REAL AF with Andy Frisella - Size Matters, with Andy Frisella - MFCEO27

Episode Date: November 10, 2015

How do you manage the growth of your small business?  Jillian Tedesco of Fit Flavors joins Andy Frisella and Vaughn Kohler and the three of them discuss challenges entrepreneurs face as they grow more successful.

Hey guys, this is Vaughn Kohler and you're listening to the MFCEO Project. Your small business is getting bigger. That's a good thing, right? Well, it's also challenging and at times stressful. Today, Andy is joined by good friend and fellow entrepreneur Jillian Tedesco of Fit Flavors. The two of them, and yours truly, talk about how to manage the growth that comes with success. That's today's podcast. Hey guys, what's up? You're listening to the MFCEO Project. I'm Andy, I'm your host. I'm here with my co-host, DJ God. DJ DJ God. I think my favorite is Vaughn the Impaler.

Of course it is. Yeah. I'm here with my co-host, Vaughn the Impaler, producer Tyler in his salmon shorts. What's up, dude? What's up, guys? And we have a special guest today, Jillian Tedesco, one of my good friends and a fellow entrepreneur. Hello. Hey, everybody. So today, the term entrepreneur has become like the sexy, cool thing to do.

Now everybody's an entrepreneur. You know what I'm saying? They think entrepreneurship is like about running down to the Starbucks and you're fucking with your hipster beard and your fucking coffee chilling with your Mac and the fucking, you know, in the lobby of Starbucks with your triple vent a bullshit. You know what I'm saying? I love it. Triple vent. Yeah, man.

Whatever, dude. I don't even fucking know what they serve there. I'm just making that up clearly. But the point is, no, it's got to be pumpkin now. Right. I'm going to write pumpkin spice like Ugg Pumpkin, right. Pumpkin spice. Like Uggs and pumpkin spice. Pumpkin spice latte. So, dude.

So the thing is, is like, you know, 20 years ago, being an entrepreneur, you know what that meant? That meant you fucking lived in your mom's basement. It meant you were a loser. It meant you didn't have a fucking job. Right. You know what I mean? How are you paying your bills? Right.

I'm an entrepreneur. Like, if you wrote entrepreneur on a credit app, they fucking laughed at you. That doesn't even count. That's not a real job. Like, seriously, that's what it used to be. Now it's like become this sexy thing that everybody wants to be one. And they don't really realize what it takes. They hear these stories of, you know, Uber 2010.

Now it's a multi multi multi billion dollar company. Right. You know, Instagram, they hear all these stories especially in the tech world of these companies that raise massive amounts of money and then go into business you know and then become successful they don't it's just become over glamorized you know what i mean and so what i want to do and the reason i wanted to bring jillian on because we've had a lot of conversations just in person about business. Talk about some of the real things that you think about and go through as starting a small business. It's not, you know, I mean, Jillian, you didn't get to raise $400 million to start your startup, did you? No, I did not.

Yeah. You know, people get into this with the idea that it's not a difficult thing to do. Right. And the reality is there's a million little things that happen along the way that quite honestly drive you fucking crazy. And you have to come across. So with that being said, why don't we just talk about your story and how you came up with the idea for what? Tell people what you do and then, you know, how you came up with the idea and then where we're at now. And then we'll just kind of get into it.

So I don't have any professional background. I actually didn't even graduate college. I started personal training when I was 18 years old. I love fitness, loved health. I was like, this is what I want to do. So I just was like, why not just get certified and start working? So that's what I did did that for 12 years I actually opened my own personal training studio when I was 22 I was working at a place and some of the guys were leaving to opening their own studio they're like hey do you want to open this with us and I was

like yeah sure why not I always wanted my own place so I went home to my husband Jason who I'd been with for three months at the time told him the idea he liked the idea we decided let's put up a bunch of money we put it in did that for two and a half years and one day went into work had this blow up with my partner and it's actually a really shitty story what went down but bottom line I left that day and I did not look back. I couldn't go back there. It was volatile. It was negative. And he was an idiot. He was not a good person to do business with.

And I learned that now. I look back and I'm like, why would I do that? I was 22. We put so much of our hard-earned money. Jason helped liquidate part of his savings so I could go do this. Yeah, but see, here's what I want to point to you guys. We're going to talk about the process of being an entrepreneur. Most people will fucking quit right there.

They said, dude, business isn't for me. Right. You know what I mean? They say, oh, man, I just got screwed up in this bad business deal. I lost my savings. It didn't work out. Fuck it. I'm not an entrepreneur.

And guess what? If you quit right there, you aren't. So sorry to interrupt. No. I just want to make a point as we go. That's all right. And you know what's funny is like I always kind of work for myself being a trainer. You never have to like punch a clock.

You make your own hours. So when I left, I'm like, what do I do now? So where do I go? Around the corner to some mom and pop gym. Hey, can I bring my clients here? And started working and felt like a loser. I'm like, I'm better than this. You know, like I'm not going to work for somebody else at the bottom. Like I'd been at the top, you know,

but here I thought I'd lost everything. And, uh, I kind of like started having anxiety. It was crazy. Um, I couldn't sleep at night. I'd wake up. I just freaking out. I didn't know what was wrong with me. Um, and actually one night I had a nervous breakdown and I went to the hospital and she's like, you know, I'm like, I had a, I think I had a heart attack. And she's like, well, you know, tell me some things that you've been going through. I actually told her what happened. She's like, no, I think you just had a panic attack. And right there at that moment, I realized, oh shit, what am I doing with my life? Like,'t know and you know I was always really passionate about food and it's something I always spent so much time counseling clients on I would go to the

grocery store with them go to their house show them how to cook send them home with recipes and the clients who would listen would get the most success and the ones that wouldn't I knew their lifestyles or their love for cooking just wasn't there. And it didn't allow them to get the results they wanted because they couldn't put the time in to cook the food. So I actually started cooking food for clients on the weekends when I was working at this gym because I had this time. I wasn't spending every week and hour at my so-called business. So I basically was like, I'm going to start another way of getting some income in.

So I started cooking food. I started with like, I don't know, 30 Tupperware, and then I would bring it to you at the gym. And within a couple of weeks, I had like eight people I was cooking for. It was pretty cool. I actually remember this, because remember whenever,

this is kind of funny because- I didn't know you remembered that. Yeah, because this is like back like- Six years ago. Six, seven years ago, kind of funny because i didn't know you remembered that yeah because this is like back like six years six seven years ago when when before we even had first form even going we had this little bitty shithole office in the back of one of our retail stores and she came in one day with samples of her food which was awesome by the way even back then it was awesome but it was funny because that's like i remember you starting out that way yeah you know just I'll make your food and and uh I'll bring it to the gym or I'll bring it you know it was just a just kind of cool

to like remember it back then yeah like I anybody I could meet like I wanted you to know what I was doing and I just wanted I would do anything to get business so it was like I just had to put myself out there and um I said you know what I got this time at night I go Jay I'm going to go to culinary school like something I always wanted to do like Like I might as well do it. I get the credentials as a chef and make myself a little more marketable with a nutrition background, training background. I could be a chef. So I did that for a year, trained all day, went to school all night and then did the business all weekend. So it was seven days straight, no breaks. And I didn't take any weekends off because people wanted their food every weekend. And I my husband he was cooking at home with me I mean we would cook the food package the food

deliver the food and it slowly grew really rapidly to where I had like nine refrigerators in my house I was cooking 600 tell them like like they literally had like refrigerators in their living room yeah like in my front room which would be like your formal living room, we had a big, huge piece of plywood on two horses, and we would lay out all the containers. It was my husband. He packaged all the food. I would cook it all, and he would package it,

and then we'd label it, separate it, and then I'd drive all over St. Louis out to – down to Butler Hill, all the way out to like Lake St. Louis to make deliveries. Which is an hour away. She's talking about just, just a lot of, a lot of radius. And I put together my whole delivery route and then I'd have to coordinate with you like when you were going to be home or when you were going to be at work. And if you weren't at home, I would get your garage code and go in your house and maybe I'd let your dog out just because it'd make it as convenient for you. I wanted to get that sale. So I was doing all kinds of crazy stuff.

Dude, I love that. I love hearing this because this is the shit that people don't see. People see Fit Flavors. And guys, if you don't, you're not from the Midwest. Fit Flavors is going to be a national level brand in a very short amount of time. They've got an awesome concept. They have an awesome product. They have awesome branding.

And they have awesome people behind it that care. And when people come and they see like the growth that you guys have had or they see the storefronts they see how awesome it looks and how how you know professional everything's done now like going through your kitchen is like super impressive you know what i mean and to hear to hear it like how this is like this is the shit that gets me excited you know what i mean and this is this is what people don't see. They don't see this shit. They don't see them with a house full of fucking refrigerators, making the, making the meals

on a, on a fucking sawhorse table that they made. You know what I mean? Absolutely. They don't see that. They see, oh, I, they hear the shit on the internet. Oh, we raised $30 million. And by the way, we sold our company for 7 billion in six months. You know, this is awesome, man. This is what entrepreneurship is about guys. This is what hustle is about. This is what it's about to start something from zero with no guarantee that you're

going to ever actually make it anywhere. You know, and that's the biggest thing I see, especially, you know, I'd call them the young bucks, but you young bucks out there, this is how it goes, guys. This is normal. This is behind every successful business. There is a story like this. All right. Yeah. And speaking of stories, there's a great, you have a great one that kind of shows your

passion for food and the comic interaction between you and your husband the night that you challenged him to cutting. Oh, the potato cutting contest? Oh, the potato cutting contest? Yeah, the potato cutting contest. Okay, I'll tell you that story real quick. Okay, this was, this was during this time frame where, actually, my husband was traveling for work all week. He would, he would leave early Monday morning, and he would always take the early morning flight, because he's like, if I can take the early flight, I can get there to do an eight o'clock meeting. So he'd be up every day, 4 30, get to the airport at six, take that that early flight and he wouldn't come home till like Thursday night so the only time I Thursday or Friday the

only time I'd see him is on the weekends when I was cooking so I made him cook with me and make all the deliveries with me and one one one day we were I don't know cutting potatoes I was like let's let's have a race and uh he's like that's not fair you're like a ninja with a knife and I'm like well I'll give you a head start and you can cut less potatoes than me. So, you know, we go and I'm timing us. And, um, I was doing other stuff too. I'm like blanching, I'm like cooking turkey meatloaf. I think I had some stuff on the grill and we go, you know, we're chopping. He's like, oh shit. And I'm like, what? He's like, I just cut my fucking thumb off. And I'm like I look over and like his thumb is like hanging off and I'm like oh shit you really did I'm like you should probably go to the ER and he's like you

gotta take me and I'm like I can I got turkey meatloaf in the oven and he's like no really I'm like boy you can't drive yourself like you're good that's hardcore and I was I was really dead serious because I had a lot of fucking food to cook and you know it's probably like I don't know seven o'clock at night and you know so I had to stop driving there I dropped him off I turned around and went back I said call me when you're ready I'll come get you did he really make you drive him yeah he did which I'm gonna bust his balls yeah you totally should Jason I know you're listening you're a pussy that's That's awesome. Oh, that's awesome. No, for real, though, Jason is a huge part of the business.

You guys, Jillian's the face, but Jason is very, very involved in the business, too. Pick up where you left off, though. Let's go from where you're making the shit, running around, to bridge the gap to where you guys are now. Yeah, Okay. So when I, so one of the things I did within that timeframe was I go, I think I should join Lifetime Fitness. There's a lot of people there that could use this business, this service. And you know, I just got to start talking about it. So I joined there.

I was cooking about 200 meals out of my house. When I had joined Lifetime till the end of the year, which was about seven months, I grew it to 650 meals. Wow. so at that point when we had nine refrigerators I had about two or three other girls in the house working with me cooking food and packaging one of the girls who's with me today Jackie she started and we make this joke she was my dish bitch she come over and she would wash dishes from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. and scrub the kitchen floor that's all she she did. Every fucking weekend for me.

And she never bitched about it. And she's my general manager right now. She knows more about the business than everybody. She's done everything from making pancakes to packaging to grocery shopping. And Jackie's pretty young, right? Yeah, she's really young. Right. How old is she?

Jackie's 23. Okay. So, all right. So, How old is she? Jackie's 23. Okay. Wow. So, all right. So I want to make a point about this because I see you and Jackie together all the time, all right? She's basically Jillian's right-hand person.

Yeah. I mean, well, actually I have two other people I would consider my right-hand people too. Yeah. I mean, it's in different aspects. Let's talk about this though because I want to talk to you guys about this because we have a lot of young listeners. You don't understand that age doesn't matter. It doesn't matter how old you are. It doesn't matter what your qualifications are.

It doesn't matter when you're in a company and you create value, you create opportunity. And now Jackie has put herself in a position to be in a great position for a company that is exploding in growth at 23 years old. Yeah, she was in school kind of at the time. in a great position for a company that is exploding in growth at 23 years old. Yeah. Yeah. She, um, she was in school kind of, kind of at the time,

like she was taking classes and she's like, well, I'm going to go to college. I'm like, for what, what do you want to do? Wolf? Like you're working 40 hours a week for me.

Like, fuck it. Let's just do it. Come on. Like what? I'm paying you more now than you're going to start making out of college. You don't even know what you want to do. Like you,

I know you love this. Like taking away that debt too. She was just so scared to like, let but when she did she she has never looked back and she's like head down fucking go yeah like since you know and that's I mean that's what you guys you know listening who might be working in a position for a company you know and you might be thinking oh well you know I don't know where this is going or I I'm looking for the next thing outside the walls of where you work. Well, how about looking inside the walls of how you could become valuable? Because this is how it works, guys.

This is how people become presidents of companies from the person who used to wash the kitchen floor and wash the dishes. You know what I mean? This is how it happens. I mean, I don't know how to make it any more clear than that. You know what I mean? That's, this is how it happens. I mean, I don't know how to make it any more clear than that. Yeah. You know what I mean? You create value, you become valuable. And this is not, this is like whenever we talk about being an entrepreneur,

it's not just about the person that owns the business. It's about the people that work in the business have to have entrepreneurial mindset. You know what I mean? That's so true. Especially if you're growing bigger, like you can't do it by yourself. No. But people who are in a company having that entrepreneurial mindset of how can I help? How can I provide value? How can I solve problems? You create value to the people who own the company, which commands more pay. This is how it works guys. It's not hard to understand.

Yeah, that's true. Um, okay. So going back to being in the kitchen, outgrowing my house, Jason's like, Jillian, what are you doing? This is like a serious operation. Like, you know, I think I was collecting people's money when I would deliver to your house in an envelope and I had it in my visor. I'd be driving around with thousands of dollars in my fricking car. Jason be like, you went to the gym. Where's the envelope? I was like, I don't know. I left it outside. I still got to deliver food to a couple of trainers envelope I was like I don't know I left it outside I still gotta deliver food to a couple trainers I was like food dealing bags of food outside the gym after I went to work out all over St. Louis but um so we decided to rent a kitchen so when we got out of my house which was actually nicer than the rental kitchen that thing was awful like I could talk about all the

shitty stuff that happened to us when I was there but um when we were there we put together the plan that it was time to open like a brick and mortar like okay we're gonna do this let's offer this to St. Louis it was it was scary but I'm like we have to do it I felt like responsible in a way because I'm like here I have this great product people love it like if I don't do it like like you said I'm pussing out because I have to believe like I believed up until this point it's working I felt like I couldn't take a weekend off because I knew people needed the food so it was like I had to do it so we we decided to make the decision to find a store and hire a staff and and and go with it so my next biggest step was finding an executive chef because Jill

my husband's like Jillian you can't be in the kitchen every day cutting vegetables like you're gonna have to do so much more run a business yeah right so I was relinquishing the one of the most important roles of the company it was actually the product of food that's what you always say when we have conversation because we talk a lot about this outside of this podcast um i mean they're they're good friends of ours we talk about this that's what you always say dude it's the food it's the food you can't fuck with the food that's a quote by jillian man and i love it because it's so true if the if the food sucks people are not going to come back so no if the product sucks no matter what business you're in yeah true and you're fucked especially with food i mean i mean you have one, you're fucked. Especially with food.

I mean, you have one opportunity. Well, I guess that's with everything. But they taste it. They're either going to love it or it's all right. Okay, so that raises an essential question. Go ahead, Jillian. I was just going to say, so with our product, it's a consistent product. Our customers, a lot of them shop regularly.

They're in there every week buying meals. So if they like the beef enchiladas or the peanut chicken over Asian slaw, it's got to taste the same every time they get it. So then it brings in factors and variables of consistency, the way it looks, the amount that's in the container. It all has to be the same every time. So all those steps of putting that product out there has to be executed right. And, you know know having new people

that you hire getting them trained so where the product is it doesn't come out so let's talk about that for a second because you mentioned a couple points that i think are important one you only have one chance to make an impression on customers okay so if you're going out with if you launch it like a lot of people will say this they say this shit i think zuckerberg says this um that uh done is better than perfect i don't agree with that i think that dude if your product is not so good that people the first time they use it or try it because we're both in consumable type products they've got to say holy shit this is the best thing i've ever tried or you're not getting another chance with them. Right.

You know what I mean? So if you're launching a product that could actually be better, wait and launch a product when it is better. My personal opinion. Second thing that you mentioned there, and this is a big, huge thing for all entrepreneurs, is jumping from, I call it leveling up, right? All right, so like when you're in the kitchens or the makeshift kitchen at your house and you're going to open up your retail store, you got to level up, right? And there's a lot of things that go to that. There's mainly fear, right?

And trust. Like who can I trust that's going to do this job the way I would do this job? You know what I mean? And will this work? And am I ready to open a store and are people going to like it? And I think that, you know, that is the biggest bridge that most people cannot fucking cross in their mind. They can't get from like, you know, here to there because of the, all these, what is right. But what you guys have to understand is

that entrepreneurship is not about guaranteed success. It's about going forward and not knowing. And then whatever comes your way, you fucking deal with it. That's what entrepreneurship's about. It's about solving fucking problems as they come. It's not saying, hey, I'm going to go down this path and there's not going to be any problems. It's about saying, all right, I feel confident about what I do. And these problems are going to come and I know it.

And when they come, I'm going to fuck the shit out of them. Am I right or wrong? Yeah, it's like a game. It's like you're trying to win. If I don't want to lose, I don't lose at anything. Even if it's something I'm not like super knowledgeable on, like I got to find someone on my team that is and together we're going to make a game plan. And, you know so how did you get over the fear from like because from going from uh like your

your house right to opening up the first fit flavors geez um it it's scary it really is I mean you don't know you're you're freaking out I mean we used to talk about oh my god what are we going to do the first month in sales? Like, what if nobody comes? You know, and you just have to believe. If you truly believe in your product and like I've heard you talk about, you know, you're helping people. I believed I was providing a resource. There's no question that you are. People need to eat better.

They don't have the time to cook the food that they know they should eat or they don't make the right choice because it's not readily available. So I knock out both of those things with our product. So it's like, duh, why wouldn't you open it? So, yeah, I mean, just I mean, having a team behind you as well that also are like, yeah, let's do this. Let's fucking kill it. My husband, he's always like, you got this. Why can't you do this? You're better than them. You know, he's a badass, you got this. Why can't you do this? You're better than them.

And he's a badass too. I was joking earlier whenever I said that. A little bit about him for people wondering, he used to work for somebody pretty famous back in the day. Oh, God. Kill me for not knowing this. Jordan Belfort. Yeah, the movie.

The Wolf of Wall Street. Jason used to be- In that office. You know in the office where everybody's cheering? He worked there. That was fucking Jason. When he was like 21 or 22 or something. Yeah, that's hilarious.

He's like, it was so scary working there. Like, oh my God. It was insane. But dude, he has good stories about it. He's a badass, man. I mean, he's. He is. He's got a great accent.

Yeah, he does. Because he's from Brooklyn, isn't he? No, he's from Queens. Queens. Oh, I'm sorry. So Jillian, we did talk before, uh, before we started the podcast, we were talking about how the need to create or the need to prepare more food. Uh, obviously that that's a, something that's faced by all businesses is the demand is great. You start

having to produce more. How do you keep quality? How do you keep the same quality that you started with Andy? I'm sure that's an issue with you too. So what are the things you have to do? So, I mean, consistency. So consistency of the product. Like I've been talking to my chef about this and we're currently in the process of developing like a training program for all the new chefs and prep cooks that come in. Because yeah, it's one thing if me and Tucker cook the food.

I mean, we know it and we really care. And staff we have right now they know the product but anybody new we bring on when we open another location is going to get thrown into the fucking fire when we're moving fast and we're going to expect them to produce the same quality product we have to train them so like down to how what size the butternut squash is cut for every meal makes a difference because if so-and-so here fires it in the oven for five minutes and it's small dice versus large dice, the product's either overcooked or undercooked. So it needs to be trained how to cut the product, how to cook the product,

how to marinate the product, how to slice it before it's finished. So if you can create that, so process and procedure for everything that you can do in your company and make it, what do I want to say? Uniform. Yeah. And train people on it, you're going to create consistency. So like I've already kind of done that in the front of the house with our training program that we have in place. I've had a lot of my employees help me build this program.

I mean, I can't take the credit for myself. I said, look, we've got to train our staff the way we want them to work. And the team that we have now love how it is and how we work and the culture we have there. And I said, everybody we bring on, let's show them what we expect and lead by example. So everything we do from every little how to run the cash out at night to how to count inventory, it's all done through training. Even, like, how to educate the customer on when they come in, what to say to them when they come to the cooler, like explain the food, the product, the packaging, all of it. So they're trained on everything. There's a 60 day training program just to be an associate at our store. Wow. Yeah. And then if you want to be a manager, you have to be

chosen to go through a training program to work as like, we call it our manager training program, where basically I get to work with you for two months and teach you how I want you to work as like, we call it our manager training program, where basically I get to work with you for two months and teach you how I want you to work. Because if I don't like the way you work and communicate, you're not going to be a good manager for whatever you're going to be managing. So we try to train everybody on everything and really push them to the max and see what they're capable of doing. You learn a lot about a person. You talk all the time about the importance of education. Yeah. And that's a tough thing. You learn a lot about a person. You talk all the time about the importance of education. Yeah, and that's a tough thing.

Developing the systems on the back end to train everybody to become, I call it paddle in the same direction. If you've got everybody, this is the analogy I literally use all the time with our own company. You're in a boat. You're in like, picture one of these big, long Viking ships, right? And you've got all these dudes rowing all right if everybody's not rowing the exact same pace in the exact same way what happens you're not moving as efficiently the boat fucking goes in circles it doesn't go

anywhere all right so you've got the guys eventually it's going to turn into a circle whether it be a small circle or big circle you got the guys on the left rowing at you know three quarter speed you got the guys on the right rowing at, you know, three quarter speed. You got the guys on the right rowing at full speed. Both going to go in a circle. We can't go in circles. We've got to go forward. So developing the concepts on the back end to train your people is, I mean, it has been for me and you, you say what you want, but I think it's one of the most challenging aspects of being a business personally. Okay, so just to go back to that, like I said, I have no business degree or marketing degree, and it's like I'm trying to develop this training program. I'm just making it up as we go.

Dude, that's the whole point, though. Just start doing it. I got to jump in. This is the point I'm trying to make, guys. Nobody fucking knows. Like, you figure it out as you go. You know what I mean? I don't fucking know

when I started doing it I didn't have somebody saying yeah Andy you're doing the right thing no I fucking made it up yeah and like do you ever get people email you and it's like you know I'm wanting to start this business um can you give me some tips on like you know how to do it I'm like just start doing something just start doing something like you know I look back and I was like just cook the food and deliver it to every person and answer every email and give the best 100% service. Because once you do that and you can capture more and more clientele, look, look what you've already created. Like, but yeah, it sucked for four years. I was at shop and save every Friday night at 9 PM. That sucked. I mean, but it is what it is. I mean, I did it because I had to. And, you know,

I mean, now I'm not a chop and save on Friday nights, but, you know, like you just sometimes you just got to start doing it. Right. Right. Guys, I'll take a second just to say that if you want to check out the show notes for this episode, go to the MFCEO.com forward slash P27. And you can check out the notes from the conversation that we're having with Jillian Tedesco of Fit Flavors and of course the MF CEO himself. You can also get links to our social media accounts, connect with Andy on Instagram, Twitter, actually he doesn't do Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, all that good stuff. And yeah, I don't know what else I'm saying but you know whatever so here's the coolest thing about having a guest which we don't have that often we need to start doing this more because what I like about it is that you get a true snapshot of what people

have to go through to start a business because one of the things I get asked about on Instagram and Periscope all the time is this, Andy, I don't have any money. I don't have any resources. I don't have a bank. I don't have rich parents. I don't have this. I don't have that. How can I start? Well, dude, you start just like she's talking about how she started or how we started. You have a job. You live below your means. you figure out how to create a product, you go around and you hustle and you take that money and you reinvest it and it takes a long fucking time, you know? So when you're one of these people saying, how do I start? Unless you have the ability to raise capital, unless you have the ability to have somebody invest in you,

this is how you do it. You know, Gary Vaynerchuk talks about going around to a garage sale and actually he just posted a really cool video last week I don't know if anybody caught it but um it was him going like he always says I firmly believe that my backup plan is go to a garage sale buy shit and go sell it on eBay to raise profit and like he said this right and people and you know people are, yeah. That's bullshit. Because that's what they think when, when entrepreneurs say things like what I'm saying now, like, Hey, get a fucking job and live below your means, take that money, create a product and reinvest. They're like, yeah, whatever, dude, that's not how you did this. No motherfucker. That's exactly how I did this. Right. And what was cool about him is he says this all the time, dude. So he went out and he made a video of him going to a garage sale, like literally going to a garage sale, putting his words, you know,

into action, bought a fucking super soaker water gun for like 25 bucks sold on eBay, literally three seconds later, like took a picture post on eBay, sold it for like 250 bucks. And he's like, boom, that's how you fucking do it. And that's how you do it. You hustle, you know? And that's how you fucking do it and that's how you do it you hustle yeah you know and that's what's great about hearing your guys's story you know is that and eventually guys you know you'll get to a point some businesses will stay you know self-funded some businesses will get to a point where they attract investors but you've got to prove to people they like dude going to somebody and saying hey man give me a,000 to start my business. I promise I won't let you down.

Yeah, I'm fucking right. Yeah, right. Says everybody else that asked for $100,000. Okay? You've got to prove yourself to a point. Nobody's just going to give it to you. So are you willing to do what it takes with $500, you know, or less? You know what I'm saying?

Absolutely. It comes down to time people people just want everything now looking for that same thing same thing with like the weight loss like just give it time like you know gotta let it run its natural course you know and it takes work both in everything you do you know what i mean it's something you say all the time andy which is it's it's this isn't rocket science. Do the work, grind it out, and you're going to be successful. And be patient. I think part of it is I think there have been people in positions of influence who have maybe taken advantage of the average entrepreneur and convinced them that you have to know some complicated secret.

Of course. And those people are always trying to sell them something. Right. Like a program. But I think what most people who are maybe lazier than they need to be, if they complicate this situation, it gives them an excuse. If they say, oh, man, reality is, is dude, I call it aggressive patience. Okay. Aggressive patience. What does that mean?

It's because it's like almost like a contradictory phrase, right? Aggressive patience is the ability to do every little thing that you could possibly do to move forward, but also understanding that those actions take time to materialize. Okay. but also understanding that those actions take time to materialize. Okay? So people, a lot of people will be aggressive, but they lack the patience part. Or they are overly patient without being aggressive, and the shit never happens. For you to be successful in business,

you got to be aggressive and you got to be patient. And while you're being patient, you could be 100% aggressive. Am I making sense here? Absolutely. Every single thing that you do that you can do every opportunity that you can take to move your business forward, how clean your store's floor is, how clean the counter is, how clean your fucking toilet is. That shit all matters. Everything matters. And you have a choice to do shit the right way or do shit the wrong way

every single day okay and people who succeed do shit the right way every little thing they don't say oh man it doesn't matter that was just this one time that's loser shit okay what they do is they're aggressive they're particular they're perfectionist but they also understand that this takes time all All right. Aggressive, aggressive patience. It's something that every single entrepreneur I know has in common. Every single one. There's that paradox though, where you are doing everything you can to have a clear conscience that you're really killing it. Yes. But then also realizing that some things are going to take some time. Somebody made a comment on my page yesterday. He's like,

I'm in the first year and I'm still at a standstill. I'm like, no, brother, you're moving. You just can't see the moving. Right. You know, you're moving an inch at a time. An inch at a time is what wins. You know what I mean? Not these big. And that's the problem with what I talked about in the beginning, like Uber and all this shit.

People glorify the success that can be had when 99.9% of us have to do it this way. You know what I mean? Yeah. So let's get back into this because I'm like having a good time hearing her talk. You guys hear me bullshit enough. So you're working in your house. You open your own store. You've got to go.

It's going well. Okay. What happens next? So we stayed open for a year. And obviously our goal is to open several Fit Flavors locations with Inside St. Louis was to get that second store open, you know, get another store open, get a third store open. So we opened our business in September 2013 in Chesterfield, Missouri,

and we had plans to open the next one. We started planning for it in the following spring, summer. And it took forever to get all the logistics ready for the second store. You're just so not prepared for any of this stuff when you do it. And you're still so short-staffed, and you're trying to just do the day-to-day operations of running the business. And when we opened our second store, it's in Brentwood. It's actually in the same plaza as your superstore.

Right. And we opened in January. It didn't actually open until January. It was so busy the first month. I would say most of my girls were working 50, 60 hours a week just working the storefront. It was insane. I want to bring you back. Do you remember how nervous you were about opening that second store?

Scared. Shitless. Let me ask you something, because we talked about this, I know, at least three or four times, where you and Jason were talking about opening that store, and I'm like, fuck yeah, do it, do it, do it, do it. I remember that. And they were like, no, I don't know. You know, I don't know. We should.

What do you think of this? I'm like, fucking do it now. And eventually they, like, did it, and eventually they like did it you know but they had to overcome that fear and i know for me personally opening the second store from the first store back in 2005-6 for me was the hardest thing i ever did i think it was almost harder for me and my husband personally because you know then opening the first store right uh i mean we have a lot on the line personally and you know it was a, okay, we're all in. You know, you just do yourself in.

You know, we're like, if it doesn't work, it doesn't work. But it's going to fucking work. We're going to make it work. Dude, fuck you. That's what I'm talking about. We have this joke, me and him. We just look at each other. I like to win.

Yeah. We like to win. You work at fifth flavors it's cool because jillian she likes to fucking win so does jason so like that's kind of like our joke because you know i fucking love that so much right because that's just so the truth the truth is is people who become successful entrepreneurs they look at the failure side of it and they say fuck that we're gonna win anyway it doesn't fucking matter and the people who aren't entrepreneurs look at all the shit,

like, you know, the personal guarantees on the leases. Dude, because here's the reality. If your business fails or my business fails, I mean, I'm fucking growing my own produce on somebody else's yard, you know, under the cover of night in a ninja costume. You know what I'm saying? Like, that's how I'm eating. So every entrepreneur that is successful has these things on the back end that nobody really gets.

Like, dude, if you fucking fail, I mean, literally you're homeless. You know, I mean, I've got family that might take me in. I mean, most of my family thinks I'm fucking ridiculous, but somebody would take me in. But the point is, is that's what it would come to. And like to look at that other side and be able to say, fuck that, we're going to win. That's what it's about.. And to look at that other side and be able to say, fuck that, we're going to win, that's what it's about. You just have to have that mentality. It's like, if not, then your team can see it.

And it's like, honestly, I truly believe it. I mean, it was hard probably the first year to even recognize where we had came because it happened so fast and it was all I did. Not to mention, two months before we opened the store, I was about ready to have a baby. Like I was seven months pregnant. I mean, we opened Fit Flavors and I. You mean you opened a business and had a baby at the same time? You're kidding.

Yeah. Like I was seven months pregnant when we opened the doors and I like wanted to take like a little maternity leave. So like I took a couple of weeks and, you know, here I was at home nursing this baby every day. My mom would drive up to the store. I would go feed him in the back office. And then I would go back out to the kitchen or package food or make a, make a delivery. I mean, whatever. I mean, but I had this little baby and then, but before that though, you got to tell a story about what Jason called you when you were being wheeled around. Oh, he didn't even use it in the right term, but they used to like get so aggravated with me because i would never stop they're like jillian you need to sit down you're like eight months pregnant you know you're gonna have this baby

and fit flavor so they made me wheel around the kitchen in a chair on wheels like they seriously everybody right and then she was like in a wheelchair like a wheelchair or a chair that wheels no just like a chair that had wheels so it? No, just like a chair that had wheels. So they started calling me Magneto. Which is funny. Which is funny because I think what Jason was trying to say was Professor X, right? Yeah, yeah. So he used that context, but he's like, Magneto sounds way cooler. So like, it was this joke that like, I'm Magneto and like, I don't know. That's pretty funny. You know, to your point earlier though, Andy, because recently you delivered a gut check to our listeners saying, you know, are you an entrepreneur or not? Well, one of the things that I think is so good, like you said, about listening to Jillian's story is that as you're talking, Jillian, if you're a listener and you're going, yeah, oh, yes, yes, yes, that's a way for people to say, okay, I am an entrepreneur. I'm resonating with what you're saying, your whole attitude.

But if you're not, maybe it's time to get out. It's almost like for me, and it could be different for you, but I think it's going to be the same. For me, it's almost like an addiction type thing. You see other people who gamble and they do all these things. This is my little drug. All right, I got all this risk. Let's bet on this. Let's fucking go.

Dude, that's where my little adrenaline fix comes from. But you've said this before. You have to have that because there's so much you know time without a paycheck there's so much struggle there's so much downtime being an entrepreneur that if you don't if you don't enjoy that if you don't look at it like a like a drug or like an addiction how are you going to persevere i mean right dude most people are going to think you're fucking crazy yeah i mean they don't get it well you are crazy but yeah a lot of people see the success of your business and they think you're rich yeah they don't get it they're like oh he's so rolling in the dough the matter is and i don't have a problem saying this because it's the fucking truth dude i've been we're level i call

leveling up just like when you guys open your second store it's leveling up now you're open multiple stores after that leveling up dude we're in a leveling up phase in our business i haven't got a fucking paycheck in 14 months 17 years in 14 months i have not gotten paid i fucking put all my money back in because we're leveling up this is part of being an entrepreneur you see what i'm saying absolutely but that that also goes back to what you've said again and again for you it's not about the money the money is the byproduct it's about winning it's about success i want to be the fucking best yeah yeah do you jillian i want to be your first choice in healthy eating like literally i'm not fucking joking no i know i don't know why like i want people to think about fit flavors when they think about going somewhere and getting

something healthy i mean where do you think about going nowhere other than fit flavors yeah i mean where do you think about like if that if that wasn't somewhere that you could think of, where would you think of to go get something healthy? I can only think of one other competitor in the area, and I don't really want to say the statement. She's not asking that. She's not asking that. Those people who resort to, like, a Subway. Right, exactly.

They resort to Subway. They resort to, like, going to Outback and getting a fucking chicken breast and some broccoli that tastes like shit. So like I'm just trying to get the name out there to let people know, look, no, you can come in and just get a meal here. Like let us provide you with a product you can trust. Not only the product, but the portion. And then the flavors there too. So, I mean, that's our mission. Yeah.

So here you are. You guys have everything invested you started literally making meals in your house moved to nine refrigerators in your house reinvest the money get your first real store open the first real store is slammed

you're killing it you're developing these systems on how to grow your business you open a second store now you guys have the second store open. It's killing it. I mean, at that point in time, and I think I know the answer here, but I want to hear it.

What do you think at this point in time is your biggest challenge? Because you guys are not, it's no longer, hey, we're trying to open one store. Now we've got a company. Now we're trying to grow this company. Now we're trying to open multiple stores now we've got a company now we're trying to grow this company now we're trying to open multiple stores maybe even get it ready for franchising down the road we have these big plans big visions but we need people right so yeah you know I mean I kind of answered the question just like just growing rapidly you want to you want to maintain the culture that you had when you ran it out of your house and you cared so much about every customer and the product so much. So how do you get everybody else to care as much as you?

They have to see through you. So getting everybody that works there to see my vision and come through with the same charismatic delivery, I guess you could say. Right. Passion. Passion, yeah. So that culture that we have is something that, you know, me and Jackie and Tucker, my chef, and one of my other girls who have been here for a really long time that have been running this company have brought on these other people to join us.

I believe they have the same vision as us and we're growing and the circle is growing. I guess you could say, I call it like the circle, you know, when they've decided, okay, I'm ready to commit. I'm in, you can tell by their attitude, they're willing to work. They stay late, they come early, they do things extra for you. It's not even in their job description, but they do it. I mean, thank God for them because if they didn't, I mean, you wouldn't be moving forward as quickly. So how do you, how do you replicate that over and over and over? Well, we do an extensive interviewing process, you know, and not only do I interview them, but Marcy interviews them. And then another girl on the team interviews them. Cause I want there to

be like three yeses. It's not up to just me. It's up to the team, right? Because if you don't sell three of us, I mean, if one of us says no, no I mean that's not good right you know what I mean right so once you come on I and we we spend the time investing training you you can see it through everybody that works there and then we try to do things I mean just have fun I mean from day to day I mean it was our chef's birthday about a month ago and it was Jackie's idea to have this like surprise balloon part balloon uh what do I say balloon fight outside he literally walked out the back and we were all outside and we just hammered him with water balloons and super soakers somebody dumped him over the head with a bucket of water from the roof and like it was just chaotic and it was it lasted maybe like five ten minutes

but it was awesome and we all talked about it for a week, you know, so something stupid like that, or anytime someone leaves for college, we pie them in the face. That's awesome. So Jillian, I do have to ask you though, cause you talked about, that's the way things are now, but I know that you and I have talked before, like when you were first starting out, you're kind of, everything was messy. You didn't know what you were doing. You even said like, we'd hire people just being glad that they work for us. So when, when did you make the transition from just trying to get warm bodies in to work for you to, to realizing that you were at a place where,

okay. When I realized other people were talking to the customers besides me and I'm like, Oh shit, you know, I better trust these people. And like, you better walk the walk and live the lifestyle.

And, and like, I want people to believe you and trust you that you give a shit. Because if I'm just hiring someone cause they need to work, like they're not going to care about our brand. You know, so it's like I'd like to see that there's some vested interest within themselves outside of Fit Flavors that they're interested in food or fitness somehow. So when they come in, they are excited to be there because if they're not, then it's going to show and the customer is going to feel that. So how do you plan on taking the culture that you naturally organically built? Because you're a passionate person. You've got the electricity about you. I think anybody that

knows you will say that, you know, you've got one of those electric personalities that kind of just rubs off on people. And you can do that at this point in time because you have, you know, what, 60 employees, right? Yeah, something like that. Around 60. How do you plan on growing that whenever you have, let's say, stores in Minneapolis or stores in Florida? How do you keep that? I mean, we talked about this, you and I, off the show. So, I mean, you know, I'm interested in hearing what your strategy is for that.

And let's talk through that because I think that's a, that's another leveling up issue that most companies can't do. It's all about leveling up guys and solving problems as they come and creating a culture that you can grow your business with outside of just one or two or three stores. But whenever you have stores 400 or 500 or 5,000 miles away is important. So, and we just, we just talked about this on Halloween at my brother's party, but I mean, what, what are you guys thinking for that? I mean, I just, well, one, I want to create an awesome place to work at. Like if it's fun to go to work, you're going to like where you work. I'd like to offer benefits to people and, you know, provide them a great life. You know, maybe we're not there right now, but I would love to have that, you know.

And I think when people, as we continue to grow and more people step up to the plate and step in a role of responsibility and become a manager or a leader at a company, you're kind of pulling them in. And they're almost like an extension of you and your passion, and they're going to purvey that to the people that work for them. And then it starts to spread. And, you know, if it comes down from the top positive and through the chain of people, it's positivity amongst positivity and people build people up, it's kind of like contagious. But once there's, you know, somebody that gets in there, somehow they get in there and something doesn't work and they create like a negativity yeah they're cancerous it can

it can affect the whole company maybe making somebody else cry or you know talking shit about someone behind their back and then i hear about it i don't ever i don't ever normally am the one that gets to see it happen because everybody's on their best behavior i guess you could say when they they're in front of you, they don't want you to think they're an issue, but they'll talk about things and you just got to nip it in the ass, like literally, and get rid of it.

And it's so hard to do it because you're like, you got to go because of your attitude. It's hard to like... An attitude that you didn't even see. You know what I'm saying? A lot of times you don't see it because you put it on the best face.

I will sit down with you and I will talk to you and I'll tell you straight up, like, this is an issue. Please fix it. But we don't play that. Yeah. You know, because I want to give them an opportunity because maybe they can't see it, you know? And if they take it and grow from it, great. But if not, I mean, they just probably read themselves out.

Okay. Humor me. I've got a question for both of you because you're talking about personnel. One of the most common things that business owners say is how hard it is to find good people. So suppose you have two options. And option number one is a team player who is objectively good at what they do, but their heart's just not in it. The other option is somebody who maybe is not super competent. They're trying.

They're maybe getting a little bit better, but man, they are on fire into your culture and into the vision. You take that guy every time. Okay. Every time. Take culture over everything. Heart over everything. See, what we're talking about here,

and we went through this too, and I was glad to hear that you're reading Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh. Yeah, we're actually, next Friday, we're taking everybody happiness by Tony Shea. Yeah. We're actually next Friday. We're taking everybody out who read it just to kind of like talk about it, I guess, you know, let's talk about what you guys liked about the book and why, like, why can't we do these kinds of things at our company? Let's, let's just start doing them, you know?

Um, so talking a little more in depth about core values. Yeah. If you don't know the story, the story is about Zappos, which is one of the best customer service experience based companies on earth. Tony Hsieh, brilliant man, took the company from zero to a billion dollars in sales in less than 10 years. They ultimately were bought out by Amazon. Awesome book if you own a business and you're at this level that we're talking about how are we going to grow from you know me the ceo actually touching every employee with with the passion and the drive and the culture that i want to instill that same passion drive culture over the course of a thousand miles or 500 miles okay how do you do that because the reality is i have employees that work for me i've never fucking met so how do you how do you do that and that's a big thing for people at a level of like where you guys are at where you're trying to grow but you want to keep everything the same you want to keep it uniform and it's all comes down to the answer of how do

you develop a great culture and that that starts with core values, okay? So you have to identify what your company is about. You have to define that. You have to get everybody to understand that. By into that, understand what it means to your business. And you have to basically live and die by it, you know? And that's where you and I were talking about when we were at sales the other night about, you know, I guess like when you asked, you know, how

do you find good people? It's not find good people. It's, it's manufactured great. Make good people. Right. Yeah. So like reinvesting in my current employees to create a manager who already knows the system.

I've already watched them work. I know that they're going to make the commitment. And you know that, you know, that their heart is a hundred percent in to this. It's into fit flavors. It's into the growth're going to make the commitment. And you know that their heart is 100% into this. It's into fit flavors. It's into the growth. It's into the company. And they might not have the skill set, but you'll teach them the skill set. Like you said, which to hire? The guy who's

skilled or the guy who has heart? Dude, you take the fucking heart every time. You know what I mean? Yeah, that makes total sense. And a willingness to learn makes up for a lot because dude the problem here's the thing when you're an entrepreneur you're going to have people come and this is just a this is a side of the business it's tough because you're going to have people that come in they're going to you know they're going to see

what you have you're going to do a meeting and you're going to talk about the vision of where the company's going and they're going to think in their head. Yeah. Bullshit. Yeah. Okay. And they're, they're going to continue to come to work and they're going to say,

yeah, right. That's not going to happen. That's not going to happen. And then what they're going to do is they're going to turn to other employees and they're going to say, yeah, I think they're full shit.

I don't think they're actually going to grow the company. I don't think they're going to actually do this. I think they're in it for themselves. They're just lying to us. You get a lot of that kind of stuff, right? And you've got to end up cutting that out. And what will happen is if you develop a strong enough culture, what will happen is the employees will weed that shit out.

One employee, a new guy will come in, he'll say that shit, and the other guys will say, dude, fuck you if you don't like it out. You know what I mean? It'll happen on its own. It'll self-regulate. So that's the benefit of having a strong culture is that they protect the culture of the company on their own without you having to deal with it.

But I mean, I can't tell you how many people, and I don't want to throw anybody under the bus here and be like, hey, I'm just stating the facts. I mean, I've had hundreds of people over the course of our business come in, do a good job for us, become disenfranchised with the company because most of the time because they're not patient or they can't see the vision the right way. You know, they have bills they got to pay.

They've got things they want to do. They've got, you know, and a lot of these guys are fucking 21 years old i'm like bro you are you have a seat on the fucking rocket ship dude like i would rather be you than me you know what i mean you're 21 i'm 36 like they don't get it you know what i mean and they come in they do a great job they started developing the attitude of you know oh well this you know that doesn't really matter i know i know the system so well like that's not a big deal this is not a big deal this is not a big deal they start having performance issues you have a conversation and it goes south and then all of a sudden you're letting this person go for for a

number of reasons and then the company continues to go the direction it's going and then they come back and they say Andy I i you know i apologize for the way i acted you know and and we end up making up and being friends but i mean a lot of people ruin great opportunities for themselves by just being impatient or being you know frustrated with with how slow it goes you know i mean fuck dude i want shit to happen now too you know and a lot of times and i failed like as a leader i failed in this aspect before because i've said things were going to happen now or things are going to happen right now or things are going to happen this amount of time and i'm i'm somebody who's aggressive and i

want shit to happen now and i spoke out on that and then you know it takes 10 times longer than what i thought it would and then the and it makes me look like an ass. You know what I mean? Where I'm like, it's not that I'm like telling the guys not lying to them or it's just a dude has taken longer than I thought it would. You know what I mean? And that ends up making you look like a liar. You know what I'm saying? So you have to be careful what you say to employees, because if they say, you know, if you say, Hey, we're going to do this. And a year later, you still haven't done it, dude, they're going to think you're a piece of shit. So, you know, I don't know, man. There's a lot of things I've learned, and I'm still learning every day.

But I can tell you one thing. The best thing that we ever did in our companies is learn and understand about culture because it allows you to expand on, you know, an infinite level if you understand how to build a culture the right way. I want to go back and ask you to tease out a point that you made. But before I do that, I know that there are some elite programs in college football, college basketball, where part of the recruitment process is not just, do the coaches want these players? But when the recruit comes, the current players have to sign off on that recruit, like the captain and everything.

Makes sense. Right. So my question, but that's like a formal thing. In both of your companies, is it formal or is it informal? In other words, do you ask for the feedback? How do you ask for the feedback of your current? Dude, I don't even hire people anymore. I don't have anything to do with hiring people anymore.

I let my guys hire the people because the reality is is they're the ones that have to work with them okay they have to work with them if they don't want to work with them i sure as fuck don't want to insert somebody in there and then have them be like dude i didn't pick this guy because a couple things happen there one you know they they know that they're valuable because they're the ones picking the people so And they also know that they're responsible. So if a guy doesn't work out, it's not, hey, Andy, you fucking stuck this guy with me. Right. Dude, you picked him.

You know what I mean? Absolutely. I love the empowerment and the trust that's going on there. You have to because I'm not working shoulder to shoulder with these dudes every day. You know? Right. I see these guys twice a month. You know, I want these guys to be happy with

who they work with they're going to know if they fit in the culture more than me you know and I trust them and you pick guys you trust to let them do that now I think you guys are you know we're at a little bit more mature level I think than than what you guys are at no I mean when you're saying that I'm I'm still in every interview very active in that. But I've brought in, I've started to bring in other people because, yeah, just like you said, I want them to feel a part of it. Right. And I want them to have a voice and be picking these people with me. Right. Well, and that way, whenever you make, you know, whenever you get a bad seed, it's not like, oh, Jillian, you screwed up.

It's like, hey, that guy fooled all three of us. What the fuck? So the flip side, I'm curious, though, have you ever had a situation where you're like, guys, what were you thinking hiring that guy? But then one of your guys said, Andy, I know he's rough around the edges. Dude, yes. Yes, that's 100 percent. Yeah. One time we one time one of my guys got me or Tyler's raising his hand.

He's like him. No. Like, dude, you're still horrible, dude. When I'm waiting for you to fucking pay off. But let's be real. You know, I had a, yeah, I did have that situation. I had a situation where one of my main guys I trusted promoted a guy to a management situation.

I called him and I said, dude, I found out about him on fucking Facebook. Like, I saw like, hey, congratulations for making manager. I'm like, what the fuck? So I like called this dude, not the guy who got promoted, but his boss. And I said, Hey, what the fuck are you doing? There's no way. And I'm like, you better call him and tell him he's not the manager. And he's like, dude, are you being serious? I'm like, yeah. He's like, what do you pay me to do? He's like, you pay me to make these decisions. And I'm like, yeah, well, that's a fucking wrong decision, dude. Well, so he goes, well, give him give him 60 days. Let's give him 60 days. And then if he's not good, I'll demote him.

And I'm like, that's fine, because, you know, you can't just like I don't know. I didn't want to just take the wind out of this dude's sails. And you know what I mean? Right. I don't know. I was like in a weird spot. Did he work out? Fuck yeah. He's one of my bestils. You know what I mean? Right. I don't know. I was like in a weird spot. Did he work out? Fuck yeah.

He's one of my best guys. That's awesome. You know what I'm saying? So like the guy ended up working out and ended up being a great guy. He's a huge addition to the team. Yeah. I love the guy personally. He's got a fucking family now.

He's killing it. And like, dude, it's been like a good lesson for me. Like, hey, dude, sometimes you're not always right. And I'm not. You know what I mean? I've got And, and I'm not, you know what I mean? I've got to trust the people that, that know, you know what I mean? When you and I Fred first met, you told me that that was one of the hardest tasks to learn, to trust people, to learn, to delegate and to turn things over. Yeah. Letting go. And then, God, you know, for me, I was talking about this with my mom this morning. I'm like, I have this one employee. I just,

I really want them to step up and feel like they have a voice. Like I trust them to help manage more. Like I don't want them to feel like they work for me, but with me in a sense that what you do, I will support. Like you've proven yourself to me. I know you're going to come early and stay late. Like I need you to be making more calls and making more decisions. Like that's a hard thing, man.

And I develop in that way at different rates. Yeah, no. I mean, that was it. So what are some ways to encourage people to do that? Empower them. Support them on their decisions. Let them do things. Don't ride their ass.

I think I'm pretty good about not riding your ass. I like to know what everybody's doing because I have a lot of ideas. So if I can share with you you know an idea I have and you could start working on it then I can go to him and start with another idea that he's good at and he can start working on it and then I can come back to you and where are you let's where are and keep the thing moving and then you're actually doing the work of something you're really good at and I'm just help managing it along and I feel like get more stuff done that way.

Look, I'm going to tell you something my dad taught me, you know, and it's one of the most effective things that I've ever done as a leader. And you kind of have to force people to, to, to make decisions sometimes. And so the, the most effective thing that I've, I've come up with. Um, and I say this under the context of like, obviously you're not going to let somebody crash and burn with a mistake. That's going to ruin your business. Okay. Cause I know when I say this, people are going to be like, well, what if he makes a mistake and your business closes? Well, you're not going to fucking do that. Right. You're going to, you're going to almost like, like the way I look at it is like, you know, when you're

teaching a little kid to ride a bike, you're like right behind them, like getting ready to catch him. But they think they're doing the fucking work. You know what I'm saying? So it's like you're running behind the bike and the kids pedaling and you might fall and you might not fall and you're there to catch him. But they don't know that you're there to catch him. So it develops confidence. You see what I'm saying? Absolutely.

So like that's how you have to look at it. And one of the most effective things that my dad taught me and I was fortunate, you know my dad never like gave me money to start a business, but he was a business owner. So I had somebody, I had a really good mentor, you know, as you've looked at the podcast, you've heard, uh, you know, the MFC dad bring his heat. That's right. But the reality is, is that it's a simple question. When people come to you and they say, Andy, I don't know what to do here. What do you think you should do? What do you think you should do? What do you think you should do? What would you do?

What would you do? What would you do? You've said that to me before Dude it is the most effective It's the most effective Personal development question You can ask somebody Because it forces them It sounds stupid

But it forces them To make a decision And like if the person Comes back and they make Like they have like Like you're hoping Okay this dude I have faith in him

I think he can do it He's like what would you do? And the guy comes back With something totally like they they have like like you're hoping okay this dude i have faith in him i think he can do it he's what would you do and the guy comes back with something totally wrong you don't say no that's fucking wrong you say well have you thought about it like this and then they're and then usually like just like a little probe will get them on the right track dude it's and and that way you're not dictating to them or like holding their hand or micromanaging they walk out of the office thinking fuck dude i'm i did it yeah you know they're having a beer when they get home you know it's it's a it's it's a way to like get them to have that confidence to to to make decisions you know and very simple you know what would you do yeah what would you do that's great it's it's very very simple you should do this for a living yeah exactly so guys you know we've covered a lot

of ground we're getting long on time here i I, you know, this has been fun. This has personally been one of my favorite podcasts that we've done because I love hearing stories. I love hearing, I love hearing like the hustle, man. Like from, from making meals to the, you know, in the kitchen, you know, cutting thumbs off, getting all ninja and shit. And then coming all the way through to like, you know you know a year from now they're going to have five or six stores opening in three years from now they'll probably have 30 stores or 40 stores this has personally been one of the most effective and fun podcasts i think we've done because it shows you guys being an entrepreneur is not about this like golden fucking railroad track that you get to ride. You know what I mean?

It's like going off road in like a truck with no suspension and your ass being sore for the rest of your life. That's what it's about. Okay. And when you hear the stories of like, you know, cooking meals in the kitchen, cutting fucking thumbs off, you know, and then growing and having a first store, then a second store, then, you know, growing to where we're going to create a concept and a business and grow a culture. Guys, this is, this is how it goes, man. You know, get out of your mind that it's going to be this easy thing, or it's going to be this thing that it's like, um, you know, somebody comes along and hold your hand the whole way. No, man. It's like, it's like being in the wild, wild West and like, just kind of it's organized chaos is the best way to describe it you know i mean is that i mean is that the phase that

you guys are in how how fast can you get all the stuff done and and still do like just life i mean there's so much that that goes on with life like you talk about that like five things to get accomplished in a day it's fucking hard sometimes to get five things accomplished. Right. I mean, but if you can, I mean, just trying to get this on this end and this on this end and it's just a little bit closer in the direction that you're wanting to go. And by the end of the month,

you can look back and be like, oh, wow, you know, I actually made ground. I closed that project, that project, and I started three new ones. Right. And people, you know, I say this a lot when I speak. People severely underestimate

the amount of progress they can make. And they, they overestimate the amount of progress they can make in like six months and they underestimate the amount of progress they can make in like 10 years. You know what I mean? And you guys listening, you know, thinking about starting a business or in a business or working for a business, the entrepreneurial mindset of always moving forward inch by inch day by day and hustling to do that. That's what's going to get you there. And it's going to take some time.

It's not going to be something that you snap your fingers, say, oh yeah, just like Drake says, oh, we started from the bottom and now we're here. Where the fuck are you? You know what I mean? There's, there's a million. I dude, I've been doing this for 17 years. I don't feel successful. I feel like we're still figuring it out. It's, I don't know what the fuck I'm even doing. That's the truth. And so like you guys who were like, you know, Andy, I don't know what I'm doing. Well, fuck, I don't either. Just go do some shit. You know what I mean? So that's the point of being an entrepreneur guys. It's like move forward and have faith in yourself, develop confidence in yourself day by day, by step mile by mile and eventually good shit happens

you know um julian i just want to say thanks for being on the show i'd love to have you back and talk more about some things like you guys marketing how you know what the most effective thing is and some of the other struggles that you and i have talked about we just can't talk for seven hours i mean we could but right you know Well, if you want to check out the show notes of this episode, you can go to themfceo.com forward slash p27. And Jillian, I just want to give a shout out to your social media connections for Fit Flavors so that people can investigate your food because it's really good food. All these creepy dudes are going to be stalking her now. Well, this is the company, the company social media connections. So it's Fit-Flavors by Jillian, J-I-L-L-I-A-N, on Facebook.

Fit Flavors underscore by Jillian on Instagram. And then Twitter is at fit underscore flavors. And, of course, I assume your website is just fit-flavors.com. Dot com, right. So, yeah, it's been great having you. Thank you. Yeah, guys. There's really not much more to say.

You know, you could think you could talk. You can you can conceptualize. You can meet. But at the end of the day, this is all about doing shit. So go out and fucking do something. Take your day off. I only work. I only can. Outro Music