fun. Yeah. Our booth was free. What was better than Yeah.
Speaker 2:Know? Yeah.
Speaker 1:Have to pay 5 figures down
Speaker 2:to get there. You know? And so it was great. And so we had the trade show, the brand Putting on
Speaker 1:a trade show is a lot of work. It's a lot of work. It's a lot of work.
Speaker 2:A lot
Speaker 1:of work. My buddy Kenny puts on Strong New York in New York. Largest fitness expo.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:Right? And dude, see the work behind it, it is a ton. A ton,
Speaker 2:bro, because you got all these people, I want this section, and I can't be next to that guy because he's my competitor, he's gonna see my, and I wanna be They
Speaker 1:have high expectations, right? They're paying for that booth, they want they wanna be seen, they wanna move units, you know what I mean? They wanna leave there with connections.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 1:Good experience, like, is a big
Speaker 2:It's a lot.
Speaker 1:I have so much, you know, every and Kenny's is coming up soon. I go every year, and I have so much respect. I I have a ton of respect for him, but after every event, I have so much more respect for him because and he has a team, like, and everything that helps him out with it, and, you know, they do a great job, but I have so much more respect for him because I'm like, man, biting off something real big to chew, man. Doing this? Yeah.
Speaker 1:Right? It is. So that's cool.
Speaker 2:It is. So yeah. So we were doing those. And so COVID hits. Right?
Speaker 2:COVID beginning of COVID, we got hit early because most of our stores are up here. Right? And COVID started super early up here. Right? And so we had just had our January trade show.
Speaker 2:Mhmm. Right? Which is January and and April trade shows. Those are, our two biggest of the
Speaker 1:to buy.
Speaker 2:Right? And so January had just happened. So we had POs left and right. Mhmm. We were gearing up for like the best year ever.
Speaker 2:I think we had already beat our q one sales goals in the first thirty days. I was like, we're killing. I'm like, this is awesome. Yep. And COVID hits.
Speaker 2:POs getting canceled left and right.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:Trade shows, alright, we're canceling the trade show. Hotel doesn't wanna give us our money back that we put deposits. Everybody everybody's free to everybody. Vendors are like, need our refund. I'm like, bro, they're holding the money.
Speaker 2:Yep. Chargebacks. Yep. I'm just like, we're the hole's the hole's digging. Yep.
Speaker 2:I'm like, I we were losing work. I ended up having to lay everybody off except for Andres. Yeah. I laid had to lay everybody off. We were still a very small team.
Speaker 2:At that time, I think we were six or seven. Yep. I I Still? We still. Yeah.
Speaker 2:It killed me to my soul. And here comes the culmination of the the skills.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Right? So a friend of mine in town has another factory. He focuses strictly on sportswear for teams and stuff like that. Sure. And he came up with a mask pattern.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Right? He's like, come through. I was like, We can't he's like, here's here's this. He's like, this is a mask pattern.
Speaker 2:This is coming in hot. Go figure it out. I'm like, mask? I'm like, what do you mean, bro? He's like, people gonna I was like, why would people want a I was like, people gonna buy cloth mask?
Speaker 2:He's like, just take it, run with it, baba. I'm like, alright, bro. I'm like because I'm like dead. I'm like, bro, I'm like stressing the fuck out. I'm like, what are we doing?
Speaker 2:And so sure enough took it back, me and Andres working it together trying to figure out how to sew these things, how to cut these things, and, I'm like, alright. And then we start seeing little by little the mask thing. And this is keep in mind, this is February still.
Speaker 1:Yeah. It's so early.
Speaker 2:Still very early. Still very early. And we start seeing it. Start seeing it. I'm like, okay.
Speaker 2:So I hit up my best friend. At that time, he wasn't my best friend, but he's now become my best friend. His name is DC. Yeah. And I I hit him up, and he's in the dealer world, car world, and, I'm like, bro, I got this thing.
Speaker 2:We're gonna fucking figure this shit out, but I need your network. He knew he had he's he's had a he had a deep network. Yep. And I'm like, I can make it. I need your network.
Speaker 2:I'll run the ads. I could do the social and the ads and the thing. I was like, I need your help to come, like, push this shit out. Like, we need content. We need pictures.
Speaker 2:We need this. He's like, fuck it. I'm there. So he came down and, bro, we went to town.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:We made and shipped over 2,000,000 masks in that area.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh. That's crazy.
Speaker 2:Bro, we made masks for JB Hunt, the FBI, freaking the Port Of Los Angeles
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Every mom and pop. Bro, we were making masks by the time that April mandate hit where it was, like, mandatory, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Were already full up and running.
Speaker 2:We had everything down, and we were the only ones that can turn them quick enough. I'm telling people were I need 30,000. I need 10,000. I need 5,000.
Speaker 1:So when and so you bring everybody back.
Speaker 2:Bro, I brought everybody back and then some, bro. We had a little 3,000 square foot warehouse.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:40 people working out of
Speaker 1:it. Wow.
Speaker 2:Bro, we were I was running almost twenty four seven. Listen. Bro, was, dude, it not only saved our life and business, but it gave us the foundation of what Sub House is today. Yeah. With the equipment we were able to buy, cash, with the people we were able to bring in, the connections we made Yeah.
Speaker 2:Because we were you're talking about J. B. Hunt, the FBI hitting us up Yeah. Bro, they would have never even looked at us had there been No. No.
Speaker 2:But nobody in that time, nobody of their regular supply chain could Yeah. Yeah. They couldn't fulfill because everybody was doing it in China and that shit was shut down. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And so we got in, granted it sucks because I don't I didn't believe in the mass things
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:At that time, and I I never wore one. Yep. You know? And it's just but it did save our business.
Speaker 1:Yeah. It did I mean, what what irony there. So I was gonna touch on that because, like, I I was the same way. Right? Like, so I never I didn't wear them.
Speaker 1:I didn't believe in it. I what irony. Yes. You know, such irony.
Speaker 2:Such,
Speaker 1:When you talk about, like first of all, when you talk about turning an obstacle into an opportunity, like, there it is, right? Because you're basically on your last legs Literally. When you come back from dead. Right? Bro.
Speaker 1:And then it sets you up for, you know, your future. You know what I mean? And you're really it it without that, there's no you now.
Speaker 2:So you
Speaker 1:kinda have to take it for what it is. And they do. Yeah. There was a demand and
Speaker 2:There was, bro. Like I said, as shitty as I felt, you know, not in the beginning because in the beginning I thought I was helping.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Right? Because they were showing people dropping dead and I'm like, alright. They need these. But then when I started learning the bullshit and I'm like, alright. This is but we did cut it early too.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Right? We stopped producing it earlier than we than than most people did just because by the time start things started to little by little normalize, I was like, alright.
Speaker 1:This is it.
Speaker 2:This is it. Yeah. We're not doing this. And we still had people hit us up, hey, I ordered Mastery. I was like, we don't do it no more.
Speaker 2:They're like, why? I'm like, we don't do that. Was like, we don't do it anymore. I was like, we did it. But again, it was that necessity.
Speaker 2:And yes, it was beyond the necessity at a certain point but we were feeding bro every restaurant we bought I bought food for everybody almost every day and every time every dollar I spent was with mom and pop on the left mom and pop on the right Mom and pop here. I was because you know the restaurants lost all their freaking Philly
Speaker 1:Philly got gutted. Gutted. Now
Speaker 2:not Every city almost.
Speaker 1:Restaurants, like, generally retail.
Speaker 2:Yes. But
Speaker 1:Philly restaurants got gutted. It was Devastating. We're literally just rebounding now.
Speaker 2:Yeah. If that
Speaker 1:Gutted.
Speaker 2:Bro, there's businesses from people that I know that their family had been around since nineteen forties
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That didn't make it through COVID. Yep. I'm like, they made it through the war. Yeah. They made it through the collapse.
Speaker 2:They made it through seven recessions, but COVID took them out.
Speaker 1:I know, man.
Speaker 2:Because that dead stop of traffic of people being out in the streets
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:Bro, that halts anything. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Like, it just there's there's Yeah. Hard, you know?
Speaker 2:And so I I did my best to put every dollar back into the community as much as I
Speaker 1:that, man.
Speaker 2:You don't say
Speaker 1:early. Yeah. No. I I respect that.
Speaker 2:Cut it. It just it did. So that was a culminating event.
Speaker 1:That bay that basic basically, like, solidified that infrastructure, brought everybody back to work, like, everything. Yeah. Wild,
Speaker 2:dude. Yeah. Wild. And that was the start of kinda sub house, and then we started our real journey, you know, 2021 Yep. And here come the lessons again.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Because at that time, all we produced really were pajamas. Mhmm. Right? We didn't make shirts.
Speaker 2:We didn't make shorts. We didn't make pants.
Speaker 1:So you weren't
Speaker 2:We didn't make jackets.
Speaker 1:Sublimating. Were were you sublimating or
Speaker 2:We were sublimating, but we weren't making the wide catalog that we have now. See. I gotcha. Right? We only niched down on our pants Yep.
Speaker 2:Our accessories I gotcha. And that was it. Yeah. But our product was very niche. Yep.
Speaker 2:So now here comes learning, developing new patterns, learning how to sew them Yeah. Learning new machines that we needed
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:New equipment, new this, new that.
Speaker 1:Plus, like, you know, you're sublimating, it's very different than screen printing.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Like, Extremely different.
Speaker 2:Know
Speaker 1:what I So, like, you know, that's its own special Yes. Seal and, you know what I mean, Yes.
Speaker 2:It is. Yeah. You know, a lot of people tell me, man, you're crazy for starting in there. Because most people start with either screen print or embroidery. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Right? Because that's the low hanging fruit. And I started on the opposite spectrum. Yeah. Now I'm doing the screen print and embroidery and I'm like, yeah, this is cake.
Speaker 2:It is its own beast, don't get me wrong. Yeah. Yeah. Course. But
Speaker 1:But it's not sublimation.
Speaker 2:It's not cut and sew sublimation. You know? I mean,
Speaker 1:that's that's how we that's how we started working together. Like, that's how we found you. We were looking for, you know, domestic, American made manufacturing that we could trust and partner with, and, you know, we were crawling, and, like, dude, bro, we couldn't find we we couldn't find anybody. Know? It's hard.
Speaker 1:We found a couple people, and the quality just wasn't there. You know, a couple other things too, they just weren't there, just didn't feel like the right fit. But shout out to your cups experience. And brand name.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Because and your Google work.
Speaker 2:And my Google work. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Because I went to Drew one day, I was like, yo, bro. I was like, look. I know there's someone in Philly that's sublimating. I spoke to him a little while ago. I just can't remember the name.
Speaker 1:Yep. And Drew was like, oh, sublimation. You're like sublimation, blah blah, and there you were.
Speaker 2:There I was.
Speaker 1:Pop up right now. Like, what's this?
Speaker 2:Okay. You know what
Speaker 1:I mean? So then, you know, that's how we
Speaker 2:Yeah. Target everywhere. Remember because he's, are you in Philly? I'm like, no, I'm in Vegas. He's like, I googled sublimation in Philly.
Speaker 2:Why'd you pop up? I'm like, bro, I target everywhere. Yeah. Yeah. I'm like, look.
Speaker 2:We shit. Shit. Look. I got you. Don't worry.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And so Yep. He's like, alright. So, yeah, we started chopping it up and same like you, same like others, you know, our that story and our story and our history is what makes us thankfully successful in this space because we understand your side. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Right? We're not just a factory, we're not just a supplier and we truly are your partner and extension because we are here on the other side with you. So we understand the pains, we understand the struggles, we'll see things and call them out ahead of time be like, that might not look right or that might not I get where you're going and we'll tell you, hey at the end of the day it is your decision as the brand but we help guide you because Mhmm. Not only because it's the right thing to do, but at the end of the day, back to that selfless, unselfish Yeah. Is your success is my success.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Of course.
Speaker 2:So the more you grow and the more you put out, the more I grow. Yeah. And so I'm gonna I'm not if I know that's not gonna sell, I'm gonna be like, bro, don't put it out because then you're not gonna come back or you're not gonna be able to sell it and re So I'm gonna be like, hey.
Speaker 1:Or even my Generally, with the patterns, like, yeah, it's a little too big, it's a little too small,
Speaker 2:like Exactly.
Speaker 1:Know what mean? Like, you understand. Exactly. You do not you know, talking about building products and building people here, like, you do not get that when you put the message in the bottle and take it
Speaker 2:overseas. No.
Speaker 1:You just don't get that. No. You know what I mean? It's it's there's a complete lack of community. You know what I mean?
Speaker 1:When when you do that. And worse off, you know, the dollars that you're spending, who knows what they're going to? Exactly. You know what I mean? Destroying environment, destroying people, destroying lives, like, not interested in
Speaker 2:that. Not it's not it's not the right way to things. Yeah. But, yeah, man, that's that's kind of the story in a nutshell. That's a
Speaker 1:journey in a nutshell.
Speaker 2:A journey in a nutshell, you know, but we, as far as the future, you know, we're probably on a low end, one one hundredth of the size that we plan on growing to. I hear you. On the low end, you know, we have big visions, which is part of the reason for this, you know, Long Island expansion in New York, you know, he was a customer of mine, and technically a brand as well in the race world, and a lot of things aligned, like I said, we have tons of stores on the Long Island front and all that good And so, I still tell my team and they think I'm crazy and I'm like, we're on day zero still.
Speaker 1:That's good.
Speaker 2:We're on day zero. And my wife and I talk about it as well at times and she's like, but babe you've done so much and I'm like, I get it. She's like, why don't you wanna like look back and it's like I said that I don't, I tell it's it's there's there's I feel like subconsciously it's two things, right? One, I wanna make sure I stay humble.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Right? You know, I wanna make sure that I I stay humble and that I don't let it get to my head, right? I don't ever wanna be that person that it comes up and it's like, this is me. This because it's not.
Speaker 1:Yeah. There
Speaker 2:you go. It's a team. Yeah. I can't do this. Bro, I'm not sowing right now, but we're shipping out product.
Speaker 2:Like, you can't forget that businesses are built on a team effort. Right? And so I don't ever wanna get to that point or and I hope I I I I try everything to not, and I plan on never being at that point. And two, I don't wanna lose my hunger. K.
Speaker 2:I don't wanna lose my hunger and feel like you're there.
Speaker 1:No. We have what we say is humble, hungry, hunting.
Speaker 2:That's what we say here.
Speaker 1:You know I mean?
Speaker 2:Like, it's
Speaker 1:the it's the same type same type of thing, man. It's, for for a while, we had this thing Drew and I called the, your son started to play hockey, said,
Speaker 2:right?
Speaker 1:Yeah. So Selly. Okay. Like a Selly. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Was like a celebration after a goal or whatever. So Drew and I had this thing because we're like hockey guys too. Drew played much more hockey than me, but I love, you know, loved hockey. I say loves because I don't watch it much anymore, but that's the season I'm in. I'll be back at some point.
Speaker 1:But we had this thing we call the sixty second sally. Okay. So like when something happened, we would take a minute, like something good happened, like a win, we would take a minute and we'd be like, hey look, let's just pat ourselves on the back for a moment, we did this, let's celebrate for a moment for sixty seconds. But we always had that sixty seconds on it, so that we could just, you know. So the ego didn't grow, the hunger didn't diminish, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1:It was like sixty second cap. Now I will say, in full transparency, as we've, you know, seven, eight years into this journey now, we should've smelled the roses, or or had the selli maybe for like a hundred and twenty seconds. Yeah. Instead of just sixty, because as you, and you can attest to this, as you get further along, it gets way harder. It does.
Speaker 1:It gets way harder, And if you lose the ability to reflect back and say, hey, look, like, we've come this far. We've got a % survival rate. We've done some great things. The the the the future seems to look a little dark. Know what I Like, you you have to have that I
Speaker 2:personally still struggle with that part. Yeah. I do. I truly do. Still It's hard.
Speaker 2:It's hard. It's hard. It's hard. You know? I personally still struggle with taking that step back and just, like, looking.
Speaker 2:Because I I just the mountain is so big and I feel like I'm still at the base, right? So I'm just like there's no time, like I still I'm I'm I'm in the thick of it, so like Yep. I'll I'll let me get halfway and then maybe I could step back, know? But you're right, There's times where my brother tells me this too where it's like, bro, take take a sec, bro. Step back.
Speaker 2:Okay. Take a sec. Look at where you're at now. Look at where you came from.
Speaker 1:Is is And then get back to wise advice, man. Sage wise and, like, you know, we we run on EOS. I don't know if you know about EOS, entrepreneurial operating system. It's like a a framework for for running Okay. Your business.
Speaker 1:Geno Wickman, Trac Chin, shout out. He created it. But, you know, during one of our quarterlies, like, Brianna and Bedros and Drew had, like, a sit down with me, and they were like, bro, you gotta you gotta smell the roses. And, like, we had to write what we were going to, like, be better at Yeah. Like, year, and, like, they didn't let me choose anything else than smell the roses.
Speaker 1:Because, like, I will literally, man, I will get so target focused. Like, I will leave destruction behind me. Like, that's how target focused I get. Yeah. Like, I will just scorch earth behind me.
Speaker 1:And they're like, look, you gotta you gotta smell the roses a little bit. You know what mean? So I've been working on that. And if you ask Drew and Brianna and Bedros, they will tell you that, you know, I'm doing alright. Alright.
Speaker 1:I took
Speaker 2:out ways to get rid those those lessons out of your book, man. Because, yeah, I'm I'm still I'm still gonna say, yeah, it is.
Speaker 1:Plus, like, gotta rewind time. I I know we're talking about not looking back, but, like, for a second, like, like, think back. Like, from the lunch days, right, you've been solving problems. You've been looking forward and you've been solving problems. Whatever's come to you, you found a way over it, under it, around it, through it.
Speaker 1:Like, that's how you're wired. That's how I'm wired. That's how Drew's wired. So, like, it's just not in our nature. No.
Speaker 1:You know, you talk they talk about, oh, you know, do something for twenty days seven days straight, it becomes a habit. Alright. Try doing something twenty seven years straight. What is it then?
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah. And if my habit is looking up, out, solving problems, moving forward, how hard is it for me to look back and It's hard. Yeah, it's difficult, man.
Speaker 2:It's hard. Yeah,
Speaker 1:yeah. Yeah, feel like all entrepreneurs struggle with that, but Drew has helped me. What I've realized is it's the practice of, for me at least, it's the practice of faith and gratitude. And those are the two things that I was shorting sometimes on my journey. So that's what I've been trying to dial back into, and it's been a help.
Speaker 1:It's been a you know? But I got that, I'm the same as you, man. Like, you know, I wasn't I wasn't selling my lunch, but I was selling candy. Yeah. We had a candy shop, like, school.
Speaker 1:We had a Vogue's candy store, around the corner from Saint Cecilia's. Old school candy shop. Yeah. I don't know if you've ever been in some of those, like, old school candy shops in the city, but you'd walk in, it was a small place, and there was it was like a jeweler. Yeah.
Speaker 1:There was counters running around the place, but it was glass, And she had the candy in there. Yep. And you just you know, she had little pushpins in the thing with the price, and he would just go around, and it was, like, you know, 5¢, 10 cent candy, whatever, penny candy. So I used to walk to school. Like, my parents had me walk in school mad early, dude.
Speaker 1:I was, like, eight, seven, eight years old. I was walking, like
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah.
Speaker 1:Nine tenths of a mile to school. And I was up early. They had me out of the house early
Speaker 2:too, right?
Speaker 1:Yeah. Because they had to get to work. Yeah. You know, my parents had to get to work. So I had time to go to the candy shop before the before the bell.
Speaker 2:Before school.
Speaker 1:Before the bell. Yeah. So I would go. And, of course, they didn't know I was going. I had my quarter.
Speaker 1:I pick up everything. I come in. Missus, Vogt would give me, like, a little brown bag. I come in at my candy. And then my friends were kinda like, yo, like, you're going before school?
Speaker 1:School, I'm like, yeah. And they're like, they'd break me off like a dime.
Speaker 2:Hell, yeah.
Speaker 1:So I'd be like, okay, cool. Like, I'm gonna take 2 pennies out of that dime. I'll get eight pieces. I'm gonna get two bazookas for me. And that's kinda like where it started for me, where I learned to like provide like be of service.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Like provide a service. Yeah. And you can actually get paid for it.
Speaker 2:Correct. You
Speaker 1:can solve their problem That's the reward. Help them out, and then actually you can earn.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 1:So I was like, this makes sense to me.
Speaker 2:%.
Speaker 1:So, like, you're talking about the wiring of you selling the lunch, me hustling the candy, and now you're decades of that shit. Like, it's hard to say, okay. Well, now today, I'm just gonna, do something different and
Speaker 2:look back at everything. And journal or some shit. And I'm just like, I can't. Like, I I track my days by my power list, right, that I follow on my tasks that I gotta execute. Yep.
Speaker 2:But I don't, like, go back and, like, review it or anything like that as I should. You know, in certain areas I should, but I'm just like, I'm just focused on attacking.
Speaker 1:Yes. Of course. Yeah. We have I mean, we have which I don't know if you know, but we have a product here that I built called Daily Attack Plan.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:Right? So it's basically a power list. Okay. It's a power list with a vision board and gratitude built into
Speaker 2:it. Oh.
Speaker 1:Right? So it's a, you know, it's a app. Yeah. So that's kinda like our version of the power list.
Speaker 2:Nice.
Speaker 1:So that's what we do. We do like the attack a day It's needle movers and and all that. He needs a little bit of a face lift
Speaker 2:right now.
Speaker 1:We're working on that.
Speaker 2:I'm using my notes app, so I'm sure it's better
Speaker 1:than that. Yeah. Yeah. But notes app gets it done, dude. Notes app gets it done.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But, yeah, I'm I think that's that's a testament to something we can underscore for, you know, our community listening is, like, we don't have it all figured out. Like, there's stuff that we should be doing more on a daily basis that we're still learning and growing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2:If you you'll always be learning. Yeah. Always be learning. No matter what. Just always, whether it's a hobby that you're trying to master, whether it's a skill for work, you know, always be learning is the key to being productive in life.
Speaker 1:Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. Forever student. Now that I practice jujitsu, I say white white belt mentality.
Speaker 1:Like, forever white belt. You know what I mean? But that's what was saying earlier. Like, I I really do believe that, like, God instilled curiosity into me for a reason. Like, that's my superpower because I I will just when I'm faced with problems, I'm more curious about how I could solve them Sure.
Speaker 1:Than being being, for lack of a better word, crippled by them. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? So, mentally, you know, by them. So %.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man. What else? What what else? We we didn't we touched a little bit on everything.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I think so.
Speaker 1:Yeah. We touched a little bit on any on everything. Usually, Drew has, a lightning round. I didn't prepare a lightning round for you today.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But, we can bring it in for a landing. Yeah. Let our community know where they can find you.
Speaker 2:Yeah. At the sublimation house, literally everywhere, like you said. You Google us, we'll pop right up. You'll find us, you know. I don't really post much on my personal socials.
Speaker 2:So at the sub houses where you'll see us, you'll see content of myself, the team, the products we put out, the quality. Feel free to reach out, ask any questions. We're here to help. Help educate. Mhmm.
Speaker 2:And then if we have the right solution for you, we'll pair you with that. But if not, we have a community Yeah. That we could refer you to.
Speaker 1:Excellent, man. Excellent. I loved having you here. You said that you're at, like, one one hundredth, right, of where you were On the low end. On the low end.
Speaker 1:I kinda feel like, especially after today and spending some more time with you, that our working relationship, our partnership is kind of like on that low end to it, like one one hundredth of what it's gonna be. I'm excited to see what like the next ten years brings.
Speaker 2:Oh, Me too.
Speaker 1:I'm excited to
Speaker 2:see. Me too.
Speaker 1:Alright, brother. I'm gonna leave the few with a reminder. Always choose hard work over handouts. Always choose effort over entitlement. Remember, no one owns you.
Speaker 1:No one owes you. You're one of the few. Now that's on.