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Welcome to Working Towards Our Purpose, a podcast that

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offers a different perspective on what a job can be. For everyone

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out there that's heard that voice in the back of their head asking for something

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more, it's time to listen to it. I'm your host, Gino,

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and join me as I interview people who have decided to work in their

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own purpose. Together, we will learn, become inspired,

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and hopefully find our own path towards working in our purpose.

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Joining me today is Dan Barletta, who is one of the owners and founders

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of New Haven's first mobile coffee shop, the Jitterbus. If you live in New

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Haven, you've probably seen the hand painted blacked out school bus around

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town. The Jitter bus has been featured in the Hartford Current, yale Daily

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News and News channel three something's cooking. Dan. Welcome to working

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towards our purpose. How are you doing today? Good. Thanks for having me, Gina.

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Yeah, I'm excited to talk to you about this. I know when I first moved

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to New Haven, I remember seeing the bus around and just thinking, like, that was

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such a cool idea. So I'm excited to learn more about how it happened.

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So, yeah, if you want to just start by telling us a little bit about

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yourself, like where you grew up and did you go to college and that sort

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of thing. Sure, yeah. My name is Dan Barletta. I grew up

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in West Haven, Connecticut, and I

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attended Southern Connecticut State University. I

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was there from 2009 on and off until

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2019. College was like, a huge

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just bummer to me, I guess.

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I was told I had to go to college right after high school. I remember

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wanting to take a year to try to think about what I want to do,

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but everyone kind of told me, no, you got to go to college right away.

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And it just wasn't the thing

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for me. I don't know, I just didn't enjoy it. I didn't enjoy having to

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go to school. Every day gave me a lot of anxiety. It wasn't that I

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wasn't interested in learning, just the college setting

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wasn't my favorite thing, and I did that on and

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off pretty much for nine years, and it was like

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a huge struggle to me. I eventually finished, I pushed through, but it was

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like the biggest struggle of my life, I feel like.

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Yeah, I had a similar sort of experience with college, just

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feeling like you had to do it. And I remember

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I was telling everybody that I wasn't going to go to college up until my

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senior year when it came time to make a decision. And then I was like,

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all right, I guess I'll go. Yeah, same. So what did you pick

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when you went to college to study, or did you just have, like, a general

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studies? Yeah, at first, I was undecided for a

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long time, just kind of getting the core classes out of the way. And then

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I always had an interest in psychology, so I started by

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majoring in psychology, and it was all interesting,

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but eventually I got to the point where I just felt like

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this wasn't the career path that I was supposed to be on. And so

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I ended up dropping out for a couple of years, and

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during those two years of me not going to college, that's when

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we pretty much started the idea for the jitter bus. So

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I guess a nine year path is a little bit different than most

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people. How did that look to you? Like you said, you started

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the jitterbus. Did you have anything else that you were doing, like side jobs as

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far as while you were going to school and taking time off? Yeah, I worked

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in a bunch of cafes in New Haven. There was a couple of periods

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where I was working at two at once. I was pretty much working

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every day. I remember there was one year I took one day

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off in July, and it was my birthday. So even though I wasn't going to

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school, I was really driven to work and make money

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and be able to figure things out on my own.

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What led you into coffee shops? Was that just out of necessity,

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or did you want to be a barista or how did you get into coffee

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shops? Kind of just by chance. When I was 17,

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I got my first job at Starbucks. I was still in high

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school at that time, and after a month of doing that,

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they fired me. They pretty much looking back on it, it's

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funny because they said I wasn't cut out for the job,

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and that always kind of pissed me off a little bit. But

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looking back on it, I was 17. I probably was like a

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lazy kid back then and just I wasn't

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the right fit for them at that time. But then once I

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graduated high school, I think around when I was 20, I

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started applying to cafes in New Haven, and

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I worked at three different cafes in New Haven, on

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and off. And then my business partner Paul, who I do

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the bus with, he was also a barista in different cafes in New

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Haven. And he actually is the one who came up with the

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idea for the bus. He brought the idea to me one day and

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we kind of talked about it for a few weeks, on and off, and

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eventually it just kind of all came together.

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Yeah. So tell me a little bit more about the idea and where it came

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from and how you got started with the idea. Sure.

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So the idea came about paul

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was he noticed an ice cream truck,

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and he really wanted to get a coffee from it, but they obviously didn't have

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coffee. So that's kind of like how the idea was born. He thought it'd

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be so cool if ice cream trucks also sold coffee.

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And then he told me that idea. I thought

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it was interesting. And we were talking back and forth about it for a while

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and then we were both kind of

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overworking in cafes. Pretty much like having

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a boss, all that. We knew that if we had the

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opportunity to do it ourselves, that we would be able to do a good

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job. So we eventually just

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kept talking about it and talking about it until the point where it was all

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we were talking about. And then we bought

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an espresso machine online and we hooked it up

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in my parents basement and started making drinks. And once

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we started doing that, we were like, this is a good idea. We really wanted

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to pull the trigger on it and just try to make it become a reality.

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Yeah. So how did you make it into the reality? I

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know in researching I read some stuff online and said that you had a

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Kickstarter that helped you start the business. Can you talk to me more

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about that and how that whole thing worked? Yeah. So

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we quickly learned it's not cheap to convert a school bus

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into a cafe. So we started a Kickstarter

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project, gave out rewards for people that donated. Our

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goal was 5000, and I think we

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raised a little bit more than that. I think we raised around 5200.

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And that was from friends, family, and even strangers that came across

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the Kickstarter online thought it was a cool idea and donated to us, which was

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awesome because at that time we had no following at all. We were

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like just an idea still at that point. And then

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every week our paychecks we threw into it. We were lucky to still be living

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at home with our parents, so it was easy to kind of

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throw all the money we had into it to make it become a real

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thing. Yeah. So did you always have

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the idea of getting a school bus or was it like kind of a food

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truck idea and the school bus popped up? The name came first,

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the Jitter bus. And then we looked at a couple

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of different food trucks that people were selling, but they were

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like in really rough shape. They were from the

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1970s. We looked at this one. It had this

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huge the shifter

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stick, manual transmission. I'm not a mechanic at all. I

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don't know anything about cars, but it was like one of those things. But it

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was like huge. It was really long and it didn't go into second

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gear. And we almost bought it. And I'm so glad we didn't because I feel

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like we wouldn't be around anymore if we did that. But

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we were on Craigslist and we found the bus we have

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now relatively cheap. I think we bought it for around

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3500. It only had like 130,000

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miles on it, which is pretty good for a diesel engine like

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that. And it was already painted black, which was

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cool. It was originally like a handicap accessible school

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bus. It had like a giant wheelchair ramp on it. We had to

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gut all of that out of it. But yeah, we found

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that in February of 2015. And then we spent all

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of 2015 building out the bus and we opened

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pretty much exactly one year later in February of

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2016. Wow. So was it just you

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and your friend Paul? How did the

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partnership of you guys starting a business together look like? Was it

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just like, you figuring it out as you go along? Or did you think about

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write a business plan, that sort of thing? Originally it was

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me, Paul, and our other friend Andrew. He has

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since moved on from the business to do other things. We're still really good friends

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with him, but yeah, it was originally the three of us,

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and all

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three of us were good at specific things. Paul was really good at because

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he used to be a tattoo artist before we did this. So he did all

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the design work. That's like his area of expertise. Andrew was

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really good at figuring out all the licensing and things like

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was like because I had been working two jobs, I was always

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really good at saving my money too. So I was like the main one, throwing

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in some money for it. I guess I helped fund a lot of it

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and just also had a bunch of good ideas in terms

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of what types of drinks we should be making and

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where we should park. Originally, I thought we were going to drive around

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the city, kind of like an ice cream truck in a way. But then

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we learned in New Haven you have to pick a location and you can only

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basically buy a license to be in that spot. And

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then you can only park there. And if you want to park somewhere else, you

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have to trade with other vendors. So I learned quickly

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that the idea of driving around the city just wasn't going to happen because it

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basically wasn't allowed. Interesting. Yeah. I bet there's

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a lot of different regulations and rules that you didn't know about getting

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into it. How did you first learn about that sort of thing? Was it like

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talking to the town and trying to get the permits and stuff like

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that? Yeah, talking to the city

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and just by trial and error. Like our first day we went

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out, it was a little different back then. The areas that you

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could park in were kind of different than they are now. So

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we parked at cross campus downtown, and that was

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originally we were like, this is going to be the perfect area. We're going to

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park here every day. And then on the first day, someone from the city

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came and kicked us out, said, you're not allowed to vend here. So we were

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quickly kind of in shock. Like, well, we've been building this

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for a year and I think we actually were told that

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it was okay to vend there, but they gave us the

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wrong information. So we were going off this idea that

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actually it wasn't going to work at all and we had to quickly

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figure out, all right, well, where are we going to park now? But we found

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our spot that we're in now Monday through Fridays. It's at the corner of Grove

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and Hill House. We found that maybe two, three months in to

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opening and we've been there ever since.

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Awesome. So can you tell me a little bit more about the first year

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in business and like you alluded to there's some challenges that you had to overcome

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and that sort of thing? Were you still working at your

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cafe jobs at the time and kind of doing it part time until

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you realized it was enough to catch on or how did that transition

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work? We did yeah, we worked part time at our cafe

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jobs and part time on the bus and

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we did that for about two years until we quit

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our actual jobs to do this full time. What were some of the

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things that you learned in the first year and things that you had to overcome?

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I'm sure the idea had to evolve as you put it into

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practice. Yeah, there was a lot.

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I would say our biggest challenge was

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wintertime because all of our equipment has water in it,

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all of our pipes have water in it. We didn't have a garage to park

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the bus and so all this stuff was exposed to the cold of the

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winter. And we had read online that if you let

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an espresso machine freeze, then it's basically

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going to break and there's no repairing it. So we were always really nervous about

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that. We were trying to figure out ways to keep it warm in

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there without that happening. And there was one

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winter, I believe it was our first winter, we were running a

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space heater in the bus just to keep it warm overnight. Someone forgot

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to plug it in and everything froze. The espresso

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machine, the inside of it basically exploded. So did our

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coffee brewer. So that was tough because those are our two

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main pieces of equipment and they're super

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expensive. Espresso machine could be anywhere between

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5000 or more sometimes. So that was a huge hit

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for us. But it taught

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us the winter is serious. Like you got to be on top of

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keeping things warm and it's something to really pay attention to

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otherwise it could totally happen again. Yeah, that's something I wouldn't

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even ever think about, but totally makes sense that you

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winterize all kinds of equipment, but your bus you're using every day, but at

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night things freeze and yeah, that seems like a big learning lesson.

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So did you have to go and buy like a new espresso machine? After that.

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We did, yeah. It was

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one we still have it today. It's been years now that we've had

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it. We found it in New York City. This guy was selling it at

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that time. We only had, I think, $5,000 in our bank

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account. And that's how much he was selling it for. No, I'm sorry. He was

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selling the espresso machine for $5,000, and we only had

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00:14:05,760 --> 00:14:09,498
4500 in our bank account. So we were like, all right, great. What

231
00:14:09,504 --> 00:14:12,922
are we going to do? And so we went down there to buy it with

232
00:14:12,976 --> 00:14:16,174
only $4,500, hoping that he would just knock off

233
00:14:16,212 --> 00:14:20,046
$500 for us, and thankfully he did. But we

234
00:14:20,068 --> 00:14:22,718
were worried the whole ride down that it was just like we were going to

235
00:14:22,724 --> 00:14:25,682
be driving there for no reason, basically, and he was going to turn us away.

236
00:14:25,816 --> 00:14:29,300
But he was a cool guy and he gave us a nice deal on it.

237
00:14:29,670 --> 00:14:32,820
Nice. That's awesome. I'm glad it worked out. Yeah.

238
00:14:33,510 --> 00:14:37,138
So when you first started and you're out

239
00:14:37,144 --> 00:14:40,934
there selling coffee, how did you get people to first know what the bus

240
00:14:40,972 --> 00:14:44,470
was all about? Did you do any sort of marketing or

241
00:14:44,620 --> 00:14:48,342
getting yourself out there? What did that look like? It was definitely

242
00:14:48,396 --> 00:14:52,106
hard in the beginning because we didn't have as much artwork on the

243
00:14:52,128 --> 00:14:55,642
bus at that time. So it was really just a black school

244
00:14:55,696 --> 00:14:59,370
bus with a menu. It said the Jitter bus on it at least,

245
00:14:59,440 --> 00:15:02,826
but it looked a little sketchy, I'm not going to lie. It was kind of

246
00:15:02,848 --> 00:15:06,366
like, what is this thing that they're selling food out of? I don't know if

247
00:15:06,388 --> 00:15:10,126
I want to walk up to it. I totally understood that it

248
00:15:10,148 --> 00:15:13,854
was a weird thing to see at first, and

249
00:15:13,972 --> 00:15:17,698
I would basically stand outside of it and just hand out samples of

250
00:15:17,704 --> 00:15:21,362
coffee, trying to get people to come up to us, and that helped a lot.

251
00:15:21,496 --> 00:15:25,234
Also, we had an Instagram and we know trying to be

252
00:15:25,272 --> 00:15:29,026
active on that, to try to spread the word and word

253
00:15:29,048 --> 00:15:32,694
of mouth, really, that was like the best way that people found out about us.

254
00:15:32,732 --> 00:15:36,534
We had a lot of friends in New Haven, so that helped. We told

255
00:15:36,572 --> 00:15:40,166
them, they told their friends, and it kind of just spread as time went

256
00:15:40,188 --> 00:15:43,786
on. Yeah, I guess it is kind of a new idea that people

257
00:15:43,808 --> 00:15:47,354
aren't really familiar with, so you kind of have to educate people

258
00:15:47,472 --> 00:15:50,938
that it's basically a coffee shop on a bus, because just walking by

259
00:15:51,024 --> 00:15:54,446
people at first wouldn't really understand that. So I guess

260
00:15:54,468 --> 00:15:58,222
nowadays people know who you are, they see the bus and they

261
00:15:58,276 --> 00:16:01,758
know that it's you guys. Do you do anything nowadays as far as

262
00:16:01,844 --> 00:16:05,266
continuing to spread the message or do anything with

263
00:16:05,288 --> 00:16:08,802
marketing or social media? Yeah, we're pretty active on social

264
00:16:08,856 --> 00:16:11,890
media, mostly Instagram, a little bit of Facebook.

265
00:16:12,230 --> 00:16:14,980
My fiance tells me I really need to get a

266
00:16:16,650 --> 00:16:19,960
just like I haven't gotten into TikTok yet.

267
00:16:20,730 --> 00:16:24,354
I feel like I'm finally too old for certain social media platforms,

268
00:16:24,402 --> 00:16:28,118
and I could be wrong, I don't know, but she's always telling me we got

269
00:16:28,124 --> 00:16:30,760
to get a TikTok and that it's going to help us out a lot.

270
00:16:31,530 --> 00:16:35,174
Yeah, I feel you there as far as being too old to get on TikTok,

271
00:16:35,222 --> 00:16:38,700
but I certainly see the value of it, I guess.

272
00:16:39,070 --> 00:16:42,778
And I know tons of businesses are using it, so maybe we'll

273
00:16:42,794 --> 00:16:46,240
have to dive into it one day and figure out what it's all about.

274
00:16:47,730 --> 00:16:51,534
So I also wanted to ask you about the

275
00:16:51,572 --> 00:16:55,386
pandemic and how you guys got through the pandemic because obviously you're

276
00:16:55,418 --> 00:16:59,166
an in person business, not necessarily brick and mortar, but food truck

277
00:16:59,198 --> 00:17:03,006
style business. How did you guys handle the pandemic and were you shut

278
00:17:03,038 --> 00:17:06,526
down at the beginning of it? Yeah, the pandemic was tough. There was a ban

279
00:17:06,558 --> 00:17:10,342
on food trucks in New Haven from I think it was

280
00:17:10,396 --> 00:17:14,166
March to June of 2020. So during that time, we

281
00:17:14,188 --> 00:17:17,926
were just not allowed to vend that. And also we

282
00:17:17,948 --> 00:17:21,298
didn't really want to vend because it was very early on. We didn't know

283
00:17:21,484 --> 00:17:25,034
how bad things were going to get. It was almost like, is it too

284
00:17:25,072 --> 00:17:28,762
risky for us to even work right now? It was just so

285
00:17:28,816 --> 00:17:32,246
confusing at that time. So during those months where we couldn't

286
00:17:32,278 --> 00:17:35,854
vend, it was a bummer. But we were kind of like, let's at least just

287
00:17:35,892 --> 00:17:39,678
take this time and make sure try to figure out what's going on before we

288
00:17:39,684 --> 00:17:43,262
can open again. And so we couldn't vend, but instead

289
00:17:43,396 --> 00:17:47,202
we sold bags of coffee beans and we did

290
00:17:47,336 --> 00:17:51,138
delivery. We pretty much drove around New Haven every day, dropping off

291
00:17:51,224 --> 00:17:54,866
bags of beans to people that wanted to buy them, like at their

292
00:17:54,888 --> 00:17:58,262
house or their apartment, and we would do

293
00:17:58,396 --> 00:18:01,958
online payments. So it was no contact. And

294
00:18:02,124 --> 00:18:05,734
it wasn't as good as just being open as normal, but it

295
00:18:05,772 --> 00:18:09,270
helped get us through time where we couldn't vend at all.

296
00:18:09,420 --> 00:18:13,146
It allowed us to still be able to pay ourselves, which was huge because at

297
00:18:13,168 --> 00:18:16,854
first I was worried, how are we going to pay our bills,

298
00:18:16,902 --> 00:18:20,746
our rent, all that? But we were lucky to be able to figure it out,

299
00:18:20,768 --> 00:18:24,510
to make just enough to stay afloat. And then once things

300
00:18:24,580 --> 00:18:27,902
opened in June, we were out there again

301
00:18:27,956 --> 00:18:31,806
vending, but there was a lot less people around. There was

302
00:18:31,828 --> 00:18:35,554
no students around because everything was remote. And the people

303
00:18:35,592 --> 00:18:38,706
that were walking around, a lot of them, they

304
00:18:38,808 --> 00:18:42,082
probably didn't really want to stop because they weren't ready

305
00:18:42,136 --> 00:18:45,620
for things being open like that. And

306
00:18:46,390 --> 00:18:49,766
it was tough. But looking back on it,

307
00:18:49,948 --> 00:18:52,758
going through it, it was really scary and I wasn't sure what was going to

308
00:18:52,764 --> 00:18:56,518
happen. But looking back on it, I'm pretty proud about how

309
00:18:56,604 --> 00:18:59,986
we pulled through it and came out stronger in the

310
00:19:00,028 --> 00:19:03,786
end. Yeah, that's awesome. I mean, you completely kind

311
00:19:03,808 --> 00:19:07,210
of changed your business model to react to what was

312
00:19:07,280 --> 00:19:10,986
happening in real time. And I think a lot of businesses didn't really do that

313
00:19:11,008 --> 00:19:14,510
or think about that. Did you guys sit down and brainstorm ideas of,

314
00:19:14,580 --> 00:19:18,366
hey, what can we do during this time? Because I think that's a really

315
00:19:18,388 --> 00:19:22,142
good idea of you guys delivering beans to people's doors. Yeah, definitely.

316
00:19:22,276 --> 00:19:26,078
And before we shut down, we had like a

317
00:19:26,084 --> 00:19:29,454
ton of milk, like whole milk, skim milk, soy, almond,

318
00:19:29,502 --> 00:19:32,946
oat, and it was sitting in our refrigerator and it was all going to go

319
00:19:32,968 --> 00:19:36,274
bad. So we sold all that stuff off too. We had some

320
00:19:36,312 --> 00:19:40,018
merch that we sold at discounted prices.

321
00:19:40,194 --> 00:19:43,894
We pretty much sold off everything that we had to sell. And it worked.

322
00:19:43,932 --> 00:19:47,526
I mean, we pulled through and it was such just a

323
00:19:47,548 --> 00:19:51,206
weird time not knowing what was going to happen. It's still a little weird,

324
00:19:51,238 --> 00:19:54,380
but nowhere near as weird as it was. But

325
00:19:54,830 --> 00:19:58,602
it was tough in the beginning. Yeah. And how long did it take for people

326
00:19:58,656 --> 00:20:02,358
to come back to the capacity at which they did before the

327
00:20:02,384 --> 00:20:06,014
Pandemic? I mean, it must have been like months and months of people slowly starting

328
00:20:06,052 --> 00:20:09,902
to come back. Yeah, I would say that whole summer was pretty

329
00:20:09,956 --> 00:20:13,634
slow. And then in the fall, the

330
00:20:13,672 --> 00:20:17,522
students didn't come back. So that was another huge hit

331
00:20:17,576 --> 00:20:21,346
because we get a lot of our business from students and

332
00:20:21,448 --> 00:20:25,186
with them not being there, it's so

333
00:20:25,208 --> 00:20:28,582
much slower without the even the summers now are really

334
00:20:28,636 --> 00:20:32,358
slow, but we expect that in the summertime. But for the

335
00:20:32,364 --> 00:20:35,638
fall to come and then no students were around. It was kind of like it

336
00:20:35,644 --> 00:20:39,418
was daunting. It was like, this is not really working right now. But

337
00:20:39,504 --> 00:20:42,826
eventually the students came back and when they did,

338
00:20:43,008 --> 00:20:46,714
it was like everything exploded. We were doing

339
00:20:46,832 --> 00:20:50,374
so much more in sales than before the Pandemic.

340
00:20:50,502 --> 00:20:54,122
So once things really opened up, students came back to school.

341
00:20:54,256 --> 00:20:58,106
We noticed like a huge increase in business which was such a relief

342
00:20:58,138 --> 00:21:01,854
because we had gone months or at least a year of just

343
00:21:01,892 --> 00:21:05,666
wondering are we going to bounce back from this and get back

344
00:21:05,688 --> 00:21:07,380
to what we were doing before? The.

345
00:21:10,070 --> 00:21:13,506
Know that's I think also an interesting point you bring up about New Haven is

346
00:21:13,528 --> 00:21:17,378
like it's so student based and SummerTimes are lighter for a lot

347
00:21:17,384 --> 00:21:21,142
of businesses. Do you guys kind of plan for that? Do you have

348
00:21:21,276 --> 00:21:24,998
summer hours or how do you deal with the changes of

349
00:21:25,084 --> 00:21:28,834
students being here and not students being here? Sometimes

350
00:21:28,892 --> 00:21:32,138
we take on more events. We usually do a couple of weddings in the

351
00:21:32,144 --> 00:21:35,734
summertime. There's like other work events

352
00:21:35,782 --> 00:21:38,970
that businesses will hire us for to come and serve

353
00:21:39,630 --> 00:21:43,114
at their office or whatever the place is to serve the

354
00:21:43,152 --> 00:21:46,846
staff. That helps out a lot. We also take the summertime, though, as

355
00:21:46,868 --> 00:21:50,638
like it's slower, but it's kind of like a little bit of

356
00:21:50,644 --> 00:21:54,322
a break for us because when the students are here, there are days

357
00:21:54,376 --> 00:21:57,634
we have a line from the minute we open till we close

358
00:21:57,752 --> 00:22:01,106
and it's great. It's good to

359
00:22:01,128 --> 00:22:04,878
be doing so well, but in the summertime when it's

360
00:22:04,894 --> 00:22:08,638
slower, it really is like a break for us too. Right now on the bus,

361
00:22:08,664 --> 00:22:12,438
it's me and Paul and we'll close a little

362
00:22:12,444 --> 00:22:15,574
bit early on some days when it's slow or we'll take a few days off

363
00:22:15,612 --> 00:22:19,000
and go somewhere. So it's like a good balance, I would say.

364
00:22:20,170 --> 00:22:23,866
Yeah. And then you guys also do the farmers market in Worcester Square

365
00:22:23,968 --> 00:22:27,722
on Saturdays. How's that for you guys, business

366
00:22:27,776 --> 00:22:31,562
wise? Because I noticed there's always like a line, it seems, from opening to close.

367
00:22:31,616 --> 00:22:35,406
There's always a huge line there too. Yeah, the farmers market. The

368
00:22:35,428 --> 00:22:39,098
Worcester Square farmers market is huge for us. It's

369
00:22:39,114 --> 00:22:42,878
our absolute busiest day of the week, every week for the entire

370
00:22:42,964 --> 00:22:46,642
year. Even in the wintertime when it's cold, we always have a huge

371
00:22:46,696 --> 00:22:50,398
line out there. And we started doing the farmers

372
00:22:50,414 --> 00:22:54,126
market maybe a year into being open and it's

373
00:22:54,158 --> 00:22:57,894
just been so great. We love City Seed and that market has

374
00:22:57,932 --> 00:23:01,462
really helped us spread the word about us,

375
00:23:01,596 --> 00:23:05,238
because with students where we park at our normal spot, a lot of

376
00:23:05,244 --> 00:23:08,886
the know they're great, but eventually they graduate and they leave and we never see

377
00:23:08,908 --> 00:23:12,626
them again. But when we're at the market, we're really showcasing

378
00:23:12,658 --> 00:23:16,438
who we are and what we sell to the community of New Haven, the

379
00:23:16,444 --> 00:23:19,698
people that live there, especially all the people that live in Worcester Square. So it's

380
00:23:19,714 --> 00:23:23,422
nice to be able to offer what we have to

381
00:23:23,556 --> 00:23:27,342
people who live in New Haven as well. Yeah, definitely.

382
00:23:27,476 --> 00:23:30,782
It's definitely like a whole different target market than college

383
00:23:30,836 --> 00:23:34,686
students. How did you first get into farmers market? Because I know

384
00:23:34,708 --> 00:23:38,386
City Seed is a little bit restrictive at that farmers market because it's such a

385
00:23:38,408 --> 00:23:42,206
big one and there's certain requirements you have to meet. Was that a challenge

386
00:23:42,238 --> 00:23:46,002
to get into the market? Not really. I mean, at

387
00:23:46,056 --> 00:23:49,606
first we found out about the farmers market and we're like, well, this is

388
00:23:49,628 --> 00:23:53,222
cool, we should totally park here. And we found out you have to

389
00:23:53,276 --> 00:23:56,726
apply and then wait for them to approve it.

390
00:23:56,908 --> 00:24:00,374
And we were kind of like, I don't want to do all that. So

391
00:24:00,492 --> 00:24:04,314
we'll park a little bit down the street and people will walk

392
00:24:04,352 --> 00:24:07,580
over to us. And we were doing that for a little bit and then

393
00:24:08,190 --> 00:24:12,026
probably wasn't the best way to go about it, but we had

394
00:24:12,048 --> 00:24:15,326
that mindset where it's like, we're a mobile cafe, no one's going to stop us

395
00:24:15,348 --> 00:24:19,114
from parking a little bit down the street. We'll just do that. But then eventually

396
00:24:19,162 --> 00:24:22,846
someone from Citizen came over and at first I thought they were going to be

397
00:24:22,868 --> 00:24:25,426
kind of mad, like, what are you guys doing? But they were like, this is

398
00:24:25,448 --> 00:24:29,138
great. You guys should really apply, be a part of the market. We did,

399
00:24:29,224 --> 00:24:32,850
and we've been doing it ever since, which is about

400
00:24:33,000 --> 00:24:36,694
seven years now. Wow, so you bring up seven

401
00:24:36,732 --> 00:24:39,942
years. You guys have been a cafe bus for the past seven

402
00:24:39,996 --> 00:24:42,920
years? Yes, we opened in

403
00:24:43,930 --> 00:24:47,666
February of 2016. Wow, that's certainly a long

404
00:24:47,708 --> 00:24:51,174
time to be in business. Did you ever think at the original

405
00:24:51,222 --> 00:24:54,140
idea that you guys be in business for this long?

406
00:24:56,030 --> 00:24:57,420
Not really, no.

407
00:25:00,830 --> 00:25:03,386
I didn't think I would do it full time. I thought it would always be

408
00:25:03,408 --> 00:25:07,246
a part time kind of thing. I always thought that I'd have to go and

409
00:25:07,268 --> 00:25:11,086
find a job somewhere else, do that full time, and this kind of would

410
00:25:11,108 --> 00:25:14,834
be a secondary thing. That was how it originally felt. But then

411
00:25:14,872 --> 00:25:18,514
once we started doing this full time and it just started to

412
00:25:18,552 --> 00:25:22,306
grow and grow, it became more apparent that we

413
00:25:22,328 --> 00:25:26,034
enjoyed doing this. It's tough, it's hard, but we love working

414
00:25:26,072 --> 00:25:29,766
for ourselves and putting out our own product, and it makes it

415
00:25:29,788 --> 00:25:31,560
worth it. At the end of the day, for us.

416
00:25:33,690 --> 00:25:37,414
When you did make that transition to be full time, did it

417
00:25:37,452 --> 00:25:41,254
feel like, risky or scary or did it all make sense

418
00:25:41,292 --> 00:25:44,602
and you're like, yeah, if we do this more time, we'll be able to cover

419
00:25:44,656 --> 00:25:48,202
ourselves, no problem. I imagine it was somewhat of a risk, right?

420
00:25:48,336 --> 00:25:52,140
It was definitely a risk. It was definitely scary because my

421
00:25:52,510 --> 00:25:55,966
actual job, I thought of it as a safety net. I

422
00:25:55,988 --> 00:25:59,646
thought if something happens at the bus, it's not working out, at

423
00:25:59,668 --> 00:26:03,310
least I have my job to fall back onto. So once I left

424
00:26:03,380 --> 00:26:07,106
that, it was kind of like, all right, I'm all in now. Everything has to

425
00:26:07,128 --> 00:26:10,786
work. There's no going back. Right. And was that

426
00:26:10,808 --> 00:26:14,180
job like a cafe job that you had, or was it. A

427
00:26:14,950 --> 00:26:18,246
I worked I was working at Maison Matisse, downtown New

428
00:26:18,268 --> 00:26:20,630
Haven, which was a really cool cafe.

429
00:26:22,250 --> 00:26:25,734
It was actually sad when I quit that place because I had been there

430
00:26:25,772 --> 00:26:29,610
for, I think, about three years, and the staff was always very cool.

431
00:26:29,760 --> 00:26:33,174
It was an enjoyable place to work, so it was tough

432
00:26:33,222 --> 00:26:36,458
to lose that safety net. But it was also

433
00:26:36,624 --> 00:26:40,058
definitely necessary for me to grow the

434
00:26:40,064 --> 00:26:43,866
business to what it is today. It would have been a lot harder

435
00:26:43,898 --> 00:26:47,120
to do if I was still working part time.

436
00:26:48,210 --> 00:26:51,998
Yeah, it's definitely something I've noticed, like trying to do two things at

437
00:26:52,004 --> 00:26:55,470
once or be in two places at once. You can only devote so much energy

438
00:26:55,540 --> 00:26:59,074
to one thing. Exactly. So I think when you kind of go all in on

439
00:26:59,112 --> 00:27:02,210
something, it even gives you more of a pressure

440
00:27:02,870 --> 00:27:06,200
to force it to be successful because it's the only thing that you have.

441
00:27:06,810 --> 00:27:10,534
So do you guys have any plans, like future plans, as

442
00:27:10,572 --> 00:27:14,354
far as expanding or maybe getting a physical location

443
00:27:14,402 --> 00:27:18,178
one day? Or is the bus the way it is? How

444
00:27:18,204 --> 00:27:22,042
you envision it? We have plans to

445
00:27:22,096 --> 00:27:25,866
open a storefront, brick and mortar location. It's currently in the

446
00:27:25,888 --> 00:27:29,418
works. We're trying to figure out all the logistics behind that.

447
00:27:29,584 --> 00:27:33,306
But yeah, I think that's our plan to get a storefront. Still

448
00:27:33,328 --> 00:27:36,958
do the bus, but have like a home base where we could

449
00:27:37,044 --> 00:27:40,654
basically a storefront that'll allow us to do more than what we're doing now because

450
00:27:40,692 --> 00:27:44,258
right now the bus, we park it we used to park it in

451
00:27:44,264 --> 00:27:47,826
Paul's backyard. He moved out of there. So now it's parked in my

452
00:27:47,848 --> 00:27:51,506
driveway. And it's nice having it at my

453
00:27:51,528 --> 00:27:55,330
house, but it's tough because I have to store

454
00:27:55,400 --> 00:27:59,250
everything at my house and I live in New Haven,

455
00:27:59,320 --> 00:28:02,646
but it's kind of far from our location, so we have to drive in and

456
00:28:02,668 --> 00:28:06,402
out every day. But yeah, we're trying to get a storefront location that'll

457
00:28:06,466 --> 00:28:08,600
basically work as a home base and

458
00:28:09,850 --> 00:28:13,260
it's going to be a lot of work, but we're totally up for it.

459
00:28:13,710 --> 00:28:17,546
Nice, that's awesome. So you'll have a coffee shop and then also the

460
00:28:17,568 --> 00:28:21,386
school bus to work out of. So yeah, I'm sure

461
00:28:21,408 --> 00:28:25,066
that brings up a whole new list of things that you've never

462
00:28:25,088 --> 00:28:28,366
done before or have to learn how to do. What's that been like as far

463
00:28:28,388 --> 00:28:31,806
as how to go about getting a storefront and leasing a

464
00:28:31,828 --> 00:28:35,650
place? Have you learned from anybody? Have you gotten help from anybody

465
00:28:35,720 --> 00:28:39,540
as far as how to go about that? Yeah, so

466
00:28:41,350 --> 00:28:44,722
we found help with this guy. His name is Mark

467
00:28:44,776 --> 00:28:47,880
Hales. They basically help

468
00:28:48,330 --> 00:28:52,054
small businesses start up in New Haven. They help them

469
00:28:52,092 --> 00:28:55,702
find ways for funding and just they have a

470
00:28:55,756 --> 00:28:59,254
bunch of people, they have someone who's good at accounting, you could talk to

471
00:28:59,292 --> 00:29:02,746
them. They have someone else that they're good at team

472
00:29:02,848 --> 00:29:06,346
building, so you could talk to them about how to hire the staff and keep

473
00:29:06,368 --> 00:29:10,074
them happy. And it's been such a huge help to

474
00:29:10,112 --> 00:29:13,918
us. And anyone starting a business in New Haven, I feel

475
00:29:13,924 --> 00:29:17,774
like they should totally use them because there's no way to know everything.

476
00:29:17,972 --> 00:29:21,534
And it's just great to have an

477
00:29:21,572 --> 00:29:25,214
organization that helps make all this make

478
00:29:25,252 --> 00:29:29,074
sense because at first it doesn't make sense. It's really daunting. And

479
00:29:29,112 --> 00:29:32,738
I could totally see why someone would have the idea for a

480
00:29:32,744 --> 00:29:36,306
business. They start to get into it and then they realize this is so much

481
00:29:36,328 --> 00:29:39,558
confusing work. I don't think I'm going to pull the trigger on this anymore. I

482
00:29:39,564 --> 00:29:43,046
think I'm just going to work my safe nine to five job

483
00:29:43,148 --> 00:29:46,914
and just be happy with that. So it's

484
00:29:47,042 --> 00:29:50,794
totally important to ask questions and find help in this stuff,

485
00:29:50,832 --> 00:29:54,634
for sure. Yeah, that's definitely some good

486
00:29:54,672 --> 00:29:57,882
advice. And something that I've always struggled with is asking for help

487
00:29:57,936 --> 00:30:01,514
and even knowing where to go to ask for help.

488
00:30:01,632 --> 00:30:05,374
But I've noticed that networking and meeting people is, for me, the best

489
00:30:05,412 --> 00:30:09,022
thing to just get information from people who have done things

490
00:30:09,076 --> 00:30:12,926
similar before. How did you go about finding this guy? You said his

491
00:30:12,948 --> 00:30:16,686
name is Mark Hale? Mark Hales. Yeah. Mark Hales. They're

492
00:30:16,718 --> 00:30:20,466
like a consulting business that you're kind of hiring on or how does it

493
00:30:20,488 --> 00:30:24,306
work? We found him through we

494
00:30:24,328 --> 00:30:27,480
were trying to get a business loan from our bank and

495
00:30:28,330 --> 00:30:31,734
they referred us to this guy. They said he's huge help

496
00:30:31,852 --> 00:30:35,414
and he'll be able to answer basically any question you have, which

497
00:30:35,532 --> 00:30:39,306
he has been able to do that. So let's see. I

498
00:30:39,328 --> 00:30:42,906
have it here. It's the SBDC. I forget what that

499
00:30:42,928 --> 00:30:46,586
acronym stands for. But oh, Small Business Development Center. There we

500
00:30:46,608 --> 00:30:50,006
go. Yeah, you got they're

501
00:30:50,038 --> 00:30:53,260
just they're really great. They've helped us out so much.

502
00:30:54,210 --> 00:30:57,200
Nice. That's awesome. I'm glad that they're helping. You

503
00:30:57,970 --> 00:31:00,798
mean, what does it even look like for real estate in New Haven? I mean,

504
00:31:00,804 --> 00:31:04,642
there's so much new construction going up. I know even just in Worcester Square,

505
00:31:04,696 --> 00:31:08,306
there's tons of new brand new retail space.

506
00:31:08,408 --> 00:31:12,082
I imagine that's way different than the older stuff that's been around

507
00:31:12,136 --> 00:31:15,794
and locations probably affect the

508
00:31:15,832 --> 00:31:19,382
price of things. Do you guys have any idea where you want to be

509
00:31:19,436 --> 00:31:22,600
or where it's possible to be? Definitely

510
00:31:23,450 --> 00:31:27,286
downtown area. I think we're leaning towards Wisher Square area where

511
00:31:27,308 --> 00:31:30,946
the farmers market is. That's just such a good spot. There's some

512
00:31:30,988 --> 00:31:34,746
coffee spots down there, but there's not very many downtown. There's like one on

513
00:31:34,768 --> 00:31:38,506
every block, so it'd be nice to be somewhere where there's a little

514
00:31:38,528 --> 00:31:42,078
bit less coffee, which is hard to do. I mean, we're in New Haven, and

515
00:31:42,164 --> 00:31:45,774
there's so many cafes in New Haven. But I think

516
00:31:45,812 --> 00:31:49,486
worcestershire square area. We actually looked in one of

517
00:31:49,508 --> 00:31:53,166
those huge condo buildings that they put up

518
00:31:53,188 --> 00:31:56,974
recently. We looked there, they had a retail

519
00:31:57,022 --> 00:32:00,786
space available, but it was like the price they wanted

520
00:32:00,888 --> 00:32:04,386
for rent. It was too crazy for us. There was no way we were going

521
00:32:04,408 --> 00:32:08,034
to comfortably sign that at lease and pay it every month. So we

522
00:32:08,072 --> 00:32:11,778
passed on that. We looked at a couple of other places. It's

523
00:32:11,794 --> 00:32:14,840
definitely high, the rent is high, that's for sure. But

524
00:32:16,010 --> 00:32:19,334
I think just the cost of doing this,

525
00:32:19,532 --> 00:32:22,966
it's not easy. It's not going to be cheap, but it's

526
00:32:22,998 --> 00:32:26,842
doable. And you got to have the confidence. There's people

527
00:32:26,896 --> 00:32:30,266
doing it now, they're making it work. And I feel like that we'll be able

528
00:32:30,288 --> 00:32:34,126
to as well. Yeah, I think that's a good attitude to go

529
00:32:34,148 --> 00:32:37,360
into it. I think it's really easy to just get overwhelmed by things.

530
00:32:37,810 --> 00:32:41,642
And I know for my business, I've always tried to keep overhead

531
00:32:41,786 --> 00:32:45,486
at zero just because it seems less risky that way, because

532
00:32:45,508 --> 00:32:49,106
it's like, oh, well, I don't have anything into it, so it's just my

533
00:32:49,128 --> 00:32:51,986
time sort of thing and maybe a little bit here and there. But I think

534
00:32:52,008 --> 00:32:55,378
that also kind of limits you to where you can go and what you can

535
00:32:55,464 --> 00:32:59,026
do. Definitely. So, yeah, that's I think a good

536
00:32:59,048 --> 00:33:02,726
perspective to have is just other people are doing it so we can

537
00:33:02,748 --> 00:33:06,518
figure it out too. Right, so you said something before.

538
00:33:06,604 --> 00:33:10,314
Are you the finance guy for Jitterbus? Are you the one

539
00:33:10,352 --> 00:33:14,140
kind of like crunching numbers and stuff? Yeah. So

540
00:33:15,470 --> 00:33:18,982
what's the perspective of that on the business? I imagine

541
00:33:19,126 --> 00:33:22,938
seeing actual numbers and projections and stuff, it could go either way,

542
00:33:23,024 --> 00:33:26,798
give you confidence that you guys can do this or you can look at

543
00:33:26,804 --> 00:33:30,506
those numbers and be like, wow, it's a lot of money, and be daunted

544
00:33:30,538 --> 00:33:33,760
by it. Yeah. It's funny because

545
00:33:34,130 --> 00:33:37,778
I've never been a math guy at all. This kind

546
00:33:37,784 --> 00:33:41,518
of just fell into my lap as not my responsibility,

547
00:33:41,614 --> 00:33:45,126
but it's like I'm good at figuring this stuff out for the

548
00:33:45,148 --> 00:33:48,182
business and it's been great,

549
00:33:48,236 --> 00:33:52,040
honestly, because the numbers have been very positive. So

550
00:33:52,890 --> 00:33:56,566
we've increased our revenue every year since

551
00:33:56,588 --> 00:34:00,326
we've opened. So just seeing that graph go up, it

552
00:34:00,348 --> 00:34:03,994
makes it a lot easier to work with. If it was the other way around,

553
00:34:04,112 --> 00:34:07,962
I would probably be losing it and freaking out. But

554
00:34:08,016 --> 00:34:11,854
everything's been good, so it makes it easy to work with that

555
00:34:11,892 --> 00:34:15,678
stuff. Yeah, definitely. That's always a good thing

556
00:34:15,764 --> 00:34:19,566
when the graphs trend upwards. Yeah. So, yeah, I

557
00:34:19,588 --> 00:34:23,166
did want to ask you too about do you guys have other employees that

558
00:34:23,188 --> 00:34:26,978
you hire for working on the bus or is it just. The

559
00:34:26,984 --> 00:34:30,514
two of you right now? Just the two of us. I think once we

560
00:34:30,552 --> 00:34:34,402
eventually get this cafe space going, that's when we'll have to hire people

561
00:34:34,456 --> 00:34:36,260
for sure. And

562
00:34:37,990 --> 00:34:41,766
it's weird to think we're going to be somebody's bosses because we don't think of

563
00:34:41,788 --> 00:34:45,638
ourselves that way, but it's definitely like a whole mindset we

564
00:34:45,644 --> 00:34:48,906
got to get into. We got to be able to manage people. We want to

565
00:34:48,928 --> 00:34:52,746
create an enjoyable place to work because we worked at

566
00:34:52,768 --> 00:34:56,330
places that we have enjoyed and we worked at places that we didn't enjoy

567
00:34:56,400 --> 00:34:59,420
and it's easy to see

568
00:35:01,490 --> 00:35:05,290
what's the word I'm looking for? The company culture.

569
00:35:05,450 --> 00:35:09,182
Yeah, exactly. There have been places I worked where just

570
00:35:09,236 --> 00:35:12,958
the management was just so bad and no one wanted to be there and it

571
00:35:12,964 --> 00:35:16,622
was so obvious. And once it's like that, the product really suffers

572
00:35:16,686 --> 00:35:20,066
because nobody cares. And the places I've worked where it was

573
00:35:20,088 --> 00:35:23,874
enjoyable and everyone was getting along, the product was way

574
00:35:23,912 --> 00:35:27,686
better, if that goes without saying. But it seems like a

575
00:35:27,708 --> 00:35:31,526
thing that some places just don't understand. They

576
00:35:31,548 --> 00:35:35,142
don't treat their staff right and they expect everything to work well anyway,

577
00:35:35,196 --> 00:35:38,786
and I don't understand that, but that's

578
00:35:38,818 --> 00:35:42,634
definitely not the type of place we're trying to be. We definitely

579
00:35:42,672 --> 00:35:46,220
want to make a place that's enjoyable to work and people

580
00:35:46,750 --> 00:35:50,234
want to come in and work with us and that's going to be

581
00:35:50,272 --> 00:35:53,962
like a huge thing for us, just making

582
00:35:54,016 --> 00:35:57,838
sure everyone's happy at the end of the day, it is work. You got

583
00:35:57,844 --> 00:36:01,694
to show up and all that, but we want it to be a place that

584
00:36:01,732 --> 00:36:05,326
you want to come to. Yeah, that's a

585
00:36:05,348 --> 00:36:09,026
good point. I've got a couple more questions for you. As we're coming to the

586
00:36:09,048 --> 00:36:12,738
end of our time, I did want to ask you about

587
00:36:12,904 --> 00:36:16,718
the word success, and what does success mean to you? Because I think

588
00:36:16,744 --> 00:36:20,390
it can mean many different things for many different people. But just curious to

589
00:36:20,460 --> 00:36:24,262
see what it means to you. Success to me.

590
00:36:24,396 --> 00:36:28,166
For me, success was I was talking about this a little bit

591
00:36:28,188 --> 00:36:31,898
earlier with college. I just didn't enjoy it, didn't have a

592
00:36:31,904 --> 00:36:35,466
good time. And I felt at that time that I was

593
00:36:35,488 --> 00:36:39,306
setting myself up for failure and I was just

594
00:36:39,408 --> 00:36:43,114
really worried about the future. I didn't know what I wanted to do. I wasn't

595
00:36:43,162 --> 00:36:46,958
sure what I was going to amount to or

596
00:36:46,964 --> 00:36:50,480
anything like that. And I really found my success

597
00:36:51,170 --> 00:36:54,960
with the bus by. And it's not about

598
00:36:55,410 --> 00:36:59,066
making money to me. To me, it's about being happy with what you're

599
00:36:59,098 --> 00:37:02,606
doing and building the bus, getting it up and running and

600
00:37:02,628 --> 00:37:06,262
then seeing it grow. To me, that's my

601
00:37:06,316 --> 00:37:09,650
success. Being from a place where I felt

602
00:37:09,810 --> 00:37:13,506
really just I felt like I wasn't

603
00:37:13,538 --> 00:37:17,126
going anywhere and it was sad. I really struggled with

604
00:37:17,148 --> 00:37:20,618
it. And then we built the bus, got it up and running,

605
00:37:20,704 --> 00:37:24,538
and I saw how well it was doing and how it

606
00:37:24,544 --> 00:37:28,314
was making people happy, which was making me happy, and

607
00:37:28,432 --> 00:37:31,838
just being able to figure something out on my own and

608
00:37:32,004 --> 00:37:35,582
enjoy what I do for work. That was basically how I

609
00:37:35,636 --> 00:37:39,360
felt like I was becoming successful. And

610
00:37:41,010 --> 00:37:43,786
it pulled me out of that weird funk that I was in where I felt

611
00:37:43,818 --> 00:37:47,586
like, I don't like going to college, and because of that, I'm not

612
00:37:47,608 --> 00:37:50,740
going to amount to anything. And it showed me that

613
00:37:51,190 --> 00:37:54,974
you can do other things. You don't need to go to college. I

614
00:37:55,032 --> 00:37:58,822
finished college, but Paul, my partner, didn't go to college, and

615
00:37:58,956 --> 00:38:02,454
we worked the same job and we're just as happy.

616
00:38:02,572 --> 00:38:05,640
And it's definitely

617
00:38:06,490 --> 00:38:10,202
been an experience being able to build something

618
00:38:10,336 --> 00:38:14,090
and have it work and have people enjoy

619
00:38:14,160 --> 00:38:17,882
it. To me, that's my success, I would say, yeah.

620
00:38:17,936 --> 00:38:21,706
No, I think you put that well and articulated that well. I think it

621
00:38:21,728 --> 00:38:25,406
seems like it's given you a purpose, like a greater purpose purpose, for

622
00:38:25,428 --> 00:38:28,942
sure. Whereas I think, at least in my experience,

623
00:38:29,076 --> 00:38:32,526
going to college, getting the job you're supposed to, that was the thing that was

624
00:38:32,548 --> 00:38:36,126
missing for me. I wasn't connected to

625
00:38:36,228 --> 00:38:39,614
the job at all. I was just doing it and eventually

626
00:38:39,662 --> 00:38:42,482
questioning, why am I doing this? I don't like doing this, why am I here?

627
00:38:42,536 --> 00:38:46,294
It's draining to think to do that for the next 30, 40 years,

628
00:38:46,412 --> 00:38:50,134
something that you don't really enjoy. Everyone has

629
00:38:50,172 --> 00:38:53,702
to work and make money and all that.

630
00:38:53,756 --> 00:38:57,574
And I'm not one of those people that think there are bad jobs. I

631
00:38:57,612 --> 00:39:01,066
think if you're working and you have a job, it is what it

632
00:39:01,088 --> 00:39:04,826
is. But I also think that you really

633
00:39:04,848 --> 00:39:08,538
should be doing something you enjoy, and I feel like a lot of people kind

634
00:39:08,544 --> 00:39:12,014
of miss out on that, and it's tough, but you really got to take

635
00:39:12,052 --> 00:39:15,040
risks in order to be happy with what you do.

636
00:39:16,290 --> 00:39:19,946
I agree. Well said. So thanks for joining

637
00:39:19,978 --> 00:39:23,742
me on this podcast. I really appreciate your time. If people want to

638
00:39:23,796 --> 00:39:27,490
find out more about you, where can they do that? We have a website

639
00:39:27,560 --> 00:39:31,234
right now, thejitterbus.com it's still in the works. You could go

640
00:39:31,272 --> 00:39:34,626
there. There's not much there right now, but we're working on it. Also,

641
00:39:34,728 --> 00:39:38,462
Instagram, our Instagram handle is Jitterbus Coffee,

642
00:39:38,526 --> 00:39:42,294
and you can find us on Facebook as well. Those are the two main

643
00:39:42,332 --> 00:39:45,762
places to find us. All right, well, thanks so much, Dan,

644
00:39:45,826 --> 00:39:49,302
and look forward to what the Jitterbus has in the future and

645
00:39:49,356 --> 00:39:53,142
possibly a future physical location. Awesome. Thanks, Gina. Thanks,

646
00:39:53,196 --> 00:39:56,838
Dan. Thanks for tuning in and listening to Working

647
00:39:56,924 --> 00:40:00,638
towards our purpose. If you like this episode, please share it

648
00:40:00,644 --> 00:40:03,422
with a friend and don't forget to subscribe. For more

649
00:40:03,476 --> 00:40:04,510
episodes,

650
00:40:08,370 --> 00:40:09,120
you.