Trading Secrets - 68: $500/day as Jessica Simpson’s private chef! Gaby Dalkin’s secrets behind What’s Gaby Cooking and her massive food media success revealed

Episode Date: September 5, 2022

This week, Jason is joined by cookbook author, private chef, and food lifestyle writer, Gaby Dalkin! Gaby started “What’s Gaby Cooking” as a hobby blog back in 2009 just before returning to school for culinary. She was hired as a private chef during the first week of culinary school and has since gone on to write three books with a fourth on the way, launching her own products, and shows no sign of stopping. Gaby gives insight on how she got hired as a private chef, what goes into creating her cookbooks and the publication process, how to make the best decisions when grocery shopping, and the importance of having creative control. Gaby also reveals how she landed products in Williams Sonoma, why her website is the epicenter of everything, which recipe of hers has the best track record of impressing others while still being easy to make, and her top three restaurant recommendations to splurge at. Which of her business ventures brings in the most revenue? How much money goes into each cookbook Gaby releases? What goes into being a private chef for a celebrity client? What is her favorite deal she has done?    Gaby reveals all of that and so much more in another episode you can’t afford to miss!   Be sure to follow the Trading Secrets Podcast on Instagram & join the Facebook group.   Sponsors: Shopify.com/secrets for a FREE 14 day trial   Host: Jason Tartick Voice of Viewer: David Arduin Executive Producer: Evan Sahr   Produced by Dear Media.

The following podcast is a dear media production. Welcome back to another episode of Trading Secrets. Today I am joined by cookbook author, private chef and food lifestyle writer Gabby Dawkin. Gabi launched her now infamous website, What's Gabby Cooking, in 2009 after graduating from college. I also liked that was a business degree, so we're going to get into that transition. Packed with recipes, the site brings a fun, playful, and inspiring perspective on cooking and living a happy, healthy lifestyle in today's crazy world. Her website and food lifestyle creativity eventually extended into an immense social media platform, which now has

over two million combined followers. Gabby is also a three-time cookbook author with her fourth cookbook titled What's Gobby Cooking? Take It Easy. Recipes for Zero Stress Deliciousness set to be released in September. Today, we are going to dive into how Gabby went from running a hobby blog to ascending to the top of a food media empire. Gobby, thank you so much for being with us today. Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to be here. Yes. All right. Well, we're going to kick off. I want to get your story in all the transitions because it's so cool. But the name of the podcast is Trading Secrets. We're going to start off with a trading secret for our listeners. Because one thing I think about often is, we actually just talked about it because I'm on my fourth cup of coffee.

I feel like Gabby was judging me. But the importance of food and what it could do to your emotional state, your productivity, and just what your takeaway. So what type of training secrets do you have for someone that wants to improve their overall productivity when they think about what they eat and drink? Yeah. So all the overarching mindset behind what's gotby cooking is doing everything in balance. So it's never restricting anything. you know, I never take cheese off the table. I never take alcohol at the table.

Like I'm everything in moderation, including moderation. So, but there are certain things that definitely make my body feel better than others. Like if I'm, I can't ever give up carbs entirely because I know that I need that to like have my brain functioning at the highest power. Like I have to have some sort of carbs in my life. But I may be if I eat a pile of queso, I'm going to feel a little crappy for the rest of the day. So like, you know, you just got to listen to your body.

I feel like it's so different for everyone. but really you've got to be in tune with what you're putting in. I try and put in as many fruits and vegetables. I just did get into the caffeine game, which is very thrilling to me. I have a latte every morning. I don't know what I've been doing for the past 30 years, but like now I'm in the game. So you never had coffee before. I had coffee once in college, like studying for a test at 11 p.m.

And I didn't sleep. I thought I was going to vomit the whole test. So I never had it again. And it was like a mocha with like a double shot of chocolate. it was delicious. Oh my gosh. And then something happened. I had a baby and now I'm, now I'm, now I'm ready to go. I don't know how you do it. I'm, I'm four deep and I'm still like, okay, wake up. You're very, no, you feel like very balanced right now. Four coffees I'd be literally on the floor under the table. Well, we were just partying hard at, we were at Wells and

Sarah's wedding out in Slovang, that's how you pronounce it? Solvang. And it was just beautiful. So we're back at it. We're here Monday. I want to get into your career track, though, because you have a business degree and you graduate in business. in marketing, but then you decide that you want to become a chef. What was that transition like and how hard was it to make the transition? So prior to going into business, I was pre-med, which is just so wild because I was like, I don't know what the fuck I was thinking. Can we cuss? Like I had my dad was a doctor, so I just thought it was the right thing to do when I graduated high school. I got my first C at O. Cam and I was like, got to go. Bye. This isn't for me.

Switch to business, graduated college, got a job in like fashion, PR, and marketing for the first six months out of college and truly hated it. Like it was like, what am I doing? Like I didn't enjoy the company I was working for. I didn't love my bosses. I wasn't like doing anything that really excited me. So I quit and I went to culinary school. So then I worked through culinary school and started my website, What's Gotti Cooking, which at the time was a hobby and kind of got to use a little bit of my business degree and like getting that up and running and very early, like starting to work with brands and all that. Okay, got it. So you start, you go to culinary school. You start the blog while you're in school. And after you finish school, was the blog at a position from a business

perspective that you could do that full time? Or was it not there yet? That would have been the treat. So like I went to culinary school in probably 2010. I started the blog in 2009 a few weeks prior. And I started working as a private chef the first week of culinary school. Okay. Which is comical because I couldn't cook fish or steak. And I just told you cook. I was just like baking it till I made it. Like, I followed recipes. Like, I lived on Food Network.com trying to figure out how to make Brandzino. But, you know, I took me a couple weeks to get through the fish and the meat part of culinary school.

So then I was a little bit more confident. But wait, what was the question? No, the blog was not successful enough to when I was done with culinary school. I kept private chefing for a number of years. Okay, private sheffing. That is a whole industry in its own. I love, by the way, the transitions from pre-med to business to being a private chef. That is the roller coaster I'm talking about.

One mantra we talk about here is like break the blueprint, do it your way and no one else is but become a private chef. What kind of money can you make as a private chef? So like I know some people charge like an actual salary. Like I was just doing a day rate. So I think I was making like 500 bucks a day to do breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I mean, for me, it was when I first started private chefing for this family in Malibu, I was making like $40 an hour and I'd work like four or five hours a day. It was while I was in culinary school. Okay. And then when I went to this other client, I was probably making four.

$450 to $500 a day. I'd get there. I'd cook breakfast, lunch, make dinner, pop dinner in the fridge, and leave. So I would get home around three. So like it was a six, seven hour day plus grocery shopping. It was great money. Like if you find an amazing client who you enjoy being around, you have to remember when you're a private chef, you're in someone's kitchen. It's like the heart of their home. They're going to be in there. Their kids are going to be in there. If they have staff, they're all going to be in there. You've got to be happy where you were, where you're working. But it was great money. Okay, this is a random thing. I'm thinking those people at that level that are hiring a private chef like that,

like what is the process for them to find a private chef? Like, is there like a LinkedIn jobs for private chefs? Like, where do you go? Great question. Okay. So there's a company that I, so the client I'm talking about is Jessica Simpson. That's who I worked with. That was my second client. Yeah. Wow. Love her and her entire family. It was really fun. But there's a company called the help company. Okay. And they place like they do, they do domestic placement. So private. chefs, nannies, personal assistants, all that kind of stuff. Okay. And Claudia, the owner and I had somehow met each other.

I don't remember how. And she called me one day and she's like, I'm looking for someone to be a private chef, but they don't want a restaurant chef. They want someone who's going to like seamlessly fit into their friend group and who's going to be like a light in their kitchen and just a joy. So it's really like hardcore matchmaking. Yeah. Because some people are not, that's not what they want.

They want someone who's going to wear a chef coat, not make any noise, make an incredible five-star meal. and then, like, clean up everything very quietly so they can't... Yeah, exactly. That's not me. Like, I showed up in Lulu Lemons and a T-shirt. I made incredible food, but, like, that's not my vibe. So when Claudia from the help company was trying to place this person for Jess,

she was like, I actually think you'd be perfect for this. Like, they want someone that's going to be a friend. And I was like, I was 23, 24 at the time. I was like, cool. And it's Jessica Simpson. Yeah, exactly. Like, then I grew up watching the newlyweds. Yeah.

When you're in a position like that, do you have to like sign like an NDA? Because you probably hear a lot of things going on. Yeah, I did sign an NDA. But it was like, I actually don't think I signed it to like a year into my job. And they're like, oh, shit, we never got, whatever. I love her. I have nothing bad to say. She's an incredible human.

I love her entire family and team. But yes, you do normally sign an NDA. Yeah, interesting. Okay. So when you're a private chef and now you're working with a big celebrity, did you ever think, like, is there a longevity in being a private chef for the entire career? or is it in that world, is it more like respectful to like try and go to like a big restaurant, be a head chef? Like, what's the career track? I think when you're, if you don't want to be in a

restaurant, like, listen, when you're in a restaurant, you're working 3 p. 2 p.m. till like 2 a.m. Like, it's a wild. Yeah, like, and I'm, I'm in bed by 9.30. Like, I love sleeping. That's not, and I don't like drink enough or whatever. So I think it just really depends on your goals. For me, if I was going to stay in the private chef world, I think the goal is to find a family you love being with and grow with them until, you know, their needs change. And then you go find another family that you also, you know, love to be with. Back then, I was married without kids. So it was a lot easier for me to hop and travel with them or anything like that.

Now that you have a kid, you're like, I wouldn't ever be able, like, I very rarely private chef anymore. But I couldn't work with someone who, you know, it's like, come to the Hamptons for two weeks. And let's go on a boat. You know, like that would never work for my lifestyle. Wouldn't work. Okay. And now I'm curious, a head chef, like what, like at a good restaurant, not like the best top star Michelin restaurant.

What does that head chef make a round? I have no idea. You had to guess. What would you put it at? I mean. I have no clue. A head chef. I would say at least six figures.

Like 150, 175. That would be my gut. But I truly have no idea. I've never looked into it. There you go. Stay tuned for the recap. We're going to do a deep dive on what head chefs are making. Maybe we'll call a few and get some numbers.

So what was the transition out of, what point did you say, I no longer need to work for you, Jessica. My blog's blow it up. When what scobby cooking started making as much money as I was making private chef, not maybe as much, but almost as much. And I, I'm a big saver. Like, I babysat in college. I saved all that money. I like, I don't, like, I'm not a big spender. So I kept putting money away. And when What's Gabby cooking was doing a little bit of ad revenue, a little bit of brand partnership deals, I was like, if I'm going to make a go of this, I might as well. I'm 25. Like, let's try it now. Yeah, like, I'm young. I can always go back to private chefing. I can always go back to the business world. It doesn't matter. Like, let's just make a jump. And I tried it and I never look back. Interesting. Okay, 2009, 2022, people will be listening to this podcast trying to figure out maybe what side hustle they could do.

Maybe they could start a blog. Would you recommend starting a blog in 2022? So here's the thing. I would. I think social media is like if you start an Instagram or a TikTok, you like kind of sort of own your platform. But what happens if Instagram shits the bed and goes away? You lose that whole following.

You have no ownership. Yeah. Like, you don't have their emails, you don't have, you know, you're not on their favorites of their website. So, like, I think having some thing that you own is really important. So what's got to be cooking.com I own. I own everyone's, like, I have access to everyone email addresses that come there so I can, like, let them know what I'm doing or where to come. So I think the social media is important and, like, you absolutely have to crush it there. But I think it's nice to have a website that's like a land.

Like, I look at what's got be cooking as the hub for all my content, my restaurant. recipes are there. My books are there. My book tour. Like anything you need, you could get there, but like you don't go there every day. You go to Instagram. You go to TikTok. You go to a podcast, wherever you go. But the website is what I can control. Okay. So that's like the epicenter of what everything that you have going on. From that, like how has, are you monetizing through affiliate marketing? Are you monetizing through selling your own stuff? Through the blog, how are you making money? Yeah. So a number of different ways. One, like the easiest one that I think everyone knows about is just ads. Like there's just, you know, I have an ad network that puts ads on my

websites and, or on my website and we have as many or as little as we want. We do sponsored content. So that's when a brand like Tillamook comes to me and wants to create like 10 recipes and I make those recipes using their product. We get probably, you know, like I turn down 90% of the offers that come my way. Do you really? Yeah, because they're not all good products. Like I would never, no amount of money is worth to me, like, no offense to anyone who loves vegan cheese, but, like, I would never work with a vegan cheese company, no matter how much money they had, because I, like, you won't eat it yourself. I wouldn't, and like, that's not my brand. Like, I would much rather stay true to myself than turn, and turn down that gig.

Interesting. So we do. 90% though. That's a lot. It's a lot. But it's also just like, I don't have time to do it all. Like, I try and do, like, bigger, fewer bigger partnerships these days. So they're, like, six months to 12 months long. Like, we've had a real, we've been really changing the way we do things to what's got to be cooking in the last year and like trying to be a little bit, you know, bigger picture thinkers. Interesting. Because we've had a lot of like different influencers and people in all different industries come and talk about the whole sponsored post discussion. And it does seem like everyone's, for the most part, is doing one-offs. Like a package with like two posts, two stories.

Yeah. You have found ways to get a year deal or beyond. Yeah. So I just like brands approach me directly before I like pass them off to anyone on my team. And I will just tell them before they can talk to anyone else in my company like I don't do one-offs. Like unless this is a six month gig and you have like larger like unless we're doing some sort of media push or there just has to be something more there. Otherwise it doesn't feel like like I would just rather do something that I can really like sink my teeth into and my audience is going to sink their teeth into. And then when they go grocery shopping, they're like, oh, that's the ricotta Godi buys.

That's what I'm forever. Like, they're always going to think about that. Or that's the tomato sauce or that's the alcohol or whatever it is. So I try and tell people that up front. Okay. So that way, if they're like, no, this is a one-off. I'm like, okay, cool. Like, I'm not your girl for this, but come back to us when the time is right.

That's pretty cool. I respect you for that. I probably need to do a little bit more of that. But you know what? It's scary as shit. Yeah. But it's also like usually they come. If they really want you, they'll come back.

Well, it's longevity. 2009 this started, 2022, you're rolling full speed ahead. So obviously, that's working. Yeah. When you look at the sponsorships and the posts, which area are you able to make the most money parade? Is it Instagram, TikTok, is it your blog? Like, which one of those can you charge the most? Right now, it's definitely Instagram with a heavy emphasis on the website because social media to me and I think to big brands is fleeting. Like I put up a video or a reel or something or a TikTok and you'll. see it for like a week or two or three no matter how long it's getting served to someone. But if you

also have that recipe or that travel guide living on what's got to be cooking.com, that's there forever. And the SEO from that can live, you know, infinitely. So I think the smart brands are looking at both. You know, like I feel like people, if you want access on the podcast and Instagram, like whatever it is, I feel like you got to do like some sort of multi-play there now in today's world because there's so much content. So much. It's everywhere. But just like in terms of which platform makes the most money for us, it's Instagram right now. Instagram. And when did that change happen? Like at what point was it something else before Instagram? It was just the website before. So like a lot of the content is a blog post with a push on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, blah, blah, blah, blah. Now it's like we want a real, but like we also want this website. We want it to be there as well. No one's really spending a lot of money on Facebook and Twitter as far as I'm in Pinterest.

like not happening anymore. It's video. Like everybody just wants video. You're seeing a slight transition, I think, to TikTok, but you're right. It's mostly in Instagram now. When you look back at all the deals you've done, what is like the most marquee deal where you made the most? It was the best deal. Like, you're so proud of. My favorite deal I've ever done to date was Capital One, which is like something you would never. I know, because it's not a food brand. But it was, I love working with companies. Another one I really, I loved was this an airline out of South America. called Lawn Tam. Okay.

But like not normal food companies that would come to me. But the airline company came to me, I don't know, eight years ago. And they're like, we want to bring, you know, more Americans to South America. We want to take you to Chile and Brazil and Peru. And I don't remember what other place we went. And I want you to tell your story. There were no restrictions. There were no guidelines.

It was just like, we're going to put you on a plane. We'll put you in these cool hotels. We'll feed you amazing food. And you tell your story. which was like brilliant they won awards for this campaign and it continued for like three years it kept getting renewed because it was such a successful payout right and capital one is like kind of similar they want to tell the story of how you can use your capital one card but by just regular people so like how am i using my card am i going on a date with my husband and am i taking

my daughter on like a cool family vacation like how do we tell those stories you're using your credit card no matter where you go. So, like, what are those stories we can tell in there? Capital One, I wouldn't have expected that from you. I was expecting some kind of food brand, but that is, that's very interesting. All right, now let's go transition a little bit into the cookbook deal. So you're on your fourth book. You've had three books. Did you, I just wrote a book, so I've been very open about the book, the sales, all the advance, all the the workings of the whole process. Did you have an agency reach out? Did you, did you self-published? Did you get in advance? What did that process look like? So this is a funny.

story. My first book came out in 2013. Okay. And it was, it's a little book called Absolutely Avocados. It's more of a gifty book than my last, my subsequent three. Yep. And I wanted this one agent and her name was Janice. And I emailed her and I was like, hi Janice. My name's Garby. I'm dying to work with you. And she literally was like, nah, girl, you're not ready for me. And I was like, I was so offended. Challenge accepted. Root. Yeah, literally. So I was like, okay, cool. And I just kind of put it in the back of my head. And I got another agent at this culinary conference who helped me get this first book deal. Okay.

And the book deal came about very coincidentally. We were sitting at dinner with a group of bloggers in New York. This was back when people would go to blogging conferences 100 years ago. Things have changed. Things have really changed. They don't even exist anymore. And I was sitting next to an editor. And I was like, so who are you working on now?

Like, are you going to go after Pioneer Women or any of these big food bloggers? He's like, well, I'm actually trying to figure out how to publish people like you. And I was like, like me, I had 5,000 followers on Twitter. Like I was, like, little peanuts. What year was this? 2012, maybe 2011. I was a little baby blogger. And he was like, what would you write a cookbook on?

And at the time, I was known on Twitter as a girl who loved avocados. And I was just very jokingly, like, obviously I'd write a cookbook on avocados. And he called me a week later. He's like, do you have an agent? And I was like, nah, not yet, but I'm talking to someone. he's like, well, we want to buy your avocado book. And I was like, what? Were you actually talking to someone or were you just like, did you put that?

I had like, I had like kind of had this relationship, but I had no idea how to put together 75 avocado recipes. Like that was, like, it just came out of my mouth. I didn't really think about it. I do that a lot. I just like save it. And then I think about it later. So anyways, we did the first book.

It sold fine. Like I true, I think I've made like, I got an advance, which I spent every dollar of on to make the book. How much was the advance for the first book? I think it was like 40. K. And I've spent literally 25 on the photography and food styling. I work with my two best friends, Matt and Adam, who do all of my creatives. And then I hired a PR agency, which ate up the rest. So, like, I literally made no money. And I think my checks from that have been like $7.

Okay. So I never made any money off of that. Question on the PR front. So I had a, I had a PR group I worked with. And they were like the New York business PR group. You got to use them. And they charged. It was 7K a month they charged. And I was like, Like, you know what? This is a book. It's a once in a lifetime thing. Let's give it a go. And I only did a two month deal with them. So it's 14K. Yeah. Because everyone usually says six months a year. I go, I'll do two months just to see like you got to earn this. I'm going to just throw it out. And they were really nice people, but they just weren't able to do much for me. Do you look back on like the PR spend and think it's worth it or no? Yeah. So everyone I've done has been like 6K a month for six months. So that's $36,000 usually. That's a lot of fucking money. hell yet is. I thought it was really worth it the first two books I did because they got me on the Today Show. They got me on Kelly and Ryan. However, I will tell you're obviously very charismatic. I think you could do the same thing. I haven't hired PR for my last two books because I can do it. Yeah. I can, I know the producers. You could reach out to that, right? Yep. I follow them all on

Instagram. I can DM them when I want. I can talk to, I can, you know, like slide into someone, DMs and be like, hey, would you ever have me on the talk or whatever, whatever it is? Like, I feel like things are changing and I'm very good at asking for what I want so for me that 36k I'd rather spend on you know I don't know what anything yeah totally totally get that no disrespect to PR people yeah I think book PR is the hardest PR to do like I think restaurant PR 100% pay for that yeah but like book is tough yep I agree but I think that a big takeaway for anyone listening to this is if there is someone or something you want to do more often than not, people are like, oh, you need to know someone to do this. You can backdoor this stuff

on LinkedIn. You can go look, casting directors, producers, whatever your industry is, find these people and be able to get in touch with them. That's what they're doing. That's what I was paying for, someone to pitch me. But if you could pitch yourself, no matter what world it is, you might get access a little faster than you think. And I think people have a lot of respect for that. They're like, oh, cool. Like, here I am. She wants to be on, you know, the Today Show, for example. Like, maybe she's not ready to be on the Today Show, but we could put her on like the digital port. You know, like there are ways you can pitch that and get in the door, get your foot in the door before they put you on the big screen. 100%. And so I was working with a correspondent for CNN because

I was talking about how can I do more of this pay transparency, money, financial stuff and get picked up by like a CNN or an MSPC. And she was just saying like a Bloomberg. She's like what you have to do is yourself, you have to email these people. Do not have assistant. Do not have anyone from your team. The respect these producers will have if they see that like your putting that in is next level. And I think that is something that's contagious across all industries, not just getting your, not any industry. But okay, so book one, 40k advance. We got all of it out the door. Your profit's seven bucks. Check. How was book two and three? What it was a story there? So book two and book three, Janice called me, my agent.

Oh, she came back. She came back. So the first book came out in 2013. I didn't do another book until 2018. So I think it was in 2016, maybe like halfway through, Janice dropped me an email. And she's like, I've been watching. Like, I'm ready to chat if you're ready to chat. And I was like, okay, like so flattered. And I got on the phone with her. And she's like, listen, I've been paying a lot of attention to what you've been doing for the last three years. I saw your sales from book number one. They were fine. They weren't amazing. I think there are some things we could do differently if you wanted to work together. I'm in if you're in. And I was like, I'm in. Like, I send me a contract.

I broke up with my old agent. I signed with Janice, and she put me through the ringer, as in, like, I, my first book, I never wrote a proposal. Did you have to write a proposal? Oh, yeah, yeah, that was hell. I did not write a proposal for avocados. Yeah. So for the next book, I had to write a full proposal, and I hired someone to help edit the proposal.

We shot the proposal. I had Matt and Adam helped me shoot and style it. We made it this beautiful. package. And you're doing this because when I had to do my proposal, I didn't have an offer on the table yet. No, I didn't have an offer on the table. So you're putting all that money for the proposal. Correct. Just in there might not be an offer. No, but you're doing it in hopes that there is and that saves you time and money down the road. Got it. So like the 10 recipes we photograph for this second book proposal, we ended up using them in the book. So like I didn't,

we didn't have to reshoot those. Yeah. But like, I was trying, or if it, if I never got a book deal, could I have put those on my website and utilize those photos in another way? That's why I was kind of thinking about it. Okay. So I worked with Janice. She ripped my proposal to pieces. She's made me such a better writer just by her feedback. It's incredible.

And then I remember she was like, I need you to be at your desk on, I don't remember, let's say April 27th where I'm having every single meeting today. I'm shopping a proposal around and we're going to take it to a bidding war. And I was like, a bidding war. What does that mean? Like, I just sold my book to the first editor who wanted me last time, and I sat by my desk, and every half an hour, I'd get another offer in my email. Wow. And it was wild.

And I was like, I was terrified to get up and go pee because I was like, I have to be ready if Janice needs me to make a decision. And at the end of the day, she called me and she was like, here's who has the biggest, you know, the biggest budget. Here's who's going to have the most, give you the most control. Who's going to micromanage you the most? You have 24 hours to make a decision. And I was like, whole, I was like so unprepared for that. And I went with not the biggest offer, but I went with who was going to give me the most creative control. And that's how I wound up with Abrams and my editor there, Holly, who is a dream.

Wow. She'll never, she has lots of kids. I'm sure she's not going to listen to any of my podcast that I ever do. But she's an angel and she lets me have full control, which to me is more important than, you know, another couple thousand dollars, ten thousand, whatever it is. I was going to say, how much was the difference between that deal and the deal with more money? I think it was an $80,000 difference. So that's a lot of them. substantial amount. It was a substantial amount. But, like, I literally, I don't know, I can't

speak for every publishing house, but I have an idea. I tell Holly, I sell it. Like, she buys it. And I don't have to get any approval ever. I'd get. That's huge. That's it. Like, obviously everything goes through like edits and she comes back with notes and everything. But like, we don't have to discuss recipes. She trusts our creative vision entirely. She lets us do whatever we want, which is so valuable. Got it. Okay. So, book one, we heard the story there, the seven bucks, the 40K. How did book two look from a profitability standpoint? So book two was, I actually made some money off of it. I'm of the mindset that books are a marketing tool. Like I would rather put most of the money into hiring like a ghostwriter

for lack of a better term to edit all of my headnotes, to make sure I sound smart and not, I'm not repetitive, and to pay for Matt, pay for Adam and pay for a prop stylist. So like I sink a lot of money into my books. Like each book, two, three, and four has cost over $100,000 just to make. Just to make it? Yeah, that I'm paying for. Wow. So, and then, you know, you go on book tour and sometimes you're publisher pays for that. Sometimes you're paying for that. So, like, yeah, you're making some money at the end of the day, but you're not making millions of dollars. Right, right. That's not the cookbook world. At least I'm not Ina. Like, maybe one day I can aspire to be Ina in making those kinds of dollars on a book. But like, that's not it right now. Okay, understood.

And we know the first book's about avocado. Second book, quick summary. What's it about? So the second book is called What's Gopi Cooking Everyday California Food. And it was just like a celebration of like colorful, flavorful, California style food. The third book was called What's Gopi cooking? Eat What You Want? Wow, I really had to think about that. It was a long pause. And it was kind of my way there. I get so many messages all the time. We're like, how do you eat pasta and you're not 700 pounds? Or do you cut cheese out? Like, do you just eat cheese on? Instalive and you don't eat cheese the rest of the week. And I'm like, no, like I eat whatever I want. I just listen to my body, which we kind of talked about at the top of the episode. And this most recent book that comes out in a couple weeks is called Take It Easy 100, 101 or something. I don't remember 100 recipes or recipes for zero stress deliciousness. And that's all about we all just live through COVID. We live through quarantine. We didn't get to have friends over all the time. It's like less about how fancy your food is on the table. Just make really incredible food and get your friends around

your table and then like enjoy each other's company. And where can people pick up the fourth book once it comes out? Anywhere books are sold. Anywhere books are sold. That is the fourth book. Quick thing, break down, got to ask it. Fourth book, how did we do financially? Advance, higher than before, lower.

Did you make a couple bucks? They've gotten bigger as we go, but like I still spend, you know, six figures making the book. Not many expensive. My photographer and food stylist. I'll tell you what. Well, you know if you pick up one of our books, it's going to be high quality. We know that. Six figures plus just to make the book.

We're just focusing more on bringing things in-house. Like, if I'm going to grow what's got to be, what's got to be, and to be the media brand that I wanted to be that has product extensions, I have to own it. Sure. I have to own everything. So it was a really hard decision, but it was something that we thought about for a very long time and finally made the decision a couple months ago. That's a big undertaking, though, right?

Yeah, it's the cost of the product, the manufacturing, the packaging, that's all under year now, right? It's terrifying. Yeah, but it's very exciting because it's something I can speak to. the lingo now. I know about commons. I know about 3PLs. I know all that kind of stuff. So like, let's see if we can do it on our own. And then we have full creative control over what it looks like, what kind of packaging it's in. Like, we do D to C on my website so we can like really monitor every, like I have a lot more insight into that, which I'm looking forward to

gaining control of. Got it. Love it. There are a lot of acronyms there. Some of our listeners will know what those are. Some won't. 3PL is the third party logistics. Logistics. Yeah. And And Coman is who actually makes the product. So it's the person who's, like, blending all my seasonings, putting them into the right container, and then shipping them to the 3PL so they can ship them out. Perfect. We have a guy that does the recap with me. He's the voice of the viewer.

He's got a lot of skill sets. His business acumen is not one of them. So he'll ask me, like, the business for dummies. So he'll be like, his head's going to explode in this section. And he'll break it. Okay, Jason, slow it down. What is Dee to see me? So we're going to get there.

Did you have to raise money to, like, do this on your own? We're going to fund that. We're going to fund that internally. So no. Got it. So you'll own 100% of it. Correct. Love it. And what's going to be the first skewer product? We're going to, we'll bring our seasonings in-house first. So that'll be, we'll do the first probably six, the best sellers that everyone loves. And then I envision it having like, I envision having drops. So like we'll do a limited run of that. So people can re-up, save it, put it in the freezer, keep it forever. And then, you know, we'll just kind of do it like that. Okay. And will you use any form of like influence remarking or

anything else? Are you going to just drive it yourself? I think we'll just drive it ourself to start because we have an audience and then I have no cost per acquisition. If we need to do influencer marketing down the road for sure. Like I know it works. Like I can see my sales for other companies. So like I think that's a definite option. We just don't have that cash yet. I love it. It's going to come. That is awesome. That is so cool you bring in house. The last question I have on this whole topic was when you did, we talked about the cold calling. I'm sure people are like, what? Where do you find a number to call or email? So I think it was an email actually for that one. But like you said it, LinkedIn is amazing. Like we're looking

for an ops person right now. I spend so much time on LinkedIn. It's incredible. And you can find anything. You can find you can go to the company. You can look at their employees. You can look at their different like divisions where they're working and find them. Request to connect with them. Send them a DM, like anyone who's in the corporate world is checking their LinkedIn on the daily basis. Like you and I check Instagram DMs, they're checking their LinkedIn DMs. There you go. And now you know, Gabby's looking for operations manager. So if you're looking for a job out there, shoot her a message. Maybe something will come from us. Actually, I was just reminded me. We had Jill Zarin on from the Real Housewives.

And I was just at one of her non-for-profits. And she saw me. And she goes, the first thing is like, I'm like, oh, how are you, Jill? She didn't even say hello. She goes, you're not going to fucking believe it in her like Long Island Act New York Act and I was like well it's good to see you and she tells me she goes yeah fucking podcast you're a fucking podcast the head of tj max calls me and they want my rugs in their stores no i couldn't believe it she couldn't believe it so you never know who's listening you never and also watching like you have to it's so wild how small of a world it is crazy and like we're all we can all be connected so quickly even if it's a quick cold call or cold email which i think is just so cool yeah

All right. Well, that is so impressive. One thing I want to ask to is, this is, we're going back to basics. If someone is cooking for a business partner, cooking for a relationship, cooking for their mom or dad, what would you say as like the easiest recipe, but is still like you're actually like doing something that's impressive? So the recipe that I've heard from my audience that's garnered the most proposals and like secured a boyfriend or two, stuff like that. You maybe you impressed your husband's business partners who came over, your wife's business partners, whatever, is the chicken parmesan meatballs on my website. Okay. So imagine chicken parmesan, which is like a chicken cutlet that's pounded, breaded, and then like in red sauce baked with mozzarella and parma on top.

Salivating. In a meatball. So it's ground chicken with like seasonings and there's a little chunk of mozzarella inside the meatballs. So like when you bite into this meatball with pasta, you get like this molten mozzarella. I know. It's really freaking delicious. So good. That's my favorite thing with like a side of roasted broccoli and like a great cocktail. Okay. I ask that for what you guys can make. I'm now asking this one for when people are spending

money. So you're going to a restaurant. You're going to a grocery store. Things have gotten out of control from an inflation standpoint. What advice would you have for a consumer, like if they're going to a restaurant or if they're buying something? Is there something that's usually very overpriced or marked up? They should stay away from just the whole aspect of spending when it comes to food, beverage, a restaurant. So twofold, twofold answer. For grocery stores, I would say the best way to kind of get the bank for your buck is to meal plans. So you're like, I'm going to get this one rotisserie chicken and turn it into enchiladas on Monday and then turn it into like a casserolellan on Tuesday. And like kind of meal, like plan your week out so you don't have to buy like

ahead of cilantro and only use half of it. Like really think about how you can make all your produce and your protein and everything last. For a restaurant, I mean, fish and meat are so expensive right now. Like, I was at a restaurant this weekend. Brandino was $44. I was like, that's absurd. Like, that's wild. And food is what we spend our money on. Like, I don't care about my car. Like, I want to spend my money on,

I don't care about clothes. Like, I want to spend my money on what I'm eating. But even, that's a lot. So for me, it's like, when I'm going out, I will order an incredible pasta or, like, some really fun vegetables that I'm not going to make at home because it takes too much time to prep them or something like that. But if you want to, like, splurge and get, like,

Like, of course, steak and fish are the best. And then you don't have to do the cleanup. But you're going to spend $44 on a brandino at home so you can spend it at a restaurant and not have to deal with the cleanup or any of it. Super marked up. Yeah. All right. The last one I got is someone does want to spend. They want to splurge top three restaurants you would recommend.

In Los Angeles? Let's do, let's just do your top three restaurants in the States. Okay, my top three restaurants that I'm splurging on. Yeah, you're splurging. Because if we're not splurging, we're going to Don Antonio's on Pico here in L.A. Okay, there you go. There's that one. But if we're splurging, my favorite.

is Don Angie's in New York City. Have you ever been there? Never. I'm going to New York in two days. Yeah. Go there. Don Angis. Don Angis. It's incredible. They have pinwheel lasagna. It's life-altering. It's life-altering and great Brunellos. I'm literally drooling during this conversation over here. Zahav in in Pennsylvania. In Philadelphia. Okay. That's a cool call-out. Yes, incredible Israeli food. It's one of my favorite restaurants ever. Love that. And somewhere to splurge in L.A. I mean, I love, oh, I I went to this place called Misa Mi. Me. It's a French restaurant and like Hollywood proper. Yeah. Excellent. There you go. Yeah, like they have a seafood tower. It's very aggressive.

Oh, okay. It's a show. It's a show. Go with a group. Go with a group. Put on the show. Get your Instagram tags out there. And the last one I have to ask that, no, the curious Canadian voice of viewer will want me asking a chef like yourself, favorite fast food joint. In and out. In a no brain. No. I mean, second run up was a cassidia from Taco Bell. Okay. I agree with that. The chicken cassidia is unbelievable. It's exceptional. with the salsa in the packets. Oh, yeah, there you go.

Even a chef can take down a chicken cassidia from Taco Bell. All right. Well, we got into all your businesses, your story. It's been so up from pre-med to where you are today. What a wild journey. You got to leave us with a trading secret, though. So it's something about financial management, career management, life management. You can't learn a textbook.

You can't learn a classroom. They can only hear from Gabi. I mean, I think one of the threads that's been through my life is just not taking no for an answer. Like, they don't teach you in business school that if some, well, I mean, maybe they do. I never went to actual business school. But if someone says, no, go find someone who's going to say yes. I still ask my dad sometimes to pay for my flights home. Like, I can afford it.

But like, if he wants to pay for it, cool. Like, what's the harm in asking? Like, you always have to ask for what you want. And if you want something that badly, you'll find someone who can do it for you. I love it. As a guy with an overpriced MBA, I could tell you, they don't have a class on how to not accept no for an answer. So that's the takeaway today.

Gobby, where can everyone find everything you have going on? Everything's on what's Gobbycooking.com or what's Gobby cooking on Instagram. Beautiful. Well, congratulations and everything. And thank you for coming on Trading Secrets. Thank you for having me. Ding, ding, ding! Ladies and gentlemen, we are fired up because we are doing this recap and we are doing this recap at night.

A few drinks are down the hatch. We're feeling it. We're living it. Happy Labor Day to you out there. Thank you guys for being with us. I'm out in New York City this weekend. We'll go to the U.S. Open tomorrow for a brand deal with Intercontinental Hotel Group. And Caitlin was in Vancouver and Kelona, so that's good.

But that's our update. But more importantly, I have the one, the only, David Ardoin, go follow him on Instagram, and The Curious Canadian with me to break down the gobby episode. David, what do you thinking? Well, I'm thinking it's nice to talk to some human beings. not about hockey. I've been absolutely in the trenches running training camp. Kids have moved into the hockey academy. We are full systems go. So I'm excited to see some different faces and talk about some different things and get to the meat of this episode. All right, David, I love that.

It's beautiful that you have a side hustle like this. You can channel that energy. These kids you're talking to. They're from all over the country. They're 18 years old. What are like, if you could summarize in like two sentences, what are 18 year olds talking about these days? that's a great question it's kind of changed over the years a little bit TikTok was like hot in the streets you know they're talking about the Charlie's they're talking about the Dixies

they're talking about the Noah Bex you know they think it's a big deal that we got Mark the Milo on they think a couple people we've got on is a big deal like they were freaked out with Gary Vee they thought Gary Vee was a huge deal obviously when we had Biz Nasty on big hockey guy they thought he was a big deal

they're pretty in tune I actually had one person asked today if we win a national championship can they all come on the podcast You're fucking right, you guys, God. Yeah. Oh, dude, we will do, put it out right now. David, you guys win the national title for United States of America, U-18s. We're going to do a live pod.

We're going to do the pod in the locker room. And we're just going to shoot this shit with 18-year-olds and see what they think for business and what's next for them. And just like, we're going to do like a trading secrets on the streets in the locker room of David's team. I think we should. If you guys think we should do that anyway, regardless of when the national championship, remember to give us five stars and just tell us in the review, do it or don't do it. and I owe you some BK Selects gear.

It's on the way. I forgot to give it to you last time we were here. But the boys are buzzing. This episode was buzzing. And it's about food. And what's Gabby cooking? And you know me, big foodie. Yourself, Big Foodie.

You've had a good day. You're thinking about ordering some late night food. I approve that message. I got to stop you here because I'm stopping behind the scenes. I'm interrupting. It took me a lot, especially with Gabby being the current bachelorette. it's goby. You know what?

I shit you not. It's on the top of my notes saying, why were you calling her gobi? Did you know that you were calling her gobi? Because I'm so used to hearing Gabby. And then I didn't say it because she referenced and talked to her about herself and her products is gobi. My bad,

Gabby. I'll own that one. That's on me. Gabby. She's an absolute fucking beauty. When we finished, she's like, thank God I didn't swear so much.

I'm like, oh, man, if I knew that, I would have gone back in. The issue I had, though, is I'm so, especially with The Bachelorette being Gabby, I had two in my notes. I had to change every single time in my prenotes. It said G-A-B-Y. I had to change it to G-A-H-B-Y because one of my producers, Stephen, had told me that he had, because we, you know, we got a team that helps me out here, right?

And he had watched some interviews from her. And this one interviewer kept saying Gabby, Gabby, and you could tell Gabby's a firecracker. and every time she interrupted the person, it was like, it's, it's goppy. Yeah, I mean, she's an absolute firecracker, this girl. Like, she, first off, one, it's a common theme here, which a little self-deprecating here, she's so smart. And, like, she's a cold-blooded entrepreneur. And I just feel like anyone who comes from the blog days and made it as a blogger

to, like, now, like, a media empire or, like, just, you know, an owner of things is just so much well versed for just like being a go-getter and going and going after and finding information and wanting to maximize their ventures. She's, she was smart and it's about food. And, you know, other than, you know, her saying in and out, it's best fast food, which I'm going to hardly, I'm going to disagree with, copy. So, but she was, she was special, that one. I felt like you and her at great chemistry too. She was great. I loved her tenacity. I'm going to get to your favorite fast food. I'm going to get to your, if you could put any chain next to your house, what chain it would be? Those questions are coming. But, David, one thing we talked about

this episode was the whole premise from a consumer, like when you're going out right now and you're spending money on food. Like, you know what? You don't want to cook. You just want to be served. Like, what are things to be aware of, seafood and steak? Now, to me, especially seafood, seafood's like one of the number one things I'll go out for because I don't cook it well. And I just, tonight, I treated myself. Tonight, I was just like, you know what? Take myself out to a little date. Went to a place, got a martini. I got a, okay, I got the cheapest steak on the menu. So it was the petite fillet. You know, they have like the waggoo and the, blah, blah, blah, blah. It was the smallest, just plain ass petite filet. I didn't get any vegetables. I didn't get any starches.

I got a sushi roll, a glass of wine, a martini in a petite filet with tacks, and tip in the bill, one individual sitting at the bar. How much? Don't say over a hundred bucks. Don't do it. David, $199. $199. $19. I mean, I don't understand. Like the martini was like 25 bucks. This is, now I was like close to downtown downtown Nashville. It doesn't matter. And it was just, dude, well, downtown Nashville also has the highest tax on alcohol in the entire country is in Nashville, Tennessee. 24% I think. Yeah, I actually just

heard that recently. That is absurd. Like, by myself, right? $19.99. And I can afford it. But it's just like, what the fuck is happening in the world? So I, you know, David, you know me.

I'm a big newspaper guy. I was reading the wall. Don't tell me. Don't tell me the crinkling is the paper. Yeah, I got the paper. Oh my God. Are you judging me? There are probably 10 people in national. Phil that have the Wall Street Journal.

Is that the Wall Street Journal? This is the Wall Street Journal. Wait, you take your judge, you don't get the paper? Dude, I don't get the paper. I don't go. You can give you 24 hours to go find a newspaper. TikTok and watch the D'Amilios. Mark D'emilios coming on in a couple weeks.

Be ready. You, is out, where do you get your news? Twitter. Okay. Well, anyway, I fucking wake up, grab a cup of Joe and read the paper. And, I mean, there's a lot of shit going on. first of all, the S&P 500 right now, the volume of the shorts on the S&P 500,

like has never been more intense. So that's a little terrifying. But somewhere here, I have some statistics on the price. Imagine there was a search bar on that Wall Street Journal. You could probably find what you're looking for in like three seconds. Okay, I'm going to give you that. But don't you think there's something while I am looking for this?

Don't you think there is something about holding the paper? Um, it's, the smell of it is like, you know, that's a, that's like a tangible, like, memory that, but like holding it, no. I mean, the cartoons on a, on a sat Saturday back in the day when I was like ripping through it, maybe do like the quick word search or crossword. The cartoon. Cheat, cheat my ass off. Look at the back page for the answers. Is that what you do with wordel every day? No. I know. Yeah. The guy claims the best wordal guy and here he goes. Okay. But we got inflation. You know, it's up the ass. But it's come back down. It's about six, seven percent. Right now, 12-month percent increases in food prices

because there is a big discussion over high grocery bills that are looming over midterm elections. Overall food at home in the last year is up 13 percent. Cereals and bakery products, up 15 percent in the last year. Meat, poultry, fish, and eggs, up 12 percent. Dairy, 14% fruits and vegetables almost 10% non-alcoholic beverages 13% and alcohol other food at home other food at home over 15% the price of our groceries have gotten out of control and that's all I got it's out of control and it's depressing and that's why my fridge has no food in it and but no that's because you take too many edibles and you eat your fridge out well Yeah. I mean, it's a little bit of a restrictive measure for that. But I don't know. Did you ever go to Don and Angie's restaurant that she recommended? You know, I'm so glad you asked that. So Caitlin and I went to New York City and we went to New York City for a work trip with Intercontinental Hotel Group. And I got a reservation. I DM'd them. And they got us in. And I was super excited because you couldn't get a reservation anywhere. And Caitlin was very, very adamant about getting sushi. So.

You know what? You lost that battle. I lost that battle. And I took one for the team. We went to sushi. But I'm going to be back in, well, technically this came out on the fourth and I'm in New York of the fourth. So Evan, you're back there, Don and Angie's.

Let's do it. Do you have a particular feeling about someone who says when food is life altering or life changing? Does that strike a chord with you? Or are you okay with people saying that? Because I know one of our best friends, Hawk Jameson, it's his most biggest skin crawling pet peeve is when people say food is life, life altering. I mean, to me, there's some food that's

life altering. Can I have an example? Mighty Taco. Carbon. I haven't had carbon. I haven't had carbon in a year and I still talk about it. Okay. My mom and dad, we went, it was literally a year ago to this day and they still on the reg reference that meal we had at Carbon. Well, that's a good sign though. That's all that you want out of a food establishment. In and out. Can I get a review?

Have you ever, you've had it in and out, right? I mean, the burger's fucking unbelievable. It truly is. The burger's unbelievable. But the fries are the trashiest fries. The fries are the history of fries.

I mean, I would take Burger King fries over in and all fries. Thank you. Yes. Okay. Glad we can get squared away. But the burger is the best burger. It's like Chick-fil-A.

It's the best chicken. You can't argue that. Five guys better than in-and-out overall experience. I'm going to take that as it is. We're going to move on. She didn't start drinking coffee until she was how old? Like now, which is nuts.

And when did you start drinking coffee? I don't know when I was fucking born. I have like eight cups today. It's an issue. I should probably go get my heart checked. Speaking of health care costs, I should probably go take care of that. I didn't start drinking coffee until I started intermittent fasting. Shout out to gobi for intermittent fasting with me.

You know I'm big about that life. You are big about that. Are you still on that train? I'm still on that train. It's the only way that it keeps me sane. So I've been off the train a little bit just because the trainer, and we're getting so away from business and finance. my the trainer would have been working with here and there he's like dude you got you like you want

to grow like you don't eat nearly enough you need to eat you need to eat keep eating and uh I mean I want to put a little muscle mass on so I guess I got to eat more you do you do you got to feed you got to eat big to get big that's the old saying and he even said like I'm not worried about like he's like you know because I was like yeah I should just stop drinking he's like honestly, drink here and there. I'm not worried about that. Just keep showing up, hydrate, sleep, take care of yourself, and eat protein. I got a question for you. Okay. She used to be a private chef, gobi, before she got into the blog space and the product lines. You have enough money to afford one of these, but not all of these. What are you choosing? A private chef, a private

driver, a personal trainer, or a personal shopper. It is not even discussion, a private chef. Yeah. You're telling me every meal could be cooked when I walk in the way I want it, what I want. You know what, though? I'm really surprised that you didn't say personal driver because a guy like you. When I'm in Nashville, I'm a fucking hermit, dude. I don't do anything. You're also a horrific driver.

I would have been an F1 driver. I know how to buzz, baby. You're such a bad driver. It's not even. I think the last time we were in a car together, I texted my mom. And I was like, mom, this is the last time that I ever talked to you. between David and Caitlin are terrifying. They're both from like the weird, like West, not weird, but like far out West Coast, Canada.

Like, they're from the same area, is what I'm saying. The most beautiful, most beautiful place in the world, yeah. Their mannerisms are similar, and their sense of humor is very similar, and both of you guys are very vocal about my driving. But I also, I'm surprised. You're also a man of, like, time and time management and, like, time value of money. And maybe that, the chef plays into it, but I know you're Herman in Nashville, but you travel a lot every time you get off a plane you have a personal driver he's there he's taking you

blah blah blah blah like you all of a sudden never have to drive anymore i feel like i mean i wouldn't mind a personal driver in nashville because these ubers here just talk your fucking ear off the entire time i mean it's like i feel like i'm going to therapy when i get into uber in Nashville it's like it's actually i don't know if it's therapy or it's like i'm getting it's like fbi i'm like who are you what do where you from why are you here what's your story why aren't you marry i'm like holy shit you're worse than the internet i thought that was just the tabloids that we're asking you those questions um uber drivers too i'm obviously a huge uber driver life story guy what do you mean like you like you you like to hope you like to open up

to the driver's i could if i wrote a book called the uber chronicles i could tell you i could fill up the droughted lakes in california with the tears that i would that i would be able to produced from some of the stories I've learned in Uber drivers. You are the only guy in America that likes to conversate in those situations. Like literally, if you upgrade the comfort on your Uber, one of the only options you get is do you want a warm or cold or do you want your Uber driver to shut the fuck up? And you are like looking for the switch where you can gear your Uber driver up. I grab the like volume nozzle and I crank up the intensity of the conversation.

That's my only request. That's the most outrageous thing, but it's also the most David Ardoin Curious Canadian thing. That said, David, as a host, I got to bring us back. We are recapping the Gabi episode. We now know your instincts on fast food. Let's talk a little bit more about restaurants. I have two questions for you because your big food guy. Best restaurant you've ever been to.

And if you could put any chain, not fast food, any chain literally next door to your house, what chain would you put okay um great question i think the best restaurant i can't go ever been to because my i'm just not firing all those cylinders today but uh i went to a restaurant in or uh winter park uh orlando called eva eva mediterranean and it was one of the swagiest coolest places ever we got the salt big brown zino we got the like smoked uh lamb and like the thing where they take the lid off and smoke comes out. And I think it's more about the experience now than the actual food. Like if I if I feel like I'm getting the value of the experience when I get the bill, it's just so much more palatable than being at like an old school steakhouse and getting

like a really well cooked steak on a white tablecloth and just being like blah. No, I get I get that. I think the steakhouse experience is getting old. I agree with that. I think what's really getting old is anytime you step into a restaurant these days, it's hundreds of dollars to eat. fucking nauseating. And then I think maybe I'm going to, I'm going to sit back and say, what is the most outrageous comment David said today? Is it the fact that he gears up that quote unquote nozzle with Uber drivers? Or is it the fact that he said the best restaurant in his entire life, especially being border raids on Pacific Northwest where there are top restaurants was in Orlando, fucking Florida? There's no way that I'm

restaurant ever in anyone's eyes is in Orlando, Florida. I said recent memory. I didn't say of all time. If I'm going all time, I'm probably going Italy. You know what? Here you go, Jay. Thank you. Now we're ready for this? You ready for this? Probably the best culinary experience I ever had was with you and Hawk and Evan at Nemecullen, where the bachelor I was filmed that one year. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Or Matt James has seen to the bachelor. And we got that experience with the seven courses and the handwritten letter that navigated our way through all of the meals and the courses. And we had to pick certain

animals on a sheet of paper. And that's how they cooked our meals. It was wild. That was like the escape room, but it was a restaurant. You literally, you put like, there's this like Michelin, it's like a Michelin restaurant. And you, they'll say, well, exactly, what kind of meat you on? You like circle it like a maze. And then all of a sudden, based on your inputs, they have the most outrageous output. And I think maybe. be our best trip together ever, David, and our many years of being friends was Nemekyll. I think we need to go back.

We've tried to organize back, but our schedules don't exactly allow for us to plan too far and ahead, but we got to go back. Love it. If there was one thing, you got something before I switch gears here? Chain, one chain next to your house. What would it be?

If there was one chain directly next to my house, I got to be strategic about it. It's got to serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner. have a dessert option for Ashley. If I could go one chain, God, I'm so bad at this off the top of my head. Confession, I did go to Dairy Queen

drive-thru the other day, and it was great because you get the dessert option, but I can't go Dairy Queen. What dessert did you get? You got a Blizzard, didn't you? Yeah, I got a Blizzard. And what did you order off the meal at Dairy Queen? I got the Firehouse Stackburger, a cooking sandwich, which getting chicken from Dairy Queen

is just outrageous, and it was shockingly good. And then I got the Blizzard, obviously, just the biggest no-brainer. How much of the cost? Let's talk. We got at least bring up one fucking number here. One chain. I'm just going to go.

David, how much did your dairy queen cost? Oh, it was 16 bucks. That's what I'm saying. I got a salad today. I got a salad today. And then I got asked if I want to add the protein. And I sure did, $27 per salad. It's disgusting.

Here's what we're going to do. I want to bring this back to the podcast just a little bit here. And we're 20 minutes in. And after 20 minutes and thinking about this. conversation. I truly don't know what we said. But that being said, I want to give us a challenge when we're going to adhere to. The challenge is going to be this week. I want you next week to come prepared with every penny you spent on food and beverage. And we're going to do that. And I'm in New York, so it's going to get ugly. But I want to let's do that. You good for that? Let's bring some

money personal finance concept to this complete disaster. Okay. Last thing. If you could take one thing that you learned from gobi that she does in her personal in her personal or professional life and add it to your life what would it be stop waiting for someone to do it for you or for the email to come in or for the call to be received if there's something truly you want find a way to go get it like david you and i want to go on big brother let's go find it let's go see the executive producers let's go DM them let's go call them let's go get out let's if we want something let's do it. I love her tenacity. I love her, just her drive, her passion. It's Gabby's way or no way. And I mean that in the biggest compliment ever because that's how she lived her life

and that's why she's living her dream. I think that's real cool. And then I'll say this. When I ordered today, I was looking at the menu after I spent $200 and nothing, although it was very enjoyable time. I did enjoy it. I kept thinking about Gabby because I loved what she said about like, order something that like you can't cook as well at home. You know, like, if you're going to pay you that premium, like a sushi roll, I have no idea how to make a sushi roll. Like, order that. Like, order something that you can't do yourself.

I like it. I like it. Backdooring your way into opportunities. I have it bold and highlighted and we never got to it until 20 minutes in because it was just great banter. You know what? I hope the people listening liked it. I needed this.

I needed this tonight. I hope you guys enjoyed it. Maybe this is a spinoff series. Late night chats. Late night Uber chats. with Jason and David. Late night Uber chats with Jason and David. If you guys enjoyed the banter, please give us five stars and give us feedback.

Give us five stars first and then give us feedback. Maybe you like the banter. Maybe you want more banter. Maybe you just want personal financial statistics. We're a little burnt out. It's late right now. It's past 10 o'clock. And we're just grinding this out.

So we took a different approach. We apologize if you are offended. But we'll be back next week. And next week, we're going to get really, really, really back on pace. because we have money with Katie coming in. And she is a personal finance expert. And I like to think I have some personal finance skill sets, background, and acumen. We go at, we don't go at it, but we just like talk about all different topics, her opinion, my opinion, all the ins and outs. On that episode two, we're going to have callers call in. So if you have questions about personal

finance and what's happening in this craziness of a market, go to our Instagram and follow us at Trading Secrets Podcast. Okay? Trading Secrets Podcast. We did find out there is one Instagram page out there that is trying to mimic us. They have like 11,000 followers. They put in Tradings Secret Podcasts. We are Trading Secrets Podcasts with 128,000 followers now growing fast, all from that viral video, which we talked about it on the We Were One episode. So we will be giving you the voicemail line to call in. You can be on this podcast. Your question could be answered. David, anything else you want to wrap up with? I mean, people copying our Instagram. What an awesome form of flattery. I have noticed in many podcasts we do, David,

the guests will DM me afterwards, loving the recap. That's awesome. And gobbie, goby, if you're here, I truly want from the bottom of my heart want to apologize for this recap. no she said she was going to listen to and I had she answered the two things that 3PL and the Canoma I had all the things written down she was great look Gabby when you bring the heat when you bring the 96 Malinar fastball right down the right down the middle of the plate and I swing and miss

there's just nothing Bobby sorry cheese you're a messed come on guys this is just we need to delete this or just let it go you got to let it go I mean, come on. Godby, I'm sorry. You're the goat. You're the goat.

Great episode. Every other recap, we get in the weeds. We talk technical work. Today's a shit show, but the best kind of shit show. And guess what? Maybe back at home, you've experienced a shit show and you can relate. But here we are. David, I'm afraid to let you close it out.

But it's what I got to do. Do you have anything else to close it out? No, not at all. National Championship on the way. Trading Secrets Podcast. You hear your first. Money with Katie. Next week. That's it. Gobi, you're a legend. If you don't go follow her. If you don't follow

her, go follow her. We're right here right now because she is an unbelievable entrepreneur and she will give you recipes that you can't afford to miss. We'll see you next Monday. me making that money living the dream please note that this episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services individuals on the show may have a direct or indirect financial